There is a poem about the ancient dynasties in China, which is easy to remember and catchy, and its beginning is as follows: "Xia Shang and Western Zhou, Eastern Zhou divided into two sections, Spring and Autumn and Warring States, unified Qin and Han." From the Xia Dynasty to the Han Dynasty, these 4 short sentences summarize the hereditary dynasty of China in the past two thousand years BC.
However, many Western scholars do not think so. They felt that China's dynastic system began at best from the Shang Dynasty, because only in the Shang Dynasty did the historical record of the script, the oracle bone, begin to appear. If there is no cultural symbol as a basis, it can only be counted as a tribe, not a dynasty.
Anyone whose family was suddenly cut down for five hundred years will not be happy, not to mention that the Xia Dynasty is directly in direct contact with the Ancient Three Emperors period, if today agrees to deny the existence of the Xia Dynasty, tomorrow will not be the earlier farming culture tribal disputes are all cut down? A city-state in ancient Greece can represent a civilization, but when it comes to China, it does not recognize anything? It's just too deceptive.
In 2002, the "Chinese Civilization Source Exploration Project" established by the state at great expense found a dragon-shaped cultural relic composed of more than 2,000 pieces of turquoise in the Erlitou site of the Luoyang Basin, called the "Pine Green Dragon". This proves that at least 3700 years ago, there was a totemic culture marked by dragons. The dragon is a representative of the totemic worship that has been passed down in China for thousands of years and still exists today.
For ancient civilizations, having an exclusive culture can be considered to be included in this category, and there has been a lack of direct and powerful records of the existence of the Xia Dynasty before, but with the gradual excavation of cultural relics in Erlitou, more and more traces of the Xia Dynasty have also appeared in front of people's eyes. For example, on many clay pots unearthed in Erlitou, many symbols are also carved, which is considered to be the prototype of the earliest writing.
Located in the eastern part of the Luoyang Basin, the Erlitou site lasted for more than 40 years from 1960, during which it was discovered that the site has basic urban planning characteristics, divided into palace areas, workshop areas, sacrificial activity areas, aristocratic gathering areas, etc. The outside of the palace area is surrounded by walls, and the city is also equipped with a transportation system, for example, there is a main road connecting the noble areas in the palace area.
The "Pine Green Dragon" is only one representative of the excavated cultural relics, in addition, the Erlitou site has also excavated a large number of pottery and bronzes. As we all know, bronze is the most important sacrificial tools, musical instruments, noble daily necessities, and weapons of the Mainland Shang Dynasty and the Zhou Dynasty, and a large number of bronzes unearthed in Erlitou can also be corroborated, and bronze ware has begun to appear in the middle and late Xia Dynasty 3700 years ago.
Another major discovery at the Erlitou site was the excavation of hundreds of burial chambers. Through the investigation of the mausoleum, it was found that there was already a tomb system with a fairly clear class division at that time. The different specifications of the tombs prove that the division from tribal public ownership to slave aristocracy had taken place at this time.
Chinese civilization has a long history, and every piece of history is precious, and it cannot be easily erased by man!