Chapter 23 Section Three

Among the scientific and technological achievements made in China's prehistoric era, there are two worth talking about, namely jade cutting and metallurgy.The invention of metallurgy is a sign of the coming of civilization, and many people think that jade cutting technology should also be a sign of Chinese civilization.The origins of the two important crafts are in the prehistoric era, so it can be said that the prehistoric era gave birth to the later civilization era. As for prehistoric jadeware, we have mentioned it several times in the previous chapters, and we have learned about its production technology and social functions.Jade is a beautiful stone and a mineral. It is traditionally divided into two categories: jadeite and nephrite.Jadeite was called jadeite in ancient times, and nephrite is tremolite and actinolite, both of which are extremely hard. Nephrite is mainly used in ancient Chinese jade.The archaeological discoveries of ancient Chinese prehistoric jades can be traced back to the 1930s, but at that time the era of unearthed jades was all set in the Han Dynasty, which can be said to be "not knowing the true face of Mount Lu".By the 1950s, jade artifacts had been found in many Neolithic sites in the lower Yangtze River, which forced people to re-examine the conclusions of the past, thus recognizing the extensive use of jade artifacts as an important feature of the prehistoric culture in the lower Yangtze River.Later, many exquisite jade articles were discovered in the Daxi, Dawenkou, Yangshao, Hongshan, and Longshan cultures, and the Liangzhu cultural site was even more astonishing. The study of prehistoric jade articles has received great attention.

The early jade processing technology mainly borrowed the techniques of polishing stone tools, namely cutting, drilling and grinding.Later, engraving and engraving techniques were gradually added, which laid a technical foundation for the emergence of finely decorated jade wares.The ground-reduction relief and line engraving techniques are the manifestations of the mature processing technology of prehistoric jade wares, and a large number of complex pattern decorations appeared on jade wares. The jade wares of the earlier period were mostly small production tools and decorations, all of which were practical utensils.Later, practical utensils were only decorations, and jade was mostly processed into non-production daily necessities, and most of them were artifacts and ritual utensils.As far as Liangzhu culture jade wares are concerned, the main types of wares are cong, bi, column wares, crown wares, trident wares, cone wares and axes, etc., most of which are non-practical wares.There are only bracelets, huang, string ornaments, belt hooks, etc. for practical objects. Except for the large number of jade bracelets, there are very few others.Among Liangzhu jade wares, there are many and large jade wares, mainly three kinds of jade wares, cong and bi, which are the most important jade wares.The combination of ax, cong, and bi is common in large tombs. Some researchers believe that the owner of the tomb should have been a dignitary with military, divine, and financial powers during his lifetime, because ax is a symbol of military command power, and cong is a symbol of communication between heaven and earth in primitive religions. Bi is likely to be a symbol of wealth.Generally, only one piece of Yue was buried with the deceased, while there were as many as 32 pieces of Cong, and as many as 54 pieces of Jade Bi.82 pieces of jade bi were unearthed in the tombs of the Qijia culture, which is the most unearthed jade in the western region.

Researchers have noticed that in the eastern coastal areas of China, that is, the Hongshan Culture in Liaoning, the Dawenkou-Longshan Culture in Shandong, the Majiabang-Songze-Liangzhu Culture in Jiangsu and Zhejiang, and the adjacent North Many jade artifacts have been found in the Yinyangying and Xuejiagang cultural distribution areas, and there seems to be a clear jade artifact distribution zone.From this point of view, the tradition of emphasizing jade originated in the eastern region. Jade is an important feature of the prehistoric culture in the eastern region, and it is also an important feature of the early civilization.

Some researchers believe that jade played a catalytic role in the origin of Chinese civilization. Jade and power (regime and theocracy) are so closely combined that the mysterious and noble attributes of jade have found the best form of expression. Jade has always been a synonym for all beautiful, precious and noble things in ancient China. Beautiful things, good names, virtues, and beauties can all be referred to by jade.The special jade ware is a symbol of wealth and authority. The origin of its concept cannot be said to be unrelated to prehistoric culture. The appearance of a large number of exquisite jade articles in prehistoric times indicates that professional jade craftsmen and jade carving workshops existed at that time.It is a pity that the site of the jade workshop and the key jade-cutting tools have not been found so far, and there is no reliable data to restore the jade-cutting craft in prehistoric times, and further research in this area remains to be done.

At the same time as the prehistoric age and the fine processing technology of jadeware matured, metallurgy also began to appear, which created the most important conditions for the arrival of the metal age.From the existing archaeological discoveries, it can be determined that Chinese metallurgy was invented at the latest in the Yangshao Culture period, and the prosperous painted pottery culture appeared about the same time as metallurgy.A semicircular copper plate was unearthed in the Yangshao culture house site at the Jiangzhai site in Lintong, Shaanxi, dating to 6,500 years ago.The Hongshan cultural site also unearthed pottery models for casting small bronzes, which dated a little later.At the Majiayao cultural site in Linjia, Dongxiang, Gansu Province, a copper knife and some broken copper pieces were found. This is the earliest formed bronze ware obtained by archaeology, and it is about 5,000 years ago.

During the Longshan Culture period, the number of unearthed copper products increased significantly. More than 10 locations have discovered bronzes and related relics. The important locations are as follows: (1) Sanli River, Jiaoxian County, Shandong Province, has a copper cone broken into two pieces; (2) Chengzi in Zhucheng, Shandong, with a piece of copper; (3) Yangjiaquan, Qixia, Shandong, with copper cones and copper smelting slag; (4) North Changshan Dianzi, Changdao, Shandong, with round copper sheets; (5) Shandong Mouping Zhaogezhuang, with copper cones; (6) In Wangchenggang, Dengfeng, Henan, there are fragments of copper containers;

(7) Pingliangtai, Huaiyang, Henan, with square copper smelting slag; (8) Dongzhai, Zhengzhou, Henan, with square copper sheets; (9) There are fragments of copper smelting crucibles in Meishan, Linru, Henan; (10) Tao Temple in Xiangfen, Shanxi, with a bronze bell; (11) There is a copper cone in Zhukaigou, Yikezhao League, Inner Mongolia; These sites are mainly distributed in Shandong and Henan, which shows that the use of bronze wares has become relatively common in this vast area.In the later Qijia culture, bronze wares were also unearthed in many sites, and only 30 pieces were unearthed in Huangniangniangtai, Wuwei, Gansu.In addition to other discoveries, nearly 50 pieces of bronze wares from the Qijia culture have been unearthed, including cones, knives, chisels, daggers, axes, mirrors, rings, finger rings, etc., with small utensils accounting for the majority and almost no containers.

The discovery of early bronze wares was limited to the Yellow River Basin, and the copper materials include both natural copper and artificially smelted copper.The type of utensils is also small, and the most common ones are cones and knives.According to research, humans first used natural copper blocks, and then used monometallic ores to smelt red copper, or used polymetallic symbiotic ores to smelt bronze, brass and cupronickel, and finally used multiple minerals to smelt. Copper alloy, the proportion of the alloy gradually tends to be reasonable.The raw materials of early Chinese copperware discovered by archeology include red copper, brass and bronze. The former is natural copper, and the latter two are alloy copper directly smelted from symbiotic ore. Smelting experiments have proved this point.

The forming technology of early bronze wares has been divided into forging and casting.Small pieces of ring and sheet utensils mostly use forging technology, while large pieces use casting technology.Casting mostly adopts single-sided fan, which is a relatively simple casting form.So far, there are very few casting models found, and only Hongshan Culture has seen Tao Fans. The production and use of bronze wares did begin in the late Neolithic Age, but the quantity was very limited after all, and their functions were also very limited, so they would not occupy a very important position in social and economic production.But in any case, metal casting technology has emerged after all, and the metal age that replaced the Stone Age has actually quietly arrived.

If cutting jade is a cold processing technology, copper casting is a hot processing technology.Cold-processing jade technology played a role in fueling the concentration of wealth and the strengthening of power at the end of the prehistoric era.The thermal processing smelting and casting technology has played a pioneering role in the excavation and utilization of new productive forces.It is this cold carving and hot casting that played a very important role in the birth of Chinese civilization.