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Xia Dynasty

Xia Dynasty (about 2070 ~ 1600 BC) is the first hereditary dynasty recorded in Chinese history books. It is generally believed that the Xia Dynasty was passed on for 14 generations, and 17 generations later, which lasted for about 471 years and was destroyed by the Shang Dynasty. Later generations often call themselves "Huaxia" and make it synonymous with China.

According to historical records, Yu was originally handed down to Yi, but Yi was abdicated to Yu's son Qi. This period of history is regarded as the beginning of "family world" in Chinese history. From the establishment of the Xia Dynasty. The eleven Si tribes of the Xia family and the central royal family of the Xia family had patriarchal clan relationship in blood, enfeoffment relationship in politics and tribute and Fu relationship in economy, which constituted the core territory of the Xia Dynasty. In summer, it starts from the west of Henan Province and the south of Shanxi Province in the west, reaches the junction of Henan Province, Shandong Province and Hebei Province in the East, reaches the north of Hubei Province in the south, and reaches the south of Hebei Province in the north. The geographical center of this area is Yanshi, Dengfeng, Xinmi and Yuzhou.

Through the study of the dynastic history of Xia, Shang and Zhou Dynasties and the project of exploring the source of Chinese civilization, the social picture from 2500 BC to 1500 BC, that is, from the Yao and Shun times to the Xia and Shang Dynasties, is preliminarily outlined. Six large-scale and high-level central cities in the Central Plains of the Xia Dynasty, including Yudu Yangcheng (today's Wangchenggang site in Dengfeng, Zhengzhou, Henan), have been included in the research focus.

There are a certain number of bronze and jade ritual vessels in the cultural relics of Xia Dynasty, which are about the late Neolithic age and the early Bronze Age. There are many records about Xia Dynasty in Chinese traditional literature. The discovery of Erlitou site in Yanshi, Henan Province has revealed the mystery of the ancient "Xia capital". Now Erlitou site is the remains of the capital of Xia Dynasty, which has gradually become a consensus in the academic circles.

National name

The Xia Dynasty is often called "Xia" in history. There are ten sources of this appellation, among which the more credible one is that "Xia" is the pictograph of the totem of Xia nationality.

Sima Qian recorded that "Xia" was the name of a tribe composed of twelve clans, namely, Xiahou, Youhu, Yunan, Chongyi, Tongcheng, Bao, Fei, Qi, ZA, Xin, Ming and chongguan, with "Xia Hou" as the leader. Therefore, after the establishment of the Xia Dynasty, the name of the tribe became the name of the country. The Xia Dynasty was built on the ruins of the primitive social system.

In Tang Dynasty, Zhang Shoujie thought that "Xia" was named after Dayu was granted the title of "Xia Bo" in Yangzhai. "Xia" evolved from the place name of "You Xia Zhi Ju" and "Da Xia" to the name of a tribe, and then became the name of a country. This is the beginning of the Chinese hereditary dynasty that many historians believe.

According to the Concise Encyclopedia of Britain, "Xia" means "people of China".

history

The origin of Xia nationality

According to historical records, before the establishment of the Xia Hou clan, there were frequent wars between the Xia tribe and other surrounding tribes for the leader of the alliance. The Xia tribe emerged after Zhuanxu in ancient Chinese history. Many ancient documents trace the Xia nationality back to Zhuanxu. In Shiji xiabenji and dadailiji Dixi, he was called the son of Zhuan Xu. He believed that the second son of the Yellow Emperor was named Changyi, who gave birth to Zhuan Xu. Zhuan Xu's son was named he, and his son was named Yu, who was the father of Xia Houqi. However, in the book of Han Dynasty, Lu Li Zhi quoted "the system of emperor Boyu" as saying that "Zhuan Xu was born in the fifth generation". No matter what the lineage, these records show that the Xia nationality is probably a descendant of Zhuanxu tribe. It is a tribe formed by the intermarriage of Zhuanxu's Gaoyang family, a descendant of Yellow Emperor, and a Gonggong family of Yan Emperor. The Xia tribe first lived in the middle and lower reaches of the Wei River, and then moved eastward to the Yiluo River Basin in southern Shanxi and Western Henan.

Water control by Jianyu

See:

king yu combating the flood

One of the earliest recorded members of Xia clan is Gan. In Guoyu zhouyu, it is said that as the leader of Xia nationality, he was granted the title of Chongbo, so he is called Chongbo.

He is the leader of the Chongs tribe in the Songshan Mountain on the South Bank of the river. There are Chongs and Gonggong, who are both experienced in water control. In the period of Yao and Shun, in order to fight for the royal power, he and Gonggong launched a fierce struggle against Yao and Shun, and both failed. After that, Yu inherited him as "chongboyu". This indicates that the early Xia people lived near Chongshan. At that time, the river overflowed. In order to resist the flood, many tribes formed a tribal alliance. He was elected by Siyue to lead the flood control. It took nine years and finally failed. The reason for his failure may be that he was not good at uniting his people and other tribes. It is recorded in the book of history of Yao that Yao initially thought that he had ordered his people to destroy their families and good people, but he opposed his leadership in water control, which shows that many tribes were dissatisfied with him when he led the water control. In Shangshu Hongfan and Guoyu Luyu, it is also mentioned that the method of flood control is mainly to block the flood with civil works, which may be one of the reasons for the failure of flood control in the past nine years. After he failed in flood control, he was killed in Yushan on the coast of the Yellow Sea in the East.

Yu was the son of he. After he died, Yu was ordered to join the Gonggong clan and many other tribes to carry out water control work in Yi, Luo, he and Ji areas. Yu gave up the water control strategy of "blocking" and replaced it with dredging, which was to dredge the water in the highland according to the terrain, so that the fertile plain could reduce the flood disaster. After treatment, most of the residents who were originally concentrated in the high-lying areas along the great plain moved to the relatively low plains to reclaim the fertile land. Those lush vegetation, breeding places of animals, become places where people are willing to settle down.

Due to Yu's contribution to flood control and promotion of agricultural production, Xia clan's power was strengthened and social productivity was significantly improved, which provided the necessary economic basis for the establishment of hereditary state. Xia Benji in historical records records records that Yu "worked hard and thought hard, lived abroad for 13 years, and did not dare to enter his family". His hardworking spirit was praised by later generations, and the process of water control also promoted the unity of the tribes.

Therefore, the direct reason for the establishment of the Xia dynasty may be the flooding of the Yellow River in the era of the three emperors and five emperors. The flood affected the production and life of the surrounding people for a long time. The 20-year flood control work that Dayu mobilized all ethnic groups in China not only united the Chinese ancestors, but also greatly enhanced his reputation. With the improvement of the living environment, the emergence of the first unified monarchy was established.

Crusade against Sanmiao

See:

Sanmiao

Yu made great contributions to flood control, and then Shun sent Yu to fight against Sanmiao. Yu defeated Sanmiao repeatedly, drove Sanmiao to Danjiang and Hanshui River Basin, and consolidated the monarchy. In Mozi · FeiGong, it is said that after Yu conquered Sanmiao, "other things are up and down, the Qing system is extremely big, and the gods and the people are not disobeyed, and the world is quiet." This shows that the Xia tribe has become the leader of the tribal alliance after Yu's victory in flood control and the battle against Sanmiao.

Establish a dynasty

See:

Abdication system

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Tushan meeting

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Hereditary system

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You Hu family

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Gaotao as a punishment

During the reign of Yao, Shun and Yu, the tribal alliance adopted the method of "abdication" to "select talents and abilities" and recommend the common leader of the alliance. For example, when Yao was old, he abdicated the "King" position to the virtuous Shun.

Shun abdicated the throne to Yu, who called a tribal alliance in Tushan to fight against Sanmiao again. According to Zuo Zhuan, it is recorded that "all nations holding jade and silk" participated in Tushan alliance, which shows the appeal of Xia tribe. Once, during a tribal alliance in Kuaiji (Shaoxing, Zhejiang), the leader of Fangfeng family was executed by Yu for being late. The ancient documents also record the amount of tribute paid by Yu to the tribes, which shows the Xia clan's economic control over the surrounding tribes.

Yu once recommended Gao Tao, a well-known leader of Yan surname in the East, as his successor to show his respect for the traditional abdication system. However, gaotao did not wait for chanrang and died earlier than Yu. Yu also ordered Boyi, the leader of Dongyi, to be his successor.

After the death of Yu, Yi (Boyi, some people think that Yi is not Boyi, but two people of the same era) held a funeral ceremony for Yu in accordance with the tradition of tribal alliance, and mourned for three years. After three years of funeral, Yi didn't get the power, but Qi got the power with the support of the people.

There are different opinions about this period of history: the ancient bamboo annals records that "after Yi ascended the throne, he killed Yi and won the throne"; on the other hand, "after Yi ascended the throne, some tribes did not submit to Yi, but supported Qi, fought against Yi's tribe and finally won the throne. Hou Yi led the Dongyi alliance to attack Qi. After several years of struggle, Qi established his leading position in the tribal alliance, but his common view is that "the public world" has become "the family world".

From then on, the abdication system was replaced by the hereditary system. This marks the replacement of the long primitive society by the private ownership society, which should be said to be a historical progress. However, the establishment of a new system is bound to meet some opposition. Later, many tribes inclined to abdicate the tradition questioned Qi's power and position. On the outskirts of Qidu, Hu family led the tribal alliance to fight against Qidu and fought against the army in Gansu. Before the war, Qi called his position of power "gongxingtian", which was the rudiment of the theory of the son of heaven in the Later Zhou Dynasty. Qi had the approval of the people in the Central Plains, had a great advantage in the number of people, and finally defeated Youhu and demoted him as a slave. This victory represents that the mainstream social concept of the Central Plains has changed from the original abdication system to the hereditary system.

The surname of Xia clan was Si, but it was changed from Qi to Xia. At the same time, Qi no longer used the title of Bo, but changed to "Xia Hou Qi". Qineng is good at singing and dancing, and often holds grand banquets. The biggest one of them was in Juntai, which is the enjoyment of Juntai. He also performed songs and dances in "Tianmu field". It is recorded in the book of mountains and seas, the overseas west classic that qizai danced with "Yi in his left hand, Huan in his right hand, and peiyuhuang. Some documents even say that Qi once took music and dance from heaven. The ancient Chinese music and dance literature "Jiubian", "Jiuge" and "jiuzhao" are all called Qi's original authors.

Chinese PinYin : Xia