Epoch Issues
Scientists once proposed a theory that human beings are the only creatures with a concept of time. In order to calculate time, humans have determined the approximate cycle of a year based on the observation of the four seasons. With the concept of history, so does the epoch – i.e., the first year according to which is the chronological standard?
In history, almost every nation and regime has its own "era". Ancient Chinese epochs are generally calculated according to the first year of the reign of the Son of Heaven or the monarch, and sometimes, if the Son of Heaven feels that there is something memorable, he will announce the change of the era name and re-establish the era - this is the change of the yuan in Chinese history.
Typical example: After the death of the Kangxi Emperor, the Yongzheng Emperor succeeded to the throne, so the second year of Kangxi's death was the first year of the Yongzheng Era.
This epoch of China influenced the entire Far East in ancient times: even after the fall of the Qing Dynasty, the Living Buddha of Outer Mongolia declared himself the emperor of the "Great Mongolian State", and also learned from the Central Plains and established the era name of "Gongdai".
Among other peoples around the world, the basis of the epoch varies, but in general, there are two types:
One is based on religious elements. For example, the common year of the Common Era in the world at present is to take the year of the birth of Jesus Christ as the first year of the era (according to historians and Christian scholars, Jesus Christ was actually born in BC), and the year before the year of the first year of the era is called "the first year of BC", and then so on. China in the first year of the Common Era was during the reign of the Han Ping Emperor. Similar to the Common Era, there is also the Hijri calendar. The first year of this calendar was in 622 AD (the year when China was under the reign of Li Yuan).
The other is to determine the era according to historical events. For example, after the Xinhai Revolution, the revolutionary army once used the "Yellow Emperor Era", which is calculated according to the legendary year when the Yellow Emperor became the co-lord of China; during the War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression, the puppet Mongolian regime also established Genghis Khan's establishment of the Mongol Khanate as the first year of the era.
Five thousand years of history
China is a country that claims to have a history of 5,000 years. In fact, these five thousand years are just a rough algorithm, and this algorithm can be divided into three parts.
Part 1, the conclusive part. This part is counted from the 18th century BC. The establishment of the Shang Dynasty's rule over China is a landmark event. The conclusive part took up 3800 years.
Part 2, Disputes Section. This section began in the 21st century BC and ended in the 18th century BC, nearly five hundred years ago. This period is the legendary Xia Dynasty. In recent years, the transition between the Xia Dynasty as a state or a tribal confederation has been debated in academic circles and has remained inconclusive.
Part 3, Legends section. The three emperors and five emperors before the Xia Dynasty were about six or seven hundred years old. It belongs to the late stage of primitive society.
Since since the beginning of the 18th century BC, China has entered the part of the conclusive historical stage, and the historians of the previous dynasties have also recorded a large number of the history of the surrounding countries, which has provided great help for China's neighbors to understand the history of their own primitive social stages.