Restore the Mythological Ages (2: A Controversial Prehistoric Chronology was Found

The last post talks about the research of bronze age. This time I would like to trace back earlier to the prehistoric age, from the mythological birth of the world till the foundation of the Xia dynasty which was believed to be the first dynasty in Chinese history.

The story started at a peaceful small village of Yantin(鹽亭) country, Mianyang(綿陽) city in Sichuan province. For thousand of years, a legend has circulated among the people who live in Panya(盤埡) village. According to the legend, Yu(禹)—the founder of the Xia dynasty—was born here. He has raised a stele whith inscriptions of his verified chronology in his hometown. The inscription was decoded in 1960 by Baru He(何拔儒), who has been study abroad, at the time of Qing dynasty. The posterity referred it as "the Pangu Chronology of Kings*(盤古王表)".

 

Born in the Chaos

 

Separation of Sky and Earth

The chronology was named afer Pangu(盤古), the creator of the world in a most popular creation myth who was believed to be born in the chaos(混沌、渾沌) which was like an egg, and separated it into sky and earth with an ax. He was the first person in the chronology.

After Pangu, the chronology recorded the rulers at ancient times, ranging from the Three Sovereigns(三皇) to the Five Emperors(五帝), over a time span more than 4 thousand years. It laid down the Three Sovereigns as the Heavenly Sovereign(天皇), the Earthly Sovereign(地皇) and the Human Sovereign(人皇), eventually ended at the Yellow Emperor(黃帝), one of the Five Emperors. Some of the names in the chronology could match those names of mountains, gods and so on in the other documents. For example, Classic of Mountains and Seas(山海經).

 

 

Pages from Classic of Mountains and Seas

However, the Pangu Chronology of Kings* was only  contained in one published book, "Grand View of Chinese Character Culture*(中國漢字文化大觀)" [1995] and an article by Dekui Wang(王德奎), Journal of Literature and History(文史雜誌), 2000 issue 2.

The chronology was not considered trustworthy and reliable, because scholars could not find any evidence in authoritative documents which could proof that Yu has ever been to Sichuan.

Nevertheless, if what was on the chronology was true, it would be a significant reference to the academia. It provides a detailed order of the rulers of the blank alternation between the Three Sovereigns and the Five Emperors. This could be a window towards the controversial ages of prehistory, ages that we have never known about before.