preview

Compare And Contrast The Three Chinese Dynasties

Decent Essays

Before the formation of the three dynasties, China consisted of many different clans, each with their own sets of characteristics. The people inside each clan shared the same surname and had the same ancestor. The unique characteristics of these different clans was the reason they did not intermarry. Although there were hundreds of clans living in ancient China, we will only focus on the three dynasties called, Hsia (Xia), Shang and Zhou dynasty in this paper. I believe the creation of these three different dynasties followed the same set of procedures and steps such as, a mythical creation story, usage of Mandate of Heaven in order to choose a leader, lineage segmentation and moral authority.
The first political dynasty recorded in history of China was the Hsia dynasty. The Hsia dynasty was established by the members of Ssu clan which was founded by Yu. As suggested by K.C. Chang in his book called Art, Myth, and Ritual: The Path to Political Authority in Ancient China, he points out that, “perhaps because of the greater antiquity of the dynasty, for which texts are as yet unknown, the mythical origin of the clan's ancestors is unclear”(10). …show more content…

They were founded by the members of Tzu clan whose founder was Hsei. According to the Shang myth mother of Hsie got pregnant after “an egg dropped by a dark bird was devoured by Hsieh's mother” (12). The egg’s bird supports the belief of many researchers that the people of the Shang dynasty came from the east; birds are a prominent symbol on the east. Moreover, the bird’s egg suggests the divine heavenly connection with choosing the ruler of each dynasty. Although the Shang dynasty is known as the second dynasty of the ancient China, there has not been found any evidence that Hsia dynasty ever existed, hence some scholars consider the Shang dynasty as the first dynasty of China since archaeological evidence of the Shang period has been

Get Access