There is a new theory on the true "identity" of the oblique mouth barrel jade of the Hongshan culture

New results

A type of cylindrical, oblique jade artifact unearthed by the Hongshan culture, collectively known as oblique cylindrical jade, has been put forward by researchers for various hypotheses about the prototype and function of its shape. In 2007, three pieces of jade unearthed at the Lingjiatan site in Anhui Province were similar to oblique barrel jade. Studies have shown that this type of jade is related to turtles and is called "jade turtle" or "jade turtle-like flat round ware", which provides new ideas for cracking the oblique barrel jade of the Hongshan culture. Guo Dashun said that the oblique barrel jade should be called jade turtle shell and used for divination.

1 Jade turtles unearthed in Anhui provide new ideas for jade research

"Oblique barrel jade is the most common type of jade in the Hongshan culture, and 23 pieces have been unearthed at the Niuheliang site alone. There are more than 20 pieces handed down and collected from various places, and this kind of oblique barrel-shaped jade is also seen in the jade of the Hongshan culture collected overseas. There are more than 50 pieces in total, which is a large number of jade artifacts of the Hongshan culture. Guo Dashun, a well-known archaeological expert, told reporters, "Compared with other jade objects, oblique barrel jade is simple in shape, without ornamentation, hollow, one end is oblique, one end is flat, and there are drilled holes at the flat mouth." Its prototype is impossible to talk about, so it has always been regarded as a type of jade with neither origin nor context, and there is also a lack of necessary connection with other Hongshan culture jade, which seems a bit out of place for the Hongshan culture jade that pays great attention to object shapes, especially animal shapes that are highly abstracted on the basis of realism, and has always troubled researchers. ”

In 2007, at the site of Lingjiatan in Anhui Province, thousands of miles away, archaeologists unearthed a large Neolithic tomb that had not been disturbed. The number of jade objects accompanying this tomb is more than 200, of which 3 jade objects have special shapes, which have attracted the attention of excavation host Zhang Jingguo and Taiwanese jade experts Deng Shuping and Huang Cuimei.

Zhang Jingguo once wrote about their excavation: "In the middle of the waist, there is one jade turtle and two jade turtle-like flat round vessels with a flat mouth at one end and an oblique mouth at the other. "These three artifacts are fanned out on the waist of the tomb owner, and the easternmost jade tortoise-shaped vessel is complete, the abdominal cavity is hollow, and the abdominal armor is also carved into a tortoiseshell style, which can be recognized as a standard jade tortoiseshell vessel." Zhang Jingguo, Deng Shuping, and Huang Cuimei believed that the characteristics of the turtle on the jade shape were obvious, and the back armor and abdominal armor could be distinguished, and the flat mouth had drilled holes, which was the head and the oblique mouth was the tail. They immediately thought of the oblique barrel jade of the Hongshan culture, and agreed that the jade shapes in the two places were similar, and the prototype of the oblique barrel jade of the Hongshan culture was the turtle shell, which was a simplification and deification of the turtle shell.

Guo Dashun agrees with them, and he believes that this is a breakthrough understanding. Guo Dashun introduced that these three jade turtles are arranged horizontally around the waist and pressed on the stone and stone gongs. The jade turtle on the right side of the tomb owner is unearthed in the dorsal armor on top, that is, to maintain the normal placement of the turtle shell, and the head is facing south, that is, towards the head of the tomb owner. The ventral carapace has distinct tortoiseshell features, especially the tail of the ventral carapace is cut to a straight edge, which is similar to the misalignment of the dorsal carapace at the tail of the tortoiseshell. The two jade turtles in the middle and left of the tomb owner are flattened and round, basically the same as the oblique barrel-shaped jade of the Hongshan culture. Interestingly, the one on the left was unearthed in the same state as the jade turtle on the right, that is, the back armor is on top, and the head is facing south. Although the middle one is also the head facing the tomb owner, the back armor is on the bottom and the abdominal armor is on the top, that is, the turtle shell is inverted.

Ancient ancestors had a system of burial of turtle shells, and solid turtle shells were unearthed at the Jia Lake site in Henan between 9,000 and 7,700 years ago. The Dawenkou cultural site in Shandong from 6100 to 4600 years ago has also unearthed solid turtle shells, and many Neolithic cultural sites also have turtle images.

Guo Dashun analyzed that from the three aspects of the shape, processing and excavation state of the oblique mouth barrel jade of the Hongshan culture compared with the solid turtle shell, turtle-themed pottery and jade products of the same period, the following conclusions can be drawn. First, they are all flat-rounded in shape, with oblique barrel-shaped jade edges sharpened like skirts like turtle shells; Second, the drilling position is the same; Third, the large oblique mouth of oblique barrel jade corresponds to the tail of the solid turtle shell, and also corresponds to the practice of truncating the back armor and tail of the jade turtle shell unearthed at the Lingjiatan site, which indicates that the flat mouth of the oblique barrel jade is the front (head) and the oblique mouth is the back (tail); Fourth, during the early excavations of the Hongshan culture, the oblique barrel-shaped jade was unearthed at the head of the tomb owner, and nearly half of the later excavations were on the waist of the tomb owner. This is the same as the excavation location of the turtle shell of the Dawenkou cultural site, and also the same location as the excavation location of the Lingjiatan site, and most of them are on the right waist. Since these four aspects show too much commonality and can correspond to each other, the evidence of the "oblique mouth barrel jade turtle shell theory" is not accidental and scattered but regular, which is convincing.

2 The ancestors had a belief in turtle spirit worship

If the Hongshan culture oblique barrel jade is a jade turtle shell, then what is it used for?

Previously, some people thought it was an arm ornament or wrist ornament, and others thought it was a jade hoop for hair binding. "Looking at it now, these views are inaccurate, it is a divination tool for turtle spirit worship." Guo Dashun said.

Turtle spirit worship was more common in prehistoric China, using turtle shells as divination tools, from ancient times to the present, found in many cultural sites, such as Jia Lake site, Dawenkou cultural site, and each physical turtle shell buried with the tomb of Jia Lake site contains stones; The 4,000-year-old Shandong Longshan culture pottery turtle contains pottery balls; The most convincing is the jade turtle unearthed at the Lingjiatan site, with a jade plate related to the origin of Yi Kua sandwiched between the shells of the jade turtle.

Guo Dashun believes that the use of turtle divination shows that the ancient people's belief in turtle spirit worship has reached a very high level. This custom continued into the Shang Dynasty and became an essential item for the royal family's divination records. "Through the worship of turtle spirits, we see a more important historical and cultural phenomenon, that is, the strong cohesion and inheritance of ancient Chinese culture." Guo Dashun said.

The Hongshan culture is one of the important members of the turtle spirit worship. According to statistics, turtle images appear from time to time in the tombs of the Hongshan culture. In 1973, two jade turtles (turtles) were among a batch of jade artifacts collected in the stone cairn of Hutougou in Fuxin, and jade turtles were found in the tombs of the second and fifth sites of Niuheliang. The images of the jade turtles found by the Hongshan culture are very realistic, and the processing of various details from the facial features, limbs to back armor ornaments is both accurate and highly deified, without any sense of dullness, and the pieces are all high-level crafts.

"Every time I look at these jade artifacts, I am very impressed by the wisdom, skill and meticulousness of the ancestors of Hongshan who can grasp the most important characteristics of animals." Guo Dashun said, "In particular, the two jade turtles (turtles) buried with the large tomb in the center of the fifth site of Niuheliang are not only large, but also one male and one female, held in the left and right hands of the tomb owner, expressing not divination, but the mastery of divine power, and the sublimation of the worship of turtle spirit by the ancestors of Hongshan." ”

Guo Dashun said that the oblique mouth of the Hongshan culture and the barrel-shaped jade turtle shell said that the worship content and thinking concept of the Hongshan culture is a new understanding. From the relatively monotonous oblique barrel jade to the jade turtle shell, in the idea of jumping big, to achieve consensus, we must through specific archaeological resources, specific analysis, so that the core of civilization is more solid, in order to have a deeper understanding and understanding of Chinese traditional culture, better establish cultural confidence.

3 Prehistoric cultural areas learn from each other and influence each other

According to comprehensive statistics, the oblique barrel-shaped jade of the Niuheliang site is comparable to the example of the head near the waist of the tomb owner, especially the oblique barrel-shaped jade of the Niuheliang site from the waist is mostly on the right waist. At the same time, the Hongshan culture oblique barrel-shaped jade unearthed from the Dadian Zi cemetery of the lower culture of Xiajadian is also located at the waist. This is the same location as the jade turtle unearthed from the Lingjiatan site discovered later.

The upper age limit of the Lingjiatan site is about 5300 years ago, which corresponds to the late Hongshan culture. On the whole, the jade artifacts such as jade bi and rolled jade dragons unearthed at the Lingjiatan site are similar to the Hongshan culture. Especially the jade people, the jade people unearthed in the two cultural areas converge, and they are all bent elbows against the chest, which shows that there is close communication between the two cultural areas. Moreover, jade is not a practical object, but a ceremonial object, and this communication is higher than that of ordinary daily objects. The range of communication of non-practical products is very wide, so it is not accidental that the jade turtles with similar shapes unearthed in the two cultural areas are not accidental, so it is also natural to interpret the oblique barrel-shaped jade artifacts of the Hongshan culture as jade turtle shells.

Guo Dashun believes that these phenomena fully show that in prehistoric times, although the southern and northern regions of the mainland had differences in overall cultural outlook and belonged to different cultural groups, they had a high degree of unity in the system of using jade and turtle. "Using jade as six vessels, to honor the four directions of heaven and earth", jade is closely related to the origin of the Chinese ritual system. Guo Dashun said that the area where the Hongshan culture is located is the intersection of Eurasia and the Pacific Rim, and from geography, climate to natural resources, it is different from other places where prehistoric civilizations in the world were born. We can look at Hongshan culture from a broader perspective and understand Chinese civilization.

Liu Guoxiang, a researcher at the Institute of Archaeology of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences and a jade expert, once said: There is an exchange, exchange and blending relationship between the Hongshan culture and the Lingjiatan culture, which contains profound meanings, and the two cultures are interactive relationships that learn from each other and influence each other. The similarity of jade shapes in the two cultures of Hongshan and Lingjiatan reflects the mutual recognition of cosmology, social view, moral outlook and values of the two cultural groups in the north and south of prehistoric China or the similarity of the sacrificial ritual system, which can truly reflect the core role played by jade in the formation of Chinese civilization for more than 5,000 years and present a picture of civilization.

Author: Tan Shuo

Source: Liaoning Daily