Opinion | The Pastoral Revolution: The Catalyst for the Birth of the Early Chinese State

Among domestic animals, cattle, sheep and goats have a special significance, because they can provide not only primary products such as meat, skin and bone, but also secondary products such as milk, wool and animal power, play an important role in food, clothing, housing and transportation, and are the main force of the primary industry, providing raw materials and power for the secondary and tertiary industries; there is even a secondary product revolution in the western side of the Old World, which is the economic basis for the urbanization and complex society of the Bronze Age (Sherratt, 1983).

Yellow cattle (this article only refers to ordinary cattle), sheep and goats originated in West Asia, and in the late 4th millennium BC, cattle departed from the Yanaya cultural area in the middle and lower volga River to the Afanashevo cultural area of the Altai-Sayan Mountains through the Eurasian steppe, and spread sporadically to the northeast region and the Ganqing region; but this wave of spread was only a flash in the pan and did not leave a deep imprint on Chinese society. In the late 3rd millennium BC, due to the 4.2ka climatic cooling and drying event (about 4200 years ago), the ancestors of the seima-Turbino cross-cultural phenomenon (2200-1900 BC) in the Altai region spread to the west and south (Nichols, 2021), causing the Chemurcek culture in the Altai region to move south (Linmei Village, 2015), and then the spread of cattle in the southern Altai Mountains was divided into east and west, The East Road reached the upper reaches of the Yellow River through the Ejina River Passage about 4200 years ago, and the West Road reached the depths of the Taklamakan Desert in the Tarim Basin about 4000 years ago, participating in the formation of a cheese culture unique to the Xiaohe culture; in this process, the cattle and sheep, copper smelting technology is likely to spread simultaneously. The second wave of cattle spread extremely quickly, sweeping through several sites in the upper and middle reaches of the Yellow River in the Ganqing region, the Second Phase culture of Zhuang in Ningxia Ke province, the Shijia culture in northern Shaanxi, the Zhukaigou culture in Inner Mongolia, the Tao temple culture in Jinnan, and the late Longshan culture in the Central Plains (Lu, et al., 2017, Lü Peng and Yuan Jing, 2018, Cai Dawei, et al., 2018, Hu Songmei, et al., 2022).

Schematic diagram of the second wave propagation of cattle (1. Yannaya Cultural Area, 2. Avannasievo Cultural Area, 3. Origin area of the Seima-Turbino cross-cultural phenomenon; the dotted line is the route of the second wave propagation) Picture provided by the author, the basemap is from the https://maps-for-free.com/

The 4.2ka climate event has had a worldwide impact; the demise of ancient Egyptian, Mesopotamian and Indus valley civilizations, as well as the decline of shijiahe culture in the middle reaches of the Yangtze River, Liangzhu culture in the lower reaches of the Yangtze River, Longshan culture in Shandong in the lower reaches of the Yellow River, and Tiger Mountain culture in south-central Inner Mongolia, are all related to them (Fang Xiuqi, Sun Ning, 1998, Ran and Chen, 2019, Renfrew and Liu, 2018). However, the archaeological cultures of northern Shaanxi and southern Jin did not enter a trough due to climate deterioration, and the Shi'a culture (about 4300-3800 years ago) and taosi culture (about 4300-3900 years ago) and the Corresponding Regions made great strides towards the early countries. In this process, the pastoral industry, which is dominated by herbivores such as cattle and sheep, has played a key role in the environmental adaptation strategies and social complexity of the ancestors, thus effectively responding to the challenges posed by the 4.2ka climate event.

In terms of food production, using cattle and sheep, the Chinese ancestors opened up a new productive food chain, which can develop grassland resources that were previously difficult to use on a large scale, provide more food surplus, and alleviate the increasingly tense relationship between people and land; especially the large-scale development of milk, which can continuously provide nutrients such as protein, sugar and fat for the ancestors without slaughtering animals. The analysis of the age structure of animal death shows that there is a phenomenon of obtaining milk in the Shiya culture (Yang Miaomiao, et al., 2017), and our analysis of the carbon isotope of fatty acid monomer adsorbed by pottery also shows that the ancestors of the Zhailiang site in northern Shaanxi province consumed cow (sheep) milk. In terms of food structure, the diachronic statistical analysis of the carbon isotope of ancient human bone collagen in Shaanxi, Shanxi and other places showed that there was an inflection point of carbon isotope value peaking and then decreasing between 4500-4000 years ago, which researchers believe may be the result of the introduction of wheat crops (Cheung, et al., 2019); however, the results of plant flotation show that there are few or no discoveries of wheat crops in this region during this period (Zhao Zhijun, 2020, Sheng, et al., 2021); therefore, the inflection point of carbon isotope values is more likely to be due to the ancestors' consumption of beef, mutton, or milk fed on C3 plants; the intake of these proteins will improve the nutritional status and enhance the physical fitness of the ancestors. Obviously, animal husbandry has enhanced the survival advantages of the ancestors and enhanced the resilience of human society.

In light industry, animal husbandry provides more raw materials, such as leather and bone ware manufacturing; through ZooMS analysis (zooarchaeology based on mass spectrometry), we found that the raw material for bone mouth springs at the Shi'an site is cow bone. In the late Shi'an culture and Taosi culture, there was a phenomenon of obtaining wool (Yang Miaomiao, et al., 2017, Li Zhipeng, 2014), and the wool spinning industry has risen. The scale of light industry was expanded.

In the construction, transportation, mining and heavy industries, the weight-bearing or cart-pulling function of cattle can improve the transportation efficiency of light industrial products such as food, pottery, salt, heavy industrial raw materials and ores. Before the introduction of cattle, the Chinese ancestors lacked domesticated large livestock to drive; the introduction of cattle, so that the power choice of the ancestors mainly shifted from human to animal power, China's earliest "central axis city" city site, Henan Huaiyang Pingliangtai site excavated China's earliest two-wheeled rut ruins (no later than 4200 years ago), perhaps the ox cart has been put into use (Lü Peng, 2021); at the Tao Temple site, raising cattle may be for traction (Bo Kailing, 2011). It is worth noting that after the introduction of the cattle, the Shijia site built the Imperial City Terrace, and the Tao Temple site built a large city of 2.8 million square meters in the middle stage, and this large-scale infrastructure project will inevitably use the weight-bearing function of the cattle to liberate manpower and improve work efficiency. The upgrading of power will undoubtedly facilitate the flow of people and the circulation of resources.

Although millet agriculture is still the main body of the subsistence economy in the northern region, the pastoral revolution triggered by the introduction of cattle and sheep will stimulate the development of productive forces and the adjustment of production relations, promote population growth, exchange of goods, enhance the connection between different regions, aggravate wealth inequality, social division of labor and stratification between families/groups, and thus lower the threshold for human society to enter the early countries at that time. The role of the cattle is so important that this may be the reason why the cattle quickly became sacrificial animals in the second wave of propagation, further strengthening the position of theocracy or kingship.

The sub-product revolution of the 4th millennium BC contributed to the rise of urbanization and complex societies in the Near East and Europe, while the pastoral revolution of the late 3rd millennium BC was the catalyst for the birth of the early Chinese state. There is still a broad academic space for the spread, utilization and influence of animal husbandry in the Yellow River Basin, and it is urgent to carry out in-depth research on animal archaeology, animal DNA, sediment DNA, environmental archaeology, dental calculus and organic residue analysis of pottery, and reveal the interaction relationship between cattle and Chinese ancestors from multiple angles.

Author: Yang Yimin

Author Affilications:Department of Archaeology and Anthropology, School of Humanities, University of Chinese Academy of Sciences

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