According to Chinese historical records, the Xia Dynasty ( 夏朝 ) is the first dynasty to be described. For many years, the Xia Dynasty was thought to be a part of a myth that the Chinese tell as part of their history. The Xia Dynasty was in oral histories, but no archaeological evidence was found of it until 1959, which showed that the people were direct ancestors of the Longshan ( 龙山文化 ) and were predecessors of the Shang ( 商朝 ) . At minimum, the Xia period marked an evolutionary stage between the late Neolithic cultures and the typical Chinese urban civilization of the Shang dynasty. The Xia Dynasty lasted over 400 years from the 21st century BC to the 17th century BC. Yu ( 禹 , often called Da Yu 大禹 ) was the legendary first Chinese monarch of the Xia Dynasty , considered as the founder of the dynasty. In total there were seventeen kings over fourteen generations in the Xia.

The Xia Dynasty resumed hereditary monarchy from the legendary Yellow Emperor ( 黄帝 ) times, and enter into the period of a family or a clan controlling everything in the nation. Meanwhile, the Chinese civilization developed a ruling structure that employed both a benign civilian government and harsh punishment for legal transgressions. From this the earliest forms of Chinese legal codes came into being.

Agricultural technology at that time improved drastically, with the invention of wine making and the improvement in horse herding. Carriages were also used in Xia Dynasty.