Erlitou culture: the founder of Chinese orthodoxy

Erlitou culture is a type of archaeological cultural relics represented by the first to fourth phases of the Erlitou site in luoyang basin of Henan Province, and its importance is mainly reflected in: first, it rises and flourishes in the heartland of the traditional Central Plains; second, it is later in time than the Henan Longshan culture and earlier than the Shang Dynasty Erligang culture represented by Zhengzhou Shangcheng; third, the Erlitou site itself is also the only super-large, rich and splendid central settlement with Duyi nature in the core area of the Central Plains before Zhengzhou Shangcheng. Therefore, whether the Erlitou culture is a Xia culture or not, it does not affect its position as a key player in the formation and evolution of early Chinese civilization since the late Neolithic Period, so the Erlitou culture has also been one of the focuses of academic attention in recent years to explore the sources of early Chinese countries and civilizations.

At present, more than 500 various sites of the Erlitou culture have been found, concentrated in the surrounding areas of Huansong Mountain in central Henan and western Henan, and its heyday is as far north as jinzhong, west to the Shangzhou region of eastern Shaanxi and the upper reaches of the Danjiang River, south to northern Hubei, and east to eastern Henan, and its influence is even greater. In the Xia-Shang-Zhou Dynasty Project, the Erlitou site underwent a series of high-precision carbon dating and correction, and the era was roughly determined between 1800 BC and 1500 BC. In addition to the key sites in time and space, only from the perspective of archaeological and cultural outlook, the Erlitou culture and the Erlitou site do have many extraordinary manifestations, which have many different characteristics from the previous and contemporaneous archaeological cultures, including the representative cultures and sites of the civilization highlands in various places during the Longshan period.

First, the core of civilization where multiple cultural elements converge

First of all, Erlitou culture is a new culture formed by the fusion of elements of several different cultures. Many previous scholars have analyzed the origins of Erlitou culture from the perspective of typology and cultural factors. With the deepening of archaeological discoveries and understanding, most scholars agree that as the combination of pottery that was the main daily use and the most accurate marker of archaeological culture at that time, the Erlitou culture was mainly based on the integration of the coal mountain type south of the Songshan culture of the local Henan Longshan culture and the Wangwan type north of the Songshan mountain, which absorbed a large number of factors such as the Zhaolutai in eastern Henan and the Hougang II culture in northern Henan, and developed rapidly through a short period of new period. Of course, before and after this, pottery cultural factors from Shandong, Anhui and even the northwest also poured into this area. In fact, all aspects of the Erlitou culture clearly show the characteristics of extensive absorption and integration of cultural factors in all directions of the surrounding neighborhood, unlike the previous archaeological cultures that often undergo turnaround changes due to the natural transmutation of an early culture or the influence of external factors. The Erlitou culture is obviously selectively and even actively aggregating the wonderful factors of multiple archaeological cultures in the surrounding areas, including far away, such as the processing and application of cast copper, jade and turquoise seen at the Erlitou site, as well as fresh factors such as white pottery, hard pottery, and sea shells, most of which are widely borrowed and modified and upgraded and given new connotations before being used. In the economic basis of its social integrity and the material form of archaeological culture, the traditional Chinese grain and six animals, except for horses, have been initially completed at this time, and the composite agricultural economy has taken shape, and there have been highly developed and specialized handicrafts and specialized handicrafts and specialized workshops such as stonemaking, copper casting, jade making and bone making, the most remarkable of which is the mastery of the superb technology of making bronze containers with composite fans and as monopolistic ceremonial instruments. Obviously, compared with the various small pieces of copper products that have been sporadically found in many places before and do not play an important role in production and life, only the Erlitou culture can be regarded as the abuse of the Chinese Bronze Age in the true sense.

Secondly, the Erlitou culture showed outstanding transcendent characteristics in the interaction of many regional cultures at that time. In the process of the formation of the Erlitou culture, it has widely absorbed and integrated cultural factors from various places, not only surpassing the original cultures or cultural types, but also exerting its cultural influence on the surrounding areas. As far as the longitudinal timeline is concerned, the emergence of the Erlitou culture is another large-scale unification and re-emergence of its region after the peak, differentiation and relative silence of regional integration in the Yangshao period, and like the peak stage of Yangshao culture, it also has a wide impact on the neighboring culture. If measured by the distribution of characteristic landmark artifacts and cultural factors such as Erlitou Yazhang and Chicken Yi, the scope of its radiation area is no less than that of the Miaodigou type at the peak stage of Yangshao culture. The difference is that the emergence of the Erlitou culture has allowed the archaeological cultures of the same period in the surrounding neighborhood to show the situation of ten thousand horses, such as the Yueshi culture in the east, the Xiaqiyuan culture in the north, and the Maqiao culture in the southeast, including the middle reaches of the Yangtze River. These neighboring cultures not only lack high-end products like the Erlitou culture, but also the original developed handicrafts such as pottery industry also show a trend of coarseness. This is clearly the result of the deliberate abandonment of ideological objects by the upper echelons of society in these cultures after their political and ideological repressive influences.

The above two points make the Erlitou culture different from any other archaeological culture in the previous and contemporaneous neighbors and even in the early cultural interaction circles of East Asia at that time, and also different from the commanding heights of various civilizations scattered everywhere, such as Hongshan, Haidai, Liangzhu, Shijiahe and even Shi'an and Tao Temple. The emergence of Erlitou culture has a distinct transcendence, to some extent, can be regarded as a sign of the formation of Chinese traditions or civilization cores in the Central Plains, Mr. Xu Hong in "The Earliest China" once vividly summarized this phenomenon as the development of civilization pattern from full of stars to rare stars.

Second, the formation of cultural unification and the defense model of regional coordination

From the perspective of Mr. Su Bingqi's three-stage evolution process of "ancient culture - ancient city - ancient country" in the early Chinese fauna, although there are early and late, and the performance also has its own characteristics, but each region has basically gone through the regional cultural tradition from budding to development and growth, and then to the stage of ancient country. Mr. Dai Xiangming believes that the Tao Temple and Stone Pass in the late Longshan Period have even reached the stage of the kingdom. The uniqueness of the Erlitou culture is that it has further advanced to the stage of dynasties, the Wanbang Dynasty, and other archaeological cultures have either been integrated by the Erlitou culture, or have to worship the orthodoxy for the Erlitou culture, and at the same time be subject to the clamps of a larger cultural tradition represented by this orthodoxy. The subsequent historical process shows that in the interaction circle of early China, there was also a historical trend of continuing this orthodoxy and even competing for this orthodoxy. For example, Shang and Zhou are different cultures and ethnic groups from the Erlitou culture, but they have jointly completed this same cultural orthodoxy, not only joining this cultural unity, but also carrying it forward like a baton. In the entire circle of early Chinese cultural interaction seen in archaeology, it can be considered that the Erlitou culture created this big tradition that surpassed the earlier ethnic cultural traditions of various regions, and made other regional cultural traditions actively or passively reduced to small traditions.

Since the late Paleolithic period, the regional cultural traditions of various places can be roughly glimpsed from archaeological remains, especially technical processes and their products, after the emergence of agriculture and settled villages, regional cultural traditions have been increasingly developed, the connotation has been enriched, the interaction has been continuously enhanced, and one archaeological culture can be constantly named, and each archaeological culture can actually be regarded as a cultural and even ethnic community or a cross-section of a cultural tradition. This tradition can be subdivided into lineage, instrumental system, art system, and mental system (including the Taoist system, academic system, orthodoxy, etc., which are often mentioned in later generations), which have their own traditions, but basically all of them are based on the emergence of early agriculture within a specific geographical unit, naturally occur and develop due to blood relations, and form an interaction circle with neighboring cultures in a larger geographical space. Among them, Yangshao culture once took the lead in the formation and development of this tradition because of various opportunities, took the lead in entering the economic form dominated by agriculture, and occupied a wide distribution range with population outcasting and colonization, laying a demographic and linguistic foundation for the formation of the Chinese tradition.

At the peak stage of regional integration with agricultural tribes as the carrier, the archaeological cultures of each region generally developed cluster-type defenses and complex societies characterized by internal differentiation and large central settlements, and they built large-scale central settlements and even ring trench settlements and walled settlements, because such settlements have a defensive capacity that has multiplied relative to ordinary settlements, so as to better protect the safety of ethnic groups in the face of ethnic conflicts or foreign looters. The Erlitou culture created a new regional coordinated defense model, with Gongyi Shaochai, Zhengzhou Master Gu and Dong Zhao, Xinzheng Wangjinglou, Mengzhou Yu Temple, Pingdingshan Puchengdian and other highly defensive sub-central settlements to form an arch guard against Erlitou Dayi, while Erlitou itself only built Miyagi in the administrative center for limited defense. Erlitou and the location of these sub-central settlements constitute the central area of culture, and important locations beyond this cultural center area, such as traffic arteries or key resource areas, are placed under the jurisdiction of highly defensive central settlements, such as Xia County's Dongxia Feng, Yuanqu Ancient City, Shangluo Donglongshan, etc. This new space defense and management model is basically inherited and expanded by the Erligang culture. Archaeological findings show that Zhengzhou Master Gu, Xingyang Xishi Village, Xinzheng Wangjinglou, Yuanqu Ancient City, Shangluo Donglongshan and other sites have been rebuilt or rebuilt in the Erligang stage after the demise of the Erlitou culture, continuing to play a regional central settlement, and forming a co-prosperity relationship with Zhengzhou Mall. Erlitou itself is also gradually suppressed and replaced by another Nearby Erligang Culture, Dayi Yanshi Mall. Obviously, these phenomena can be regarded as the formation of state forms or national systems and their alternating archaeological manifestations.

Third, cultural orthodoxy with the national political system as the core

The formation of a cultural orthodoxy that transcends regional cultural traditions and is shared and contested by different ethnic groups obviously requires a major breakthrough and transcendence, especially for the relationship between blood organizations and organizations, and is widely recognized ideologically. This point is analyzed according to many cases in ancient and modern China and abroad, and only the organizational form of the state can do it. The Erlitou culture, which can integrate various traditions, including archaeological cultures, which is beyond the traditions of various regions and contains them, should be regarded as political or national or reluctantly approached. Of course, the evolution of regional traditions is naturally accompanied by social differentiation, the distinction between ruling and ruled classes, and the corresponding ideological interpretation system, but the rule and rule within and between ethnic groups are very different, which requires the systematic nesting and integration of different ethnic groups, classes and various cultural factors. Thus, although several regions in the early Chinese interplay had developed into complex primary civilization societies, they had never crossed the threshold of national civilization. The emergence and existence mode of Erlitou culture clearly reflects this breakthrough. In the inheritance, exchange, absorption, integration, transformation and radiation of the above elements including different ethnic groups, Erlitou culture has created a new social governance model that transcends intra-regional inequality and even inter-regional attack and plunder, and may reach a new transcendent ideological consensus. More importantly, this orthodoxy and grand unification, which transcended the cultural traditions of various ethnic groups, was continued by the subsequent Erligang culture. Obviously, this was inherited by a kind of Chinese cultural orthodoxy with the national political unity as the core, and since then, it has continued to be continued and carried forward by the Zhou and Qin people, and has evolved step by step from the original dynasty to the Chinese Empire centered on the middle and lower reaches of the Yellow River. The only thing that can sum up such a political system and its cultural and social form can be the state. Therefore, the cultural communities before Erlitou can hardly be regarded as real countries. The term ancient state commonly used in academic circles now is basically equivalent to the chiefdom that anthropology has summarized from ethnographic and archaeological data from all over the world, and although they have produced social stratification and concentration of power, they have not broken through the shackles of blood organization and regional traditions, and can only be regarded as a homogeneous complex society.

The orthodox cultural concepts that underpin this national system, such as world view, ideological system, sacrifice system, ritual system, etc., have also developed rapidly and been passed down in Erlitou culture. Archaeological discoveries are epitomized in the production process and organizational form of inheriting innovative high-grade artifacts, especially bronze ceremonial vessels and the ceremonial culture they represent. Erlitou site has found more than 200 pieces of bronze, including containers, weapons, musical instruments, ceremonial ornaments and tools, almost including all kinds of bronzes in various cultures in the East Asian continent at that time, and bronze containers are the original creation of the Erlitou culture's comprehensive bronze smelting, pottery technology and modeling technology and concepts in various places. Some of the container pottery models found in the Erlitou copper casting workshop are depicted with exquisite patterns, and the largest diameter of the cast round bronzes can reach more than 30 centimeters. The workshop site covers an area of about 10,000 square meters, close to the south of Miyagi Castle and surrounded by walls, and has been used from the early to the last period of the Erlitou culture, not only the earliest in China so far, but also certainly managed and produced by the imperial court.

The turquoise and other jade products found at the Erlitou site are also very distinctive, and a large number of ornamented jade, Wu jade and the western Qijia, Shijia, Qingliangsi and other cultures of caiyu and baoyu in the eastern Haidai, Hongshan, Liangzhu and other cultures also show fundamental differences in production and use, such as jade, jade knife, jade zhang, jade gui, etc., although more borrowed from the jade shape of Haidai and other places, but it has nothing to do with its original way of loading handle and use, but is directly used to express the authority of the nobility in various occasions. The excavator, Mr. Xu Hong, speculated that they may have been used as "Yu Gui" or "Wat" to indicate the relationship between the monarch and the subject at the court. Therefore, there is reason to believe that the Erlitou stage surpassed the jade culture in the original funerary and witchcraft background and formed the real ceremonial jade culture. After that, it further learned from and integrated the rich cultural connotation of Wuyu in various places, especially in the east, and developed into a more perfect traditional Chinese jade ceremonial jade system. In the process, the shape and meaning of many early jade artifacts have been sorted out and transformed. The white pottery, printed hard pottery and primitive porcelain found at the Erlitou site are most likely also early relics of the same kind originating from the southeast region. These complex instruments, and the new ideological ideas behind them, have clearly formed a new system of knowledge, meaning, and etiquette corresponding to national orthodoxy.

It can be seen that the Erlitou culture has achieved a leapfrog integration and breakthrough in the broader scope of the Central Plains, and its cultural factors, settlement structure and value concepts all reflect the cultural form of supranationality and cross-region. The reason for this is, first, the characteristics of ethnic and cultural interaction within the Central Plains, and second, the influence of various cultures around the Central Plains that have entered the peak of regional integration since the late Yangshao period, especially the strong stimulation of the population and fresh cultural factors originating from the northwest region. By the late Longshan period, due to the evolution of culture itself and changes in the environment, the interaction and exchange between archaeology and cultures in various places and even the collision were unprecedentedly strengthened. Because of the relative low tide and hollowing out after the Yangshao period, as well as the relatively stable geographical environment, the Central Plains may also be coupled with the new livable space created by the acceleration of the alluvial acceleration of the Yellow River in the context of the new climatic environment, making it a place for all parties to compete for deer, and people and new cultural factors from all directions have gathered sharply here. At the same time, due to the introduction of new cultural factors such as sheep, wheat, copper smelting, coupled with continuous high-intensity development and environmental changes, the northern region in the past 4300 years or so, the population increased on a large scale, the culture began to metamorphose, the competition between each other unprecedented intensified, today's Great Wall along the rise of a very dense Shicheng settlement group at this stage, as well as a huge central military settlement like Shi'an, may also be because of the barbaric conquest of the plunderers in a considerable area, Forcing the Jinnan Basin region to concentrate large-scale populations and rapidly move towards complex societies. In this context, Tao Temple once tried to integrate the forces and cultural elements of all parties, and may have initially crossed the threshold of the country, but it was immediately subverted and collapsed under the huge tension of time and space. As a common people in the prosperous period of Yangshao, the movement of cultures such as Shi'an and Tao Temple could not have no influence on the ethnic groups in the hinterland of the Central Plains around Songshan. They have completed their regional integration in a short period of time, and have taken the initiative to attack all parties, especially in the northwest direction, directly placing Jinnan as a resource point and buffer zone under their jurisdiction, in order to seek a comparative advantage in advanced cultural resources and an increasingly complex interactive pattern.

This wave of great changes was summarized by Mr. Zhao Hui in the article "The Age of Ancient Kingdoms" as the third wave of social complexity or the formation process of Chinese civilization, but in addition to the similarities and differences in time and space, its mode and meaning are completely different from the first two waves. The first wave is spontaneous, is the climax of agricultural cultural traditions into regional integration, Yangshao culture came out on top, and the oriental Dawenkou - Longshan, northeast Hongshan, southeast Songze - Liangzhu and the south of Qujialing - Shijiahe and so on have wonderful chapters, and even later to catch up, quickly into the high-level chieftain society, of which Dawenkou, Qujialing and other environments are excellent, the exquisite cultural factors of the abundant goods society even marched into the Central Plains, it is estimated that many immigrants will take the opportunity to fill the relative gap in the late Yangshao period here. However, with the second wave of agitation from the north, the rapid mutation and novel cultural factors north of the Great Wall since the second phase of Miaodigou have been moving south, and its domino effect has swept through the middle and lower reaches of the Yangtze River and even further south of East Asia, making the cultural pattern of the Longshan era change suddenly, the competition between regional traditions has entered a white-hot stage, and the huge central settlements such as Liangzhu and Shijiahe have also collapsed. The third wave with erlitou culture as the protagonist truly integrates the achievements of civilization in all directions and casts the orthodoxy and cultural consciousness of Chinese civilization with the country as the carrier.

epilogue

The author once argued that the prosperity of Yangshao culture is due to the location advantages of the Central Plains and the historical opportunities of the Great Warm Period, integrating the advanced factors of the two major cultural bases of the north and south since the Paleolithic Age of East Asia, including millet (millet) and rice, occupying the opportunity of the layout stage with population explosion, and the location advantage of the Central Plains, coupled with another great environmental change and cultural pattern trend at the time of the yangshao-Longshan change, as well as the unique geographical environment dynamics of the upper, middle and lower reaches of the Yellow River. Once again, in the Central Plains, the aggregate advantage was formed, and the time and place were favorable and the people, which jointly gave birth to such a collection of Erlitou culture. The ancients often said that chasing deer in the Central Plains, the geographical advantages of the Central Plains region are indeed convenient for you and me to come and go of various ethnic groups and cultures, but if the Yangshao culture is only an unconscious foundation and radiation effect of external expansion caused by population growth, then the Erlitou culture is the real integrated fusion, showing the orderly spoke effect of Tuna, making the Central Plains stand out in the East Asian land, and finally establishing the cultural orthodox status of Chinese civilization. Therefore, the Central Plains around the Song Mountains are called the cradle of Chinese civilization not only deserved, but also quite unique. This is not only the intersection of geography and climate between the north and south of the East Asian continent, but also the junction of The Northwest Highlands and the Eastern Lowlands of China's terrain, or the conversion node of loess erosion and accumulation in the middle and lower reaches of the Yellow River, and the cultural exchange aggregation effect along the river is very obvious. Different ethnic groups, cultures, technologies, products, etc. in different periods have accumulated here, and because the land that is easy to cultivate under primitive farming conditions has a strong adhesion, it has long become one of the rare ethnic and cultural melting pots in East Asia and even the world, thus becoming the only choice for the core of early Chinese civilization.

Human activity in the land of East Asia has a long history, but the formation of ethnic groups and national civilizations in the true cultural sense is the result of the interaction of regional cultures since the emergence of Neolithic agricultural societies. This process includes the collision and fusion of the two major plates of the north and south, which were laid by the Paleolithic Age, the full development and stirring fermentation of regional cultural traditions and their interaction circles based on early agricultural societies in East Asia, and even the continuous influx and stimulation of civilization factors in West Asia and Central Asia. The core of Chinese civilization, from the rudimentary form of Yangshao to the setting of the tone of Erlitou, is actually a long-term process of continuous integration and improvement of different ethnic groups, technologies, goods, and concepts. The emergence of the Erlitou culture, which is the result of continuous integration, repeated integration, and integration. However, with its unique model, Erlitou culture has combined new ideas, self-confidence, and a new pattern and realm, and finally synthesized a cultural and ideological orthodoxy and grand unification that stands out, which can override the regional cultural traditions and be inherited and expanded as a whole, and the entire East Asian interaction circle has thus completed the transformation from pluralism to unity.

Author: Cao Bingwu, Researcher, Chinese Academy of Cultural Heritage

Source: "Central Plains Cultural Research" WeChat public account

The original article was published in the Central Plains Cultural Studies, No. 3, 2021

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