Plate 36
Two-storey green glazed pottery water pavilion
Late Western Han Dynasty to Early Eastern Han Dynasty
The height is 40 cm and the diameter of the pool is 39 cm
Unearthed in Lingbao County
"On the Emergence of the City and Its Defensive Function"
Ma Shizhi, Central Plains Cultural Relics, No. 1, 1988, pp. 66-71
This article first discusses the emergence of the "city" as an inevitable product of the development of social economy and science and technology to a certain stage, and a large-scale permanent defense facility. It is believed that there were indeed stone castles in the ancient period of the mainland, and its era is roughly equivalent to the legendary Shennong and the Yellow Emperor. If the ruins of the Niuheliang stone wall in western Liaoning can be regarded as castles, then the mainland has entered the stage of urban culture more than 5,000 years ago. After combing through the prehistoric ancient cities that have been discovered and their chronology, the author believes that the ancient cities found in the Central Plains were built in the Longshan cultural era, which is roughly equivalent to the cang and Yu dynasties in the history of the mainland. After comparing the scale and appearance time of the city sites of other ancient civilization centers in the world, it is believed that from the perspective of the level of productivity and the shape of the ruins, the time of the continental urban culture stage is as long as babylon, Egypt and India, and the stone and earthen walled castles can be regarded as the symbols of primitive civilization, whether it is the end of clan society or the early stage of class society, it has reached the threshold of civilized society.
The author also argues that the basic function of the city is the function of defense. It was thought that flood prevention was not necessarily the function or primary function of the early city. The city is a "defensive culture" facility, and the main object of defense is the invasion of the enemy. After entering the class society, although some cities have developed into the political, economic, and cultural centers of a country or region, which embody the functions of the state in a concentrated way, their defensive nature has not changed, but the object of defense has become foreign troops or domestic working people, and it still has a very strong military color. The structure and meaning of the words "city, guo, yi, and country" indicate that the basic shape of the early mainland city is square or rectangular, and indicates that its main function is defense and self-defense. This situation is consistent with archaeological findings.
"On the Social Nature of Longshan Cultural Ancient City"
Cao Guicen, Proceedings of the Fifth Annual Conference of the Chinese Archaeological Society, pp. 1-7, Cultural Relics Publishing House, 1988, this article first made a brief description of the six longshan cultural ancient cities of Chengziya, Bianjian Wang, Hougang, Pingliangtai, Wangchenggang and Laohushan, synthesizing their dates from 4500 to 4300 years ago or earlier, which is equivalent to the Five Emperors period before Xia Yu or similar to the time of Yanhuang activities. It is further believed that the time when the mainland entered the era of civilization in ancient times should begin with the age of the earliest castle built by the Yongsan culture--- 4500 years ago. Archaeological data provide corroboration for this, such as the appearance of bronze products in Zhengzhou Niuzi, Huaiyang Pingliangtai, Xiawanggang of Huaichuan, Wangchenggang of Dengfeng, Linru Coal Mountain, Sanlihe of Jiaoxian County, etc., indicating that the middle and late Longshan culture has the basic conditions for the era of inter-human civilization; The phenomenon of using human animals as the foundation of the foundation in Tangyin Baiying, Anyang Hougang, Dengfeng Wangchenggang and other places is a strong evidence that Longshan culture has entered the slave society; The number of abnormal deaths and "ash pit" tombs found in Xiawanggang, Zhunyang Pingliangtai, Luoyang Shuli, Handan Jiangou, Mengjin Xiaopangou, Fengxi Ke province Zhuang and other places have increased significantly in number compared with the Yangshao cultural period, and this change should be inseparable from the changes in the social system, and their dead are slaves; The burial materials of the Longshan culture period reflect the obvious polarization that existed at that time. All of this is evidence of the age of civilization.
The source of the text is "Research Outline of the Origin of Chinese Civilization", published by Cultural Relics Publishing House in December 2003
Institute of Archaeology, Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, Research Center for Ancient Civilizations, Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, ed
The pictures and descriptions are from "Han Dynasty Architectural Ming Ware Unearthed in Henan", edited by Henan Museum, 2002