After the Opium War, the attitude of the West changed rapidly, from the "China fever" when it was convinced of Chinese history, to the rapid change to the suspicion of everything in ancient Chinese history, one of which was the denial of the Xia Dynasty, believing that the Xia Dynasty was an era of legends and a fictitious dynasty of the Zhou people.
As the first dynasty in China, the Xia Dynasty established by Dayu for water control has a special status and significance in the minds of the Chinese, so since the last century, groups of people with lofty ideals have embarked on the road of finding summer.
According to the historical records, the summer capital is located between Heluo, and the early Tang Dynasty geographies prove that "the city (斟鄩) is fifty-eight miles southwest of Gong County, Luozhou". In short, the literature points to the Xia capital between Heluo, not far from Gongxian.
In 1959, within the scope framed in the history books, the famous archaeologist Xu Xusheng successfully discovered the "Erlitou Ruins". However, for the Erlitou site, scholars at that time were more inclined to the Shangtang capital, such as Xu Xusheng believed that Erlitou "is not a small possibility of being the Shangtang capital". Around the 80s, with the discovery of Yanshi Mall, the conclusion that Erlitou was the summer capital appeared on the mainstream stage.
The problem is: Zhao Haitao, the leader of the archaeological team, pointed out that "the absolute age of the Erlitou culture at the Erlitou site is 1750 BC", but the Xia Dynasty was established around 2000 BC, which is 250 years different from Erlitou, so Erlitou can only be the "second half of the summer", so where is the "first half of the summer"?
The Capital of Summer Apocalypse: The Ruins of Xinqi?
During the reign of Emperor Wu of the Jin Dynasty, tomb robbers found a number of ancient bamboo slips in an ancient tomb of the Warring States Period in Ji County (now Weihui, Henan), including "The Biography of Mu Tianzi". It is recorded in the book that when King Mu of Zhou traveled to Huangze, "the Son of Heaven traveled to the hill of Huangtai to watch the residence of the Xia Houqi, because he entered the Qi room", indicating that the "ruins of the Xia Qi" and the "hill of Huangtai" are similar or overlapping.
History records that Xia Qi was born in Songshan, but there is no Huangchi, Huangze, and Huangtai Hill in the north of Songshan, while Zhengzhou Xinmi, which is located at the eastern foot of Songshan Mountain, has "Huangtai Gang". In the Northern Wei Dynasty Li Daoyuan's "Notes on the Book of Water", there are detailed records of the water systems around Huangtaigang, which can be verified to correspond to some water systems in Xinmi. Scholar Ding Shan pointed out in "On the National Culture of the Three Generations of Duyi" that "the hill of Huangtai can be accurately referred to as the Huangtai gang next to the red stream water".
Coincidentally, the water system around the Xinmi "Xinqi Site" discovered by archaeology is the water system around Huangtaigang in the water meridian injection. Zhao Chunqing, the leader of the archaeological and archaeological team of the Xinqi site, pointed out in his paper "Xinmi Xinqi Ruins and Xia Qi's Residence": "Several rivers near Huangtaigang mentioned in the Shuijing Note are still seen near the Xinqi site. ”
Xinqi ruins, located in Xinqi Village, Liu Qi Town, Xinmi City, Henan Province, with a total area of about 70-1 million square meters, is a city site with three defense facilities of outer moat, city wall and inner moat, and the central area has the palace foundation site, which is rich in the transitional remains of the "Xinqi Period" that is later than Henan Longshan culture and earlier than Erlitou culture, so Xinqi Ruins must be the capital of royal power.
More importantly, according to the modern carbon 14 determination, the Xinqi site spanned from the late Longshan period to the middle of the Xia Dynasty, and the absolute age was 2200 BC to 1750 BC, of which the city wall and moat appeared in 2000 BC; Around 1850 B.C., to 1750 B.C., it belonged to the magnificent "Xinqi Period", archaeological discoveries of giant sacrificial relics, etc., at this time, the Xinqi culture had a huge influence on the surrounding area, and a large number of Dongyi cultural elements suddenly poured into the Xinqi Period.
In 2000 AD, the Xia Dynasty was either Dayu or Xia Qi was in power, but according to the records in the biography of Mu Tianzi, the Xinqi site should be the residence of Xia Qi, that is, Xia Qi had a large-scale construction of it, such as building city walls and moats, etc., and used it as the capital.
The sudden influx of a large number of Dongyi cultural elements and the magnificent political center of the Xinqi period coincided with the historical background of the Dongyi leader Hou Yi Daixia and Shaokang Zhongxing.
Therefore, the Xinqi site is supposed to be the capital of the early Xia Dynasty, and around 1750 BC, it migrated to the Yanshi Erlitou site, which is not far away (this distance is also in line with the transportation capacity at that time). That is to say, the Xia Dynasty's relocation of the capital to Erlitou is also related to the distance between the Xinqi site and Erlitou.
Yudu Yangcheng - Wangchenggang Ruins?
But the problem is that Mu Tianzi believes that the hill of Huangtai is the "residence of Xia Qi", and the historical books record that the capital of Yu is "Yudu Yangcheng", and the two are obviously not the same, so where is Yudu Yangcheng?
Dayu's father is called "Kun" and was named "Chongbo". In ancient times, Songshan was called "Waifang", Xia Shang called "Sublime", so later generations called Cang "Chongbo Kun", that is, "Chong" is the later "Song", now in the Songshan area near Dengfeng, Henan. The history books also say that Xia Qi was born in Songshan, and the Xinqi site is very close to Songshan, and he moved from Songshan to Xinmi, which is in line with the transportation capacity at that time.
The water classic notes record that "Yingshui comes out of Shaomu Mountain in Yangcheng County", and Shaomu Mountain is the west peak of Songshan Mountain, so Yangcheng should be in the area of Songshan Mountain. It is also recorded that "Yingshui East and Wudu Water, passing through the south of the old city of Yangcheng County." Xi Yu avoided business, and Bo Yi avoided enlightenment here. It is also Zhou Gong to measure the sunscape with Tugui. The south of the county is on the Kei Mountain", the Zhou Gong Observatory is at the foot of the Song Mountain in the town of Xucheng, out of the west gate of the town more than half a mile that is the Wudu River.
Therefore, Yudu Yangcheng should be at the foot of Songshan Mountain, perhaps in Dengfeng Chengcheng Town. Of course, the historical records record that Yuyang City may be in other places, but from the perspective of Yu's father Kun and Yu's son Qidu related to Songshan, Yudu Yangcheng is the most complete and logical in the Songshan area.
Coincidentally, archaeology once again had a "coincidence" with the historical records, just in Dengfeng Xucheng Town, dozens of kilometers away from the Xinqi site, the archaeology found a peculiar ancient ruins - "Wangchenggang Ruins".
There are three cities in the ruins of Wangchenggang, two small and one large, of which the small city is only 10,000 square meters, and the big city reaches 350,000 square meters, which is the largest one in the Longshan city site in Henan Province in the same period, and has mastered the bronze casting technology, and confirmed that the big city was built after the destruction of the small city. At the same time, the ruins of Yangcheng in the Warring States Period were also found near Wangchenggang, and "Yangcheng" was clearly written.
More importantly, modern carbon-14 dating shows that the lower limit of the Wangchenggang site is 2020 BC! This time coincided with the construction of the city wall and moat at the Xinqi site.
Therefore, the small city of Wangchenggang ruins should be the "city of Kun", and the big city is "Yudu Yang City", that is, the big city was built after Yu was strong, which is also in line with the history of Kunyu. After Xia Qi seized the throne, or related to political struggles, he moved the capital to the Xinqi site not far away.
To sum up, the Xia Dynasty originated at the foot of Song Mountain, Dayu built Yangcheng here, Xia Qi moved to the Xinqi site, after more than 250 years of wind and rain in the Xinqi site, the Xia Dynasty moved to the Erlitou site. Every time the Xia people moved the capital, they were actually not far apart, which was in line with the transportation capacity at that time.
Finally, Western scholars believe that the Xia Dynasty is a fictional history of the Zhou people, but archaeology has been "coincided" with historical books again and again, what is the reason behind it? The answer is very simple, it can only show that the Xia Dynasty really existed, the credibility of Chinese history books is very high, and the history of the Xia Dynasty has been passed down, so the relevant sites can be found in the approximate location recorded in the history books. Therefore, whether the West's denial of the Xia Dynasty is an academic dispute, or prejudice and arrogance, is really a topic worth considering.
References: Historical Records, Biography of Mu Tianzi, Shuijing Note, "Zhao Chunqing - Xinmi Xinqi Ruins and Xia Qi's Residence", etc