We often say that China has a history of five thousand years, where did these five thousand years of history begin to be counted? The calculation method in China began to be calculated from the time of the Xia Dynasty, which is about the 21st century BC. In the middle school textbooks, China's history is also calculated from the Beginning of the Xia Dynasty, and Xia, Shang and Zhou became the "Three Ancient Generations". But in fact, in the history of the world, the Xia Dynasty is not recognized, and historians in the world refer to xia as "culture" but do not recognize it as a dynasty.
First, during the Xia Dynasty, the excavated cultural relics were basically clay and simple porcelain, and there were some sites, and metal utensils were unearthed very little, which did not meet the world's definition of dynasties. Because the world's mainstream identification methods believe that metals were the medium of trade in early dynasties, metals represent not only the economy, but also the level of productivity. The primitive exchange of barter can only belong to the category of "culture", such as the popular "Yangshao culture" and "Hongshan culture".
Second, the identification of a dynasty, as well as written records, is a symbol of culture and civilization. But did the Xia Dynasty have writing? At present, there are no symbols, and may be the pictograms of universal primitive society. This is different from the Later Shang, the Shang Dynasty not only had a brilliant bronze culture, but also had a large number of oracle bones as an account, so the world recognizes the Shang, believing that the origin of China is also in the Shang Dynasty rather than in the Xia.
Although Chinese archaeologists once found the ruins of the Xia Dynasty in Yanshi, Henan, its scale is so large that the small city-states of Greece are completely incomparable. It is said that the site can accommodate 150,000 people and has a complete living system, including a market, including various workshops, but because there is no metal unearthed and there is no written record, it is defined as "culture"
Here, many people have to say: the Xia Dynasty is recorded in writing, and many documents have recorded the Xia Dynasty, which is very clear, who is the founding king of Xia, where is the capital city, how many generations of kings have been passed down, there are records, how can there be no written record?
The written records here are not the records of later generations, but the records of the xia dynasty, just like the oracle bones of the Shang, which should record the contemporary history in the contemporary era, not the records of the future generations. Such a statement is not rigorous, and does not rule out the possibility of being fabricated by future generations. And because the text of the Later Generations recorded Xia is relatively far away, it is difficult to distinguish between true and false, which even more veils the discrimination of the Xia Dynasty.
Xia, according to legend, was founded by Dayu's son Qi and was the first country in China to adopt a hereditary system. The Xia Dynasty passed down fourteen generations and 17 kings, and perished at the time of the Fallen. It is said that he is very happy and cruel and lustful. He spoiled the beautiful sister Jiang, spoiled the adulterous courtiers, and alienated the loyal subjects, resulting in chaos in the government.
At this time, the Shang tribes in the south began to rise. In the face of Xia Jie's cruelty, The shang leader Tang united with three thousand princes and sent an army to attack Xia. They detoured to avoid the heavy defenses of the Xia Dynasty, attacking from the west of the capital of Xia, Xia Jie rushed to meet the battle, was defeated in one fell swoop, after Xia Jie fled east, Shang Tang continued to pursue, until after the death of Ji, they returned to the dynasty and established a new state, called Shang.
Today, the existence and demise of the Xia Dynasty remains a mystery in Chinese historiography. Archaeologists have obviously found the capital city belonging to the Xia Era, and have also found a lot of highly directed things to prove the existence of Xia, but there is no progress in the excavation of metal and the recording of writing.
By now, some historians feel that xia should be just a primitive tribe, not a dynasty. But there are also some persistent historians who are still looking for key evidence of the existence of the Xia Dynasty. Perhaps one day in the future, the text about the Xia Dynasty will be unearthed, and at that time, the historical origin of our country will be pushed forward again.