In antiquity, there was a society, but there were no dynasties.
Before we get to the bottom of this, we need to understand two terms.
One is which period of time is specifically referred to in antiquity. In the Chinese lexical environment, there is no unified understanding of the definition of this term. Some people call the stage of coexistence of man and god as antiquity, that is, the turn of Xia and Shang is the dividing line between antiquity and antiquity. Some refer to China as antiquity before it emerged as a nation. That is, the era of the Three Emperors and Five Emperors belongs to ancient times, and from Yu to ancient times.
In both senses, the answer to the question is not the same. To do this, it is also necessary to understand the meaning of a dynasty, that is, the era of the rule of a certain dynasty. For example, the Shang Dynasty was a dynasty, and it was the era of the rule of the Shang kings. The word dynasty, we can simply understand it this way, the king refers to the king, mainly referring to the princes and kings. Hajj refers to the Hajj, that is, the princes and kings go to the ** regime to make the Hajj. So here there are two levels of administration above, one is the ** regime, and below is the vassal states.
There are four major pieces that exist with this form of dynasties. The first is administrative divisions, then the bureaucracy, the third is the law, and the fourth is the army. Together, these four major pieces form such a powerful institution as the state.
The formation of these four major pieces in its entirety came gradually. According to the analysis of the records of the Classic of Mountains and Seas, in terms of administrative divisions, there was a certain division at least in the time of Fuxi Nuwa. At that time, according to the trend of mountains and rivers, the scope of the activities of the Chinese nation was divided into five Tibets: southeast, northwest, and central Tibet. Of course, this division is very broad. Later, in the era of the Yellow Emperor, the world was divided into Kyushu. This is the earliest administrative division in Chinese history.
In terms of bureaucracy, there were no bureaucrats and no institutions in the era of the Great Wilderness. During the time of the Yellow Emperor, personnel were appointed as assistants, but there were no specific job titles and agency names. Until the beginning of the Yao era, there were gradually names of relevant institutions, but there were no fixed positions for personnel. In the later period of Shun, after the success of Dayu's water control, he assisted Emperor Shun to establish a sound bureaucracy, bureaucratic system and official titles. It's only at this time that it's officially mature.
In terms of law, there were some specific rules and regulations starting with the Yellow Emperor. However, the writing and coherence of these rules and regulations were still completed in the era of Shun. And the tribute system, which reflects the rule of the ** regime over the local government, was also completed in the hands of Yu. In addition, for example, in the criminal law system, the historical records say that Shun "is like a pawn punishment, five punishments of exile, whipping as an official punishment, a pounce as a religious punishment, and gold as a ransom punishment", in fact, it is to establish a relatively complete criminal law system. The other is the army recruitment system, or the conscription system, which was completed in the era of Shun, but the specific operation is still Yu.
With the army recruitment system, of course, there will be a source of soldiers, and there will also be a regular army. The embodiment of this military service system is the five uniforms. The five-service system stipulates what kind of conscription for people within what range, and in fact fixes the source of soldiers.
So these four major pieces were all completed in the Shun era. After Yu inherited the throne of Shun, he led a country with a complete set of four major parts.
Of course, the form of the state at that time was very different from that of today. For example, in terms of administrative divisions, there is only a ** system. At the top is the ** dynasty, below is Kyushu, and below is the vassal states. As for the vassal states, some of them established relevant systems, and some of them were very extensive in management, but that did not affect the existence of this fact that had already appeared in China at that time.
Together, these four pieces formed the foundation of the dynasty. So the dynasty appeared at the time of Yu. Before Yu, even if there was a political power for a certain period of time, the political power was not complete, and there were no necessary conditions for the formation of a dynasty.
So the dynasty starts with Yu. If we adopt the argument that the turn of Xia and Shang was the dividing line between antiquity and antiquity, then the answer to this question is that antiquity included the Xia Dynasty, and before the Xia Dynasty was a very loose political institution, which was generally called a clan society. But this designation is not scientific. The specifics will not be discussed in detail. If the state is called antiquity before the emergence of the state, then the answer is that there were no dynasties before antiquity.
The Antiquity was divided into three phases. From back to front, they are the era of the Five Emperors, the era of the flood and the era of Fuxi Nuwa. The era of the Five Emperors embodied the loose management of local power by the ** regime, which was the formative period of the dynasty. The rulers of the Honghuang era were mainly Dijun, but at that time there was no administrative structure at all, and there were basically no four major pieces about the dynasty. In the Fuxi Nuwa era 9,500 years ago, there is very little information that we can analyze. But what can be confirmed is that there was no political power at that time, so there was no dynasty.
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