Turning over some history textbooks, it seems that the first dynasties that appeared were all "Xia Dynasty".
However, there are still very different views in the academic circles on whether this Xia Dynasty really existed.
These controversies also stem from the speculation and interpretation of relevant historical materials, and based on these inferences, many questions have evolved to wait to be answered.
Regarding the "Xia Dynasty", one faction believes that the existence of the Xia Dynasty is very doubtful, and they believe that the records of the "Xia Dynasty" are all in the "heirloom documents" and lack substantive evidence in archaeology;
The other school believes that there are records of the "Xia Dynasty" in many literatures, so the Xia Dynasty is very likely to exist, and domestic scholars basically have the same view.
As Tsinghua University gradually deciphered the Warring States Bamboo Jane, it also slowly unveiled the century-old mystery under the inheritance of the oracle bone, about the history of the Xia Dynasty, where to go.
When the millennium bamboo Jane met the centenary Tsinghua
The two factions, divided based on the existence of the Xia Dynasty, were looking for evidence from each other, especially those who supported the existence of the Xia Dynasty, and were both looking for evidence as early as possible to prove their point.
There is no country or nation in human history to gain self-confidence by excavating traditional culture, and the source of cultural self-confidence is also based on the basis of excavating traditional culture and benefiting the essence of the present, which can contribute to world culture and can also be recognized and respected by other countries.
In the decades after the reform and opening up, China has made remarkable achievements in a series of fields such as economy, culture and society, which is also a major source of our self-confidence.
For history, archaeologists and researchers are also trying to restore the truth as much as possible.
As one of the four ancient civilizations, China has a very high historical status.
If the ancient Egyptians used papyrus to record things, and ancient Babylon used clay plates as books, then China used oracle bones, bronze inscriptions, and Jian Mu Shu books, which are the "codes" of China's ancient civilization.
In July 2008, shortly after the summer vacation of Tsinghua Garden, a group of extremely honored "guests" came to the park, which were 2500 precious bamboo janes.
When the plastic wrap was removed, experts at Tsinghua University were still excited.
These bamboo janes were also later known as "Tsinghua Janes".
Logically, the experts and professors of Tsinghua University should also have a summer vacation, but after this batch of bamboo Janes came in, the relevant experts could not wait to gain insight into the stories, plus these bamboo Janes are very fragile and cannot withstand the toss, and the top priority should also be cleaned and protected.
In the next 3 months, everyone did not idle and threw themselves into the process of rescue cleaning and protection.
At this stage, everyone also preliminarily judged that they belonged to the "Chu Jian" of the middle and late Warring States period, which was very similar to the "Warring States Chu Jian" collected by the Shanghai Museum.
In October of that year, experts from relevant fields from Peking University, Fudan, Sun Yat-sen University and other units gathered together to have a heated discussion on this batch of bamboo Janes, and everyone agreed:
This batch of Warring States Bamboo Jane is an extremely precious cultural relic, and the content involved in it is also the core content of the traditional culture of the mainland, which is an extremely rare major discovery and will have an important impact on many disciplines.
Therefore, Tsinghua University also held a special press conference to announce the relevant news of Bamboo Jane, and called it "Tsinghua Jane", their era comes from about 300 BC.
After the completion of the initial step of work, the next task is a huge project, which requires everyone to make a comprehensive interpretation of the 2500 Pieces of Tsinghua Jane.
According to the initial review, there are about 65 articles in Tsinghua Jane, because the content involved is very important.
According to the team's finishing speed, it takes about 15 years to complete the finishing.
On the occasion of the 98th anniversary of Tsinghua University, the "Center for Research and Conservation of Unearthed Documents" was also inaugurated, with Mr. Li Xueqin as the director.
He also took this opportunity to introduce the results of the preliminary collation of experts to everyone, which also aroused the great attention of the academic community, and scholars from all walks of life are looking forward to the answer.
In 2017, tsinghua jianzhong's "arithmetic table" is the earliest decimal calculation tool in human history that has been discovered so far, and this statement has also been certified by the Guinness Book of World Records.
The discovery of "Arithmetic Table" has also excited the mathematical community, and many mathematicians have been surprised, and Professor Dao, former president of the International Society for the History of Mathematics, also said this week: "Such a discovery has great significance." ”
The content covered in these bamboo briefs also involves all aspects, and the hardships encountered in the collation process can only be truly experienced by those involved, and with the advancement of research, more and more content has been published.
However, many people are concerned about the content related to the Xia Dynasty.
In the "Bamboo Jane of the Tibetan Warring States of Tsinghua University", a piece called "Thick Father" is included, which has been deciphered by Tsinghua University.
The characters involved in this include Yu, Qi, Gao Tao, Kong Jia, etc., and from this point of view, they are of great value for studying the history of the Xia Dynasty.
The thoughts and language in the Thick Father are basically consistent with the situation reflected in the Western Zhou Jinwen of the Book of Shang.
According to the professors' speculations, these are likely to be an article written on the basis of the legend of the Xia Dynasty in the Western Zhou Dynasty to conform to the rule of the Zhou Dynasty.
It has a dialogue between "Wang" and "Thick Father" throughout it, tracing the history of the Xia Dynasty by using the tone of "Wang".
The opening verse reads, "Thick Father! Yuwen Yu... Chuan, the people who descended, built the Xia State. ”
After these contents were deciphered, they also raised the authenticity of the Xia Dynasty to a higher level.
The text involves the historical legends related to the Xia Dynasty, especially the relationship between Yu and Xia and Qi, which is also particularly important from the perspective of historical research.
It is precisely because many scholars have questioned the authenticity of the Xia Dynasty, if considered in such an academic context, then Qi is also a mythical figure.
According to the contents of the "Thick Father" brief text, Yu and Qi Ze obviously became the two Xia kings who succeeded to the throne.
Now it is also widely believed that the Xia culture is the Erlitou culture, and the Erlitou culture is also the earliest bronze culture in the middle and lower reaches of the Yellow River, and this type of culture is also very likely to represent the original "culture" into the "civilization" stage, and has also become an ancient country.
But the ancient state is not the same thing as the modern state, they are a tribal state, and the city is not only a symbol of civilization, but also an element of its creation.
As for the reason why the Xia Dynasty has not been found exactly, in the final analysis, there is still no way to be recorded, if there is really a clear record of the same period, then things are not so complicated.
As the decipherment progresses, more and more mysteries are uncovered
In the process of sorting out Tsinghua Jane, almost every issue will encounter various problems.
As far as the text is concerned, there are many doubts about the use of many ancient words and usages, and the content is very extensive.
In addition to the simple historical content, there are also many problems such as astronomy, prescription, calendar, etc., so sometimes it seems impossible to start in the process of collation.
For these precious materials, each piece of bamboo must be thoroughly explained, so there are many problems that cannot be solved immediately at present, and also require long-term research.
In the past ten years, the research and collation team of Tsinghua University has also formed a team that combines old, middle and young people, which not only requires profound academic knowledge, but also requires flexible brains, which has also been widely praised by the outside world.
At the press conference, Huang Dekuan said:
"Tsinghua Jian has also gradually entered the stage of tackling tough problems in the process of sorting out, and the team will overcome difficulties and strive to ensure the progress of the publication of one volume per year, and release this batch of precious materials to the public as soon as possible."
Moreover, Tsinghua Jane is already an important cultural relic of the country, plus it is relatively fragile in itself, and now there is no way to take it out and watch it with everyone.
Mr. Li Xueqin also said:
"An important discovery in an archaeological artifact is not how many gold and silver treasures have been found, but the fact that these discoveries can change our perception of a historical period or a nation is the most significant."
The Xia Dynasty also has extraordinary significance for the Chinese people, and everyone hopes to find the exact answer from these Janes.
Unfortunately, in late February 2019, Mr. Li Xueqin passed away, and in the last decade of his academic career, he poured too much effort into Tsinghua Jane.
Later, the Center for The Research and Conservation of Excavated Documents also moved, and Huang Dekuan, director of the center, said: "Being able to meet Tsinghua Jian has made us a fortunate academic event." ”
Fortunately, over the years of research, more and more strong evidence has been found, and some of them have also revealed the mystery of oracle bones.
For example, there is a clear record in the "Yin Yu", which records the story of Yi Yin who saw that the Xia Dynasty was about to perish and was ready to defect to Shang Tang.
Among them, the "Defeat of Yin Niantian Xiyi Xia" expresses that Yi Yin considered that the heavens were going to destroy the Xia Dynasty, and the "Bo Zhongyi" in it refers to the old capital of the Shang Dynasty, which is located in the northern area of the present-day Shangqiu.
The evidence is very close, but the experts at Tsinghua University still need to determine that Xiyi is indeed the same thing as the Xiyi Xia recorded in later literature, and for the sake of caution, more solid evidence is needed.
In the oracle bone records, the Shang Dynasty people's concept of time has a very primitive side.
They record symbols for each day, but this method of chronology repeats itself in a cyclical manner, overwriting the previous round again and, after which it is rarely mentioned.
There are also merchants who are very casual in their leap, and for historical reasons, they also lack historical concepts.
There are also many mentions of the Xia Dynasty in the literature, and there are many problems that need to be examined.
From some points of view, the Xia Dynasty itself was a large country, and the Shang and Zhou were vassal states.
Because of the brutal rule of the last monarch of the Xia Dynasty, the Shang Zhou, as a vassal state, began to crusade and contributed to the demise of the Xia Dynasty.
Subsequently, the Shang king still felt uneasy and often sacrificed "Xiyi".
There is a sentence in the "Zuo Zhuan" that "the great affairs of the country are in the worship and rong", which also shows that in the pre-Qin period, sacrifices and wars were also major events, and the prayers at the time of sacrifices would also be recorded as important documents.
Xiyi, perhaps the name people called the Xia Dynasty at that time, also added a lot of strong evidence to the real existence of the Xia Dynasty.
Judging from the current situation, the only words that can be queried have also experienced many dynasties, and archaeologists have taken the Erlitou site as a symbol and symbol of Xia, and also represent the transition between Xia and Shang.
In this sense, the Xia Dynasty really existed in Chinese history.
The deciphering process of the bamboo jane this time also adds a lot of new evidence, further increasing the authenticity.
However, Tsinghua University's deciphering process of Tsinghua Jian is by no means as simple as looking for the Xia Dynasty, and it is of great significance to the historical research of the entire pre-Qin period.
There are 9 ancient books hidden in more than 100 bamboo tablets, and many of them are also known for the first time.
In particular, the excavation of the Yin Xuan means that two thousand years have passed, and the real Shang Shu has also reappeared.
The Book of Shang itself has an important position, located at the "head of the Six Classics", is a compilation of various historical documents of the Xia, Shang, and Wednesday dynasties, and is also one of the important bases for the study of ancient history.
Judging from the current research, Tsinghua Jianzhong has found a number of "Shang Shu", which is unprecedented.
In addition to the Book of Shang, there are also chronicles similar to the Bamboo Book Chronicle in Tsinghua Jian.
From the early years of the Western Zhou Dynasty to the early Warring States period, many historical events that did not appear in the Spring and Autumn Period and the Records of History were recorded, and some scholars boldly pointed out:
If the Shangshu and chronicles in Qinghua Jian are reorganized, it is very likely that the ancient history of China will be rewritten.
These Qinghua Janes are also the traditional classics before the Qin King burned the books, and the previous excavations are all from the Hundred Sons and Hundreds of Families, this is the first time, and the significance of Qinghua Jane is definitely a major discovery.
Especially during the Xia Dynasty, there was no unified writing, not even a unified version of the "Xia Dynasty", which led to the difficulty of archaeology, and the possibility of finding written judgments from tombs was almost minimal.
For a long time, many of the Xia Dynasty were buried in the dust of the years, and the helplessness of hearing but not seeing made many people sigh.
Farmland and pastures from the previous dynasties were often taken directly for use, and thousands of years of natural causes made many traces increasingly difficult to find.
Times are progressing, life is going on, and many things may gradually disappear.
Fortunately, many pages in this Tsinghua Jane can uncover some mysteries, at least confirming the emergence of such a no. 1 culture, and if you want to completely unveil all the faces, of course, you still need time to continue to test.
For more than a decade, tsinghua university's pace of deciphering civilization has continued, and it is believed that under the "Tsinghua speed", it can deliver an answer that satisfies everyone and let the rich traditional culture surface again.
reference
1 【Tsinghua Story】The Encounter between the Millennium Bamboo Jane and the Centennial Tsinghua Tsinghua University's official website
2 Tsinghua University Tibetan Warring States Bamboo Jane (3) Results Released Tsinghua University Headlines
3 Qinghua Jian "Xiyi Xia" and oracle bone "Xiyi" (Erlitou and Xia Dynasty civilization) Luoyang News