|
ARTICLES ON THE
HONGSHAN CULTURE * Hongshan Neolithic Culture of China * The Hongshan Culture The Hongshan Neolithic Culture of China The Hongshan Neolithic Culture dating from 4500-2250 B.C. is one of the earliest and most advanced civilizations discovered. The Hongshan were mainly located in the land area between The Hongshan were temple builders and city builders who created some of the earliest nephrite jade carvings. Their sophisticated Jade carving techniques employed technologies that exceeded simple explanations. Many of the Hongshan Jade artifacts are well persevered due to the fact that Hongshan culture utilized slab burial tombs and because of the dry arid climate of Chinese archaeologists have recently discovered a Hongshan pyramid-shaped building dating back more than 5,000 years in the These very early Neolithic Hongshan people were transient living in a region that falls between steppe and agricultural climate zones. In the middle period of Hongshan culture it becomes evident that a husbandry and agricultural based society emerges that leads to advancement in social structure. Discovers from Hongshan burial sites show that they had class structure and interesting is the fact that they cultivated millet and did not grow rice. Animal husbandry appears to have been highly advanced with the domestication of pigs and ducks. There is existing Jade artifact evidence that points to the possibility that they were one of the earliest people to domestic the horse. Archeological evidence shows that with the emergence of social stratification and a ruling class a large handicraft industry of jade workers flourished.ve been very recent in areas that are much further south of where the Hongshan Civilization was thought to have been centred. Recent finds from a tomb at Niuheliang and two smaller mound tombs excavated in the same area were the discoveries of metal-casting technologies that were disclosed by small copper rings unearthed at these sites. The use of kilns to produce highly advanced painted and non painted pottery gave the Hongshan the power of intense heat to explore metallurgy. It is of the opinion of my Teacher Wong Tien Chung that these ancient people extracted iron ore/nickel alloys from meteorites to make ritual jade shaping tools. My research indicates (based on artifact evidence and 30 years of study) that the Hongshan employed advanced jade shaping and carving tools that may have been made from meteorite iron. One fascinating study is the evidence of high content iron found in black jades used for ritual objects by the early Hongshan. Many of these artifacts are magnetic and express the possibility that the Hongshan were aware of magnetic earth forces. Another fascinating observation through the study of Hongshan jade artifacts is the abundance of "Alien" like motifs and figurines that are completely unexplainable as they are not found in other Neolithic Cultures. It is obvious from the study of Hongshan artifacts that a highly sophisticated knowledge of mathematics and Astronomy become evident.
The extensive employment of ritual jades in China by the
Hongshan during its late prehistory must certainly demonstrate to the
world of archeology that these people were not "Neolithic Age" but
rather "Jade Age" people. More great discoveries wait under the earth of
The long lost historic trails of these
great people who were called the Hongshan are waiting to be discovered.
The greatest discoveries of the origins of human civilization await us
in Ian As an important part of the Neolithic Age in Northern China, the Hongshan Culture was discovered in 1935 and covers an area from the Wuerjimulun River valley of Chifeng, Inner Mongolia in the north to Chaoyang, Lingyuan and the northern part of Hebei Province in the south, and extends eastward to cover Tongliao and Jinzhou. Hongshan Culture is characterized primarily by the ancient painted potteries, the "Z"-strippedpotteries and the unique digging tools-stone spades and laurel leave-shaped two-holed stone knives. The potteries of Hongshan Culture fall into two types-clay potteries and sand-mixed potteries, both manually made. The clay potteries are mostly red,
usually in the forms of bowl, basin, jar and pots, etc., most of which
arecontainers with small flat bottoms. Most of the clay potteries are
decorated with black or purple stripes arranged mainly in parallel
lines, triangles, scale-shaped patterns and occasionally in "Z"-shapedpressed
stripes. The stoneware of Hongshan Culture is made by grinding with the blades of stone knives finely ground and the edgesand backs in curved symmetry, indicating a fairly developed agricultural economy of the culture. Within the area of Hongshan Culture, bones of oxen, lambs, pigs, deer and river deer have been unearthed,though in small numbers. The oxen, lambs and pigs, which are presumably domestic animals, vaguely indicate that the early inhabitants of Hongshan Culture lived a settled life supplemented by animal husbandry, fishery and hunting. More than 20 cirrus-shaped jade articles have been unearthed at the site of Hongshan Culture, andeachof them represents two fundamental themes-cirrus-shaped angles and minor convexities. Combination of cirrus-shaped angles and minor convexities in different ways constitute the various patterns and designs of the cirrus-shaped jade articles of Hongshan Culture, which is best demonstrated by the enormous blackish green jade dragon unearthed at Sanxingtala Township of WengniuteBanner in 1971. The dragon is 26 cm in height with the head of a swine and the body of a serpent, coiling like cirrus. Similardragons werefound later in Balin Right Banner and the Antiques Store of Liaoning Province. These cirrus-shaped jade articlescanbe classified into four types by analyzing their patterns and designs: decorative articles, tools, animals and special ones, of which the hoop-shaped articles are among the typical pieces of the jadeware of Hongshan Culture. The association of the shapes of thesejade articles with their cultural context indicates that the special articles and the tools were made to meettheneeds of religious ceremonies. The discovery of cirrus-shaped jade dragon atHongshan Culture strongly suggestsInner Mongolia as one of the essential sites to trace the worship for dragon by the Chinese people. From the 1980s, religious relics of HongshanCulture like the "GoddessTemple" and stone-pile tombs have been found at Dongshanzui of Kazuo County and Niuheliang at the juncture of Lingyuan County andJianping County of Liaoning Province. The central part of Dongshanzui relics is the foundation ofa large-scaled square structure built of stone. The overall layout of bilateral symmetry of the foundation to a south-north axis, which is characteristic of the traditional Chinese architectural style, is the first ofits kind ever discovered atthesite of Neolithic Age. The pottery figures unearthed at the relics indicate that thesites usedto be places for sacrificialceremonies or similar activities. In the firstplace, archeological studies show that Hongshan Culture wasdeveloped on the basis of Xinglongwa Culture and Zhaobaogou Culture, and the inheritance and development in religious traditions between thethree cultures are evident. No sites devoted exclusively to sacrificial rites have been found so far in Xinglongwa Culture andZhaobaogou Culture. The discovery of Niulianghe Relics in the 1970s indicates that large-scaled centers for sacrificial rites had shown up by the end of Hongshan Culture. This is not only a breakthrough in the studyof Hongshan Culture, but a discovery of great significance to the exploration of the originof the Chinese civilization. Secondly, Hongshan Culture is credited with remarkable achievements in architecture, pottery-making, jade-carving and pottery sculptures which are at higher levels than those of Xinglongwa Culture and Zhaobaogou Culture. The duet ofsquare pottery molds unearthed at the relics of a house of Hongshan Culture at Xitai, Aohan Banner,whichis the earliest moldfor metal casting, shows that the early people of Hongshan Culture had mastered the technology of bronzecasting. Next, hunting was in the dominant position in Xinglongwa Culture and Zhaobaogou Culture,while by contrast, agriculture played an essential role in the economyof Hongshan Culture. Judging from the position of Hongshan Culture in the archeological culture of ancient Northern China and Chinain the Neolithic Age, we can well assume that Hongshan Culture is one of the most advanced cultures among the ranks of its peers in both southern and northern China at that time, when the smelting of bronze had made appearance, the earliest cities surrounded by ditches had shownup, and the division between urban and rural areas had taken shape. Religiousactivities characterized by worshiping dragon andjade and respecting the ancestors were in vogue. The conflicts among social groupsand the subsequent fightsfor the unificationof religious beliefs had become the fundamental social issue. This is anotherproof to the assumption thatthe people of Hongshan Culture had marched from the clan societyinto the historical phase of ancient kingdoms. Therefore, we can say that by laying a
foundation for the development of the Chinese civilization of five
thousand years and formulating and influencing the layout of the origin
and the progressof the protocol-dominating culture of China,Hongshan
Culture plays an extremelyessential role in the evolution of the Chinese
civilization. |