Plate 40
Green glazed pottery
Late Eastern Han Dynasty
Height 78 cm, width 25 cm, depth 25 cm
In 1977, the old town post and telecommunications institute of Xiangcheng County was excavated
The Early Cities of Ancient China
Zou Heng, Haidai Archaeology, vol. 1, pp. 349-351, Shandong University Press, 1989
The author believes that the ancient Chinese city sites appeared in the Longshan cultural period, and there are five of them, namely the ruins of Longshan Chengziya in Shandong, the ruins of Hougang in Anyang, Henan, the site of Pingliangtai City in Huaiyang, the site of Wangchenggang In Dengfeng, and the site of Wangcheng on the border line of Shouguang in Shandong. They are about 4150 to 4500 years ago. Although small in size, there are squares, rectangles and trapezoids, and there are facilities such as gates and guards, indicating that the inhabitants of the city should be different from the average village dweller. The author does not recognize that the site of the Yongsan culture has the nature of a political, economic and cultural capital city, and can be used as a military castle with defensive facilities, and only the city of feudal society has a political, economic and cultural nature. The capital of the mainland appeared in the Shang Dynasty, and four were found, namely Zhengzhou Shangcheng, Yanshi Shangcheng, Shanxi Gucheng Shangcheng and Hubei Panlongcheng Shangcheng. Their age was about 17 BC to the 16th century BC, equivalent to the early Shang Dynasty or earlier, of which the scale of Zhengzhou Mall and Yanshi Mall belonged to the large, and the rest belonged to the small. It can be seen from the area that the large city site of the Shang Dynasty is Bilongshan Cultural City
The site should be 30 to 300 times larger. Even the small city site is larger than the Yongsan City site. However, whether small or large malls, their palace complexes have a prominent place in the city. The author concludes that the urban economy at that time was probably a natural economy that combined agriculture and handicrafts, which constituted the characteristics of early cities in ancient China.
"Several Questions about the Early Urban Exploration of the Mainland"
He Changfeng, Archaeology and Cultural Relics, No. 4, 1989, pp. 91-96
The author first clarifies the views on the issues of "city", "city" and "city", arguing that the city cannot simply belong to the city
The categories of the two should be distinguished. The city is also not a simple combination of city and city, it has its own functions and characteristics. The "city" recorded in the literature is mostly a defensive facility for protection, and defensive facilities have appeared in the ruins of large villages such as Banpo in Xi'an and Jiangzhai in Lintong found by archaeological data. Castles have appeared in the Yongsan cultural era. The "city" recorded in the literature is mostly related to the exchange of goods, and can be understood as the original market or market. The city is the political, military, and cultural center within the scope of a country or region, and is an organic unity of economic, political, material, and cultural entities concentrated in a certain area, and the emergence of cities is later than that of cities and cities. It can be seen that the city is different from the city, and the city is also different from the city.
The rise of the city is not necessary, it is the result of the joint action of many factors, and it is also the inevitable result of the contradictory movement of productive forces and production relations, while Dengfeng Wangchenggang and Huaiyang Pingliangtai can only be used as castles, but they do not have the conditions for a real city. Only when real merchants and commerce appeared did the city really take shape. The earliest city sites found in the mainland are in the Longshan culture period 4,000 years ago, Chengziya, Wangchenggang, Pingliangtai, Hougang and other sites have rammed or stone walls, but the area is small, the main function is to play a defensive or protective role, can only be counted as the original castle, not the real city. Henan Yanshi Erlitou, Yanshi Shangcheng, Zhengzhou Shangcheng, Anyang YinXu and Hubei Huangpi Panlong City, etc., are the early slave royal cities that are relatively certain in the current archaeological discoveries on the mainland, and their characteristics are: First, the scale is large, generally about 20 square kilometers. Second, there are rammed earth foundation sites in the city, which are palace complexes and are an important symbol of state power. The third is that handicrafts are controlled by the royal family and have a clear division of labor. The fourth is that there are a large number of scattered settlements around the city, reflecting the initial urban-rural confrontation. The emergence of the Royal City marked the formation of the slave state on the mainland. The formation of the real cities on the mainland was in the Spring and Autumn Period and developed in the Warring States period. Judging from archaeological data and documentary records, the capitals of various countries are the first stage of the great development of mainland cities and play an important role in the history of China's urban development.
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