As we all know, in the long history of China for 5,000 years, the Xia Dynasty began, and before that, China still belonged to a tribal society.
Before the establishment of the Xia Dynasty, the tribal alliance mainly used the method of "Zen Concession" to elect the co-lord of the alliance, such as Yao Zen ceded to Shun, and Shun gave Zen to Yu.
Later in The reign of Yu, Gao Tao, a leader with the surname of Yan, who had a lot of prestige in the East, was elected as his heir, but unexpectedly, Gao Tao died before He waited for Chan Ton, and died before Yu. Yu also appointed the Dongyi chiefTain Boyi as his heir.
After Yu's death, Bo Yi ceded the throne to Yu's son Qi. Since then, "public world" has become "family world".
In fact, this history has been learned in our middle school textbooks, so everyone should not feel strange.
But did you know that for a long time, many people did not believe that the Xia Dynasty really existed, and even some experts and scholars could not find evidence to confirm the existence of the Xia Dynasty.
It's like the "Atlantis" of Western legends, and although there is such a claim, no one can find evidence.
And this also makes people wonder: we even found the Yuanmou people in Yunnan 1.7 million years ago, why has the Xia Dynasty more than 4,000 years ago been found? Did the Xia Dynasty really exist?
The most direct way to find out whether a dynasty has ever existed is nothing more than two, one is to find the corresponding historical records, and the other is to excavate related historical relics.
First of all, from the perspective of historical records, the Xia Dynasty has been mentioned in historical books such as "Book of Shang" and "History of History".
The first to mention the Xia Dynasty is the so-called early Western Zhou Dynasty literature and the earliest compilation of historical documents in China, the Book of Shang.
In more than one place in the literature, there is a reference to the historical term "there is summer" or "summer".
The famous politician Zhou Gong in the early years of the Zhou Dynasty once said in this book: The Xia Dynasty originally obeyed the Mandate of Heaven and ruled for a short period of time, but because of the poor performance of their descendants, they were stripped of their lives by the rulers of the Shang Dynasty.
However, later some people examined that the articles mentioned in the Book of Shang mentioned in the Xia Dynasty were actually forged by people during the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period, and it was nearly 1,000 years since the fall of the Xia Dynasty at that time, so the descriptions in the text are likely to be fabricated.
The most systematic document for recording the history of the Xia Dynasty is probably the first of the "Twenty-Four Histories" - the "History"!
To put it simply, although Sima Qian wrote a lot of content about the Xia Dynasty, he did not mention the "key points", such as what sites the Xia Dynasty had, where the royal tombs were, and so on.
Moreover, when Sima Qian wrote the "Records of History", it was already 1,400 or 500 years since the fall of the Xia Dynasty, so many of the contents of it may have been reorganized by Sima Qian on the basis of his predecessors.
According to the general rule of historical research, "people remember the events of the time", and this kind of first-hand information is the highest value.
But records like the Book of Shang and the Records of History, which are thousands of years late, are still skeptical to many serious experts and scholars.
And the reason for this is also very simple, that is, in such a long period of time, a piece of history is likely to be added to the fire and spread falsehoods, even such an outstanding historian as Sima Qian, do not dare to guarantee that the history he wrote is true.
Moreover, Sima Qian, as a member of the feudal society, would also be affected by the feudal environment, and some of the contents of his book were full of "mythology", such as in the "History of Gao Zu Benji", liu Bang's mythical origin was written:
"His ancestor Liu Mi tasted the misfortune of Osawa, dreaming and meeting with God. When the thunder and lightning were obscure, taigong looked up and saw the dragon on it. Already in the flesh, he gave birth to a high ancestor. ”
Therefore, you see, although Sima Qian's "Records of History" has a very high status in the field of historiography and is of great research value, the content in it is not all true.
So we also have reason to suspect that the part that records the Xia Dynasty may also be fictional.
If you want to find out whether the Xia Dynasty really existed, there is actually another way, that is, to study the history of the Shang Dynasty.
Since it is said that the Shang Dynasty overthrew the Xia Dynasty and established its own dynasty, it should be recorded accordingly in the "history books" of the Shang Dynasty.
After all, every subsequent dynasty has to be taken out and degraded by the dynasty that it overthrew, so as to highlight its decency and greatness.
Therefore, it is also a good way to seek traces of the Xia Dynasty from the history of the Shang Dynasty.
However, the result was unexpected, and in the "historical books" of the Shang Dynasty, there was no record of the Xia Dynasty.
According to the historical records, Shang Tang was the founding prince of the shang dynasty who destroyed xia, but there are more than 680 words used to sacrifice him in the oracle bones, most of which are praises of merit and praise, without mentioning such a great achievement as overthrowing the Xia Dynasty.
On many oracle bone tablets, only the ancestors of the merchants before the establishment of the Shang Dynasty are recorded.
According to the history books, many of them were only princes of the Xia Dynasty at that time, but these oracle bones did not mention anything about the Xia Dynasty.
Although the oracle bone is a buci, it covers a very wide range, which can be said to contain all aspects of the social life of the Shang Dynasty, and can be called an "encyclopedia" of the Shang Dynasty.
But unfortunately, in these excavated oracle bones, there is still no relevant record of the Xia Dynasty.
If so, is the Xia Dynasty really fictional?
If you just look here, then the answer is yes!
But we also said that the most direct way to determine whether the records in the history books are credible is to find cultural evidence that corroborates with the historical records through archaeological excavations, if it can be corresponded, then it is true, and vice versa.
In the past, the existence of the Shang Dynasty was also questioned, but with the continuous advancement of archaeological excavation technology, people found bronzes used by the Shang Dynasty in the "Yin Ruins", and also found a large number of tortoiseshell bones engraved with writing.
On these cultural relics, the work and life of merchants are recorded in detail, so people no longer doubt the authenticity of the Shang Dynasty.
Therefore, the easiest way to prove whether the Xia Dynasty really existed in Chinese history is to find the bronzes and writings that belong to the Xia Dynasty itself.
In the spring of 2002, experts from the Poly Art Museum in Beijing stumbled upon a bronze artifact from the middle of the Western Zhou Dynasty, the "Sui Gong Cup", in the overseas cultural relics market.
This may be the earliest cultural relics that can be related to the Xia Dynasty at that time!
After the rust removal, the inscription on the bronze was fully revealed, which recorded that Dayu calmed the flood by cutting some hills to block the flood and dredging the river, and demarcated Kyushu, and also planned his own contribution according to the land conditions in each place.
The inscription records in large paragraphs the process of Da Yu's treatment of water, as well as the exposition of virtue and virtue, and teaches the people to act with virtue, but there is no mention of the Xia Dynasty.
Although Sui Gongyu's discovery has advanced the documentary record of Dayu Zhishui by six or seven hundred years, and is the earliest and most detailed reliable written record of Dayu in the currently known era, whether the Xia Dynasty really exists is still an unsolved mystery!
It was not until 1959, when people found the ruins of an ancient capital city in the Luoyang Plain of Henan, that the traces of the Xia Dynasty began to have a little eyebrow.
More than 4,000 years ago, there was an imposing palace building here, surrounded by neat and wide boulevards, surrounded by tens of thousands of residents, and its scale is large enough to dominate the entire East Asian region.
This site of civilization named "Erlitou", whether in time or location, is consistent with the Xia Dynasty recorded in the history books, which can't help but make archaeologists ecstatic, thinking that the remains of the Xia Dynasty have finally appeared.
However, at the beginning of the excavation, despite the efforts of archaeologists to wield shovels, they still could not find any artifacts that could be judged to be the Xia Dynasty in a reasonable way, nor could they find any writing about the Xia Dynasty.
And this site is only 6 kilometers away from another famous Shang Dynasty site, Yanshi Shangcheng, which may still be a Shang Dynasty site!
However, with the continuous improvement of excavation technology and the unremitting efforts of archaeologists, many cultural relics of the Xia Dynasty were finally excavated in the "Erlitou" site, and it was determined that the "Erlitou Site" was the capital city of the middle and late Xia Dynasty - Huoyi.
The distribution of the palace area, the sacrifice area, the workshop area and other areas of the capital city has also been revealed. In 2019, the "Erlitou Xiadu Ruins Museum" was also born on this site, providing us with a good opportunity to understand the life of the Xia Dynasty people.
In the museum, we can see the pottery that the Xia Dynasty people used to hold wine, the pottery used to warm wine, the pottery mane used to cook rice, the clay pot used to hold water, the pottery used to cook food, etc. A wide range of pottery, showing us a vivid picture of the life of the people of the Xia Dynasty.
In addition, the site has also unearthed magic tools used by the royal nobles of the Xia Dynasty to communicate with heaven and earth, such as the "Turquoise Dragon Shaped Instrument", which is one of the typical representatives.
It originated from the totem worship of primitive societies, the dragon. The dragon was a symbol of wisdom, strength, honor and good fortune at the time; the dragon was inlaid with more than 200 pieces of turquoise, which was exceptionally beautiful.
In addition, there is also a bronze plaque with turquoise inlaid with animal faces - "bronze plaque ornament with turquoise inlaid with food pattern".
It is believed to be a magic weapon capable of communicating heaven, earth, gods, and people, and its main frame is cast in bronze, and on top of it is a beast face pattern inlaid with hundreds of pieces of turquoise.
Its workmanship is exquisite, meticulous, and even after thousands of years, there is no sign of loosening and falling off.
This also shows that as early as the Xia Dynasty more than 4,000 years ago, china's ancestors have mastered advanced casting technology and inlay technology.
Of course, more importantly, the discovery of these relics also confirms for us that the Xia Dynasty is not "Atlantis", it is real!
What do you think of that? Welcome to leave a message in the comment area, let's discuss together!