"Science" magazine reveals new evidence of Dayu's flood control, but did the Xia Dynasty really exist?

If we do not stick to the very limited fragments of historical records, history has a bolder hypothesis: the Xia Dynasty was completely fictional. Even if there were tribal leaders who led people to fight floods and provide disaster relief, or heroic chiefs who led tribal people to resist foreign enemies, he was only the king of a tribe, not the king of a wide-area country.

How was China born? This is an eternal mystery that people have repeatedly pursued. There are many legends about the origin of China. Some of the stories were turned into words during the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period. Sima Qian of the Han Dynasty solidified the words and legends into history: "Xia" is the first dynasty of China and the starting point of China.

It is said that the Xia Dynasty originated from Dayu's flood control. Yu's father, Gun, was ordered to control floods for nine years with no results, so his son inherited his father's legacy. Yu led the people and adopted diversion methods. After thirteen years, he finally succeeded. So Dayu became the emperor of Kyushu, and China's first dynasty, Xia, was born.

However, the active and productive work of archaeologists in the past hundred years has not found reliable evidence of the existence of the Xia Dynasty.

Is Xia really the earliest royal power in China? Why did it rise? Where did it appear again?

The Great Flood Thousands of Years Ago

In August 2016, Dr. Wu Qinglong, a geologist from Nanjing Normal University, and others published an interesting article in the internationally renowned academic journal "Science" The paper said that evidence of Dayu's flood control had been found, which aroused great interest from people all over the world. The story they told goes something like this.

About 3,920 years ago, a major earthquake occurred at the junction of Qinghai and Gansu in the upper reaches of the Yellow River. Some early human settlements along the Yellow River were devastated by the earthquake, such as the Lajia site in Haidong City, Qinghai. The main area of ??this site is about 200,000 square meters. It should have been considered a quite large village four thousand years ago. It is located on a second-level platform beside the Yellow River.

One day at dusk, the earth suddenly collapsed, and the La family who were cooking in the cave were buried by the collapsed mountain, leaving behind all kinds of struggles before death, as well as cooked noodles. It has become the "Pompei of the East" that today's tourists visit and sigh with emotion.

The same earthquake also destroyed Jishi Gorge, 25 kilometers up the Yellow River in Lajia, and large-scale landslides blocked the Jishi Gorge section of the Yellow River. According to estimates by Dr. Wu and other scientists, the dam caused by the landslide is about 200 meters higher than the normal water level of the Yellow River. This dam can block the water of the Yellow River for six to nine months, forming a giant dam that can store 12 to 17 cubic kilometers of water. Barrier lake (about half the capacity of the Three Gorges).

Soon, the water in the Yellow River finally reached the top of the dam and broke down the landslide dam, quickly forming a monstrous flood and causing a huge impact on the lower reaches of the Yellow River. The first one to be hit was the Lajia ruins not far away. Scientists did find evidence of being soaked by floods here.

So far, Dr. Wu and other scientists have told solid scientific facts. Next, the author skips thousands of years of document research by historians and hundreds of years of field investigations by archaeologists, and begins a romantic imagination that directly connects the scientific evidence of the Great Flood with the legend of Dayu's flood control.

They believe that the bursting of the Jishixia Barrier Lake can release 11 to 16 cubic kilometers of flood water in 24 hours, reaching a water volume of 400,000 cubic meters per second, which will affect the 2,000 kilometers of the lower reaches of the Yellow River. It caused a huge flood peak impact, resulting in the situation recorded in the history books: "The floods are surging, the world is sinking, the nine states are blocked, and the four rivers are blocked." It destroyed the fragile civilization in the Yellow River Basin, so the flood control hero Dayu was born. . Years of flood control resulted in the birth of the Xia Dynasty, which should have been about 3,900 years ago.

However, the birth of a royal state due to an accidental flood sounds more like a fairy tale, but it is not logical. The paper by Dr. Wu and others does not provide reliable data and analysis to firmly connect this logical chain. History actually has many other possibilities.

Water Control and the Origin of Royal States

Since the earth emerged from the Ice Age and entered the Holocene with a warm climate, the ice and snow on the tops of mountains around the world have gradually melted. In the early thousands of years, there were often heavy rains. , causing sea levels to rise by more than 100 meters.

In the long Neolithic period, one of the evils that people who moved towards agricultural society had to learn to deal with was floods. Floods must have occurred countless times, and each time heroes are needed and possible to lead everyone's fight against water.

Therefore, all ancient civilizations have their own versions of the legend of the Flood and heroic feats.

But the most convincing case of the birth of a royal state due to water control is ancient Egypt. More early states were formed as a result of population pressure leading to wars over resources and coercive elements such as internal control.

The Nile River is the mother river of ancient Egyptian civilization. The farming society there began about 8,000 years ago. The Bronze Age began in the late Naqada culture (Naqada III) about 5,200 years ago. .

Small man-made dikes and drainage systems existed here before the Kingdom because of the annual flooding of the Nile. Predicting and controlling floods, and constructing and maintaining water conservancy systems require a lot of experience and knowledge. Such projects also require a lot of manpower and material resources. It is difficult for a small tribe to withstand large-scale water conservancy projects. Cooperation of multiple tribes is necessary, and the Nile River People in the basin must cooperate year after year to survive.

The Nile River water measuring instrument built in ancient Egypt.

So the formation of a wide-area kingdom due to water control was a very logical thing in Egypt. It just required the right people to appear.

The first king who unified the tribes in the upper and lower reaches of the Nile River was named Menes. He established the first farming dynasty in the Nile River Basin about 5,100 years ago. The capital was in the middle and upper reaches of the Nile River. Abydos.

About two hundred years later, ancient Egyptian hieroglyphics appeared. Archeology has discovered that after the tribes in the upper and lower river basins of ancient Egypt were unified into a royal state, the water conservancy system developed more rapidly. This was inseparable from the resource concentration and allocation capabilities of the wide-area kingdom, and farmers throughout the Nile River Basin benefited. , also created a group of scientists and engineers in astronomy, hydrology and mathematics, as well as splendid ancient Egyptian science and technology.

It is worth emphasizing that the floods of the Nile River in ancient Egypt occurred frequently once a year, so a trans-regional and regular system was established, that is, the royal state cooperated with the tribes to control floods and collect water. It is necessary to tax and recruit migrant workers. Later, the royal state added the function of resisting foreign enemies.

However, the floods in the Yellow River Basin do not have a fixed cycle. Whenever there is an occasional flood, the cooperation between the tribes can only be temporary. Once the mission is completed, the cooperative relationship can be disintegrated.

It is conceivable that temporary water control leaders have appeared many times in different times and places during the Neolithic period in China for thousands of years. He may be a tribal leader who is respected and missed by people, but this does not mean that he has become a widespread leader. Necessary condition for kingship of domain and country.

With the means of transportation and communication four thousand years ago, organizing the people thousands of miles up and down the Yellow River basin must be a long-term task. It is difficult to deal with such a million-year-old disaster as the Jishi Gorge barrier lake bursting. It was a passive response to a very short-lived flood event, and it was difficult to mobilize and unite many tribes to form a regular wide-area royal state.

Another hypothesis for the birth of the Xia Dynasty

Undoubtedly, there is a lot of room for imagination about the birth of the Xia Dynasty.

More than 4,000 years ago, the earth in the Holocene warm period experienced another round of climate fluctuations. This round of fluctuations began 4,300 years ago and ended 3,500 years ago. It lasted about eight hundred years. Geologists named it "Holocene event 3". This climate fluctuation has greatly affected the rhythm and development direction of historical evolution in many parts of the world.

At this time in China, the cold wind from Siberia was dry and strong, but the warm and humid monsoon from the Indian Ocean in the south had weakened significantly. As a result, northern and northwest China became dry and cold, and gradually lost their farming conditions.

If the war between the Chinese tribe and the aborigines is re-examined using the perspective of the great population movement in China caused by the "Holocene Event 3" that spanned hundreds of years, the logic will be clearer.

During the last thousand years of China’s Neolithic period (around 5,000 to 4,000 years ago), the Chiyou tribe in the middle and lower reaches of the Yellow River and the Miao tribe in the middle reaches of the Yangtze River lived and worked peacefully here for generations, interacting with each other. Relations are peaceful and friendly.

In fact, more than 4,000 years ago, there were only more than 5 million people in China (based on the current area), and the population density was not large. If there were no natural disasters, the ancestors in the southeast, northwest and other places could live and work in peace and contentment on their own. There would be no need to crowd together, let alone fight.

After the "Holocene Event 3" began, the deterioration of the ecological environment caused the Huaxia Group in the northwest and Loess Plateau to move southward and eastward in waves to the middle and lower reaches of the Yellow River, which gradually became unable to bear the new arrivals. There is pressure from immigrants, so there are often violent conflicts between old and new residents.

The result of hundreds of years of melee is that the Huaxia Group won and occupied the middle reaches of the Yellow River. However, the Chiyou tribe and the Miao people failed. Some of the Chiyou tribe retreated to the lower reaches of the Yellow River in Shandong, and were later called Dongyi by the Chinese people. Some Chiyou and Miao people went south to the Yangtze River Basin, and were later called Nanman by the Chinese people.

If you want to use today's terms to judge the rights and wrongs of that year, then the Chinese tribes from the northwest seem to be the invaders, while the Chi You and the Miao people are more like the righteous party protecting their homes and country.

Distribution map of Huaxia tribe and Miao tribe.

"Dayu vs. Sanmiao" may be the most vivid story among the many wars between refugees and indigenous people. The Sanmiao may have been some tribes living in the north of the Yangtze River and the south of the Yellow River at that time. The war between the Huaxia tribe and the Sanmiao took place somewhere between the middle reaches of the Yangtze River and the Yellow River. The result of this war was that the Chinese tribes under the leadership of Yu won, while the Sanmiao tribe was defeated and fled south.

War is a good glue that unites many tribes, and it can also conquer some tribes and make them surrender. Leaders can gain terrible power during the war, they can form a long-term tax collection mechanism, and they can also divide people and tribes into hierarchies. The strong are noble, the weak are humble, and captives are slaves. Therefore, it is reasonable for China's first royal state to rise in the context of such a long period of conquest.

However, if the victors of the war eventually established a dynasty in the middle reaches of the Yellow River, what was the specific time? Where is the summer capital?

The Mystery of the Summer Capital

The Taosi ruins located in Xiangfen, Shanxi Province, in the middle reaches of the Yellow River, are a possible summer capital. Research has found that the active period of the Taosi site was between 4,400 and 3,900 years ago.

Archaeological excavations show that Taosi was a group that was good at learning and absorbing surrounding cultural technologies in the early days. A building suspected to be an observatory was also unearthed in the city, showing a high level of culture.

The city showed a small influx of immigrants from its early days, which then accelerated. Physical analysis found that in the last two hundred years of Taosi, more than 75% of the population here were first-generation immigrants. Skull and genetic studies found that most of these immigrants came from northwest regions such as Inner Mongolia, Qinghai, and Gansu.

In the last hundred years, the Taosi ruins have been basically occupied by new immigrants. The violence against the aborigines by the late arrivals left a clear imprint on the city's ruins, such as grave digging, murder, robbery, etc.

In addition, these refugees did not form a new social hierarchical structure and order. The city showed overall poverty and anarchy. In the end, the city bid farewell to history in chaos and poverty.

The flat pot unearthed from the Taosi site has the word "文" written in cinnabar.

If the early rulers of Taosi were the rulers of the Xia Dynasty, then these people seemed to have been gradually driven out by the new immigrants and did not have the strength to build a dynasty. If we say that the late Taosi Dynasty was the Xia Dynasty, then this place lacking order is not consistent with the generally prosperous scene in the early stages of new monarchy countries. Both of these assumptions are difficult to accept.

Another possible Xiadu is the Wangchenggang site in Dengfeng, Henan, which is known as the "City of King Yu". However, this "city" is very small, just a village, and has no royal power at all. How can it rule the surrounding areas? A wide area?

Some scholars also believe that the Xinzhai ruins near Xinmi City, Henan Province may be the capital of Xia Qi, the son of Dayu and the founding king of the Xia Dynasty. The city has a strict defense system with three surrounding trenches and city walls. Protect. However, the city's active period was from 1850 BC to 1750 BC, and finally declined under violent attacks. This is quite different from the founding time of the Xia Dynasty according to the literature.

The Xia Dynasty may be a myth

As a result, scholars have focused their search for the Xia capital on Erlitou, Yanshi, Henan, which is currently the only officially recognized "Xia capital".

Erlitou is the earliest bronze site in the Central Plains. Its scale, layout and unearthed cultural elements all show the dynastic atmosphere.

Plan plan of the Erlitou ruins in Yanshi, Henan.

However, time is a big issue. According to the most accurate time measurement currently available, the time span of the Erlitou site started about 3,750 years ago and ended about 3,500 years ago.

There is a gap of several hundred years between this and the official Xia, Shang and Zhou dating project which asserts that "the Xia Dynasty began 4,070 years ago". There are hundreds of years between earthquakes, barrier lakes and floods.

Therefore, if Erlitou is indeed related to the Xia Dynasty, it can only be the late Xia capital. It has no direct relationship with the legendary Dayu and his son, nor has it anything to do with the origin of Xia. In addition, Erlitou is about 2,500 kilometers away from Zengjishi Gorge, and there seems to be no trace of the great flood found here.

If we do not stick to the very limited fragments of historical records, history has a bolder hypothesis: the Xia Dynasty was completely fictional.

Even if there were tribal leaders who led people to fight floods and disaster relief, and there were heroic chiefs who led tribal people to resist foreign enemies, he was only the king of a tribe, not the king of a wide-area country.

By around 4,000 years ago, bronze technology had already appeared in the northwest region. More than 3,700 years ago, a group of northwest people carrying the latest bronze technology came to the Erlitou area of ??the Central Plains. They may have similar reasons to the northwest refugees who lived in Taosi hundreds of years ago, but they are not the same group of people at all.

The Erlitou people, who have high-tech advantages, competed with the tribes already living here for territory and became the winners. In order to ensure their bronze advantage, they had to control a large area of ??related minerals. As a result, China's first wide-area royal state was finally born under the dual effects of security threats and new technology drives. This is the Shang Dynasty!

Bronze jue unearthed from the Erlitou site.

Many cultural relics unearthed in Erlitou have great cultural similarities with the cultural relics unearthed from other Shang Dynasty sites, showing a scene of continuous progress and gradual progress. This is good support for the hypothesis that Erlitou was the capital of commerce. Dr. Xu Hong, the archaeological team leader of Erlitou, also believes that Erlitou may have been the commercial capital and "the earliest China".

The rise of China cannot be an accidental heroic feat, but a magnificent and long historical picture.

The first time the word "China" is marked on any point in this historical picture may be full of controversy, but it is an indisputable fact that China will eventually become the largest country in mankind. People’s interest in exploring China’s origins will continue for a long time.