The "five thousand years" of Chinese civilization, at first glance, this seems to be common sense that children know, but is this really the case? If you really pay attention to it, the Chinese civilization is actually far beyond the "five thousand years", and the evidence is hidden in the ancient book "I Ching".
Speaking of which, it needs to be explained that many friends today may classify the I Ching as a myth, divination, and even an unreliable feudal superstition; but some experts classify the I Ching as "philosophy", "arithmetic", and even ancient geography books like the "Classic of Mountains and Seas".
In any case, the "I Ching" is the ancestor of the original Chinese culture, and if we really want to investigate, the "I Ching" is actually three books, namely the so-called "Lianshan", "Guizang" and "Zhou Yi"; "Lianshan" and "Guizang" are said to have long been lost, and even today's "Zhou Yi" is not the original version of the ancients.
Today's "I Ching" contains the "Lineage Of Words", and the eleventh chapter contains "The river is out of the map, Luo is out of the book, and the saint is the sage"; if it is interpreted literally, here are two stories of ancient saints.
The so-called "river out of the map" is basically about the ancient Fuxi era, there were dragon horses in the Yellow River carrying negative "god maps"; "Luo Out of the book", referring to the Dayu era, there were giant camels in the Luo water negative "heavenly book" out. Since then, the ancient sages have deduced "Bagua" based on the "Book of Hetuluo"; at this point, the sages of the Chinese dynasties have followed the example and applied the content evolved from the "Luoshu River Diagram" to govern the country (a saying that evolved from the text).
Today, the so-called "Luoshu River Map" and "Bagua" all belong to the mythological category; in today's developed science and technology, "Luoshu River Diagram" mostly appears in primary school textbooks, when "Huaxia Origin" is said. Today, there are also relevant "researchers", generally concentrated in the field of history or archaeology.
But no one expected that the ancient "Luoshu River Map" actually proved the fact that "the history of China far exceeds five thousand years", which led to the "Lingjiatan Ruins" located in Anhui.
Speaking of "Lingjiatan", it was originally only an ordinary countryside under the jurisdiction of Hanshan County, Anhui Province; when the villagers here cultivated the land, pottery pieces, stone tools, jade pieces and other "miscellaneous things" often appeared in the fields; before the 1950s, the villagers of "Lingjiatan" did not know what cultural relics were, let alone the true value of these pottery, stone and jade pieces, and some even became children's toys.
After the founding of New China, the archaeological work on the mainland gradually unfolded, and some archaeologists also noticed the place of "Lingjiatan"; on one occasion, archaeologists also found a very sharp "stone cymbal" in the hands of the villagers of "Lingjiatan", and the "stone cymbal" at that time turned out to be a bone cutting tool in the hands of the butcher.
There are many similar examples, archaeologists have also reflected the situation of "Lingjiatan" upwards, and preliminarily judged that this should be an ancient human site; but unfortunately, large-scale excavation work has not been carried out, mainly because the environment at that time was in a difficult period, it was difficult to squeeze out the funds for archaeological research.
In this way, it dragged on until 1987, when the local archaeological and cultural relics institute finally squeezed out 3,000 research funds; not to mention today, even in 1987, "3,000 pieces" is difficult to support large-scale archaeological excavations.
Although "3,000 pieces" is a bit less, but it is better than nothing, at that time there was a young man in the archaeological institute called "Zhang Jingguo", he really could not see the excavated cultural relics of "Lingjiatan" being wasted again; in this way, Zhang Jingguo volunteered to unite several enthusiastic young people in the institute who thought the same as him, and took "3,000 pieces" straight to Lingjiatan.
Although this "archaeological team" has only a few people, their enthusiasm for work is very high, and in more than a month, they have excavated 4 ancient tombs, and determined that "Lingjiatan" is a neolithic cultural site more than 5300 years ago; supporting these are a large number of pottery, stone tools and jade artifacts they excavated, the most famous of which is 3 "jade figures".
These 3 "jade figures" are male, wearing a round crown, a twill belt around the waist, a figure eight beard, a garlic nose, thick eyebrows and big eyes, earrings, and a jade ring on the arm, with a solemn and sacred look; this is also the oldest archaeological discovery so far, the ancient human "self-portrait".
Today's "jade statue" has naturally become a national treasure cultural relic, and the name "Lingjiatan" has also caused a sensation from all walks of life; since then, from 1998 to 2000, the state has carried out three large-scale archaeological excavations.
Since then, "Lingjiatan" has been continuously reported, not only including 68 ancient tombs, but also found an "altar"; of the more than 1300 excavated cultural relics, jade accounted for half, and the archaeological team also excavated a "jade pig" about the size of a real piglet.
This "jade pig" is 72 cm long, 20 cm wide, 30 cm high and weighs 88 kg; the "88 kg jade pig" is the "largest and heaviest" piece of jade found in archaeology so far.
In addition to jade, the archaeological team also excavated "bronze metal crucible pieces" from 5300 years ago. The so-called "crucible" is a tool used by the ancients to smelt metal; this proves that the ancestors of "Lingjiatan" already had metal smelting technology as early as 5300 years ago, which may also prove that the mainland appeared "bronze (instrument)" as early as before the Yin merchants.
Especially attractive to experts is a jade turtle, which has a jade plate sandwiched between its upper and lower abdomen; this "jade plate" is rectangular, the edges are curved, and there are holes in the arc, and its front is engraved with "Bagua". At first glance, this "jade version" does not seem to be special, but it should be emphasized that this is a product of more than 5300 years ago.
What is the concept of "5300 years ago"? According to the chronological division of modern history, 5300 years ago was still in the Neolithic Age, when not to mention the written word, human survival is still a big problem; it is in this case, 5300 years ago there was actually "Gossip", is the legend of "Luoshu River Map" true?
If according to legend, the "Dragon Turtle Negative Map Out of Luoshui" occurred in the Dayu Era, that is, the legendary "Xia Dynasty", which should be 3300 years ago; of course, whether the "Xia Dynasty" really exists is still controversial today, at least in modern archaeology, no evidence of the existence of the Xia Dynasty has been found.
Here's the key. The "jade turtle" with the bagua motif found at the Lingjiatan site today is a product of more than 5,300 years ago; according to myths and legends, the "Book of Luo" appeared in the Dayu era 3,300 years ago, when there should have been no "bagua". However, if there was no "gossip" 5300 years ago, how should this "jade turtle" found in the Lingjiatan site be explained?
Since there was "bagua" 5300 years ago, does that mean that the original Chinese culture was already formed as early as 5300 years ago? By extension, has the history of China far exceeded the "five thousand years"?