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Hongshan Culture And The Origin Of The Shang Clan

Posted on:2011-06-14Degree:MasterType:Thesis
Country:ChinaCandidate:N N JiaFull Text:PDF
GTID:2155330332461721Subject:Special History
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The Discovery of Yin Xu in Henan unveiled the history of Shang dynasty, and the human activities before Shang dynasty become the focus of attention. This issue, however, has been argued due to the ambiguous historical records, the change of place name in the history.Various theories on the origin of Shang, such as Eastern origination, Western origination, Jinnan origination, Northern origination and so on, were derived from these disputes. But in recent years, with the expansion of the scale of archaeological discoveries, a lot of new materials were found, providing new clues for the investigation of Shang origination. It has been known through archaeological discovery that Xinglongwa culture, Hongshan culture, Xiaoheyan culture and the lower layer of Xiajiadian culture constitute a confirmed distinctive northern culture system derived from same origin. However, it is located in the north and away from the traditional cultural center in this area, so that it was ignored by archaeologists, for example, the jades excavated from Hongshan have been considered as Shang jades because of their similarity. With the advances in archaeology, the original nature of the jades belonging to Hongshan culture was recovered after further investigations. Meanwhile, it has been found that Hongshan jade and Shang jade have many similarities and some characteristics of the cultural heritage through comparison of these two jades in terms of materials choice, manufacturing process and modeling. Thus, the investigation on Shang culture in the north has been started with the Hongshan jade.The lower lay of Xiajiadian culture, which began to enter the Bronze Age, was comparable in era to central plains culture during Xia and Shang dynasty. From the perspective of archaeological remains of this culture, it was developed with certain scale and had a form of early country, and shared a lot in common with Erlitou culture and pre-Shang culture. Meanwhile, the lower lay of Xiajiadian culture and the Hongshan culture belong to the same archaeological system. It was compared with Erlitou culture and the lower layer of Erligang culture in the central plains culture, which were corresponding to the lower lay of Xiajiadian culture in era in terms of archaeological remains, site address forms, pottery and oracle bones. The results showed that these three cultures had many similarities, such as the layout of the site of both showed a "one center around to spread" pattern; the house developed from semi-crypt to floor constructions; in the shape of pottery, more articles with three feet were unearthed from the lower lay of Xiajiadian culture, this kind of articles were abundant in the central plains culture but had never been found in the Hongshan cultures; in the shape of pottery, more articles with three feet were unearthed from the lower lay of Xiajiadian culture, this kind of articles were abundant in the central plains culture but had never been found in the Hongshan cultures; oracle bones are important archaeological findings of Shang dynasty, which represents the living habits of Shang people. Such kind of relic with special significance was found more than once in the lower layer of Xiajiadian culture, but no relevant findings in the early central plains culture.oracle bones are important archaeological findings of Shang dynasty, which represents the living habits of Shang people. Such kind of relic with special significance was found more than once in the lower layer of Xiajiadian culture, but no relevant findings in the early central plains culture has been reported.Based on a series of comparisons of Hongshan culture and the lower layer of Xiajiadian culture in Hongshan cultures with Shang culture, it is concluded that north cultural system should be one of the sources of central plains culture instead of central plains culture being the headstream of Chinese civilization advocated by traditional history.
Keywords/Search Tags:Hongshan culture, Erlitou culture, lower layer of Eriligang culture, jade, pottery
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