Xia Dynasty

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Xia Dynasty

The Xia Dynasty of China

China

China is a Culture of China, an ancient civilization, and, depending on perspective, a national or multinational entity extending over a large area in East Asia....
is the first dynasty to be described in ancient historical records such as Records of the Grand Historian
Records of the Grand Historian

The Records of the Grand Historian, also known in English language by the Chinese name Shiji , written from 109 BC to 91 BC, was the magnum opus of Sima Qian, in which he recounted China history from the time of the Yellow Emperor until his own time....
and Bamboo Annals
Bamboo Annals

The Bamboo Annals is a chronicle of ancient China. It begins at the earliest legendary times and extends to the Warring States Period , particularly the history of the Wei State....
. The Xia Dynasty was established by Yu the Great

Yu the Great

Yu , often regarded with legendary status as Yu the Great , was the first ruler and founder of the Xia Dynasty. He was born the year 2059 BCE, said to be on the Year of the Tiger....
. According to the traditional chronology based upon calculations by Liu Xin

Liu Xin

Liu Xin , later changed name to Liu Xiu , courtesy name Zijun , was a China astronomer and historian during the Xin Dynasty . He was the son of Confucian scholar Liu Xiang and an associate of other prominent thinkers such as the philosopher Huan Tan ....
, the Xia ruled between 2205 BC and 1766 BC; however, according to the chronology based upon the Bamboo Annals
Bamboo Annals

The Bamboo Annals is a chronicle of ancient China. It begins at the earliest legendary times and extends to the Warring States Period , particularly the history of the Wei State....
, it is between 1989 BC and 1558 BC. The Xia Shang Zhou Chronology Project

Xia Shang Zhou Chronology Project

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History

According to the official history, the Xia Dynasty was founded when Shun abdicated the throne in favor of his minister Yu

Yu the Great

Yu , often regarded with legendary status as Yu the Great , was the first ruler and founder of the Xia Dynasty. He was born the year 2059 BCE, said to be on the Year of the Tiger....
, whom Shun viewed as the perfect civil servant. Yu was greatly praised by his people for eliminating flooding by organizing the building of canals in all the major rivers. Soon before his death, instead of passing power to the person deemed most capable of rulership, Yu passed power to his son, Qi

Qi of Xia

Qi was the son of Yu the Great and the second sovereign of the possibly legendary Xia Dynasty. He ruled for approximately nine or ten years.According to legend, Yu married Nu Jiao and stayed at home for only three days before going back to stop a flood....
, setting the precedence for dynastic rule or the Hereditary System. The Xia Dynasty began a period of family or clan control.

The Skeptical School

Yigupai

The Yigupai refers to a group of scholars and writers who show doubts and uncertainty of antiquity in the Chinese languages academia starting during the New Culture Movement....
of early Chinese history, started by Gu Jiegang

Gu Jiegang

Gu Jiegang was a China historian who is known best for his seven volume work Gushi Bian . He was a leading force in the yigupai....
in the 1920s, was the first group of scholars within China to seriously question the traditional story of its early history: “the later the time, the longer the legendary period of earlier history... early Chinese history is a tale told and retold for generations, during which new elements were added to the front end” Yun Kuen Lee's criticism of nationalist sentiment in developing an explanation of Three Dynasties chronology focuses on the dichotomy of evidence provided by archaeological versus historical research, in particular the claim that the archaeological Erlitou Culture

Erlitou culture

File:ErlitouXia.PNGThe Erlitou culture is a name given by archaeologists to an Early Bronze Age urban society that existed in China from 2100 BC to 1800 BC or 1500 BC....
is also the historical Xia Dynasty. “How to fuse the archaeological dates with historical dates is a challenge to all chronological studies of early civilization.”

Jie

Jie of Xia

King Jie was the last ruler of the Xia Dynasty of China, and is blamed for its fall. He reputedly mistreated his people and became a tyrant. Records from the later Qin dynasty say that during the last year of Jie's reign, ice formed during the summer mornings and frosts occurred through July....
, the last ruler, was said to be a corrupt king. He was overthrown by Tang

Tang of Shang

King Cheng Tang of Shang Dynasty of China .Tang was the first ruling king of the Shang dynasty in Chinese history. He overthrew King Jie of Xia of China, the last ruler of the Xia dynasty....
, the first king of the Shang dynasty

Shang Dynasty

Qi (Henan)

Qi was a minor feudal state that appeared in Chinese history from the beginning of the Shang Dynasty until the beginning of the Warring States Period, circa 445 BCE....
state until 445 BC. The Qi state was well recorded in the Oracle script as the one major supporter of the Xia Dynasty. The Kings of the state of Yue

Yue (state)

Yue was a state in China which existed during the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period, in the modern province of Zhejiang. During the Spring and Autumn Period, its capital was in Guiji , near the modern city of Shaoxing....
, and therefore its succesor state Minyue, also claimed to be descended from Yu the Great

Yu the Great

Yu , often regarded with legendary status as Yu the Great , was the first ruler and founder of the Xia Dynasty. He was born the year 2059 BCE, said to be on the Year of the Tiger....
.

Archaeological records

Archaeologists have uncovered urban sites, bronze implements, and tombs that point to the possible existence of the Xia dynasty at locations cited in ancient Chinese historical texts. There exists a debate as to whether or not Erlitou culture

Erlitou culture

File:ErlitouXia.PNGThe Erlitou culture is a name given by archaeologists to an Early Bronze Age urban society that existed in China from 2100 BC to 1800 BC or 1500 BC....
was the site of the Xia dynasty. Radiocarbon dating

Radiocarbon dating

Radiocarbon dating, or carbon dating, is a radiometric dating method that uses the naturally occurring radioisotope carbon-14 to determine the age of carbonaceous materials up to about 60,000 years....
places the site at ca. 2100 to 1800 BC, providing physical evidence of the existence of a state contemporaneous with and possibly equivalent to the Xia Dynasty as described in Chinese historical works. In 1959, a site located in the city of Yanshi

Yanshi

Yanshi is a county-level city administered by the prefecture-level city of Luoyang in western Henan province of China, People's Republic of China....
was excavated containing large palaces that some archaeologists have attributed as capital of the Xia Dynasty. Though later historical works mention the Xia dynasty, no written records dated to the Xia period have been found to confirm the name of the dynasty and its sovereigns. At a minimum, the archaeological discoveries marked an evolutionary stage between the late neolithic

Neolithic

The Neolithic period was a period in the development of human technology, beginning about 9500 Before the Christian Era in the Middle East that is traditionally considered the last part of the Stone Age....
cultures and the typical Chinese urban civilization of the Shang Dynasty

Shang Dynasty

Mythology

In Book 5 of Mozi, Mozi

Mozi

Mozi , was a philosopher who lived in China during the Hundred Schools of Thought period . He founded the school of Mohism and argued strongly against Confucianism and Daoism....
(470BC-c. 391BC) described the founding of Xia. During the great confusion of the three Miao

Miao people

The Miao are a linguistically and culturally related group of people recognized by the government of the People's Republic of China as one of the list of ethnic groups in China....
tribes, the sun came out at night, there were three days of blood rain, the dragon

Dragon

File:Ukiyo-e dragon 2.jpgThe dragon is a legendary creature with serpentine shape or otherwise reptilian traits that features in the mythology of many cultures....
appeared in the temple, the dogs howl in the street, summer water turned ice, the earth cracked till water gushes forth and there was mutation in the five various grains. Heaven gave a command to conquer Miao. A great lightning and thunder ensued, and a man with the body of a bird shot dead the leader of the Miao. Subsequently, the Xia kingdom was organized.

In The Shape of the Turtle: Myth, Art and Cosmos in Early China, Sarah Allan noted that many aspects of the Xia are simply the opposite of traits held to be emblematic of the Shang dynasty

Shang Dynasty

The Shang Dynasty or Yin Dynasty was according to traditional sources the first Dynasties in Chinese history. They ruled in the northeastern region of the area known as "China proper", in the Yellow River valley....
. The implied dualism between the Shang and Xia, Allan argues, is that while the Shang represent fire or the sun, birds and the east, the Xia represent the west and water. The development of this mythical Xia, Allan argues, is a necessary act on the part of the Zhou Dynasty

Zhou Dynasty

The Zhou Dynasty was preceded by the Shang Dynasty and followed by the Qin Dynasty in China. The Zhou dynasty lasted longer than any other dynasty in China history?though the actual political and military control of China by the dynasty only lasted during the Western Zhou....
, who justify their conquest of the Shang by noting that the Shang had supplanted the Xia.

Sovereigns of the Xia Dynasty

Posthumous Names (Shi Hao ??)¹
Order	Reign²	Chinese Chinese language Chinese or the Sinitic language is a language family consisting of language mutually unintelligible to varying degrees. Originally the indigenous languages spoken by the Han Chinese in China, it forms one of the two branches of Sino-Tibetan languages of languages....	Hanyu Pinyin	Notes
01	45	?	Yu Yu the Great Yu , often regarded with legendary status as Yu the Great , was the first ruler and founder of the Xia Dynasty. He was born the year 2059 BCE, said to be on the Year of the Tiger....	also Yu the Great (??; dà yu)
02	10	?	Qi Qi of Xia Qi was the son of Yu the Great and the second sovereign of the possibly legendary Xia Dynasty. He ruled for approximately nine or ten years.According to legend, Yu married Nu Jiao and stayed at home for only three days before going back to stop a flood....
03	29	??	Tai Kang Tai Kang Tai Kang was the third sovereign of the possibly legendary Xia Dynasty. He was the son of Qi of Xia.He loved to hunt and did not rule well. Tai Kang drowned in a lake....
04	13	??	Zhòng Kang
05	28	?	Xiang
06	21	??	Shào Kang
07	17	?	Zhù
08	26	?	Huái
09	18	?	Máng Mang of Xia M?ng was the ninth ruler of the possibly legendary Xia Dynasty. He possibly ruled 18 years.He was also know as Huang.He took the throne in the year of Renshen....
10	16	?	Xiè Xie of Xia Xie was the 10th ruler of the possibly legendary Xia Dynasty. He possibly ruled 25 years.He ascended the throne in the year Xinwei.In the 12 years of his regime, the Shang vassal Zihai traveled to and lived in Youyi, Zihai was dissolute so the leader of Youyi, Mianchen, killed him....
11	59	??	Bù Jiàng Bu Jiang of Xia Bu Jiang was the 11th ruler of the possibly legendary Xia Dynasty. He possibly ruled 59 years.According to Bamboo Annals, on the 6th year of his regime, he fought with Jiuyuan ....
12	21	?	Jiong Jiong of Xia Jiong was the 12th ruler of the semi-legendary Xia Dynasty. He possibly ruled 21 years. He was the younger brother of Bu Jiang.He got his throne in the year of Wuxu....
13	21	?	Jin Jin of Xia Jin was the 13th ruler of the semi-legendary Xia Dynasty. His other name is Yinjia , He probably ruled for about 21 years. According to Bamboo Annals, he moved the capital to West River ....	Guoyu Guoyu Guoyu may mean or refer to:Language*Guoyu zh-tspw\|t=... : jin or jìn, putonghua: jin
14	31	??	Kong Jia Kong Jia of Xia Kong Jia was the 14th ruler of the semi-legendary Xia Dynasty. He possibly ruled 31 years.According to the Bamboo Annals, he lived in the Xia capital of West River ....
15	11	?	Gao Gao of Xia Gao was the 15th ruler of the possibly legendary Xia Dynasty. He possibly ruled 11 years. On the 3rd year of his regime, he restored the power of Tunwei the noble who was deposed by the previous king Kong Jia of Xia....
16	11	?	Fa Fa of Xia Fa was the ruler of the Xia Dynasty before Jie of Xia. He was the second to last ruler of the Xia Dynasty. His given name was Houjin . During his inaugural celebration, all of his vassals gathered at his palace....
17	52	?	Jié	also Lu Gui (?? lu gui)
1 The reign name is sometimes preceded by the name of the dynasty, Xia, for example Xia Yu.
2 Possible length of reign, in years.

Xia Dynasty

History

Archaeological records

Mythology

Sovereigns of the Xia Dynasty

See also