A Spiritual Journey to the Earliest China (The Charm of Erlitou, the Xia Capital)

Today, we can take pride in being 'Chinese' because thousands of years ago, our ancestors named this land beneath our feet 'China.' In the chapter 'Zicai' of the 'Book of Documents,' the first official historical text of our country, there is this record: 'The Yellow Heaven has entrusted the Chinese people and their lands to the former kings.' Translated into vernacular: 'The Heavenly God has entrusted the Chinese people and their lands to the former kings of the Zhou dynasty.'

So far, the earliest appearance of the term 'China' earlier than in the 'Book of Documents' is found on a Western Zhou bronze vessel named 'He Zun.' In 1963, He Zun was unearthed in Jia Village, Baoji. The inscription on the inner bottom of the vessel was engraved by a clan member surnamed He, recording the event that King Cheng succeeded King Wu's will and built Chengzhou (Luoyang). The full text is as follows:

'It was the first year of the king's reign, when he resided in Chengzhou, and again received blessings from Heaven in accordance with King Wu's rites. On the day bingxu of the fourth month, the king addressed the young clan members in the Capital Palace, saying: 'In the past, your father, Lord Gong, was able to assist King Wen, and thus King Wen received this great mandate. When King Wu had conquered the great city of Shang, he announced to Heaven in the court, saying: 'I will settle in this China, and from there govern the people.' Alas! You young ones may lack understanding, but look to your father, Lord Gong, who rendered service to Heaven, fulfilled the mandate, and reverently offered sacrifices. Help the king to cultivate virtue and revere Heaven, and do not treat me with indifference.' After the king finished the address, He was awarded thirty strings of cowries, and he used them to make this precious vessel for his father. It was the fifth year of the king's reign.'

The phrase 'zhai zi Zhongguo' in the text means 'settle in China.' The China referred to by the Western Zhou was the Central Plains centered on Luoyi. Over the next two thousand years, the people on this land continued to multiply, expand their territory, and laid the foundation for China's vast territory, making it a great dragon crouching in the east of the earth.

'The ancient kings chose the center of the world to establish the state, chose the center of the state to establish the palace, and chose the center of the palace to establish the temple.' This saying from the 'Lüshi Chunqiu' encapsulates the rich connotation of the term 'China' and represents the geographical orthodoxy pursued by successive Chinese dynasties. Although rulers in different historical periods labeled their times with different dynasty names, they all followed this principle, unswervingly upholding the root and name of 'China.'

Yao, Shun, Yu; Xia, Shang, Zhou—all are China recorded in historical texts. In 1899, the discovery of oracle bone inscriptions on the banks of the Huan River led to the excavation of Yinxu in Anyang in 1928, which strongly confirmed the existence of the Shang dynasty in the 'Records of the Grand Historian: Annals of Yin.' Before the discovery of Yinxu, many so-called authoritative international opinions held that Chinese civilization did not include the Shang or Xia dynasties, let alone Yao, Shun, and Yu, and that history traced back only to the reign of King Li of the Western Zhou. The ancient texts were considered stories compiled by later generations. If so, China's five-thousand-year civilization would be truncated by nearly two thousand years.

Yinxu confirmed the credibility of the 'Records of the Grand Historian.' But should the Xia dynasty in the 'Records of the Grand Historian: Annals of Xia' also be regarded as a real existence? Is it just a beautiful legend because there has been no archaeological discovery yet? The Xia dynasty (c. 2070–1600 BCE) is the first hereditary dynasty recorded in the 'Records of the Grand Historian.' The 'Zuo Zhuan' says: 'China has great ritual, so it is called Xia; it has splendid attire, so it is called Hua.' This shows the unprecedented prosperity of Xia civilization.

'Xia means the people of China.' This is a historical fact acknowledged even by the 'Concise Encyclopædia Britannica.' With Yinxu confirmed, where is the 'Xia Ruins'? The 'Guoyu: Zhouyu I' clearly states: 'In the past, when the Yi and Luo rivers dried up, the Xia perished.' The Grand Historian Sima Qian also emphatically recorded the central location of the Xia, Shang, and Zhou in the 'Records of the Grand Historian': 'The capitals of the three ancient dynasties were all located between the Yellow River and the Luo River.'

In modern times, the Chinese people have been tirelessly searching for the traces of their ancestors. In 1959, archaeologist Mr. Xu Xusheng led a team on a field survey in western Henan. In Yanshi, Luoyang, in the Yi-Luo Basin, they joyfully discovered a small village called Erlitou. From then on, the exploration of the 'Xia Ruins' and Xia culture began. Erlitou went from obscurity to worldwide attention. Through the efforts of several generations of archaeologists and continuous excavations of the site, academic opinion has gradually converged: this is a large human settlement from the middle to late Xia dynasty. The long-sought 'Xia capital' of the Chinese people finally slowly lifted its mysterious veil. On October 19, 2019, the 'Erlitou Xia Capital Site Museum,' covering an area of 246 mu, officially opened. The 'majestic Xia capital' of the 'first dynasty' in Chinese history came forward to meet the world.

Dr. Xu Hong, former head of the Erlitou archaeological team, wrote the book 'The Earliest China' with a rigorous archaeological stance and scholarly attitude, asserting that Erlitou civilization inaugurated the dynastic era of the Eastern land: here were discovered China's earliest palace city—the earliest 'Forbidden City,' China's earliest 'well'-shaped avenues—the urban arterial road network, China's earliest axial layout of palace building complexes, China's earliest wheel ruts, China's earliest official handicraft workshop area, China's earliest bronze casting workshop and turquoise artifact workshop, and China's earliest bronze ritual vessel assemblage.

Wandering through the Erlitou Xia Capital Museum, which is shaped like a key, will open a door in your mind for soaring imagination. The Xia capital, dating back approximately 3800 to 3500 years, stands before you—graceful, majestic, and brilliant.

Between about 1750 BCE and 1500 BCE, on the north bank of the ancient Luo River, which flowed eastward, on a terrace about 2000 meters long from east to west, 1500 meters wide from north to south, and covering an area of about 3 million square meters, more and more residents gathered. They came from the surrounding wilderness and found the most suitable space for survival and living. They fished and caught shrimp in the Luo River, irrigated crops on the terrace, hunted in the distant forests, herded animals on the nearby grasslands, fetched water from the river, and returned to the bank to cook. Curling smoke and drifting meat aroma attracted more people to follow the traces. They built houses with rammed earth, raised chickens and geese, gave birth to and raised children, worshipped heaven, earth, and ancestors, sang and danced to celebrate good harvests—it showed the atmosphere of a capital city.

A path is made by the tread of many feet. In the bustling capital, people pushed carts laden with harvests, coming and going. Over time, roads of varying widths were trampled and compressed on the terrace, unconsciously carving out well-shaped patterns. Among them, two vertical and two horizontal main roads intersected at right angles, generally over 10 meters wide, up to 20 meters at the widest point, enough for four modern cars to run side by side. Archaeologically, this is the earliest urban road network discovered in China.

The well-shaped intersecting roads divided the city into different functional areas in a nine-square grid pattern. In the center of the city stood a palace city covering over 100,000 square meters. Although it was only one-seventh the size of the Ming and Qing Forbidden City, and its palace walls were only rammed earth, its roofs thatched with reeds, its north-south orientation, the multiple building complexes planned along the central axis, and the interconnected layout of multi-courtyard buildings within the complexes all indicated that it was the template for all subsequent Forbidden Cities in Chinese history—clearly the ancestor of ancient Chinese palace cities.

Strolling through the streets and alleys around the palace city, from the houses along the roads came intermittent sounds of tapping, pounding, and grinding—ding-dong, pipa, sizzle. Approaching, one could see skilled craftsmen busy in workshops making stone tools, jade objects, pottery, and bronze vessels. Finished tools and ritual vessels were displayed in shops—some plain and practical, some delicate and exquisite, some elegant and free-spirited, some dignified and grand.

With favorable weather and peaceful life, the ancient inhabitants of the capital lived a tranquil and abundant life. Did those round-mouthed, bulging-bellied earthen pots hold the harvested grain? Did those large tripod ding cauldrons ever simmer fragrant meat bones? Were those strings of deep blue and emerald turquoise necklaces custom-made tokens of love for a couple? Or perhaps betrothal gifts from a young man proposing marriage?

'The great affairs of the state are sacrifice and war.' On the square where troops were sent off to battle, warriors lifted jue cups symbolizing cohesion, drank the full fine wine in one gulp, shouldered the battle-axes cast with striking power, raised them above their heads, and shouted battle cries that shook the heavens and frightened the enemy. At funerals bidding farewell to clan leaders and heroes, subjects and descendants arranged knives, swords, ding tripods, jue cups, he vessels, and other complete sets of artifacts beside the deceased, hoping that the departed could maintain a beautiful life whether in the dark underground or the bright heaven, and also hoping that through sacrificial rites, the deceased would forever protect the living.

When a deceased person was buried, the most dazzling object accompanying him was a turquoise dragon. This turquoise dragon-shaped artifact is 64.5 cm long, composed of over 2000 pieces of turquoise, each piece only 0.2–0.9 cm in size and about 0.1 cm thick. The dragon's body undulates in waves, covered with diamond-shaped scale patterns. The dragon's head is adorned with two white jade pieces for sparkling eyes, and the pointed tail curls inward, as if swimming. The dragon totem—isn't that the token of tracing Chinese origins?

On the chest of another deceased person lay a bronze plaque with a beast-face pattern inlaid with turquoise. This bronze plaque, shaped with an indented waist, is 16.5 cm long, 11 cm at its widest, with a bronze frame, rounded corners, and a main body composed of hundreds of turquoise pieces forming a beast-face pattern, fitted perfectly. It was fixed to the deceased through symmetrical ring-shaped knobs on both sides, used to fulfill the mission of communicating between heaven, earth, spirits, and humans. Who could believe that after more than three thousand years seeing the light again, the owner had already decayed into irrecoverable ashes, yet this exquisitely crafted bronze plaque remained as intact as new, with not a single turquoise piece loosened or fallen off.

Such a miraculous phenomenon is no accident. Through continuous excavation of the site, archaeologists were delighted to discover that Erlitou not only had distinct areas for palaces, residences, cellars, and tombs but also a handicraft workshop area of nearly 20,000 square meters to the south of the palace city. Such a large workshop group could not have been spontaneous individual behavior; it must have been built by the state. As later generations had official kilns for making porcelain, this was the official workshop of the Xia dynasty for manufacturing various artifacts. A large number of stone tools, pottery, jade, bronze, bone and horn tools, and shell objects were unearthed here, among which the bronze jue cup is the earliest known bronze vessel in China.

All this is clear evidence of human society transitioning from barbarism to civilization. Faced with the magnificent spectacle of Erlitou culture, scholars sincerely exclaim that Chinese history has since moved from the 'star-studded' era of diverse states into the 'bright moon and sparse stars' era of a broad-regional monarchical state.

Both the 'Bamboo Annals' and the 'Records of the Grand Historian: Annals of Xia' say: 'Taikang lived in Zhenxun; Yi also lived there; Jie also lived there.' Is today's Erlitou the Zhenxun mentioned in the texts? Perhaps yes, perhaps not. Over more than sixty years, several generations of archaeologists have explored and excavated only a little over one percent of the designated 3-million-square-meter site protection area. The existing cultural relics and materials can only prove that this is the capital of the middle to late Xia dynasty, but not that it is the early Xia capital of Zhenxun. What wonders still lie buried beneath the remaining nearly 99 percent of the land? What history remains to be written?

We look forward to the day when, as the project to trace the origins of Chinese civilization unfolds, the world will change the name of the Xia capital from 'Erlitou' (the childhood name) to 'Zhenxun' (the formal name). Then we can go on a spiritual journey to an even earlier China.

The 'Kuodi Zhi' says: 'The old Zhenxun city is located 58 li southwest of Gong County in Luozhou, probably where Jie lived.' Isn't this direction exactly where we are?