The Chinese nation can be regarded as the longest-standing nation in the history of the world, and Chinese culture has a brilliant history of more than 5,000 years. However, if this 5,000-year history is placed in the evolutionary process of all mankind, it will seem very small and worthless.
First, let's look at the oldest human ancestors found so far, they are the Yuanmou people who are 1.7 million years ago. At that time, archaeologists found several ancient ape man teeth in Yunnan, and also found some simple and rough utensils made by ancient ape people and animal bones around the found teeth.
This proves that there is indeed a very long ancient ape man in the Yunnan region, so meticulous excavations have been carried out, which is the origin of the Yuanmou people. In order to be able to find out exactly what time period the ancient ape people found in Yunnan lived, scientists have done research and analysis of the geological formations around the yuanmou people and the simple stone tools and animal bones unearthed.
In the end, it was concluded that the Yunnan Yuanmou people lived 1.7 million years ago, which is also the oldest ape species found in the world so far, and the ape people at that time were not completely upright, but had just begun to evolve from apes to humans, and were still in a transitional period.
Speaking of the historical discovery of ancient ape people, some people may ask, since the ancient ape people more than 1.7 million years ago have been found, then the origin of ancient Chinese history, the Xia Dynasty, is only more than 4,000 years old, why has there been no news about the Xia Dynasty in the historical circles?
The Xia Dynasty is the first dynasty in ancient Chinese history to officially appear, but it is not the creator of China's ancient feudal autocratic history. The Qin Dynasty can be regarded as the real creation of the feudal autocratic society in ancient China. As the first dynasty to appear in China at that time, the Xia Dynasty was still primitive in nature.
And there is no excessive emphasis on centralized power, which makes the record of the Xia Dynasty not much in the world, so many people doubt whether the Xia Dynasty really exists. According to Sima Qian's "Records of History" and a series of literary classics and historical works from ancient times, we can clearly know that the Xia Dynasty did exist in Chinese history.
And it has a history of more than 400 years, which can be regarded as a dynasty that has survived for a long time in ancient Chinese history. So why did the Xia Dynasty leave more than 400 years of history in the course of ancient Chinese history, but now there are few clues and information about the Xia Dynasty?
One of the more important reasons is the destruction of the historical materials of the Xia Dynasty by the Shang Dynasty, as the first new dynasty established in ancient Chinese history due to the overthrow of other dynasties, naturally wanted to take the world into its hands, so it tried to erase all the memories left by the Xia Dynasty to the world.
This also includes a series of bronzes made by the xia monarchs to show their power, so it is difficult for the world to obtain relevant information about the Xia dynasty. Moreover, after Qin Shi Huang succeeded to the throne, in order to consolidate his rule, he also burned books and pit Confucianism, which caused great damage to the cultural development and historical inheritance in ancient Chinese history.
Among the historical books burned by Qin Shi Huang, there must be many documents about the Xia Dynasty, but Qin Shi Huang burned them all, leaving a great loss to future generations. However, although most of the historical memories of the Xia Dynasty have disappeared into the long river of history, there are still very few pieces of information that have been passed down through word of mouth by the world.
This is also the important information that we can grasp about the clues of the Xia Dynasty now, and at the same time, there is a very important factor why the Xia Dynasty did not leave too much information about itself to future generations, that is, the Xia Dynasty was still in a period of transition from primitive society to agricultural society at that time.
At that time, people did not have a clear understanding of leaving historical clues about themselves for future generations. The rulers of the Xia Dynasty were not like the ancient feudal dynasties after the Qin Dynasty, eager to show their descendants the prosperity of their dynasty under their rule, so as to gain a qingshi name.
At that time, the people of the Xia Dynasty did not have a clear understanding and concept of history, so they gradually ignored the aspect of historical inheritance. The few remaining artifacts and a small number of books on the existence of the Xia Dynasty also disappeared in the ensuing wars and a series of historical upheavals.
Summary: In any case, the Xia Dynasty did indeed exist in China's ancient history, and it played a very important role in the formation of the Chinese nation and the advancement and evolution of Ancient Chinese history. At the same time, it was precisely because of the operation of social collectives that existed before the emergence of feudal dynasties such as the Xia Dynasty, the Shang Dynasty, and the Zhou Dynasty that the Qin Dynasty officially entered the ancient chinese feudal history.