A Study On The Early City And Civilization Of The Central Plains

Central Plains region is referred to herein Songshan area as the center, covering Henan, Shanxi, Shaanxi, Hebei and other provinces, most parts of Henan and southern Shanxi is the most key areas. The region is located in the centre of C hina, landscape diversity, rich in resources, the climate is suitable, humans thrive here since the Paleolithic age, created rich and colorful ancient civilization, built a series of city, for our further study of the relationship between the city and civilization laid a good foundation.O n the basis of previous studies,this article has carried on the comprehensive research to the origin and development of early cities of central plains, city of complicated social, urban nature and cities in the comprehensive research on the problems such as status in the study of civilization combined with new archaeological discoveries in recent years, using the stratigraphy and typology, methods of settlement archaeology, sociology and literature.The full text is divided into six chapters:The first chapter is introduction. This chapter mainly defines the scope of time and space, expounds and defines the related concepts in dispute, traced the research history and status, also expounds the purpose and significance of study and introduced the research theories and methods of this paper.The second chapter explores the origin and development of the early cities of central plains, then observes the settlement patterns, quantity, scale, construction technology, etc. Through the above analysis,the author confirms that the early cities experienced four phases, they are induction period of Peiligang culture and early and medium of Yangshao culture, the origin period of the late Yangshao culture and the promotion period of Longshan culture, preliminary developing stage of Xinzhai and the period of Erlitou culture, and each stage has its own characteristics.The third chapter studies social complicated course of early cities over the central plains. Through the analysis of buildings, tombs, sacrifice remains, high- grade handicraft workshops of different cities from the late Yangshao culture to Erlitou culture,the author holds that two cities of the late Yangshao culture show a certain degree of class stratification, but their performance is not consistent. The different cultural sites of Longshan period reflect the class stratification is also inconsistent, among which the sites of Taosi are remarkable, the difference between class is also very obvious.Co mpared with Taosi, the cities of the third period of Wangwan, the second period of Hougang and Wangyoufang reflect the class stratification is not very clear, while also shows a certain degree of stratification in some aspects. Complicated situation is also inconsistent within the same cultural sites, such as the sites of the third period of Wangwan culture, Wangchenggang and Guchengzhai are relatively complex, the society of Haojiatai and Puchengdian is relatively simple.Between two sites of Xinzhai per iod, one site, material has not been announced, the other,from the site ruins analysis, the social class stratification in the city is relatively simple.The social workers of the sites of Erlitou culture can be divided into multiple strata. Within Erlitou site all levels of the social workers exist, while within other cities neither have the top level nor bottom level.The fourth chapter studies the attribute of early cities. Through comprehensive analysis of the scale,location, layout, culture connotat ion of the cities from the Yangshao to Erlitou period, the author holds that two cities of Yangshao period belong to regional political center.About the nature of the Longshan period, some belong to the area’s political center, such as Taosi and Pingliangtai.Most belong to the the political center within a certain scope area, such as Wangchenggan, Guchengzhai, Xinzhai,Xubao,Xijincheng,Mengzhuang etc.Part of the cities should belong to military stronghold or towns of defense or expansion, such as Puchengdian and Haojiatai. Some individual such as Hougang belong to the center of the small settlements within the scope of the distribution of the second period Hougang culture.About the two city sites Xinzhai and Dongzhao,the former belongs to the political center of Xinzhai period culture, should be a capital;The latter should belong to the defensive city, but does not rule out the possibility of it as a regional political center.The sites of Erlitou period, some may be a capital such as Erlitou site, some may be the military Fang nation such as Dashigu and Wangjinglou, some may be resource reserve center such as Dongzhao middle city which provides material resource to Dashigu and Wangjinglou. Others may be the military town which is the result of southern expansion of Erlitou culture such as Puchengdian. While Mengzhuang is probably belong to the military Fang nation of Pre- Shang culture.The fifth chapter discusses the role of early cities of central plain in the study of civilization.Through the comprehensive analysis of the literature and archaeological materials, the author regards that the origins of civilization in the central plains starts from the late Yangshao culture, initially form from the Longshan culture period, to the Xinzhai period and Erlitou period eventually take shape.By analyzing the factors of civilization, we can find that only the process of city origin,promotion and development is in accordance with the origin and formation time of civilization.Other civilization elements emerge either before the origins of civilization or after the formation of civilization.C ity appearance and development is the concentrated reflection of social productivity development, social complication of city is also a microcosm of the complicated society as a whole, the attribute of cities is the important evidence of social nature. The layout of city agglomeration is testament to the relations between different social groups.C ivilization is the advanced stage of development of human history. It is the existing way of human culture after class stratification, also is the generalization and summarization of society entering class status.Therefore, the early cities of central plains are the most important embodiment of the origin development and formation process of civilization.The sixth Chapter is the conclusion. The important achievement and results of this paper are listed.