▲The "Divine Man Beast Face Pattern" and line drawing on the Liangzhu Jade
If The Great Yu Zhi Shui is still a legend,
Then according to the latest archaeological findings,
Dams in the Liangzhu area,
It can be regarded as the earliest water conservancy project in China and even in the world.
Since 2009,
The ruins of a dam near the ancient city of Liangzhu
Successively discovered by archaeologists,
This finding,
Not only did the Chinese civilization exist
Can be compared with the water conservancy system of ancient Egypt and the Two Rivers Valley,
Also world-famous archaeologist Colin Renforu
While marveling and emphasizing,
If his Archaeology: Theory, Methods, and Practices is republished,
We must add Our country's Liangzhu civilization to it.
Since the Discovery of the Liangzhu Site in 1936,
It has been more than 80 years,
Investigation and excavation of large-scale water conservancy projects outside the ancient city of Liangzhu in Yuhang, Zhejiang,
It was also successfully selected as one of the top ten new archaeological discoveries in China in 2015.
On the afternoon of July 6, 2019,
The ruins of Liangzhu Ancient City in Zhejiang Province were inscribed on the World Heritage List.
It became the 32nd World Cultural Heritage Site of our country.
But at one time,
Liangzhu's popularity in the eyes of the public
Not as high as Yanshi Erlitou, Anyang Yin Ruins and other places,
Why?
To this end,
The Paper has launched a report,
Interviewed the tomb of the anti-mountain Liangzhu cultural aristocrats,
The main excavators of the site of the Liangzhu Cultural Center in Mojiao Mountain:
Professor Yang Nan of the School of History and Culture of the Minzu University of China,
Ask him to tell us the story behind Liangzhu.
▲Professor Yang Nan
The Paper: You participated in the archaeological work of the anti-Mountain Liangzhu Cultural Aristocratic Tomb, and then presided over the excavation of the site of the Liangzhu Cultural Center in Mojiao Mountain, so what role did the Liangzhu culture play in the origin of China's ancient civilization?
Yang Nan: The Taihu Lake area in the lower reaches of the Yangtze River has always been an important area for exploring the origin, development and formation of ancient civilizations, including the areas of southern Jiangsu, northern Zhejiang and Shanghai. Between 7,000 and 4,000 years ago, the region experienced the Majiabang culture, Songze culture, Liangzhu culture, Qianshan Yang culture and Guangfulin culture, forming a unique cultural tradition that is different from other regions. The Liangzhu culture (dating from about 5300 to 4300 years ago) not only represents the highest level of prehistoric cultural development in the Taihu Lake area in the lower reaches of the Yangtze River, but is also considered to be one of the most important archaeological cultures to explore the origin of Chinese civilization.
▲ Anti-mountain cemetery
The reason for this understanding is that compared with other cultures of the same period, the degree of development of Liangzhu culture and the social complexity it reflects are really impressive, for example, the Liangzhu people have widely used stone ploughs in agricultural production, which is very rare in other cultures; its jade production level has reached the peak; at the same time, the developed wheel pottery technology is only comparable to longshan culture; in addition, its silk industry and lacquer wood industry are also in a leading position.
In short, since the 1980s, major archaeological discoveries marked by the temple piers in Jiangsu, Fuquan Mountain in Shanghai, the anti-mountain aristocratic tombs in Zhejiang, the altars of Yaoshan and Huiguanshan, the palaces of Mojiaoshan, the ancient city of Liangzhu and the Liangzhu Dam have shown that the society represented by Liangzhu culture has entered a civilized form.
▲ Excavation of the tomb
(Top left: Mou Yongkang, bottom left: Wang Mingda,
Top right: Rui Guoyao, Center right: Liu Bin, bottom right: Yang Nan)
I had the honor to follow the team leader, Mr. Wang Mingda, throughout the excavation of the anti-Shan Liangzhu Cultural Noble Cemetery in 1986, and was responsible for the excavation and mapping of the three tombs M14, M17 and M20. The excavation of the Anti-Mountain Cemetery has achieved a new breakthrough in the field archaeology of the Liangzhu culture, not only confirming that the Anti-Mountain is actually a large-scale high-rise noble cemetery built by hand, but also accurately finding the opening layer of the tomb for the first time, and cleaning out 11 rectangular vertical pit tombs, completely changing the traditional understanding that liangzhu culture is a popular "no digging grave, flat burial" burial custom.
Another important problem was the first complete restoration of the Liangzhu culture's jade-and-cymbal combination in M14, i.e., it was a luxurious ceremonial weapon composed of jade, and (decayed wood). Yu Mao and Yu Lan respectively as the top and bottom of the tang (that is, the handle of the jade cymbal), in the past in other areas of liangzhu noble tombs have been found from time to time, but it is not clear what its function is, let alone what it will do with the use of jade, so archaeological reports generally call it "ship-shaped ornament" according to its shape characteristics.
▲The combination of jade and jade excavated from the anti-mountain M14
When cleaning up the anti-mountain M14, I found that there were several yellow jade grains smaller than mung beans scattered on the surface near the perforation site of the jade, with one side flat and the other side curved and convex. What are these gadgets for? So I used a small bamboo skewer to carefully remove the collapsed soil and silt bit by bit, carefully retaining the location of each jade grain, and after a long time, a 70-centimeter-long jade grain belt composed of nearly a hundred jade grains appeared in front of me, which was just connected to the "ship-shaped ornament" seen above and below through the jade.
After on-site analysis, we suddenly realized that the so-called "ship-shaped ornament" was originally a decoration (jade and jade) embedded in the wooden jade handle (柲), and the surface of the handle was also inlaid or pasted with dense jade grains as decoration, although the organic handle had decayed, but following the preserved jade grains, we finally figured out the use of the "ship-shaped ornament" and the complete combination relationship of the jade.
Anti-mountain cemetery is the highest level of liangzhu culture level of aristocratic cemetery seen so far, in addition to the wide tomb and the discovery of lacquer coffin traces, the cemetery unearthed more than 3500 pieces of jade, more than 20 kinds of species, its production process level is unique in Liangzhu culture jade. The tomb is buried with jade and jade, symbolizing that the owner of the tomb may have divine and military power during his lifetime.
For example, in the large number of jade artifacts buried with it, there is a large jade that weighs 6.5 kilograms, and what is more attractive is that the four straight grooves of this jade are carved with images of the face of a god, man, and beast, a total of 8, which are carved with bas-relief and thin line carving techniques. Such a big jade is the only one so far, which can be called the "King of Chun". I remember when I cleaned up the artifact, it just appeared, we thought it was a jade ring, and then peeled it down, I didn't expect that it was an unprecedented, huge jade, everyone was excited for a while.
▲The Anti-Mountain M12 "King of Chun" weighs 6.5 kg
It is the most exquisitely carved, the best quality and the largest volume of jade so far
In addition, the tomb also unearthed a piece of exquisite jade "King Of Qi", the surface of which is also engraved with bas-relief gods, men, beasts and birds, and the jade in other Liangzhu tombs known today are plain faces. It can be seen that the owner of the tomb of M12 is obviously the highest-ranking person in the anti-mountain noble cemetery, and Mr. Yan Wenming said that he "looks very much like the original king, and the nobles buried in the same cemetery are important members of the royal family."
▲Anti-mountain M12 Jade King
The Mojiaoshan site, which is recognized as the ceremonial center or palace building of the Liangzhu culture, is based on major discoveries of field archaeology in 1987 and 1992-1993. The survey and excavation results show that the site is a man-made, about 8 meters high rectangular earthen platform, it is 670 meters long from east to west, 450 meters wide from north to south, with a total area of more than 300,000 square meters. In the past, local farmers used to turn the soil here to sift through the sand in order to build a house, "but why is there sand in such a high place?" Mr. Mou Yongkang, director of the archaeological office, asked us, "If it is the result of river alluvial, it is obviously impossible to explain, these sands are undoubtedly carried by hand. So what exactly is this sand used for, and when was it moved?"
In order to clarify these problems, I decided to make a new section in the excavation area using the drainage ditches previously dug by the farmers, and the results were important findings, the cross-section showed a regular separation of sand and mud layers, so many as 13 layers, and the mud section showed clear wavy signs, which I initially judged to be related to ramming activities.
▲Floor plan of the ruins of mojiaoshan palace and excavation site of mojiaoshan mountain
(Left: Yang Nan, Center: Yan Wenming, Right: Wang Mingda)
In order to confirm this view, Zhao Ye and I carefully peeled out the multi-level rammed nest ruins in the exploration party, and finally confirmed that it was a large rammed earth platform foundation of the Liangzhu period, with an area of more than 30,000 square meters. The reason why the Liangzhu people use the ramming method of separating the sand layer from the mud layer in the process of ramming is to increase the density of the rammed earth platform foundation and make it more firm.
Since round-headed rammers were used at that time, the rammed nest appeared as a circular bottom feature, which was completely different from the rammed earth characteristics of the Central Plains. After seeing the dense rammed nests on the rammed earth, Mr. Yan Wenming said, "This is the best rammed earth seen in the Liangzhu culture and the archaeological cultures of the entire Longshan era", "It is almost like the rammed earth of the Erlitou culture!" "We also found rows of large column pits on the rammed earth platform foundations, larger than 1 meter in diameter, while the remains of the column holes showed the thickest pillars with a diameter of 60 centimeters.
These phenomena prove that the Liangzhu nobles drove a large number of people to build the huge rectangular high platform foundation of Mojiao Mountain, and built a large building such as a palace on it, mr. Yan believes that "it is very likely that it is the earliest palace in China.".
How do you view the status of the Mojiaoshan site? I often think of such an analogy: if the tombs of the anti-mountain noble cemetery are compared to the thirteen tombs, then the mojiaoshan ruins are equivalent to the Forbidden City! In fact, the discovery of Liangzhu Ancient City further highlights the central position of the Mojiaoshan ruins, that is, the main structure of Liangzhu Ancient City can be divided into threefold: the most central is the Mojiaoshan Palace District, which is surrounded by the city wall and the outer Guo, Liu Bin, Wang Ningyuan and Chen Minghui believe that such a structure is "similar to the triple structural system of the later capital city of Miyagi, the Imperial City, and the Waiguo, which should be the earliest triple urban pattern in China, which has important pioneering significance."
▲Mojiaoshan Palace and Liangzhu Ancient City
In the center of Liangzhu Ancient City, there is a cemetery of anti-mountain nobles in the northwest of Mojiao Mountain, and in the northeast and northwest of the city there are Yao Mountain and Huiguan Mountain altars and noble cemeteries, and there are large-scale water conservancy facilities distributed in the northwest outside the city. Such a layout shows that the ancient city of Liangzhu with the Mojiaoshan Palace as the core should be the political center within the distribution range of the entire Liangzhu culture. The above fully reflects that the Liangzhu society with the color of "religion and power" has entered the era of civilization. A comprehensive understanding of the characteristics of Liangzhu civilization will undoubtedly provide a new perspective for the in-depth discussion of the different models of the origin, development and formation of Chinese civilization.
The Paper: Liangzhu is definitely a strange flower of China's prehistoric civilization, but the public is not as familiar with it as Yanshi Erlitou and Anyang Yin Ruins, what is the reason for this? Is it influenced by the "Central Plains Centrism"?
Yang Nan: From the perspective of archaeological history, the Central Plains region has long been the focus of archaeological work, which is closely related to historical documents and traditional historical views. Important archaeological discoveries not only confirm the existence of the Shang Dynasty, but also provide rich materials for exploring the Xia Dynasty or "earliest China", which shows that the central position and influence of the Central Plains culture are objectively existent. This is also the reason why everyone is more familiar with the culture of Yin Ruins and Erlitou.
Although Mr. Shi Xingeng discovered the Liangzhu site as early as 1936, due to the limitations of materials and the influence of the concept of "Yangshao-Longshan" dominating the world, the Liangzhu remains were once considered to be the result of the southward development of Longshan culture. With the development of archaeological work since the founding of the People's Republic of China, archaeologists have noticed and begun to emphasize the characteristics of Liangzhu relics that are different from the Longshan culture, and at the end of 1959, Mr. Xia Nai officially proposed the name of "Liangzhu Culture". With a series of new archaeological discoveries in the 20th century, especially since the 1980s, traditional concepts have given way to new understandings, and Liangzhu culture is being understood by more and more people.
▲Liangzhu culture carved bird standing high platform Fu Yubi
The Paper: Recently, the ruins of a dam dating from 5,000 to 4,800 years ago were found on the outskirts of the ancient city of Liangzhu in Yuhang, where Zhejiang is located, which is undoubtedly the earliest water conservancy project in China, not only earlier than the era of "Dayu Zhishui", but more importantly, it is true and reliable. Why did the ancestors of Liangzhu have such a high level of technology at such an early age? What kind of impact did the water conservancy project have on the settlement form of the Ancestors of Liangzhu?
Yang Nan: The construction of water conservancy projects and the natural environment of Liangzhu Ancient City and its peripheral ruins are inseparable, and the north of Liangzhu Ancient City is not far north of the Tianmu Mountain, and the summer temperature is hot and rainy, and once it causes flash floods, it will directly threaten the liangzhu ancient city and ruins group located in the low-lying area. Therefore, the construction of water conservancy projects is a necessary measure for Liangzhu society to be in a stable environment. At present, 11 dams have been discovered, mainly built in the valley mouth between the two mountains, and divided into high and low dam protection systems, so that a large amount of rainwater can be stored in the valley and lowland to avoid flooding.
▲Liangzhu Dam
In addition, liangzhu ancient city has 8 water gates and 1 land gate, indicating that most of the people in Liangzhu society rely on water transportation to connect with the outside world. The dam-formed reservoir can connect the surrounding waters, together with the rivers in the ancient city, forming a very effective waterway transportation network. Liangzhu people to build such a large-scale water conservancy facilities, the need to organize a lot of manpower and material resources, the need for practical planning and design, but also the need for skilled and reliable construction technology, these aspects can undoubtedly be regarded as an important feature of Liangzhu civilization, and the emergence of early civilization in the world is often closely related to water control activities.
Liangzhu people had such advanced technology and engineering five thousand years ago, which is related to the degree of social development at that time, whether it is based on the control of the ruling class, or the power of religion to make people voluntarily do these things, the purpose is to maintain the normal operation of the whole society.
The Paper: The combination of the Liangzhu Dam and the ancient city of Liangzhu has made us form some new understanding of the Liangzhu civilization, for example, Mr. Li Boqian of Peking University said that it shows that Liangzhu at that time has entered the stage of the ancient country, so can we think that Liangzhu was the "earliest China" at that time?
Yang Nan: Actually, Mr. Li Boqian's views on this issue have a process of change. He initially thought that it could be called "Liangzhu Ancient Kingdom", which was characterized by "theocracy dominating everything", and later emphasized that "the ancient country of Liangzhu culture is a country that combines theocracy, military power and royal power", and in recent years has put forward a new point of view, that is, "Liangzhu culture, Tao temple culture, Henan Longshan culture has entered the kingdom stage, and the most important symbol is the expansion of coercive power and the use of violence". The adjustment of the views reflects Mr. Li's in-depth thinking based on a comprehensive comparison of archaeological materials.
In addition to holding the "ancient kingdom theory" or "kingdom theory", some other scholars also have different theories such as "chiefdom theory", "state theory", "Fangguo theory", and "early state theory", but in addition to the "chiefdom theory" that expresses the complex social form of the former state, it is worth noting and pondering that different scholars use the same concept but often have different interpretations, or different scholars state the same content but use different concepts.
This shows that the definition of the concept of the state in question and its basis are far from consistent in the academic community. Although there is still controversy about what "country" Liangzhu is, it can be seen through these mixed expressions that most people believe that Liangzhu society has entered the era of civilization.
As for whether Liangzhu can be regarded as the "earliest China" at that time, this is a question that needs to be seriously analyzed. What is "China"? A strict distinction should be made between the ancient concept of "China" and the concept of China formed since modern times. The word "China" appears as early as the pre-Qin literature Shang Shu and the Book of Poetry, as well as the inscriptions of the Western Zhou bronze "He Zun", which refers to the Central Plains region centered on the Luoyang Basin.
There is also a record in the "Records of History" that Xia Shang zhou "lived between heluo for three generations", which shows that the early "China" was limited to a certain range of time and space. Mr. Xu Hong's political entity represented by the Erlitou culture (the Erlitou country) as the "earliest China" has a relatively sufficient documentary and archaeological basis. I think that although Liangzhu culture predates Erlitou, there is no direct relationship between the two. Facts show that Liangzhu is another independent civilization entity that emerged earlier outside the Central Plains, or it can be called "Liangzhu State".
▲He Zun inscription rubbing: "Zhaozi China"
The Paper: At both the settlement form and the institutional level, Liangzhu reached a very high level at that time, but why did the Liangzhu civilization, which was once flourishing, decline?
Yang Nan: Regarding the reasons for the decline of liangzhu civilization, there is no consensus in academic circles, mainly the theory of flood disasters and the imbalance of social relations. The first theory is that the Area Around Taihu Lake is located in the lower reaches of the Yangtze River with low and open terrain, and is close to the ocean, with a humid and hot climate and abundant precipitation, so it is highly susceptible to coastal intrusion or flooding.
Related remains have indeed been found on some sites of the late Liangzhu culture, such as Hangzhou Paddy Field Vendors, Wuxing Meiyan, Qingpu Orchard Village and other sites with several centimeters of thick silt layers, which are used as direct evidence of flood theory. However, there is no evidence that the flood flooded the entire distribution area of Liangzhu culture, and even so, the Liangzhu people could migrate to higher ground places to re-establish camp and leave the remnants of their lives. Therefore, the available evidence shows a certain range of flood effects does not confirm that it is the main reason for the decline of the Liangzhu culture.
The second theory emphasizes that the imbalance of social relations is the internal cause of the decline of Liangzhu culture, which is based on the fact that due to the pursuit of luxury by the aristocratic class, a large number of manpower and material resources have been used for a long time in civil engineering and luxury supplies, such a large-scale and continuous unproductive labor has overwhelmed Liangzhu society, and the imbalance of internal and external relations in society is inevitable, which leads to the gradual disintegration of the social control system and ultimately leads to the complete decline of Liangzhu culture. This statement is undoubtedly reasonable, and although it is only a hypothesis, it has positive and enlightening significance.
In short, the decline and fall of Liangzhu culture is a very complex issue, and according to the existing materials, it is difficult to simply say which cause directly led to the complete collapse of Liangzhu civilization. As discussed as the reasons for the disappearance of the Maya civilization, although dozens of explanations have been proposed, there is still no consensus, because none of these views can be fully confirmed, which is the charm of archaeology's continuous exploration of the unknown.
▲Yu Huang String Liangzhu site excavated
The Paper: After the decline of Liangzhu civilization, where to go? Among the six major discoveries of Chinese archaeology in 2015, the "Liangzhu Cultural Site of Jiangsu Xinghua and Jiangzhuang in Dongtai City" is the first to prove that the Liangzhu culture has expanded to the north of the Yangtze River in China.
Yang Nan: After the decline of Liangzhu culture, its whereabouts are also a matter of great concern. Due to the confirmation of Qianshan Yang culture and Guangfulin culture, it not only makes up for the lack of links in the time chain between Liangzhu culture and Maqiao culture, but also changes the impression of "cultural fault" caused by the "sudden disappearance" of Liangzhu culture in the Taihu Lake area to a certain extent, that is, some factors of Qianshan Yang culture (such as flat side foot ding, wheeled clay black pottery, ornamentation and construction of tutai, etc.) still reflect its inheritance relationship with Liangzhu culture.
On the other hand, the discovery of the Haochuan cemetery in southern Zhejiang also provides an important clue for exploring the whereabouts of Liangzhu culture. In addition to its own characteristics, many pottery, stone tools and some jades have obvious Liangzhu cultural styles, which are considered to be a new archaeological culture formed under local conditions by the Liangzhu people, that is, the Haochuan culture.
The significance of the discovery of the Jiangzhuang site is not only that it is the first time to prove that there are large settlements of Liangzhu culture distributed north of the Yangtze River, which brings a new understanding of the development and distribution of Liangzhu culture; more importantly, more than 200 of them and well-preserved human bones provide important first-hand materials for our research, in addition to examining the characteristics of burial customs, the relationship between gender and social division of labor, the hierarchy, etc., it is also possible to fully understand whether these deceased people have kinship with the help of scientific and technological means. Whether they were of the same population as the people of their culture before and after or at the same time, the food structure of the deceased before and after death, the level of health, and the cause of death.
This was unimaginable before, because the acidic soil in the Jiangnan region made it difficult to preserve most of the human bones in the previous Liangzhu tombs, so the relevant research could not be carried out at all, and the discovery of the Jiang Zhuang cemetery will certainly help fill the gap in these aspects of liangzhu culture, so that we can obtain a more diversified understanding.
▲Trident ornament Liangzhu site excavated
▲Overlooking the ruins of Liangzhu Ancient City
▲Liangzhu ruins under the stars @ Qianjiang Evening News
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