(Question about East and West) Archaeological Cultural Tourism|Yu Xiyun: Where is the key step in the origin of Chinese civilization?
China News Service, Beijing, December 24th, title: Where is the key step in the origin of Chinese civilization?
Author Yu Xiyun, Professor, School of History, Wuhan University and Yangtze River Civilization Archaeology Institute
The origin of civilization, academic circles are more inclined to call it social complication, which is often a gradual process of transformation.
In the process of the origin of Chinese civilization, Xiyin culture took a crucial step.
What is Xiyin culture?
In 1921, Antesheng, a Swedish geological expert hired by the Beiyang government, arranged for Yuan Fuli, who had just returned from studying abroad, to excavate the Yangshao site in Mianchi, Henan. Study the origin of Chinese civilization.
This excavation is exactly one hundred years ago.
In 1926, Li Ji, who returned from studying abroad, excavated the site of Xiyin Village in Xia County, Shanxi.
The connotation revealed by the excavations at the Yangshao site was rather ambiguous, and the concept of Yangshao culture named after it has been expanding, while the connotation of the Xiyin site is simpler and the quality of archaeological work is higher.
In the 1980s, the academic circles proposed the naming of Xiyin culture, calling the time period represented by the original Yangshao culture as the Yangshao era.
The distribution and influence area of Xiyin culture (black dots include typical Xiyin cultural remains, red dots include Xiyin cultural factors).
Photo courtesy of the interviewee
More than 6000 years ago, the Xiyin culture originated in the border region of Shanxi, Shanxi and Henan, reached its peak more than 5000 years ago, and controlled the vast area of the Central Plains.
The impact extends to the sea in the east, Ganqing and Qinghai in the west, the coast of the Yangtze River in the south, and the yin of Yanshan Mountain in the north, laying the space foundation of pre-Qin China.
From the aerial view, the oasis in the valleys of the Loess Plateau is like a river shuttle.
The Xiyin culture originated in the border area of Shan, Jin and Henan.
Photo by China News Agency reporter Sun Zifa
The settlements of the Xiyin culture are mainly distributed in the river buffer zone of the Loess Plateau suitable for dry farming and the surrounding areas. They mainly plant millet and millet, of which millet takes the lead and a small amount of rice is also grown.
Large numbers of livestock are raised, and the main species is domestic pigs.
Silkworms are also raised for silk reeling.
Tooth-carved silkworm unearthed at the Shuanghuaishu site in Gongyi, Henan.
Photo source: Wang Weilin, Editor-in-Chief: Painted Pottery China: China's Fusion and Unification Five Thousand Years Ago, Shaanxi Normal University Publishing House, 2020.
How does the Xiyin culture reveal the origin of civilization?
The origin of civilization has many manifestations, and the emergence of private concepts is the core.
From the perspective of housing construction, there were many round single rooms in the early Xiyin culture, and square single rooms at the same time.
After the late period, square multi-rooms and row houses began to appear.
The variation from single room to double room to multiple rooms to row houses roughly reflects the process of successive generation from nuclear family to main family, extended family, and family.
The expansion of the family size shows that people have become more sensitive to the closeness of blood relationships, and adopt different attitudes towards those who are close to and close to themselves (kinship).
The relationship between storage pits and residences has also changed accordingly.
In the early days, the residence and the storage pit were often separated, and there were "ash pits" for storing things outside the residence.
After the mid-term, with the emergence of many houses in the Han River and Zhengzhou area, the number of outdoor "ash pits" decreased, and storage space appeared in the residence, indicating the formation of the concept of private property.
Many rooms unearthed from the Dahe Village site in Zhengzhou.
Picture source: Zhengzhou Institute of Cultural Relics and Archaeology: "Zhengzhou Dahe Village", Science Press, 2001.
Around 5300 years ago, the Xishan site in the northwestern suburbs of Zhengzhou appeared as the earliest city in the Central Plains.
Xishan City is bordered by the remaining veins of the Manling Mountains in the north, the Kuhe River in the south, and the vast Huanghuai Plain to the east.
The city walls of Xishan City are approximately circular in plan, with a diameter of about 180 meters and an area of about 34,500 square meters.
There is a surrounding trench on the outside of the city wall, 150-200 meters away from the city wall and the surrounding trench, and a wide trench.
Xishan City of Zhengzhou.
Image source: Zhang Yushi and Hao Hongxing: "Excavations of the Ancient City of Xishan in Zhengzhou", "Popular Archaeology", Issue 5, 2016.
At the Dahe Village site more than ten kilometers east of Xishan City, a large number of cultural factors from the lower Huai River have appeared, indicating that the culture from the lower Huai River has occupied the northern suburbs of Zhengzhou and has formed a huge impact on the Xiyin culture originally distributed in this area. Threats and pressure, the two sides even clashed fiercely.
On the defensive side of the Xiyin culture, a defense system such as city walls and ring trenches was built on the Xishan Mountain, which is very conducive to defense.
From the natural geographical environment of the Xishan site and the cultural situation at that time, it can be seen that Xishan City should be a defensive military stronghold, not a capital.
The construction of a large-scale project like Xishan City may be a precaution against external threats on the one hand, and on the other hand, it shows that a few people can mobilize the labor of the majority, indicating that the 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, jadeware, and large pottery tripods.
Owl tripod unearthed in Quanhu Village, Huaxian County, Shaanxi Province.
Photo source: Wang Weilin, Editor-in-Chief: "Painted Pottery·China: Integration and Unification of China Five Thousand Years Ago", Shaanxi Normal University Publishing House, 2020.
The settlement pattern of Xiyin culture clearly reveals the origin of extended family, private concept and civilization.
Is Xiyin culture in the era of Huangdi?
Academia generally interprets Banpo culture as the culture of the Yandi system, and Xiyin culture as the culture of the Huangdi system.
Although this explanation cannot be understood as historical facts, let us connect archaeological discoveries with historical memory.
The distribution range of the Xiyin culture is the same as the Yellow Emperor’s activity range described in "Historical Records: The Five Emperors": "East reaches the sea, climbs Maruyama, and Daizong. In the west reaches Kongtong, climbs the chicken head. South reaches Yujiang, climbs the bear, and Hunan. The northbound meat porridge is in line with Busan, and the town in Zhuolu is basically the same.
Xiyin culture is also the only culture in the prehistoric culture whose distribution range can roughly match the scope of Huangdi's activities described in "Historical Records".
Of course, the Xiyin culture lasts for thousands of years and has a wide range of distribution. It can neither be a cultural relic formed by a certain individual, nor can it be a relic formed during a certain person’s alive time, but rather a culture formed by its ethnic group over a long period of time. Remains.
It should be more reasonable to interpret the Xiyin culture as the culture formed by the Huangdi ethnic group.
How does Xiyin culture shape the characteristics of Chinese civilization?
Mr. Su Bingqi once pointed out that the most widely spread among the characteristic factors of Yangshao culture belongs to the Miaodigou type (that is, the Xiyin culture).
The distribution center of the Miaodigou type remains is near Huashan.
This is exactly the same as the legend of the events and distribution of the occurrence and initial formation of the Chinese ethnic group.
Therefore, the Miaodigou type of the Yangshao culture may be the remains of the people who formed the core of the Chinese nationality; the flower-patterned painted pottery, one of the main features of the Miaodigou type, may be the origin of the Chinese name, and the Huashan may be due to the original Chinese nationality. Named for the place where he lives.
The Xiyin culture is the archeological culture with the widest distribution range and influence area in prehistoric times, even before the Qin and Han dynasties.
The "flower" pattern of painted pottery in Xiyin culture is a symbol of "Hua" people. Wherever Xiyin culture influences, there are flower and bird painted pottery of Xiyin culture.
On the basis of Xiyin culture, China's earliest nation identity was formed.
Painted pottery unearthed at the Miaodigou site.
Photo source: Wang Weilin, Editor-in-Chief: "Painted Pottery·China: Integration and Unification of China Five Thousand Years Ago", Shaanxi Normal University Publishing House, 2020.
The Xiyin culture first entered the national form in East Asia. The geographical environment is based on the loess area, and the industry is mainly millet agriculture. The earliest king is called the Yellow Emperor, which is the source of the yellow civilization.
The family form is characterized by an extended family, forming the concept of "kinship", and attaching importance to family affection and relationship.
Religiously, ancestor worship is the core.
Located in the Central Plains, the Xiyin culture absorbs surrounding cultures on the one hand, and radiates influences on the surrounding areas on the other.
These factors have shaped the characteristics of Chinese civilization.
Painted pottery jar with crescent pattern on display at Miaodigou Yangshao Cultural Museum.
Photo by Kan Li, China News Agency reporter
What kind of cultural exchanges does Xiyin Culture reveal?
After discovering Yangshao Village, Antersen and others found that the painted pottery in it had many similarities with the painted pottery in central Eurasia. The Tripoli culture on the Black Sea coast of Eastern Europe had great similarities. Compared with Nuo's artifacts, the similarities in their graphics are numerous and tangible, which really makes us feel that we have the same origin." This is the famous "painted pottery in the West".
In the prehistoric era of Eurasia, the distribution of colored pottery was very extensive, and the painting methods and patterns of colored pottery were also similar. However, it is difficult to fully and accurately explain the relationship between these colored pottery cultures.
However, I may be able to provide some understanding from the final collapse of Xiyin culture.
About 5200 years ago, the Dawenkou Culture from the east along the tributaries of the Huai River gradually controlled the Central Plains. The Xiyin Culture collapsed and a series of new archeological cultures such as the Xishan Culture were formed on the basis of it.
However, we also found that the central area of Xiyin culture has a gradual westward process. The center of Xiyin culture in the early period was at the junction of Shanxi, Shanxi and Henan. In the later period, it moved to the west of Guanzhong to the east of Gansu, and Dadiwan appeared in Qin'an, Gansu. And other important sites.
A branch of Xiyin culture went deep into the Three Gorges area of the Yangtze River along the Jialing River, forming the Shaopengzui culture, and a branch along the Minjiang River entered the western edge of the Sichuan Basin to form the Yingpan Mountain culture. The intervention of these cultures started the civilization process of the Sichuan Basin.
Around this time, the Tripolye-Cucuteni Culture appeared in Ukraine and Romania on the Black Sea coast. Not only did the colored pottery be very similar to the Xiyin culture, but also the combination and shape of pottery. It has great commonalities with Xiyin culture, and its large villages composed of multiple rooms also show that its social organization is similar to that of the late Xiyin culture.
There are various signs that the Tripolie-Kukuteni culture is most likely the result of the westward migration of a branch of the Xiyin culture, but the final answer has yet to be confirmed by archaeologists.
(Finish)
About the interviewee:
余西云，武汉大学历史学院副院长兼考古系主任、长江文明考古研究院常务副院长、中国考古学会理事。主要研究领域为中国新石器时代考古、新石器化、文明起源等。近年发表的一系列成果，论证了中国考古学的理论体系。