China's history and culture have a long history, and the change of dynasties and generations and the struggle for hegemony among princes are an inevitable thing. The first slave dynasty in Chinese history began with the Xia Dynasty, which lasted for fourteen generations and lasted for about 471 years.
The establishment of the Xia Dynasty began with Yu. At present, some of China's written records of the Xia Dynasty originate from the Western Zhou Period, but also the beginning of the completion of the Shang Zhou DingGe, Sima Qian once recorded the history of the Xia Dynasty in the "Records of History", whether it is the records of the Western Zhou Dynasty or the records in the "Records of History", we cannot avoid the fact that they span nearly 500 years of history and space the entire Shang Dynasty.
01 The process of Shang Tang's destruction of the Xia Dynasty is suspected to have been copied, and the oldest oracle bones do not have any record of the demise of the Xia Dynasty
Relevant historical materials describe in detail that the Xia Dynasty was eventually overthrown by the Shang Tang, and the process of the xia dynasty being overthrown in this Xia Dynasty is extremely similar to the process of the Wu King's cutting, and it is even easy to make people doubt that it is reasonable to destroy the Xia Dynasty, but in the records of all the meritorious achievements of the Shang Tang, there is no record of how to destroy the Xia Dynasty, which can't help but make people wonder again, was the Xia Dynasty really destroyed by the Shang Tang?
With this question, some people will ask: "It is estimated that the oldest oracle bones should have a record of how Shang Tang destroyed the Xia Dynasty." In fact, in all the oracle bones, archaeologists have not found any records about the Xia Dynasty at all.
Experts speculate that there are two possibilities, one is that the oracle bone is not a history book, the relevant historical information is recorded on it, the oracle bone is a bu ci, we can not ask it to write the context of the demise of a dynasty into the bu ci.
In addition, some of the oracle bones unearthed so far have not yet been fully interpreted, and it may be too early to draw conclusions.
02 The Yin ruins excavated by archaeology are suspected to be the site of the Xia Dynasty and have not yet been determined
In the 1950s, archaeologists discovered the ruins of Yanshi Erlitou in Luoyang, and since the discovery of this site, controversy has continued, with some believing that it is the site of the capital of the Xia Dynasty, the so-called "earliest China", while others believe that it is not a site of the Xia Dynasty.
From the time calculation of the Erlitou site, archaeologists believe that it may be around 2000 BC - 1600 BC, which belongs to the scope of the Xia Dynasty at the time node.
After all, these are the speculations of archaeological experts, there is no direct text to support, and some experts believe that this may also be the earliest Shangduyi, and whether the Erlitou cultural site is the site of the Xia Dynasty or the Shangduyi, we cannot determine.
03 The burial items unearthed in the third phase of the Erlitou site became a major injury to the Xia Dynasty
Since archaeologists discovered this major historical and cultural site, the outside world has been arguing about the Erlitou site, and the discussion on whether the Dynasty of the Erlitou culture belongs to Xia or Shang has been in a state of contention.
However, one thing that can be confirmed is that the Erlitou cultural site is divided into four periods in total, and from the excavated pottery and tomb displays, archaeologists have not found any noble cemeteries about the Shang Dynasty, and we all know that the development of bronze during the Shang Dynasty has reached its peak.
However, since the third period, archaeologists have successively excavated pottery with burial items are very simple, the only large-scale bronze artifacts unearthed, compared with the bronzes of the Shang Dynasty period, are very primitive, and the words carved on some pottery have not yet formed sentences, and the degree of civilization lags behind the Shang Dynasty.
Then this major discovery should be a hard wound for the Xia Dynasty, the first dynasty in Chinese history, and the backwardness of civilization is far beyond our imagination. Some people will ask: "The Xia Dynasty civilization is so backward, why did you still find bronze funerary items?" ”
The bronze artifacts excavated from the Erlitou site are very primitive, which may mean that after the establishment of the Shang Dynasty in Shang Tang, the Xia Dynasty still existed, that is to say, the Shang Tang did not destroy the Xia Dynasty, the Xia Dynasty developed for a long time with the establishment of the Shang Dynasty, and finally the demise of the Xia Dynasty should be attributed to the natural demise and replaced by the advanced civilization of the Shang Dynasty.
In any case, the discovery of the ruins of Erlitou provides important clues for us to explore the Xia culture and the Xia Dynasty capital.