Plate 48
Green glazed pottery hundred opera building
Late Eastern Han Dynasty
Height 73 cm, width 23 cm, depth 25 cm
In 1977, the old town post and telecommunications institute of Xiangcheng County was excavated
"Zhengzhou Xishan Discovery of ancient cities in the Era of the Yellow Emperor"
Xu Shunzhan, China Cultural Relics Daily, November 12, 1995, 3rd edition
Through the analysis of the Yangshao Cultural City site of Zhengzhou Xishan 5,000 years ago and the historical development of China, this article believes that this ancient city should be an ancient city in the era of the Yellow Emperor. From at least a hundred clan settlements of the same period around Yangshao City in Xishan, only the city was discovered at the Yangshao ruins of Xishan in Zhengzhou, and it is inferred that this ancient city must have been the center of many clan tribes at that time. The author also further deduced from the literature that the ancient city must have had the capital of the Bear Kingdom. The ancient city of Xishan in Zhengzhou should be dated to the late Yanhuang Era, and the wall of the slab construction technology appeared, and compared with the literature, it was confirmed that the Yanhuang Era had indeed built a city. The ancient city of Zhengzhou belongs to the Yangshao culture Qinwangzhai type (that is, the Dahe Village type), which is the earliest ancient city site found in mainland China and the most advanced architectural technology.
"Ring Trench Settlement, Tuwei Settlement, Castle, Early City"
Zhang Xuehai, China Cultural Relics Daily, April 21, 1996, 3rd edition
Ring moat settlements, earthen enclosure settlements, castles, and early cities are both related and different. Eight thousand years ago, ring trench settlements appeared. The Tuwei settlement was produced by the development of the ring trench settlement, which is estimated to have arisen in seven or eight thousand years, and the two may coexist, or they may be embodied in the same settlement at the same time, and they are basically the same in function. The difference between tuwei settlements and early castles is only that they have different functions, not shapes. The former is mainly a facility to defend against the intrusion of wild animals and prevent the loss of livestock, while the latter is a military facility, which is a defensive project to resist the enemy's invasion and protect the safety of people's lives and property. Castles can only appear with the advent of war. The emergence of Chinese castles should be 6000 or 7000 years ago, no later than the West Asia and Northern Europe. Early cities were different from castles in that they had different properties and functions. The early city, or primitive city, was the political, economic, and cultural center of the region, although its military function was more than that of ordinary castles
Important, but its political, economic, and cultural status and role are far from being comparable to ordinary castles, and its emergence marks the realization of the separation of urban and rural areas. According to the expositions of Marx and Engels on cities, combined with archaeological discoveries and the characteristics of cities in the Zhou Dynasty, it seems that the following four criteria can be proposed for the original cities of the prehistoric period in China. First, the population is relatively concentrated, with more than 3,000 residents, and residents have a variety of components; Second, there is a class of craftsmen, with a level higher than the general handicraft technology, and is the regional handicraft production center; Third, there are the centers of political power and administration; Fourth, the district has a clear pyramid-shaped hierarchical social structure and is in the position of a spire. Those who met the above criteria were the early cities. The birth of the castle is an important factor of civilization, but it does not mean the birth of the state and the formation of civilization. The emergence of early cities marked the birth of the state and the beginning of the era 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