We often say that "China has been five thousand years", but in the eyes of foreign scholars, China's history is at most 3,000 years, and from the beginning of the Shang Dynasty, China has a civilization recognized by foreign historians and truly has the written records of the same period. Even before the cultural relics and oracle bones of the Yin Ruins in Anyang, Henan Province, received attention and were proved to be in line with historical records such as the "History of Yin Benji", foreign scholars did not recognize the existence of Shang Dynasty civilization.
Nowadays, the history of the Shang Dynasty has been confirmed by archaeological relics, but the xia dynasty, the dynasty before the Shang Dynasty, is still shrouded in many mysteries and has not been widely recognized by international historians. There is even a saying that the existence of the Xia Dynasty was made up by the Zhou Dynasty in order to justify the history of the "Zhou Dynasty Shang".
The history of the Xia Dynasty that we learn in textbooks is simple, the founder of the Xia Dynasty, Dayu, who received a lot of support during the tribal alliance period for his merits in controlling the flood, took over the position of chief from the hands of Xianjun Shun. Xia's son Qi completely turned the Zen concession system into a hereditary system and established the earliest "family world" clan inheritance system in Chinese history.
Kai also experienced some ups and downs before inheriting his father's inheritance, and Dayu originally wanted to pass the throne to his good assistant Gao Tao, but Gao Tao took the first step and had to pass it on to the Dongyi chief Boyi instead. According to the ancient book "Bamboo Book Chronicle" and other sources, Kai experienced a struggle before taking over his father's position, defeated the Dongyi Alliance and the Youhu clan, and achieved his absolute chief position in the tribal alliance.
The Xia Dynasty was founded around 2070 BC and perished in 1600 BC, lasting about 471 years, longer than the Han Dynasty's Guozuo. Before the emergence of the name "Han" as an ethnic group, the Huaxia (that is, the early Han people) were the earliest inhabitants of the Yellow River Basin, and the Dayu Zhishui was probably due to the flooding of the Yellow River in ancient times, and if it was not treated, the survival of the ancestors would be seriously threatened.
In fact, the early great floods recorded in the history books were not only in China, but also in foreign countries, but only Chinese relied on their own wisdom to overcome the floods, did not relocate, but settled and multiplied in the Yellow River Basin for a long time. The name of the Xia Dynasty, "Xia", has even become synonymous with Chinese in historical development, and "Xia" in the Concise Encyclopedia Britannica means "Chinese people", and we now also call ourselves the descendants of Huaxia, or the descendants of Yanhuang.
However, the existence of the Xia Dynasty lacks as powerful archaeological evidence as the Shang Dynasty, although the Yin Ruins and oracle bones have proved that China's ancient history books have credibility, not a comprehensive myth, but the site of Yanshi Erlitou in Henan, which is currently considered to be the legacy of the Xia Dynasty civilization, is controversial, and Western scholar Thorpe believes that there is no systematic writing like the Shang Dynasty in the Erlitou site, the tomb scale is not large, and the palace structure is single, not like the palace, more like the Zongmiao building.
In fact, the "History of Xia Benji" and "Bamboo Book Chronicle" all mention that the ruling center of the Xia Dynasty was in the Iloilo Plain area, which is in line with the fact that the Erlitou ruins were excavated in the central area of the Xia Shang Zhou rule of the three ancient Dynasties Central Plains Dynasty, and if it were not for the Xia Dynasty recorded in the history books, the possibility of another dynasty emerging out of thin air to "claim" it was very small.
Moreover, the Erlitou site has been determined by carbon 14, which can be judged to be dating around 1900 BC, which is also in line with the history of the Xia Dynasty recorded in the history books. Therefore, most Chinese archaeologists affirm the connection between the Erlitou site and the Xia Dynasty, affirm the existence of the Xia Dynasty, and believe that Western scholars use the "civilization" defined by Western archaeology to limit the history of Chinese civilization, which is very unscientific. As for the fact that no systematic script has been found, perhaps with more archaeological discoveries, the history of the Xia Dynasty will eventually be internationally recognized.