Yangcheng () was the first capital of the

Xia dynasty The Xia dynasty () is the first dynasty in traditional Chinese historiography. According to tradition, the Xia dynasty was established by the legendary Yu the Great, after Shun, the last of the Five Emperors, gave the throne to him. In tradit ...

(c. 2070–1600 BC) of China. In ancient texts, the city was founded by

Yu the Great Yu the Great (大禹) was a legendary king in ancient China who was famed for his introduction of flood control, his establishment of the Xia dynasty which inaugurated dynastic rule in China, and his upright moral character. He figures promine ...

(founder of the Xia),Liu and Chen: page 222
/ref> or was his residence.Manzanilla: page 89
/ref> In the Bamboo Annals and ''

Shiben The ''Shiben'' or ''Book of Origins'' (Pinyin: ''shìběn''; Chinese; 世本; ) was an early Chinese encyclopedia which recorded imperial genealogies from the mythical Three Sovereigns and Five Emperors down to the late Spring and Autumn period ...

'', Yangcheng was located near

Mount Song Mount Song (, "lofty mountain") is an isolated mountain range in north central China's Henan Province, along the southern bank of the Yellow River. It is known in literary and folk tradition as the central mountain of the Five Great Mountains o ...

and the Wudu and Ying rivers (close to modern

Gaocheng, Henan Gaocheng () is a town in Dengfeng, Henan province, China. , it has 30 villages under its administration. *Gaocheng Village *Quhe Village () *Shuangmiao Village () *Beigou Village () *Zhuyuan Village () *Wudu Village () *Jiagou Village () *Chating ...

Archeology

Yangcheng may be located at the '' Wangchenggang'' () site in Henan. In 1977, An Jinhuai ()Fang: page 111 excavated a small east-west oriented walled city at ''Wangchenggang''.;Fang: page 107 it is dated to the second period of the Longshan era, or approaching the start of the Xia.Fang: page 110 In 2002-2005, a larger walled city was discovered and

radiocarbon dated Radiocarbon dating (also referred to as carbon dating or carbon-14 dating) is a method for determining the age of an object containing organic material by using the properties of radiocarbon, a radioactive isotope of carbon. The method was dev ...

as the earliest and largest Xia-period site at ''Wangchenggang''. An and Sun Zuoyun () believed the small city to be Yangcheng, and this interpretation remained popular through the rest of the 20th century. One criticism was that the city was too small to be a capital of a major state. Since its discovery, the larger city has been associated with Yangcheng. The smaller city has been attributed to

Gun A gun is a ranged weapon designed to use a shooting tube (gun barrel) to launch projectiles. The projectiles are typically solid, but can also be pressurized liquid (e.g. in water guns/cannons, spray guns for painting or pressure washing, p ...

, Yu's predecessor,Fang: page 112 although Liu and Chen note that the 100 year difference between the two cities makes this unlikely.

References

Citations

Sources

* * * Ancient Chinese capitals China History of Zhengzhou Dengfeng {{china-stub