Chapter 17 Yangtze River, the cradle of ancient civilization of the Chinese nation①

In this article, the author traces the evolution history of the ancient ancestors of the Chinese nation based on the investigation of many important ancient sites in the Yellow River and Yangtze River basins for many years, and makes a relatively popular discussion of the new concepts gradually forming in the archaeological circle. ① Originally contained in "Exploring the Origin of Human Beings", Fujian Science and Technology Press, 1982 edition. You may be surprised to see this topic. We don’t always say that the Yellow River is the cradle of ancient civilization of the Chinese nation!Why do you now say that the Yangtze River is the cradle of the ancient civilization of the Chinese nation?

Yes, this is indeed a bit surprising, but after reading this article, it may make sense.Of course, I am not saying that the Yellow River is no longer the cradle. The misinterpretation and vulgarization of historical materialism by scholars and the "Youth School" have revealed the tendency, but I want to emphasize that the cradle of the ancient civilization of the Chinese nation is not just the Yellow River as it was thought in the past. The river basin should also include the Yangtze River! You've probably heard a song like this-- There is a river in the far east Its name is the Yangtze River

In the far east there is a river Its name is the Yellow River there was a dragon in the ancient east its name is china there was a group of people in the ancient orient They are all descendants of the dragon This is a Taiwanese school song. No matter where they are, no matter where they are, the descendants of Chinese people are all proud of their Chinese mother, and they are all proud of being "the descendants of the dragon".The Yangtze River and the Yellow River are the symbols of the dragon. They gallop through the mountains and meander in the fertile plains. They feed the children on both sides of the river. We are the descendants of the dragon!

Haven't you noticed how lofty the status of the Yellow River and the Yangtze River are in the eyes of the descendants of Yan and Huang? Now let's take a closer look at them -- The surging Yellow River originates in Qinghai and has a dry length of 5,400 kilometers. It flows through Sichuan, Gansu, Ningxia, Inner Mongolia, Shaanxi, Shanxi, Henan and Shandong, and then goes out to sea, with a drainage area of ​​752,443 square kilometers. The mighty Yangtze River has a long history. Its source is the Lunlun River, which originates from the southwest side of Geladandong Snow Mountain, the main peak of Tanggula Mountain in Qinghai, and then rushes down from the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau, the "roof of the world", accepting hundreds of rivers along the way. Pentium forward.With a total length of 6,300 kilometers, the Yangtze River is the largest river in my country and one of the three major rivers in the world. Its dry length is 5,831 kilometers and flows through Tibet, Yunnan, Sichuan, Hubei, Hunan, Jiangxi, Anhui and Jiangsu. The vast East China Sea.It has 18 large tributaries, connecting four major lakes, so the Yangtze River Basin also includes parts of Gansu, Guizhou, Shaanxi and Zhejiang.The Yangtze River Basin covers an area of ​​1,808,500 square kilometers, accounting for 1% of the country's cultivated land. "4, living in the country's 1."3 population, what a magnificent picture the Yangtze River Basin has.

The Yellow River Basin has a long ancient civilization and has become the cradle of the ancient civilization of the Chinese nation; while the Yangtze River, the largest river in my country, is rich in natural resources and the natural environment is quite superior. Will there be a long ancient civilization?Could it not have a positive and major role in promoting the development of our Chinese nation's civilization?Isn't this a question worth pondering and exploring? In recent years, I have inspected many prehistoric humans and ancient cultural sites due to my work.Following the footsteps of primitive humans in the two major basins of the Yangtze River and the Yellow River, and tracing the ancient history of our Chinese ancestors, I became very interested in the question of the cradle of our nation's ancient civilization.People's understanding is constantly deepened with practice. Since the past archaeological work was mainly carried out in the Yellow River Basin, many important sites were discovered, which revealed the splendid appearance of the ancient civilization of the Chinese nation.Due to the deepening of archaeological work, the classic conclusions of these sites have become the cornerstone of prehistoric archeology in my country and the main basis for comparative research. The academic circles have gradually formed the ancient civilization of the Chinese nation originated in the Yellow River Basin, and centered on this to influence and The concept of promoting the emergence and development of ancient civilizations in other regions was correct within the limits of practice and level of understanding at that time.However, archaeological excavations in recent years have given us a better understanding of the ancient culture of the Yangtze River Basin. With the continuous accumulation of new archaeological materials, people have increasingly realized that the Yangtze River Basin is also the evolution center of ancient Chinese culture. , when we emphasize that the Yellow River Basin is the cradle of the ancient civilization of the Chinese nation, it seems that the Yangtze River Basin is also the cradle, and it is an important cradle!

Now I will discuss this issue based on the new concepts gradually being formed in the archaeological field, combined with my own investigation and research work. Human beings have a history of more than 3 million years, more than 99% of which is the long stone age, followed by the age of copper, iron and big machines.Engels once referred to Morgan's theory and divided human history into three ages: ignorance, barbarism and civilization.The era of civilization is marked by the appearance of iron tools, which is the beginning of recorded history; the two eras of savagery and barbarism are the "prehistoric period" before recorded history.When we talk about the ancient civilization of a nation, we mainly refer to the civilization in the "prehistoric period" and the civilization when the "civilized age" first emerged. The areas where they were bred and grown are what we call the "cradle of ancient civilizations".

The Stone Age uses stone tools as production tools, including the Paleolithic, Mesolithic and Neolithic periods, which are characterized by the production of stone tools, pressed fine stone tools, polished stone tools, and pottery. . Paleolithic cultural sites are widely distributed in my country. During this period, according to the new concept of human evolutionary pedigree: Australopithecus-Homo erectus-fossil Homo sapiens, representatives of each stage have been found in my country, and the materials of some stages are quite Rich.It is particularly noteworthy that in the vast areas of the Yangtze River and the Yellow River, the ruins that have been discovered so far account for almost 70 to 80 percent of the discovered ruins in the country.

I once visited the middle reaches of the Yellow River Basin where many ancient human sites were discovered, and investigated sites such as Xihoudu, Yihe, Dingcun in Shanxi and Lantian in Shaanxi.In the upper reaches of the Yangtze River, I visited the ruins of the Lijiang people under the Jade Dragon Snow Mountain, participated in the excavation of the famous Yuanmou Man fossil origin, discovered the cultural sites of the late Paleolithic age such as Sijia Village in the Yuanmou Basin, and inspected the Ziyang people. In the middle reaches of the Yangtze River, several Homo erectus sites in northwestern Hubei were investigated, and stone tools of the same period as well as small stone tools of a much later age were found in Fangxian County... There are several points worth noting in these sites of the Paleolithic Age:

First of all, it is the primary topic of archaeological research to find out the beginning of the history of the motherland from the perspective of archaeology, and this point will continue to progress with the deepening of archaeological work. In the early 1960s, Lantian people and their cultural relics were discovered in Lantian, Shaanxi, pushing back the history of our ancestors from 400,000 to 500,000 years ago of Beijingers to 800,000 to 1 million years ago.Later, at the turn of the 1960s and 1970s, tooth fossils of Yuanmou Man, stone tools made by Yuanmou Man and a large amount of charcoal were discovered one after another, which pushed the history of the ancestors back to 1.7 million years ago.After years of work and in-depth research in various aspects, the academic circles have generally recognized that Yuanmou Homo, represented by the two upper middle incisors, is indeed the earliest representative of Homo erectus discovered in my country so far.According to our research, the tooth fossil belongs to the early type of Homo erectus, which may have the characteristics of transition from the slender Australopithecus to Homo erectus in shape. Yuanmou man not only made and used crude stone tools, but also did not rule out the possibility of using fire .

In the Yellow River Basin, although the "Xiaochangliang Culture" that is said to be earlier than the Yuanmou culture has been discovered in recent years, and the relics of the Xihoudu culture have also been researched and published, there are still debates about them in the academic circles.I think there is a very early primitive culture in the Yellow River Basin.However, it must be noted that due to the discovery of Yuanmou Man and its culture, in connection with the discovery of ancient ape fossils that may be related to the direct ancestors of humans in the Lufeng area adjacent to the Yuanmou Basin in recent years, some people believe that, including those in the upper reaches of the Yangtze River The Central Yunnan Plateau is likely to be one of the centers of human origin and development, which is indeed striking.

This involves the question of whether there are representatives of Australopithecus in China.According to the available data, before and after the early Middle Pleistocene, Homo erectus and its culture had been widely distributed in the middle reaches of the Yangtze River and the Yellow River, especially in the Weinan and northern Hubei regions, indicating that in the early Paleolithic After the Yuanmou Man, the activities of primitive humans in the north and south of the Qinling Mountains have been very frequent.New material of Homo erectus was recently discovered in Hexian County, Anhui Province, which is clear evidence that Homo erectus represented activities on the northern bank of the lower reaches of the Yangtze River.So the ancestor of Homo erectus, Australopithecus, should exist. Some people even believed that Yuanmou Man and the owner of the Xihoudu site were Australopithecus. Some people believed that Australopithecus may not exist in my country. It was developed by primitive people who figured it out. In the Jianshi area of ​​Hubei Province in the middle reaches of the Yangtze River, a fossil suspected to be Australopithecus was found, limited to the material (only four teeth), and it is quite controversial in the academic circles, but its discovery is undoubtedly an important sign, indicating that it is more primitive than Homo erectus. The representative may be Australopithecus, which will be found in South China, especially in the vast area of ​​the Yangtze River Basin. Furthermore, the middle and late Paleolithic Ages were the main period of activity of fossil Homo sapiens, and also the main period of the formation of modern human races (black, white and yellow races).The ancient ruins of this period were more widely distributed in the two major river basins. In addition to the common characteristics of this stage, the morphological characteristics of the discovered ancient human fossils also reflect the formation process of the original yellow race. Moreover, there are more obvious development trends of different types in the north and south in the representatives of the late period. For example, the cavemen found in the north and the Liujiang people found in the south are all early members of the yellow race.However, some morphological characteristics of the former are similar to Chinese in North China, Eskimos and American Indians; while some characteristics of the latter are closer to the South Asian type of the yellow race.Obviously, they had a profound influence on the formation of the physical characteristics of the later humans in the two basins, that is, the ancestors of the Neolithic Age. In short, during the Paleolithic Age, ancient humans in the Yangtze River and Yellow River basins were widely distributed, and it shows that the Yangtze River Basin has a longer prehistoric history than the Yellow River Basin, which is more important for exploring the important topic of human origin. important.Although it is said that the two may have the same ancient Paleolithic culture, the earliest known human fossils—Yuanmou Man teeth—and stone tools and possible remains of artificial fire have only been found in the upper reaches of the Yangtze River Basin. It opened a new chapter in our country's history, and the first chapter of our country's history can only be written from the Yuanmou people, the ancient ancestors. The development from the Paleolithic Age to the later is the stage called "Mesolithic Age" in archaeology.The Mesolithic Age was a period of transition from a predatory economy to a productive economy.Due to the development of productivity, people transitioned from gathering and hunting activities to primitive agriculture and animal husbandry.That is to say, the Mesolithic Age was the pioneer stage of agriculture and animal husbandry.There is controversy in the archaeological circles of our country about the existence of the Mesolithic Age, and I think it is inadvisable to obliterate the existence of this stage.What are the signs of the Mesolithic Age?In the late Paleolithic Age, on the basis of the accumulation of rich production experience, a large number of composite tools (such as arrows, arrows, etc.) appeared, so the stone tools developed towards small and exquisite, so a class of very delicate tools called "microlithic tools" came into being. of small stone tools.The microlithic man has been produced in the late Paleolithic period until the late Neolithic period, and especially became the main tool of the Mesolithic period.Therefore, the typical "microlithic tools" are often used as the main symbol of the "Mesolithic Age".Microlithic tools are often used as tools for hunting and nomadic tribes, while in primitive agricultural tribes they are marked by primitive agricultural tools.In addition, primitive pottery is sometimes used as a sign of the Mesolithic age. In my country, Mesolithic microlithic artifacts are mainly found in the northern region.The original types of typical microlithic artifacts can be traced back to many ancient sites in the late Paleolithic period, and later developed into representatives of the Mesolithic period, such as the two cultures of Lingjing in Henan and Shayuan in Shaanxi.Many scholars believe that the microlithic culture in northern my country originated in the Central Plains of the Yellow River Basin. In the past, we did not understand the appearance of the Mesolithic Age in the Yangtze River Basin, but in recent years there have been breakthroughs. In the winter of 1973, when we conducted paleoanthropological surveys in the Yuanmou Basin, we discovered a considerable number of typical microlithic artifacts. It is worth noting that these microlithic artifacts located in the upper reaches of the Yangtze River, many of which are of the same type as those in the Lingjing Culture in Henan They are very similar, but have their own characteristics. These characteristics are similar to some characteristics of the late Paleolithic culture in the Hanyuan area of ​​Sichuan, and they seem to have a relationship of descent. In addition, microlithic tools have been discovered in several places in the lower reaches of the Yangtze River, so the early Mesolithic cultural sites marked by microlithic tools have also been found in the Yangtze River Basin, which shows that the ancient culture of this period was in the Yangtze River Basin. Both basins are well developed. The last stage of the Stone Age, the Neolithic, was marked by primitive pottery and polished stone tools.Thousands of Neolithic sites have been discovered in the Yangtze River and Yellow River basins. The ancient cultures of the two basins in this period have their own characteristics and are related to each other. Especially in recent years, new archaeological discoveries, It has made an astonishing breakthrough in our understanding of the cultural features of the Neolithic Age in the Yangtze River Basin, showing another primitive cultural face that has never been seen in the Neolithic Age of the Yellow River Basin. I have visited many famous Neolithic cultural sites.There are famous Banpo and Jiangzhai ruins in the middle reaches of the Yellow River Basin, and what impressed me the most are the many important ruins along the upper, middle and lower reaches of the Yangtze River.I have been to the banks of the Jinsha River in the north of the Yuanmou Basin. There are many unexcavated Neolithic sites on the hillsides facing the river. Many polished stone tools and various pottery can be dug out under the sand at any time.In the Yuanmou Basin, there is the famous Dadunzi site of Lianhua Village, which shows the life of the primitive tribes in the upper reaches of the Yangtze River more than 3,000 years ago; in the middle reaches of Fangxian County, Hubei Province, we visited the Qilihe site; especially in the lower reaches, we visited the site in recent years The most breakthrough discovery in the Neolithic archaeological excavations in southern my country - the Hemudu site in Zhejiang Province, with an existing area of ​​40,000 square meters. The site is composed of 4 cultural layers. One of the earliest Neolithic sites.I also visited Jinsuo Island in the beautiful Erhai Lake in Yunnan, investigated shell mound-shaped sites in Baozitou Bay, Nanning, and other places in the southern country, and also visited the Shixia site in Ma (earth tools) in Guangdong... After inspecting these numerous cultural sites, what impressed me deeply is that people's production activities are mutually restricted by environmental conditions, and different environmental conditions produce different crops and lifestyles.The archaeological work of the Neolithic Age in the Yellow River Basin has always made great progress, and great achievements have been made in the past two years. Many early cultures have been discovered in the middle reaches of the Yellow River, known as the Cishan and Peiligang cultures.Excavations show that as early as 8,000 years ago, in the arid natural environment of the Loess Plateau, people had cultivated drought-tolerant millet crops, raised pigs and tamed dogs.There is the ancient "Dahankou Culture" in the lower reaches of the Yellow River, and the "Yangshao Culture" in the middle reaches of the Yellow River. Finally, they produced the late Neolithic culture--"Longshan Culture", which can be traced back to Xia, Shang and Zhou Bronze Cultures root.Many experts have always believed that the ancient civilization of the Chinese nation developed on this fertile soil. Another scene of ancient cultural development is shown in the Yangtze River Basin. It is worth noting that the early Neolithic site of Hemudu, Zhejiang was discovered in the lower reaches of the Yangtze River in 1973, and a large number of cultural relics were unearthed, proving that more than 7000 years ago, the primitive Tribes have created a well-developed prehistoric civilization. A large number of rice, rice husks, rice straws and rice leaves were found in layers at the Hemudu site, with a thickness of 40 to 50 centimeters, and the thickness can reach more than one meter.Rice is a high-yield and high-quality food crop, and it must be cultivated with a high level of cultivation. Judging from the unearthed agricultural tools—wooden plow and bone plow, the Hemudu people have moved away from the backward "slash-and-burn farming" and entered the stage of plow farming.Skeletons of pigs, dogs, buffaloes, and sheep were also found.Buffaloes may have been domesticated as well, showing that our country is indeed one of the world's largest centers of crop and livestock origin.At least seven or eight thousand years ago, the ancestors in the lower reaches of the Yangtze River had mastered plowing techniques, developed water conservancy, and planted rice in this environment with dense rivers, fertile soil, mild climate, and abundant rainfall, making agriculture the main production sector.Apparently, the lower reaches of the Yangtze River were the earliest areas where rice was cultivated, and rice cultivation may have originated there.Later, it gradually spread to all parts of the south. Traces of rice were found in the Yangshao culture site in Henan, Zhejiang, and Sichuan in the Jianghan area, which should indicate the spread of rice cultivation technology to the middle reaches of the Yangtze River, and also reflect the influence of the Hemudu culture in the Yangtze River basin on the Yangshao culture. Bunches of plant fibers and woven reed mats were also unearthed from the Hemudu site.On an ivory carving, there are also weaving patterns and images of silkworms, indicating that the original weaving technology at that time may have included silk weaving technology, which is also a major event in the history of technological development.It is indeed remarkable that the late Neolithic culture in this region, which developed to more than 5,000 years ago, had obvious silk fabrics. There are also a large number of wooden tools in the Hemudu site, which are unprecedented in number, variety and exquisite craftsmanship.Among them are wooden oars that are very close to modern ones; there are wooden bowls that have been coated with a red coat of the same nature as lacquer; there are also a batch of small rods with mortise and rivets, which may be used as components of rod-composite instruments It is hard to imagine that people 7,000 years ago had such superb means of labor.In addition, the large-scale preservation of large-scale dry-column wooden buildings with mortise and riveting structures can also be regarded as an outstanding achievement in the Hemudu culture.This kind of "dry-column-style" large longhouse wooden structure, which uses wooden (or bamboo) pillars as a base frame quite high from the ground, and then houses are built on it, and livestock are raised on the bottom, is still in use in many places in South China. ! In terms of pottery production, although the pottery at the Hemudu site is mostly handmade and there are not many types, "Zeng" (that is, a vessel like a steamer) has appeared, and people have already used steam heat to steam food. amazing. (It can also be mentioned here that the earliest porcelain producing area in the world is also in Shangyu County, which is located in the lower reaches of the Yangtze River.) It is particularly noteworthy that a large number of jade wares appeared in many Neolithic sites in the lower reaches of the Yangtze River. The jade cong and jade wall in the jade wares were precious ritual wares in the later Shang and Zhou Dynasties. Some experts believe that the production and decoration of jade wares are Originated from the South.On the jade cong unearthed from some sites, there are circle patterns (back patterns), gluttonous meal patterns, and thunder cloud patterns on pottery. These patterns are common main patterns on Shang and Zhou bronzes, so some experts believe that the Chinese nation is highly developed. The origin of the bronze culture should also be traced from the late Neolithic culture in the lower reaches of the Yangtze River. It is not difficult to see that when the Neolithic culture in the Yellow River Basin was flourishing, the ancestors of the Neolithic Age in the Yangtze River Basin were also creating their own splendid culture and contributing their own strength to the ancient civilization of the Chinese nation. The long Stone Age was replaced by the Bronze Age.In recent years, two Shang Dynasty ruins have been discovered in Wucheng, Qingjiang, Jiangxi, and Panlongcheng, Huangpi, Hubei, confirming that at least 2,000 years ago, a culture basically the same as that in the Central Plains of the Yellow River Basin had developed here.Recently, several batches of bronze farming tools have been discovered in Jiangsu, Anhui, Zhejiang and Yunnan provinces, which provides evidence for the records of bronze tools in ancient documents.Therefore, both the ancient culture in the Yellow River Basin and the Changsha Basin have a great influence on the production and discovery of the Bronze Age culture. After studying the bronze culture in the lower reaches of the Yangtze River, experts pointed out that the traditional concept in the past believed that the south was culturally backward for a long time. In the north, it is really a misunderstanding, and the old concept should be changed.Countless archaeological data have shown that the Xia-Shang culture was developed by absorbing and integrating the fine traditions of the two river basins, the north and the south. From the development of material civilization, we have clearly seen the basic features of the birth and growth of the ancient civilization of the Chinese nation.However, culture is created by people, and the dissemination of culture and the connection between different cultures represent human activities—the migration and contact of people.The Yangtze and Yellow River basins are the cradle of the ancient civilization of the Chinese nation, and must also be the center of the birth and development of the Chinese nation itself.Therefore, in addition to material culture, we can also explore and explain the emergence of ancient civilizations from the study of ancient ancestors themselves.Unfortunately, due to the lack of sufficient data in this regard, it is really difficult to try to outline the development of prehistoric humans, especially the Neolithic ancestors who are most closely related to modern humans. From the available data, it can be seen that as early as the late Paleolithic Age, human bones had already reflected the tendency of north-south division.In the Neolithic Age, there were more obvious differences in the morphological characteristics of human bone remains in the Yellow River Basin, the Yangtze River Basin, and South China. Modern Chinese belong to the yellow race (Mongolian race). If subdivided, they can be divided into two basic types, south and north, and can also be divided into three types. That is, the distribution area is centered on the Yellow River Basin, including Mongolia, Northeast China People from northern China in various provinces (referred to as "North China people"), people from central China centered on the Yangtze River Basin (referred to as "Central China people"), and people from southern China distributed in the Pearl River Basin, Fujian, Taiwan and other places (referred to as "South China people") ").According to ancient legends, the Yellow River Basin is mainly distributed in the "Huaxia Group" (Central Plains area) and "Dongyi Group" (Eastern Coastal Area); in the upper reaches of the Yangtze River Basin are the Qiang people, the middle reaches are the "Miaoman Group", and the South China The area is mainly the ancient Yue nationality.According to the available data, it is on the basis of the north-south classification of the ancestors of the Neolithic Age that these ancient groups emerged, and later gradually evolved into modern North China, Central China and South China. They mainly lived in the Yangtze River. It grew up under the nurture of ancient civilizations in the two major basins of the Yellow River and the Yellow River (naturally including other regions in the south), and at the same time they are the creators of the ancient civilizations of the Chinese nation. Now you can understand why the Yangtze River is also the cradle of the ancient civilization of the Chinese nation!We believe that this point will become more and more obvious with the deepening of archaeological work.