The Xia Hou family first lived in the west of China. It was probably one of the branches of the Yellow Emperor nationality that developed westward. Later, under the leadership of chieftain Gu (Yu’s father), they began to move eastward, and married the big surnames of Dongyi, Tu Shan and Youxin, both descendants of Taihao. At that time, the Tu Shan family lived in Tu Shan. According to Du Yu’s Zuo Zhuan Ji Jie, “in the northeast of Shouchun”, that is, Dangtu mountain in Huaiyuan, Anhui Province today; It is said that the Shen family’s residence, the “wild land of Shen”, is today the collection of Shen tombs in the north of Cao County, Shandong Province.
The two clans’ supportive attitude and close marriage relationship to the Xia Dynasty will undoubtedly promote the attachment of other clans and tribes of Taihao descendants to the Xia Dynasty. There was a record in the “left turn ยท the seventh year of Duke AI” that “the princes of the Yu association were in Tushan, and all nations held the jade and silk”. In those days, Yu chose Tushan as the location of the alliance, which had a great purpose of obtaining the support of Tushan nearby.
Later, Dayu took advantage of the internal chaos of the southern Sanmiao to escalate the intermittent war against him in the early Yao and Shun period to a large-scale war of conquest, and the final result was naturally the defeat of Sanmiao. The war shocked and panicked the South and other neighboring tribes, and they all surrendered to Dayu.
At this time, the emerging slave owner class also expressed absolute support for him, and quickly gathered a group of reformists around Dayu and Qi; Later, Dayu “the king of the dynasty was above Kuaiji”. Because the Fangfeng family came after him, Dayu “killed them”. So at that time, on the surface, it was still a system of abdication, but in fact, Dayu was already a full monarch.
During the reign of Dayu, gaotao and Boyi were determined as successors. Both of them were chiefs of the Yi tribe with the surname Ying, but later Qi killed them to seize power. This behavior directly caused resistance from some Eastern Yi tribes, of which Youhu was the first to resist. Unfortunately, Qi was killed in the end. Since then, the rule of the Xia Dynasty officially began. There are detailed records about this story in Shiji xiabenji. Those who are interested can turn to it.
It is a pity that Qi and his son Taikang could not win the support of the people during their rule. They only indulged in sensationalism all day, which led to great public resentment at that time. At this time, Hou Yi, the chief of Dongyi, took the opportunity to rise and unexpectedly invaded Anyi, the capital of the Xia Dynasty, to replace him. He was known as “Taikang lost his country” in history.
Later, Xiang, the son of Taikang’s younger brother, and his son Shaokang, with the support of Yu, Yu, and still in Dongyi, restored the rule of the Xia Dynasty, which had been interrupted for a hundred years, and was known as “the resurgence of Shaokang”. Since then, the rulers of the Xia Dynasty still used marriage, rewards and other means to win over the chiefs of the Dongyi tribe, and the Xia Dynasty entered a period of stable development.
However, at the end of the Xia Dynasty, various social contradictions began to intensify, the people could not make a living, and the princes rebelled. It was recorded in the later Han Dynasty – Biography of the eastern barbarians that “Jie was tyrannical, and all the barbarians invaded the country”. In addition, it was recorded in the Zuo Zhuan – the fourth year of the Duke of Zhao that “Xia Jie was still a member of the society, and some of them rebelled against it”. The “Youzhe” here refers to the surname Youzhe, which is also a branch of the eastern barbarians.
It can be seen from the above that the Dongyi people began to resist Xia’s rule. More importantly, Xia Jie married Mei Xi, who had the Shi surname. That is to say, he abandoned the tradition of marriage with Dongyi people, which broke the intimate relationship between Xia and Dongyi, thus igniting the anger of Dongyi resistance. Therefore, the failure to properly handle the relationship with the Dongyi surname can also be regarded as one of the reasons for the demise of the Xia Dynasty.
At this time, the Shang nationality took the opportunity to rise again. They united the anti Xia forces of the eastern barbarians, and finally defeated the Xia army. The Xia Dynasty perished. So sometimes history is really dramatic. When the dynasty was established with the help of Dongyi in the early summer, it was also the Dongyi who accelerated its demise