China News Service Shenyang, August 25 Title: How does the Hongshan culture unveil the mystery of the origin of Chinese civilization?
——Interview with Guo Dashun, honorary president of the Liaoning Provincial Institute of Cultural Relics and Archaeology
China News Service reporter Han Hong
Hongshan culture is the most famous Neolithic archaeological culture in Northeast China, and it is also an archaeological culture with wide influence in Northeast Asia, which reveals the continuous and pluralistic formation and development process of the Chinese nation and Chinese civilization, reflects the integration and convergence of world cultural development, and has very important political, cultural and historical significance. What role did Hongshan culture play in the origin and development of Chinese civilization? What is the relationship with the Yangshao culture of the Central Plains? Is there a connection with ancient Western civilizations?
Recently, Guo Dashun, honorary president of the Liaoning Provincial Institute of Cultural Relics and Archaeology and known as the "first person of Hongshan culture", was interviewed exclusively by China News Agency's "East and West Question" to explain how the Hongshan culture unveiled the mystery of the origin of Chinese civilization.
The interview transcript is summarized below:
China News Service: In the traditional concept of Chinese, Chinese civilization was conceived from the Yellow River and spread to all parts of China. The discovery of the Hongshan culture is evidence of the pluralistic origin of Chinese civilization. What is the status and role of Hongshan culture in the origin and development of Chinese civilization?
Guo Dashun: The female temples, altars and stone mounds found at the Niuheliang Hongshan Cultural Site are large in scale and are a super-central site with Duyi specifications. The stone mound has a central tomb, reflecting the formation of a social hierarchy dominated by "one person and one person". Jade carving dragons, phoenixes, turtles, cloud-shaped jade and other theosophical tools are both highly abstract and very standardized, indicating that the Hongshan culture has entered the ancient period, which is the empirical evidence of the origin of Chinese civilization in 5,000 years.
In October 2020, visitors visited the Jasper C-shaped Dragon at the National Museum of China in Beijing "Jade Out of hongshan - Exhibition of Cultural and Archaeological Achievements of Hongshan". China News Service reporter Tian Yuhao photographed
According to the previous historical view, the history of Chinese civilization can only be calculated from the Xia Dynasty 4,000 years ago, and the new archaeological discoveries of the Hongshan culture trace this source back to 5,000 years ago. A concept formed over the years is that the ancient culture in the Central Plains has the highest level of development, and the origin of civilization is of course the earliest. The new archaeological discoveries of the Hongshan culture and the proposal of the Liaohe civilization prove that the origin of Chinese civilization is not a center, but a multi-center, and the Great Wall area of Yanshan In the north and south of Yanshan, including the LiaoHe River Basin, is also one of the earliest birthplaces of Chinese civilization.
The new archaeological discoveries of the Hongshan culture also reflect the path and characteristics of the origin of Chinese civilization. Zhang Guangzhi, a Chinese-American archaeologist, pointed out that from the comparison between the East and the West, the East represented by China is a "continuous civilization" that mainly entered a civilized society by communicating with the gods and men of heaven and earth, that is, obtaining political power in harmony with nature, and there is a big difference between the "breakthrough civilization" in the West that mainly develops technology and trade. From a worldwide perspective, Eastern civilization has "general laws", while Western civilization is an "exception". Hongshan culture "altar temple tomb" and dragon and phoenix and other jade is a complete set, in the architectural layout there is a standardization and thus institutionalization of the law can be followed, the "Book of Rites" has clouds: "Rites have five classics, not more important than sacrifices", indicating that the Hongshan culture and the origin of the ceremonial system are closely related, and are typical representatives of the roads and characteristics of the origin period of Chinese civilization.
The new archaeological discoveries of the Hongshan culture also show a strong inheritance force. The altar temple tomb, the altar body up to a three-story circular mound, is somewhat similar to the Temple of Heaven, Taimiao Temple and Ming Tombs in Beijing during the Ming and Qing dynasties. The famous archaeologist Su Bingqi proposed that the ruins of the Hongshan Culture Women's Temple are "the only one in the sea", and the head of the goddess is the "female ancestor" of the Hongshan people, that is, the "common ancestor" of the Chinese nation. Judging from the influence of Hongshan culture on the culture of later generations, it can be said that Hongshan culture is the direct root system in the root system of the big tree of Chinese national culture.
The emergence of the Hongshan Cultural Altar Temple and the Jade Dragon Phoenix has a deep foundation for the development of local culture for tens of thousands of years, and is closely related to the Yangshao culture in the Central Plains and the cultural exchanges in the western grasslands, which is the result of the intersection of diverse cultures.
China News Service: What is the relationship between Hongshan culture and Yangshao culture? How does Hongshan culture reflect the cultural exchanges between the north and south of China 5,000 years ago?
Guo Dashun: Scholars of the older generation such as Liang Siyong and Pei Wen realized early on that the confluence of north and south is a very important feature of the Hongshan culture, which is further proved at the Niuheliang site.
There are two main types of pottery in the Hongshan culture, one is the sand-filled gray-brown pottery with the common characteristics of the Neolithic culture in northeast China, the decorative embossing pattern (multi-"zigzag" shape) or the barrel-shaped clay pot with carved patterns, and the other is the faience pottery and clay red pottery influenced by the Yangshao culture in the Central Plains. They coexist in the Hongshan culture, sometimes even on the same artifact, both distinct and integrated. In particular, most of the pottery used for sacrifice is clay red pottery or faience pottery, which regards external factors as sacred, indicating that the Hongshan culture has a great tolerance for foreign culture. Therefore, the intersection of north and south is not only the driving force for Hongshan culture to enter the civilized society 5,000 years ago, but also contributes to the formation of the foundation for the formation of a diversified and integrated pattern of Chinese civilization.
In October 2020, visitors visited the "Hongshan Cultural and Archaeological Achievements Exhibition" at the National Museum of China in Beijing. China News Service reporter Tian Yuhao photographed
In addition to the Hongshan culture, the Dawenkou culture in Shandong and the Liangzhu culture in Jiangsu and Zhejiang regions also intersect with the Central Plains culture, "you have me, I have you", and the cultures of the east, west, south and north have jointly stepped into civilized society in mutual integration.
China News Service: Why do Western scholars pay attention to the Hongshan culture and the Niuheliang ruins? Is there a connection between Hongshan culture and Western ancient civilization?
Guo Dashun: For many years, hongshan culture has been concerned by Western scholars, and in 1989, Wang Taolai, a teacher who taught Chinese archaeology at the School of Oriental and African Studies of the University of London, mentioned that the Hongshan culture should be studied from the perspective of world history; American Geographic Magazine published a photo of the head of the goddess at the Niuheliang ruins under the title of "The Smile of the Chinese Goddess"; In the "100 Archaeologies of the World" written by scholars from Cambridge University, the "jade" and "statues" in the Far East two items focus on the Hongshan culture.
From the perspective of time, the Hongshan culture is clearly dated 5000 to 6,000 years ago, which is similar in time to the ancient civilizations of the Two Rivers Valley, the Indus River Basin, and Egypt; At that time, there may have been east-west exchanges, and in the faience pottery of the Hongshan culture, there was a geometric pattern of isosceles and right triangles, diamond checkered patterns and zigzag lines distributed in a checkerboard format, which was not found in the Yangshao culture and was common in West Asia; Western human body statues have developed, and the human statues of the Hongshan culture have also developed to a higher level, which is similar to the ancient Western civilization.
Ao Han potters excavated from the Xinglonggou site in Ao Han Banner, Chifeng City, Inner Mongolia. Photo by Sun Zifa, a reporter from China News Service
The Hongshan culture may be related to Central and Western Asia to the west, and the east has influence on Northeast Asia, including Japan and Korea. During the Hongshan culture period, the natural environment of Northeast Asia belonged to the forest and grassland area, and the economic life was mainly based on fishing and hunting gathering, and the western Liaoning region was at the forefront of the contact and exchange between the fishing and hunting culture in the northeast and the farming culture in the central plains and the grassland nomadic culture in the western Eurasian continent, and thus linked the vast Northeast Asia region; It is also related to the exchange of north-south maritime exchanges along the Pacific Rim, and the prehistoric period extended from nearly 10,000 years to 5,000 years ago, and the "Jue Cultural Circle" and the Hongshan Cultural Jade Ware, starting from the northeast and western Liaoning regions, extended to the south.
From the perspective of archaeology, although there are differences in the origin path of Eastern and Western civilizations, there are many commonalities, such as similar stages of development, not isolated but interconnected, fully embodying mutual learning among civilizations, and eventually moving towards world unity.
China News Service: What are the unsolved mysteries of the current research on Hongshan culture? What are the messages for archaeologists?
Guo Dashun: Hongshan culture is a rich and colorful treasure house of culture and art, and there are many mysteries to be solved. Regarding the race of the Hongshan culture, from the perspective of the goddess's head, the Hongshan people are very similar to modern people, and it is inferred that it may be the Mongolian race, but to what extent the relationship with modern people is close, more physical anthropological testing work, such as DNA, needs to be done, because the local soil is alkaline, the human bones in the tomb are better preserved, and there are conditions to do this work. Regarding the natural environment, the degree of civilization of the Hongshan culture is so developed, it is said that its economic basis should be agriculture, but it is mainly based on gathering fishing and hunting, and there is crop cultivation, but it is not the main one. It is necessary to conduct a large number of specimen tests on the natural environment and economic life of the Hongshan culture period and establish a database to make better judgments. Regarding jade, how to make jade in Hongshan culture, how to achieve such exquisiteness, what depth of thinking concepts are guiding, where is the source of jade, where is the jade workshop. Regarding pottery, the goddess temple found a faience pottery sacrifice vessel, the wall thickness of 1.5 cm to 2 cm, the texture is very hard, the fire is very high, the diameter and height of this artifact after restoration are estimated to be about 1.5 meters, how to make such a large artifact, where is the pottery workshop. Regarding tombs, the tombs found now belong to the late Hongshan culture, and the earlier tombs have clues that need to be exposed as a whole; Niuheliang is a large group of sites, and the layout relationship between different sites still needs further investigation and demonstration.
It is hoped that when a new generation of archaeologists do project research, they will inherit the exploration spirit and methods of their predecessors, attach importance to the history of disciplines, sort out each piece of history clearly, and continuously move forward on the basis of their predecessors. (End)
Respondent Profiles:
Guo Dashun, born in 1938, is the honorary president of the Liaoning Provincial Institute of Cultural Relics and Archaeology, a librarian of the Liaoning Provincial Research Museum of Culture and History, the leader of the Liaoning Provincial Cultural Relics Protection Expert Group, an honorary director of the Chinese Archaeological Society, and a member of the State Cultural Relics Appraisal Committee.
Engaged in Neolithic and Bronze Age archaeological research. Presided over the excavation and pre-planning and protection of the Hongshan Cultural Sites of Dongshanzui and Niuheliang. He is the author of more than 200 monographs and papers such as "Tracing the Five Emperors", "The Dragon Out of the Liaohe Source", "Hongshan Culture", "Northeast Culture and Youyan Civilization", "Convergence and Transmission - Guo Dashun Archaeological Anthology" and so on. The academic achievements are included in the archaeological volume of "Overview of the Academic Achievements of Well-known Chinese Scientists in the 20th Century" edited by Qian Weichang (Science Press, 2015).