As an important part of the three cultures of the Chinese nation, the birthplace of Wu culture has always been concerned by historians and cultural circles, and has been valued by Wu at home and abroad. As early as 1907, Cai Yuanpei, Wu Mei, Liu Yazi, Tian Han and others began to study Wu culture; 1937, Cai Yuanpei, Wu Mei, Gu Jiegang and others initiated the establishment of "wuyue History and Geography Research Society" and began to publish "Wu Yue Culture Essays", which set off the climax of Wu Culture research. 1984, at the initiative of Wu Ze, a famous historian in China, a member of the State Council Academic Degrees Committee and a professor of history at East China Normal University, the China Wu Culture Research Association was established in Suzhou, which set off a new upsurge of Wu culture research and construction.
Wucheng Site in Zhangshu City is the first large-scale inhabited site in Shang Dynasty discovered south of the Yangtze River. After eight excavations by China Academy of Social Sciences, National Cultural Heritage Administration, Peking University, Sun Yat-sen University, Xiamen University and cultural workers from provinces and cities, important relics such as Longdong, water wells, tombs, cast copper, "corridor" pavements and religious sites were discovered. More than 0/00 pieces of relatively complete cultural relics1/kloc-0, including stone tools, pottery, bronzes, jade articles, tooth carvings, etc. There are 200 characters and symbols and more than 40 patterns, especially the discovery of the early dragon kiln in Shang Dynasty in China, which pushed the history of loong kiln forward for nearly a thousand years and became a "key" to study the ancient culture in the south of the Yangtze River.
Moreover, the ruins of the Acropolis in Zhangshu City and the tombs of Shang Dynasty in Xingan County have attracted the attention of many experts and scholars.
In 1930s, Chinese famous historians Guo Moruo and Gu Jiegang, when studying the 1 1 piece of the 15th People's Palace in Wu during the Qianlong period of Qing Dynasty unearthed in Linjiang Prefecture, Jiangxi Province, pointed out: "Wudi City was far away from Jiangxi in the early Spring and Autumn Period", "Linjiang Prefecture is now Qingjiang County (now Zhangshu City), and the west bank of Ganjiang River.
199 1 year, Mr. Lu, executive vice president and secretary general of China Wu Culture Research Association, formally put forward the view that the birthplace of Wu culture was in Jiangxi in the Journal of Social Science published in Shanghai. 1992 Comrade Jin Yuan, the former Jiangxi Provincial Museum, published "A Word from Wu Shuo and Wucheng Cultural Family" in Southern Cultural Relics. His main point is that Wucheng culture was before Wu culture in Taihu Lake Basin. Where is the birthplace of Wu culture? Jiangxi is known as the "tail of aconite" and has become a "hot spot" concerned by relevant experts and scholars.
With the help of Jiangxi Academy of Social Sciences, two Wu culture experts, Lu and Zhang Fuyu, visited Wucheng Shang Dynasty site and Zhangshu Zhucheng site, and visited various cultural relics unearthed from Zhangshu. At the subsequent "Seminar on Wu Culture's Economic Development Strategy", Mr. Lu, a researcher and vice president of the Provincial Academy of Social Sciences, after studying archaeological discoveries for more than half a century, thought that the inscriptions and Wu bronzes discovered in Anhui and Jiangsu were all after19th century, and the remains of Wu before the late Spring and Autumn Period had not been found in the east of Taihu Lake. Zhejiang unearthed in Jiangxi is still the earliest bronze ware of the State of Wu. At the same time, hundreds of bronze ritual vessels of the Western Zhou Dynasty were unearthed in the Jiangxi-Poyang Lake basin, especially a large number of cultural relics were unearthed in the site of "Wu Culture" in Zhangshu City, the tomb of Shang Dynasty in Xingan and the tomb of Lieding in the Western Zhou Dynasty. It shows that "Wucheng Culture" is a self-contained bronze culture which is composed of the pre-Zhou culture in Shanxi and Shaanxi, the culture in Hanshui River basin and the Yi Yue culture in Poyang Lake basin in Jiangxi Province. Its family belongs to Cinnamomum camphora, and Xingan in the middle reaches of Ganjiang River is the birthplace of Wu and Wu culture.
At this seminar, the participants unanimously agreed that this research achievement is not only a major breakthrough in historical research, but also a strong response from academic circles at home and abroad.
As an important cultural research activity, it is far from over. As a county-level city, Zhangshu actively participated in this cultural research activity and established a good cultural image in academic circles. With the improvement of Chinese content in economic development, it will have a great and far-reaching impact on the economic and cultural development strategy of camphor tree and the social activities of Wu family at home and abroad.
Wucheng Culture and Ancient Copper Civilization in China
For a long time, among the early bronzes unearthed in the Central Plains, there were only bronzes but no red bronzes, which led many foreign scholars to think that China only had the Bronze Age without the Red Bronze Age. Other ancient civilizations in the world experienced the Red Copper Age before the Bronze Age. Whether China had a long bronze civilization before the bronze civilization is an important issue related to where the bronze civilization in China came from.
Since 1970s, with the discovery of Zhangshu Wucheng site and Shang tombs in Xingan Oceania, and the deepening of archaeological excavation and research, more and more evidences show that there was a long bronze civilization in China before the bronze civilization. Archaeologists in our province have tested the composition of some pre-Qin bronzes unearthed from Wucheng site and other areas in our province. These specimens date from the late Shang Dynasty to the early and middle Western Zhou Dynasty. Except for No.2 Pingshouzuding in Hengtang, Zhangshu, the copper content of other specimens is above 90%, and some of them are as high as 99%, and no metal elements such as tin are found or rarely exist. Although some pre-Qin bronzes unearthed in Jiangxi are so-called "black lacquer antiques" or "blue lacquer antiques". However, most of the vessel walls are rough and thin, and the surface of the vessel is seriously corroded, with a layer of verdigris and a purple heart. This is of course related to the acidity of the soil in our province, but the main reason lies in the bronze itself, which is made of red copper or pure copper.
When China's bronze civilization began remains to be discovered by archaeological excavations. However, the examination of some bronze specimens shows that the ancient ancestors in Wucheng or Poyang Lake-Ganjiang River basin still retained the original technology of using red copper castings from the late Shang Dynasty to the middle Western Zhou Dynasty. In the evolution of ancient civilization, the emergence, development and extinction of each technology have gone through a long process. Of course, the bronze civilization in China began much earlier than in the Shang and Zhou Dynasties. During the Shang and Zhou Dynasties, due to the influence of bronze technology in the Central Plains, ancestors began casting bronzes. Zhangshu Hengtang 1 Ding is matched with No.2 Pingshou Ding, which is called Huercuo Ding, and its style is similar to No.2 Ding. Compared with the two pots, the pot wall of 1 is thicker, and the pot 2 is relatively thinner. The surface corrosion of the former is not very serious, and it is light green. The surface corrosion of the latter is quite serious, showing dark green; The former has higher hardness, while the latter has lower hardness. Although the composition of 1 Ding has not been tested, its tin content is obviously higher than that of No.2 Ding in terms of physical and chemical properties. It shows that the ancestors of Wucheng mastered the technology of adding tin and other elements to copper to improve its properties at the end of Shang Dynasty.
In the 1950s, Mr. Guo Moruo speculated that it was more likely that copper smelting and casting technology would be introduced into the Yellow River basin from the southern Jianghuai basin, because it was said that Jiangnan was a famous producing area of ancient gold and tin. Although archaeological materials are not enough to fully confirm Lao Guo's conjecture, the discovery of sites such as Wucheng can at least support Lao Guo's conjecture in the following aspects. For example, Jiangxi and even the south are the main producing areas of copper, with a large number of ancient copper mining and smelting relics, which have the material conditions for copper smelting; During the Shang and Zhou Dynasties, clay casting (that is, one-time casting after locking several molds and cores) and stone casting copper were widely used. During the Shang and Zhou Dynasties, the production of red bronzes continued. We can imagine that China's copper metallurgy may have originated in Jiangxi and even the south, and after it was introduced into the Central Plains, it was improved to produce a new technology of bronze metallurgy. The bronze metallurgy technology in the Central Plains had a strong impact on all parts of the south, forging a splendid bronze civilization in China.
A large number of Shang skulls were found in Wucheng site, Jiangxi Province?
Following 1995 when Jiangxi Archaeological Research Institute and other related units dissected the western toe wall of Shang Dynasty in Wucheng, four Shang skulls were found. Jiangxi archaeologists found dense Shang skulls in the outer moat nearly 4 meters deep-nearly 20 skulls and some limb bones were excavated in less than 10 square meter. Experts speculated that there were a large number of skulls on both sides of the moat.
Clear lines can be seen on nearly 20 skulls found this time. According to experts in Jiangxi Province, there are generally two ways to make skulls excavated by archaeology: one is that prisoners of war are beheaded; The first is the product of headhunting ceremony in sacrifice. Judging from the excavation, these skulls were probably beheaded by a large number of prisoners of war. The age of death and identity of each skull need further measurement and textual research. The discovery of the skull reflects the scale, mode and tragic degree of the war at that time, and provides valuable physical data for studying the offensive and defensive warfare in Shangcheng City. The excavated skull has been well preserved.
Wucheng Site is located in Wucheng Village, wucheng town, in front of Zhangshu Mountain. It belongs to the national key cultural relics protection unit. 1973 discovered when building a reservoir. This is the first Shang Dynasty site discovered south of the Yangtze River. 200 1 was named "Top 100 Archaeological Discoveries in China in the 20th Century". Up to now, Jiangxi Institute of Archaeology and other relevant units have carried out nine archaeological excavations, and unearthed ancient cultural relics such as bronzes, pottery, kiln furniture and sacrificial squares. Among them, a large number of primitive porcelains have appeared, and some archaeologists in China believe that the primitive porcelains in China originated from Wucheng. Jiangxi archaeologists have set up a special archaeological workstation in Wucheng site, which they believe is an authoritative place to explore the origin, mode and materialized form of ancient civilization in Jiangxi and Poyang Lake basin.
"China is the king of forks" found in Wucheng site.
Wei, an ancient cooker, is like a tripod, round, hollow and curved. During the 65,438+00 excavations of the Shang Dynasty ruins in Wucheng, hundreds of cultural relics of different sizes and shapes were unearthed. 200165438+February, when Jiangxi Institute of Cultural Relics and Archaeology and Zhangshu Museum excavated the site for the first time 10, a large Shang Dynasty Tao Ge was excavated in the area around the site. After more than a year of drying and repair, it has been completely repaired. It is 47.8 cm high, 40.2 cm in diameter and 38.7 cm in abdominal diameter. It is made of gray ceramics and fine sand, with an opening, an arc-shaped abdomen and three pockets. It is decorated with thick rope patterns all over the body, with wide-band rope patterns on its neck and rope patterns from its abdomen to its legs. Accompanying the excavation is Wucheng No.2, which is more than 3,500 years ago. Unearthed No.1 is 43.2 cm higher, 32.7 cm in diameter and 35 cm in abdominal diameter than the upper layer of Erlitou culture in Tao Ge and Henan, which is the largest in the third phase of Erlitou culture in Yanshi, Henan. The pattern of pottery is the same as that of 1 ... at that time, it was the early stage of the first phase of the Shang Dynasty site in Wucheng, and the largest two pieces were Tao Ge's big pieces, which is the largest one found in China at present. Experts call it "the king of China splits". The restoration of Wucheng No.1 is another major discovery after Wucheng Site won the honor of centennial archaeological discovery in China in the 20th century, which has played a very important role in studying Wucheng culture.