Xia Dynasty

(noun)

The first dynasty in traditional Chinese history.

Related Terms

Examples of Xia Dynasty in the following topics:

  • The Xia Dynasty

    • The final part of the Mythical Period was under the rule of the legendary Xia Dynasty, which may have been mythological.
    • According to this history, the last of the great Five Emperors, Emperor Shun, left his throne to Yu the Great, who founded China's First Dynasty, the Xia Dynasty.
    • Many argue that the Zhou Dynasty, which ruled China much later, invented the idea of the Xia Dynasty to support their claim that China could only be, and had always been, ruled by one ruler.
    • Some people argue, therefore, that the Zhou may have created the idea of an ancient Xia Dynasty to support the idea that China always had one ruler.
    • Nonetheless, the Xia Dynasty may not be a complete fabrication; recent archaeological evidence may support its existence.

  • Expansion Throughout Eastern Asia

    • Under Genghis Khan and his son Ögedei, the Mongol Empire conquered both the Western Xia Dynasty and the Jin Dynasty to the west.
    • The Western Xia Dynasty (also known as the Xi-Xia Dynasty) was located in what is modern-day northern China and sat along the southern border of the Mongol territories.
    • The Xia Dynasty also shared a complex history with the neighboring Jin Dynasty, even serving as a vassal state  to the Jin for a period before the arrival of Mongol forces.
    • Genghis Khan first planned for war with the Western Xia, correctly believing that the young, more powerful ruler of the Jin Dynasty would not come to the Western Xia Dynasty's aid.
    • The years of war took a heavy toll on the population of the Jin Dynasty, as it had in the Western Xia.

  • Introduction to the Shang Dynasty

    • The Shang Dynasty (also called the Yin Dynasty) succeeded the Xia Dynasty, and was followed by the Zhou Dynasty.
    • Jie, the last king of the Xia Dynasty (the first Chinese dynasty), was overthrown c. 1760 BCE by Cheng Tang.
    • While scholars still debate whether the Xia Dynasty actually existed, there is little doubt  that the Shang Dynasty existed.
    • The Shang Dynasty is the oldest Chinese dynasty supported by archaeological finds.
    • When Cheng Tang overthrew the last king of the Xia Dynasty, he supposedly founded a new capital for his dynasty at a town called Shang, near modern-day Zhengzhou.

  • The Mythical Period

    • The period ended when the last Emperor, Shun, left his throne to Yu the Great, and the Xia Dynasty began.
    • He left his throne to Yu the Great, who founded the Xia dynasty, and instituted the practice of passing rulership to a son.
    • This portrait is from Sancai Tuhui, a Chinese encyclopedia published in 1609, during the Ming Dynasty.

  • The Mandate of Heaven

    • The Zhou Dynasty overthrew the Shang Dynasty, and used the Mandate of Heaven as justification.
    • In 1046 BCE, the Zhou, a subject people living in the western part of the kingdom, overthrew the Shang Dynasty at the Battle of Muye.
    • The gods' blessing was given instead to the new ruler under the Zhou Dynasty, which would rule China for the next 800 years.
    • The need for the Zhou to create a history of a unified China is also why some scholars think the Xia Dynasty may have been an invention of the Zhou.
    • The Zhou needed to erase the various small states of prehistoric China from history, and replace them with the monocratic Xia Dynasty in order for their Mandate of Heaven to seem valid (i.e., to support the claim that there always would be, and always had been, only one ruler of China).

  • Society Under the Shang Dynasty

    • The Shang Dynasty was located in the Yellow River valley in China during the second millennium BCE.
    • The Shang Dynasty (also called the Yin Dynasty) succeeded the Xia Dynasty, and was followed by the Zhou Dynasty.

  • Origins of the Song Dynasty

    • It succeeded the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms period, and was followed by the Yuan dynasty.
    • The Song dynasty is divided into two distinct periods, Northern and Southern.
    • The Later Zhou was the last of the Five Dynasties that had controlled northern China after the fall of the Tang dynasty in 907.
    • To the far northwest, the Tanguts had been in power over northern Shaanxi since 881, after the earlier Tang court appointed a Tangut chief as a military governor (jiedushi) over the region, a seat that became hereditary (forming the Xi-Xia dynasty).
    • Although the Song state was evenly matched against the Liao dynasty, the Song gained significant military victories against the Western Xia (who would eventually fall to the Mongol conquest of Genghis Khan in 1227).

  • Ceramics and Bronze in the Shang Dynasty

    • The artwork of the Shang dynasty, notably bronze pieces, has been discovered through archaeological excavations.
    • The Shang Dynasty, also known as the Yin Dynasty, according to traditional historiography, ruled in the Yellow River valley in the second millennium BCE.
    • According to various chronologies and research, the Shang are estimated to have succeeded the previous Xia Dynasty from c. 1766-1556 BCE, and they are estimated to have ruled until the following Zhou Dynasty c. 1122-1046 BCE.
    • The artwork of the Shang Dynasty has been discovered through numerous archaeological digs.
    • Describe the advancements of bronze casting and pottery during the Shang dynasty.

  • The Northern Song Era

    • From its inception under Taizu, the Song dynasty alternated between warfare and diplomacy with the ethnic Khitans of the Liao dynasty in the northeast and with the Tanguts of the Western Xia in the northwest.
    • The Song dynasty used military force in an attempt to quell the Liao dynasty and to recapture the Sixteen Prefectures, a territory under Khitan control that was traditionally considered to be part of China proper.
    • However, this campaign was ultimately a failure due to a rival military officer of Shen disobeying direct orders, and the territory gained from the Western Xia was eventually lost.
    • The Jurchen, a subject tribe of the Liao, rebelled against them and formed their own state, the Jin dynasty (1115–1234).
    • The extent of the land holdings of the Northern Song dynasty in 1111.

  • Painting under the Song Dynasty

    • Painting during the Song Dynasty (960–1279) reached a new level of sophistication with further development of landscape painting.
    • Ma Yuan was a Southern Song painter of the Song Dynasty.
    • His works, together with that of Xia Gui, formed the basis of the so-called Ma-Xia school of painting and are considered among the finest from the period.
    • As court painters, Ma Yuan and Xia Gui used strong black brushstrokes to sketch trees and rocks and pale washes to suggest misty space.
    • Ma Yuan was one of the most prominent Chinese painters of the Song Dynasty.