In November 1936, when the archaeologist Shi Xingen conducted a field survey of Liangzhu, he found several pieces of black and light pottery near Zhucundu, which made Shi Xin, who had lived in Liangzhu since childhood, more excited, with his understanding of this land, he believed that there must be important cultural relics buried in the Liangzhu area, and in December of this year, Shi Xin presided over the first excavation of the Liangzhu area.
In 1938, Shi Xin published the archaeological excavation report "Liangzhu", and the Liangzhu site began to spread its reputation.
In fact, the first to start studying Liangzhu culture was not Shi Xingen, but He Tianxing.
Before the 1930s, in the Liangzhu area, the trend of digging jade was very popular, and many Liangzhu ancient jade fell into the folk, he Tianxing, who was studying at Fudan University at that time, bought a lot of pottery and stone tools, and conducted investigations and studies on this, and published the book "Stone Tools and Black Pottery in Liangzhu Town, Hangxian County", which can be seen as the beginning of the study of Liangzhu culture.
At first, some people also referred to the Liangzhu culture as the Longshan culture, until December 1959, the archaeological expert Mr. Xia Nai proposed the name of "Liangzhu Culture" at the meeting of the leaders of the Yangtze River Cultural Relics and Archaeology Team, and the Liangzhu culture began to be recognized in the archaeological community, and later due to the influence of political reasons, it fell silent here, and the study of Liangzhu culture also turned to a low ebb.
It was not until the 1970s that the Liangzhu site regained its attention.
Caoshoe Mountain is one of the Liangzhu cultural sites excavated later, where 70 tombs were found, and a large number of perforated stone axes, stone axes, jade hammers, jade quartz, jade pendants, and various pottery were unearthed.
In addition to The Grass Shoe Mountain, other Liangzhu cultural sites have also been discovered.
One day, the villagers of Yuhang County, Changming Township, when ploughing the ground, dug out some ancient jade, and after identification by the cultural relics department, these ancient jades have a history of more than 5,000 years, so another Liangzhu cultural site, Anti-Mountain, began to unveil its mystery to the world.
In 1987, the Yaoshan ruins were discovered five kilometers away from the Anti-Mountain, and in the following time, traces of Liangzhu cultural sites were also continuously found in Changzhou, Suzhou, and Shanghai, and various major discoveries followed, setting off a wave of Liangzhu cultural research that has lasted to this day in and out of the sea.
In 1986, the excavation team of the Zhejiang Institute of Archaeology conducted archaeological excavations on The Anti-Mountain, and found a total of 11 tombs, with more than 1,200 burial items, including a large number of exquisite jade objects, which exceeded the scale of previous discoveries.
In other sites of Liangzhu culture, jade has also been excavated in large quantities, Liangzhu jade is not only numerous, but also quite rich in types, there are jade bracelets, jade huang, jade strings, jade hooks, etc., jade, is the largest number of Liangzhu culture, the most representative relics. These precious Liangzhu jade objects reproduce the jade culture that flourished in that year.
Among the jade artifacts excavated at the Liangzhu site, the most representative is Yu Chun.
Most of them are cylindrical jade with an inner circle and an outer square, and a few are also cylindrical.
Among all the excavated jade chun, the sacred beast pattern yu chun excavated from the anti-mountain site is the largest jade chun seen today, it is a flat square column, the inner circle is square, the shape is wide and large, the ornamentation is unique, the lines are smooth, divided into four sections, weighing 6.5 kg, known as the King of Yu Chun.
Many people believe that it is the primitive ancestors' understanding and worship of the universe, they believe that jade can understand the gods, and in the ancient Chinese cosmology, there has always been a saying that the sky is round, so they designed the structure of yu chun as an inner circle and an outer square.
The circle, symbolizing the heavens, the square, and the symbolic earth, just constitute the geometric symbols of heaven and earth, symbolizing the penetration of heaven and earth. At the same time, the jade is also carved with a sacred beast to symbolize the messenger who communicates with heaven and earth, so it seems that the jade is supposed to be the religious magic instrument of the ancient liangzhu people to sacrifice heaven and earth.
This is just speculation, none of us today can explore the true thoughts of the ancients, but it is certain that the Liangzhu people of ancient times, with their rich imagination and creativity, carved mysterious patterns on almost all jade.
The pattern as a whole resembles a heroic god of war, but from another point of view, it seems to be a composite image of people and animals, the upper half is a majestic god man, the lower half is a beast, the difference between this pattern in jade is only complicated and simple, it seems to be a kind of divine emblem of the Liangzhu ancients.
The ancestors of Liangzhu used these exquisite jades engraved with the emblem of the gods to communicate with the gods and pray for the protection of the heavens.
In that era, the level of productivity was low, people's ability to transform nature was limited, and they faced great threats from the outside, so they placed their expectations of life on the gods, believed in the great power of the gods, and built many altars for the gods.
The two altars found in the Liangzhu site are made of pure tri-colored earth, the color of the soil is clearly divided, but so far we can not explain the intention of the soil to divide the three colors, there are some tombs distributed around the altar, from the burial items in the tomb, the owner of the tomb may be the leader of various tribes, the Liangzhu people buried their leader next to the altar where the witch and the gods met, probably hoping that their dead leader can bless his subjects for generations.
The relics of Liangzhu culture are not only manifested in spiritual beliefs, but also in agricultural production and the manufacture of production tools.
The distribution range of the Liangzhu site is in the Taihu Lake basin with humid climate and abundant rain, which is suitable for rice cultivation, and according to the survey, the Liangzhu site area is the most intensive area of prehistoric rice farming in Southeast Asia.
Diagonal handle ripper
Stone plow
In the process of agricultural production, they continued to explore, invented a lot of agricultural tools, they used inclined earth breakers, stone ploughs to reclaim the land, sprinkle seeds, and then, with stone tools to weed, after the rice matured, and then harvested with stone sickles.
The use of these tools greatly increased labor productivity and saved a lot of labor, so some people separated from agricultural farming and engaged in handicrafts such as pottery, textiles and jade. Jade, textile silk, lacquerware, bamboo, stoneware, etc. were also handmade and reached their peak during this period.
There are still many remnants of the Liangzhu site that we have not mentioned, and there are also many problems that we have not been able to explain. To be sure, the people of that time had begun to shake off the barbaric era and take steps towards civilization.
But Liangzhu culture mysteriously disappeared at this time, for the endless historical starry sky, its existence is like a dazzling shooting star, only drawing a beautiful arc in the sky, leaving future generations with endless imagination.
The excavation of the Yin Ruins site made people know the brilliant Shang Dynasty civilization, and also made people think that it was the origin of Chinese civilization, and in 1936, the discovery of the Liangzhu ruins made people know another birthplace of Chinese civilization, the Yangtze River Basin.
As early as 5,000 years ago, the dawn of civilization has illuminated here, and Liangzhu culture has taken the lead in entering the era of civilization, opening the curtain for the splendid oriental civilization.
Liangzhu is a beautiful and mysterious place, but history seems to have inadvertently left him out, 5,000 years later, when it is discovered by archaeologists, we can feel the wisdom of ancient ancestors living thousands of years ago and the splendid civilization that shocked the world through those delicate, warm, crystalline, pure jade.
With the continuous deepening of research, the Liangzhu culture has increasingly shown its mystery, and how was the complex Liangzhu jade made at the level of productivity at that time? What is the meaning of the mysterious patterns that appear repeatedly on the jade? Why did Liangzhu culture suddenly disappear? Which culture will eventually inherit it?
These questions are confusing to archaeologists, and we can only look forward to further deepening the archaeological excavation work and interpreting the mysteries of Liangzhu culture from multiple perspectives.
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Abstract: Liangzhu is a beautiful and mysterious place, Liangzhu civilization, it is so far discovered, the earliest country in the land of China, jade civilization, agricultural production and advanced invention of production tools, more and more show its mystery, explore Liangzhu cultural sites, explore Liangzhu sites, let people understand the ancient culture at close range.
Keywords: the mystery of Liangzhu culture, Liangzhu cultural sites, the discovery of a large number of jade