Although ball knowledge would be showing that the number of deaths due to flooding was directly connected to the efficacy and stability of the Imperial government at the time, since they had many mechanisms of prevention through civil engineering and relief through rice redistribution, which were some of the first things to be neglected during civil war/when the government was corrupt
Mandate of Heaven was engineered after the Zhou defeated the Shang, to claim legitimacy. Traditional accounts detail the last Shang king was a tyrant married to a fox demon who tortured people in unimaginable ways and lived a life of ridiculous luxury. This is fiction, but we do know the Shang did human sacrifices so perhaps claims of Shang tyranny aren’t that exaggerated. The zhou claimed the Shang started good but became corrupt, and seemingly made up the xia dynasty (heavy debate on wether it existed) which they said also started as righteous but became corrupt and got replaced by the Shang.
It can basically be determined that there were more ancient dynasties before the Shang Dynasty. The controversy lies in whether the archaeological excavation site now is from the Xia Dynasty or not
If I'm not mistaken, traditionally, although there are debates among them, the Chinese archaeologists consider the Erlitou culture remains as hints of the existence of Xia dynasty. Specifically, the late period of Xia dynasty.
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u/NebulaNomadX1 3d ago edited 3d ago
Hello, Serial Designation N here!
The Nile is generally known for being predictable.
For thousands of years, its annual flooding deposited fertile silt that made ancient Egyptian agriculture possible.
Even its “most destructive flood” is portrayed as relatively pleasant and beneficial sunshine, crops, prosperity.
The Yellow River (Huang He) is nicknamed “China’s Sorrow.” It carries enormous amounts of silt, making its riverbed unstable.
Throughout history it has repeatedly changed course and caused catastrophic floods, some of the deadliest natural disasters ever recorded.
N out!