clear
Diameter 7.7 cm Thickness 0.7 cm
The Tomb of Xifeng Temple in Mentougou District, Beijing was excavated
Capital Museum
Round, with broad edges and a central engraved pattern, semi-embossed. On one side are lotus leaves and blooming lotus flowers, the lotus leaves are paved, and the blooming lotus flowers are either front or side, interspersed with stems; the composition is full and dense. Using Fan casting, engraving and other techniques, the pattern shape is accurate and vivid, and the pattern is delicate and smooth, which is both realistic and decorative. On the other side, the center is the patterned Chinese character "Shou", and the Tibetan six-character mantra around the "Shou" character is "唵, 嘛, 呀,叭,咪、吽" (read from the left side of the "寿" character). The pattern of the whole artifact symbolizes auspiciousness and beauty.
"From the Distribution of Neolithic Culture and Its Economic Types to the Central Area of Ancient Civilization: On the Heluo Civilization"
Chen Changyuan, Collected Papers on Heluo Civilization, pp. 60-82, Zhongzhou Ancient Books Publishing House, 1993
This article discusses the main cultural types of the Neolithic age and their economic content, and discusses the ancient Chinese civilization. It is believed that the culture of northern China as a whole can be divided into two different cultural systems, one is the fine stone tool culture of the north, which belongs to the hunting economy; One is the whetstone culture of the Yellow River Basin. A mixed culture is formed in the contact zone between the two cultures in the north, which belongs to the dryland agricultural economy. The human beings of the fine stone tool culture are dominated by the nomadic hunting economy, while the grinding stone tool culture is a comprehensive economy based on agriculture. As for mixed cultures, there are both economic components. In the middle and lower reaches of the Yangtze River, from the middle of the Neolithic Age, cereal crops represented by rice have been cultivated and expanded to a fairly wide area. However, from the distribution of rice and other observations, the middle and lower reaches of the Yangtze River should be the origin center of rice crops. The Central Plains, that is, Jinnan, Henan and Guanzhong in Shaanxi in the Yellow River Basin, are the earliest important production areas and origin centers of millet. The Loess Plateau in the Yellow River Basin has suitable conditions for agricultural economic development, so the Yellow River Basin is generally regarded as the cradle of ancient Chinese civilization. More precisely, it should be one of the centers of ancient cultures in Asia or the world. According to the distribution of the ruins of millet discovered in recent years, it can be seen that the agricultural economy at that time was increasingly developed and consolidated, and the settlements were dense, constituting the main body of China's ancient civilization. Its economic center is still in the Iloilo River Basin, Weishui River Basin and FenliShui River Basin. Due to the development of economy and culture, the division between the rich and the poor and the class were first produced in this region, thus entering the era of civilization and laying the foundation for the civilization of xia, Shang, and Zhou, and the core of this central area was in the Heluo area. From the perspective of the entire Neolithic economic and cultural type division, the Central Plains Cultural District is the central distribution area, and its core is the Heluo area. The central plains culture plays the role of a central axis, influencing the surrounding culture. Therefore, the author believes that the center of China's ancient civilization should be in the Yellow River Basin, while its core is in the Heluo region.
Rice Farming and Oriental Civilization
Yan Wenming, Proceedings of the Sino-Japanese Symposium on Oriental Thought, Shanghai Sanlian Bookstore, 1997, Agricultural Occurrence and the Origin of Civilization, pages 47-49, Science Press, 2000
This paper argues that the occurrence of ancient civilizations is very closely related to the development of grain agriculture. All the world's famous ancient civilizations are based on the high development of grain agriculture. Eastern civilizations (referring to East Asian civilizations rather than ancient Eastern civilizations) also arose on the basis of the development of grain agriculture. It has always been thought that the cradle of Eastern civilization is in the Yellow River Basin, and the Yellow River Basin is the origin of millet and millet, and it seems that eastern civilization developed on the basis of the extensive cultivation of millet and millet. Based on archaeological findings, the Yangtze River Basin is the origin and earliest developed area of rice farming, and discusses that the emergence and development of ancient civilizations in the East are inseparable from the development of rice farming. The countries of East Asia have gradually entered civilized societies almost exclusively on the basis of the development of rice farming.
"Food Production Revolution and the Origin of Civilization-—— One of the Theoretical Reflections on the Origin of Chinese Civilization
Cao Bingwu, China Cultural Relics Daily, April 15, 1998, 3rd edition
This article elaborates on the relationship between the food production revolution and the origin of civilization. The "text" of "civilization" does not refer only to the writing, the city or other important factors that constitute civilized society, but to the existence of people in social life who have been liberated from the work of food production and other activities—this is the economic and social basis on which all the so-called factors of civilization depend. Therefore, the question of the origin of civilization is first and foremost a historical process, which should be observed as a civilized movement of pre-civilized society, and the starting point of understanding should begin with the neolithic food production revolution in archaeology, that is, the agricultural revolution. Several civilizations of independent origin in the world have all experienced the necessary stage of the food production revolution. Prior to this, social life, of course, also included activities with food production. However, after the revolution, the way of food production has undergone major changes, first of all, the original gathering and hunting have gradually been replaced by farming and animal husbandry, then the temporal and spatial arrangement and organization of production and life are very different from the past, and then the settlement is generated, and the food production is greatly increased, which leads to an increase in population, surplus products and the division of labor, the emergence of people who are no longer directly engaged in food production (at least in part) but can still survive, social life is becoming more and more diversified, and social organization is becoming more and more complex. In this way, a new way of life was born. In the cishan-Pei Ligang cultural period of 7000 to 8000 years ago, many civilization factors have emerged in various parts of China, the process of civilization of social life has begun, and the structural framework and Chinese characteristics of civilized life based on the agricultural economy have begun to take shape.