Niuheliang Ruins: The holy capital of the Hongshan culture

The Hongshan culture, represented by the Niuheliang site, occupies an important position in the history of Chinese civilization. According to the Liaoning Provincial Institute of Cultural Relics and Archaeology, "Niuheliang - Excavation Report of Hongshan Cultural Site (1983-2003)" (Cultural Relics Publishing House, 2012 edition), the Niuheliang site is located in the center of the Hongshan cultural distribution area. The Niuheliang site and its critical area are the most densely distributed and the largest known central area of excavated jade in the Hongshan culture. The Niuheliang ruins are independent temples, temples and mausoleums built by the Hongshan people away from their living quarters.

In this regard, there is much controversy in the academic community. How should the Niuheliang site be positioned in the Hongshan culture? What is its position in the history of Chinese civilization? The author believes that the Niuheliang site is the "holy capital" of the Hongshan culture, and the origin of the holy capital in the mainland capital system can be traced back to this point.

The Holy Capital traces back to its origins

The concept of "Shengdu" was first proposed by Dong Zuobin. On this basis, Zhang Guangzhi said that there was an eternal and unchanging "holy capital" in the three generations period, and there were also "common capitals" that repeatedly migrated. The holy capital is the eternal base of the ancestral temple, but the secular capital is mainly the political, economic, and military leadership center of the king. Pan Mingjuan and others further discussed the system of holy capitals in the pre-Qin period, believing that the establishment of holy capitals was a powerful supplement to the political, economic, military and other functions of the main capital; the holy capitals were the places where the ancestors originated, and they were sacrificial capitals, and always maintained a "lofty status in rituals".

The author believes that there was indeed a system of holy capitals in the three generations period, and it had a great impact on future generations. Pan Mingjuan demonstrated the status of Qi Zhou as a holy capital in the Western Zhou capital system from the perspective that Qi Zhou was the place where the first kings originated and Qi Zhou was an important worship center in the Western Zhou Dynasty. At the same time, Pan Mingjuan also systematically discussed the Holy Capital of the Qin State, Xi Tri, the Yong, and the Holy Capital of the Jin Dynasty, Quwo, and its formation process. Chang Lu proposed the first capital of the Shang Dynasty on the basis of Dong Zuobin and Zhang Guangzhi's "Shang", the first capital of the Shang Dynasty, Bo is another kind of "holy capital" of the Shang people.

The formation and development of the Holy Capital is neither linear nor completely consistent in its path. For example, in the Western Zhou Dynasty, the Shengdu Qi Zhou, the author agrees with Pan Mingjuan's argument. However, in the earlier stages of the Shang Dynasty, such as the middle and late Shang Dynasty, the capital of the Shang Dynasty, Bo, had the meaning of a holy capital; while dong Zuobin and Zhang Guangzhi's Shang Dynasty's holy capital "Shang", if it existed, may mainly have the role of a sacrificial center for the ancestral temple of the merchants. It was not until the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period that it gradually formed a holy capital of comprehensive significance.

According to the author's observation, there was a process of transformation of the secular capital into the holy capital during the three generations period, but to trace the origin of the holy capital, from the existing data, it should be the Niuheliang site of the Hongshan culture. The Niuheliang site is a sacred place of Hongshan culture, the highest level of sacrificial central settlement of Hongshan culture, and its "lofty status in rituals" in the late Hongshan culture has the same status and role as the Shengdu Qi Zhou in the Western Zhou Dynasty.

Worship center

The Niuheliang site is a site discovered at about 50 square kilometers in the shanliang area, with 16 sites in the 1983 excavation survey and 27 new sites in the 2010 cultural relics census, a total of 43 sites. These sites are roughly parallel in time and formed independently.

The ruins of the Niuheliang Female Temple are a large group of buildings including the Female Temple, the mountain platform on the north side of the temple, and the "temple site" on the north side of the mountain. Some scholars have restored the fragments of the statue of the female temple, a total of 6 female individuals, the middle one is the largest in size, so the female temple has a multi-god worship content around the main god. The temple also has a number of animal statues, which can be recognized, including bears and eagles. The object of worship is mainly the goddess, and the animal gods should be in a subordinate position. The animal statues in the temple should be animal totems, and the possibility of being the protective deity and the clan emblem of the clan is not excluded. In Western temples, animal gods are a common element.

■ Ruins of niuheliang female temple author/courtesy photo

Regarding the nature of the Niuheliang Female Temple, although there are still different understandings in the academic community, it is generally believed that this is a group of ancestral idols that worship the female main god and revolve around the main god, and the largest statue of the goddess should be the common ancestor of the Niuheliang period of the Hongshan culture, that is, the ancestor. Or as Su Bingqi said, the goddess in the Niuheliang Female Temple is the female ancestor of the Hongshan people and the "common ancestor" of the Chinese nation. Gu tian Guanglin proposed that the Niuhe Liang Female Temple, where the gods gathered, was the earliest form of the Zong Temple.

Three sites were found on the north side of the temple and on the north side of the mountain, numbered N1J2, N1J3 and N1J4 respectively. Among them, N1J3 and N1J4 should be the auxiliary buildings of the temple platform with sacrificial functions. N1J2 is composed of three mountain platforms, which are distributed in the shape of "pin" and have artificial masonry stone walls. Among them, on the northern edge of the North Mountain Terrace, there are both large areas of red-burned earth accumulation, as well as fragments of arm, ear and imitation wood building components of clay statues.

The Book of Rites and the Great Biography says: "Etiquette, not the king is not a king. The king comes from the place of his ancestors, and matches him with his ancestors. Sun Xidan's "Collection of Interpretations" quotes Zhao Kuang as saying: "The emperor has established the temple of the ancestors, but he has not fulfilled his intention of pursuing the ancestors, so he also pushes the emperor who came out of the ancestors and worships them." "According to the discovery, combined with the location of N1J2, the author believes that N1J2 should be another temple site, and this temple site should be the upper temple. Corresponding to the female ancestors of the female temple, the upper temple should be dedicated to the recent male ancestors of the Hongshan culture, which corresponds to the adult male tombs in the niuheliang center, and also corresponds to the social development stage of the Hongshan culture in this period.

Studies have shown that the owner of the central tomb of the four stone mounds at the second, third, fifth and sixteenth sites of the Niuheliang site is a male near-ancestor who had the status of a king during his lifetime and was solemnly sacrificed after his death. The second site of the Niuheliang site has a joint tomb of a man and a woman, which should be a husband and wife, although it is an isolated case, but it marks the emergence of a monogamous family and the emergence of private property. This indicates that the Hongshan culture has entered the patrilineal clan society in the Niuheliang stage.

The "temple platform" of the Niuheliang site is at the highest point of the main beam of the mountain beam, and the "tomb altar" is distributed around the "temple platform", and it is also located at the beam ridge of each mountain beam, forming a temple centered on the sacrifice and worship of the ancestor of the Hongshan culture - the female temple and sacrifice, the modern male ancestral god of the Hongshan culture - the upper temple, and the burial and sacrifice of the ancestor god of the Hongshan culture - the stone tomb and the altar, which are the overall layout around the surrounding area, all of which reflect the core connotation of ancestor worship.

Some scholars believe that the combination of the temple platform and the combination of the altar reflect the relationship between "distant ancestors and close relatives", and the female temple and each place of worship are the difference between "common ancestors and individual ancestors". Tian Guanglin believes that the "temple", "tomb" and "altar" of the Niuheliang site are the ancestral center of the Hongshan culture more than 5,000 years ago with the nature of a primitive royal tomb and a ancestral temple for worship. The ancestors of the Hongshan culture spent so much resources to build such a large-scale ceremonial center, which is to use this way of worshipping ancestors to achieve the purpose of uniting the tribes and stabilizing social order. As scholars generally believe, the Niuheliang site is the central site of the highest level of Hongshan culture and a sacred place for its ancestors.

Duyi status

In 2014, within the 42.5 square kilometers of the Niuheliang site, in addition to the original 16 ceremonial buildings, archaeological surveys found 6 new ceremonial buildings, a total of 22 of the two, that is, an average of less than 2 square kilometers there is a ceremonial building. In addition, fragments of cylindrical vessels have been found in more than 40 collection units, implying that there may be more ceremonial buildings or stone mounds. In this way, the density of ceremonial buildings in the area is extremely high. A stone mound was found in the northeast of the survey area, surrounded by remnants of the daily life of the smaller Hongshan culture. In the northwestern part of the survey area, a large-scale hongshan cultural daily life remains consisting of multiple collection units were found. No stone mounds were found in the middle area, only two small graves and cylindrical fragments were found in the northeast, south and north of its surroundings. Based on this, the investigators speculate that the layout of this area is based on the living area in the center, surrounded by small ceremonial buildings. The significance of this discovery is enormous.

■ Panorama of niuheliang ruins Author/Courtesy photo

Hongshan culture is widely distributed in the Western Liaoning Cultural Region, the core area is concentrated in the Chifeng region of Inner Mongolia and the Chaoyang region of Liaoning, and its border crosses the Xilamulun River in the north, the west bank of the Lower Liao River in the east, the coast of the Bohai Sea in the south, and the Weichang in the west of Hebei, with an area of about 150,000 square kilometers. According to the statistics of some scholars, there are nearly a thousand Hongshan cultural sites, of which the sites that can be called extra-large settlements can reach an area of 2-3 square kilometers, but the number is very small; the number of small sites with an area of less than 50,000 square meters is the largest; the number of large and medium-sized sites with an area of 50,000-1 million square meters is in the middle, and the number of the three shows a pyramid-like relationship.

Originally, when we discussed the nature of the Niuheliang site, we paid special attention to its sacredness, so the focus of the discussion was mainly on the remains of altars, temples, and tombs. In fact, as a high-level settlement of such a large scale and such high specifications, it is unimaginable to have no day-to-day management and maintenance. This systematic survey in 2014 solved the mystery. To the northwest of the Niuheliang site is a larger site, with a layout of a living quarter centered around small ceremonial buildings. In addition, in the northeast corner of the Niuheliang site, there is a slightly smaller site. This constitutes a relatively complete large settlement. The northwestern part of the Niuheliang site may be the place where the highest level of Hongshan culture is held by the Wuyi group, where pilgrims and living places entering the holy place are received on a daily basis. The northeast corner of the Niuheliang site should be the daily residence of the Hongshan cultural civilians who serve the Wuyuan group. The living supplies at the Niuheliang site may have come from tributes outside the site.

No defensive facilities such as the city wall have been found in the niuheliang site. But Guo Dashun believes that this is an era of the supremacy of divine power and "there is no worship and no rong", and the Niuheliang ruins at the peak of this era are an undefended capital. The author believes that this is very true. The "Twenty-Eight Years of Zuo Chuan Zhuang Gong" says: "Fanyi, the lord of the ancestral kings of the Zongmiao Temple, is known as the capital, and there is no Yueyi. The large-scale Niuheliang site not only has a temple dedicated to the distant ancestors, but also a temple dedicated to the near ancestors, which has the indiscriminate worship of "the lord of the ancestral kings of the temple", so it has the connotation of Duyi.

In summary, the Niuheliang site has the nature of the capital of the Hongshan culture, is the central settlement of the highest level of the Hongshan culture, and is also a holy place for the ancestors of the Hongshan culture to worship the ancestors, which fully has the significance of the holy capital of the three generations period. If so, the origin of the holy capital in the mainland capital system can be traced back to the Niuheliang ruins of the Hongshan culture. Su Bingqi once proposed that Hongshan culture is one of the most important straight roots in the general root system of Chinese culture. Guo Dashun further proposed that the Hongshan culture centered on the large-scale altar temple ruins of Niuheliang is a symbol of China's five-thousand-year civilization and an empirical evidence of the "straight root system" of ancient Chinese culture. Therefore, in a sense, the Niuheliang site is not only the holy capital of Hongshan culture, but also has a sacred position in the history of the development of Chinese civilization.

(This paper is the phased result of the National Social Science Foundation's special team project "Research on Multicultural Interaction in Stone Tombs and Bronze Objects in the Xia-Shang-Zhou Period of Liaohai Region" (21VJXT009))

(Author Affilications:College of History, Culture and Tourism, Liaoning Normal University)

End

Source: China Social Science Daily