Did the Xia Dynasty exist? So far archaeologists have not given a definitive answer.
First of all, why the existence of the Xia Dynasty was not completely formal, from the less strict proposition, the Xia Dynasty existed in China's historical memory for thousands of years, and it is of course no problem for us to use the xia dynasty to call that era of origin.
However, a strong proposition lies in the fact that as a dynastic state in the strict political sense, does it really exist? If he is just a small primitive tribe, he is only recognized as an ancestor by the descendants of Huaxia. At that time, the chinese characters in the middle and early period were not yet perfected, and archaeologists could not find ironclad evidence that could prove the existence of the Xia Dynasty as they did in the Shang Dynasty, and the closest discovery to the truth at present is the Erlitou site of Luoyang Yanshi.
From the archaeological evidence, he was once the cultural center of the Central Plains, and it shows that the meteorological experts of the royal palace speculated that he may be the legendary capital of the Xia Dynasty, that is, from the Taikang of Dayu to the Summer Dynasty Duchang, at the end of 2019, Erlitou built a magnificent Erlitou Xiadu Ruins Museum, which gives people a misunderstanding, as if the strongest proposition of the existence of the Xia Dynasty has been confirmed.
But this is not the case, and this Xia's name has caused a lot of controversy in the industry.
Now let's go back to the question, primitive tribes or civilized nations? It depends on whether we can find the basic characteristics of the country, such as the vast territory of the capital of the royal city, etc. About 3700 years ago, an important person in the Erlitou culture came to this plain between the Yellow River and issued an order for the process, and his people built this city of at least 20,000 inhabitants.
As far as the current archaeological findings are concerned, this is the first time in the history of Chinese civilization that the road tic-tac-toe pattern of the city almost points to the positive southeast, south, and northwest, laying the basic law for the construction of China's capital city for thousands of years in the future, through the efforts of several generations of archaeologists. We roughly inferred the sphere of influence of the Erlitou regime, which basically includes the entire Henan expansion to the north, to Shanxi, Shaanxi to the south to reach the farthest part of Hubei's expansion, to Shangzhou at the foot of the Qinling Mountains, where copper ore is produced, and the waterway convenience may be the strategic town of the Erlitou people, so the Erlitou regime is indeed a hegemon, the dynasty of the Central Plains, if he is really the Xia Dynasty, how perfect it should be.
Is this the source of Chinese civilization? Of course not, to search for the source of civilization is to find out what level of civilization people of previous times have reached, and whether they are in the same line as we are today.
In this sense, Erlitou is the first big rule of the Elements of Chinese Civilization, here we borrow the analytical framework of "Guns, Germs and Steel", the core question of this book is 5,000 years of world civilization history, why some peoples created guns and steel, and some peoples ate 5,000 years of wild fruits and wild meat.
Edmund believes that there are some necessary geographical conditions for the occurrence of civilization, first of all, agriculture is the top priority, and China has the best food crops in the world. Obtaining several kinds of food crops, we found all the grains in the ruins of the Erlitou site, in addition, the Central Plains are located in the south, where the rice culture and the northern millet culture overlap, the choice of agriculture is extremely rich, the Erlitou people raise cattle and sheep, export them not only as a source of protein, but also as a means of production and transportation, the Erlitou site found two-wheeled rut marks may be the ox cart These basic technologies give birth to more advanced technology, such as the bronze casting workshop in Erlitou, bronze rational qi and fire, reason and music.
As well as the outward expansion along the Yellow River Huai River, the Yangtze River waterway, coupled with the ancient primitive script similar to the oracle bone, this is from all aspects of the Chinese civilization. On the basic skills, the final unification of civilization is Edmund, especially emphasized 1.2 litou is considered to be China's watershed from cultural pluralism to unification, before that there are at least 8 relatively independent development of cultural areas in the Yellow River Yangtze River Basin, this cultural pattern is called "full of stars" by archaeologist Su Bingqi, "full of stars" If the "full sky of stars" continues, it is possible that East Asia will become a collection of countries like Europe.
But from the beginning of the Xia Era, the Central Plains Cultural District began to expand, and eventually unified the world, from the archaeological remains, the political artifacts of the Erlitou Dynasty spread beyond its borders, farther away, perhaps from that era onwards, some kind of order, the royal system of the world has begun, and Erlitou maintains political and cultural relations. Geographical space defines the prototype of the Chinese world, and the centripetal force of this culture also defines the basic driving force for the evolution and expansion of Chinese civilization.
Does it matter if xia dynasty exists? The Xia Dynasty was originally the memory of the root of civilization that we obtained from Sima Qian and Confucian Shiji, this memory has been passed down for more than 2,000 years, until today's archaeology has revived the Xia Dynasty, whether this fundamental question exists, this time we need to find scientific answers, but rediscover our original urban society, text food life, which is why we rediscover ourselves.
Regarding the Xia Dynasty, there are still a lot of interesting questions that we have not had time to talk about, and the family expressed their views in the message area.