For Xia, there is a basic consensus impression that in 2070 BC, Dayu passed the throne to his son Qi, and the Xia Dynasty was established. After that, not only did it enter the thought dynastic era, but it was also the birth of the first state, nearly 2,000 years later than the earliest state.
A dynasty is not equal to a state, a dynasty is a form of external manifestation of the state, in addition to dynasties, there are also the democratic city-states of Greece and the independent city-states of the two river basins. The state is much more important than the dynasty, and the significance of the Xia Dynasty as a state is far greater than its significance as a dynasty.
There is no doubt that human beings are a social species, and we will all unconsciously move closer to the group, which is not an acquired consciousness, but an innate attribute engraved in the genes. Individuals who leave the group will lose their most basic ability to be a human being, and a wolf child or werewolf is not necessarily a "human".
Human beings can be said to be the most king of social species, and the cooperative division of labor is the golden crown. The cooperative division of labor allows the human group to hold the strongest shield in one hand and the sharpest spear in the other, integrating attack and defense, strengthening attack and defense, and improving production efficiency. The rational collaborative division of labor promotes the continuous expansion of the scale of human organizations, both in terms of population and floor space.
The human organization began with the clans(To explain, the basic organization of the most primitive human groups is not necessarily the modern family, whether it is a family of three, a family of five, or a family of five, but a small clan that gathers by matrilineal blood.) The family is the product of private property, and since the family, it has become the most basic organization of human society and changed into the family. ），From tribes and tribal alliances to the form of the state, what plays a decisive role is the development of the assembly line of cooperation and division of labor into a system.
Why is the development process of human social organization like this?Genes are selfish, and in order to reproduce themselves, they drive the subject to maximize their resources. At the larger level, competition between species, human encroachment on the survival resources of other species, including the species themselves;The smaller level is the competition between human beings, who compete with each other for resources, mainly population and land. Regardless of the competition, a collaborative division of labor is the most appropriate approach.
Whoever has a more reasonable division of labor and creates higher benefits will be able to win the competition。This forces human beings to iterate and cooperate in the division of labor, from simple coordination and cooperation, to assembly line operations, to institutional systematization, and defeat all opponents.
Where there is a division of labor, there is a conflict and contradiction in the distribution of interests。The resolution of contradictions between human beings has changed from individual fights and brawls to group fights with the growth of the group organizations to which they belong, until the emergence of so-called wars, and the systematic cooperation and division of labor in the system will also collapse. Therefore, the collaborative division of labor breeds a need for strong violence to ensure the continuation of the cooperative division of labor and the relatively even distribution of benefits.
The state is one such institution, with a strong violent army, but also an effective management and distribution of the division of labor, an administrative body, and the combination of the two is what we usually call **。So the definition of the state is to have people, land and **.
Therefore, the state is the inevitable result of the development of human organization, and it will inevitably become the ultimate choice of all ethnic groups。States have emerged in different forms at different stages of history, the earliest of which is a loose alliance of tribal states, such as the tribal states of modern Hawaii;There are independent cities for the country, the two river basins of Sumer;There were regionally unified dynastic empires, such as Egypt on the Nile;There are also federated states of democratic city-states, such as the Confederation of Athens in Greece.
The vital significance of the state lies in the fact that it is a guarantee for the relative equality of the distribution of benefits. Before the state, the benefits were distributed according to blood or force, and in friendly cases, according to contributions, but not according to the system. The state institutionalizes the distribution of benefits, and moves forward according to the system, so that everyone can participate in the distribution of benefits and enjoy relatively equal benefits. Institutionalized distribution of benefits is one of the core demands of human beings.
Before the Xia Dynasty, ethnic settlements bloomed everywhere on the land of China, such as Yangshao Banpo Ruins, Liangzhu Ruins, Shiyuan Ruins and so on. In particular, there are tens of thousands of people living in the ruins alone, and the population of the ruins is nearly 100,000. Judging by the ruins of architecture, there were palaces and altars, and the "aristocracy", that is, the ruling class, must have existed at these sites. So are they considered countries?
As discussed above, human organizations are in the form of individuals, families, clans, clans, tribes, tribal confederations (the primitive form of the state), and states. With the exception of the state and the tribal federation, all are naturally formed - the cooperative division of labor required by human groups is a natural organization, but only these two are based on the ** political group, strictly speaking, only the state is like this.
Therefore, to determine whether a human organization is a state, the political attribute - whether there is ** or not is the decisive factor
Did the Xia Dynasty have it?In the history books, there are not many records of the official positions of the Xia Dynasty, such as the king is called "Hou", the King of Xia is the Queen of Xia, and there are official positions called "Zheng" such as Che Zheng, Mu Zheng, and Ku Zheng. "Yu Gong" records the five-service system, according to the geographical distance with the summer capital is divided into Dian, Hou, Sui, Yao, and Famine, different "clothes" provide different tributes. The military system of the Xia Dynasty is also recorded. But the Xia Dynasty did not have writing, and the detailed ** structure could not be known.
The most powerful evidence of the Xia Dynasty ritual vessels - bronze jue comes from the archaeological finds in Erlitou, ritual vessels, including bronze and pottery ritual vessels such as jue, goo (gū), and 盉 (hé). The ritual is a symbol of power, and one tribe has the ritual of another, which signifies submission。If there is only a single site, it is a tribe, and if it is found on a large scale, it can basically be confirmed that it is a power organization of the people of a vast land, just like the Shang Dynasty and the Zhou Dynasty.
Xia's ritual vessels are widely found in Erlitou as the roughly centered, north to the Linfen-Jincheng line in Shanxi Province, westward to Xi'an, Shaanxi Province, Shangzhou area in the upper reaches of the Danjiang River, south to the junction of Henan and Hubei, and at least eastward to Kaifeng and Lankao.
To rule such a large area of land, the Xia Dynasty did not have a relatively rigorous ** organization, which is difficult to explain. The Xia Dynasty was a state, almost certainly, with a ** that was recognized as a ruling authority。At the same time, it must also be recognized that the Xia Dynasty should be a state in the form of an alliance, with a tribal co-leader.
It is generally believed that the establishment of the Xia Dynasty benefited from the success of Dayu's water control, not only mastered the water conservancy technology, but also condensed the supreme prestige. Coupled with the trend of the times in which private ownership prevails, Dayu can pass on the throne and calmly deal with the impact of the "public world" transferred from the tribal alliance to the "family world" of the monarchy.
But the reality may be that Dayu's water control did not bring much benefit。From the Qin to the Qing Dynasty, in the history of more than 2,000 years, the flooding of major rivers was controlled, and a prosperous dynasty would be brought down if it was not careful. In the era when there is not enough manpower and food, and there are no advanced tools, why can Dayu be able to control the flooding of the great rivers within the scope of "Kyushu", and still achieve great success?
Dayu's water control is most likely to drain some swampy areas and do some diversion of small rivers and rivers in local areas, such as in the Luoyang Basin. Such a quantity of work cannot bring huge benefits to the Xia people of Dayu, and at the same time, it will not produce huge consumption. However, once the problem of water accumulation in this area is introduced to rice cultivation at the same time, it is completely different
The output of rice is far more than that of millet, millet and other crops. The massive production of food means that the population will increase exponentially over the course of a few decades. Population is one of the necessary conditions to measure the strength of a country, and in the era of 4,000 years ago, population was basically the only criterion。Archaeological findings have found that the rice reserves in Erlitou exceed those of millet and millet, and at the beginning of the middle period, the settlements in the Luoyang Basin increased rapidly. The rising temperature during this period is an important reason and evidence for the introduction of rice.
Therefore, the establishment of the Xia Dynasty, water control may not be the root cause, but rice cultivation opened the door to the country. With population and food, you have everything, as was the case 4,000 years ago。The number of people makes Xia able to build a complex and efficient system of cooperation and division of labor, which makes the authority of the first country stronger than ever, the integration of attack and defense, and the country is coming.
The Xia Dynasty is the first ray of sunlight shining on the land of Kyushu, ending the primitive era of "the stars shining" and "the moon and the stars are scarce", and the Chinese civilization has entered a new era of take-off.
Although the state is essentially a violent institution, it is the one that best realizes the core values of democracy, equality, freedom, and so on, to which humanity aspires。Democracy, equality, freedom, and so on, are not natural and clear, nor are they so-called given by God, but are won by the continuous struggle of human beings. Since there is a struggle, it is inseparable from the country.
Since the Xia Dynasty, successive dynastic empires have never promoted the core values of democracy, equality, and freedom. But it is undeniable that in the different classes of the dynastic empire, the people always enjoyed a certain democracy, equality and freedom, which were engraved in the laws of the dynastic empire and achieved with the blessing of violence.
Only the state can complete the pursuit of the first class, the country is the means and tools for human groups to realize themselves, and the first country of the Xia Dynasty is worthy of being engraved on the top of the stone pillar of history