Lookout | crack the Red Mountain cultural code

The Hongshan culture may reflect China's own development path and characteristics in the process of civilization origin and national formation

Wen | Zhao Hongnan, a reporter for the "Outlook" news weekly

"The leader of the Hongshan ancestors surveyed this mountain, arranged and planned the building complex to be built here, and then there were full-time personnel who proposed specific construction plans and construction designs according to the terrain of the hillside, and finally more responsible persons assigned many Hongshan ancestors to transport soil, move stones, and carry out specific construction."

Standing at the Niuheliang workstation located in the endless mountains of the Nuruer Tiger Mountains, Jia Xiaobing described to reporters the construction scene of the land in front of him more than 5,000 years ago.

What made this "imagination" by this researcher at the Institute of Archaeology of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences was the new archaeological discoveries in 2021, such as the no. 2 building site at the first site of the Niuheliang site.

With the inclusion of the ruins of Liangzhu Ancient City on the World Heritage List, people have added new expectations for the Hongshan culture, which is earlier than the Liangzhu culture. Many experts believe that the origin of Chinese civilization is diverse, and the Hongshan culture, which may have stepped into the "threshold of civilization", is one of the important sources.

Faience lid urn exhibited at the "Jade Out of Hongshan - Hongshan Cultural Archaeological Achievement Exhibition" (taken on October 17, 2020) Photo by Jin Liangkuai / This issue

The temple is not alone

In January 2022, the land in western Liaoning was already three feet frozen, and in the Niuheliang workstation, Jia Xiaobing and his colleagues, who had already finished the previous year's archaeological excavations, did not leave.

"We were excited by the new discoveries from the previous year and wanted to put together the excavation briefing as soon as possible." Jia Xiaobing, head of the excavation project at site 2 of the first site of the Niuheliang site, said.

In the past, it was thought that the temple of the goddess, discovered in 1983, existed independently. The discoveries here have shaken the archaeological community, allowing the famous archaeologist Su Bingqi to position the social structure reflected in the "altars, temples, and tombs" of the Hongshan culture Niuheliang as an "ancient country".

Through excavations in the previous year, the archaeological team found a new base site of the hill at the first site, thus discovering that the Temple of the Goddess was built on the base site of Platform 9 and was part of the complex on site No. 2 of site 1.

"The temple is not alone! This discovery gave us a new understanding of the layout of the first location. Jia Xiaobing said that due to the protection of the site and the restriction of technical conditions, many sites in Niuheliang did not carry out comprehensive archaeological excavations.

Earlier, archaeologists noticed that there were architectural remains near the temple of the goddess at the first site of Niuheliang. The staff referred to the ruins of the Temple of the Goddess as Building No. 1, and the remains of the mountain terrace building on its north side were collectively referred to as Building No. 2. After the archaeological excavation of the No. 2 building site was restarted, a relatively clear stratigraphic section was found on the north side of the temple, the upper layer of the section was cushioned soil, and the bottom layer had a stone foundation, which should be a man-made masonry pedestal, and the pedestal extended to the south to enclose the ruins of the nunnery.

Guo Ming, a researcher at the Liaoning Provincial Institute of Cultural Relics and Archaeology, said that through local dissection, it was found that the cushion soil accumulation layer on the north side of the goddess temple stretched continuously to the south, reaching the southern edge of the ruins of the goddess temple. This phenomenon is preliminary evidence that the temple was built on top of the newly discovered hill, numbered TJ9.

Since 2021, with the domestic archaeologists coming to "consult", the archaeological team has begun to organize forces to carry out archaeological excavations on the north side of the nun temple site protection exhibition hall.

On the south side of the 2nd building site, between the TJ5 and TJ6 platforms opposite the female temple, a remnant of a cushion soil ramp of about 6 meters in length and 2 meters in width was found, with a slightly lower slope on both sides and paved with stones. On the outside of this ramp, archaeologists found two symmetrically distributed curved stone walls stacked with small stones, which they called figure-eight stone walls.

"This section of the stone wall, because it is partially exposed to the surface, was previously mistaken for a water barrier built by later generations, but this archaeological excavation shows that this is the remains of the ancestors of the Red Mountain." In addition, Guo Ming said, two drainage ditches were found in the east and west built by the ancestors of the Red Mountain inside the retaining wall. This large-scale pedestal building and drainage facility is the earliest architectural remains of its kind ever found on the mainland.

Summarizing the excavation results of the previous year, the archaeological team gradually sorted out the construction specifications of the No. 2 building site: when the Hongshan ancestors built the relevant facilities of the No. 2 building site, they followed the process of building from south to north and along the contour line from low to high, and the highest point of the entire building site was the mountain platform numbered TJ1.

The team also found that the site of Building 2, except for a thin layer of humus soil on the surface, may have come from nearby mountains and valleys, and the stones that built the boundary wall of the masonry platform may have come from a more distant area, and this complex was carefully selected by the ancestors of Hongshan mountain and built on a hillside with a rocky surface.

At present, the No. 2 building site can be confirmed to have a construction area of more than 60,000 square meters, and a total of 9 pedestals have been found. Archaeologists speculate that from the current excavations, there should be a building on each mountain platform, of which TJ1 is the highest point, and there may be a more magnificent "palace" style building than the female temple.

"This discovery provides new information for understanding the relationship between the first site and its remains, and also provides key evidence for further judging the nature and function of the temple." Jia Xiaobing said that the first site, regardless of the scale, structure or design concept of the foundation, is in a leading position in China's Neolithic archaeological culture, which is very important for understanding the social complexity process of Niuheliang and Hongshan culture.

Find a settlement site

The Niuheliang site, discovered more than 40 years ago and known as one of the important sources of pluralistic Chinese civilization, is mainly a high-level ceremonial relic of the ancestors of Hongshan Mountain. It is rare to find where the ancestors of hongshan in the same period in the Liaoning region lived and lived.

Mainly from this, the discussion of whether the Hongshan culture entered the civilized society has continued from the beginning of the discovery of the Niuheliang site to the present. Some scholars believe that the Hongshan culture lacks the so-called "three elements" of entering civilized society, namely metal, city and writing.

"The next step of archaeology focuses on the site of the hongshan ancestors' life and residence, filling the shortcomings of the hongshan people's living and living sites that have not been found in Niuheliang." Jia Xiaobing said that finding large-scale residential settlements in the nearby area that match the status of the center of Niuheliang etiquette in the same era will help to better understand the cultural connotation and social conditions of the Niuheliang site.

But a haunting question is, what if there are no "ideal" discoveries?

Jia Xiaobing believes that the process and characteristics of civilization between different regions are different, and the criteria for judging are not necessarily the same. "Perhaps the Hongshan culture has its own set of civilizational judgment standards."

Interviewed experts pointed out that the middle and late Hongshan culture, which dates back to about 5700 to 5000 years, is an advanced stage of neolithic cultural development in western Liaoning, and its main symbols are three: one is the higher level of productivity development reflected in architecture, jade carving, and ceramic sculpture; the second is the establishment of a hierarchical system, the formation of a jade ceremonial system, the emergence of a privileged class, and the establishment of a one-person royal power; the third is the maturity of the public belief and ritual system, with ancestor worship, heaven and earth worship, and dragon totem worship being the most representative.

Jia Xiaobing said, "Hongshan culture has great material achievements, but we should pay more attention to the spiritual achievements of Hongshan culture, and the exploration of the spiritual field and spiritual achievements of Hongshan culture is very important, which is the core criterion for judging whether Hongshan culture has entered civilized society." "During the Hongshan culture period, there was the worship of heaven and earth, ancestor worship, and dragon totem worship, and these three worship concepts developed and matured and had corresponding material and cultural relics, which was an important symbol of entering the threshold of civilized society.

The Chinese path of the origin of civilization

"For the study of the origin of civilization, it should be carried out in combination with Chinese characteristics." Guo Dashun, a famous archaeologist, said.

Guo Dashun believes that the Hongshan culture may reflect China's own development path and characteristics in the process of civilization and the formation of the country - the systematization of beliefs; the origin of the etiquette system; the historical basis for the formation of Chinese cultural traditions and the pattern of pluralism; the strong inheritance force and the continuous continuation of Chinese civilization and the organic integration with the history of the five emperors of ancient history and legend.

For example, some experts pointed out that the road traveled by the origin of Chinese civilization was from witchcraft and rituals to civilization, and the emergence of rituals that "stipulate interpersonal relations and are the guidelines for rulers to rule" is closely related to the origin of Chinese civilization. One of the characteristics of ancient Chinese civilization is that the ruling order of ancient Chinese civilization was established by etiquette rather than religion.

Guo Dashun believes that the Hongshan cultural jade ceremonial system has three major characteristics, such as uniqueness, multiple functions of use, and user particularity, and is one of the earliest forms of etiquette in China that can be confirmed at present.

"In the late Hongshan culture, the types and quantities of jade have increased significantly, and the jade carving technology has made great progress, and the ritual form with jade as the carrier and the dragon totem worship with the jade dragon as the form of expression have been formed, which is one of the important symbols of the formation of China's five-thousand-year civilization." He said.

"The large-scale excavation and research of Niuheliang has begun a new journey of exploration." Jia Xiaobing said.

In 2021, the "Research on the Process of Social Civilization in Hongshan Mountain" carried out by the Institute of Archaeology of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences and the Liaoning Provincial Institute of Cultural Relics and Archaeology and other cultural institutions and colleges and universities was included in the "Archaeological China" major project of the State Administration of Cultural Heritage.

Guo Ming said that through a new way of cross-regional and interdisciplinary, we will have a more systematic and comprehensive study of the Hongshan culture and the process of Hongshan social civilization. "We expect to be able to get closer to the ancients through research, a little closer." ■