CHIN 50 Lecture Notes - Lecture 2: Xia Dynasty, Yellow Emperor, Chinese Mythology
Document Summary
Chinese mythology: the founding of civilization and the political order. Founder of civilization and inventor of culture and technology. Supreme divine emperor who could command all animals and beasts and ruled over all of civilization from his sacred mountain, kunlun. Human being with 4 faces and born via miraculous circumstances. Invented fire, cart (with direction), shelter, astronomy etc. The three legendary sage kings were the founders of the chinese political order. Yao the earliest, abdicated in favor of shun, who had demonstrated his worthiness. Yu succeeded shun and is famous for taming a great worldwide flood. Yu is known as the founder of xia ( ) dynasty. The three sage kings and the yellow emperor are myths rather than historical without archaeological evidence. Primary: materials that are first hand account of the event. Archaeological record: excavated from archaeological sites e. g. tombs, bamboo strips, pottery, bronze. Historical record: historical texts, written texts, transmitted texts.
