During the Daoguang period of the Qing Dynasty, Meixian County, Jishi City, Shaanxi Province unearthed the "Heavenly Death Gui", the inscription records that after the destruction of King Wu, he immediately went to the Tianmuro Peak of Songshan Mountain to hold a ceremony to worship the heavens, and declared the Zhou Revolution to the Emperor of Heaven, which was recognized by the Emperor of Heaven and established the legitimacy of the Zhou people's regime and religion. It is recorded in the historical records that King Wu believed that the area around Yiluo was "the residence of Xia", where he could "set the heavenly protection and follow the heavenly room".
In the 60s of the last century, Shaanxi Baoji Chencang unearthed "He Zun", the inscription recorded that King Wu planned to build "Cheng Zhou" in today's Luoyang, and set the capital into Zhou, in order to "Yu Qi Mansion or (country), since the people." ”
After King Wu was destroyed, why did he immediately go to Songshan to worship the sky, and why did he call the Luoyang area "Zhongor"? The reason is actually very simple, that is, at that time, people believed that the area of Songshan Luoyang was located in the "middle of the earth", and the Emperor of Heaven lived in the middle of the earth, and the mountain peak closest to the "sky" was naturally selected to worship the sky, so that the Emperor of Heaven could hear the voice of the lower realm and hear the voice of King Wu calling "Zhou Ge Shang's life".
The question is: why did King Wu take Songshan Luoyang as the middle of the ground, and what is the historical origin behind it? In this regard, modern archaeology has found one "coincidence" after another, which helps to solve the mystery of the origin of the Xia Dynasty.
The history of China's geodynamic changes
Regarding the earth, the author will briefly introduce it in the order of historical evolution:
At the latest, 7,000 years ago, the Chinese had begun to measure the image of the table to determine time and space, and the determination of the "earth" was related to the measurement of the table. Among them, the "zhong" in Lizhong has a variety of meanings in Chinese culture, and the "dizhong" representing the center of the land is only one of them.
6,500 years ago, in the ruins of the West Water Slope in Puyang, Henan, there were already four spirits and 28 star charts. Scholar Feng Shi believes that at that time, there was a "universe view of the sky". The location of this site is very special, and it is located at roughly the same latitude as the site of the Tao Temple that will be discussed next, that is, the length of the shadow at noon on the summer solstice.
4,200 years ago, in the Taosi ruins of Xiangfen, Shanxi, archaeology found a ruler used for vertical table measurement. After many researches, it is confirmed that the site of Tao Temple is the place of "one foot and six inches of the sun shadow at noon on the summer solstice" in the Zhou Ji Sutra. Among them, the ruler unearthed in the Tao Temple has a special mark on the summer solstice, which is obviously to highlight the shadow of the summer solstice.
Since the remains of Tao Temple confirm the records in the literature, it can be confirmed that Tao Temple has the concept of "in the ground", and Tao Temple must have entered the era of national kingship at that time. The combination of "earth" and "country" forms the concept of "China". Because of this, the site of Tao Temple is also known as "the original China".
The Taosi site and the Xishuipo site are roughly at the same latitude, and the summer solstice shadow of the two is about the same, so why is it so coincidental? Or did the ancestors of Tao Temple deliberately choose the Tao Temple site with the same length of sun shadow as the West Water Slope? Although there is no solid evidence, the two are so coincidental that it can't help but make people think a lot.
However, at the end of the Shang Dynasty and the beginning of the Zhou Dynasty, the land was transformed into the area of Songshan in Luoyang, so King Wu sacrificed to the sky in Songshan, which also confirmed the documentary records. Zhou Li recorded that "the scenery of the sun, the ruler has five inches, and it is said to be in the middle of the land", that is, the summer solstice noon pole measurement, the shadow of one foot and five inches of the ground is the middle of the ground, and the summer solstice shadow in the Songshan area is one foot and five inches. Later dynasties, although the capital city is not in the Songshan area, often build an observatory in Songshan, in fact, it still recognizes the concept of the earth.
The question is: the standard in the Taosi is one foot six inches, and the standard in the end of the Shang Dynasty is one foot five inches, so why has the land changed? According to normal logic, the earth should be defined as power, and the religious and political legitimacy should be sought for one's own regime, so the change in the land should be related to the change of power.
Modern archaeology is another coincidence
In terms of changes in the earth, the Xia Dynasty is the most likely to change the standard in the ground. The logic behind it is very simple, after the Taosi Dynasty, the most powerful is the Xia Dynasty, and after the rise of the Xia Dynasty, it is impossible to think that he is not in the middle of the earth and is not a central country, otherwise how to obtain the legitimacy of religion and political power, and how to command the princes of the world? Therefore, the Xia people should redefine the criteria of the earth to suit their own situation.
On the other hand, according to the standard of one foot and five inches, the Dayu regime should be in the Songshan area, and some coincidences in modern archaeology confirm the historical records.
According to historical records, the father of Dayu was 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.
Coincidentally, in Zhengzhou Dengfeng Xucheng Town, that is, at the foot of Song Mountain, archaeology found a strange ancient city - Wangchenggang ruins. Carbon 14 dating results show that the absolute age of the city site is between 2200 and 2020 BC.
First of all: in the last century, two small cities were discovered side by side, of which the well-preserved West City covers an area of less than 10,000 square meters; At the beginning of this century, a large city site with an area of 350,000 square meters was discovered, which was the largest in the Longshan city site in Henan Province during the same period, confirming that the big city was built after the small city was destroyed.
Secondly, in the Dengfeng Basin in the upper reaches of the Yinghe River, where the Wangchenggang site is located, 12 sites of the same period have been discovered so far, and the large, medium and small settlements are distributed in a pyramidal manner.
Due to the discovery of the Warring States Period Yangcheng ruins nearby, and the historical records of "Yudu Yangcheng", this can not help but make people connect the two, that is, the small city is "the city of Kun", the big city is "Yudu Yangcheng", and the big city was built after Yu was strong.
More importantly, the ruins of Zhengzhou Xinmi and Wangchenggang are roughly undertaken, and the Erlitou ruins and Xinqi ruins are just undertaken, so these three ruins are located in the Luoyang area of Songshan and are generally considered to be the three capitals of the early, middle and late Xia Dynasty. Among them, the straight-line distance from Yanshi to Dengfeng is only 40 kilometers, and the distance to Xinmi is only 60 kilometers, and the three are not far apart, which is very in line with the traffic level at that time.
That is to say, the Xia people live under the Songshan Mountain, and Dayu built the capital here, for the legitimacy of their own regime and religion, which redefined the standard in the ground, that is, the standard in the ground is set as "one foot and five inches".
Finally, although the earth seems illusory, it did exist in ancient times, as evidenced by the name "China". The reason why the ancients mistakenly thought that it was "the center of the earth" was related to the cognitive limitations of the time, and also related to the pursuit of political power and religious legitimacy at that time.
Therefore, through this clue in the ground, comprehensive archaeological discoveries and documentary records, the Xia Dynasty should have originated in the Songshan area, or moved to the Xinqi site in the Xia Qi, and finally moved to the Erlitou site in the middle and late periods.
References: "Zhou Ji Sutra", "Zhou Li", "Historical Records", "Feng Shi - Civilization Stops", "He Zun Inscription", etc