(East-West Question) Gao Jiangtao: Why is there a "prehistoric interaction circle" in the exchange of Eastern and Western civilizations?
China News Agency, Beijing, January 21, Question: Why is there a "prehistoric interactive circle" in the exchange of Eastern and Western civilizations?
Author Gao Jiangtao, researcher at the Institute of Archaeology, Chinese Academy of Social Sciences
Four or five thousand years ago or even earlier, there had been widespread cultural exchanges between different regions in China; at least 4,000 years ago, China's prehistoric interactive circles had also converged with North and Central Asian interactive circles.
"Traveling" back to prehistory found that cultural interaction is an important reason for the formation of multiple civilizations. The cross-continental interaction between Chinese civilization and Central Asia and North Asia has turned the Eurasian steppe into a through communication corridor.
This kind of "exchange and mutual learning" between countries is a characteristic of Chinese civilization and one of the driving forces behind the origin, formation and development of Chinese civilization.
Regional Cultural Interaction: A "Universal Phenomenon" in Chinese Prehistoric Society
In today's China, each geographic unit or region in prehistoric times, such as the Yanliao region, Haidai region, the middle reaches of the Yangtze River, the lower reaches of the Yangtze River, and the Central Plains region, has a relatively independent development process of culture and society within its own region.
More importantly, there is interaction between these regional cultures, and the result of cultural interaction is the continuous convergence and fusion of the advanced factors of surrounding cultures.
More than 5,000 years ago, the Liangzhu Culture in the lower reaches of the Yangtze River found jade artifacts with the characteristics of the Hongshan Culture in the West Liaohe River Basin thousands of miles away.
More than 4,300 years ago, the bronze wares and amphora unearthed from the Taosi culture represented by the Taosi site in the southern Jin Dynasty are obviously closely related to the Qijia culture in the Gansu-Qingdao area; Painted pottery, jade tomahawks, and the custom of burying the mandibles of pigs should originate from the Dawenkou-Longshan cultural system in the Haidai area; the "bold-style gu" of the Taosi culture is very similar to the similar utensils of the Shijiahe culture in the Jianghan Plain. The jade animal faces unearthed in the large tombs belong to the same shape and technology as the animal faces commonly seen in the post-Shijiahe culture.
The Shimao culture on the Shanxi-Shaanxi Plateau and the Taosi culture, which generally belonged to this era, had exchanges in pottery, jade, bronze, and architectural techniques.
The newly discovered "stone carving images" at Huangchengtai, the core area of the Shimao site, have clearly absorbed the traditions of stone carving in the Northeast, while the animal and human faces of some stone carvings are similar to those of the Hou Shijiahe culture in the Jianghan Plain. By.
In July 2019, the opening ceremony of "Liangzhu and Ancient China - Exhibition of Five Thousand Years of Civilization Displayed by Jade" was held in Wuying Hall of the Palace Museum.
Photo by China News Agency reporter Du Yang
Not only the cultures of the same period have extensive and in-depth interactions, but also the cultures of different periods have obvious inheritance, absorption and promotion. This cultural inheritance and memory is obviously an interaction.
The most distinctive and highly skilled jade in Liangzhu civilization is not water without a source. Its absorption of the jade crafts of Lingjiatan culture in the Jianghuai region is obvious. From Lingjiatan to Liangzhu is a kind of "reorganization" and "reorganization". integration".
After Liangzhu, the cultural heritage and concept of using jade to express luxury and religious prestige was left behind. Through the fusion of the late Dawenkou culture in the Huaihe River Basin near the Haidai area, the connotation of "ritual" was strengthened and spread to the Central Plains and even the Central Plains. Spread in the wider Longshan society.
At the same time, it merged with the metallurgical technology, new species and new understandings that came from the west to the south, and merged to form a more advanced political civilization and society, such as the Taosi society and the Shimao society.
In the prehistoric period of China, pottery has traditionally existed for a long time in the "Ding System" culture represented by "Tao Ding" and the "Gei System" culture using "Tao Li" as the symbol.
These two different cultural and technological systems, after a long-term interaction, merged into the same society of Erlitou culture in the Xia Dynasty.
It is worth noting that the Erlitou Culture period was precisely the period when the center of early Chinese civilization was formed.
It can be seen that four or five thousand years ago or even earlier, there were very common cultural exchanges and interactions between different regions in the prehistoric period of China, and scholars even speculated that there was a long-distance "upper-level communication network" in the complex prehistoric society.
In October 2019, the Erlitou Xiadu Ruins Museum, which displays the remains of the capital of China's earliest dynasty, the middle and late Xia Dynasty, was officially opened in Luoyang, Henan.
China News Agency issued Zeng Xianping photo
The wide-area interaction between Eastern and Western civilizations was the "world theme" at that time
A century of Chinese archaeology and the archaeology of neighboring countries have shown that more than 5,000 to more than 4,000 years ago, there was not only regional cultural interaction within prehistoric China, but also a clear transcontinental interaction with North Asia and Central Asia.
In the middle and late third millennium BC, the prosperity 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 Asian Interaction Circle.
At roughly the same time, the Eurasian steppe in North Asia, under the flow of people and continuous cultural interaction, merged to form the same technology and cultural tradition, thus turning the Eurasian steppe into a continuous communication corridor.
Arsenic bronze from northern Iran entered Xinjiang through oasis cities and river valleys in Central Asia, and entered the Central Plains through the Hexi Corridor.
At roughly the same time as the Longshan period in China, the North Asia and South Siberia regions entered the Early Bronze Age in the middle and late third millennium BC. The "Saima-Turbino Cultural Phenomenon" such as the Wo Culture, this unique cultural wind represented by cast models and bronze wares has blown into Xinjiang, Qinghai, Gansu and even the Fenwei Plain, and even reached It belongs to the Danxi area in the Yangtze River Basin.
This is illustrated by the four "Saiima-Turbino" bronze spears unearthed from the Xichuan Xiawanggang site in today's South-to-North Water Transfer Reservoir area.
The cultures of Central Asia and North Asia represented by seashells, turquoise, bronze, etc., as well as barley, wheat, goats, sheep, cattle, etc., entered the Turpan Basin through the inter-mountain valleys and rivers around the Tianshan Mountains, followed by the Hexi Corridor, and then to Central Plains and even the Yangtze River Basin.
The ore, crucible fragments, blowing nozzles, slag, and stone molds unearthed about 4,000 years ago at the Xichengyi site in Zhangye Oasis in the Hexi Corridor indicate that the traditional Shuanghefan casting technology from North Asia has formed a production line after the localization of this corridor. center.
This technology and knowledge system of casting red copper, arsenic bronze and tin bronze weapons and tool products obviously has a direct origin with the more complex complex cast bronze vessels of the late Longshan and Xia-Shang brilliant bronze civilizations.
The site of Xichengyi in Zhangye, Gansu, photographed in November 2013.
Photo by China News Agency reporter Yang Yanmin
It needs to be emphasized that the knowledge of wheat, barley and planting entered the prehistoric Chinese cultural circle and spread throughout the Longshan world in a very short time.
In the late Longshan period, more than ten sites such as Gumugou and Xiaohe in Xinjiang and Donghui Mountain in Gansu have definite remains of wheat.
Among them, the East Ash Mountain site is older, and between 5,000 and 4,500 years ago, not only wheat, but also barley and rye.
In the two towns of Rizhao in the lower reaches of the Yellow River and the Jiaochangpu site in Liaocheng, the remains of carbonized wheat belonging to the Longshan era have been found.
It is worth noting that the dual evidence of plant archaeology and genetic archaeology shows that millet, which had been popular in northern China about 8,000 years ago, spread to Central Asia about 4,500 years ago, and to Eastern Europe about 3,500 years ago.
Long-distance communication brings more technology and religion, among which religion seems to spread more rapidly.
The turquoise and white jade bracelets, seashells and copper bells inlaid with turquoise and white jade at the Linfen Taosi site and Xiajin site in Shanxi, both belonging to the Longshan period, are not only aesthetic decorations, but also wealth and mysterious religious power from Central Asia and North Asia. .
It is certain that the North Asian interactive circle, the Central Asian interactive circle, and the Chinese prehistoric interactive circle have merged and converged at least 4,000 years ago.
The "Belt and Road" that we call today, at least at this time, or even earlier, had already initially existed.
In August 2015, senior officials of overseas Chinese media visited the Taosi site in Xiangfen County, Shanxi Province.
Photo by China News Agency reporter Wei Liang
Cultural exchange and interaction achieve a "unique civilization" of diversity and unity
Cultural interaction will cause the main culture to sublate, transform or innovate the civilization factors of other cultures and societies on the basis of absorption, and even merge to form a new archaeological culture.
The interaction of diverse and multi-source archaeological cultures in different prehistoric regions is, to a certain extent, an important reason for the formation of a diverse and integrated Chinese civilization.
The complex and diverse surrounding cultural factors that are common in an archaeological culture such as the Taosi culture may reflect the participation of different local ethnic groups in their social operations and rituals.
The relatively close exchanges and interactions of the three interactive 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, objects representing these exchanges, such as bronze ware, turquoise, and sea shells, were gradually accepted by the early Chinese civilization and became new symbols besides the traditional symbols of kingship and civilization such as dragon-shaped ware, ritual musical instruments, and bronze ritual ware.
Extensive, long-term and in-depth cultural interaction will directly lead to two results, one is the "plurality" 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, a certain regional civilization will always appear more advanced political and technological civilization, and other regional civilizations will gradually recognize this advanced "experiment" in the interaction, forming an ideological consensus across geographical units and even across cultures. and become the "center" of a civilization.
On the basis of the legitimacy of geographical space, this center will further become "orthodox" in consciousness, and will be passed down through the blood of "cultural genes".
总之，正如马克思所言，“各个相互影响的活动范围在这个发展进程中越是扩大，各民族的原始封闭状态由于日益完善的生产方式、交往以及因交往而自然而然形成的不同民族之间的分工消灭得越是彻底，历史也就越是成为世界历史。”文化交流的意义在于互相借鉴，超越自我，共享一切文明成果，文化互动的发展都是不断迈向文明的过程。行为准则源于其文明观，正如今天，几千年文化基因给予我们“多元，融合、和善、协同”的文明观，才会有我们世界交往体系中“交流互鉴、命运共同体”的国家行为准则。文化因互动而多元，文明因互鉴而精彩。不仅各美其美，更要美美互动，才会美美与共。(完)
作者简介：
高江涛，中国社会科学院考古研究所研究员，考古学博士。2014年日本橿原考古学研究所访学，2019年美国加州大学洛杉矶分校访学。从事中国文明起源、先秦考古、文化遗产保护与利用等研究。长期工作于田野考古发掘第一线，发表学术论文近百篇，主要著作有《中原地区文明化进程的考古学研究》、《淅川下王岗：2008-2010年考古发掘报告》、《考古队长现场说：中华何以五千年》等。