Source: China News Network
Yu Xiyun, | of Archaeological Cultural Tourism: Where is the key step in the origin of Chinese civilization?
China News Service, Beijing, December 24, 2019 Title: The Origin of Chinese Civilization, Where is the Key Step?
Author Yu Xiyun Professor, School of History, Wuhan University and Yangtze River Institute of Civilization Archaeology
The origin of civilization, which academia prefers to call social complications, is often a gradual process of transformation. In the process of the origin of Chinese civilization, The Xiyin culture took a key step.
What is Xiyin culture?
In 1921, the Beiyang government hired a geological expert Swede Anderson arranged for Yuan Fuli and others who had just returned from studying abroad to excavate the Yangshao site in Henan, and obtained relatively rich remains, and soon named it Yangshao culture, the first time from archaeology to study the origin of Chinese civilization. The excavations are exactly a hundred years old. In 1926, Li Ji returned from studying abroad and excavated the ruins of Xiyin Village in Xia County, Shanxi. The connotation revealed by the excavations of the Yangshao site in that year was relatively ambiguous, and the concept of the Yangshao culture named after it was constantly expanding, while the connotation of the Xiyin site was simpler and the quality of archaeological work was higher. In the 1980s, the academic community proposed the naming of the Xiyin culture, and called the time period represented by the original Yangshao culture the Yangshao era.
Distribution and influence area of Xiyin culture (black dots contain typical Xiyin cultural remains, and red dots contain Xiyin cultural factors). Courtesy of respondents
More than 6,000 years ago, the Xiyin culture originated in the border area of Shaanxi, Jin, and Yu, and reached its peak more than 5,000 years ago, controlling a large area of the Central Plains. The influence reached the sea in the east, Ganqing in the west, the Yangtze River in the south, and the yin of yanshan in the north, laying the spatial foundation for pre-Qin China.
From the air, the oasis in the valley of the Loess Plateau is like a river. The Xiyin culture originated in the border areas of Shaanxi, Jin, and Yu. Photo by Sun Zifa, a reporter from China News Service
The settlements of the Xiyin culture are mainly distributed in the river buffer zone of the Loess Plateau and surrounding areas suitable for dry farming, and mainly grow millet and millet millet, of which millet is the main position, and a small amount of rice is also cultivated. Livestock are raised in large numbers, the main type of which is domestic pigs. Silkworm reeling is also raised.
Ivory silkworms excavated from the site of the double locust tree in Gongyi, Henan. Photo source Wang Weilin, editor-in-chief: Faience Pottery and China: China's Integration and Unification 5,000 Years Ago, Shaanxi Normal University Publishing House, 2020.
How does Xiyin culture reveal the origins of civilization?
There are many manifestations of the origin of civilization, and the emergence of private ideas is the core. From the perspective of house architecture, in the early days of The Xiyin culture, there were multiple circular single rooms, and there were square single rooms at the same time. After the late period, square multi-room and row rooms began to appear. The variation from single room to double room to multiple room to row room generally reflects the process of generation from the nuclear family to the main family, the extended family, and the family. The expansion of family size indicates that people have become more sensitive to kinship and have adopted different attitudes (pro-kinship) towards those who are close to them and those who are alienated.
The relationship between the pit and the dwelling has also changed accordingly. In the early days, dwellings were often separated from storage pits, and there were "ash pits" outside the dwellings for storing things. After the middle period, in the upper reaches of the Han River and the Zhengzhou area, with the emergence of multiple rooms, the outdoor "ash pit" decreased, and the space for storage appeared in the residence, indicating the formation of the concept of private property.
Multiple rooms excavated from the ruins of Dahe Village in Zhengzhou. Image source Zhengzhou Institute of Cultural Relics and Archaeology: "Zhengzhou Dahe Village", Science Press, 2001.
Around 5300, the site of Xishan in the northwest suburbs of Zhengzhou appeared in the earliest city in the Central Plains. Xishan City is bordered by the remnants of the Mountains to the north, the Dry River to the south, and the vast Huanghuai Plain to the east. The walls of Nishiyama Castle are approximately circular in shape, with a diameter of about 180 meters and an area of about 34,500 square meters. On the outside of the city wall there is a surrounding trench, 150-200 meters from the city wall and the ring moat, and a wide trench.
Zhengzhou Xishan City. Image source Zhang Yushi, Hao Hongxing: "Excavations of The Ancient City of Xishan in Zhengzhou", Popular Archaeology, No. 5, 2016.
A large number of cultural factors from the lower direction of the Huai River have appeared at the site of Dahe Village, which is more than ten kilometers east of Xishan City, indicating that the culture from the lower reaches of the Huai River has occupied the northern suburbs of Zhengzhou, posing a huge threat and pressure to the Xiyin culture originally distributed in this area, and even fierce conflicts between the two sides. On the defensive side of the Xiyin culture, a defensive system such as a city wall and a ring trench was built on the Western Mountain, which was very conducive to defense. From the natural geographical environment of the Xishan ruins and the cultural situation at that time, it can be seen that Xishan Castle should be a defensive military stronghold rather than a capital city.
The construction of such a large-scale project as Xishan City may on the one hand be a precaution against external threats, and on the other hand, it shows that a small number of people can mobilize the labor of the majority of the people, indicating that society has been stratified. It was also from the emergence of Xishan City that a series of cultural relics related to royal power appeared in the Central Plains, including large buildings, jade, large pottery and so on.
Owl ding excavated from Quanhu Village, Hua County, Shaanxi Province. Photo source Wang Weilin, editor-in-chief: Faience Pottery and China: China's Integration and Unification 5,000 Years Ago, Shaanxi Normal University Publishing House, 2020.
The settlement form of The Xiyin culture clearly reveals the origin of the extended family, the concept of private ownership, and civilization.
Is Xiyin culture the era of the Yellow Emperor?
Academic circles generally interpret the Banpo culture as the culture of the Yandi system, while the Xiyin culture is the culture of the Yellow Emperor system. Although this explanation cannot be understood as historical facts, it allows us to link archaeological findings with historical memory.
The distribution range of the Xiyin culture is similar to that of the Yellow Emperor's range described in the "History of the Five Emperors", "east to the sea, to the mount of The Pill Mountain, and to Daizong." As for the west, as for the empty tree, climb the chicken head. As for the south, as for the river, Dengxiong and Xiang. The northern meat porridge is in line with Busan, and the Yiyu Zhuolu is basically consistent. The Xiyin culture is also the only culture in the prehistoric culture whose distribution range roughly matches the scope of the Yellow Emperor's activities described in the "Records of History". Of course, the Xiyin culture lasted for thousands of years and was widely distributed, and it could not be a cultural relic formed by a certain person, nor could it be a cultural relic formed during the period when a person was alive, but it should be a cultural relic formed by its ethnic group in a long period of time. It should be more reasonable to interpret the Xiyin culture as the culture formed by the Yellow Emperor ethnic group.
Why does Xiyin culture shape the characteristics of Chinese civilization?
Mr. Su Bingqi once proposed that among the characteristic factors of Yangshao culture, the most widely spread is the Miaodigou type (that is, Xiyin culture). The distribution center of the remnants of the Miaodigou type is near Mount Hua. This is similar to the legend of the activities and distribution of the Chinese people in the initial stage of formation. Therefore, the Miaodigou type of Yangshao culture may be the remnant of the people who formed the core of the Chinese people; the floral pattern faience pottery, one of the main features of the Miaodigou type, may be the origin of the Chinese name, and Huashan may be named because of the original residence of the Chinese.
The Xiyin culture is the archaeological culture with the most extensive distribution range and influence area in prehistory, even before the Qin and Han dynasties. The "flower" pattern of Xiyin cultural faience pottery is the iconic symbol of the "Hua" people, and wherever the influence of Xiyin culture is reached, there are flowers and birds of Xiyin culture. On the basis of the Xiyin culture, the earliest national identity in China was formed.
Faience pottery excavated from the ruins of Miaodigou. Photo source Wang Weilin, editor-in-chief: Faience Pottery and China: China's Integration and Unification 5,000 Years Ago, Shaanxi Normal University Publishing House, 2020.
Xiyin culture in East Asia was the first to enter the national form, the geographical environment is based on the loess area as the background, the industry is dominated by millet agriculture, and the earliest king is called the Yellow Emperor, which is the source of yellow civilization. The family form is characterized by an extended extended family, forming the concept of "kinship" and attaching importance to family affection and humanity. Religion has ancestor worship at its core. Located in the Central Plains, The Xiyin culture, on the one hand, absorbs the surrounding culture, on the other hand, radiates and affects the surrounding areas, and integrates multiple sources and lives endlessly. These factors have shaped the characteristics of Chinese civilization.
Crescent-patterned faience pots exhibited at the Yangshao Cultural Museum in Miaodigou. China News Service reporter Kan Li photographed
What kind of cultural exchange between East and West does Xiyin culture reveal?
After Anderson and others excavated Yangshao Village, they found that the faience pottery in it has many similarities with the faience pottery in the central Eurasian continent, and the Tripoli culture on the Black Sea coast of Eastern Europe has great similarities, "However, compared with Henan and the Anno instrument, the similarities in its graphics are many and tangible, which really makes us unable to afford the same source of feelings", which is the famous "Faience Pottery Xi said". In the prehistoric era of Eurasia, the distribution of faience pottery was very extensive, and the drawing methods and patterns of faience pottery were not lacking in similarities, but the connection between these faience cultures is still difficult to fully and accurately explain. However, I may be able to provide some understanding from the final disintegration process of The Western Yin culture.
Roughly around 5200 years ago, the Dawenkou culture from the east gradually controlled the Central Plains along the tributaries of the Huai River, and the Xiyin culture disintegrated, forming a series of new archaeological cultures such as the Xishan culture on its basis. However, we also found that the central area of the Xiyin culture has a gradual process of moving westward, and the center of the early Xiyin culture was in the border area of Shaanxi, Jin, and Yu, and in the late period, it was moved to the area from the central and western parts of The Guan to Longdong, and important sites such as Dadiwan appeared in Qin'an, Gansu. A Xiyin culture went deep into the Three Gorges area of the Yangtze River along the Jialing River, forming a sentinel culture, and a group entered the western edge of the Sichuan Basin along the Min River, forming the Yingpanshan culture, and the intervention of these cultures opened the process of civilization in the Sichuan Basin. Roughly before and after this, the Tripolye-Cucuteni culture (Tripolye-Cucuteni Culture) appeared in Ukraine and Romania on the Black Sea coast, not only the faience pottery is very similar to the Xiyin culture, the combination and shape of the pottery also have great commonalities with the Xiyin culture, and its large villages composed of multiple rooms also indicate that its social organization form is similar to the late Xiyin culture. There are indications that the Tripolij-Kukuteni culture is most likely the result of a westward migration of the Siyin culture, but the final answer has yet to be confirmed by archaeologists. (End)
Respondent Profiles:
Yu Xiyun is the vice dean of the School of History and the director of the Department of Archaeology of Wuhan University, the executive vice president of the Yangtze River Institute of Civilization Archaeology, and the director of the Chinese Archaeological Society. His main research areas are Chinese Neolithic archaeology, Neolithicization, and the origin of civilization. A series of achievements published in recent years have demonstrated the theoretical system of Chinese archaeology.