On December 14, at the important progress work meeting of the "Archaeological China" major project held by the State Administration of Cultural Heritage, it was announced that the great tomb of Bailuyuan Jiangcun in Xishi City, Shaanxi Province, was announced as the tomb of Emperor Wen of Han. The confirmation of the location of the Baling Tombs solved the problem of the names of the eleven imperial tombs of the Western Han Dynasty, laid the foundation of the imperial tomb system in the middle and late Western Han Dynasty, and was of great significance to the in-depth study of the imperial tomb system in ancient China. In addition, the meeting also announced the two achievements of the Zhengpingfang Ruins in Luoyang, Henan and the Tuguhun Tomb Group in Wuwei, Gansu, among which the Zhengpingfang Ruins in Luoyang, Henan province, are one of the important Lifang sites in the Guochenglifang Area of Luoyang City in the Tang Dynasty, which are of great value to the study of the history of the political system and social life history of the Tang Dynasty; the Wuwei Tuguhun Tomb Group in Gansu is a tomb group of the Tuguhun royal family in the Tang Dynasty.
What is archaeology? Why archaeology? For the public, archaeology is a mystical discipline. Conceptually speaking, archaeology is a discipline that studies people's living and social conditions at that time based on the physical remains left over from ancient human activities, and analyzes human culture and social development, and explores their background, causes, and laws. From 1921 to 2020, China's archaeological history has been 100 years old. The book "Archaeological China: 15 Archaeologists Say Five Thousand Years" selects 15 large sites representing Chinese civilization and presents 5,000 years of Chinese civilization from an archaeological perspective. In the general preface of the book, Xu Hong, a researcher at the Institute of Archaeology of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences and a professor at the Graduate School of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, summarizes the 15 major sites that have influenced Chinese history. Among them, including Yin Ruins, Sanxingdui, Liangzhu, Qin Shi HuangDi Mausoleum, Nanhai I, Great Wall, etc., covering many scenes such as Duyi, mausoleums, underwater, plateaus, deserts, kiln sites and so on.
The following is an excerpt from the general preface of the book "Archaeology in China: 15 Archaeologists Say Five Thousand Years", which is abridged and modified from the original text. The illustrations used in this article are from the book. It has been authorized by the publishing house to publish.
Archaeology in China: 15 Archaeologists Say Five Thousand Years, by Xu Hong, Wei Xingtao, Tang Jigen, Lei Yu, Liu Rui, etc., Dafang 丨 CITIC Publishing Group, January 2022 edition.
Archaeology is a study of time and space. In the past century of exploration, we can initially grasp the temporal and spatial distribution and genealogical context of ancient Chinese civilization.
The book selects 15 large sites and asks 15 archaeologists to explain them in detail, which is a feast. The "great ruins" here mainly include historical and cultural information involving politics, religion, military, science and technology, industry, agriculture, architecture, transportation, water conservancy and other aspects at various stages of development of ancient Chinese history, and have large-scale, valuable and far-reaching large settlements, city sites, palaces, mausoleums, tombs and other sites and ruins.
Some scholars have refined the great significance of these "great sites": the first is to recognize the status of the source of Chinese culture; the second is to have the significance of exploring the origin of Chinese national civilization; the third is to show the best example of the continuous development of Chinese civilization for more than 5,000 years; the fourth is a vivid interpretation of Chinese cultural diversity; the fifth is the spatial expression of such an ancient civilization, a big country with land and a big cultural country like China; and the sixth is a typical example of the integration and coexistence of traditional culture and modern civilization. The 15 major sites presented in this book vividly explain the above historical significance from various aspects.
spatial distribution
In general, the vast East Asian continent is like a large seat facing northwest and southeast, and the back of the chair is composed of natural barriers such as plateaus, mountains, Gobi, deserts, etc., which makes ancient Chinese culture form a relatively independent development characteristic. It is worth noting the relativity of this barrier action, this natural barrier is not insurmountable, and there are many passages from the Inner Asian region to the hinterland of East Asia. Moreover, before the advent of the Great Navigation Era 500 years ago and the era of industrialization more than 200 years ago, the northwest region of China to the Great Northern Region has always been the forefront of reform and opening up in ancient China.
Such a relatively closed geographical space can be regarded as a large basin. The two major rivers in the basin, the Yellow River and the Yangtze River, are generally east-west oriented, facilitating internal communication. Known as the "Great Two Rivers Basin of East Asia", the Yellow River Basin and the Yangtze River Basin, between which there are few large mountain ranges and other natural barriers, North China and Central China Great Plain are actually connected, from the Yanshan Mountains as the northern edge of the Great Plain to the Nanling Mountains as its southern edge, the straight-line distance between them is more than 1500 kilometers. After the Qin and Han dynasties, the vast area from the North to the Northeast Sanjiang Plain and the South China Sea in the south was incorporated into the empire's territory. This is the great hotbed that gave birth to ancient China.
On the well-known topographic map of China, except for the towering Qinghai-Tibet Plateau, the huge Territory of China is basically composed of two major plates, the Yellow Plateau Highlands in the northwest (the second ladder) and the turquoise lowland plains (the third ladder) in the southeast. The division between these two natural geographical plates is also roughly the division of the two major humanities plates. The famous geographer Hu Huanyong discovered and proposed in 1935 that the connection between Yaohun (present-day Heihe) in Heilongjiang and Tengchong in Yunnan is an important geographical dividing line for the distribution of modern population in China. This "Hu Huan Yong Line" roughly coincides with the dividing line of the second and third steps and the 400 mm iso rain line, and its northwest and southeast sides are roughly distributed by about 6% and about 94% of the population. Looking back at ancient times, this line was also the rough dividing line between livestock nomadic and sedentary farming, dry farming and rice farming (eating noodles and rice), empty-footed manes and solid feet, and the proportion of the population on both sides of this line should have changed little over thousands of years.
"One side of the water and soil to support the other side of the people", the colorful culture is the product of human adaptation to the unique natural environment. Judging from the macroscopic natural geographical situation and the human characteristics that arise from it, the East Asian continent on which the ancient Chinese ancestors lived can be roughly divided into three major plates, and in terms of the remains involved in this book, their spatial distribution in each region is:
Central Plains and Left Vicinity (7 locations)
Including the Yangshao Village in Shichi, the ruins of the Gongyi Shuanghuai tree and the Yangshao culture they represent in Henan, the Erlitou site in Luoyang and the Erlitou culture they represent and the Yin ruins in Anyang and the Yin ruins they represent; the ruins of the large Qin palace in Xi'an Afang Palace in Shaanxi, the mausoleum of the First Emperor of Qin in Lintong, and the underground palace of The Tang Famen Temple in Fufeng.
Obviously, the Central Plains, located in the second and third ladders, as well as at the junction of the two major cultural plates, is one of the most suitable areas for settling in farming, and is the heartland of the occurrence and development of ancient Chinese civilization. With the Erlitou culture as the precursor, the Central Plains Center was finally formed around 1800 BC; after that, the Xia and Shang Dynasties wide-area royal civilization shined, leading the trend of ancient Chinese civilization and forming the earliest core culture of the East Asian continent; followed by the formation and development of the earliest centralized imperial civilization.
Southeast Coast and South (5 locations)
Including the Liangzhu ruins in Hangzhou in Zhejiang and the Liangzhu culture they represent, the site of the Housiao kiln in the Cixi Tang and Five Dynasties to the Northern Song Dynasty; the tomb of the Marquis of the Western Han Dynasty in Nanchang in Jiangxi; the tomb of the King of Nanyue in Guangzhou in guangdong; and the remnants of the Southern Song Dynasty shipwreck no. 1 in Yangjiang Nanhai.
Nanhai I cabin floor plan.
The Yangtze River Basin is together with the Yellow River Basin and is known as the "Great Two River Basins of East Asia". In the late Neolithic period, an ancient kingdom based on rice farming appeared here, which later became the southern soil of the Han Empire, and the porcelain industry in the Tang and Song dynasties shined brightly. The southeast coast south of Nanling was developed after the Qin and Han dynasties, and Guangzhou and Quanzhou in the Song Dynasty became the starting point of the Maritime Silk Road, especially the export of porcelain, and ancient Chinese culture went to the world from here.
Half-moon cultural communication belt (3 places)
It includes the ruins of Shenmu Shi'an and the Shi'a culture it represents in Shaanxi, the Qingpingbao ruins of the Ming Dynasty in Jingbian, and the Guanghan Sanxingdui site in Sichuan and the Sanxingdui culture it represents.
Stone carving.
The concept of "half-moon cultural transmission belt" comes from the pen of Tong Enzheng, a famous archaeologist and professor at Sichuan University in China. He pointed out that from the Daxing'an Mountains in the northeast, the Yinshan Mountains in Inner Mongolia, the Helan Mountains in Ningxia, the Qilian Mountains in northeastern Qinghai, and the Hengduan Mountains in western Sichuan leading to northwestern Yunnan, these two mountains in the north and the south and their neighboring highlands are geographically like a pair of powerful arms, shielding the motherland's hinterland -- the fertile plains and basins of the middle and lower reaches of the Yellow River and the middle and lower reaches of the Yangtze River; culturally, this area has its own origins and distinctive characteristics, constituting the fringes of ancient Chinese civilization.
He used the similarity of ecological environments to form cultural transmission to explain the various cultural similarities that occurred in this area. Pointing out the location of this half-moon cultural communication belt, it is precisely from the loess plateau that surrounds the middle reaches of the Yellow River from both sides. Its main landform is mountainous or plateau, with an average altitude of 1000-3500 meters. In addition, the average annual radiation value of the sun is roughly similar, the average annual temperature of this area is quite close, the growth period of crops and woody plants is close, and the precipitation is roughly between the two equal rain lines of 400 mm and 600 mm, which is basically composed of plateau shrubland and grassland. This belt of communication is distributed with various ethnic groups of Sino-Tibetan and Altaic languages, and is at the forefront of cultural exchanges between China and the central and western parts of Eurasia.
From an archaeological point of view, the Neolithic Shiya culture located in the half-moon shaped culture transmission belt has both cultural factors from Inner Asia and cultural factors from the interior of the East Asian continent; in the Bronze Age, the scepter culture from the west and the ceremonial container culture represented by Ding and Jue in the Central Plains are all seen in this arc zone, but the scepter basically failed to enter the heart of the East Asian continent surrounded by this area, and the ceremonial instruments of the Central Plains Dynasty civilization such as Ding and Jue failed to break through this half-moon cultural transmission belt. There is not only a golden scepter, but also the Sanxingdui-Jinsha culture excavated from the Central Plains style ceremonial container, which happens to be located on the inner edge of this half-moon cultural communication belt. From the Warring States period to the Ming Dynasty, the Great Wall was built on this cultural communication belt, becoming a unique landscape of the agricultural and animal husbandry interface, and staged a scene of historical tragicomedy. Leaving aside the vast region of northern China, a complete history of ancient China cannot be discussed.
Time distribution
On the historical stage of the East Asian continent, modern Homo sapiens entered the Neolithic Age around 10,000 years after tens of thousands of years of evolution and development. Archaeology has revealed that the East Asian continent from 5000 to 6,000 years ago, the prehistoric populations on the vast East Asian continent lived in small settlements, mainly primitive agriculture and fishing and hunting, living a generally equal and self-sufficient life. The independent development of regional cultures at the same time shows a certain degree of cross-regional commonality.
Since then, the East Asian continent has begun to enter a stage of social complexity, and soon early states have emerged, entering the era of civilization in the narrow sense. The history of ancient Chinese civilization, which has lasted for thousands of years, can be divided into three major stages: the era of the state (ancient kingdom), the era of the kingdom and the era of the empire. Among them, the age of the state (ancient kingdom) was in the Neolithic age, showing a pluralistic state of centerlessness, and whether it belonged to the unequal pre-state stage, the chiefdom era, is still controversial. Mr. Su Bingqi, a famous archaeologist, called it the era of "starry skies". The kingdom era is the era of the wide-area monarchy of the Xia and Shang dynasties, which presents a pluralistic state with a center, which can be described as "rare moon stars", or can be called the early dynastic era. Further back is the era of unified empire opened by the Qin and Han Dynasties, which can be described as "Haoyue Volley". It was only in the imperial era that the absolutist imperial power of centralized power and the county system was established, thus finally ending the "feudal society" of decentralized agency. The two major historical nodes in these three stages are Erlitou and the Qin Dynasty. The temporal dimensions of the remains involved in this book can be divided into:
The Era of the "Stars In the Sky" (Ancient Kingdom) (4 places)
Between 5500 and 3800 years ago, that is, from the late Yangshao era to the Longshan era in archaeology, many areas of the Yellow River Basin and the Yangtze River Basin, known as the "Great Two Rivers Basins of East Asia", entered a period of profound social change. With the growth of the population, this period began to appear class differentiation and social complications, and cultural exchanges and frictions and conflicts between regions became more and more frequent.
Many unprecedented cultural phenomena have emerged in clusters, and fundamental changes have taken place in the form of settlements. Many relatively independent tribes or ancient kingdoms coexisted and competed with each other. For example, the Yangshao culture, Shijia culture, Taosi culture, and Wangwan Phase III culture in the Central Plains and its surrounding areas, the Dadiwan culture and Qijia culture in the northwest region, the Hongshan culture in western Liaoning and eastern Inner Mongolia, the Dawenkou-Longshan culture in Shandong region, the Xuejiagang culture in Jianghuai region, the Lingjiatan culture, Songze culture and Liangzhu culture in the lower reaches of the Yangtze River, the Qujialing-Shijiahe culture in the middle reaches of the Yangtze River, and the Baodun culture in the upper reaches of the Yangtze River have their own characteristics and are colorful in terms of cultural appearance.
Liangzhu split stone plough.
It was an era of "stars in the sky", and the abundance of states was the most prominent feature of that era. Some scholars call it the "Age of the State" or the "Age of the Ancient Kingdom", while others borrow the discourse system of European and American academic circles and call it the "Age of chiefdoms". The four Neolithic sites introduced in this book: Yangshao Village in Henan, Gongyi Double Locust Tree, Liangzhu in Hangzhou, Zhejiang and Shenmu In Shaanxi, and the archaeological culture they represent are the four most dazzling star clusters.
The Kingdom Era of "Moon Star Rare" (3 places)
Around 2000 BC, the various archaeological cultures in the surrounding areas of the prosperous Central Plains successively declined; instead, the distribution range of the Erlitou culture broke through the constraints of geographical units for the first time, almost spreading throughout the entire middle reaches of the Yellow River, and the radiation of the Erlitou cultural factors to the surrounding area was even greater than this. At this point, the Center of the Central Plains, which lasted until the Northern Song Dynasty, was officially formed.
The emergence of the Erlitou culture and the Erlitou Capital indicates that the society at that time formed a situation in which a number of competing political entities coexisted, and entered the stage of a wide-area monarchy. The Yellow River Basin and the Yangtze River Basin, the heartland of East Asian civilizations, began to move from a pluralistic state civilization to an integrated dynastic civilization. This book selects three Bronze Age capitals— Erlitou in Luoyang, Henan, Yin Ruins in Anyang, and Sanxingdui in Guanghan, Sichuan, from which we can glimpse the prosperity of the monarchy in the Central Plains and the glory of the pluralistic bronze civilization of the East Asian continent.
Sanxingdui bronzes.
The Imperial Era of "Haoyue Volley" (8 places)
In 221 BC, Qin Shi Huang unified the Six Kingdoms and marked the advent of the imperial era. In the spatial layout of the capital, the Qin and Han Empire continued the tradition of "most capitals without cities" that began in the Erlitou era, and the undefended Guo district formed by the huge capital circle highlighted the strength of the empire and the majestic atmosphere of the imperial capital. The large palace buildings of Afang Palace in Shaanxi and the mausoleum of The First Emperor of Qin are examples of large-scale projects in its capital circle. From the tomb of the Marquis of Haidi in Nanchang, Jiangxi, you can get a glimpse of the wealth and luxury of the royal family of the Han Empire, and the tomb of the king of the Separatist State of Nanyue in Guangdong at the same time is also breathtaking. This is a testimony of the times.
Some scholars divide the entire imperial period of ancient China into three major stages. Among them, the first stage is the ascending period, referring to the Qin and Han Empires, the "first intermediate period" is the Wei and Jin Southern and Northern Dynasties period; the second stage is the peak period, referring to the Sui and Tang Empires, the "second intermediate period" is the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms, the Song and Liao Jinyuan actually have a great transitional nature; the third stage is the period of decline, indicating the Qing Empire. This makes sense, but the politically and militarily impoverished Song Dynasty still blossomed culturally, no less than those so-called prosperous times.
Author 丨 Xu Hong
Excerpt 丨An also
Editor 丨 Zhang Ting
Introduction Proofreading 丨 Lucy