Chapter 2 Chapter 1 The Ruins of the Ancient Early Civilization Society

China is one of the earliest birthplaces of mankind.As early as 1.7 million years ago, a primitive man that transitioned from Australopithecus to Homo erectus appeared in Yuanmou County, Yunnan Province.The Peking Man in Zhoukoudian Village, Fangshan County, Beijing, lived about 690,000 years ago. He belonged to the primitive man in the evolution process from ancient ape to Homo sapiens. He could use fire and preserve fire, marking that human beings have differentiated from the animal kingdom.Since then, primitive society has gradually transitioned to a private ownership society after a long period of development, and human civilization has also undergone many levels of evolution and evolved more and more.From the Paleolithic Age to the Neolithic Age, the main feature of the development of productive forces was the production of stone tools and pottery, which can be divided into many types according to the chronology and regional differences.At present, prehistoric cultural sites have been excavated all over the country, and the main ones turned into tourist attractions are Zhoukoudian, Fangshan County, Beijing, and Banpo Site, Xi'an.

There are two limestone hills side by side in Zhoukoudian, called Longgu Mountain. On December 1, 1929, Pei Wenzhong, a famous Chinese biologist, discovered a complete primitive human skull in a huge cave in Longgu Mountain.Afterwards, skeleton fossils of about 40 ape-man bodies, including men, women, and children, were discovered one after another.According to the location of the excavation, scientists named this primitive human being "Peking Man" and called this cave "Peking Man Site".This is one of the rare caves in the world where primitive humans live in extremely rich burials.After multiple large-scale excavations, 100,000 pieces of stone tools and ashes of fire, burnt bones, and burnt stones were also found, which can prove that the cave is a place where Peking apes lived and kept fire.According to expert research, the average brain volume of Peking Man is 1075 milliliters, and the height is about 1.56 meters. It belongs to the early Paleolithic in the history of human development.On the southern slope of Longgu Mountain, there is also a new cave, which was discovered in 1973. A human premolar fossil was found in the cave, which can be determined to be about 100,000 years ago. It belongs to the middle Paleolithic period. Scientists Named "New Cave Man". In a cave at the top of the "Peking Man Site", human fossils from the late Paleolithic age were also found. The physical characteristics are not much different from modern humans, about 18,000 years ago.This cave at the top of the mountain was discovered in 1933, so the fossils in the cave were named "Caveman".At present, the Peking Man and Cave Man sites in Zhoukoudian have become an important scientific base for the study of human origin and Paleolithic culture.

The ruins discovered in Dongbanpo Village, Xi'an City belong to the Yangshao Culture type, which is a culture in the middle Neolithic period in the Yellow River Basin.Because daily-use pottery is mainly red pottery with painted geometric patterns or animal-shaped patterns, it is also called painted pottery culture. It was first discovered in Yangshao Village, Mianchi County, Henan Province in 1921.The Banpo site in Xi'an covers an area of ​​about 50,000 square meters, and is divided into three parts: the residential area, the pottery workshop area, and the clan public burial area.There are clan public warehouses and family houses in the house. There is a stove in the living room, and there are drainage ditches outside the living area.There are six kiln sites for pottery making, mainly painted pottery with red ground and black flowers.There are 250 tombs in total, and they are buried in blood sequence, and most of the burial objects are pointed-bottomed bottles and clay pots.In addition, a large number of production tools made of stone and bone were unearthed.This is the largest and best-preserved matriarchal village site in the primitive society in the Yellow River Basin. After being discovered in the spring of 1953, after four years of systematic excavation, the first site museum in my country was built.

There are many types of Yangshao culture, and the ruins are generally located on the loess platform near the river.The Yangshao Culture site found in Miaodigou, Shan County, Henan Province is different from the Banpo type. The painted pottery is more black and less red, and there is no Banpo type round-bottomed bowl.The types of Miaodigou are distributed in Shaanxi, Henan, and Shanxi provinces, with a large range.In addition, there is also the Hougang type discovered at the Hougang site in Anyang County, Henan Province. It is named after the Dasikong Village type at the Dasikong Village site in Anyang County, Henan Province. The painted pottery is mainly gray pottery, mostly with red decorations.In addition, the types of Dahe Village in Zhengzhou, Henan Province are mostly white-clothed painted pottery, with sun, moon, and constellation patterns in the decorations.Rows and subdivided rooms also appeared in the house remains.

In the middle and lower reaches of the Yellow River, there is also a culture of the late Neolithic age. It was first discovered in Chengziya, Longshan Town, Licheng County (now Zhangqiu County), Shandong in 1928, and it is called the Longshan Culture.Ground stone implements have been widely used as agricultural tools, including stone axes, stone knives, stone sickles, clam sickles for cutting and harvesting, and double-toothed wooden poles for digging, all of which are not available in Yangshao culture.Livestock animals include pigs, dogs, cattle, sheep, chickens, horses, etc.The floor of the house was still covered with white ash.The pottery is mainly black pottery, which is thin and shiny, and painted pottery is rare, so Longshan culture is also called black pottery culture.Pottery has been crafted with fast wheels.Most of the burials are single-person burials with their bodies upright, and secondary burials and collective burials in the Yangshao Culture are rarely seen.Longshan culture is divided into three types: Shaanxi, Henan and Shandong.The Jiangzhai site discovered in the north of Lintong County, Shaanxi Province is a large-scale Neolithic site with two cultural layers of Yangshao Culture and Longshan Culture.The total area is about 50,000 square meters.Painting tools such as stone inkstones, pottery cups, black paint, and a piece of residual copper were found in the tombs of the Longshan cultural layer.It can be seen that Longshan culture is not far from the age of bronze culture.

In addition to the painted pottery culture and black pottery culture in the middle and lower reaches of the Yellow River, the Neolithic culture in my country also includes the printed pottery culture in the lower reaches of the Yangtze River and the microlithic culture in the Northeast and Hebei regions.The characteristic of printed pottery culture is that pottery has printed patterns, which can be divided into two types: soft pottery and hard pottery.There are many types of this kind of culture. The Hemudu culture in Yuyao, Zhejiang Province is about six or seven thousand years ago. It already has bone-made scorpions, complex wooden tools, and wooden stilt-style buildings with mortise and tenon joints.Most notable are the rice husk piles, the oldest known remains of the rice crop in Asia.The Majiabang culture discovered in Jiaxing, Zhejiang Province and its continuation Liangzhu culture, as well as the production of bamboo and wood ware, jade ware processing, especially silk and linen fabrics, are important archaeological discoveries of the Neolithic Age in my country.

In ancient Chinese literature, there are many legends about primitive society.The Chinese people always refer to themselves as "descendants of Yan and Huang".Emperor Yan was the leader of a tribe surnamed Jiang, and Emperor Huang was the leader of a tribe surnamed Ji. They intermarried for generations and lived in Shaanxi.Legend has it that the Yellow Emperor invented clothes and vehicles.His mausoleum is found in Gansu, Hebei, Henan and other places, but "Historical Records: The Chronicle of the Five Emperors" and "The Chronicle of the Yellow Emperor" both say that the Yellow Emperor was buried in Qiaoshan after his death. according to.According to legend, Emperor Yan created Leisi [si si] to teach the people to farm, also known as Shennong.He was born in (Shanmeng) [meng Meng]yu, Yujia Village on the south bank of the Weihe River in Baoji City, Shaanxi Province, and grew up in Wayu. Later generations built the Shennong Temple here as a memorial.It is also said that he once collected medicine in the mountains between the Yangtze River and the Han River. Because of the steep peaks, he had to build a frame, so this large forest area was named "Shennongjia".After his death, Emperor Yan was buried in the southwest of Ling [Ling Ling] County, Hunan Province. It is said that the mausoleum was found when Song Taizu ascended the pole.

After Yanhuang, it took a long time to develop into the legendary era of Tang Yao and Yu Shun.Both Yao and Shun were chiefs of the tribal alliance.Scholars in the Qin and Han Dynasties said that they were all descendants of the Yellow Emperor, and they began to respect the Yellow Emperor as their ancestor. Therefore, all cultural relics and systems were traced back to the Yellow Emperor, and the Yellow Emperor became the ancestor of all ethnic groups in the Central Plains.The era of Yao and Shun was an ideal society respected by Confucian classics as a world of comity.According to legend, Yao was named Tao Tang, and his capital was Pingyang, which is now Linfen County, Shanxi, so later generations built a temple for him here.There is also Yao's mausoleum in Guo Village in the northeast of Linfen.Shun's name is Yu's. "Historical Records The Benji of the Five Emperors" says that Yao gave the throne to Shun, who went hunting in the south of the Yangtze River, died in Cangwu, and was buried at the foot of Jiuyi Mountain.Now in Ningyuan County, Hunan Province, there are Shun Mausoleum and the site of Shun Temple built in the Ming Dynasty.It is said that after Shun's death, his two concubines, Ehuang and Nvying, came to Dongting Junshan to look for them. Their tears stained the bamboo beside the Xiang River. Later generations called this bamboo "Xiangfei Bamboo".Due to excessive grief, the two of them also died in Junshan and were buried here.The tomb is still there today, and there is a stele of "Tomb of Emperor Yu and Two Concubines" in front of the tomb.Shun's successor was Yu.The story of Dayu's water control is well-known in China, and there are Yuwang temples in many places, which are built to commemorate Dayu's achievements in digging mountains and guiding rivers.It is said that the Yu Gate in the Yellow River Canyon in the northwest of Hejin County, Shanxi was excavated by Dayu.Dayu Ferry in the southeast of Ruicheng County, Shanxi Province is the place where Dayu rested after digging Yumen.Tushan in Huaiyuan County, Anhui is said to be the place where Dayu gathered princes to discuss water control. There are historical sites such as Yuxu and Yuwang Palace for tourists to pay tribute to.According to "Historical Records" and "Shui Jing Zhu" and other records, Dayu once established his capital at the foot of Zhongtiao Mountain in the north of Xia County, Shanxi today. The site of Yuwang City still exists, including three large, medium and small buildings.Although these relics are based on the rumors recorded in ancient books, they vividly show the development of Chinese prehistoric culture, and also provide the descendants of Yan and Huang at home and abroad with a spiritual support for seeking their roots and reminiscing about their ancestors.