The story of Dayu's water management is well-known in China, and the behavior of "three times without entering the house" is even more popular among the people.
According to historical records, Dayu, a man of great merit and respect for water management, became the leader of the tribe and established the Xia Dynasty.
The Xia Dynasty is the earliest dynasty recorded in ancient Chinese documents, but this long-lasting national memory has become slightly blurred due to the passage of time.
Is the Xia Dynasty a dynasty speculated by the ancients?
Whether "Dayu's control of the water" is a beautiful legend or is true, related disputes have always existed.
However, the discovery of the Erlitou site in Yanshi, Henan has unveiled the mystery of the ancient "Xiadu". Now the Erlitou site is the remains of the middle and late Xia Dynasty capital, which has gradually become a consensus in the academic world.
What is so special about this site?
How did it help to prove the existence of the Xia Dynasty, and why was it recognized as the capital of the Xia Dynasty?
A reporter from Chinanews.com interviews the archaeological leader and takes you to the "first site" of the archaeological site at Erlitou.
Erlitou Site Palace City West Wall and No. 8 Foundation Site.
Photo courtesy of Erlitou Task Force, Institute of Archaeology, Chinese Academy of Social Sciences
Does the Xia Dynasty really exist?
The Xia Dynasty was the first hereditary dynasty recorded in Chinese historical documents.
Many pre-Qin classics such as "The Book of Songs", "Zuo Zhuan" and "Shangshu" all mention the Xia Dynasty.
Sima Qian of the Western Han Dynasty also clearly records the history of the change of the Xia, Shang and Wednesday dynasties in China's earliest general history masterpiece "Shi Ji".
However, at the beginning of the 20th century, a group of intellectuals who were influenced by modern Western scholarship methods stirred up a stagnant pool of Chinese academic circles with "belief in the ancient" as the mainstream.
Stories such as "Da Yu governing the water" are classified as legends by the ancient history discriminating school in this "suspicious trend of thought".
In order to confirm the existence of the Xia Dynasty and prevent China’s thousands of years of history from becoming "water without a source and wood without a root", in April 1959, 71-year-old historian Xu Xusheng set off from Beijing and went to Henan and Shanxi to find " Summer Market".
At that time, the conditions were extremely difficult. Xu Xusheng's team got off the train to change the carriage, and sometimes had to ride a donkey on the road, eating sweet potato noodles and Heiwowotou.
After a month of intensive investigations in western Henan, Xu Xusheng's team discovered more than 20 sites. Among them, the most important discovery was the site in Erlitou Village, Yanshi.
With the advancement of archaeological excavations, the ruins of the capital city that has been sleeping for more than 3,000 years have brought endless surprises to the outside world and become a "wordless book" to uncover ancient civilizations.
Today, it has become a general consensus in the academic circles that the Erlitou site is the earliest dynasty in China—the capital remains in the middle and late Xia Dynasty.
Schematic diagram of the Erlitou site.
Photo courtesy of Erlitou Task Force, Institute of Archaeology, Chinese Academy of Social Sciences
However, the dispute over whether the Xia Dynasty really existed has not stopped, and the evidence that can directly prove the existence of ancient civilization is written records.
At the beginning of the 20th century, the Republic of China master Wang Guowei successfully interpreted the oracle bone inscriptions, proving that the Shang Dynasty deeds recorded in the "Historical Records: Yin Benji" is a letter of history; Academically established the Yin and Shang civilization.
The outside world believes that if the Xia Dynasty wants to "self-certify" its existence, he would have to rely on direct written materials such as oracle bone inscriptions as supporting evidence.
Earlier, Xu Hong, a researcher at the Institute of Archaeology of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences and leader of the Erlitou task force, also wrote that although archaeological discoveries in ancient China were endless and the research continued to deepen, they failed to "update" or deepen the understanding of the year. That is, the lack of direct written materials.
Why is Erlitou's surname "Xia"?
Although the existence of the Xia Dynasty is still controversial, this does not affect the reputation of the Erlitou site in Chinese archaeology.
"The houses of the past three generations were all between the river and Luo."
Geographically, Erlitou Village, located on the high ground between the Yi and Luo Rivers, is almost the most common village in the Central Plains.
What is special about this village?
Is Erlitou's last name "Xia" or "Shang"?
In an interview with Chinanews.com, Zhao Haitao, the leader of the Erlitou work team from the Institute of Archaeology of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, said: “In the first 20 years since the discovery of the Erlitou site, the academic community generally recognized it as the city of commerce. Until the late 1970s, Zou Heng of Peking University After the professor proposed that the Erlitou site is the capital of summer, it took nearly 30 to 40 years to gradually reach a consensus."
The excavation site of No. 5 base site of Erlitou site.
Photo courtesy of Erlitou Task Force, Institute of Archaeology, Chinese Academy of Social Sciences
Zhao Haitao introduced that the reason why the Erlitou site was judged to be the capital of Xia was mainly based on three scientific considerations.
The first is to determine the relative age of Erlitou through archeological stratigraphy and typology, which is between the Longshan culture and the Shang culture.
Secondly, by the carbon-14 dating method, the Erlitou site has been measured between 3800 and 3,500 years ago. The date is more consistent with the middle and late Xia Dynasty recorded in historical records.
In addition, the Erlitou site is located in the western part of Henan Province, which also conforms to the main activity area of the Xia Dynasty recorded in historical books.
"More importantly, there has been a series of dynasty connotations in the Erlitou site." Zhao Haitao said that Erlitou culture has become around 3800-3500 years ago with its highly brilliant dynasty, highly developed control network and ruling civilization. The earliest core culture and wide-area monarchy country in East Asia, and took the lead in entering the stage of dynasty civilization.
During this process, the central plains' hinterland formed an overall structure of a pyramid-like settlement centered on the Erlitou Capital City and a spatial distribution pattern of settlements in the shape of stars and moons.
With the development of the Chinese Civilization Discovery Project and the "Xia, Shang and Zhou Dating Project", through comprehensive research on carbon-14 dating, documentation, archaeological stratigraphy, etc., the main part of the Erlitou culture is Xia culture and has been recognized by most people. accept.
After 62 years of archaeological excavations, people were surprised to find that this seemingly identical small village was a "key" to open the door to the history of the Xia Dynasty.
Bronze ritual vessels were unearthed at Erlitou site.
Photo courtesy of Erlitou Task Force, Institute of Archaeology, Chinese Academy of Social Sciences
"Chinese Dragon" stunningly unearthed
Among the many cultural relics at the Erlitou site, the most exciting in recent years is undoubtedly the turquoise dragon-shaped object unearthed in 2002 and known as the "Chinese Dragon".
Turquoise dragon-shaped ware from Erlitou site.
Photo courtesy of Erlitou Task Force, Institute of Archaeology, Chinese Academy of Social Sciences
In the early spring of that year, the Erlitou task force was working step by step. Suddenly, a green bronze bell emerged from the soil.
Following the clues of the bronze bell, the archaeological team found that there were many scattered turquoise fragments around. The more they were cleaned down, the more turquoise pieces appeared, and they showed a certain regularity.
In order to preserve the original appearance, the archaeological team decided to pick up the entire set of turquoise tools and transport them back to the archaeological laboratory in Beijing.
After months of meticulous cleaning and extraction, a lifelike "Jiaolong" came into view.
This is a dragon-shaped device nearly 70 cm long and composed of more than 2000 pieces of turquoise.
The dragon's body is curving, and its nose and eyes are vivid and vivid. After thousands of years, it is still green as a wash.
The precision and size of its production are very rare in the early dragon image cultural relics. It can be called the most direct and orthodox root of the dragon totem of the Chinese nation.
The discovery of this "super national treasure" surprised experts and scholars, and everyone agreed to name it "Chinese Dragon".
"When the turquoise dragon-shaped ware was shipped back to Beijing in 2002 and cleaned up in 2004, I often went to the laboratory to check it out. At that time, the complete photos of the turquoise dragon-shaped ware that were first published in the public report were taken by me. "Recalling the archaeological process of the year, Zhao Haitao's joy is beyond words.
He told reporters that the turquoise flakes should have been glued to some kind of organic matter, but the organic matter it relies on has decayed.
In order to better protect the cultural relics, the turquoise dragon-shaped ware is still preserved in the Institute of Archaeology, Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, and will meet with the public one day.
The unearth of the "Chinese Dragon" is just the tip of the iceberg at the Erlitou site.
China’s earliest “Forbidden City”, China’s earliest “well” city arterial road network, China’s earliest rut, China’s earliest group of bronze ritual objects... During 62 years of archaeological excavations, the Erlitou site has continuously renewed the most".
The jade ritual group at Erlitou site.
Photo courtesy of Erlitou Task Force, Institute of Archaeology, Chinese Academy of Social Sciences
Zhao Haitao praised the achievements of Erlitou archaeology.
He pointed out that the Erlitou site opened up a new era in history. Chinese history has moved from the era of the multi-national and multi-competitive states before the Erlitou culture to the era of a kingdom where the stars hold the moon and stand alone.
The Erlitou site opened the curtain and laid the foundation for the Shang and Zhou dynasties.
Together with the later Shang and Zhou civilizations, it formed the mainstream of the early Chinese civilization and established the basic characteristics of the Chinese civilization.
"Wordless Book of Heaven" still to be explored
From the "Chinese Dragon" to the earliest "Forbidden City" in China, the archaeological achievements of the Erlitou site astounded the world.
In the past 62 years, three generations of archaeologists, represented by the first team leader Zhao Zhiquan, the second team leader Zheng Guang, and the current team leader Xu Hong, have persisted and excavated in Erlitou, allowing the ruins of Xiaducheng, which has been sleeping for more than 3,000 years, to be seen again.
Over the past 62 years, hundreds of people have directly participated in excavation and research work, and Zhao Haitao is one of them.
Since working at the Erlitou site in 2002, Zhao Haitao has been cultivating here for nearly 19 years.
Three generations of archaeologists traveled back and forth between Beijing and Luoyang like migratory birds, dedicating the beauty to this land.
Erlitou Site Palace City East Wall, East Gate 2 and Base Site No. 4 (North-South).
Photo courtesy of Erlitou Task Force, Institute of Archaeology, Chinese Academy of Social Sciences
In fact, the conditions of field archaeology are difficult, the cycle is long, and the tasks are heavy. It is not easy to concentrate on taking root.
Zhao Haitao said frankly: “Archaeology is more interesting to the outside world, but this work needs to settle down.” It is the persistence of generations of archaeologists that have allowed the world to witness the mysterious face of “the earliest dynasty of China”.
At present, the survey area of the Erlitou site is about 3 million square meters, and the three generations of archaeologists only excavated 1.6% in 62 years.
Talking about the future medium and long-term excavation plan, Zhao Haitao said that the Erlitou culture laid the foundation of ancient "China" and became the core and leader of the overall process of Chinese civilization.
Although archaeological excavations in more than 60 years have made significant gains, there are still many blank points in site drilling and excavation, and many topics that require in-depth research.
Pay attention to multidisciplinary participation, cultural heritage protection, guided by the concept of social archaeology, scientific, continuous, and planned archaeological work will still be the long-term focus in the future, and it will require continuous struggle from generation to generation.
For archaeologists, 1.6% is just the beginning.
The "Wordless Book of Heaven" at the Erlitou site has just been opened, and the journey of exploring the "earliest dynasty in China" is yet to be continued...
Author: Guo Chaokai