The story of "Da Yu's water control, three don't enter the house" is deeply rooted in China. According to Sima Qian's Records of the Historian Xia Benji, Dayu became the son of heaven because of his meritorious service in water control, which opened the history of the Xia Dynasty. However, researchers lack evidence about the real existence of floods and accurate historical records about the existence time of Xia Dynasty. In the 1920s, scholars who doubted the ancient school even doubted whether Dayu was a god or a real person. Because there is no clear first-hand information, the dating of "Xia, Shang and Zhou Dynasties" in the ancient history of China has always been an unresolved issue.
Many people don't know much about the Xia Dynasty, but they also doubt whether it really exists. Xia dynasty has also become a great mystery in archaeology. Next, let's see if the Xia Dynasty existed. Why will it perish?
Does the Xia Dynasty exist?
For China, trade has never occupied the main position of economic activities, and farmers' fair trade is mainly a small-scale exchange of daily necessities. The main source of China's ancient wealth was not trade, but land.
Therefore, cities were not very important in ancient China society, especially in the early Xia, Shang and Zhou Dynasties. These two different sources of wealth first cause different attitudes towards precious metals such as gold and silver.
Xia dynasty territory map
At that time, China people paid more attention to jade than to gold and silver, and jade was not used as a trade intermediary. Secondly, without developed trade, there will naturally be a lack of cities as trade centers, and naturally there will be no large amount of gold and silver wealth gathered in cities.
Therefore, it is not very applicable to judge the ancient civilization of China by the standard of the amount of gold and silver treasures owned by a small town. Even the Yin ruins, bronzes and other items appeared not in a city, but in a tomb.
Among the archaeological discoveries in China, Yanshi has a "Erlitou culture". Chronologically, Erlitou culture belongs to Xia Dynasty. Compared with various "civilizations" in the Mediterranean, China people only refer to Erlitou as "culture". However, the population of each "civilization" site in the Mediterranean is only a few thousand people, and the scale of "Erlitou Culture" is estimated to accommodate about150,000 people, and some estimates are higher.
Compared with the ancient Greek "city-state civilization", "Erlitou culture" is like a real city or capital. Archaeologists and historians in China have so far failed to declare Erlitou culture as the capital of Xia Dynasty, mainly because of the influence of modern western archaeology-Erlitou has not found a large number of precious metals.
From "Xinzhai Group" to "Erlitou Country"
/kloc-0 In the summer of 959, the archaeologist Mr. Xu led a team to investigate the "Summer Site" in western Henan and found a super-large settlement site. The existing scale of this site is 3 million square meters (it is estimated that at least 100 square meters of the site disappeared due to river cutting), far exceeding any city in the "Longshan era" (the largest "Xinzhai"). This is the famous Erlitou site (about 1750- BC 1500 BC).
According to the analysis of archaeologists, the Erlitou group was not developed from the indigenous settlements in Luoyang Basin, but was formed by human migration from other places. In other words, it suddenly became lively around 1750 BC, and the influx of a large number of people made it expand into a super-large settlement with an area exceeding 1 10,000 square meters in a short time. Reminiscent of the former "Xinzhai Group", we have reason to think that this may be an action of the "Xinzhai" people moving their capital! (The late Neolithic Remains and the early Erlitou Phase I may coexist at the same time, which is noted here for reference. )
("Erlitou" turquoise dragon face)
Archaeological findings also confirmed that Xinzhai Group is closely related to Erlitou Group. A piece of pottery fragment was unearthed in Xinzhai site, which depicts an animal's face pattern, which is strikingly similar to the turquoise dragon face unearthed in the noble tomb of Erlitou site. In addition, by comparing the Mo Zhang Yu unearthed in the two places, we can find that there is an obvious inheritance relationship between their properties. These are just representatives of many similar examples. According to archaeologists' investigation, Jingshan Park, represented by Xinzhai, obviously played a more important role in the Longshan Culture inherited by Erlitou.
Generally speaking, the remains of Erlitou Phase I are distributed in Xiaoshan in the west, the Yellow River in the north, Xinzheng in the east and Funiu Mountain in the south. However, in the late stage of the first phase and the early stage of the second phase, Erlitou culture began to expand rapidly, reaching Qinhe River in the north, southwest Shanxi in the northwest, east Guanzhong in Shaanxi in the west, Shangzhou area in the upper reaches of Danjiang River in the west, and the border area between Henan and Hubei in the south, at least eastward to Kaifeng. At the same time, archaeologists found a large number of pottery symbolizing status in this vast area. These pottery vessels should be made in Erlitou, located in the political and cultural center, and circulated as gifts. It can be said that the dynasty order marked by ritual vessels began to be established in Erlitou during this period, becoming the first "wide-area kingship country" to break through the limitation of geographical units.
Back to our question, is "Erlitou State" the "Xia Dynasty" in literature? From the time point of view, the first, second and third phases of Erlitou site are basically the same as what we generally know about the middle and late Xia Dynasty (there are different views on the boundary between Xia and Shang Dynasties in Erlitou site, and the site is divided into four phases, some of which are divided into three or four phases, and some of which are divided into four phases). If Erlitou country is really Xia Dynasty, then we need to revise the literature records. At the beginning, the Xia Dynasty did not establish a dynasty order in the Central Plains, and "Xinzhai" was probably the capital of the early Xia Dynasty. However, as a "wide-area kingship country" similar to the late Shang Dynasty, the Xia Dynasty will not be realized until the middle period.
But these can only be guesses. We don't have enough evidence to prove that Erlitou is the "Xia Dynasty" in the literature.
Regarding the nature of Erlitou culture, we should abandon the conclusion that western archaeology was formed in Mediterranean archaeology. Otherwise, for the historical evidence of ancient China, we can only rely on the appearance of tyrants such as Qin Shihuang, which may lead to a highly unreasonable concentration of wealth, and may also be accepted by western archaeological theories today.
As for "sages" like Yao Shun, those ancient "sages" who didn't extort money from others, we may never get archaeological confirmation from western archaeological theories.
Ancient Greek city-state civilization ruins
But in fact, rice has been cultivated artificially in China for 1000 years, and the earliest silk products have a history of 7000 years. Moreover, we don't know when China began to pay attention to precious metals such as gold and silver. Maybe people in Xia Dynasty really "treated gold and silver like dirt"?
Yu, the founding monarch of Xia Dynasty.
In a word, some conclusions of western archaeological theory are based on the trade economy of Mediterranean city-states, which did not exist in ancient China. Therefore, this conclusion should not be simply applied to ancient archaeology in China.
In other words, to find or confirm the capital of Xia Dynasty, we can't rely entirely on western archaeological theories. As for whether Erlitou culture can be judged as the capital of Xia Dynasty, let real archaeologists and historians come to a conclusion.
We take historical records as an example. The Xia, Shang and Zhou dynasties recorded by Sima Qian are quite far away from the era in which he lived, especially in the Xia and Shang dynasties, which have been around for thousands of years. Therefore, the materials he can rely on to write Xia Benji and Yin Benji are only a small number of documents and a large number of ancient legends preserved at that time. This has to make us wonder how much truth it records and how many myths and legends are difficult to verify. Did the Xia and Shang Dynasties really exist?
Mr. Wang Guowei is the first person to do this work. After comparing the imperial lineage of Shang Dynasty seen in Oracle Bone Inscriptions of Yin Ruins with Sima Qian's records in Yin Benji, he decided that Sima Qian's records in Shi Benji were basically reliable (Sima Qian should have seen some documents about Shang Dynasty that we can't see today), so that the records about Shang Dynasty in Shiji and the documents in them became "faithful history".
The Shang Dynasty did exist, but what about the Xia Dynasty?
You should know that the "Xia, Shang and Zhou Dynasties Dating Project" determined that the time of the Shang Dynasty was about 1600 BC (for reference only), which means that if the history of China only started from the Shang Dynasty, it would be 3600 years at most! From the perspective of world history, this is not very long. For hundreds of years, scholars have been looking for the exact evidence of the existence of the Xia Dynasty, especially the unearthed written materials (Oracle Bone Inscriptions in Shang Dynasty is not hieroglyphics, but quite mature writing, which shows that Oracle Bone Inscriptions was developed from more primitive writing, and scholars hope to find the "Xia Dynasty" writing to provide evidence for document records), but archaeologists have never found such evidence.
The failure to prove the existence of Xia Dynasty does not mean that the earliest "wide-area kingship country" in China was Shang Dynasty. Archaeological findings prove that there was a "wide-area kingship country" as early as the Shang Dynasty.
Why did the Xia Dynasty perish?
Xia Dynasty (about 2070 BC-65438 BC+0600 BC) was the first hereditary dynasty in the Central Plains recorded in China's traditional history books. It is generally believed that Xia Dynasty was a country with multiple tribal alliances or complex emirates.
So how did the Xia Dynasty perish? According to historical records, the Xia Dynasty was a country founded by Yu's son Qi. Yu Xia changed from him to the hereditary system of the throne through his son, not the previous abdication system. The Xia Dynasty * * * inherited the kings of14th generation and17th generation (some people say that the kings of13rd generation and16th generation were mainly due to the political failure of Taikang), which lasted for more than 400 years and was later destroyed by Shang Dynasty.
The Xia Dynasty lasted more than 400 years. When Xia Jie began to rule, it was already in danger. He loves the queen? Happy, reuse courtiers, slaughter loyal courtiers, cruelly oppress and enslave people and their countries and tribes, causing widespread hatred and opposition.
Jie, the last tyrant of Xia Dynasty
According to the chronicle of bamboo slips, "a palace was built, a Yao platform was decorated, a room was built for Qiongteng, and a Yumen was built". "Zi Zhi Tong Jian" records: "Be a Yao Tai, stop the power of the people and cherish the wealth of the people. It's a bad dike for the wine pool, and three thousand people drink it. "
Xia Jie compared himself to the sun and said, "There is a sun in the sky, just like I have a human being. Will Sun Die? " ? When the sun dies, I will die. "Everyone cursed him indignantly:" Time is fleeting, and all women will die (Sun, whenever you die, we will all die with you) ".
Erlitou cultural relics
In the process of the gradual decline of Xia Dynasty, the Shang tribes in the lower reaches of the Yellow River gradually became stronger. After Shang Tang succeeded to the throne, he moved the tribal ruling center to Nanbo (now southeast of Shangqiu City, Henan Province), and actively put forward plans to attack Xia Guoli.
About 1 600 BC, Shang Tang set out to conquer Xia. Before the war, he held a grand oath ceremony. The preface to Historical Records records that Tang "fought valerian in the music world and made a soup oath".
After taking the oath of office, Shang Tang selected 70 fine cars and 6,000 "mortals", joined forces with armies of various countries, and made a strategic detour, bypassing the west of Zhixia and raiding the summer capital. Xia Jie rushed to the war, refused to let Shang Xijin, and launched a decisive battle with Shang Tang's army. In the decisive battle, Shang Tang's army fought bravely and defeated Xia Jie's main force in one fell swoop. After Xia Jie retreated, he returned to the third country? Q (now the eastern district of Dingtao County, Shandong Province).
Shang Tang attacked and destroyed three? Q: Xia Jie led several remnants to Nanchao (now Chaohu City, Anhui Province) and died soon. Shang Tang returned to Xibe (now yanshi city West, Henan Province) and held a meeting on "The Life of Jingbo" attended by many governors, which won the support of 3,000 governors and gained the status of governors all over the world. The Xia Dynasty officially declared its demise.
The preservation and abolition of Xia Dynasty is a great mystery in archaeology. No matter what the truth is, we still need archaeologists and historians to draw conclusions, hoping that the mystery will be uncovered as soon as possible and the historical truth will be restored.