The first dynasty

This blog has discussed early China before, but not Erlitou much. Besides millet-bread, which most Chinese would rather we ignored, we've had hints at a great flood. Anyway: here's a confirmation from China that a dam burst ~1920 BC. Here begins Erlitou, predecessor to the Shang state.

Erlitou these days is considered Xia. Problem: no written records, until late Shang oracle-bones and occasional bronzes. Another problem, for the Falun Dafa/Gong cult: Xia is remembered as starting long before Erlitou and this flood. Xia was like so many civilisations-remembered-by-later-civilisations, like royal Rome and pre-Flood Nippur / Kish - and our Bible: sus lengths for royal reigns. (Although, long-noted, Augustus actually did reign that long, as did Justinian and - in Egypt - Pepi II.) Anyway given that Yin=Song had called their empire "Shang" in their prime, the name "Xia" needs to be considered a likewise temporal-exonym. I prefer that if modern Chinese must use "Xia" that they do so as a placeholder.

Even Erlitou had antecedent: Longshan, 2500–1900 BC. This paper is from last December, concerning graves in Shanxi. Apparently the females there were imported. The local lord will have been something like a king; in late Chalcolithic China, other realms had kings too - like Shimao. The Empire, Long Divided, Must Unite; Long United, Must Divide and all that.