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introduction
We often say that China's history is 5,000 years old, but the era of the "history of letters" that is really recorded in writing can only be traced back to the first year of the Western Zhou Republic, and before that, most of them can only be understood through archaeological means, which we call "semi-letter history".
(Dayu Flood Control)
There is even little archaeological evidence before the "history of semi-faith", such as the period of the Three Emperors and Five Emperors, we know very little about the specific details of the development of human civilization at this stage, which basically belongs to the period of myths and legends, and most of the ancient history throughout the world is so.
As the cradle of Chinese civilization, the Xia Dynasty happened to be at the junction of the transition from myths and legends to oracle bone bronze, and there are many unknowns that we need to explore.
1. "Xia Hou's clan" is the name of the emperors of the Xia Dynasty, not a surname
On December 15, 1950, the famous historian Ding Shan finished writing the preface of his "Examination of Ancient Chinese Religion and Mythology" (hereinafter referred to as "Mythology Examination") in Qingdao.
(Ding Shan)
However, we say that the "history of faith" is sometimes not completely correct, and the "myths" are not necessarily all false rumors, whether they can stand up to scrutiny, make sense, and conform to the objectivity of historical development may be more important, and this book is just a collection of science and story, and it is a good annotation for prehistoric civilization.
So, why is the Xia Dynasty called "Xia", and what is the relationship between the "Xia Hou Clan" and the Xia Dynasty?
As we all know, the founder of Xia is Dayu, "Historical Records" records: "Yu, the great-great-grandson of the Yellow Emperor and the grandson of the emperor", the sages of the ancient period, most of them can trace their life experience back to the two emperors of Yan and Huang, and Yao, Shun, Yu is a Zen move, by the emperors of later generations as a model of Mingjun.
(Daiyu)
Yu is indeed accepted Shun's Zen to do the lord of the world, "Bamboo Book Chronicle" has a special record of "Emperor Yu Xiahou", said in Yao Tianzi, Shun recommended Yu to control the water, and later on the bank of the Yellow River, the river Jing awarded "River Map" and Yu to help it succeed, of course, in this, myths and legends accounted for a considerable proportion.
But in the Historical Records. In Xia Benji", Sima Qian did not call Yu the Xia Hou clan, but wrote: "So Qi Sui is the Son of Heaven and is the Emperor of Xiahou", that is to say, Yu's son Qi is also Xia Hou, so there is only one possibility.
（司马迁）
"Xiahou" is just the "clan" of Dayu and his direct descendants, their original surname is "Ji", which Sima Qian also made an accurate explanation in the "Historical Records".
So where does the name "Xiahou" come from, and what special meanings do "Xia" and "Hou" have?
2. "Examination of Ancient Chinese Religion and Mythology" explains the meaning of "after".
Mr. Ding Shan said in the "Mythological Examination": "Whether it is the queen, the queen, the queen, or the queen, they are all the honorific titles of the ruling class of more than three generations...", and the so-called "three generations" refers to the Xia, Shang, and Zhou dynasties.
(Hou Yi)
Especially in the Xia Dynasty, its Son of Heaven was often called "Hou", such as Hou Xiang, Hou Hao, Hou Ji and even Hou Yi, so in the literature of the Zhou Dynasty, you can always see the ruler of Xia called "Xia Hou", "Mythological Examination" concluded: "... After weighing, it really began in the summer world; Later, it is the oldest monarch in China".
"Sayings" said, "Later, Jitijun also... The one who issued the trumpet, the queen also", and in the oracle bone inscription and the golden inscription, the words "hou" and "division" can still be common, but they have changed later.
The meaning of "after" has not changed, and "division" has turned to the outside world, which means that as a person and a minister, he is in charge of affairs and outside, so it seems that the famous "Simu Wuding" should be called "Houmu Wuding".
(Simu Wuding)
In addition, the word "Hou" in the oracle bone inscription is changed from "female", which originally meant that it referred to the most noble mother in the whole clan, and in that matrilineal society where only the mother was known but not the father, the mother who gave birth to the most children and grandchildren was naturally the most authoritative leader of the tribe, which was also the earliest source of the title of the supreme ruler of the "Hou".
As the Xia Dynasty, which is transitioning from a matrilineal society to a patrilineal society, it is more appropriate to use "Xia Hou" as the surname of the sons of heaven such as Dayu, Qi, and Ji.
"Later" gradually evolved into a lady, that was after the Eastern Zhou Dynasty, "Zuo Chuan" said: "Xi Xinbo told Zhou Huan Gongyun: 'After the internal favor merges, the external favor and the second government... The root of chaos is also'", the "queen" in this is already the "queen" in the current sense.
(Queen)
"Later" is explained, so where does the word "Xia" come from?
What exactly is the original meaning of "summer", "cicada" or "snake"?
Xia has a lot of meaning, "On Balance" says: "West, Xia also..."; "Erya. "Interpretation" said: "Summer, Daya"; Yang Xiong said in "Dialects": "... The great one of all things is called "Summer", but no matter which interpretation, it is after "Summer" became the name of the country.
In fact, when Yu reigned, he was not called "Xia", "Xia" as a national name appeared after the succession of Qi, and the so-called "country" in ancient times is also very different from now, at best it is just a tribe or tribal alliance, "Xia" is likely to be the first to appear as the totem of its tribe.
(Xia Ko Bone Sentence)
At the end of the 19th century, a group of Shang Dynasty oracle bone inscriptions were unearthed in Xiaotun, Anyang, Henan, and a group of characters is considered to be the earliest symbol of "Xia", and the famous paleographer Ye Yusen gave his own opinion:
"Shi Xia,... (Its) shape... With the cicada forcing Xiao, the suspicion is that the fake cicada is summer, and the cicada is the most famous summer insect..."
In this way, it is still very appropriate to use the most famous "cicada" in summer to represent "summer", and the word "summer" in the oracle bone inscription is indeed like a side image of a cicada, but why did the Xia people choose a cicada as the totem of their own people, or even the name of the country?
(Cicada)
"Shuowen" said: "Yu, insect also", the word "worm" in the oracle bone inscription and Jin inscription is like a crooked little snake. The Yellow Emperor also said: "Xiahou's snake body and human face".
And Mr. Ding Shan in his "Mythological Examination", put forward the thesis that "Yu is the dragon", "Lu Yu" said: "Gonggong's uncle nine have also, his son said Houtu, can level nine soil...".
"Zuo Biography" also said: "Gonggong has a son said that the dragon is the soil...", and whether it is "the dragon" or "the soil", their "Ping Jiutu" achievements are obviously the same as Dayu, and the dragon is the snake-like spinning insect mentioned in the "Zhou Li", so it seems that the totem of the Dayu tribe should be a snake!
(Daiyu)
3. The origin of "summer" is closely related to water control, matriarchy, and totem
Let us continue to explore in the context of Dayu's water control, Mr. Ding Shan said in the "Mythological Examination" that the water governed by Dayu is not a simple spring flood of the Yellow River, or the summer flood of the Yangtze River, but is likely to be the earth's "new ice age" after the end of the ice and snow melted and brought about by the great flood.
The flood was global, so in the world civilization system, you can see a highly unified description of the flood, ancient Babylon, ancient India, ancient Indian civilization, and the most famous of them is the story of "Noah's Ark" in the Bible.
(Noah's Ark)
"Mythological Examination" quotes a passage from Kang Youwei: "The life of mankind... In other words, the history of Chinese civilization may really only start from Dayu.
Dayu governed the flood and divided Kyushu, and it was in this process that Qi was born, "Historical Records. Xia Benji said: "Qi, the son of Yu, the daughter of his mother Tu Shan."
Tu Shan refers to the tribe that lived in the Tu Shan area at that time, according to the research location in the southwest of today's Song County, Henan, the ancient name of the three Tu Mountain, and Yishui just flows through here, it is said that the tribe advocates the toad, and "Tu", "Dragon" in ancient times is a homophone, so the totem of the Tu Shan clan is the toad.
(Dayu and Tu Shan)
In a matriarchal society, the influence of the matriarchal clan is undoubtedly huge, and at that time, the pronunciation of the words "cicada" and "toad" was the same, so it is very likely that Qi used the totem of his mother clan to transform into "cicada" as his own "Xia" country name.
Well, the country name is there, it is called "Xia", the status is there, and it is said that it is "Hou", and it is natural for the Son of Heaven of the Xia Dynasty to take "Xia Hou" as his clan.
epilogue
Of course, as Mr. Ding Shan said, "Examination of Ancient Chinese Religion and Mythology" is "a preliminary analysis of comparative philology and comparative mythology", as for the truth of history, after all, there is not enough documentary material to support it, and this is where the research difficulties before the era of faith history lie.
(Emperor Yan and Emperor Huangdi)
However, the splendid history of Chinese civilization is too shining, and the more untold stories there are, the more mysterious they are, the more they can inspire more scholars to explore, and I believe that as more archaeological documents are discovered, more unknown world truths will be revealed.
Resources:
DING Shan. Examination of Ancient Chinese Religion and Mythology[M].Shanghai Literature and Art Publishing House,1988.
Hu Axiang. Good Parents, 2019(77):1.