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The '''Xia dynasty''' is an era of Chinese history that began in 2070 BC and continued until 1600 BC.<ref>These dates are from the [[Xia-Shang-Zhou Chronology Project]] (2000). Liu Xin gives 2205 - 1766 BC.</ref> It was followed by the [[Shang dynasty]]. Shun, the last of the mythical Five Emperors, picked Yu the Great as his successor, according to the traditional account. Yu was able to control a worldwide flood by building embankments. Yu's son succeeded him, making Yu the founder of a dynasty. There were seventeen Xia rulers. The last was Jie. Jie fell in love with a woman who was both beautiful and cruel. Outraged rebels led by Zi Lü overthrew the Xia and established the Shang dynasty.<ref>"[https://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/273749/Xia-dynasty Xia dynasty]," ''Britannica''</ref> As this is the first recorded dynastic handover, it is a model for the "Mandate of Heaven" concept.

The '''Xia dynasty''' is an era of Chinese history that began in 2070 BC and continued until 1600 BC.<ref>These dates are from the [[Xia-Shang-Zhou Chronology Project]] (2000). Liu Xin gives 2205 - 1766 BC.</ref> It was followed by the [[Shang dynasty]]. Shun, the last of the mythical Five Emperors, picked Yu the Great as his successor, according to the traditional account. Yu was able to control a worldwide flood by building embankments. Yu's son succeeded him, making Yu the founder of a dynasty. There were seventeen Xia rulers. The last was Jie. Jie fell in love with a woman who was both beautiful and cruel. Outraged rebels led by Zi Lü overthrew the Xia and established the Shang dynasty.<ref>"[https://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/273749/Xia-dynasty Xia dynasty]," ''Britannica''</ref> This dynastic handover, it is a model for the "Mandate of Heaven" concept.

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In the 1920s, scholars of the "Doubting Antiquities School" questioned whether the Xia should be considered historical.<ref name=Lee>Lee, Yun Kuen, "[http://scholarspace.manoa.hawaii.edu/handle/10125/17161 Building the Chronology of Early Chinese History]", University of Hawai'i Press (Honolulu) 2002.</ref> It was once common to dismiss the dynasty altogether as mythical. In the 1980s, radiocarbon dating allowed archaeologists to identify Erlitou in northern Henan Province as the site of Zhenxun, the Xia capital.<ref>"[http://www.china.org.cn/english/2003/Nov/79635.htm./ Stunning Capital of Xia Dynasty Unearthed]", ''China Daily'', Nov. 11, 2003.</ref>  

In the 1920s, scholars of the "Doubting Antiquities School" questioned whether the Xia should be considered historical.<ref name=Lee>Lee, Yun Kuen, "[http://scholarspace.manoa.hawaii.edu/handle/10125/17161 Building the Chronology of Early Chinese History]", University of Hawai'i Press (Honolulu) 2002.</ref> It was once common to dismiss the dynasty altogether as mythical. In the 1980s, radiocarbon dating suggested that Erlitou in northern Henan Province might be the site of Zhenxun, the Xia capital.<ref>"[http://www.china.org.cn/english/2003/Nov/79635.htm./ Stunning Capital of Xia Dynasty Unearthed]", ''China Daily'', Nov. 11, 2003.</ref>  

Erlitou was culturally dominant in its heyday and was unlike earlier Neolithic cultures. Its residents practiced ancestor worship, and the city can be viewed the place where a distinctively Chinese culture was forged.<ref>Allan, Sarah, "Erlitou and the Formation of Chinese Civilization: Toward a New Paradigm", The Journal of Asian Studies, 66:461–496 Cambridge University Press, 2007.</ref> Sites from the Xia period show mixed copper and stone use, a transitional phase between neolithic and Bronze Age culture. China entered the Bronze Age around 1700 BC, toward the end of the dynasty.

Erlitou was culturally dominant in its heyday and was unlike earlier Neolithic cultures. Its residents practiced ancestor worship, and the city can be viewed the place where a distinctively Chinese culture was forged.<ref>Allan, Sarah, "Erlitou and the Formation of Chinese Civilization: Toward a New Paradigm", The Journal of Asian Studies, 66:461–496 Cambridge University Press, 2007.</ref> Sites from the Xia period show mixed copper and stone use, a transitional phase between neolithic and Bronze Age culture. China entered the Bronze Age around 1700 BC, toward the end of the dynasty.

==Myth or history?==

==Myth or history?==

{{History of China}}

{{History of China}}

Xia was only one of dozens of states in China at this time.<ref name="Lee" /> Yu is said to have summoned the leaders of "10,000 states."<ref name=cambridge71>''Cambridge''. p. 71.</ref> Oral tradition concerning the pre-historic states may have been reworked when their stories were written down in the early [[Zhou dynasty]] (c. 1045–256 BC). Emphasis on the Xia supports a "unilinear" view of history in which each dynasty passes the baton to the next.<ref name="Lee" /> Critics of this approach suggest that the Xia, Shang, and Zhou could all have existed at the same time as three of the 10,000 states.<ref name="cambridge71" /> Although the unilinear approach is much-criticized, it remains the standard framework for interpreting Chinese history.

The character use to write Xia is not used on the Shang oracle bones, the earliest phase of Chinese writing. It does appears on several bronze inscriptions from the Zhou dynasty (c. 1046–256 BC). These are not thought to be references to the dynasty, but rather mean "large" or "summer." The earliest mention of a Xia dynasty is in ''Analects'' by Confucius, over a thousand years after the end of the dynasty. The main sources for the story of the Xia are the ''Bamboo Annals'' (~300 BC) and ''Records of the Grand Historian'' by Sima Qian around 100 BC.<ref>Mair, Victor, “[https://www.sino-platonic.org/complete/spp238_xia_dynasty_china.pdf Was there a Xia dynasty?]” Sino-Platonic Papers, May 2013.</ref>

 

Sarah Allan, a professor at Dartmouth College and a leading skeptic, has pieced together Shang mythology and cosmology. The Shang associated the Xia with the time of the flood, according to Allan. After the waters receded, the Xia grew weak. They were vanquished by the Shang sun-kings and eventually departed. There is no issue of dynastic handover in this version of the myth. The Shang rulers must have already viewed themselves as sovereign when the two peoples were living side by side. Shang records suggest that the Xia had a complex system of laws, as well as an unusual religion. Many traits of the Xia are the opposite of traits that the Shang associated with themselves. While the Shang represent light, fire, the sun, birds, and the East, the Xia represent dark, water, and the West. As such dualities fit all too neatly into yin-yang cosmology, they suggest at very least that the story has a mythological component.<ref>Allan, Sarah, "[http://www.jstor.org/pss/25211710 The myth of the Xia dynasty]," ''The Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society'', No. 2, 1984.</ref>

==The Mandate of Heaven==

==The Mandate of Heaven==