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Shang/CHN civilization from Liangzhu not Yangshao

Printed From: History Community ~ All Empires
Category: Regional History or Period History
Forum Name: East Asia
Forum Discription: The Far East: China, Korea, Japan and other nearby civilizations
URL: http://www.allempires.com/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=34717
Printed Date: 28-Mar-2024 at 07:16
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Topic: Shang/CHN civilization from Liangzhu not Yangshao
Posted By: theSinitic
Subject: Shang/CHN civilization from Liangzhu not Yangshao
Date Posted: 09-Jun-2014 at 03:03

Jade material has a long tradition in China to symbolize the composure found within a gentleman who conducts with virtue. Confucius said that jade recomposes the mind and soul by its very symbolic nature. The elties in China's neolithic past were the ones whom first introduced jade fineries as a high culture to China. Their artisans worked jade material to design and create jade articles whose forms are still popularly recognized as the ritual objects and fixtures of Chinese social customs and culture.

The distributive epicenter of these objects was discovered to be on the east coast of China and particularly on the lower stretches of the Yangtze river where close to 90 percent of the objects were found. The ones discovered within the western hinterlands of China were diminished in size and proportion.

Of the objects found within the neolithic of China, there are three recurrent forms found over a range covering roughly half the current area within China. These forms are known today as the bi disk, the cong tube, and the yazhang tablet.

The bi disk is what you saw during the 2008 olympics which was held in China. On the back of each medal that was awarded the top athletes a jade bi was adfixed. Used as decor they represent wealth and influence and in the athlete's case they represented the prestige they earned.

The cong tube was used by Chinese since ancient times to worship and communicate with the spiritual foundation of the cosmos. Its lasting influence is conveyed within the urns Chinese use to place incense sticks as part of the offerings presented in the annual ceremonies which honor their deceased ancestors

The yazhang tablet is a ceremonial object which presented symbolic value of officialdom and were plaques of recognition carried by state officials running the empire of China.

Fu Hao, a woman general who lived during the Shang dynasty period, had a burial filled with the aforementioned objects of value. Her tomb thus captures the essence of Chinese culture, during the Shang dynasty, which had continuity which began during the neolithic age of China where Liangzhu culture and civilization once presided over half its current territory.

The floor level housed the royal corpse and most of the utensils and implements buried with her. Rare Jade artifacts, such as those of the Liangzhu culture, were probably collected by Fu Hao as antiques and while some of the bronze artifacts were probably used by the lady and her household others inscribed with her posthumous name of Mu Xin were undoubtedly cast as grave goods.[6] The artifacts unearthed within the grave consisted of:

755 jade objects (including Longshan, Liangzhu, Hongshan and Shijiahe cultural artifacts)[7]
564 bone objects (including 500 hairpins and 20 arrowheads)
468 bronze objects, including over 200 ritual bronze vessels,[8] 130 weapons, 23 bells, 27 knives, 4 mirrors, and 4 tiger statues.[9]
63 stone objects
11 pottery objects
5 ivory objects
6,900 cowry shells (used as currency during the Shang Dynasty)

As you can see no objects pertaining to the Yangshao were discovered.


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http://hwyst.hangzhou.com.cn/wmyzh/content/2013-10/09/content_4920423.htm

Liangzhu was typified by hallmarks which glorified 5000 years of China.



Replies:
Posted By: theSinitic
Date Posted: 09-Jun-2014 at 03:23
Archaeology

http://books.google.com/books?id=lhT0Z4L4g-kC&printsec=frontcover&source=gbs_ge_summary_r&cad=0#v=onepage&q=fruitful&f=false - http://books.google.com/books?id=lhT0Z4L4g-kC&printsec=frontcover&source=gbs_ge_summary_r&cad=0#v=onepage&q=fruitful&f=false

The Chinese Neolithic

Li Liu discussed how Chinese archaeology desperately wanted to find the indigenous origin of Chinese civilization after Yangshao appeared typologically foreign.  Their discovery of black pottery in Chengziya, Licheng county of Shandong province on the east coast of China provided the first helpful clues about the origin of the neolithic in Hougang, Anyang where similar objects were found directly superpositioned by Shang cultural remains.


The cultural disconnection between Yangshao and Anyang urged archaeologists to search for a direct progenitor of the Shang, and http://historum.com/#">the general consensus among archaeologists and historians was that the most likely area was in eastern China. After work at Anyang was halted around 1930 due to war, the excavation team later moved its operations to Chengziyai in Longshan township, Shandong, after Wu Jinding’s preliminary surveys had revealed promising discoveries there (Fu 1934; Li Chi 1934).

The excavations at Chengziyai were more fruitful than the excavators had expected. Distinctive from the Yangshao painted pottery, the black pottery from Chengziyai was similar to the Neolithic remains found at Hougang in Anyang, which were directly superpositioned by the Shang cultural remains. Uninscribed oracle bones found at Chengziyai provided an even more direct link between the Longshan and Shang, since it was the inscribed oracle bones which ultimately distinguished ancient Chinese culture from other parts of the world. The Longshan culture of black pottery in the east (representing indigenous Chinese culture) was thus viewed as a http://historum.com/#">system independent from the Yangshao culture of painted pottery in the west (thought to be foreign diffusion). It became hopeful that “if we can trace back the distribution and development of the black pottery culture represented by Chengziyai, most problems in the formative period of Chinese history would be resolved.





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http://hwyst.hangzhou.com.cn/wmyzh/content/2013-10/09/content_4920423.htm

Liangzhu was typified by hallmarks which glorified 5000 years of China.


Posted By: theSinitic
Date Posted: 09-Jun-2014 at 03:36
http://tv.sohu.com/20110614/n310142093.shtml - http://tv.sohu.com/20110614/n310142093.shtml

- Documentary on China's first capital, the Liangzhu city state

http://www.wasu.cn/Play/show/id/1612569 - http://www.wasu.cn/Play/show/id/1612569

- Round table live recording program on the officially recognized Liangzhu civilization which extends Sinitic civilization to 5000 years into the past.



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http://hwyst.hangzhou.com.cn/wmyzh/content/2013-10/09/content_4920423.htm

Liangzhu was typified by hallmarks which glorified 5000 years of China.


Posted By: theSinitic
Date Posted: 09-Jun-2014 at 03:41

The black pottery of Longshan horizon, the oldest of which are dated to Liangzhu.


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http://hwyst.hangzhou.com.cn/wmyzh/content/2013-10/09/content_4920423.htm

Liangzhu was typified by hallmarks which glorified 5000 years of China.


Posted By: theSinitic
Date Posted: 09-Jun-2014 at 03:48
http://www.3news.co.nz/Ancient-writing-found-in-China/tabid/1160/articleID/304580/Default.aspx#ixzz2YqkKoBtz - http://www.3news.co.nz/Ancient-writing-found-in-China/tabid/1160/articleID/304580/Default.aspx#ixzz2YqkKoBtz

Writing in words/sentences found on Liangzhu artifacts.




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http://hwyst.hangzhou.com.cn/wmyzh/content/2013-10/09/content_4920423.htm

Liangzhu was typified by hallmarks which glorified 5000 years of China.


Posted By: hansun
Date Posted: 10-Jun-2014 at 17:06
^I don't see any writing to be quite frank with you. Unless that's your point.


Posted By: theSinitic
Date Posted: 10-Jun-2014 at 23:25
The writing was etched in small font.  It's not the various scratches you see on the surface which may have been due to other reasons.  The archaeologists didn't notice them at first either.

A better example of the character etching is revealed on black pottery.




-------------
http://hwyst.hangzhou.com.cn/wmyzh/content/2013-10/09/content_4920423.htm

Liangzhu was typified by hallmarks which glorified 5000 years of China.



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