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Hongshan Culture is an Important Content in Studying the Origin of Chinese Civilization
The scientific and artistic achievements of Hongshan Culture period are remarkable. The former is a powerful driving force to promote social development, and the latter is an important symbol of social prosperity and wisdom of ancestors
Western Liaoning is an important region to study the origin of Chinese civilization and the process of early civilization. Archaeological work in western Liaoning began as early as the end of the 19th century, and is one of the starting places of modern archaeology in China.
Liang Siyong, an archaeologist, was the first Chinese scholar to carry out archaeological work in western Liaoning. In 1930, after he presided over the excavation of the site of An’angxi in Heilongjiang, he turned into Chifeng and Linxi for archaeological investigation. In 1935, a number of material materials were unearthed from the site behind the Hongshan Mountain in Chifeng. In 1954, the archaeologist Yin Da formally named Hongshan Culture according to Liang Siyong’s suggestion. It can be seen from this that Hongshan Culture is the earliest and most famous Neolithic archaeological culture discovered and named in western Liaoning.
In 1981, archaeologists in Liaoning Province, represented by Sun Shoudao and Guo Dashun, investigated and tried to dig the Niuheliang site. In 1983, formal archaeological excavations began. Goddess Temple, Goddess Statue and “Five Tombs and One Altar” were unearthed, and representative jadeware such as jade dragon carving and oblique mouth barrel jade ware were unearthed one after another, which shocked the world. The excavation of the 16th site of Niuheliang Site was rated as the “Top Ten Archaeological New Discoveries in China in 2003”. It is precisely because of the breakthrough discovery of Niuheliang Site that the archaeologist Su Bingqi put forward the major task of exploring the ancient culture, ancient city and ancient country of western Liaoning, making Hongshan culture an important part of the study of the civilization process in the upper reaches of the western Liaohe River and the characteristics of the origin of Chinese civilization.
It has been proved by the complexity of social organizations
After long-term field archaeology, the development sequence of archaeological culture in western Liaoning from the early Neolithic Age to the early Bronze Age has been basically established, which is followed by Xiaohexi Culture, Xinglongwa Culture, Fuhe Culture, Zhaobaogou Culture, Hongshan Culture, Xiaoheyan Culture and Xiajiadian Lower Culture. However, in the late Hongshan culture after 3300 BC, it has demonstrated a high degree of social organization ability, which can mobilize considerable manpower and material resources to complete the construction of some large and important buildings.
The dense distribution of Hongshan cultural sites was a sign of the rapid population growth at that time, while the classification of settlements and the emergence of large-scale central settlements were evidence of the complexity of social organizations. Taking the survey data of cultural relics in Aohan Banner in the 1980s as an example, 606 sites from the Neolithic Age to the era of bronze and stone were found in the whole Banner, including 477 sites of Hongshan Culture, accounting for 78% of the total sites. In terms of the scale of the site, small sites are only 4000-5000 square meters, while large sites can cover 2-3 square kilometers. By contrast, no large settlements have been found in Xiaohexi culture, and the large central settlements of Xinglongwa culture and Zhaobaogou culture are less than 100000 square meters, which is in sharp contrast with Hongshan culture.
Niuheliang Site covers an area of 50 square kilometers. It is planned in a unified way, arranged in an orderly way, and built in magnificent buildings. It is the largest central burial and sacrificial site known in the late Hongshan Culture, with such landmark buildings as altars, goddess temples, and stone mounds. The stone mounds are divided into central tomb, sub central tomb and marginal tomb, and the hierarchy is established. Jade became the most important funerary objects, mostly used by the tomb owner during his lifetime, and was a symbol and symbol of the tomb owner’s social rank, status and identity. The pottery industry is highly developed. In addition to daily pottery, there are also a considerable number of exclusive sacrificial pottery.
From the shape of the stone mounds and altars, Hongshan culture, Xinglongwa culture and Zhaobaogou culture have the same development relationship; However, in terms of the number, scale, layout and location of sacrificial sites, significant changes have taken place in the late Hongshan culture, which is a strong evidence of social change.
In the late period of Hongshan culture, social differentiation intensified and the hierarchy was established. Tomb No. 4, the 16th site of Niuheliang Site, is the highest stone coffin tomb of Hongshan Culture found at present. The coffin wall is built with 17 layers of stone slabs. The buried jade figures, jade phoenix and oblique barrel shaped objects represent a new type of combination of high standard jade articles, among which jade figures and jade phoenix are discovered for the first time. The scale of small and medium-sized tombs is small, and the types and quantity of burial jade are also small. In the late Hongshan culture, a relatively complete jade ritual system has emerged.
Remarkable achievements in science and art
In the middle and late Hongshan culture, the agricultural economy was dominant, the fishing and hunting gathering economy was still very developed, and the stable and abundant food sources provided the basic guarantee for the rapid growth of the population and the differentiation of handicrafts. Among the economic forms of Xiaohexi culture, Xinglongwa culture, Fuhe culture and Zhaobaogou culture, the economy of fishing, hunting and gathering occupies an important position. A large number of animal bones and fish bones found in the house site and ash pit are evidence of people’s fishing and hunting activities at that time. At the first site of Xinglongwa Site, the remains of artificially cultivated crops were found, and two varieties of millet and millet were identified, which proved that the agricultural economy had been produced during the Xinglongwa culture period, and the northern dry farming system began to form 8000 years ago, laying an important material foundation for the prosperity of Hongshan culture. According to the ancient environmental data, the dry and cool period ended in the southeast of Inner Mongolia and the west of Liaoning about 6000 years ago, and the climate became warmer, which provided an objective guarantee for the prosperity and development of agricultural economy in the late Hongshan culture.
During the Hongshan Culture period, the productivity level was significantly improved, and the differentiation of handicraft industry was increasingly intensified. A professional talent team engaged in architecture, pottery making, jade carving, pottery sculpture and clay sculpture appeared. The development of architectural technology is highlighted in the planning and design of large-scale architectural groups. The magnificent scale of Niuheliang Site and the orderly layout of altars, temples and graves are the embodiment of the highest achievements of the construction industry in the late Hongshan Culture.
The scientific and artistic achievements of Hongshan Culture period are remarkable. The former is a powerful driving force to promote social development, and the latter is an important symbol of social prosperity and wisdom of ancestors. Archaeologist Feng Shi believes that the external balance diameter of the Sanhuan Stone Altar, the second site of Niuheliang, is twice the internal balance diameter, which means that the external balance circumference is twice the internal balance circumference, indicating that the path and linear speed of the sun’s diurnal apparent motion during the winter solstice should be twice that of the summer solstice, which is quite consistent with the description in Zhoubi. The increasing accumulation of astronomical knowledge has far-reaching significance for Hongshan society, where agricultural economy plays a leading role. Astronomical research results provide a new perspective for revealing the multiple functions of the site.
Hongshan cultural relics depict people and animals in a realistic way, which is lifelike. The stone carved human head unearthed at the Caomaoshan Site and the two eyed jade inlaid pottery goddess head unearthed at the Niuheliang Site are about the same size as human beings, with correct facial features and lifelike expressions. Jade objects shaped like pig headed dragons, turtles, fish, birds, owls and other animals have become the symbolic objects of Hongshan culture. The accurate grasp and refinement of the animal body show the wisdom and superb workmanship of the ancestors.
As one of the major artistic achievements, painted pottery began to appear in the early and late Hongshan culture, and developed and matured in the middle and late periods. Painted pottery patterns are all abstract geometric patterns, including single motif patterns and composite patterns, which are widely used in daily pottery and sacrificial pottery. The close communication between Hongshan Culture and Yangshao Culture in the Central Plains has significantly changed the appearance of the pottery group of Hongshan Culture, and the coexistence of colored pottery and embossed word patterned pottery has completely changed the unified situation of the long lasting embossed and embossed patterned pottery in this region.
Drawing on the strengths of others becomes an important driving force for social change
In the 21st century, with the increase of new archaeological discoveries and the publication of archaeological reports, the research on Hongshan culture has been deepened. The excavation of the second site of Aohan Xinglongwa Site, Weijiawopu in Chifeng, Shangjifangyingzi Site and Chaoyang Xiaodongshan Site greatly enriched the understanding of the house shape and settlement layout in Hongshan Culture. Weijiawopu Site is the largest site of Hongshan Culture that has been formally excavated so far. 103 housing sites in the middle and early stages of Hongshan Culture have been cleared, revealing the settlement layout. At Caomao Mountain in Aohan and Tianjiagou in Lingyuan, stone mounds and altars in the late Hongshan culture were found, and stone statues and groups of jade objects with different attitudes were unearthed, providing important information for the study of the late Hongshan culture’s sacrificial relics and burial customs. The excavation of the prehistoric settlement site of the Hami people in Tongliao, unearthed a large number of pottery, stone, jade and other relics, which provided rich materials for the establishment of the type of Hami people in Hongshan culture.
The western Liaoning region, where Hongshan Culture is located, has unique geographical advantages. It is the link between the Northeast Plain and the hinterland of the Central Plains, and belongs to a typical cultural intersection area. It is an important driving force for the social transformation of Hongshan culture to absorb widely, absorb widely the strengths of others and condense essence. The worship of heaven and earth and the worship of ancestors characterized by “altar, temple, tomb, jade, dragon and phoenix” are important cultural achievements, making Hongshan culture, which is 5300-5000 years old, an important part of the study of the origin of Chinese civilization for more than 5000 years.
(Author Liu Guoxiang is a researcher of the Archaeological Research Institute of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences)