In 2020, the Shanxi Provincial Institute of Archaeology excavated a high-grade cemetery in the east of Beibaie Village, Yingyan Town, Yuanqu County, Yuncheng City, Shanxi Province, and unearthed a large number of important cultural relics, including a number of bronzes with inscriptions. Based on the content of the inscription and the research of experts, the excavators believe that the cemetery is a public cemetery of the Taibao Yanzhong clan of the Zhou dynasty hereditary noble family in the Eastern Zhou Dynasty.
According to the preliminary observation of the published information, the tomb shape system and the burial bronze varieties and styles of the cemetery basically have the typical characteristics of the Zhou culture of this period, and only the shape and ornamentation style of one copper pot are extremely unique, distinctive and eye-catching. The copper jar (numbered North White Goose M1:119) has a diameter of 26 cm, a bottom diameter of 12 cm, a height of 30.5 cm, a luxury mouth, a neck, a shoulder, a flat bottom, a pair of ears at the mouth, a rope-like band on the neck, and a circle of 3 figurative tiger-shaped ornaments on the shoulders. This copper jar has a unique shape, which is different from the Zhou Culture Style Jar Artifacts common around the same period in the Zhou Wangqi and its surrounding areas at the Northern White Goose Cemetery, and is extremely incongruous with the common Zhou cultural pottery combinations of mane, cup, bean, pot and solemn bronze ceremonial vessel combination Ding, Gui, Pot, Mane, Bean, Plate, Zao, and Gong, which were common at that time. From the perspective of ornamentation style, the bronze pot table is not decorated with the rope pattern and string pattern commonly found on the Zhou cultural style pottery of this period, nor is it the abstract and mysterious typical ornamentation such as the cloud thunder pattern, the stealing curve pattern, the ring belt pattern, the re-return pattern, the dragon pattern, and the cockroach pattern that are popular on the bronze ceremonial vessels of the same period, but the very specific tiger image ornament.
Styling is not without a trace
Although we cannot find such styles of artifacts and their origins in typical Zhou culture pottery and bronze ware types and ornaments, if we zoom in to the wider northwest region, the origin of such artifacts and their ornamental styles is clear at a glance. This kind of extravagant two-eared (or single-ear, earless) jars are widely found in the Bronze Age culture in the northwest region, such as the Siwa culture distributed in central and eastern Gansu and southern Ningxia, which is more common and is one of its characteristic artifacts. The same kind of one-eared clay pots are more common in the Pengbao Yujiazhuang Eastern Zhou Cemetery in Guyuan, southern Ningxia. The cemetery is popular for burial with sheep, cattle, horses skulls or hoof bones, with bronze short swords, knives, ge, spears, hammers and a large number of bubble ornaments, buckles and horsebits, horse hammers, thrift, danglu, etc., is a typical tomb of the Xirong crowd from the late Spring and Autumn period to the early Warring States period. In addition, the Zhanguo Rongren Cemetery in Zhaitouhe, Huangling County, Shaanxi Province, has also unearthed binaural or single-ear plain clay pots with similar shapes, such as M87:3, M59:3, etc. The style of the shoulders of the clay pots excavated from the cemetery is decorated with a circle of rope patterns is almost consistent with the northern white goose copper jar.
Tiger pattern copper tank (North White Goose M1:119) Cao Jun/ Courtesy of Shanxi Archaeological Research Institute
Similarly, figurative animal ornamentation is particularly popular on various bronze plaques of the nomadic culture of the Northwest during the two-week period. In the tombs of nomadic people widely distributed from Chifeng to Ordos to Ningxia and Gansu, such plaques are commonly seen, and together with the custom of burial with the heads and hooves of horses, cattle and sheep, they together constitute the representative cultural characteristics of the northern and northwestern nomadic cultures of the two-week period.
Similar clay pots are unique to the Northwest Qiangrong population
This type of typical cultural factor from the northern and northwestern nomadic or agrarian and pastoral groups appears in the core area of Zhou culture, although uncommon, but not alone.
According to existing archaeological data, tombs No. 114 and 113 of the Tianma-Qucun Jinhou Cemetery, which preceded the Northern White Goose Cemetery, are from the late Western Zhou Dynasty, and the tomb owner may be the father and wife of the Jin Marquis Xie in the early Western Zhou Dynasty. Among them, the Jomon amphora bronze jar (M113:125) buried with Tomb No. 113, open high neck, tunic slanted shoulders, folded abdomen, flat bottom, rope-shaped double folded ears, abdomen decorated with a rope pattern for a week. Such pots are not found in pottery and bronze ware in the Central Plains, but similar pottery amphora jars are common in the Qijia culture and The Siwa culture in the northwest, and have a long historical tradition.
In 2019, a tomb in the middle of the Western Zhou Dynasty was excavated in the south of Dayuan Village, the capital of the Western Zhou Dynasty, the Fenghao Site. Although the tomb was seriously disturbed by the later period, 1 piece of copper and 1 clay pot (M10D1:1) were still excavated from the tomb. Among them, the clay pot is clay gray pottery, plain surface, caliber 14.8 cm, bottom diameter 8.8 cm, height 22.1 cm, straight mouth micro luxury, mouth along one side of the flow, micro-bundle neck, slippery shoulders, upper abdomen micro drum, flat bottom micro concave, and Zhou culture pottery pot style is very different. According to research, the clay pot is very similar to the belt flow jar excavated from the Chawuhugoukou cemetery in Xinjiang, which is about equivalent to the Western Zhou To Spring and Autumn Period. Although the origin of this type of pottery may not be so distant, if the absolute consistency of the shape of the vessel is not emphasized, from its overall style, the clay pot has similarities with the plain clay pot of the Northwest Siwa culture, which should be the embodiment of its cultural influence. Correspondingly, the tomb has the phenomenon of sacrificing the head and hooves of horses and cattle and using sheep as animals in the soil, which is also different from the typical Zhou tombs. Considering the phenomenon that the clay pot and the cattle, horses, sheep's head and hooves are buried in the same tomb, we can speculate that the owner of the tomb should be closely related to the nomadic people of the northwest Qiangrong.
Siwa culture saddle mouth amphora Image source: CFP
Similar kinds of pots found in the Zhou Cultural Area at the same time as the North White Goose Cemetery or slightly later, as well as the Spring and Autumn Tombs of Linyi Cheng Village, the Tomb of the Western Spring and Autumn Rongren of Shichi Lu Temple, and the Tomb of Maojiaping Qin in Gangu. Among them, the most typical is a batch of single-eared pottery jars excavated from the Rongren Cemetery in Xuyang Village, Yichuan, Henan Province, which is very close to the copper jar shape of the North White Goose Cemetery, and 6 such single-eared cans have been excavated from the 18 tombs in the West District alone, all of which are open, round lips, bundle neck, along the lower single ear, deep arc abdomen, flat bottom. The cemetery also embodies the prominent custom of burying with the hooves of cattle, horses and sheep. Academics generally believe that the owner of the cemetery was a Lu Hunrong nobleman who moved to the Iloilo region during the Spring and Autumn Period.
From the above archaeological findings, it can be seen that this kind of unique shape of the clay pot is unique to the Qiangrong people in the northwest region of the Zhou people, and is one of the representative artifacts of its culture, and the tiger-patterned copper pot excavated from the North White Goose Cemetery is the bronze product of this type of clay pot. The emergence and popularity of such cans should be related to the unique production lifestyle of the Northwest Rong people. The gold belt ornaments, gold wire rings and golden staff heads excavated from the Sanmenxia Yuguo Cemetery, The Liangdai Village of Hancheng and the Ruiguo Cemetery of Liujiawa, which are basically contemporaries of the North White Goose Cemetery, are also considered by the academic community to be the result of the influence of the Northwest Rongdi people's admiration of the golden cultural tradition.
Xirong and Huaxia are integrated with each other
The Rongdi cultural factors represented by such pots, cattle, horses, and sheep's head hoof burial customs appear in the tombs of Wang Qi and its surrounding areas in the capital of the Two Zhou Dynasties, reflecting the relationship between Zhou Rong and Zhou at that time, and can echo a large number of records about the relationship between the Zhou people and the Xi Rong ethnic group in the Two Zhou Literature and the Jin Text. We can see that the rise and fall of the Zhou Dynasty is extremely closely related to the Northwest Qiang Rong.
Mencius said that "King Wen, the people of Xiyi", the Zhou people and the Rong may be the same race, but the Zhou people continued to integrate into the Chinese lilly cultural circle and eventually became the co-lord of the world on behalf of the Shang. In the early days, the Zhou people maintained a friendly and cooperative relationship with the northwest Rong Di, and the Zhou people's tentacles also took this opportunity to penetrate deep into the southern part of Ningxia, leaving behind typical Zhou cultural relics such as the tomb of Sun Jiazhuang in Guyuan Zhonghe Township and the ruins of Yaoheyuan in Pengyang. In the middle of the Western Zhou Dynasty, due to the hostile relationship caused by historical events such as the "Mu Wang Zheng Dog Rong" and the Xiao Lu Ding inscription recorded in the literature, such as the Zhou Dynasty's "Conquest of the Ghost Fang", the Zhou forces continued to withdraw from the northwest direction, the sites such as Yao Heyuan were gradually abandoned, and the typical Zhou cultural relics in the northwest region gradually withered away. In the late Western Zhou Dynasty, the "Cai Wei", "Out of the Car", "June" and many other bronze inscriptions in the Book of Poetry, such as Bu Qigui, Xi Jia Pan, Duo you Ding, Yu Jizi White Plate, etc., recorded the fierce and frequent wars between the Zhou people and the Fox (or "Fox"), the Zhou Dynasty's control over the northwest was constantly weakened, and the Xi Rong crowd continued to move inwards, frequently penetrating into the core area of Zhou culture, so that "the Southern Barbarians and the Northern Di invaded, and China was endlessly like a line". In the Western Zhou Dynasty, The Marquis of Shen of Jiang joined forces with Dog Rong to capture the Zhou dynasty capital fenghao, killed the King of You, occupied Wang Qi, and forced king Ping to move east to Luoyang, completely ending the Zhou king's control of the western region.
Western Zhou bronze heavy weapon "Xi Jia Disk" Image source: CFP
These so-called foxes, rongdi, etc. are all xirong in a broad sense, just as Wang Guowei said in the "Ghost Fang Kunyi Fox Examination", "Xi rong is a fox, and it rhymes with each other". "The ancients were called 'Inu Rong', and the Descendants were all named 'Inu Rong', and then attacked the King of You, destroyed the Dog Rong of The Zhou Dynasty, and immediately proclaimed the King of The Fox." "In the season of the Zong Zhou Dynasty, it is called the Yue Hu; after entering the Spring and Autumn Period, it is called zhi rong, followed by the name of Di; the Warring States descended, also known as the Hu and the Xiongnu. In summary, the names of Rong and Di are all added by Chinese; the names of The Ghost Fang, the Chaoyi, the Yue, the Hu, and the Xiongnu are their real names. During the Spring and Autumn Period, Rong Di was even more prosperous, becoming the main enemy of the Huaxia clique, and the overlords had to hold high the banner of "Honoring the King" in order to command the princes.
Although there was a fierce collision and conflict between the Rongdi crowd and the Chinese crowd during the two-week period, we must also realize that the conflict process between the Rongdi crowd and the Chinese crowd is also a process of cultural and ethnic exchange and integration. On the one hand, the Chinese countries continued to absorb the Rongdi people and culture into their own culture and society. For example, the Qin people expanded their power eastward to the Guanzhong region by attacking the various small western Rong states that occupied the Zhou Wang Qi, and the Jin state incorporated the Rong people into their own armies and brought them under their rule through marriage and war with the Rong people. The many Rongdi cultural factors seen in the two-week remains, including tiger-patterned copper jars, and the reform of King Wuling of Zhao's "Hufu Riding and Shooting" show the absorption of Rongdi culture by Chinese culture. On the other hand, the Rongdi people gradually accepted the Chinese lilly culture, strengthened their identification with the Chinese culture, and eventually integrated into the Chinese culture and ethnic groups, becoming a member of the Chinese nation. A typical example of this is the tomb of the Rongren people in Xuyang, Yichuan, Henan, which maintains the custom of burying cattle, horses, sheep's heads and hooves, and traditional Rongdi cultural items such as ear jars. However, its burial system of vertical pits, coffin systems, burials of a large number of bronze ceremonial instruments, pottery and imitation copper pottery pots, ding, mane, beans, pots, plates, za, boats and other phenomena, all show typical Chinese liturgical cultural features. It can be seen that these Rong ethnic groups have formed a identification with the cultural tradition of Chinese liturgy, showing the cultural integration characteristics of Confucius's "Yidi uses Zhuxia liturgy to make Zhuxiazhi".
General Secretary Xi Jinping said in his speech at the National Ethnic Unity and Progress Commendation Conference: "Our long history is written by all ethnic groups. As early as the pre-Qin period, the mainland gradually formed a pattern of integration with Yanhuang Huaxia as the core of cohesion and the 'people of the five parties' sharing the world. "A history of China is a history of the fusion and convergence of various nationalities into a pluralistic and integrated Chinese nation, and a history of the great motherland in which all nationalities jointly created, developed, and consolidated reunification." The reason why all ethnic groups are united and integrated, and the reason why pluralism is gathered into one, comes from the cultural eclecticism, economic interdependence, and emotional closeness of all ethnic groups, and from the endogenous driving force of the Chinese nation to pursue unity and unity. It is precisely because of this that chinese civilization has unparalleled inclusiveness and absorption power, and can be long-lasting and deep-rooted. The interaction and blending process between the Chinese ethnic group and the Rongdi ethnic group in the two-week period reflects the historical development process of this "pluralistic and integrated" ethnic integration that has jointly created the Chinese nation and its culture.
(The author is a researcher at the Institute of Archaeology, Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, a director of the Chinese Archaeological Society, and the deputy director and deputy secretary-general of the Two Weeks Archaeological Professional Committee)
Editor: Yan Qi