the ancient chinese civilization begain during the xia dynasty.
the ancient chinese civilization begain during the xia dynasty.
during what dynasty did the ancient chinese civilization begin?
xia dynasty
chinese civilization begins during the second phase of the erlitou period (1900 to 1500 bc), with erlitou considered the first state level society of east asia. there is considerable debate whether erlitou sites correlate to the semi-legendary xia dynasty. the xia dynasty (2070 to 1600 bc) is the first dynasty to be described in ancient chinese historical records such as the "bamboo annals", first published more than a millennium later during the western zhou period. although xia is an important element in chinese historiography, there is to date no contemporary written evidence to corroborate the dynasty. erlitou saw an increase in bronze metallurgy and urbanization and was a rapidly growing regional center with palatial complexes that provide evidence for social stratification. the erlitou civilization is divided into four phases, each of roughly 50 years. during phase i, covering , erlitou was a rapidly growing regional center with estimated population of several thousand but not yet an urban civilization or capital. urbanization began in phase ii, expanding to with a population around 11,000. a palace area of was demarcated by four roads. it contained the 150x50 m palace 3, composed of three courtyards along a 150-meter axis, and palace 5. a bronze foundry was established to the south of the palatial complex that was controlled by the elite who lived in palaces. the city reached its peak in phase iii, and may have had a population of around 24,000. the palatial complex was surrounded by a two-meter-thick rammed-earth wall, and palaces 1, 7, 8, 9 were built. the earthwork volume of rammed earth for the base of largest palace 1 is 20,000 m³ at least. palaces 3 and 5 were abandoned and replaced by palace 2 and palace 4. in phase iv, the population decreased to around 20,000, but building continued. palace 6 was built as an extension of palace 2, and palaces 10 and 11 were built. phase iv overlaps with the lower phase of the erligang culture (1600–1450  bc). around 1600 to 1560 bc, about 6 km northeast of erlitou, eligang cultural walled city was built at yanshi, which coincides with an increase in production of arrowheads at erlitou. this situation might indicate that the yanshi city was competing for power and dominance with erlitou. production of bronzes and other elite goods ceased at the end of phase iv, at the same time as the erligang city of zhengzhou was established to the east. there is no evidence of destruction by fire or war, but, during the upper erligang phase (1450–1300  bc), all the palaces were abandoned, and erlitou was reduced to a village of .
cradle of civilization
section::::lacouperie's theory.









































the french sinologist albert terrien de lacouperie (1845–94) presented extensive and detailed arguments in "the western origin of the early chinese civilization, from 2300 b.c. to 200 a.d." (1892) that chinese civilization had been founded by babylonian immigrants. he wrote:









































lacouperie claimed that the yellow emperor was an historical mesopotamian tribal leader who led a massive migration of his people into china around 2300 bc and founded what later became chinese civilization. he further claimed a similarity between the trigrams and hexagrams in the ancient chinese text, the "yijing", and mesopotamian hieroglyphs.
sino-babylonianism