The story of 'Dayu governs the water and does not enter the house after three times' can be described as popular in China. According to the records of Sima Qian's 'Historical Records of Xia Benji', Dayu became the emperor because of his ability to control water, and opened the history of the Xia Dynasty. However, the researchers lacked evidence about the real existence of the Great Flood and lacked accurate historical records of the time the Xia Dynasty existed. hive alter table recover partitions of the skepticism school in the 1920s even doubted whether Dayu was a god or a real person. Because there is no clear first-hand information, the 'Xia Shang Zhou' era in ancient Chinese history has also been an unsolved problem.
According to the Western 'Three Civilization Standards', the following three must be met:
1. The discovery of metal tools, that is, bronzes, because human beings are considered 'civilized' by entering the 'Bronze Age', so this is not controversial worldwide;
2. The discovery of the text is extremely controversial and will be analyzed later;
3. Large-scale urban buildings, that is, building discoveries similar to 'capital' and 'king city', because only in this way can we judge whether the archaeological site has a 'national' shape.
For China, trade has never occupied a major position in economic activities, and farmers’ market trade is mainly a small-scale exchange of necessities. The main source of wealth in ancient Chinese society was not trade, but land.
Therefore, cities were not very important in ancient Chinese society, especially in the early Xia, Shang, and Zhou Dynasties. These two different sources of wealth result in different attitudes towards precious metals such as gold and silver.
At that time, Chinese people paid more attention to jade than gold and silver, and jade was not used as a trade intermediary. Secondly, without recover overwritten partition table , there is naturally no city as a trade center, and naturally there will not be a large amount of gold and silver wealth accumulated in the city.
Therefore, it is not very suitable to judge the civilization of ancient China by the standard of the amount of gold and silver treasures in a small urban site. Even recover overwritten partition table of Yin Ruins, bronzes and other objects is not in a city, but in a tomb.
Among the archaeological discoveries in China, there is a Erlitou culture in Yanshi, Henan. From the age, Erlitou culture belongs to the Xia Dynasty. Compared with various 'civilizations' in the Mediterranean, the Chinese only call Erlitou 'culture'. However, each 'civilized' site in the Mediterranean can have a population of only a few thousand people, and the 'Erlitou Culture' can be estimated to accommodate about 150,000 people, and some are even higher.
Compared with the 'city-state civilization' of ancient Greece, 'Erlitou culture' is like a real city or capital. The reason why Chinese archaeologists and historians have not declared that 'Erlitou culture' is the capital of the Xia dynasty is mainly due to the influence of modern Western archaeology-a large number of precious metals have not been found in Erlitou.
Is 'Erlitou Country' the 'Xia Dynasty' in the literature? In terms of time, the first, second, and third phases of the 'Erlitou Site' are basically consistent with our general understanding of the time of the middle and late Xia Dynasty (academia has different views on the 'Xia' commercial demarcation of the 'Erlitou Site'. Divided into four periods, there are three and four boundaries, and there are four periods of early and late boundaries). If the 'Erlitou Country' is really the 'Xia Dynasty', then we have to revise the documentation. The Xia Dynasty did not establish the dynasty order in the Central Plains at the beginning. recover lost partition table 'Xinzhai' is probably the 'Xia Dynasty' The early capital city, and the 'Xia Dynasty' as a 'wide-area kingship state' similar to the later Shang Dynasty, will not be realized until the middle period.
However, all of the above can only be conjectures. We do not have enough evidence to prove that the 'Erlitou Country' is the 'Xia Dynasty' in the literature.
For the nature of 'Erlitou culture', we should put aside the conclusion that Western archaeology was formed in Mediterranean archaeology. Otherwise, we can only hope for the historical evidence of ancient China from the appearance of tyrants such as Qin Shihuang. Only then can an unreasonable concentration of wealth occur, and it can be accepted by Western archaeological theories today.
As for the 'sages' such as Yao Shun, and those ancient 'sages' who have not conquered excessively, we may never get the archaeological confirmation on the gold and silver treasures from the Western archaeological theory.
All in all, some of the conclusions of Western archaeological theories have their background in the city-state trade economy in the Mediterranean, and this economic model did not exist in ancient China. Therefore, this conclusion should not be simply applied to ancient Chinese archaeology.
In other words, looking for or confirming the capital city of the Xia Dynasty cannot fully rely on Western archaeological theories. As for whether 'Erlitou Culture' can be judged as the capital of the Xia Dynasty, let the real archaeologists and historians come to a conclusion.