Author: Strict Xie Panpan Tong Xiaoyu
For a long time, some people in the international academic community believe that Chinese civilization began in the Yin Shang period about 3500 years ago. The successful application for the Liangzhu site means that the origin of Chinese civilization and the formation of the country 5,000 years ago have finally been "internationally recognized".
Why Liangzhu? How does Liangzhu confirm China's 5,000-year civilization?
Liu Bin, a famous Chinese archaeologist and an important discoverer of the ruins of Liangzhu Ancient City, said in a recent interview with the China News Agency's "East and West Question" that 5,000 years ago, there were many civilizations with similar levels of development on the land of China, which can be described as "full of stars." The reason why Liangzhu can become the empirical evidence of China's civilization for more than 5,000 years is mainly because it is well preserved. Judging from the scale of the excavated tombs and the ancient city of Liangzhu, the Liangzhu god and king are one, with obvious class divisions, profound social mobilization capabilities and efficient organizational management capabilities, and have the standard of civilization - the form of the state.
Liangzhu Ancient City Ruins Park (drone photo). China News Service Issued Hangzhou Liangzhu Ruins Management Area Management Committee Courtesy of the picture
The interview transcript is summarized below:
China News Service: There is a saying that whether a society has entered the stage of civilization depends on whether it has bronzes, writings and the birth of a city. Is this an international standard?
Liu Bin: This statement is a misunderstanding, nor is it an "international standard". Before explaining this question, we need to understand what civilization is.
"Civilization" in the archaeological sense means that human beings have escaped from a state of barbarism and ignorance and have a state. Colin Renfreud, a professor at the University of Cambridge and an international archaeologist, also said that the criteria for judging civilization vary from place to place, and there is no requirement to have three elements: bronze, writing and city. The state is the core of judging a civilization.
China's archaeology started later than Western countries, and 2021 is 100 years after the birth of Chinese archaeology, so some experiences and evaluation criteria are also summarized by the West in archaeological excavations in ancient Egypt, ancient Asia, and the Indus River Basin.
For example, ancient Egypt had hieroglyphs, cities, and metal smelting technology; ancient West Asia was a city-state civilization, which had cuneiform scripts and was the birthplace of human bronze technology. Some archaeologists have naturally adopted bronzes, writing, and cities as criteria for humanity to enter civilized society.
Previously, in Western academic circles, they recognized that China entered the stage of civilization during the Shang Dynasty to the Yin Ruins, 3600 to 3500 years ago. Liangzhu has no bronzes, although the original symbols have been found in the site, but they cannot be identified as writing, so there has been controversy about whether Liangzhu "meets the standard", and now it should be settled.
In July 2019, tourists stopped in front of the ruins of the southern city wall of Liangzhu Ancient City Ruins Park. China News Service reporter Wang Gang
China News Service: After the successful application for heritage, Liangzhu culture has empirically verified the history of China's 5,000-year civilization. At that time, what were the elements that determined that Liangzhu had entered the stage of civilization?
Liu Bin: That proves that Liangzhu was already a highly organized state form as early as 5,000 years ago.
The first is the scale of liangzhu ancient city. Liangzhu Ancient City is a huge capital with a four-fold structure of palace area, inner city, outer city and peripheral water conservancy system. Liangzhu Wangcheng has more than 3 million square meters, and Liangzhu also has 6.31 million square meters of Waiguo City, which is equivalent to the size of 8 Forbidden Cities. The water conservancy system outside Liangzhu is currently known to be the earliest and largest in the world, with an impact area of about 100 square kilometers.
Liangzhu Ancient City Ruins Park Mojiaoshan Palace Area (drone photo). China News Service Issued Hangzhou Liangzhu Ruins Management Area Management Committee Courtesy of the picture
We calculated the amount of earthwork for the overall building, which is about 10 million cubic meters. If a person wants to carry 1 cubic meter a day, he needs more than 10 million workers. According to archaeological findings, the scale of this building did not expand slowly within a few hundred years, but was uniformly planned and formed in a short period of time. To accomplish this, a large number of manpower needs to be organized, and it is necessary to allocate and dispatch it, provide it with logistical support including tools, food and drink, and effective engineering quality monitoring. Even today, it is not a county manpower that can solve it. Behind it must be a country with deep social mobilization capabilities and efficient organizational and management capabilities.
Archaeologists from more than sixty countries have visited Liangzhu and seen such a large ancient city, saying: "Such a large site, if it is not a country, what is a country." ”
In the southern part of the Palace District of MojiaoShan, two large areas of carbonized rice accumulation sites were buried, and it is estimated that there are nearly 200,000 kilograms of rice. This is the granary of Liangzhu City, which was burned down by fire at that time, and they are only the tip of the iceberg of the grain reserves of liangzhu ancient country. It is conceivable that the liangzhu city was rich in grain at that time.
Outside Liangzhu City, the ancestors planted grain here. Archaeology found that there are more than 5,000 square meters of rice fields at the Linping Maoshan site in Hangzhou, and last year we also found more than 100,000 square meters of rice fields in the Liangzhu period at the Site of Shi'ao in Yuyao, Ningbo.
In addition to grain reserves, from a large number of archaeological discoveries, it can be seen that Liangzhu is a class society. Liangzhu produced a large number of exquisite jade, pottery and superb wooden buildings, indicating that the social division of labor at that time was very developed, and there were craftsmen who processed jade and stone tools.
In May 2021, visitors watched a multimedia display of the production and life of people in the Liangzhu period in liangzhu ancient city ruins park. Photo by China News Service reporter Wang Gang
Judging from the data of many tombs, the social stratification of Liangzhu is very obvious, and ordinary people to the most senior rulers can be divided into at least four or five levels. The funerary items of high-end tombs are mainly jade, because jade is rare. We have not yet found out where the jade mine of Liangzhu is. Rare jade is eventually concentrated in the hands of a small number of people, and the whole process of searching, production and processing is actually the embodiment of the concentration of power.
In July 2019, tourists visited the Tomb of the Anti-Mountain King in Liangzhu Ancient City Ruins Park. Photo by China News Service reporter Wang Gang
In addition to funerals, jade has another function in Liangzhu: sacrifice. We infer that around 5,000 years ago, a common god emerged in the lower reaches of the Yangtze River. Liangzhu is best known for its jade, which is the carrier of the idol. A unified faith is a sign of a highly developed society.
Colin Lunforru, a professor at the University of Cambridge and a titan of international archaeology, also said after arriving in Liangzhu that he had no doubt at all that Liangzhu was a country and had entered the stage of civilization.
Therefore, for the judgment of civilization standards, we must summarize our own characteristics, there is no need to apply. The signs of the entry into civilization of ancient Egyptian and West Asian societies may be large cities, metals, cities, and writing; the symbols of China may be jade, hierarchical tombs, cities, etc. The significance of Liangzhu's application for heritage is also to let the West understand that the evolution of Chinese civilization is synchronized with other civilizations such as Egypt.
In May 2020, visitors visited the Divine Man Beast Face Jade Qun at the Liangzhu Museum in Hangzhou. China News Service reporter Zhang Yin photographed
China News Service: Since there is no specific standard, is there only one Liangzhu that can prove that Chinese civilization has lasted for 5,000 years?
Liu Bin: Chinese civilization was around 5,000 years old, and it was "full of stars", but it was less well preserved. What can be seen now is the Hongshan culture in Liaoning, which began five or six thousand years ago, earlier than Liangzhu, is one of the earliest relics of Chinese civilization, and is also buried with jade, but at present, archaeological excavations are all sacrificial sites, and there is no residential site; the ruins of the Tao Temple in Xiangfen County, Shanxi Province, slightly later than Liangzhu; the ancient city of Shiya in Yulin, Shaanxi, about 4300 years ago, it is built of stone, and the scale is no less than that of the Egyptian pyramids.
From an archaeological point of view, every cultural circle is in the same vein. The culture of each block dates back about 7,000 years, and some even 10,000 years ago. Liangzhu has now become the empirical evidence of China's more than 5,000 years of civilization history, which lies in its complete preservation.
This has a great deal of contingency. Archaeology has found that about 4100 years ago, that is, during the period of Dayu Zhishui, a major flood broke out in the Yangtze River Basin, and the Qiantang River flooded the entire Hangzhou Basin. It was not until the Warring States that people came here to live and live. Due to sediment accumulation, the flood filled the low-lying area at that time by one or two meters. During the Han Dynasty, people lived along the river and did not think of building houses on the highlands, so the Liangzhu tombs and ruins on the highlands were completely preserved.
In October 2021, tourists visited the newly opened Liangzhu Yaoshan Ruins Park in Hangzhou. The site is an important part of the ruins of Liangzhu Ancient City, and is an important altar tomb complex site in the early Liangzhu culture, with a history of 5300 years. (Drone photo) China News Service reporter Wang Gang photo
China News Service: From an international perspective, what is the level of archaeological exploration in China?
Liu Bin: Although China's archaeology industry started late, it is not backward in terms of equipment, working environment, technical level and research methods.
Before the field exploration, we have used satellites, drones and other methods to determine the location of the downhoe. The Liangzhu Site Archaeology and Conservation Center has also set up a number of scientific and technological laboratories to understand the site from the disciplines of geology, water conservancy, remote sensing, animals, and plants.
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