Quote:
Originally Posted by Mekong Delta
Not all history are base on written down texts. There are plenty of artifacts that traced back to Xia dynasty and remains of their settlements. The Terra Cotta Warriors showed the world far more about the Qin than any written down text.
|
There are plenty of physical artifacts in different regions around what is now modern China (many quite amazing) that date back quite awhile. There is almost no way to tell how, if at all, they correspond in any way to what was being written down 2000 years later about a "Xia dynasty." Until the Zhou dynasty, there isn't a written record of anything other than the cryptic Shang-era divinations, along with a paltry number of short inscriptions on ritual objects. Even when the Zhou era arrives, we have very little ... this is a good book I have that basically includes all of the significant Western Zhou era texts. There aren't many of them, and they don't say much:
http://www.amazon.com/Sources-Wester...8456580&sr=1-1
Basically most of ancient Chinese history past the Zhou requires you to buy references to "tradition," and assume that it comports in some way with material culture. It's about as reliable and determinate as assuming that Homer correctly describes the Trojan War.