About 5,000 years ago, with the sudden change of global climate, the warm and humid climate and environment of the continent began to deteriorate, and the archaeological culture of various regions continued to decline. In this process, the middle and lower reaches of the Yangtze River bore the brunt, the Liangzhu cultural tradition gradually disappeared, and then the culture of Shandong and the Huanghuai region moved southward, the culture of the coastal areas of Lingnan, Zhejiang and Fujian moved northward, and the middle reaches of the Yellow River were also affected to a certain extent. This widespread phenomenon of cultural decline and change continued until around 4,500 years ago, when a series of new large-scale city sites began to appear on the Loess Plateau, the North China Plain, the Shandong Peninsula, and the Lianghu Plain. During this period, the competition and conflict between people in different areas intensified, and some sites found rammed earth and stone walls, ring moats, horse faces, gate schools and other defensive facilities, the number of special relics such as "ash pit burying people" and "human head pits" increased greatly, and a large number of weapon remains such as stone spears and bone arrowheads were also found. The pattern of prehistoric culture in China changed, and northern China entered the Longshan period.
Comparison between the Kexingzhuang culture and the Erlitou culture lace mouth along the pottery
Image from the author
Cultural interaction in the Yongsan period
Located in the middle reaches of the Yellow River, the Guanzhong Basin is one of the cultural core areas of the Longshan period and the main distribution range of the Kexingzhuang culture. Xi'an Taiping site is a newly discovered high-level central site of the Ke Province Zhuang culture period in recent years, with an area of not less than 1 million square meters, and the lower limit of the age has entered the Xia period, which provides important material information for us to understand the origin of Chinese civilization and the emergence of the early state. The artifacts unearthed at the site show that there is a wide range of cultural interactions between the Taiping site and other regions, such as the polished black pottery cup and black pottery high-handled bean may be related to the Longshan culture in Henan, the tile-shaped pottery bell is similar to the style of the Shanxi Taosi site, the skulls and cups have the characteristics of the Longshan culture in Shandong, the red pottery double-eared jar and the divination bone may originate from the Ganqing region, and some jade styles are even related to the Jianghan region. Therefore, the Kexingzhuang culture represented by the Taiping site should be a center of local cultural interaction in the Longshan era and a place where the four cultures converge.
Such frequent and pervasive cultural interactions also occur in other regions in the immediate vicinity. The Central Plains region is in the "middle of the world", facing the situation of the Kexingzhuang culture from the Guanzhong Basin, the Shiyuan culture from the Loess Plateau, the Longshan culture from the lower reaches of the Yellow River, and the Shijiahe culture from the Yangtze River Basin. On the one hand, for a long time, a large number of civilization factors from the surrounding areas have poured in, prompting the Central Plains region to be eclectic and learn from others on the basis of local cultural traditions, and the center of ancient Chinese civilization is gradually taking shape. On the other hand, under the severe situation of heavy external pressure and frequent foreign wars, the social structure of the Central Plains region was further transformed, the gap between the rich and the poor, the intensification of social stratification, the gradual concentration of power, and the gradual emergence of military and military leaders, resulting in the collapse of the Chan concession system and the emergence of royal power. As a result, the Central Plains region gained core competitiveness by continuously absorbing the advanced technology, etiquette norms and even ruling strategies of the surrounding areas, and finally a strong centralized ruling class emerged, giving birth to the first wide-area royal state in Chinese history - Xia.
The Xia culture is composed of the remnants of the early Xinqi period and the late Erlitou culture, and its source is the cultural tradition since the Longshan period in the Central Plains, but it integrates many cultural factors from other regions. For example, the pottery wine vessels and large bladed jade ritual vessels in the Erlitou culture may have come from Shandong, the printed hard pottery, primitive porcelain, duck-shaped tripods and other utensils have the cultural characteristics of the lower reaches of the Yangtze River, the special jade objects such as jade handle-shaped ware and bird-shaped ware are related to the middle reaches of the Yangtze River, and the lace edge decoration style, ring-headed knife and bronze axe of the pottery may have come from the northwest region, showing a "dynastic atmosphere" that converges in all directions. These evidences show that the Xia culture, represented by the Erlitou culture, was a cultural community that "shared the essence of similar cultures", and was born in an era of increasing cultural interaction and "fusion" between regions. So, what role did the Guanzhong Basin, as one of the cultural centers of this period, play in this process?
Influence of pottery making and aesthetic style
The most commonly used pottery in the Erlitou culture is the clay pot, one of its signature features is that the mouth is often jagged or decorated with clay strips, which look like lace when viewed from above. This decorative style can also be found in the sites of the Xia culture period in the Guanzhong Basin, and was previously considered one of the evidences of the conquest of the Guanzhong Basin by the Erlitou culture. However, archaeological discoveries have confirmed that this decorative style was rare in the Longshan period in the Central Plains, but it was very popular in the Hakka Zhuang culture, and there is a complete sequence of evolution and development.
According to the production process and the position of decoration, the decoration style of the pottery mouth can be divided into two categories: the embossing at the edge of the pottery mouth and the additional mud strip on the outside of the mouth. The former has appeared in the Guanzhong Basin more than 8,000 years ago in the pre-Yangshao period and Yangshao cultural period, such as the site of Baijia Village in Lintong, Shaanxi Province, the site of Lingkou, and the edge of the mouth of the pot, pot and basin in the site of Jiangzhai in Xi'an have been embossed into the so-called jagged lip, which should be the ancestor of this lace decoration style. The style of attaching mud strips to the outer edge of the mouth was found earlier on the pottery pot of the second phase of the Miaodigou culture, but it was mainly popular in the Kexingzhuang culture period.
Therefore, the lace decoration style along the pottery mouth was first seen in the former Yangshao culture period in the Guanzhong Basin, and was more popular in the Zhuang culture period of Kexing Province, with complex and diverse forms, and lasted for a longer time, and even a certain number of discoveries were found in the Shang and Zhou dynasties. The decorative style of the pottery lace mouth of the Erlitou culture should be directly derived from the Kexingzhuang culture in the Guanzhong Basin.
A transit station for jade ritual vessels and jade materials
The jade artifacts of the Erlitou culture are rich in variety and quantity, and are a key part of the development of China's jade ritual system. Before the Longshan culture period in the Guanzhong Basin, the use of jade Xi was not common. In the pre-Yangshao culture period, only sporadic small jade ornaments were found, such as jade beads, pendants, etc. During the Yangshao culture period, a small number of jade axes and chisels began to appear, with sharp blades, which should be production tools and do not have ceremonial properties. In the period of Zhuang culture in Ke Province, the axe with a blunt blade and no traces of use began to appear, which may be used as a symbol of wealth and power, and at the same time there were jade ritual vessels such as Cong and Bi, which should be related to sacrificial etiquette.
The Ganqing area adjacent to Guanzhong also has a similar process of changing the Xi of using jade, and jade artifacts are rare in the Yangshao culture and the subsequent Majiayao culture period. In the Qijia culture period, which was basically the same period as the Kexingzhuang culture, a large number of ceremonial jade such as Bi and Cong appeared, and the types of jade were abundant, indicating that the jade and concepts of Qijia culture had formed a certain scale and system. Gansu Dunhuang dry gorge jade mining in the Qijia culture period, is the earliest tremolite jade mining site in the mainland, Wuwei Haizang Temple site also found jade workshop.
Such changes are related to the decline of Liangzhu culture and the widespread spread of its jade ritual vessels in various regions. According to scholars' research, there was a transmission route of jade and jade-making technology about 4,000 years ago: from the Central Plains to Guanzhong and Longdong, and gradually spread to the Hexi region. With the popularity of jade ritual ware, the westward spread of jade-making technology has promoted the development of jade mines in the Ganqing area, making Ganqing jade material an important resource and circulating all over the world. For example, a large number of jade artifacts were unearthed from the Qingliangsi cemetery in the southern Jinnan region, and local marble, serpentine and other jade materials were used in the early stage, and a large number of tremolite materials from the Ganqing region were used in the late period.
As an important passage connecting the Central Plains and the Ganqing region, the Guanzhong Basin promoted the westward spread of the concept of using jade and the technology of jade making, and at the same time promoted the development of jade mines in the Ganqing area and the eastward expansion of jade materials, which met the demand for jade materials in the Central Plains.
Accumulation of skills in the bones
The Ganqing area and the Guanzhong Basin are places where animal shoulder blades are used for divination and sacrifice cultural traditions. The earliest divination bone in China was found at the Wujiamen site of Fushan in Gansu Province, which is about 3980-3640 BC, which is the ancestor of the divination bone. The bones found in the Kexingzhuang culture should have originated from the Ganqing area, and a total of about 50 discoveries have been reported, and their characteristics are highly similar to those found in the Ganqing area. On the one hand, it is reflected in the selection of aggregates, most of which are sheep shoulder blades; on the other hand, all the bones have no edge remediation technology, and no traces of drilling and chisel have been found, which are relatively primitive and should be the early form of the bones. Traces of scraping, grinding and other trimming were found on the bone shovel in the Kangjia site of the Kexingzhuang culture period, which may have produced the pretreatment process of animal shoulder blade products, and completed the technical accumulation for the edge remediation of the bones.
During the period of Kexingzhuang culture, the tradition of divination and sacrifice gradually spread to the east, and the divination bones seen in the Xiaopangou site in Henan Province in the Longshan era have produced the phenomenon of drilling first and then burning. By the time of the Erlitou culture, the edge remediation technology and drilling of the Bu bone began to gradually become popular. However, compared with the bones seen in the early Ganqing area and the Guanzhong Basin, most of the bones at the Erlitou site are cow bones and pig bones, which may be related to the way of livelihood. Compared with sheep bones, cow and pig bones are thicker and less likely to burn directly with mega lines, which may be considered for this reason.
From the emergence of the Ganqing region to the flourishing of the divination and sacrificial tradition in the Xia, Shang and Zhou dynasties, the Kexingzhuang culture has played an important role in the transmission and has made important contributions to the development of Chinese divination and sacrificial rituals.
As far back as the late Yangshao culture more than 5,000 years ago, there was already a certain degree of "close contact" between various regions of prehistoric China, thus forming a "common archaeological component". Similar cosmology, astronomical calendars, funeral rituals and other knowledge were widely disseminated, such as the burial of jade in large tombs in various regions, which evolved from tools or weapons as a symbol of power;
The late Longshan period, which was full of states, was an important period for the birth of the Xia Dynasty. The birth of the Xia Dynasty should also be interpreted in the context of such a wide range of cultural interactions. Located in the Central Plains, the Erlitou culture generally absorbs the excellent and advanced cultural factors of various regions, enhances its cultural competitiveness, and at the same time strongly expands its cultural influence, including Jinnan, Guanzhong and other regions into its sphere of influence, and becomes a "strong culture with centripetal force and radiation".
The Kexingzhuang culture with the Guanzhong Basin as the core area has contributed its own unique cultural creation, influenced the pottery production and aesthetic style of the ancestors of Erlitou with the lace decoration style of the pottery mouth, and promoted the cultural exchanges between the Central Plains and the western region. It is a key node of the eastward expansion of the Bugu tradition, and it is also a transit station for jade and jade ritual system, which spreads the jade ritual system of Central Plains culture to the Ganqing area and drives the development of local jade resources. In the process of such cultural interaction and fusion, cultural consensus has been continuously condensed, and the evolution of Chinese civilization has entered a new stage led by core culture.
Author: Shen Baiming (Research Xi, Institute of Archaeology, Chinese Academy of Social Sciences)
The original article was published in: China Social Science Network - China Social Science News
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