My name is Daniel. I was an English teacher in Seoul, South Korea, and am now a writer who has

published three books including South Korea: Our Story by Daniel Nardini.

                       One of the major problems I have with the Chinese government is its use of extreme

nationalism and national chauvinism in promoting the "great Chinese nation." This has led to such negative

things from military aggression to mistreatment of non-Chinese minorities to trying to re-write Chinese

history. One of these attempts at trying to re-write Chinese history is trying to prove that the Xia dynasty, 

or China first traditional ruling house, actually existed. The Xia dynasty, which is said to have existed from

2070-1600 B.C., is considered the first ruling house in traditional Chinese history. There are three problems

with this. First, the Xia was NOT even mentioned in any written records until the Zhou ruling house (1046-

256 B.C.) talked at length about it. There was no mention of Xia in the previous ruling dynasty the Shang

(1600-1046 B.C.), and any information about Xia was recorded 1,000 years after it was said to have

existed. Why? Second, so far no archaeological digs have definitely confirmed that Xia as a ruling house

actually existed (unlike Shang, we have no tombs and definite places where we can confirm where any of

the kings of Xia could have been, and since we have found nothing from what would be the Xia period

that even resembles writing we have no real evidence). We have nothing from any of the sites that some

Chinese archaeologists have presented as being possible places for being parts of the Xia dynasty. It

seems that those very early pre-history sites did not really even have contact with each other. With the

Shang, we know that it was a pretty unified state and that we have evidence of very complex tombs,

sites of palaces and elaborate roads and building remains that suggest it was a unified kingdom. We

have been able to identify a number of Shang tombs by name, and the early Shang records that we

have show that the list of kings of Shang as compiled by the great ancient Chinese historian Suma

Chien did live. We have no such thing with the Xia. Finally, in my view, extreme nationalism and 

archaeology do not mix. What the archaeological record has shown in my view is that Chinese

civilization was greatly developing just before the Shang, but that the Shang is TRULY the first

ruling Chinese dynasty. Why has the Chinese government tried to prove that Chinese history goes

back further? To try and show they have territorial claims and are the "rightful heirs" of East Asia.