Author: Zhang Xingde Tian Jianwen
Source: "Jianghan Archaeology" WeChat public account
The original article was published in Jianghan Archaeology, No. 6, 2021
The status of Hongshan culture in the history of the origin of Chinese civilization has been gradually recognized by the academic community since the discovery and publication of data on the sites of Niuheliang and Dongshanzui in the 1980s. However, the connotation of various archaeological cultures in the origin stage of Chinese civilization, including the Hongshan culture, is generally manifested as the development of ritual buildings, and the three materialization standards recognized by the academic community for the formation of civilization are relatively lacking or not at all, so interpreting the origin background of early civilization, discovering the motives for the formation of civilization, and then explaining the characteristics of the formation of early Chinese civilization, are also valued by the academic community.
In the 1990s, Mr. Su Bingqi put forward the view that cultural collision and intersection are the source of the origin of civilization, pointing out that it was the continuous dissemination and exchange of six major cultural sections in the prehistoric land of China that produced Chinese civilization, and pointed out that "a branch of the Yangshao culture originating from the Guanzhong Basin, that is, the Miaodigou type with mature rose pattern faience pots as the main feature, and a branch of the Hongshan culture originating from the Western Liaoning River and the Daling River Basin north of the Yanshan Mountains in the Western Liaoning Corridor, That is, the Hongshan hou type, which is mainly characterized by dragon-shaped (including scale pattern) pattern faience pottery and embossed pottery urn jars, these two eugenic branches from the maternal culture, and have stronger vitality than other branches, one south and one north each extend outward to a wider and farther diffusion surface. They finally met in the northwest of Hebei Province, and then coincided in the upper reaches of the Daling River in western Liaoning, resulting in a new cultural group characterized by faience pottery with dragon patterns combined with flowers, and the Hongshan cultural altar, temple, and tomb are the signs of the rapid development of society and culture caused by the sparks that burst out after their encounter." At the beginning of this century, Mr. Zhang Zhongpei clearly pointed out that in 3,200 or 300 BC, the situation in which the Xiyin culture influenced other cultures in one direction came to an end. It has formed a culture that influences, collides, and confrontations, and even distributes cultural influences in the east and south, and the culture distributed in the West has shown a strong cultural penetration, and even caused a situation in the Yilu and Luo regions. While the cultural exchanges of various archaeological and cultural residents in the Yellow River, the middle and lower reaches of the Yangtze River and the Yanshan Mountains and the Xiliao River Basin accelerated and expanded in scale, they stimulated the competitive genes, accelerated the historical process, and then stepped into the threshold of civilization. The drastic changes in the cultural pattern have helped the inhabitants of various archaeological cultures distributed in the Yellow River, the middle and lower reaches of the Yangtze River, and the Yanshan Mountains and the Xiliao River Basin to cross the threshold of civilization. At the same time, on the basis of his analysis of the Liangzhu cemetery, he also proposed that "Worship" and "Rong" developed into theocratic power and royal power that overrode society and controlled society, and those who performed the duties of Worship and Rong had formed into a class and become the magnates of society. Prehistoric clan organizations have degenerated into state apparatus, and figures in charge of theocracy and kingship have become masters of the state apparatus. The Hongshan Cultural Goddess Temple, the Stone Tomb and the Banpo Phase IV Cultural DadiWan F411 all show that witchcraft at that time had gained universal belief and developed to a fairly perfect point. Only when the shaman has gained the universal belief of the residents, and under his advocacy and organization, can he build a religious shrine of the same size as Niuheliang and the F411 religious building of Dadi Bay. Eventually, military power will evolve into royal power, which gradually deprives theocracy of it and overrides it, and finally, the theocracy has no independent place in the state apparatus. After that, Mr. Li Boqian put forward two models of China's civilization process, namely the theocratic state and the royal state, he said: "There may be different opinions on the understanding of the classification of Hongshan cultural jade and its specific functions, but no one denies that its related to theosophical can be seen in the Hongshan cultural period, especially in its later period, when society has been divided, the so-called "public power" above society has existed, but it is not the secular "king" who holds and exercises this "public power". Rather, these shamans or "god kings" who hold the power of theosophy, god's power is above all else, God's prestige is above everything, the operation of society and the regulation of social contradictions are resolved by God, and God's will and commands must all be conveyed and implemented by witches who can communicate with God."
Although many breakthrough achievements have been formed by predecessors, in any case, for the hongshan civilization, which is an important branch in the origin of Chinese civilization, why it has the need for the public power of the country, how to achieve it, and how to choose the path of centralized power, it has never been given a complete and clear interpretation. Based on the research of predecessors, this paper proposes to sort out the cultural exchanges and collisions of neolithic archaeology in northern China from 6500 to 5200 years ago, and find the characteristics of the civilization process of Hongshan culture and explain the motives and significance of the formation of the civilization model of realizing the early state public power by concentrating religious power.
First, the collision of multiple ethnic groups and the formation and development of Hongshan culture
The area north of Yanshan Mountain, west of The Wulu Mountains, west of the Qilaotu Mountains, is customarily known as the Western Liaoning Region, where the indigenous population uses cylindrical clay pots; the area south of Yanshan is a group of residents who use pottery cups and pottery support combinations or pottery dings; in the middle reaches of the Yellow River, residents are characterized by the use of small-mouth pointed bottom bottles. They belonged to the three most important ethnic groups in ancient northern China. Their continuous collision and fusion began in 6500 years ago, and they interpreted the historical story of more than a thousand years in western Liaoning, which achieved the birth of the earliest Hongshan civilization in ancient Chinese history about 5200 years ago.
The earliest archaeological culture in western Liaoning is the Chahai - Xinglongwa culture, its strongest power once crossed the Yanshan Mountains to reach the Yannan region, about 7200, influenced by the northward advance of the Yannan Magnetic Mountain culture, the Chahai - Xinglongwa culture located in the south of the Western Liaoning region evolved into the Zhao Baogou culture, the remnants of the Chahai - Xinglongwa culture retained the area north of the Xilamulun River, and later evolved into the Fuhe culture, and there is an archaeological culture in the Lower Liao River Basin that is related to them called the Xinle Lower Culture. About 6500 years ago, the Hougang I culture in the Southern Yan region, which originated in the eastern foothills of the Taihang Mountains, quickly became stronger, and in order to expand its living space, it began to move north, and one force went up against the Sanggan River into northern Jin, central Jin, and central and southern Inner Mongolia, and they received little resistance due to the lack or absence of early Neolithic archaeological cultures in these areas; the other branch crossed the Yanshan Mountains and drove away and occupied the living space of the residents of the Zhao Baogou culture, causing the latter to retreat to the north of the Xilamulun River. Because the sandy soil of western Liaoning is not suitable for the production of three-legged pottery, or hopes to reduce the consistency of the utensils and the confrontation caused by the difference in indigenous culture, the residents of the Hougang Phase I cultural system learned from the indigenous people of western Liaoning to make cylindrical pots and beveled vessels, and used the zigzag pattern as a table decoration, and the clay pottery technology they brought was also learned by the indigenous people whose pottery skills were relatively backward. Therefore, the Hongshan culture, an archaeological culture named after the clusters of vessels composed of sand-zag-patterned cylindrical pots and beveled jars and clay pots, bowls, pots, urns, etc., some of which are also decorated with faience pottery, essentially includes different ethnic groups of indigenous and Hougang I cultures bounded by the Xilamulun River and living across the river.
The reason why we have this understanding is based on three reasons: First, the pottery of the early Hongshan culture contains two main sources, the sand-filled barrel-shaped pot, the beveled vessel and the zigzag pattern, which are mainly derived from the local Zhao Baogou culture; all the clay pottery and pottery kettles, utensil covers and other factors are derived from the Hougang I culture. It and the Hougang I culture not only show great commonalities in many aspects such as pottery, partial sand pottery and all clay pottery, faience pottery characteristics, etc., but also the evolution of the shape of the two similar instruments tends to be consistent or even synchronized. Therefore, the nature of this human community has emerged three possibilities, namely: the cultural residents of the Hougang Phase I culture have been influenced and developed by the cultural factors of Zhao Baogou; the residents of the Zhao Baogou culture have been developed by the influence of the cultural factors of the Hougang Phase I; and the two have been formed after the collision of the Zhao Baogou culture and the Hougang Phase I culture.
Second, at the sites of Jianping Ma'anqiao and Chaoyang Xiaodongshan, the information captured shows the expulsion or exclusivity of the vulnerable groups by strong culture. Located in the southwest of Shitaigou Village, Taipingzhuang Town, Jianping County, Chaoyang City, the Ma'anqiao Mountain Site was excavated for the first time in 2019 by the Liaoning Provincial Institute of Cultural Relics and Archaeology. The total area of the excavation is 1,000 square meters, and a total of 8 housing sites, 24 ash pits and 1 ash ditch were found. In the site of the house with the pottery characteristics of zhao baogou culture, it was found that human bones were deliberately placed in the site, and the human bones were buried for secondary bone collection. This unique burial method, which is different from the burial customs of the indigenous people and the burial system of the Hougang people, is obviously an abnormal treatment of the deceased, such a house site and the other Hongshan people's house site in the settlement are in the same site, and the pottery excavated from the living surface is obviously different, which may be a true portrayal of the process of the Hougang people driving out the indigenous Zhao Baogou cultural residents and occupying their resources. The Xiaodongshan ruins are located on a high open terrace about 2 kilometers east of Yingzi Village in Liucheng Town, Chaoyang County, with a width of about 200 meters from east to west and a length of about 400 meters from north to south. Archaeological excavations have found 10 sites, ranging from nearly square to circular. Among them, the square housing sites are concentrated in a row on the east side, and they are all seriously damaged, among which the excavated cylindrical jars, zun-shaped pots, bowls, high-foot bowls, straight-bellied flat-bottom bowls, arc-belly flat-bottomed bowls, etc., the type and ornamentation characteristics are similar to the similar vessels of Zhao Baogou culture pottery. In particular, the upper part of the number F5:5 instrument table is decorated with a geometric pattern ornament, and the main pattern is two triangular patterns arranged vertically with grid patterns, and the triangle pattern is slender (Figure 1, 3), similar to the style of the dragon pattern contour filling grid at the Zhao Baogou Cultural Hill Site (Figure 1, 4); F5:6, mouth, round lip, round arc abdomen, flat bottom. The surface is polished throughout and the inner wall is smoother. The upper part of the abdomen is decorated with a geometric pattern, and the width of the entire pattern is 8.5 cm. The upper and lower boundaries of the pattern each have a week of pressed chord patterns, and the two weeks of strings are arranged horizontally and vertically with S-shaped curves to form an array of wave-like yang patterns. Each set of motifs is decorated with arcs between them, and together with the next set of curves, a composition similar to that of a "yin and yang fish" is formed (Fig. 1, 1). The whole pattern is similar to the simplification and variation of the animal pattern on the surface of the Taozun at the Site of the South Terrace of the Zhao Baogou Culture (Figure 1, 2), so the above-mentioned housing site should belong to the Zhao Baogou cultural site at the same time as the early Hongshan culture, and the Hongshan cultural village on its west side, the excavated artifact group is more obvious from the former, and the overall site should also be a physical reflection of the Hougang people at the same site that drove and replaced the Zhao Baogou people, rather than a fusion of the two.
Third, the early Hongshan culture distributed on both sides of the Xilamulun River in the same period showed certain differences in the external characteristics of pottery, especially in the production process. The proportion of clay pottery in the north of the river is small, the barrel jar is more straight and slightly withdrawn, the zigzag pattern is loose, the scratch pattern is more seen in groups of short scratches or composed of several grouped scratches, the faience pottery is less, including the clay pottery, including the clay pottery, which is made of cassette molding; the clay pottery in the south of the river occupies a large proportion, the utensils are also rich, the barrel jar is slightly open, the zigzag pattern is arranged more closely, the scratch pattern is mostly composed of fine groups of interlaced long scratches, the faience pottery is more, and the pottery production is made of disc building. If the appearance of utensils, including elements such as instrument shapes and ornaments, is introduced, absorbed and changed by the other party in the process of archaeological culture exchanges because of their extroversion, intuitiveness and relative ease of mutual influence, the technical information contained in the utensils, including the process and its processes, will appear more private and conservative due to the need to inherit and learn, and become a more deep-rooted and unchangeable component of cultural factors. Therefore, we believe that the early Hongshan culture south of the Xilamulun River should be a culture produced by some residents of the Hougang Phase I cultural system who immigrated to the Xiliao River Basin and collided with the local Zhao Baogou culture that used the traditional barrel jar, absorbing its cylindrical jars, zigzags and other factors; the remnants distributed north of the Xilamulun River represented by the early stage of the fourth phase of the Baiyin Chang Khan site may be descendants of the local culture squeezed and influenced by the Hougang people to the north.
Entering about 6,000 years ago, the cultural pattern in the middle reaches of the Yellow River has undergone tremendous changes, and the Banpo culture with small-mouth pointed bottom bottles and faience fish patterns as typical features has entered its late stage, that is, the "Historian Period", and in the past, scholars have mostly regarded the "Shijia Period" as a transitional stage in the evolution of the Banpo culture into the Xiyin culture (also known as the Miaodigou culture), but after research we find that the significance of the "Shijia Period" is much greater. After entering the "Shijia period", the distribution area of Banpo culture continued to expand, especially to the west into the upper reaches of the Wei River, north into the Hetao area, forming a driving force for the cultural residents of the Hougang Phase I who came to live here hundreds of years ago, this force became more and more powerful, and finally absorbed the Xiyin culture that quietly emerged in the jinnan region and its predecessor Tinder furnace and stacked lip tip bottom bottle factor, and formed a new archaeological culture in today's south-central Inner Mongolia in the late Shijia period - the white clay kiln culture. From the analysis of this highly characteristic relic, the Baini kiln culture should be equivalent to the late Shijia period to the late middle period of the Xiyin culture (Figure 2), which is an archaeological culture that has always coexisted and confronted the Xiyin culture in its northern region while occupying an absolute advantage in the Yellow River Basin, and has great significance for the Hongshan culture. Later, the Xiyin culture in southern Jinnan began to grow stronger, not only expanding westward to east and south, but also advancing northward, in the process by the stubborn resistance of the residents of the Hougang Phase I culture who lived here, and finally arrived in the present-day Datong area and had to turn along the Sangan River into Hebei. However, judging from the remnants of the Xiyin culture found in northern Jin and northern Hebei, the resistance of the descendants of Hougang cannot be underestimated. In the 4 houses found at the site of Datong Majia Village in Datong, Shanxi at the northern end of the Xiyin culture in the north, F1 is a pentagonal house unique to the Xiyin culture, and the house with the opening of the door on the south side of the F3 horizontal rounded rectangle is also rare in the Hougang phase I culture, marking the arrival of the residents of the Xiyin culture, in terms of pottery, more of the Cultural factors of the Hougang Phase I have been preserved, such as F1:1 "four series" urns, F3:10 Hougang-style bottle mouth small-mouth pointed bottom bottle, F3:5 bridge-shaped ear large-mouth jar, F2:2 clay bridge-shaped ear mouth jars, mostly brown faience pottery, etc., while the Cultural Factors of Xiyin are relatively few, only F2:5 small-mouth pointed bottom bottle mouth is double lips, curved triangle patterns and dot patterns in faience patterns, there is no common clay pot, pottery stove and typical faience pots, bowls, etc. in Xiyin culture (Figure 3). The situation at the Sanguan site in Weixian County, located in Zhangjiakou, Hebei Province, is also similar, with a pointed bottom bottle and a pot mouth with two ears.
The above changes in the cultural pattern have triggered the difference between the two stages of the Hongshan culture between 6,000 and 5,500 years ago. In the first stage, the successive northward expansion of the Shijia period Banpo culture and the Xiyin culture, for the residents of the Hougang phase I culture are driven away and retreated, because Yannan is gradually occupied by the Xiyin culture, so their rear is only the Western Liaoning region, leading the fashion of the Shijia period Banpo culture and the emergence of the cultural factors of the Xiyin culture in the Hongshan culture, it is the Hougang residents who carry the Factors of the Shijia Period Banpo culture and the Xiyin culture factors to bring into the Liaoxi Province. Therefore, at this time, this factor is always specious with the prototype of the Historian Period Banpo culture and the Xiyin culture. Judging from the fact that the two different pottery-making processes on both sides of the Xilamulun River and the differences in the characteristics of the pottery still exist steadily, the layout of the Hougang immigrants and the indigenous people living across the river in the western Liaoning region has not fundamentally changed. However, while the two materially accept the influence of the cultural elements of the middle reaches of the Yellow River from the West, the spiritual identity between the ethnic groups on both sides of the strait can be clearly seen, and it is different from the obvious weakness of the indigenous peoples in pottery, and in the spiritual integration, the indigenous people seem to have the upper hand, such as the indigenous people's tombs using stone mounds and the tradition of burial with jade, which was adopted by the Hougang immigrants; the thousand-year-old Chonglong custom of the indigenous people was not only absorbed by the latter, but also created the image of the painted pottery dragon The same historic cult of goddesses was also accepted by the latter. Of course, on the basis of the continuous identification of the culture in the region, the Hongshan people are also active in the absorption and innovation of foreign cultures, for example, on the basis of imitating the instrument seat in the middle reaches of the Yellow River, in order to meet the sense of ceremony of wilderness sacrifice, they created the shape of the barrel vessel.
The second stage corresponds to the late Xiyin culture in the middle reaches of the Yellow River, when there is obviously no barrier between the Baini kiln culture and the Hongshan culture in the Banpo system, and the vague and specious manifestation of the Banpo elements in the Hongshan culture has become real and clear. For example, the previous Faience pottery such as the hook and fork pattern of the Hongshan culture can only be found in the Banpo culture of the Shijia period, but it is a deformation on the basis of the original pattern of the latter, and the pattern of direct dissemination is basically invisible. At this time, whether it is a vessel type or a diagonal triangle, overlapping quadrilateral faience ornamentation is the same as the half-slope system. The remains of this stage are newly identified, mainly including the ash pits and "cushion soils" between the first site of the Niuheliang site, including the "Female Temple", and the ash pit and "cushion soil" between the lower stone mound and the upper stone mound of the Fourth Mound, among which the excavated round bottom basin, round bottom bowl, large mouth pot, utensil seat, etc., especially the faience pattern, and the relationship with the same elements in the historian-white clay kiln culture are clear at a glance. The factors of Xiyin culture also exist in the Hongshan culture, indicating that there is some form of cultural factor exchange between the two, but it is obvious that the influence of historians - white clay kiln culture is more intense, and even some factors are exactly the same, while the Xiyin culture, which was the most powerful in the northern Chinese culture at that time, did not have so much influence, even if the Xiyin culture that swept the whole north at that time was almost absent in the Hongshan culture. It can be seen that the interaction between the Xiyin culture and the Hongshan culture is still at least not very smooth south of yanshan, which is consistent with the expansion of the power of the Xiyin culture shown by the physical historical materials found above. There are fewer remains of the Hongshan culture belonging to this stage, and we cannot yet give it a comprehensive description, but there are several points that can be determined: first, the archaeologically identified period is relatively equivalent to the late Xiyin culture; second, the factors from the historian-white clay kiln subculture system expressed by the Hongshan culture in the combination of pottery artifacts and faience pottery in this stage, including the highly recognizable indicative faience patterns, dominate. It can be seen that this factor from the west of qilaotu Mountain is an important background for the Hongshan culture to enter a new stage of development; third, the Entry of the Xiyin Culture into Yannan, blocking the connection between the Hougang immigrants and their mother group, losing a strong dependence, and finally the latter's strong position in Western Liaoning for nearly a thousand years is no longer there, and the indigenous ethnic groups in Western Liaoning have finally reclaimed their homeland south of the Xilamulun River, and at this time the Hongshan culture has also entered the late stage.
Second, the emergence of the new order and the origin of the Hongshan civilization
Around 5500 years ago, the balance formed between the Hougang family and the indigenous people of western Liaoning after nearly a thousand years of coexistence and running-in was finally broken, and the remains of the indigenous style appeared south of the XilaMulun River, and in the remains of the Niuheliang ruins in this period, we saw the clay trap-shaped pottery that had never been seen in the remains of the Hougang immigrants of the previous Hongshan culture, indicating that the indigenous people had returned to their homeland south of XilaMulun. At this time, the so-called indigenous people may include the descendants of the Zhao Baogou culture, the Fuhe culture and the Xinle lower culture before the Hougang immigrants entered the western Liaoning, although they are all from the ancestral origin of the Xinglongwa culture, but after such a long evolution, the kinship between them may only be some distant oral memories. With the loss of the strength of the Hougang immigrants, the relatively superior land south of the Xilamulun River is facing redistribution, and the crowd needs to find a common foundation and common interests to achieve a new balance, at this time the emergence of such a large and luxurious sacrificial building as the Temple of the Goddess in Niuheliang should not be accidental, but the performance of the Hongshan people to trace their common ancestors and seek the basis and way to establish a new order. In this sense, to understand the Niuheliang, since the stage of the female temple, it should have become a religious shrine of the culture.
In the next two or three hundred years, the Xiyin culture in the Yellow River Basin decomposed, and the whole of northern China entered a stage of resource reintegration and distribution, and it can be seen from the different images unearthed by the Hongshan culture, both the image of the foreigner with high large eyes and protruding cheekbones or the concave eyes and high nose, as well as the Chinese with curved eyebrows, thin eyes, small mouths or wide foreheads, wide noses, and thick lips, which shows that the collision of people in western Liaoning at this time should also enter a new peak period. Therefore, in the face of the intricate ethnic relations composed of new and old immigrants and the indigenous peoples who have been divided, exploring the paths and models of coexistence, symbiosis, complementarity and order has always been the most important background for the birth of the Hongshan civilization, and the emergence of public power above the bloodline-based clan system is urgently needed. However, how or possible the Hongshan people achieved public power in the early state depended on the social conditions of the Hongshan culture at that time.
The Hongshan society before and after the formation of civilization had the following important characteristics:
First of all, the concentration of wealth of the Hongshan people is not obvious. Ancient human tombs with burial products in the situation of the tomb owner more than the identity and ability of the tomb owner, Niuheliang site of the fourth phase of the Hongshan culture tomb with the burial products are jade, the number is limited, the number and the size and location of the tomb is not proportional to the most abundant burial products may not be the central tomb, the same kind of burial products are almost not repeated in a tomb, it should be explained that this jade with special significance only expresses the identity of the tomb owner, does not represent wealth, how much property has not yet become a symbol of distinguishing the membership status level in the society at that time, Or it means that society has not yet formed classes or groups due to different possessions of property.
Second, the strong demands of society for the military or the importance of military power in society have not yet been seen in the tombs. Hongshan culture tombs with the lack of jade and jade symbolizes military power in the type of instruments, in the Yellow River, the Yangtze River Basin representing military power, royal power in the Hongshan culture excavation is not only limited in number, and the status is significantly lower than the artifacts that show divine power, Hongshan culture jade or stone jade or stone qi total of 5 pieces, excavation location of the Niuheliang site two pieces, one from the second site No. 1 mound in the no. 1 mound M9, one from the sixteenth site No. 1 mound body accumulation layer, the former regardless of the tomb shape or scale is not outstanding, With the burial of stone and a small cloud-shaped jade piece each, the M12 excavated from the Banla Mountain site is a pit sarcophagus tomb, the tomb has a total of animal-shaped jade, jade bi and animal head handle end decoration, although the jade type is higher, but the tomb scale and structure are relatively simple, even the back of the sarcophagus baffle is not. Therefore, even if it may have been said at that time that the owner of the tomb had military command ability and power, its position in society was not prominent.
From the above two points, it can be seen that the Hongshan society at this time did not have the class formed by the different wealth possessions or the power to direct military actions in the early civilization of the Yellow River Basin or the Yangtze River Basin, and then formed the national public power, that is, the Hongshan culture lacked the conditions for public power from the economic level and the military level.
Third, through the religious knowledge system with the inhabitants of the archaeological culture, the beliefs and values similar to those of the ethnic groups have been basically formed. The cultural identity of thousands of years caused by the continuous collision of different ethnic groups has made people who are basically in the same ecological niche from the identification of utensils and patterns in the simple field of life to the gradual convergence of spiritual beliefs, dragon worship and its image tend to be stereotyped to replace a variety of archetypal animal worship, female worship from abundant sorcery props, vesta gods, to the common ancestral gods, the tomb form of the stone tomb and the sacrifice form of the barrel vessel, have gradually become the consensus of different groups of people in different areas of the entire Hongshan culture.
Fourth, the most advanced social productive forces are controlled by religious power. Jade production is the most complex process and the highest professional requirements in the jade manufacturing industry. The jade of Hongshan culture is exquisitely shaped, exquisite in craftsmanship, accurate in production, and more in need of specialized production. Not only are the types basically related to religious beliefs, which can be seen in tombs or sacrifice sites, but are not found in ordinary settlements, and there are tombs with burial jade, semi-finished products or processed scraps at sites such as Niuheliang and Banlashan, and there are 3 such tombs at the Banlashan site, all accompanied by other jade objects, even including the central tomb, indicating that jade and jade production technology may be controlled by people with certain religious power.
The third and fourth points reflect that in the Hongshan society, people with completely different origins in ethnic groups or people who have been homologous and have been differentiated over time by the identity of religious beliefs have the possibility of reaching a common knowledge system and value system in the religious sense, so that the distinguishing meaning of external expressions between ethnic groups has gradually decreased. At the same time, religious personnel not only possess the theosophical ability, but also grasp the most advanced productive forces in society, specialized production and special abilities, which may have separated them from ordinary clan members to form special classes or power groups.
Fifth, according to the analysis of the Hongshan culture stone tombs, jade as burial objects has formed a certain hierarchical pattern in different tombs to express the identity of the owners of different tombs. To the late Niuheliang stone tomb as a representative, jade in the jade tomb is a certain combination relationship, if the jade is divided into three categories of bracelet rings, animals, plates of jade, here the combination of jade in the jade tomb can be divided into three categories, that is, with the burial bracelet / ring, which is a certain type of person with some power of the identity of the most basic signs, there are also burial bracelet rings and animal-shaped jade or with the burial bracelet ring and plate jade pendant of the middle grade, with the burial bracelet ring at the same time with the burial of animal-shaped jade and plate-like jade pendant of the high grade, they change from low to high, they change from low to high, There is a certain correspondence with the shape, scale and location of the tomb, and the tombs with high-grade jade combinations are generally central tombs or more centrally located earthen masonry tombs, and the tombs excavated from the middle grade jade combination are mostly non-circle masonry tombs, with very few exceptions, which may indicate the initiality and imperfection of this system.
Sixth, from the regional investigation of the Hongshan culture, it can be seen that there are two characteristics of the cultural site, one is that there is a certain correspondence between the settlement or the settlement group and the altar or the stone mound, and the other is the hierarchical distinction of the religious building site, in the Xinglonggou site, the Straw Hat Mountain site, the Dongshanzui site, the Niuheliang site, we can see that it belongs to a settlement, a settlement group, a super settlement group and a religious sacrifice site at different levels in the core area.
These last two points show that the secular hierarchical power in hongshan society is expressed by the system related to religion, and the most important thing is that although it is not mature enough, in the vast distribution area of hongshan culture, the jade shape system has maintained a high degree of standardization, which should be restricted by rules, and should be a reflection of the hongshan people's secular rule through religious power. Shouldn't this kind of public power, which was prevalent in The Hongshan society and beyond the society of a single ethnic bloodline clan, be a manifestation of the emergence of the early state?
There are records in ancient history of the realization of political domination through the centralization of religious power in ancient times. The "Chinese Chu Language" records that King Chu Zhao asked Yu Guan Zhi father "Heavy Li Shi makes the heavens and the earth impassable", and through Guan Hui Father's answer, we know that the development of religion has undergone a transformation from "the mixture of people and gods" and "the history of the family is witchcraft" to "Jedi Tiantong", and this transformation is set by "Nine Li Chaos". The history books record that the Jiuli were an ethnic group in ancient Chinese legends, from the Dongyi clique. The Hongshan civilization in western Liaoning and its social background are the same as the historical records of ancient society.
Intricate ethnic collision, exchange and innovation, in the road of constantly exploring coexistence, symbiosis, complementarity and order, is the main theme of the development of Hongshan culture from beginning to end, and finally promoted by the Hongshan civilization, including the indigenous people of western Liaoning, the Hougang migration, the Banpo system and the Western Yin migration, covering the members of the major groups in ancient Northern China, so the Hongshan civilization is the "direct root system" of Chinese civilization with a clear genealogical relationship to trace, and it is also the dragon culture of the Hongshan culture. The reason why jade culture has become the most important cultural essence in traditional Chinese culture is the fundamental reason why Chinese call it the dragon's descendants; from the Hougang migration into western Liaoning in the form of exclusive colonization, to the continuous impact of the Banpo and Xiyin systems on Hongshan culture, ethnic collision and cultural integration have become the main theme of hongshan cultural development, and the Hongshan people have not only embodied the wisdom of the ancients and the long-standing peace and unity of the Chinese nation. The pursuit of symbiotic national spirit has created a unique "Jedi Tiantong" Model of "Jedi Tiantong" that is different from the civilization model of the ancient culture of the Yellow River and Yangtze River Basins, reflecting the diversity of the origins of Chinese civilization.
Author Affilications:School of History, Liaoning University, Shaanxi Institute of Archaeology
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