1906 Summer, Mr. Shenwei once picked up some stone tools in Qianshanyang, Huzhou, Zhejiang. 1934 During the drought, Mr. Shen took advantage of the decline of the lake to collect many stone tools again, thus discovering the Qianshanyang site. 1935, Mr. He Tianxing from Hangzhou also collected some pottery and stone tools in Xunshan and Changming Bridge in Liangzhu Town. However, because these are sporadic collections, the number is small, which has not attracted enough attention. In July of the following year, Mr. Shi, who was working in the West Lake Museum at that time, discovered ancient civilization sites and relics near Xunshan, Liangzhu Town, his hometown, and conducted three small-scale archaeological excavations at 1937, and unearthed a large number of pottery, stone tools and surface remains. Later, based on these findings, he compiled the Preliminary Report on Black Pottery Culture in the Second District of Liangzhu-Hangxian County, which was published in 1937. After the founding of the People's Republic of China, due to the unremitting efforts of archaeologists in Jiangsu, Zhejiang, Shanghai and other places, cultural sites and relics with the same connotation as Liangzhu site have been widely discovered in Taihu Lake Basin, with remarkable local characteristics. Therefore, when the teachers and students of the Archaeological Teaching and Research Section of Peking University History Department compiled the first draft of China Archaeology 1958 in August, they named the cultural connotation of the unearthed remains around Taihu Lake as "Liangzhu Culture" in the section of Neolithic archaeology. 1959-65438+February, a famous archaeologist in China, Mr. Xia Nai, officially named Liangzhu Culture for discovering similar remains around Taihu Lake Basin for the first time, which represented the archaeological culture in the late Neolithic period in this area and pointed out the direction for the study of prehistoric culture around Taihu Lake Basin.
Later, with the excavation of Caoxie Mountain in Wuxian, Jiangsu and Fuquan Mountain in Qingpu, Shanghai, especially after 1983, a series of important sites were discovered and excavated, such as the tombs of dignitaries such as Fanshan Mountain in Yuhang, Zhejiang, Guanhui Mountain and Yaoshan Mountain in Anxi, and the pedestal of altars or large buildings, as well as the Zhaoling Mountain cemetery in Kunshan, Jiangsu, which made a major breakthrough in Liangzhu cultural archaeology. The academic circles began to look at Liangzhu culture from a new perspective, and set off an upsurge of studying Liangzhu culture and exploring the origin of Chinese civilization, and achieved many remarkable results. 1994, the State Council listed Liangzhu Site in the list of preparatory documents for applying to UNESCO for World Heritage List. At the same time, the protection, development and utilization of Liangzhu site group was also recommended by National Cultural Heritage Administration to the State Council as "Priority Project Plan of China 2 1 Century Agenda". From the early 1930s to the late 1980s, a series of major breakthroughs have been made. Liangzhu culture is regarded as one of the most important archaeological discoveries in the world, and it deserves its name. Liangzhu culture covers a very vast space, including 36,500 square kilometers around Taihu Lake in the lower reaches of the Yangtze River. The general scope is: Lunan area in northern Jiangsu to the north of the Yellow River Basin, Ningshao Plain in Zhejiang to the south, Zhoushan Islands on the west coast of the Pacific Ocean to the east, and Anhui and Jiangxi to the west. Although Liangzhu culture is so widespread, it has a central area, located in Pingyao Town, Liangzhu Town, Yuhang District, Hangzhou. We call it Liangzhu ruins group. It is the most densely distributed place of Liangzhu culture and the political, economic, religious and cultural center of ancient Liangzhu society.
The formation of Liangzhu culture is based on predecessors, just like the dynasties of our descendants, from generation to generation. Liangzhu culture is rooted in Majiabang culture in Taihu Lake area from 7000 to 6000 years ago, and developed through Songze culture from 6000 to 5300 years ago. Whether Maqiao culture discovered later is the successor of Liangzhu culture is still lack of archaeological evidence, and it is still inconclusive. The exact time of Liangzhu culture has also been determined by scientific methods-C14, 5300-4000 years ago.
Therefore, Liangzhu culture can be simply summarized as follows: Liangzhu culture is all the material culture and spiritual culture created by ancestors who lived in Taihu Lake basin in the lower reaches of the Yangtze River in China during 5300-4000 years ago. It is in the late Neolithic period, and it is the patriarchal stage in the prehistoric cultural sequence.
Liangzhu culture is famous for its exquisite jade carving and ritual culture, continuous rice farming production mode, organization system of large-scale construction and socialized large-scale production, handicraft industry or commerce mainly making silk, jade and black pottery. Among them, the spiritual culture, which is based on jade culture and separated from the culture condensed in the material, has become one of the main components of Chinese civilization.
He Tianxing and Shi, Heroes of Liangzhu Culture
Mr. He Tianxing (1913-1986), a native of Hangzhou, Zhejiang. His father He Gongdan, who is good at medicine and poetry, is a famous doctor in modern Zhejiang. He has three sons and four daughters, and He Tianxing ranks third. His brothers and sisters are also quite famous. The second sister, He Wenru, is the former president of Zhejiang Academy of Fine Arts and the wife of a generation of painter Pan Tianshou. His younger brother, He Ren, is also a famous doctor and once served as the president of Zhejiang College of Traditional Chinese Medicine. In such a superior family environment, Mr. He Tianxing has been familiar with ancient prose and reciting poems since childhood, which has laid a solid foundation for the study of cultural history. As early as 1935, the wind of stealing and digging cultural relics prevailed in Liangzhu, which was called Hangxian at that time, but many stone tools and black pottery were rarely noticed. At that time, people didn't see its great historical value and cultural connotation, and it was often abandoned with excavation, so many stone tools and black pottery were often scattered near the stolen pit. From 65438 to 0935, Mr. He Tianxing was in the fourth grade of China Literature Department of Fudan University. One of the courses offered is archaeology, and he is very interested. Therefore, he often used his holidays to visit people, including Liangzhu, and collect various ancient cultural relics. With his knowledge of ancient culture, keen interest in archaeology and sensitivity to talents, he keenly realized that the stone tools, jade articles and pottery scattered among the people in Liangzhu, Hangxian County are by no means ordinary objects, and Liangzhu area is an excellent ancient cultural site. 1936, 65438+February to 1937, the West Lake Museum in the province with Mr. Shi as the main body officially excavated Liangzhu area, and formally established the existence of Liangzhu culture, an ancient Zhejiang culture, thus confirming Mr. He Tianxing's great discovery.
/kloc-in the winter of 0/935, when Mr. He Tianxing visited Liangzhu site, he found an oval black pottery plate engraved with more than a dozen symbols. Compared with the symbols in Oracle Bone Inscriptions and Jinwen, it is found that 7 symbols have homographs in Oracle Bone Inscriptions, and 3 symbols have homographs in Jinwen, so it is concluded that these symbols are early hieroglyphics, which has been valued and affirmed by academic circles. It is not easy to characterize these prints as words rather than pictures. He needs courage and knowledge. Mr. He Tianxing had a good eye for pearls and became the first person to discover the black pottery characters in Liangzhu.
Mr. He Tianxing discovered the stone tools and black pottery in Liangzhu and realized their important value. After repeated investigations and studies, most of them were excavating and inspecting their collections. 1in April, 937, he completed and published the book Stone Tools and Black Pottery in Liangzhu Town, Hangxian County, which was regarded as the first series of wuyue History and Geography Research Association, and was highly praised by Mr. Cai Yuanpei, who wrote the title of the book. You can imagine what this is all about. The book was published in Chinese and English, and 1939 was disseminated overseas. It is a book that introduced Liangzhu culture to overseas earlier, and it is also a pioneering work of Liangzhu culture research.
After the publication of the book Stone Tools and Black Pottery in Liangzhu Town, Hang County, Mr. He Tianxing did not stop there, but was infatuated with Liangzhu culture like a hometown of hard work. He persistently and silently investigated Liangzhu culture for a long time and wrote and published a series of articles until his death, making indelible contributions to Liangzhu culture research.
Mr. Shi (1912-1939) was born in a poor family in Liangzhu Town, Yuhang, Hangzhou. He has been very clever since he was a child. After graduating from high school, he was admitted to the art class of Zhejiang Advanced Industrial School (the predecessor of Zhejiang University) to study painting, although his family was poor. This department worked part-time, but it laid the foundation for future work in museums and archaeological excavations.
1936 In May, the West Lake Museum excavated a site called Gudang in Hangzhou. Mr. Shi, who worked in the West Lake Museum at that time, also participated in the excavation. In the process of sorting out unearthed cultural relics, several items look familiar, especially a stone axe with holes, which attracted Mr. Shi's attention. This kind of stone axe is popular in Liangzhu, his hometown, especially stealing jade. Is there any connection between the stone axes in these two places? Why did Liangzhu unearth this kind of stone axe? These problems prompted Mr. Shi to return to Liangzhu for investigation. After many investigations, Mr. Shi collected some pottery fragments, which aroused great interest. He vaguely felt that there seemed to be an ancient site in Liangzhu. After reporting these situations and ideas to Mr. Dong, the curator of the West Lake Museum at that time, with the consent and support of the museum, Mr. Shi began to preside over the formal field archaeological excavation of Liangzhu Site. From 1936 to 12- 1937 to March, three archaeological excavations were carried out, and a large number of physical materials such as stone tools, pottery pieces and pottery were obtained, which confirmed the existence of ancient cultural remains in Liangzhu area from the perspective of scientific excavation.
With the first-hand archaeological excavation data, Mr. Shi began to write an archaeological excavation report, which was completed after more than half a year's efforts, entitled "Preliminary Report on the Black Pottery Cultural Site in the Second District of Liangzhu County" (hereinafter referred to as "Liangzhu"). In the book, Mr. Shi fully realized the importance of the ancient culture of Liangzhu Site in the Neolithic culture of China. Although he thought that this ancient culture was a branch of Longshan culture at that time, which was contrary to the facts later identified, it should be said that it is still very valuable for a young man who is only 25 years old and not a professional archaeologist to make such an academic judgment. In fact, he is not satisfied with his achievements and wants to continue to explore and research. However,1The Lugouqiao Incident broke out on July 7, 937, which shattered his plan. On February 24th of the same year, 65438+ Hangzhou fell, and the printing of Liangzhu written by Mr. Shi Xinqing was forced to be interrupted. Moved to the south of Zhejiang with the West Lake Museum, joined the army soon, and worked in Rui 'an Anti-Japanese Self-Defense Association. 1938, under very difficult circumstances, with the help of well-intentioned people, the book Liangzhu was barely published in Shanghai after many twists and turns, but many unearthed cultural relics regarded as treasures were destroyed by war because they were too late to move. More unfortunately, this young man, who should have made great achievements in the excavation and research of Liangzhu site, died of scarlet fever in May 1939.
Stone Archaeological Excavation Report Mr. He Tianxing and Mr. Shi have made indelible contributions to the study of Liangzhu culture excavation. It is because of their discovery that we are today. They are two pioneers sitting on the same bench.
The ancestors of Liangzhu-the origin of Liangzhu people
An archaeological culture refers to the remains of a prehistoric human group activity, and Liangzhu culture is the remains of Liangzhu culture and social group activities. Here, we call this group-Liangzhu ancestors "Liangzhu people", that is, Liangzhu culture was created by Liangzhu people, and Liangzhu people are the protagonists of Liangzhu culture.
So, what tribe do Liangzhu people belong to, are they indigenous or moved in?
Textual research on "Liangzhu people" in ancient legends
In ancient legends, there are Chiyou, Fangfeng, Yuwen and other tribes, which roughly coincide with the Liangzhu cultural period in time and space. Therefore, the academic community advocates that good people belong to any of the above tribes. But which tribe or country did Liangzhu people in ancient legend belong to? Can it be matched with a country, tribe or tribal alliance? Let's also make a textual research.
There is a very mysterious pattern on the jade of Liangzhu culture, which appears repeatedly. This design is particularly like a heroic god of war, which reminds people of the militant human god. The legendary Chiyou is a barbarian in the southeast of China. He is very brave and militant. In order to expand his sphere of influence, he constantly competed with other tribes for territory, and he was honored as the god of war. However, when he went to war with the Huangdi tribe in the south of the Central Plains, he was finally defeated by the more powerful Huangdi tribe and became a brave and skillful failure hero. This legend is very consistent with the clan, geographical features and legends of Liangzhu culture: the stone tablets in Liangzhu culture are very developed, which shows that Liangzhu people are also brave and strong; When the Chiyou War was won, Liangzhu culture was also very developed. When Chiyou was finally defeated by the Yellow Emperor, it was the time when Liangzhu culture declined. Several other legendary tribal alliances in Chiyou belong to Dongyi Group and live in Shandong and the Yangtze River Delta. Among the Chiyou tribe, there is a big tribal alliance headed by Jiuli, and its distribution scope includes all areas of Liangzhu culture. Therefore, the powerful Liangzhu people should be one of the Jiuli people. There is a feather man or feather man in Jiuli nationality. They believe in birds and beasts and regard them as ancestors, so they believe in and worship the totem of birds and beasts. In Liangzhu culture, the lower part of the mysterious pattern on jade seems to be like birds and beasts, and it is also a totem worshipped by Liangzhu people. So Liangzhu people may be feather people or feather people.
To sum up, we come to the conclusion that Liangzhu Kingdom is the Jiuli Tribe Alliance in Chiyou Tribe, one of the Dongyi Tribes in ancient history, and Liangzhu people are feather people or feather people in Jiuli Tribe.
Looking for "Liangzhu people" from historical records
Liangzhu culture is 5300-4000 years ago, and it is in the stage of no historical records. From the lower limit of Liangzhu culture, the historical record of this area began in less than 1000 years. According to the records of Yue people and Wu people, these two tribes entered the historical stage in the geographical scope of Liangzhu culture shortly after Liangzhu culture. Are Liangzhu people related to Wu people and Yue people? Some people think that Liangzhu culture is the mother of Wu ancient culture, the cornerstone of Wu culture, and belongs to two centers of the same tribe with Wu.
The general analysis is as follows:
Ningshaoping, Zhejiang Province was once the basic place for the development of Yue people. From 20,000 to 654.38 million years ago, the nature changed frequently and violently, and the ancestors of the Yue people flourished and developed in Ningshao Plain in this unique natural environment. However, about 6.5438+0.5 million years ago, the natural environment in Ningshao Plain deteriorated, forcing the Vietnamese to migrate many times on a large scale. In a migration 1 0,000 years ago, one of them crossed the Qiantang River and entered the hilly areas of western Zhejiang and southern Jiangsu. Since then, they have lived and multiplied in this area and gradually created Majiabang culture, Songze culture and Liangzhu culture, so the ancestors of Liangzhu people are Yue people. Wuyue, who officially entered the historical era, should be the proof that Liangzhu people and Wuyue people have some connection.
Living environment of Liangzhu people
Liangzhu culture is so brilliant that it must have developed in a suitable natural environment. So what was the natural environment of Liangzhu people at that time, and how did they constantly conquer and transform nature? Through the study of a large number of archaeological excavations, as well as the analysis of animal and plant remains and sporopollen data unearthed from the site, this paper gives a general description of the living environment of ancient Liangzhu people.
About 1 10,000 years ago, Liangzhu people lived in a piece of Wang Yang, but today there are two islands in the north and south wings of Liangzhu ruins group, and there are many isolated islands. The ancestors of Liangzhu people lived on the two islands at that time. At that time, the island was densely forested with streams and springs everywhere. The ancestors of Liangzhu people did not lack fuel and drinking water, and the food obtained from fishing and hunting was also very rich. Salt tide is not as good as several mountain basins and slopes in these islands, and small-scale agriculture can still be operated, because rice planting technology has been mastered very skillfully by the ancestors of Liangzhu people at this time. After 7000 years, the sea began to recede and the hills, large and small, began to extend. Marsh plains began to form between hills, and many solitary hills were distributed on the plains. The higher one of these isolated mountains existed before regression, and some shorter ones were exposed after regression. In addition, lakes and rivers have been formed. Of course, the lake is salty and has obvious seasonality. They are lakes in flood season and swamps in dry season. Generally speaking, Liangzhu's living area at this time has a natural environment with hills, isolated mountains, swamp plains and rivers and lakes and a warm and humid subtropical climate. Reunification is a long process that lasts for thousands of years. In this process, due to the gradual decline of sea level, the range of hills and solitary hills has been expanding, new solitary hills have appeared constantly, and the active areas of Liangzhu ancestors have been increasing. When the swamp plains first appeared, these lands were of no use. However, with the continuous retreat of the coast and the continuous flooding of rivers, the height of the swamp ground increases, the salinity of the swamp is diluted and reduced, the plants and freshwater creatures on the swamp plain begin to increase, and the natural environment is gradually improved.
In this process, the ancestors of Liangzhu people also began to use and transform this swamp plain. At first, they still lived on two rows of hills in the north and south. Later, countless isolated mountains became the springboard for them to open up the swamp plain. Through these lonely hills, they gradually descended to the plain and gradually developed from the drier parts of the plain to the periphery. In the process of development, they are threatened by salt tides and floods, but because they are backed by isolated mountains, they can retreat to them when the environment is bad, so they have no fear of using and transforming the swamp plain. Relying on the isolated hilly terrain, they condescended, chose favorable terrain to build ponds around dikes, refused to store salt and light, planted rice, and gradually drained swamps, moved settlements from hilly and isolated areas to the plains, and established settlements on the plains.
In this way, after several generations of predecessors' hard exploration, during the Liangzhu period of Liangzhu culture, that is, about 5000 years ago, the climate entered a relatively stable warm and humid stage. The climate is warm, and evergreen broad-leaved forests such as camphor trees, mulberry trees, palms and hemp seeds begin to appear on the swamp plain, with dense river networks. At that time, the water area was still quite large. Liangzhu people live on slopes or mounds above the ground. They grow rice and make exquisite jade, stone and pottery. They also raise silkworms, weave silk, use trees as boats, fish on clear rivers and communicate with each other.
In this way, Liangzhu people have lived and prospered from generation to generation, and life seems to be getting better every year. The temperature dropped unconsciously, and the cool and dry climate made the river recede downward, and many small rivers dried up: the land originally submerged in the water was exposed; The swamp has obviously decreased. Liangzhu people were very happy and moved to a relatively low-lying place, close to the water source, suitable for growing rice. They expanded the area where rice was planted on the land and built new houses with dry columns on the flat land. The vegetation around them is also changing quietly. Evergreen broad-leaved forest is rare, mixed coniferous and broad-leaved forests have increased obviously, and willow, pine, sample and cypress have begun to appear. There are fewer and fewer water plants, and I don't care too much. However, with the disappearance of many rivers, it became more and more inconvenient for them to get water, so they learned to drill wells and further expanded their tribal areas. At this time, Liangzhu people are in high spirits. While conforming to nature, they actively transform nature and create and develop Liangzhu culture with their intelligence and great pioneering spirit.
The years are still passing, and Liangzhu people don't seem to realize that disaster is coming. By the end of Liangzhu culture, it was about 4000 years ago. Once again, the climate shows its power to manipulate everything. The climate gets warmer again, the sea level rises gradually, and most areas where Liangzhu people live fall back into a Wang Yang. Supported by seawater, the Xiajiang River overflowed everywhere because it could not flow downward. Liangzhu people suddenly found how fragile they were compared with nature. Facing the surrounding glistening, Liangzhu people sadly found that they were either waiting for death under the siege of flood, or they left their homes to find a place suitable for their survival.
The whereabouts of Liangzhu people
The ancestors of Liangzhu created brilliance with hard-working hands and intelligent hearts, and led Liangzhu culture to a civilized era. However, this ancient culture, which was quite developed at that time, suddenly disappeared like a colorful meteor after 1300 years, leaving an eternal mystery to the world. To this end, people collect data and arguments in many ways, hoping to solve this eternal mystery.
Did transgression destroy Liangzhu society?
Around 3000 BC (6000 years ago), global climate change, the late Liang culture, climate warming, rising temperatures, melting glaciers, rising sea levels, Taihu Plain, except for a few highlands and hills, all fell into Wang Yang, resulting in large-scale transgression. This maritime invasion is devastating to Liangzhu culture, which has developed for more than 1000 years. Most residential areas were flooded and facilities were destroyed. The agricultural land on which the ancestors of Liangzhu lived was flooded all the year round. Liangzhu people lost their homes and places to live, moved or died, and the splendid Liangzhu culture was destroyed by the invasion. So today, we usually find traces of floods on Lianggang cultural sites-silt, peat and swamp layers. Maybe some Liangzhu cultural sites are still buried deep at the bottom of Taihu Lake!
Did the flood defeat Liangzhu people?
In the late Liangzhu culture, the climate of Taihu Lake changed from cold to warm and humid. The average temperature is 2 degrees Celsius higher than it is now, the annual precipitation is 200-300 mm more, and the rainfall has increased significantly. In addition, the sea level at that time was about 2 meters higher than before, and the water left inland was not well drained, which was bound to cause a big flood. Therefore, when flash floods occur, the river rises, the land is flooded, and the land in the lower reaches of the Yellow River and the Yangtze River, especially in the Yangtze River Delta, is covered by Wang Yang, people can only escape or flee to other places. The original developed facilities of Liangzhu culture were destroyed instantly, and its agricultural land was flooded all the year round, making it impossible to make a living from agriculture. The catastrophic flood disaster has lasted for several years, and Liangzhu people have been unable to survive. The rest can only linger for quite a while. So they had to leave their homes, some went south, some went north, and were forced to migrate on a large scale, travel long distances and wander around to find and create a second home. Therefore, Liangzhu culture suddenly disappeared in Taihu Lake area, and there was a vacancy for hundreds of years.
A southward branch merged into Shijie culture after arriving in northern Guangdong (now northern Guangdong Province), while its main body crossed the river to the Central Plains, where it fought a life-and-death struggle with the ancestors of Longshan culture. Liangzhu tribe is a tough tribe, but after arriving in the Central Plains, it was strongly opposed by local tribes. In this case, the war inevitably happened. However, due to human, material, financial and other factors, Liangzhu people were finally defeated by the joint resistance of the tribes in the Central Plains, failed to rebuild their own culture in the Central Plains, and finally had to be absorbed, assimilated and integrated by the winners, so there were so many good and clear cultural factors in Longshan culture.
Did the war lead to the failure of Liangzhu society?
During Liangzhu society, there were many similar tribal countries in the Yellow River and Yangtze River basins. With the strengthening of ancient national politics, rulers with kingship, military power and theocracy practiced bloody rule at home, amassed more wealth abroad, expanded territory and population, and waged fierce predatory wars with neighboring tribal countries. Liangzhu tribe was originally the most developed and powerful one at that time. However, due to the increasing luxury of aristocratic leaders and the general pursuit of pleasure in social life, unproductive labor expenditure accounts for a considerable proportion of the society, the social grassroots are becoming more and more overwhelmed, and the economic base is increasingly incompatible with the superstructure, leading to fierce social contradictions, infighting and itching, and crises. The whole society is increasingly lacking in control and its national strength is weakening. In this case, the advantage of winning is gradually lost in frequent wars, and foreign invasion cannot be resisted. Liangzhu culture is finally going extinct.
Has Liangzhu culture really disappeared?
Liangzhu people who suffered from sea invasion, flood or war, except for most of them, still have some survivors, who can barely make ends meet for quite some time. After hundreds of years, the climate became dry and cool, and the accumulated water subsided. People from Maqiao culture, another tribe, gradually settled here. Their life seems to be getting better every year, the temperature drops unconsciously, the cool and dry climate makes the river recede gradually, the land originally submerged in the water is exposed, and the swamp is obviously reduced. The people of Maqiao culture absorbed the elements of Liangzhu culture from the remaining Liangzhu people and wanted to carry it forward. However, it was invaded by other cultures and absorbed other foreign cultures with an inclusive attitude, which made Liangzhu culture not fully developed in the hands of people of Maqiao culture, so the pottery production in Maqiao period was not fine and the shape was relatively simple. However, jade articles are not only few in variety, but also poor in quality and sculpture, and the level of social productivity is far less than that of Liangzhu culture. Therefore, Liangzhu culture did not suddenly and mysteriously disappear, and the ancestors of Maqiao culture were her main successors.