So far, the direct written materials of the Xia Dynasty have not been found by archaeology, and even the sacrificial text system oracle bone text of the Shang Dynasty, the successor of the Xia Dynasty, does not directly present the name "Xia Dynasty".
Among the 150,000 oracle bones that have been excavated so far, only one place called "Xiyi" is frequently mentioned, and according to the oracle bone interpretation, the reason why successive Shang kings continued to burn Xiyi was because they were worried that the gods and ghosts of Xiyi were plotting to kill the Shang king. Why does Xiyi have so much energy?
It was not until Tsinghua University rescued a group of Warring States Chu Jian (Tsinghua Jian) abroad that it found such a sentence in the "Yin Chen" chapter: "Only Yin has one virtue with Tang Xian." Yin Niantian defeated Xiyi Xia. ”
This also uncovers the mystery of the "Xiyi" left by the oracle, the so-called "Xiyi" is actually "Xiyi Xia", which is known as the Xia Dynasty. Obviously, the reason why the Shang King regularly carried out the burning sacrifice was because of the grudge between Xia Shang and the destruction of the country.
On the one hand, Tsinghua Jian confirmed the existence of the Xia Dynasty, but on the other hand, it also brought a question: Is the name of the Xia Dynasty also called this by the people of the Xia Dynasty themselves? After all, the Tsinghua Jian is a bamboo Jane from the Warring States period, not a written record of the Shang Dynasty or even earlier.
And similar oolongs have indeed happened in history.
For example, the "Zeng Sui Mystery" that has plagued archaeologists for decades is because history books frequently record a vassal state called Suiguo, but the cultural relics found in archaeology can often be seen in the vassal state with the name "Zeng", which once made people think that there were two Western Zhou feudal states in Suizhou, Hubei Province.
It was not until the discovery of the tomb of Zeng Marquis Yi that people figured out the truth, it turned out that Zeng and Sui were two countries, that is, the people of Zeng Guo claimed to be Zeng Guo, but outsiders called them Suiguo. Similarly, during the Warring States period, the State of Chu called itself Chu, but the State of Qin called them Jing.
So how did the name of the Xia Dynasty come about?
In fact, the earliest records of the dynasty name "Xia Dynasty" come from the establishment of the Zhou Dynasty, and even the earliest unearthed cultural relics that record the deeds of Dayu Zhishui are also bronzes from the Western Zhou Dynasty, Sui Gong Lu.
Earlier, there was no written or even unearthed cultural relics to clearly record the "Xia Dynasty", although the oracle bone text has the word "Xia", but it is not linked to the dynasty, the only name is only the "Xiyi" mentioned above.
But in fact, the "Xia Dynasty" in archaeology has already been discovered. In 1959, archaeologists discovered an archaeological culture between the Longshan culture of the Central Plains and the Erligang culture in the area of Erlitou, Luoyang.
The Longshan culture of the Central Plains, which is the archaeological culture of the era in which Yao Shunyu lived as we know it, and the Erligang culture is the early Shang culture. Unlike ordinary historical relics, the magnificent palaces, bronze ceremonial vessels, and cultural distribution of the Erlitou culture all prove that this is the capital of the royal power of the wide area.
This shows that between Yao Shunyu and the Shang Dynasty, there was indeed an influential dynasty, but what this dynasty was called, we do not know, because no self-certification materials were found in Erlitou, and the oracle bone of the Shang Dynasty only called it "Xiyi" (meaning the country or capital city located in the west).
What is self-certification material? For example, the people of the Shang Dynasty called themselves "Dayi Shang", which is called self-certification, and no one knows what they should be called better than themselves.
So, the question goes back to square one: all the evidence currently known suggests that the dynasty name "Xia Dynasty" comes from the Zhou Dynasty.
Since there is no record in the oracle bones, where did the Zhou Dynasty know that the dynasty before the Shang Dynasty was called the "Xia Dynasty"?
The first possibility is that the direct written materials handed down from the Xia Dynasty can still be seen during the Zhou Dynasty, such as historical bamboo simplifications, pottery inscriptions, etc., which are obviously much richer than the oracle bone script used for simple sacrifice.
The second possibility is that the Zhou Dynasty "created" the name of the dynasty "Xia". Because "Xia" has a big meaning, the Zhou Dynasty referred to the developed civilization before the Shang Dynasty as a "great power".
In fact, it was not the first time the Zhou Dynasty had done this. For example, the title "Yin Shang" was coined by the Zhou Dynasty, because the Shang king Pangeng moved the capital to Yin, but the Shang Dynasty people themselves would only call themselves "Shang", not "Yin". In the same way, people in Liu Bei's camp during the Three Kingdoms period would only call themselves Dahan, but would never call themselves Shu or Shu Han.
At the beginning of the establishment of the Western Zhou Dynasty, it also called itself "Xia", for example, the "Book of Shang" said: "Emperor Qin punished, but I have Xia", but the surname of the Xia Dynasty is Ji, and the surname of the Zhou Dynasty is Ji, and Zhou Tianzi is obviously not a direct descendant of Dayu, and the Zhou Dynasty is not the restoration regime of the Xia remnants.
So we can't help but ask, what is the relationship between Zhou and Xia? Why did the Zhou Dynasty vigorously promote a former dynasty that was separated from itself for 600 years, and call itself "Youxia"?
One reason that we can easily think of is: jurisprudence.
King Wu belonged to the "courtiers", so if the Zhou people cast themselves as Xia's successors, then overthrowing the Shang Dynasty changed from rebellion to revenge, and everything was logical.
However, this argument may not be tenable. Because King Wu of Zhou had made the "Pastoral Oath" before felling the merchants, which listed in detail the reasons why he led his troops to attack the Shang Dynasty: "Now the king of Shang is accepted, but the woman's words are used... Faint and abandon the king's parents, brother Budi... tyrannical to the people", without mentioning the Xia Dynasty and the Xia people at all.
What is the truth?
This has to start with the great riot in the late Tao Temple. The Tao Temple site in southern Jin, which is the capital of Zhongyao Shun, is absolutely dated between 2300 BC and 1900 BC, flourished in 2300 BC, and around 1900 BC, due to violent invasion, the capital was reduced to an ordinary city, which happened to be the time when the Xia Dynasty was established.
Archaeological findings have found that in the late Tao Temple, the high-level royal tombs were seriously damaged, and the bones of five large tombs such as M22 and M28 were missing, but the burial objects were discarded at will, indicating that the purpose of the vandals was only to take revenge, not to obtain property.
In addition, the palace and astronomical buildings were deliberately destroyed, and a massacre was found in the southern wall of the palace, and a 35-year-old woman with horns inserted into her bones and broken cervical vertebrae was in agony before dying.
However, the late Tao Temple riot found by archaeology has several intriguing points.
First of all, the invaders were not only very familiar with the distribution and accurate location of the tombs of the Tao Temple, but also only destroyed the high-level royal tombs in the early, middle and late periods, and carefully avoided the ordinary middle and lower class tombs, which confirmed the research conclusion of molecular anthropology that the upper and lower groups of the Tao Temple had different ethnic origins.
Secondly, after the late Taosi riots, a large number of utensils began to appear in the late Taosi culture, replacing the cauldron stove utensils commonly used by the residents of the Taosi before, indicating that at least one of the invaders was an ethnic group that used pottery pipes.
There was a record of "Yu forcing Shun" in the literature, and the lower limit of the time of the Tao Temple just undertook the rise of the Xia Dynasty, so the decline and death of the late Tao Temple due to violence was inseparable from Dayu.
However, the Xia people were not an ethnic group that used pottery pipes, and after the decline of the Tao Temple, it was not replaced by the Wangwan III culture (early Xia culture). Obviously, Dayu still has allied forces.
And Dayu's allies, the ethnic group responsible for attacking the Yu clan, were none other than the Zhou people.
Before moving into Guanzhong, the Ji Zhou tribe lived in the Jinzhong area of Shanxi, and the Zhou people were precisely the ethnic group that used the utensils. The history books of the Zhou Dynasty also have records such as "I first Wang Shi Houji to serve Yu Xia" and "Hou Ji released Danzhu", which shows that during the Yao Shunyu period, the Zhou people were indeed participants in the Jinnan Change, and they were also one of the sources of the middle and lower class residents of the Tao Temple, and belonged to the object of Yao Shun's rule.
Not only that, the history books record that the relationship between Zhongzhou and Xia is also extremely close, as early as when Dayu controlled the water, Zhou Ren was an important assistant to Dayu, responsible for "broadcasting the difficult food of Shu".
When Dayu established absolute authority and intended to replace Shun, it was logical for the oppressed Zhou people to establish an offensive and defensive alliance with the Xia Hou clan. After the violent invasion of the Tao Temple, the Ji and Zhou tribe moved to the old land of the Youxia clan, and this close relationship may be an important reason why the Zhou Dynasty favored the Xia Dynasty and regarded itself as "Youxia".