ancient china

transition from mythical china to ancient china

Gun was tasked by the emporor to deal with massive flooding that was taking place. Gun tried for 9 years to solve the problem, even stealing Xirang, self-expanding dirt, from heaven to build dykes with. He became executed for stealing the dirt but charged his son Yu to deal with the flooding as his dying wish. Yu the Engineer collaborated with Hou Ji [Lord of Millet] to solve the still ongoing massive flooding problem. Together they solved it by inventing irrigation and taming the floodwaters. The work to build all the irrigation took 13 years. Yu was promoted to emporer for doing a great job.

XIA DYNASTY

2070 BCE - 1600 BCE

When Yu died, instead of choosing a new emporer based on merit like they were doing before, Yu's wretched son took control and established the dynastic rules of inheretence. The 17 emporers of the Xia dynasty rule China until 1600 bc.

SHANG DYNASTY

1600 BCE - 1046 BCE

The Shang dynasty is the first dynasty historians are definitely sure was real. The Shang never mention the Xia Dynasty, but the Zhou Dynasty (next) does talk about them.

Paleoanthropology says that "the state" is a consolidation of ritual activity, with ritual activity being defined as human propensity to do rituals. And the Shang Dynasty, specifically the Shang royalty, did rituals. Archeologists have found tons and tons of oracle bones made by the Shang kings, asking the ancestors about all kinds of stuff.

ZHOU DYNASTY

1046 BCE - 770 BCE

inventions

Did you know?

Yu supposedly killed Gonggong's minister Xiangliu, a nine-headed snake monster.