The Archaeological Culture And Interactive Relationship Between Gansu & Qinghai And Southwest Mountain Regions In The Pre-Qin Period

Both the Gansu&Qinghai Region and Southwest Mountain Region are geographically adjacent. The adjacent regions have a lot of similarities in the topography, climate,and the natural environment, although they are divided into two water systems of Yellow River and Yangzi River with the boundary of Bayankala Mountain and Qinling Mountain. And such similarities could bring a lot of the traffic conveniences for the ancients in the two places of Gansu&Qinghai Region and Southwest Mountain Region. According to the historical records, the Di and Qiang people, who mostly lived in Gansu&Qinghai Region, had moved into the west of Sichuan since the Pre-Qin dynasty. However, as the archaeological materials indicated, from the middle and late stages of Yangshao Age, strictly speaking, there had existed the phenomenon of cultural communications and diffusions between the two regions. Hence, how did the cultural interaction took place, what were the methods and routes of the cultural diffusion, and could the similarities in the climate and geography be only responsible for such diffusion in the two regions? These questions are generally concerned and growing to be emphasized by the scholars. From the study in the archaeological culture, the genealogical relationship and chronological sequence in the Pre-Qin has been set up for the two regions, and at the same time, an attempt to seek the cultural similarities in the two regions has been made in this article. Finally, based on these conclusions above, a further discussion has also been made to understand the cultural interaction between the Gansu&Qinghai Region and Southwest Mountain Region.This article is divided into nine chapters:In Chapter 1, the background and purpose of this paper were introduced. Several concepts about"Gansu&Qinghai Region","Southwest Mountain Region"and the"Pre-Qin Period"were explained. The natural environment in the two regions was described. Finally,basing on reviewing the archaeological discoveries and research of Gansu&Qinghai Region and Southwest Mountain Region, both the research points neglected by previous studies and the inadequacies to be solved have been outlined, which form the main research motivation and ideas that this article trying to make a breakthrough. ?Chapter 2 is to setup the time and space framework of archaeological culture in Gansu&Qinghai Region. Thirteen kinds of archaeological culture have been organized. The focus of analysis is the cultural, time-sequence and regional differences in the Miaodigou Culture and Majiayao Culture. During the late time of Yangshao Age, both the east and south area in Gansu should be the collision zones for the cultural diffusion between the Banpo-fourth-stage Culture and the Majiayao Culture. In this sense, the archaeological culture in the Gansu&Qinghai Region can be divided into three districts, including the upper stream of Wei River-Qinling Mountain, the Tao River-Min Mountain, and the Hehuang Region-Xiqing Mountain. And five stages are accordingly proposed, including the middle stage of Yangshao Age, the late stage of Yangshao Age, the stage of Longshan Age, the stage of Qijia Culture and the stage of the Shang and Zhou dynasties.In Chater 3, the Neolithic remains and the remains of the Xia, Shang and Zhou dynasties had a full summarization in Min River. The genealogical relationship and chronological sequence have been set up for the archaeological culture from the first phase of Boxi, Yingpanshan Culture and Baishuizhai Sites. Remains of sarcophaguses which not late to the period of time from the Shang dynasty to the late Zhanguo Period are divided into five stages and eleven phases. Additionally, the remains in Qingyi Valley from Shang to Zhou dynasties are analyzed, and besides the local culture factors, the Shaxi Type of Shi'erqiao Culture, Siwa Culture, Zhou Culture and the late phase of Bashu Culture should also be considered commonly in this region.In Chater 4, the Neolithic remains in the upper and middle stream of Dadu River and the remains of Xia, Shang and Zhou dynasties had a full summarization. The upper-stream remains in the late time of Yangshao Age should belong to Yingpanshan Culture. Remains found in the Longshan stage should belong to the Haneyi Culture. The stages of Xia, Shang and Zhou dynasties is representative by the relics from the third stage of Haneyi. The middle-stream remains are represented by the Maiping Remain in the middle stage of Longshan, likely influenced by Yingpanshan Culture. Meanwhile, the year of Dayao sarcophaguses should be earlier than the middle age of Langshan. The middle-stream remains from Shang to Zhou dynasties should be mainly attributed to the Sanxin Type of Shi'erqiao Culture and the late Bashu Culture.In Chater 5, the Neolithic remains in the upper and middle stream of Yalong River and the remains of Xia, Shang and Zhou dynasties had a full summarization. The Henglanshan Culture in the low stream has been analyzed and should have the cultural traditions from Maiping remains. The culture during the period of Xia, Shang and Zhou dynasties can be divided into three stages and six phases. The first stage is Lizhou Remains which had the reliques from Henglanshan Culture. The second stage and the third stage have complicated cultural appearances, which not only have the traditions from the local culture, but also are influenced by the culture factors from Gansu&Qinghai Region. The upper-stream relics from Xia, Shang and Zhou dynasties are represented by the big-ear jar which was collected in Luhuo, the burial materials in Lower-layer Kasha Lake and those in Jililong Cemetery, which can also be organized ?into four stages. The first stage should be attributed to Qijia Culture, the second one attributed to Kasha Lake Culture, and the third one plus fourth one attributed to Jililong Culture.In Chater 6, the Neolithic remains in the upper and middle stream of Jinsha River and the remains of Xia, Shang and Zhou dynasties had a full summarization. Base on the analysis of the relics in the Caiyuanzi, Mopandi, Dadunzi and Baiyangcun sites, the connotations of the cultural both Dadunzi Type and Baiyangcun Type have been outlined. The upper-stream and middle-stream culture remains from Xia, Shang and Zhou dynasties can be organized into three stages. The early stage should be represented by the jar-coffin relics from Dadunzi and Baiyangcun sites, the middle stage represented by relics from Xiaoyingpan-Yingpanbao Remains, Zhajinding-Zhongdian Remains and Sunjiatun-HuangniushanRemains. And the remains in the late stage should be succession of the reliques of the middle stage. In Chater 7, the Neolithic remains in the upper and middle stream of Lancang River and the remains of Xia, Shang and Zhou dynasties had a full summarization. The division for Karuo Culture has been modified into three stages and four phases. Also, the division for Xin'guang sites has been modified into three stages, and the representative relics of Xin'guang Remains were distributed in the middle stream of Lancang River. The relics in Xia, Shang and Zhou dynasties should have almost the same appearance as in Jiansha River at that time.In Chapter 8, an investigation of the archaeologically cultural interaction between the two regions has been carried out. According to the studies in several different kinds of archaeological remains, and also to the changing pattern and diffusion route of archaeological culture in five different stages (in Chaper2~7), a plane traffic route base on"Four-verticality and three-horizontality model"and a stage characteristic relied on"westforward-southdownward and southdownward-eastforward model"have been proposed as a conclusion for the cultural diffusion in the two regions. And the analysis about the reasons for such diffusion have been made, which has focused on the self characteristics of their archaeological remains and on the influencing factors from the natural and social environment in the two regions.Chapter 9 is conclusion. the insufficiencies in this article have been pointed out both subjectively and objectively, and some important questions to be noted in the future researches have also been discussed.