East Yi West Xia () is an obsolete theory about the origin of prehistory culture in current China which says that the culture of

Shang dynasty The Shang dynasty (), also known as the Yin dynasty (), was a Chinese royal dynasty founded by Tang of Shang (Cheng Tang) that ruled in the Yellow River valley in the second millennium BC, traditionally succeeding the Xia dynasty and ...

was established by two ethnic groups; namely, that the Western part of the Shang dynasty was developed by Xia ethnic group, and the eastern part of Shang dynasty was developed by Yi ethnic group.

History of the theory

This theory was suggested by future linguist

Fu Sinian Fu Ssu-nien (; 26 March 1896 – 20 December 1950), was a Chinese historian, linguist, and writer. He was one of the leaders of the May Fourth Movement in 1919. He was also one of the creators of the Academia Sinica, and was named director of th ...

in his thesis 1933. It was further expanded by

Liang Siyong Liang Siyong (; 13 November 1904 2 April 1954) was a Chinese anthropologist and archaeologist. He was deputy director of the Institute of Archaeology at the Chinese Academy of Sciences. One of the first scholars to introduce the discipline of ...

who suggested that the newly discovered

Yangshao culture The Yangshao culture (仰韶文化, pinyin: Yǎngsháo wénhuà) was a Neolithic culture that existed extensively along the middle reaches of the Yellow River in China from around 5000 BC to 3000 BC. The culture is named after the Yangsh ...

was established by the Xia in the west and the

Longshan culture The Longshan (or Lung-shan) culture, also sometimes referred to as the Black Pottery Culture, was a late Neolithic culture in the middle and lower Yellow River valley areas of northern China from about 3000 to 1900 BC. The first archaeological fi ...

by the Yi peoples of the east. For Chinese and Western historians this hypothesis became the prevailing theory to interpret Chinese prehistory and remained so until about 1960.Andersson, J.G., "Researches into the Prehistory of the Chinese" in ''Bulletin of the Museum of Far Eastern Antiquities'', 15 (1943), pp. 29-91 Further archaeological discoveries made the theory obsolete. In 1950s it became clear that the

Yinxu Yinxu (modern ; ) is the site of one of the ancient and major historical capitals of China. It is the source of the archeological discovery of oracle bones and oracle bone script, which resulted in the identification of the earliest known Chine ...

culture was preceded by the

Erligang culture The Erligang culture () is a Bronze Age urban civilization and archaeological culture in China that existed from approximately 1600 to 1400 BC. The primary site, Zhengzhou Shang City, was discovered at Erligang, within the modern city of Zhengz ...

Zhongyuan Zhongyuan (), the Central Plain(s), also known as Zhongtu (, lit. 'central land') and Zhongzhou (, lit. 'central region'), commonly refers to the part of the North China Plain surrounding the lower and middle reaches of the Yellow River, centere ...

. In addition, the gap between the Erligang culture and the Longshan culture was joined by the

Erlitou culture The Erlitou culture was an early Bronze Age urban society and archaeological culture that existed in the Yellow River valley from approximately 1900 to 1500 BC. A 2007 study of radiocarbon dating proposed a narrower date range of 1750 to 1530 B ...

, which was named after the Erlitou site discovered in 1959. Chinese scholars identify the Erligang and Erlitou cultures as the sites of the Shang and Xia Dynasties respectively although the archaeological boundary between the two dynasties was still debatable. In 1983, the ruin of Yanshi Shang City was discovered and identified as the Erligang culture. The ruin very close to the Erlitou site suggests that the Erlitou and Erligang cultures were dominated by people with different cultural background. In Shandong, the Shandong Longshan culture was replaced by the

Yueshi culture The Yueshi culture () was an archaeological culture in the Shandong region of eastern China, dated from 1900 to 1500 BC. It spanned the period from the Late Neolithic to the early Bronze Age. In the Shandong area, it followed the Longshan cultu ...

around 2000 B.C. The sites of the Yueshi culture show complementary distribution with those of the Erligang culture which expanded eastward from Zhongyuan. It proved that the Shang people did not originated in the east.

Implications

Though largely replaced and modified by later further research, Fu Sinian's theory entered the history as a landmark in Chinese historiography. It essentially questioned ethnic homogeneity sometimes postulated as the route of Chinese civilization. This contributed to the concept of the dialogical development of cultures.

References

See for an English language summary of this theory:
Chang Kwang-chih, 'China on the Eve of the Historical Period' in: Loewe, Michael and Edward L. Shaughnessy (eds.), ''The Cambridge History of Ancient China. From the Origins of Civilization to 221 B.C.'', Cambridge University Press: Cambridge 1999, pp. 55–56, {{ISBN, 0-521-47030-7

External links

* About the Theory of East Yi West Xi

in Chinese Archaeology of China