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Why did Oracle Bone Inscriptions record the history of Shang Tang instead of Xia Dynasty?
At present, China's records about the Xia Dynasty originated from the Western Zhou Dynasty. At the beginning of the establishment of Dingge Pavilion in Shang and Zhou Dynasties, Duke Zhou once mentioned that "in the Tang and Xia Dynasties, it was the ancestor of tomorrow, and the people were all around". Sima Qian also recorded the historical context of Xia Dynasty in Historical Records, but why did Oracle Bone Inscriptions record the history of Shang Tang instead of Xia Dynasty, whether in Records of Western Zhou Dynasty or Historical Records?

One reason is that Oracle Bone Inscriptions didn't fully understand it. There is no record of the Xia Dynasty, although it is probably because Oracle Bone Inscriptions has not fully interpreted it, and Oracle Bone Inscriptions is not a history book, but Oracle Bone Inscriptions, and there is no strict requirement to write a dynasty that has long since perished as Oracle Bone Inscriptions. The archaeological excavation of Yin Ruins and the inscriptions on bronze in the Western Zhou Dynasty also provided experts with a very important time point, that is, the first year of Shang Dynasty. 1959, Erlitou site in Yanshi, Luoyang was discovered, which coincided with the early years of Shang Dynasty and was earlier than Shang Dynasty 100 years.

The second possibility is natural extinction. Large capital sites such as Shimao in Shaanxi and Taosi in Shanxi have been discovered one after another, and the degree of civilization has also taken on a national form. There is a civilization period of about 500 years between these two sites and the early Shang Dynasty, that is to say, there is indeed a Xia Dynasty between Shang Dynasty and Yao Dynasty, but judging from the cultural relics found in these sites, the civilization degree is far behind that of Shang Dynasty, that is to say, Shang Tang probably did not destroy the Xia Dynasty, and the Xia Dynasty did.

A third one may be made. The description of the Xia Dynasty in some records and the process of Shang Tang's Xia extinction are very similar to the process of Wu Wang's conquest, so it is easy to doubt whether a copy of "The History of Shang Tang's Xia extinction" was made out of the need of the rationality of destroying the Shang Dynasty. And the most puzzling thing is that Oracle Bone Inscriptions unearthed in Yin Ruins has no record of the Xia Dynasty, and Wu Ding's description of Shang Tang's merits has no record of the great achievements of destroying the Xia Dynasty.

According to the archaeological achievements of the dating project of Xia, Shang and Zhou Dynasties, it is determined that the starting and ending time of Xia Dynasty is from 2070 BC to16th century BC, and * * * is about 500 years. However, in the ancient documents such as Shangshu, Historical Records and Bamboo Chronicle, only a few major events such as "Xia Qi founded the country, Taikang lost the country, Shao Kang revived, and Xia Jie died in the summer" were left in the 500-year history. Judging from the unearthed cultural relics, the cultural relics of Xia Dynasty are extremely rare, which is far from the brilliant bronze civilization of Shang Dynasty. So there is no record.