Xia Dynasty
The Xia Dynasty
Overview
There are ancient accounts about the history of a small kingdom along the Yellow River that existed from about 2,000 BC to 1,600 BC. The main ancient accounts are in the Records of the Grand Historian (史記) that were written between about 109 BC and 91 BC by Sima Qian and another textthat is called the Bamboo Annals (竹書紀年) that was a text that was said to have been buried with the King of Wei who died in 296 BC and was rediscovered in 281 AD during the Jin Dynasty. The text was written on flat pieces of bamboo, and this is why it is called the Bamboo Annals. Are these accounts accurate? It is said that the Xia Dynasty people didn't keep written records, but that their histories were passed orally. Archeologists debate whether the Bronze-age towns that have been uncovered in recent years are the remains of the Xia Kingdom. Unless archeologists generally agree or new evidence is unearthed, it is impossible to know how much of the accounts in those texts is accurate and how much is myth about the Xia Dynasty.
In some cultures, oral histories are simply obvious myths. In the written stories, there was once a great flood that lasted many years about 2215 BC. A man named Yu the Great was given the task to control flooding on the Yellow River by a sagely king named Yao (2358 - 2258 BC). As you can see, the dates of these supposed events don't even match. It is said that Yao told Gun who was Yu's father to control the flood, but the dikes that he built against the flooding didn't work. They collapsed, and the area was flooded. So Yao executed Gun and recruited Yu. Instead of relying on dikes, Yu had canals dug to divert the water. Digging the canals meant removing a mountain. He did this, and though his hard work his body became unusual. The place where the mountain was removed was called Yu's Doorway (禹門口). The people seeing his hard work and success at controlling the canal respected him highly, and he became the ruler of the Xia tribe.
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Overview
There are ancient accounts about the history of a small kingdom along the Yellow River that existed from about 2,000 BC to 1,600 BC. The main ancient accounts are in the Records of the Grand Historian (史記) that were written between about 109 BC and 91 BC by Sima Qian and another textthat is called the Bamboo Annals (竹書紀年) that was a text that was said to have been buried with the King of Wei who died in 296 BC and was rediscovered in 281 AD during the Jin Dynasty. The text was written on flat pieces of bamboo, and this is why it is called the Bamboo Annals. Are these accounts accurate? It is said that the Xia Dynasty people didn't keep written records, but that their histories were passed orally. Archeologists debate whether the Bronze-age towns that have been uncovered in recent years are the remains of the Xia Kingdom. Unless archeologists generally agree or new evidence is unearthed, it is impossible to know how much of the accounts in those texts is accurate and how much is myth about the Xia Dynasty.
In some cultures, oral histories are simply obvious myths. In the written stories, there was once a great flood that lasted many years about 2215 BC. A man named Yu the Great was given the task to control flooding on the Yellow River by a sagely king named Yao (2358 - 2258 BC). As you can see, the dates of these supposed events don't even match. It is said that Yao told Gun who was Yu's father to control the flood, but the dikes that he built against the flooding didn't work. They collapsed, and the area was flooded. So Yao executed Gun and recruited Yu. Instead of relying on dikes, Yu had canals dug to divert the water. Digging the canals meant removing a mountain. He did this, and though his hard work his body became unusual. The place where the mountain was removed was called Yu's Doorway (禹門口). The people seeing his hard work and success at controlling the canal respected him highly, and he became the ruler of the Xia tribe.
Even