China Daily: Hongshan stakes foundation claim

Artifacts reveal society that developed architectural techniques and craftsmanship

BEIJING, Dec. 24, 2024 /PRNewswire/ -- Just as the Yellow and the Yangtze river basins are seen by archaeologists and historians as the birthplaces of Chinese civilization, so too is the West Liaohe River basin in northeastern China.

Around 6,500 to 4,900 years ago, a late Neolithic culture called Hongshan thrived here, marked by its use of delicate jade ware and the initial totems of the Chinese dragon. Both were of symbolic significance in later history.

This year marks the 70th anniversary of the naming of the Hongshan culture. In 1954, it was officially named after a hilly area in suburban Chifeng, Inner Mongolia autonomous region, which means "red mountains".

Since the first archaeological site of Hongshan was discovered in this area in 1921, more than 1,100 sites have been found over the following century, mostly in southeastern Inner Mongolia, western Liaoning province and northern Hebei province.

Studies into these relic sites have outlined an ancient society that developed high-level architectural techniques and craftsmanship based on a mature belief system. It maintained intense exchanges with other contemporaneous cultures in the Central Plains, located at the middle reaches of the Yellow River, as well as the lower reaches of the Yangtze River.

Dragon totem

There's no doubt that jade is one of the most attractive aspects about Hongshan culture. The jade dragons unearthed or collected from the public have become symbols of this Neolithic culture.

According to Guo Ming, research librarian at the Liaoning Provincial Institute of Cultural Relics and Archaeology, dragon totems began to be presented on jade during the Hongshan culture period. More specifically, jade dragons started to appear in tombs around 5,500 years ago and may have existed even earlier.

"These jade dragons exhibit the most consistent composition across the distribution area of Hongshan culture, which spans nearly 300,000 square kilometers," she says.

From various Hongshan sites, two types of jade dragons have been found, both sharing a curled, serpentine body.

One type is the C-shaped dragon, represented by one piece discovered from rural Chifeng in 1971. The 26-centimeter-tall emerald green dragon has a small, short head; its mouth is closed, its eyes long and upturned, and nose protruding with symmetrical nostrils. It has a mane on its neck, whose tail tip is also curled upward. The slender dragon integrates characteristics of various animals, such as deer and serpents.

On its back there is a hole, and when the jade dragon is suspended with a string threaded through the hole, its head and tail align perfectly on a horizontal line. Archaeologists, therefore, speculate that the Hongshan residents had already accumulated some knowledge of gravity and calculation of force.

Another type — and the more frequently excavated one — is dubbed "pig dragon" for its chubby, pig-headed shape, along with standing ears, ferocious round eyes, wrinkled snout and tusks. Some archaeologists believe that the shape likely emanated from the bear.

So far, some two dozen "pig dragons "have been found. During a salvage excavation earlier this year at the Yuanbaoshan archaeological site in Chifeng's Aohan Banner, which dates back 5,000 to 5,100 years, three "pig dragons" varying in color, size and texture were discovered.

Among them is a palm-size, emerald green piece — 15.8 centimeters tall, 9.5 cm wide and 3 cm thick — that is considered to be the largest of its kind.

Usually the "pig dragons" also have one or two holes on their back — maybe used as accessories.

From the Niuheliang archaeological site in Chaoyang, Liaoning province, which is around 150 kilometers away from Chifeng, a pair of "pig dragons "were found as funerary objects laid on the tomb owner's chest, indicating their importance in ritual ceremonies, Guo says.

The Niuheliang site, dating back around 5,000 to 5,800 years, served as an ideological center for Hongshan society, demonstrating a significant unifying power, according to Guo.

Meanwhile, large "pig dragons" may also be applied as sacred objects in ritual ceremonies praying for rain and a good harvest, Liu Guoxiang, deputy director of the Chinese Academy of History, said in a previous interview with China Media Group. He has been studying Hongshan culture for three decades.

In later Chinese myths, the dragon is often depicted as a deity of rain. The Book of Changes, or I Ching, believed to have been compiled during the Zhou Dynasty (c. 11th century-256 BC), already conveyed such connection.

Nevertheless, the exalted status of wild boar in prehistoric northeastern China can be traced back thousands of years further, possibly due to its association with fertility and prolific reproduction.

At the bottom of a sacrificial pit at the Xinglonggou archaeological site of Chifeng, dating back 7,500 to 8,000 years, archaeologists discovered a pair of boar skulls. Residents of Xinglonggou arranged pottery shards and stone pieces into the boars' S-shaped bodies.

These are considered as the earliest primitive image of "pig dragons", confirmed through archaeological findings in the western Liaoning region, according to Liu.

Inscribed on another 6,800-year-old pottery vessel of the nearby Zhaobaogou culture are patterns of deer, wild boar and bird. The boar with tusks is also seen as a vivid, initial form of the "pig dragon", while the C-shaped dragon may have originated from the deer pattern, Guo says.

As for the serpentine bodies of the jade dragons, she says that although there is barely any trace of snakes discovered, scale patterns have been observed on the pottery vessels of Hongshan.

Guo points out that the curled dragon bodies reflect the profound thinking of the Hongshan residents.

"They almost form a circle, a cycle where you cannot tell the head from the tail, with no beginning or end, just like the endless cycle of the four seasons. I believe they represent the Hongshan residents' understanding of life and the universe," Guo says.

On the other hand, the jade dragons of Hongshan greatly influenced later history. From some Shang (c. 16th century-11th century BC) and Zhou dynasties tombs — mainly in the Central Plains — archaeologists excavated Hongshan-style jade ware, including the high-level "pig dragons".

Furthermore, the C-shaped dragons resemble one of the two characters meaning "dragon" in oracle bone scripts, the earliest Chinese writing system that dates back around 3,300 years.

Last year, archaeologists unearthed an elongated dragon-shaped ornament pieced together from clamshells at the Caitaopo archaeological site of Chifeng, which dates back around 6,300 years.

This 20-cm-long artifact looks very different from above-mentioned curled dragons, with an open mouth and body spread out, and there are rhombus patterns carved on its tail representing the scales.

When the finding was made public shortly after its excavation, Sun Jinsong, director of the Inner Mongolia Institute of Cultural Relics and Archaeology, said that it was the first time a dragon imagery produced during the early period of Hongshan culture had been discovered, extending the academic knowledge of Hongshan's dragon totem.

Dawn of ritual

Underlying the use of jade dragons was a sophisticated ritual system developed by Hongshan society.

According to Jia Xiaobing, researcher at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences' Institute of Archaeology who leads the excavation of the Niuheliang site, high-level Hongshan tombs were buried with only jade ware. The identity, social status and occupation of the tomb owners can be inferred from the size and quality of the jade used, as well as the combination and arrangement of them in the tombs.

In Guo's observation, there seems to be a tendency in Hongshan tombs that important artifacts were placed on the right side of the tomb owners, with the most important ones put beside the head.

A variety of jade artifacts featuring animal designs, such as the various jade owls, turtles, silkworms and cicadas, have been unearthed from multiple Hongshan sites. Yet, the widespread appearance of jade dragons as ritual objects indicates that a unified social belief system had been widely accepted within and beyond the realm of Hongshan culture, Guo says.

However, jade dragons have never been discovered in the highest-ranking tombs of Hongshan. According to Jia, a possible explanation could be that jade dragons were relatively easy to recognize. "Just like today's chopsticks, it was because they were so common that people could accept and use them, recognizing them as a symbol of identity."

Jia says, no later than 5,700 years ago, Hongshan residents began building largescale ritual centers. While the Niuheliang site became a super-large ceremonial center, secondary regional ceremonial centers in the surrounding area, such as the Dongshanzui, Hutougou and Banlashan sites, emerged.

Ritual artifacts reflecting household ceremonial activities specific to these settlements were also unearthed in residential areas across several sites.

At Niuheliang, Hongshan residents constructed nine platforms using layers of earth and crushed stones to hold public ritual ceremonies. Spanning around 200 years, they built from the lower parts of the hill upward, with evidence indicating a comprehensive design of the layout in advance.

It was on these platforms that various constructions were built, including ramps, symmetrical water-retaining curved walls and drainage ditches, as well as the well-known goddess temple, a milestone discovery of Hongshan studies.

There, a life-size head clay sculpture of a fit and gentle goddess was excavated in 1983, with straight fringe and sideburns, high cheekbones, a wide mouth and round right ear. The left ear was missing. Her sparkling eyes were made from lucent round stones. The face, originally painted red, had faded.

The goddess temple is partially built underground. On the walls there are murals and clay structures resembling traditional Chinese timber-framed structures. There are both male and female clay statues in seated positions and animal sculptures featuring the bear and owl.

To the south of the rectangular goddess temple, there stood a three-tiered, round sacrificial altar and rubble mound tombs. Such design was commonly seen in the urban planning of ancient capitals, such as Beijing's Temple of Heaven and Imperial Ancestral Temple built during the Ming Dynasty (1368-1644).

Guo says that Hongshan society already possessed a relatively strong economic foundation and the organizational capabilities to mobilize a large labor force. According to Jia, the upper echelons of Hongshan had integrated independent and spontaneous religious activities into a standardized hierarchical system of public ceremonial events.

During this process, Hongshan residents gradually formed a sacrificial ritual system through which they celebrated heaven, earth and their ancestors.

For example, Jia's team found at the Niuheliang site the remains of burning ceremonies, such as carbonized walnuts and burned jade materials. This way of worshiping heaven resonates with literature passed down since the Zhou Dynasty.

The Western Zhou Dynasty (c. 11th century-771 BC) was known for having established a comprehensive system of rites and music, which defined the duties of various officials and thereby formed a set of social interaction norms. It served as a cultural system and a political guideline for governance while bearing religious significance and moral standards.

Archaeologists also discovered sacrificial pits with numerous pottery shards at the Niuheliang site — echoing the Zhou rites of worshiping earth — and assembly of vessels that may be used when Hongshan residents poured drinks on the ground to pay tribute to their ancestors.

"The belief system formed since the mid-period of Hongshan culture can be seen as the origin of the sacrificial and jade ritual systems in later history," Jia says.

Therefore, future studies into the Hongshan culture requires interdisciplinary cooperation — not only with the technological sector but also with intellectual history scholars to draw inspiration from historical documents, Guo says.

During a seminar held in Chifeng to celebrate the 70th anniversary of the naming of the Hongshan culture in September, Chen Xingcan, head of the Institute of Archaeology, CASS, says that with groundbreaking discoveries and studies about Hongshan culture, its foundational role in the origins of Chinese civilization has been widely recognized in the academic community.

Guo says further excavation of the goddess temple at Niuheliang will be conducted.