The North Asia Interactive Circle, the Central Asian Interactive Circle, and the Chinese Prehistoric Interactive Circle have been fused and intersected by 4,000 years ago at least.
Source: China News Service (CNS1952)
Author: Gao Jiangtao, Researcher, Institute of Archaeology, Chinese Academy of Social Sciences
All characters: 2998
Estimated reading time: 9 minutes
Four or five thousand years ago or earlier, there were widespread cultural exchanges between different regions of China; at least 4,000 years ago, China's prehistoric interactive circles have also intersected with the North Asia and Central Asian interaction circles. "Crossing" back to prehistory found that cultural interaction is an important reason for the formation of diverse civilizations, and the transcontinental interaction between Chinese civilization and Central Asia and North Asia has turned the Eurasian steppe into a continuous communication corridor. This kind of "exchange and mutual learning" between countries is the characteristic of Chinese civilization, and it is also one of the source driving forces for the origin, formation and development of Chinese civilization.
Regional Cultural Interaction: A "Universal Phenomenon" in Prehistoric Chinese Society
Within the geographical scope of Today's China, each geographical unit or region in the prehistoric period, such as the Yanliao region, the Haidai region, the middle reaches of the Yangtze River, the lower reaches of the Yangtze River, and the Central Plains, has a relatively independent cultural and social development process in its own region. More importantly, there is an interactive exchange between these regional cultures, and the result of cultural interaction is directly manifested in the continuous convergence and integration of advanced factors of the surrounding cultures.
More than 5,000 years ago, the Liangzhu culture in the lower reaches of the Yangtze River discovered jade artifacts with cultural characteristics of the Hongshan culture in the Xiliao River Basin thousands of miles away. More than 4300 years ago, the bronze ware and amphora excavated from the Tao Temple culture represented by the Tao Temple site in southern Jinnan obviously have a close relationship with the Qijia culture in the Ganqing area; the pottery temple culture ritual vessel nature of the shrew drum, some polka dot patterned pottery, jade stone and pig mandible customs should originate from the Dawenkou-Longshan culture system in haidai area; the "coarse body" of the Tao temple culture is very similar to the similar instruments of the Shijiahe culture in the Jianghan Plain. The jade beast face excavated from the king-level tomb belongs to the same form and technology as the animal face commonly seen in the Houshijiahe culture. There were exchanges between the Shiya culture and the Taosi culture of the Jin-Shaanxi Plateau, which generally belonged to this era, in terms of pottery, jade, bronze, and construction technology. The latest discovery of "stone carving images" in the core area of the Shi'an site is very obvious to the absorption of stone carving traditions in northeast China, while some stone carved animal faces and human face decorations are similar to the Houshijiahe culture in the Jianghan Plain.
In July 2019, the opening ceremony of the "Liangzhu and Ancient China - Five Thousand Years of Civilization Exhibition displayed by Jade" was held at the Wuying Hall of the Palace Museum. Photo by Du Yang, a reporter from China News Service
Not only is there extensive and in-depth interaction between the cultures of the same period, but there are also obvious succession, absorption and promotion of cultures in different periods, and this cultural inheritance and memory is obviously also an interaction. The most distinctive and highly skilled jade of Liangzhu civilization is not a source of water, and its absorption of the jade craftsmanship of the Lingjiatan culture in the Jianghuai region is obvious, and from Lingjiatan to Liangzhu is a kind of "reorganization" and "integration". After Liangzhu, the cultural heritage and concept of jade expression of luxury and religious prestige left behind spread to the Central Plains and even the broader Longshan society through the fusion of the late cultures of Dawenkou in the Huai River Basin near the Haidai region, strengthening the connotation of "ritual". At the same time, it intersected with metallurgical technology, new species, and new understandings from the west to the south, and fusion formed a more advanced political civilization and society, such as the Tao Temple society and the Shi'an society.
In the prehistoric period of China, pottery has traditionally existed for a long time, with the "Ding system" culture represented by "Tao Ding" and the "mane system" culture marked by "Tao Ding". These two different cultures and technological systems, after a long period of interaction and exchange, were integrated into the same society of Erlitou culture in the Xia Dynasty. It is worth noting that the Erlitou cultural period coincided with the formation of the center of early Chinese civilization.
It can be seen that 4,000 to 5,000 years ago or earlier, there were very common cultural exchanges and interactions between different regions in China's prehistoric period, so that scholars even speculated that there was a long-distance "upper communication network" in the complex prehistoric society.
In October 2019, the Erlitou Xiadu Ruins Museum, which displays the remains of the capital city of the middle and late Xia Dynasty, the earliest dynasty in China, was officially opened in Luoyang, Henan Province. Photo by Zeng Xianping, China News Service
The wide-area interaction of Eastern and Western civilizations was the "world theme" at that time
Centuries-old Chinese archaeology and archaeology in neighboring countries show that from more than 5,000 years ago to more than 4,000 years ago, there were not only regional cultural interactions within prehistoric China, but also explicit cross-continental interactions with North Asia and Central Asia.
In the mid-to-late 3000 BC period, the flourishing of trade networks between cities in Mesopotamia, the Iranian plateau, the Indus Valley, the Persian Gulf coast, and Central Asia contributed to the formation of the Central Asia Interactive Circle. At the same time, the Eurasian steppe in North Asia, under the flow of people and continuous cultural interaction, integrates the same technology and cultural tradition, thus turning the Eurasian steppe into a coherent communication corridor. Arsenic bronze in northern Iran enters Xinjiang through oasis cities and river valleys in Central Asia, and into the Central Plains through the Hexi Corridor. In the middle and late 3,000 BC periods of the Siberian region of North Asia and Southern China, which is roughly at the same time as the Longshan Period of China, entered the Early Bronze Age, and in its flourishing period, there were "Seima-Turbino cultural phenomena" that spanned different early bronze cultures such as Okunev culture, Odinover culture, and Krodov culture, which was represented by casting fans and bronzes, and even reached the Danhuai area belonging to the Yangtze River Basin. This is illustrated by the four pieces of "Seima-Turbino" copper spears excavated at the site of Xiawanggang in the Huaichuan River, which is located in the reservoir area of today's South-To-North Water Diversion Project.
The culture of Central and North Asia, represented by sea shells, turquoise, bronze, etc., as well as barley, wheat, goats, sheep, cattle, etc., enter the Turpan Basin through the mountain valleys and rivers around the Tianshan Mountains, and then the Hexi Corridor, and then to the Central Plains and even the Yangtze River Basin. The ore, crucible fragments, blower nozzles, slag and stone fan excavated from the Xichengyi site in zhangye oasis in the Hexi Corridor date back about 4,000 years, indicating that the traditional double-in-fan casting technology from North Asia formed a production center after the localization of the corridor. The technology and knowledge system for casting red copper, arsenic bronze and tin bronze weapons and tool products obviously has a direct relationship with the more complex composite fan casting bronze ceremonial vessels of the late Longshan and Xia Shang brilliant bronze civilizations.
The ruins of Xichengyi in Zhangye, Gansu Province, taken in November 2013. China News Service reporter Yang Yanmin photographed
It should be emphasized that wheat and barley, as well as the knowledge of cultivation, spread throughout the Longshan world in a very short period of time after entering the prehistoric Chinese cultural circle. In the late Longshan period, more than a dozen sites such as ancient tomb ditches in Xinjiang, Xiaohe, and Dongshishan in Gansu have found clear wheat remains. The Ash Mountain site in the Middle East is even older, and between 5,000 and 4,500 years ago, there was not only wheat, but also barley and rye. The ruins of charred wheat belonging to the Longshan era have been found in the two towns of Rizhao and Liaocheng Jiaochangpu in the lower reaches of the Yellow River. It is worth noting that the dual evidence of plant archaeology and genetic archaeology shows that millet, which has been popular in northern China for about 8,000 years, spread to Central Asia 4500 years ago and to Eastern Europe about 3500 years ago.
Long-distance communication is more about bringing technology and religion, and religion seems to spread more rapidly. The ruins of Linfen Tao Temple in Shanxi and the Ruins of Xiajin inlaid with turquoise and white jade, as well as sea shells and brass bells, which also belong to the Longshan era, should not only be aesthetic decorations, but also wealth and mysterious religious forces from Central and North Asia.
It is certain that the North Asian Interactive Circle, the Central Asian Interactive Circle, and the Chinese Prehistoric Interactive Circle have been integrated and intersected at least 4,000 years ago. The "Belt and Road" of today's "Belt and Road" has already existed at least at this time or even earlier.
In August 2015, a group of overseas Chinese-language media leaders visited the ruins of tao temple in Xiangfen County, Shanxi Province. Photo by China News Service reporter Wei Liang
Cultural exchange and interaction achieve a diversified and integrated "unique civilization"
Cultural interaction will make the main culture abandon, transform or innovate the civilization factors of other cultures and societies on the basis of absorption, and even integrate to form a new archaeological culture. The interaction of diverse and multi-source archaeological cultures in different prehistory regions is to a certain extent an important reason for the formation of a pluralistic and integrated Chinese civilization. The complex and diverse surrounding cultural factors common in an archaeological culture, such as the Tao temple culture, may reflect the participation of different local ethnic groups in the operation and rituals of their society.
The closer exchanges and interactions of the three interacting circles of North Asia, Central Asia and East Asia brought new technical knowledge, new species of animals and plants, and new religious cognition to early Chinese society. Obviously, the objects that represent these exchanges, such as bronze, turquoise, and sea shells, were gradually accepted by early Chinese civilization and became new symbols of traditional royal power and civilization, such as dragon-shaped instruments, ceremonial instruments, and bronze ceremonial instruments.
Extensive, long-term and in-depth cultural interaction will directly form two kinds of results, one is the "pluralism" of culture, and the other is the center of civilization. The former is easy to understand, while the latter needs to be explained. In cultural interaction, there will always be more advanced political and scientific and technological civilizations in a certain regional civilization, and other regional civilizations will gradually identify with this advanced "experiment" in the interaction, forming a consensus that crosses geographical units or even cultures ideologically, and becomes the "center" of a civilization. On the basis of the legitimacy of the geographical space, this center will become more consciously "orthodox" and passed on by the "cultural gene" bloodline.
In short, as Marx said, "The more the scope of interaction sphere of activity of the various interactions expands in this process of development, the more thoroughly the primitive closed state of nations is eliminated by the increasingly perfect mode of production, the relations and the division of labour among the different nations which arise naturally as a result of the interaction, the more history becomes the history of the world." "The significance of cultural exchanges lies in learning from each other, surpassing themselves, sharing all the fruits of civilization, and the development of cultural interaction is a process of continuously moving towards civilization." Just as today, thousands of years of cultural genes give us a civilization concept of "pluralism, integration, kindness and coordination", and only then will there be a national code of conduct for "exchanges, mutual learning and a community of destiny" in our world exchange system. Culture is diverse because of interaction, and civilization is wonderful because of mutual learning. Not only the beauty of each other, but also the interaction of beauty and beauty, will be beautiful and common.
About the Author:
Gao Jiangtao is a researcher at the Institute of Archaeology, Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, and a doctor of archaeology. He was a visiting scholar at the Kashihara Institute of Archaeology in Japan in 2014 and a visiting scholar at the University of California, Los Angeles in 2019. Engaged in research on the origin of Chinese civilization, pre-Qin archaeology, and cultural heritage protection and utilization. He has worked in the front line of field archaeological excavations for a long time, and published nearly 100 academic papers, the main works include "Archaeological Research on the Process of Civilization in the Central Plains", "Xiawanggang in Huaichuan: Archaeological Excavation Report 2008-2010", "Archaeological Captain Said on the Spot: Why China Is Five Thousand Years" and so on.
Original title: "Things Ask | Gao Jiangtao: Why is there a "prehistoric interactive circle" in the exchange of civilizations between the East and the West? 》
Editor: Zeng Xiaowei
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