In April 1959, Xu Xusheng, a 71-year-old archaeologist, pulled up a large contingent from Beijing. At this time, modern archaeology is at the beginning of its development, and there is still a long way to go. Some of the "ancient history schools" influenced by western modern zhixue thought began to question the true existence of the Xia Dynasty.
In order to trace the location of the Xia Dynasty and trace the origin of China's thousands of years of history, the old scholars who have been rare in ancient times have embarked on a arduous search to find "Xia Ruins" in Henan and Shanxi.
During the three years of difficulty, everyone knows that the people's livelihood is difficult, not to mention the cultural work of archaeological excavation in such a context.
Xu Xusheng and his party of scholars, from the train to the carriage or even riding a donkey, ate even more coarsely, sweet potato noodles black nest head hungry, it is in such harsh conditions, they have successively found more than 20 ruins, the most eye-catching of which is in Henan Yanshi Erlitou, this cultural relic was later named "Erlitou Culture".
The hidden ancient civilization slowly awakened from more than 3,000 years of slumber, and the Erlitou site became the general consensus of the academic community, which was identified as the remains of the capital city of the earliest Dynasty in China, the Xia Dynasty.
To this day, if you are interested in typing "Did the Xia Dynasty really exist?" in search engines? For example, the Cambridge History of Ancient China, published in 1999, is defined by Western historiography as a "historical" era, and the book writes "Shang: China's First Historical Dynasty." ”
For our Chinese, "Yao Shunyu, Xia Shang Zhou" is the beginning of learning history, and it is also the origin of Chinese civilization.
Recently, I read the American scholar He Kai's "China in the Imperial Era", which is very interesting, he divided China into three stages: the formation stage, the early empire, and the late empire.
Many of these time nodes are very special, let's take a look at ourselves in the eyes of foreigners.
We know that France had the First French Empire, the Second Reich, the First French Republic to the Fifth Republic, and Germany had the German First, Second, and Third Reichs. Mr. Fu Sinian also divided the First Empire, the Second Empire, and the Third Empire of China.
American history in the eyes of Americans began when Columbus boarded the ship. Chinese's eyes, The history of China began with the creation of the Three Emperors and Five Emperors by Pangu Kaitian Nuwa, which we call ancient, which can basically be equated with mythological stories.
Foreigners call it prehistory, which means that before history, and sure enough, no accident, Lao Mei gave us the Xia Dynasty also into the prehistory, although it also listed ceramics, oracle bones, but the author had to put the Xia Dynasty in prehistory, its heart is dangerous.
The book says that the formation stage from prehistory to 206 BC, prehistory aside, according to our Chinese habits, Xia Shang Zhou should be together, but 206, is the year of the fall of the Qin Dynasty, so divided, the book does not give a clear reason, I can only follow the pulse of the Americans, try to take his pulse.
The Qin Dynasty and the Xia Shang Zhou Dynasty are not in the same vein from the perspective of political system and cultural differences, and it can be said that from the beginning of the Qin Dynasty, China's county system centralized empire has surpassed the understanding of ancient empires in Europe and the United States.
It is not slavery, in fact, it is not a feudal system, there is no split land to seal the king, self-construction, how can it be called feudalism?
The book says that most of the establishment of the Qin Dynasty was attributed to the government of Yingzheng, but as everyone knows, Qin is the Yu Lie of the Sixth Emperor, Zhen Changce and Yu Yunei, swallowing the princes of the second week and dying, performing the supreme and making the Liuhe! Breaking new ground and eventually becoming the first emperor, it is so easy. Xia Shang Zhou is the co-lord of the world, and Qin Shi Huang is the hand of the world, which has a completely different meaning. I can only make a personal assumption, the author believes that this is the Chinese Empire, the first time it was truly unified.
Mr. Fu Sinian's First Empire of China was an empire of the Han People, the context was Qin han, Cao Wei, the two Jin, the Southern Dynasty Song Qi Liang Chen; the Second Empire was the stage of great ethnic chaos and great integration, the Northern Dynasty Wei Zhou, Sui and Tang, the Five Dynasties, and the Two Song Dynasties; the Third Empire was the stage of foreign invasion and active participation in Chinese civilization, the Liaojin, Yuan, Ming, and Qing dynasties.
Although there is a Ming Dynasty in the middle of which "a bowl at the beginning and a rope in the final game", the Ming Dynasty followed the system of the Yuan Dynasty, and even in the Republic of China, there were professors who explained the history of the Ming Dynasty, which began to speak from the Yuan Dynasty, and after one semester, Zhu Yuanzhang was still a monk in the temple...
The American scholar He Kai's book adds the yellow robe of zhao kuangyin, the grandfather of the Song Dynasty from the fall of the Qin Dynasty in 206 BC to 960 AD, and calls it the early imperial stage - it was the scholar class that replaced the scholar gate valve.
Although the imperial examination system was born in the Sui and Tang Dynasties, but don't forget, movable type printing only existed in the Northern Song Dynasty, there were no teaching materials, the Sui and Tang Dynasties were more symbolic and formal significance, and the real power was still the door valve, and the Li family itself was supported by the Guanlong group.
The late imperial era in the book is from the establishment of the Song Dynasty in 960 AD to 1850.
At first glance, I even thought it was a typographical error, could it be 1840? The opium war broke out that year, and China became a semi-colonial and semi-feudal country, which is more reasonable. However, after a closer look at the many events that took place in 1850, it is felt that this year was indeed a crucial year in the late Qing Dynasty.
First, Daoguang died, Xianfeng succeeded to the throne, then Russia invaded Heilongjiang, and at the end of the year, the Jintian Rebellion of the Worship God Society began, and the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom began. Since then, the Qing Dynasty has completely entered the late Qing Dynasty, which is full of holes and troubles...
When Mr. Qian Mu taught "General History of China" at Southwest United University, it was a compulsory course in the first grade of all departments of the university, which shows the importance attached to history education during the Republic of China period, and Mr. Qian also did his best, so-called:
"We must seek a whole historical fact, related to each other, take care of each other from top to bottom, and rule martial arts, and we must choose the essence of the past generations and explain the inheritance of their evolution." And the most important, on the basis of the opinions of the people of the time of the generations, state the gains and losses of the various items concerned."
On the other hand, "China in the Imperial Era", which is a brief history written by Americans for Americans to read, is widely used as the basic textbook of Chinese history by American universities, so the general history part can be said to be extremely simple, and naturally cannot be done like Mr. Lu Simian's "General History of China".
The recommended part is that the author does not spare any ink in social thought, literature and art, which quotes a large number of ancient books and poems, if we read as the introductory knowledge of ancient Chinese civilization, it is still good to scoop up in the five thousand years of civilization.
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