China's Three Ancient Dynasties EXPLAINED

[@jacintochua6885]

These exquisite relics of the Xang dynasty did not suddenly appear unless previous rulers of previous dynasty were in power and took part in somd developments.

[@brendabrooks8939]

Thank you so much, you are truly very adept at this and make Chinese history much easier to follow. I should love to attend one of Shen Yun's shows but, due to illness am unable, but I thank you for at least making it possible for others to attend. I look forward to future videos. B xxx

[@UeharaKeitaro上原恵太郎]

This channel is Falun Gong cult, beware.

[@theredbar-cross8515]

People need to stop saying the Xia is "semi-mythical". The extensive excavation of Erlitou leave little doubt that this was the capital of the Xia Dynasty. Sure, there's no coherent writing yet, but the location, dating, and level of sophistication of city mean that it really could not be anything else. By comparison, we accept that Troy has been correctly identified, despite there's not being a single piece of writing at the site of Troy that confirms the name of the city. If we applied that same standard to Erlitou, then it would qualify as the capital of Xia.

[@learnchinesenow]

By semi mythical so dont mean it didnt exist, but more like we dont know if stories about the Xia are real since they were all written down afterwards

[@lC3yGrA1n]

@@learnchinesenow i think its ok by now since they found something that proved the dynasty before xia existed? Yu or something.

[@leezhieng]

They found a name 西邑 written on the Shang oracle bones, worshipped by Shang rulers. They suspect 西邑 is Xia, Shang rulers worship it to prevent it from taking revenge (the oracle bones often ask their god if 西邑 will ruin their plans). 西邑 was usually worshipped together with 伊尹 who was the minister who helped Shang defeat Xia. Ancient books like 尚书 also called Xia as 西邑夏。Historians have always wondered why they called it 西邑夏 until they found the name 西邑 on the oracle bones. Xia's capital city was located on the west of Shang's capital city, hence Shang simply called it the Western City.

[@CanalAllNerds]

Im from BRAZIL, and i practice chinese martial arts since my teenager! This channel is THE BEST about chinese culture and chinese martial arts! THANKS FOR THAT! Can you make a video about: Huo Yuanjia and Fong Sai Yuk?

[@learnchinesenow]

Yes Huo Yuanjia is certainly on my list. Ben

[@LearnChineseMandarinWithPeter]

Huo Yuanjia 霍元甲 Fang Shiyu 方世玉 Both are full filed my childhood❤

[@jason199506]

just wanna point out, in traditional chinese fashion, it's usually "emperors that lost their reign will be written into history book as being cruel/immoral/having inability to rule", not the other way around. Once a dynasty is overthrown, all kinds of accusation gets thrown on the last emperor of the previous dynasty, it's been like that for the entire history of china, and i suppose the same goes for many other places in the world. The chinese just have a specific set of moral rules(mostly confucianism principles maybe?) so all their 'last emperors' are bad in pretty much identical ways. "history is written by the victors"

[@thecelebritypath]

11:36 The Age of Philosophers shaped so much of Chinese thought. If Confucius and Laozi met today, what kind of debate or discussion do you think they would have? And which philosophy do you feel aligns more with contemporary life?

[@HegelOnHisHead]

This might sound like a weird question (and sorry if you answer it in the video I’m at work and will watch the full video later) but what does the word ancient mean in China? In the west ancient history is everything up until the fall of western Rome, medieval is everything up until around Columbus and so on. Obviously China doesn’t use our classifications and the word ancient is a Latin word but does China classify its history into different “eras” outside of dynasties? I’ve seen the word ancient in China used to describe things as recent as Ching empire buildings. Is it the first three dynasties that are ancient?

[@jayshen84]

Yes. I cant remember the exact names given to each era but more or less each era is split into groups of 3 dynasty Xia-shang-zhou = Feudal Era that set the Foundation of Chinese culture Qin-Han-Jin = Imperial Era of Empire building Sui-Tang-Song = Medieval Era with cultural and economic renaissance Yuan-Ming-Qing = Pre-Modern era of China finding their place in an increasingly globalized world. The application of the chinese word that is translated to ancient (古老) can refer to anything old and outdated and does not have the exact weight of the english word "ancient". Having said that, to see someone call a Qing Dynasty objective ancient is more probably just laziness on the part of the writer to not use a more accurate term with a narrower meaning.

[@dannykwok768]

The rule of thumb is anything up to Song dynasty is considered as ancient dynasties period. But, there is less clear cut distinction as in western civilization. Some considered the whole dynastic period up to Qing as ancient history. Hence, modern China started from 1912 onwards

[@fenxian]

I grew up learning Xia-Shang-Zhou as slavery era, while Qin as starting of Feudal till fall of Qing Dynasty in 1911.​@jayshen84

[@CDTsuiPo]

China's age division 远古，上古，古代，近代，现代。 远古 : Mythological Age. 上古 : The pre-Qin era. 古代 : From the formation of a great unified China by the Qin Dynasty, the beginning of dynasties, until the Opium War in 1840. 近代 : 1840 until the establishment of PRC. 现代 : after 1949

[@fenxian]

@CDTsuiPo 远古 not considered civilized society. China always refers 5000 years civilization that started from 皇帝.

[@jenniferbreaux7385]

So brilliant and fascinating.

[@JamesEpic3]

Subscribed!!

[@Sanoulabing]

I just want to say a massive thank you for this video. This video really made me smile. Thank you for taking the time to delve deep into this subject with a neutral view point. Apologise for discovering it so late in the game. I have since subscribed. Keep up the integrity. I am starting your channel from scratch, I'm excited to watch your journey :)

[@stormshadow5283]

Just a question.... Was Confucious descended from the Shang dynasty? I read somewhere that the first Zhou king gave a fiefdom to one of the brothers of the last Shang king from whom Confucious descended.

[@gakk539]

yes

[@gakk539]

but Confucius identified himself as a Zhou person郁郁乎文哉 吾从周

[@bloodcave]

Yes. And the descendants of Ruler in Shang dynasty become Song State during Zhou dynasty. Confucious was the descendant of Song State, also the Shang dynasty, but he lived in Lu State.

[@scipioafricanus4875]

I find these stories interesting thanks

[@---us7qf]

I like some of the Chinese philosophy, such as those esposed in the Dao de Jing. If you could Ben, do a dedicated video (if not yet created) on the ancient philosophies. Okay, time for another late Sunday night reading, from the Dao.

[@fatsen-qy4lj]

He knew Chinese Histories more than his country !

[@shenodyssey]

Hey, I subscribed.

[@Blade13-q1o]

True Xia dynasty is considered mythical by many 4:47

[@Blade13-q1o]

1:18 well that’s odd isn’t it

[@zhoushou863]

The key of china is old lao ancient.

[@TianMuYe]

9:45 uhhhh… 我是牧野😂

[@Mortius86-1]

Always appreciate the work put into the videos.

[@汤嘉舜]

商人：你是个可用之人

[@Arthur-gs2jr]

This is perfect, I have my exam of Chinese history in 4 days! Many thanks

[@hermanyeung4227]

文武皆雙全，相貌又莊端，年紀雖壯少，華夏文化專。

[@LearnChineseMandarinWithPeter]

many Chinese wouldn't like to spend more time to dive in to the river of own history, more and more are captured by shorts😢

[@learnchinesenow]

Yeah shorts provide a quick fix, but to really go deep, long form videos are the only way

[@PhilipTan-i1u]

It is correct that China's continuing Civilization spans over 5000 years till today. The first people who settled down along the yellow river came from the "West" which was the area where the tower of Babel existed. This "theory" is supported by the fact that the ancient Chinese characters depict the stories from the book of Genesis of the Jewish "books of Moses" which came to be known as the old Testament of the Bible.

[@CDTsuiPo]

本来听你把早商文明及原始宗教描述为“邪教”就很奇怪，看到你在推销神韵艺术团的门票，我就知道到底是怎么一回事了。 I was surprised to hear you describe early Shang civilizations and primitive religions as "cults", but when I saw that you were selling tickets of the Shen Yun Art Troupe, I knew exactly what was going on.

[@learnchinesenow]

Well they did human sacrifice so…..

[@jsmighty]

@@learnchinesenow Is this you saying Falun Gong cult did human sacrifices too without saying it? 😏

[@Nom_AnorVSJedi]

Is Xia the Erlitou Culture?

[@learnchinesenow]

yes

[@jayshen84]

Shld be more of Xia is related to Erlitou culture but we do not know enough to map if they are synonymous with each other. Like much of Rome came from the Etruscans culture but they are not one in the same.

[@Nom_AnorVSJedi]

@ the Shang didn’t invent Chinese Writing, it was too advanced by the time of the Shang. So a precursor civilization must have invented the Chinese characters still used today.

[@jayshen84]

​​@@Nom_AnorVSJedi The "chinese" used by the shang was not as developed as you might think. They were mostly pictographs and had a lesser grammatical structure. Only late in the shang and into the zhou did the chinese language evolve to become a really proper language with grammar rules and complex structures. it is just that unlike Egypt's hieroglyphs that disappeared, the shang pictographs did eventually evolve into modern chinese characters and thus the shang writings can be translated by scholars with high accuracy into complete sentences in modern chinese.

[@GL-iv4rw]

and Shang Erligang culture, 'Three Sovereigns and Five Emperors' Longshan culture

[@JKShorts888]

👍✌️❤️😘

[@acwright]

姑姑与呼入菌姑姑你就瓦尔德

[@niniwavers]

A friend showed me your channel and now I have to watch every episode!! I love learning all these new things about Chinese culture!! I'd love to see Shen Yun, but it seems that the discount code isn't working!

[@learnchinesenow]

When you check out there is a part beneath the total price in the Cart section that says "Have Gift Card, Voucher, or Code?" click that before moving to the Delivery section and enter code LCN2025 and it will remove the fee. I just tried it now and it worked for me. This only works on shenyun.com. It won't work if you buy directly from the theater. Hope that helps!

[@niniwavers]

@@learnchinesenow So if the "Buy Tickets" link leads me to a 3rd party website, the code will not be valid?

[@learnchinesenow]

It depends what country you are in, the code is valid on all US show dates, but not other countries

[@xeronix9774]

i used to watch you when i was 10 years old😂

[@zaneblack1132]

Factual History ok dude, im sure everything written is true and factual.😂😂😂😂😂😂

[@learnchinesenow]

Yeah I mean we point that out in the video too, there is some overlap with mythological stories

[@YukitoKunNeptune]

I mean, religion is no difference, right?

[@wsk1124]

How to subscribe? A Chinese watching a westerner talk about his own history 😂. You not historical accurate and missed out so many things.

[@heramb575]

Curious what wasn't accurate?

[@AisleLoveYew]

Could I know what wasn't accurate?

[@iamwonka]

What was not historically accurate?

[@sitlyfeniase3742]

it sounds like they only knew about history from movies or something

[@yorkiesweetpea23]

It's a 15 min video. Can't have all the details. You're new to this channel? This man Ben really does know Chinese history, he's born in Hong Kong, graduated from Oriental Studies, also grad from Taiwan university. He knows even more than a lot of Chinese born.

[@movingforward2570]

They didn't even agriculture, or board house it all came from India including martial arts and their religions, Buddha etc😂

[@杨明-i8k]

我们有三个宗教，儒教 道教 和佛教 佛教范围广，儒教教我们仁义礼智信 道教则是注重自我修养 佛教是印度来的 中国人更喜欢道教

[@lC3yGrA1n]

and india today isnt the same one with the ancient india.

[@UeharaKeitaro上原恵太郎]

India is a made up country. That is why you still live like primitives.

[@absyahwa7698]

THE WEST HAS FALLEN