Prehistoric echoes of our future

Global scholars explore how Chinese civilization's roots nourish profound modern vitality, report Fang Aiqing and Wu Yong in Chaoyang, Liaoning.

The significance of the Neolithic Hongshan culture in shaping ancient Chinese ritual systems was highlighted at the inaugural International Communication Conference on Hongshan Culture and Vision China event held on Saturday in Chaoyang city, Liaoning province. The day also marked the Cultural and Natural Heritage Day in China.

Coorganized by the National Cultural Heritage Administration, China Daily, the publicity department of the Communist Party of China Liaoning Provincial Committee and the publicity department of the CPC Inner Mongolia Autonomous Regional Committee, the event brought together archaeologists from home and abroad, Sinologists, celebrities and foreign youth representatives in China to discuss Hongshan's role in the formation and development of Chinese civilization, its cultural legacies and modern relevance.

Flourishing around 6,500 to 4,900 years ago in the West Liaohe River basin of northeastern China, Hongshan culture is best known for its exquisite jade artifacts and primordial Chinese dragon motifs.

Most of the culture's more than 1,100 archaeological sites are distributed in southeastern Inner Mongolia, western Liaoning and northern Hebei province.

At the Saturday event, experts reviewed recent archaeological discoveries and research progress on Hongshan culture conducted in Liaoning and Inner Mongolia, emphasizing the importance of cultural exchanges.

The benefits are evident not only in the sophisticated jade and pottery workmanship that indicates frequent interactions between Hongshan and other prehistoric cultures, but also in the enhanced collaboration among the three provincial-level regions, and between domestic and foreign scholars, in studying Hongshan society.

Dating back around 5,000 to 5,800 years, the Niuheliang archaeological site in Chaoyang constitutes the largest known site complex of Hongshan culture.

Since the 1980s, ritual monuments such as a temple dedicated to a goddess, a three-tiered circular altar and rubble mound tombs have been discovered, along with jade ware featuring Chinese dragons, various animal and human figures, painted pottery items and stone tools.

At the temple, archaeologists unearthed a life-size clay head sculpture of a goddess in 1983. The sculpture was found attached to a wall, suggesting it was likely an object of worship. High-level tombs of Hongshan were buried only with jade items. Distinct jade types and their combination signaled the social status of the deceased.

A central axis has been observed, with major monuments symmetrically laid out. Not far south of the rectangular goddess temple are the sacrificial altar and rubble mound tombs.

A similar arrangement emphasizing rituals was seen in the urban planning of ancient capitals like Beijing's Temple of Heaven and Imperial Ancestral Temple, both built during the Ming Dynasty (1368-1644).

For years, an excavation team directed by Jia Xiaobing, a researcher with the Institute of Archaeology, Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, has particularly paid attention to revealing how Niuheliang functioned as a ritual center of Hongshan.

According to him, around 5,800 years ago, the community initiated large-scale construction that spanned about 200 years, with the layout designed in advance. This showcased the availability of sufficient material resources and the strength in social organization and mobilization.

A sacrificial ritual system centered on the worship of heaven, Earth and ancestors was developed, integrating a decentralized society with a wide geographical distribution and weak economic interdependence.

Jia says that the three-tiered circular altar, believed to be associated with the celebration of heaven, indicates that the Hongshan community was aware of astronomical observations and utilized specific celestial phenomena for ritual purposes.

They attempted to reconstruct its building process: drawing a square with a side length of 15.6 meters, using its diagonal, measuring 22 meters, as the diameter to draw the outer ring; drawing the square's incircle to serve as the middle ring with a diameter of 15.6 meters; inscribing a square within the middle ring and taking its incircle with a diameter of 11 meters as the inner ring — the numbers align with documented practices of the Han Dynasty (206 BC-AD 220).

Guo Dashun, honorary director of the Liaoning Provincial Institute of Cultural Relics and Archaeology, points out: "Approaching Hongshan culture from a world history perspective provides a key to further in-depth research."

He notes that the Hongshan community, relying much on fishing and hunting, developed a reverence for nature. Maintaining mobility and openness, they were adept at identifying and assimilating advantageous elements from neighboring cultures to foster their own development.

According to Guo, one of the archaeologists who discovered the Niuheliang site in the early 1980s, Hongshan's painted pottery artifacts show influences from the Yangshao culture in the middle reaches of the Yellow River, as well as from civilizations in the central expanse of Eurasia, while the jade ware can be examined within the broader jade culture of eastern Asia.

At 87, Guo recently published The Ritual System Originated from the Hongshan: Discovery and Research of Niuheliang Site, in which he summarizes four decades of archaeological findings and discusses Hongshan's cultural legacies and far-reaching influences.

Zhao Hui, director of the provincial cultural heritage administration of Liaoning, says that the monograph aims to construct a comprehensive knowledge framework for the study of Hongshan, demonstrating how the West Liaohe River basin, alongside the Yellow and Yangtze river basins, serves as one birthplace of Chinese civilization.

Sun Jinsong, director of the Inner Mongolia Institute of Cultural Relics and Archaeology, introduced the excavations at the Yuanbaoshan archaeological site in Chifeng's Aohan Banner last year.

More than 100 jade relics have been unearthed from the site, dating back 5,000 to 5,400 years, including a palm-size, emerald green slit-ring shaped dragon — often called a "pig dragon" — which is considered one of the largest of its kind across Hongshan cultural sites. The "pig dragon" is recognized as a representative image of Hongshan.

Jade headgear suggests long-distance exchanges with the Lingjiatan culture in present-day Anhui province 5,800 to 5,300 years ago.

A circular rubble mound tomb with a diameter of 23.5 meters was discovered, accompanied by a square structure approximately 45 meters long to its south. Seven layers of stepped walls recede inward toward the center of the tomb, resembling a pyramid shape.

The architectural style, as well as the practice of laying jade artifacts inside and underneath the walls of the circular structure, are seen in the stonewalled settlements of Longshan culture in the middle and lower reaches of the Yellow River, such as the around 4,000-year-old Shimao site in Shenmu county, Northwest China's Shaanxi province.

Sun says that these findings testify to cross-regional interactions across China, demonstrating Hongshan culture's pivotal role in shaping Chinese civilization characterized by unity in diversity.

Contact the writers at fangaiqing@chinadaily.com.cn