In the northwest of Hangzhou, Zhejiang province, there is a beautiful small continent, called “Liangzhu”.
More than five thousand years ago, what kind of scene was it on this land?
Why has it become a peak of the prehistoric jade culture in China?
Jade, in the distant “ancient times”, and played what role?
The third episode of “Searching for Ancient China: Jade Stone” “Jade Yao Ancient Kingdom” reveals the jade culture of the “Ancient Kingdom Era” four or five thousand years ago.
It is recorded in the “Zhou Li” that “the sky is honored with the cangbi, and the earth is honored with the yellow cong”. Jade Cong is a kind of utensils with the main characteristics of outer square and inner circle, and the middle hole penetrates. Who first created this jade with its unique shape and extraordinary status?
In 1973, at the site of Straw Shoe Mountain in Wuxian County, Jiangsu Province at that time, Yucong and Yubi made a surprise appearance. It turns out that such an important jade ritual vessel existed in the Neolithic Age more than 5,000 years ago!
In 1986, the archaeological team of Liangzhu site locked the small mountain bag of the anti-mountain, and excavated a number of high-grade tombs in the Liangzhu period here, among which 647 pieces of jade were unearthed in the No. 12 tomb, one of which was called “Yucong Wang”.
The whole body of the Jade Cong King is exquisite and gorgeous, and what is even more surprising is that in its four façade vertical grooves, there are very complete patterns of gods, men and beasts.
The god wears a crown of feathers, with a beast face in the middle and a claw-like animal foot in the bottom. This mysterious pattern embodies the spiritual beliefs of the Liangzhu people, and archaeologists call it “Divine Emblem”.
Enlarge the “Divine Emblem”, you can see that the big eyes of the beast face are regular circular Yin carvings, and the diameter of the eye circle is between a few millimeters.
In the Liangzhu ancient city site anti-mountain No. 12 tomb, also unearthed a jade Yue Wang, also engraved with the “God Emblem” relief, similar to a scepter, the shape and oracle bone inscription, the word “king” in the gold text is very similar.
In the “Historical Records” and “Shangshu”, Shang Tang and King Wu of Zhou both held a big Yue on the battlefield, and there is even a record in the “Book of Yuejue” that “when the Yellow Emperor was in his time, he used jade as a soldier”. Could it be that jade was really used as a weapon four or five thousand years ago?
Decades of archaeological results show that the ruins of the ancient city of Liangzhu have entered the “ancient kingdom era” with early national characteristics.
About 5,300-4,300 years ago, the people here built a fantastic water town Zeguo: a picture of rice and fish, a clear division of labor, jade and “divine emblem” as the spiritual totem of the ancient country, showing in front of the world’s eyes. The influence of Liangzhu jade culture is also represented by Cong, which continues to radiate outward.
The site of Tao Temple in Xiangfen County, Shanxi Province, about 4300~3900 years ago, is also a ruins of the nature of a capital. The jade cong found here is rarely ornamented, very simple, and seems to have lost a bit of mystery. The porous jade of Tao Temple shows the pursuit of ritual and ritual system by the ancestors of Tao Temple.
At the Shiyuan site in Shenmu City, Shaanxi Province, the jade cong found by archaeologists was cut into thin slices, and like a large number of flake jade objects such as jade axes, jade shovels, and jade knives, they were intentionally built into the stone wall.
What is the profound meaning behind the Shiyuan people’s “hiding jade on the wall”? Is it really the actual evidence of Xia Wei’s “Yumen Gate” recorded in the ancient mythology of “Yumen Yaotai” and the “Bamboo Book Chronicle”?
In Liangzhu, which presents the form of an early state.In the three ruins of the city, Taosi and Shiyuan, jade has played a very important role, and the jade culture has closely linked them in the process of Chinese civilization.
On July 11th, CCTV-1 22:30 file, the third episode of “Looking for Ancient China: Jade Story” “Yuyao Ancient Kingdom”, through the disappearing thousand-year-old country and the legendary mountain elite, feel the dawn of civilization.