Liangzhu Culture: Society, Belief, and Art in Neolithic China

259 Pages·2019·166.697 MB·English

by  Bin Liu, Ling Qin

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Liangzhu Culture

The Liangzhu Culture (3,300–2 ,300 BC) represented the peak of prehistoric cultural
and social development in the Yangtze Delta. With a wide sphere of influence centred
near present- day Hangzhou City, the Liangzhu City is considered one of the earliest
urban centres in prehistoric China. Although it remains a mystery for many in the
West, Liangzhu is well known in China for its fine jade- crafting industry; its enor-
mous, well- structured earthen palatial compound and recently discovered hydraulic
system; and its far-fl ung impact on contemporary and succeeding cultures. The
archaeological ruins of Liangzhu City were added to the UNESCO World Cultural
Heritage List in July 2019.
Liangzhu Culture contextualises Liangzhu in broad socio-e conomic and cultural
backgrounds and provides new, first- hand data to help explain the development and
structure of this early urban centre. Among its many insights, the volume reveals
how elites used jade as a means of acquiring social power, and how Liangzhu and its
centre stand in comparison to other prehistoric urban centres in the world.
This book, the first of its kind published in the English language, will be a useful
guide to students at all levels interested in the material culture and social structures
of prehistoric China and beyond.
Liu Bin* is Professor and Director of Zhejiang Provincial Institute of Cultural Relics
and Archaeology. He has joined or directed excavations at the Fanshan, Yaoshan,
Huiguanshan, and Nanhebang sites, and the Liangzhu City since 1985. His main
research interests include the prehistory of the Lower Yangtze River and the archae-
ology of jade.
Qin Ling is Associate Professor of Neolithic Archaeology and Archaeobotany at
the School of Archaeology and Museology, Peking University, Beijing. Her research
interests include scientific research on Neolithic jades in Eastern China, early agricul-
tural developments in the Lower Yangtze River and Southwest China, and compara-
tive perspective on civilisational discourses across East Asia.
Zhuang Yijie is Associate Professor in Chinese Archaeology at the Institute of
Archaeology, University College London. He applies geoarchaeological approaches
to reconstruct ecologies of early agriculture and long- term land use changes in East,
South, and Southeast Asia. He is also interested in the comparison of diverse trajec-
tories to social complexity in these regions.
* The Chinese names in this book all start with their surnames, followed by their given names.
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Liangzhu Culture

Society, Belief, and Art in
Neolithic China
Edited by Liu Bin, Qin Ling,
and Zhuang Yijie
iv
First published 2020
by Routledge
2 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon, OX14 4RN
and by Routledge
52 Vanderbilt Avenue, New York, NY 10017
Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group, an informa business
© 2020 selection and editorial matter, Liu Bin, Qin Ling and Zhuang Yijie;
individual chapters, the contributors
The right of Liu Bin, Qin Ling and Zhuang Yijie to be identified as the authors of the
editorial material, and of the authors for their individual chapters, has been asserted
in accordance with sections 77 and 78 of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or utilised
in any form or by any electronic, mechanical, or other means, now known or
hereafter invented, including photocopying and recording, or in any information
storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publishers.
Trademark notice: Product or corporate names may be trademarks or registered trademarks,
and are used only for identification and explanation without intent to infringe.
British Library Cataloguing- in- Publication Data
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library
Library of Congress Cataloging- in- Publication Data
A catalog record has been requested for this book
ISBN: 978-1-138-55740-6 (hbk)
ISBN: 978-1-315-15101-4 (ebk)
Typeset in Sabon
by Newgen Publishing UK
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Contents

List of illustrations vi

List of contributors xii

Acknowledgements xiii

Preface xiv

1 Situating the Liangzhu Culture in late Neolithic
China: An introduction 1

LIU BIN, QIN LING, AND ZHUANG YIJIE
2 The Liangzhu City: New discoveries and research 18

LIU BIN, WANG NINGYUAN, AND CHEN MINGHUI
3 Power and belief: Reading the Liangzhu jade and society 49

QIN LING
4 A controlled fine craft: Jade production techniques
in the Liangzhu Culture 115

FANG XIANGMING
5 From the ‘Songze Style’ to the ‘Liangzhu Mode’ 165

ZHAO HUI
6 Shamanistic, historic, and virtuous jade: Continuity
and change in early Chinese jade traditions 186

SUN QINGWEI
Glossary 206

List of historical records 214

Bibliography 215

Index 234
vi
List of illustrations

Figures
1.1 Typical pottery of the Liangzhu Culture from Bianjiashan 3
1.2 Locations of key sites mentioned in the chapters 8
2.1 The C- shaped basin and the distribution of Liangzhu sites
in the basin 20
2.2 Location of the Liangzhu site cluster and important
excavation locations mentioned in the chapter, including
the hydraulic system outside the city 21
2.3 Section of northern (left) and southern (right) Liangzhu
City walls 23
2.4 Landscape around the Liangzhu site cluster: early phase 24
2.5 Landscape around the Liangzhu site cluster: late phase 25
2.6 Plan and diagram of the earthen layers of Mojiaoshan 26
2.7 Earthen- platform architecture no. 1 on top of Damojiaoshan 27
2.8 The ditch on the south slope of Damojiaoshan and wooden
planks at the bottom of the ditch 28
2.9 Remains of stone structures at Damojiaoshan 28
2.10 Remains of ditches south- west of Damojiaoshan 30
2.11 Remains of the wooden structure and clay wrapped by
grasses on the south- west slope of Mojiaoshan 30
2.12 Illustration of the stratigraphy of the east slope of the
Mojiaoshan Platform 31
2.13 Digital elevation model (DEM) of the periphery of the
Liangzhu site cluster 31
2.14 Remains of the wooden riverbank at the Meirendi site 32
2.15 The dock at the site of Bianjiashan 32
2.16 Section of Ganggongling dam damaged by soil removal 34
2.17 Altar and elite cemetery on Yaoshan and diagram of
astronomical observations on the altar 37
2.18 Top view of the settlement and paddy fields uncovered
from the Maoshan site 38
2.19 Plan of Liangzhu period moats at the Yujiashan site 39
vi i
List of illustrations vii
2.20 Shenhui insignia carved on the ‘king’ of cong tube, from
the Fanshan site tomb no. M12 43
2.21 The ‘king’ of yue axes, from the Fanshan site tomb no. M12 44
2.22 Carbonised rice recovered by flotation, found in pit no.
H11 on the east slope of Mojiaoshan 45
2.23 Liangzhu lacquerware 46
2.24 Incised pottery 47
3.1 Distribution of tombs at the Fanshan cemetery (from
south to north) 50
3.2 Fanshan tomb no. M20 (from south to north) 51
3.3 Cong- style zhuxingqi cylindrical objects from Fanshan
tomb no. M20 52
3.4 A set of semi-circular ornaments from Fanshan tomb no.
M20 (back and front sides) 53
3.5 A set of zhuixingqi awl- shaped objects from Fanshan tomb
no. M20 54
3.6a Sanchaxingqi three- pronged object from Fanshan tomb no.
M20 (front and back view) 55
3.6b Sanchaxingqi three- pronged object from Fanshan tomb no. M14 56
3.7 Sanchaxingqi three- pronged object from Yaoshan tomb no. M7 56
3.8a Cong tube, Fanshan M20:122 57
3.8b Comparison of the Fanshan and Yaoshan cong tubes 58
3.8c Cong tube, Yaoshan M12 (2789) 59
3.9 Comparison of cong tubes from a top view–left: Bracelet
type, Fanshan M20:121; right: Tube type, Fanshan M20:123 60
3.10a Cong tube, Fanshan M20:124 61
3.10b Same structure of four sections form on the cong tubes
from Fanshan tomb no. M12 62
3.11 Birds on guanzhuangshi cockscomb- shaped object from
Yaoshan tomb no. M2:1 63
3.12 Birds on the cong tubes from Fuquanshan tomb no. M9
(left) and Wujiachang tomb no. M204 (right) 63
3.13 Animal eyes on cong tubes from Fanshan tomb no. M20
(left) and Fuquanshan tomb no. M65 (right) 64
3.14a Jade yue axe and end ornaments from Fanshan tomb no. M20 65
3.14b Stone yue axes from Fanshan tomb no. M20 66
3.14c Stone yue axes from Wenjiashan tomb no. M1 66
3.15a Bi disk, Fanshan M20:186 67
3.15b Poor quality bi disks, Fanshan M20 68
3.15c Comparison of diameters of bi disks (Y) and holes (X) 69
3.16a Details of beads set with cong- styled tube beads (106
pieces), Fanshan tomb no. M20 70
3.16b Beads set (88 pieces), Fanshan no. M20 70
3.17a Carved animal mask on pottery sherds from waste deposit
of the west wall of the Liangzhu City 74
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viii List of illustrations
3.17b Carved pattern (bird head with snake body) on pottery
sherds from Bianjiashan site 74
3.17c Carved pattern (bird and geometric design) on spout
fragment of pottery hu kettle from Bianjiashan site 74
3.18 Burial goods assemblage from Bianjiashan tomb no. M6 76
3.19a Huang semi- circular ornament, Fanshan tomb no. M22:8 78
3.19b Huang semi- circular ornament, Fanshan tomb no. M22:20,
compared with 3.19a in terms of the different way of
viewing carved motif 79
3.19c Reconstruction of ‘huang’- tube pedants on head
of female 79
3.19d Unearthed arrangement of huang and round- shaped plaque
pedants on the neck and chest of female 80
3.19e Rounded- shaped plaques with dragon-h eads pattern from
Fanshan tomb no. M22 81
3.19f Detail of dragon-h eads pattern towards the same direction 81
3.20 Drilled stone cores discovered at Wenjiashan 83
3.21a Raw jade material and by-p roducts excavated from Jincun
jade workshop site of Tangshan 85
3.21b Sandstone grounding tools excavated from Jincun jade
workshop site of Tangshan 85
3.21c Flint carving tool excavated from Jincun jade workshop site
of Tangshan 86
3.22a Unfinished cong tubes collected from Wujiabu site 87
3.22b Broken piece of cong tube with unpolished tubular drilling
marks, collected from Pingyao 87
3.22c Tubular drill core of a tall cong tube, collected from the
Wujiabu site 88
3.23 Comparison of jade objects with hollow carving 92
3.24 Crossed patterns and round-hole curved triangles on Songze
pottery 93
3.25 Comparison of single- line carving pattern (left) and dragon
patterns (right) 94
3.26 Filled carving style of animal-f ace patterns carved on
zhuxingqi cylindrical objects from Yaoshan tombs no. M9
(left) and no. M11 (right) 95
3.27 Comparison of sanchaxingqi three- pronged objects from
the British Museum (Hotung collection) (top) and Yaoshan
tomb no. M10 (bottom) 96
3.28 介- shaped animal- face patterns from Fanshan tombs no.
M17 (top), no. M14 (middle), and no. M12 (bottom) 98
3.29a Zhuxingqi cylindrical object from Fanshan tomb no. M12,
ink rubbing (left) and photo (right) 99
3.29b Detail of cylindrical object from Hengshan tomb no. M2 100
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List of illustrations ix
3.30 Comparison of the bas- relief patterns from an object from
Hengshan (top) and huang semi- circular ornament from
Fanshan tomb no. M12 (bottom) 101
3.31 Combination of sacred human, animal, and bird on the jade
comb head from Yaoshan tomb no. M2 101
3.32 Guanzhuangshi cockscomb- shaped objects with hollow
carving from Fanshan tomb no. M15 102
3.33 Ivory object from Wujiachang tomb no. M207 103
3.34 Jade spoon from Yaoshan tomb no. M12 (note detail
of carving pattern shown in 3.34b) 105
3.35 Three largest cong tubes from Yaoshan (top), Fanshan
(middle), and Sidun (bottom) 106
3.36 Square cong tubes from Yaoshan 108
3.37 Bracelet- like cong tube from Yaoshan tomb no. M9 109
3.38 Comparison of early bracelet-l ike cong tubes and carved
patterns 110
3.39a Zhuoshicong bracelet- like cong tube from Huiguanshan
tomb no. M2 111
3.39b Expanded view of zhuoshicong bracelet- like cong tube
from Huiguanshan tomb no. M2 111
3.39c Comparison of carved eyes on the zhuoshicong
bracelet- like cong tube from Huiguanshan tomb
no. M2 (left) and Fanshan tomb no. M12 (right) 112
3.40 Late Liangzhu period zhuoshicong bracelet- like
cong tubes 113
4.1 Jade with various colours and in different stages of
decomposition, from the Fanshan tomb no. M14 117
4.2 Two samples of raw jade from Tangshan (front and back views) 119
4.3 Cong tube no. M7:50 from the Yaoshan site and an ink
rubbing of the object 119
4.4 Quartz in the initial stages for making jue slit ring, tube,
and huang semi- circular ornament, from the Fangjiazhou
site in Tonglu 122
4.5 Jade- carving marks on the raw material from the
Mopandun site in Dandu according to Zhang Min’s
observations in 1984 123
4.6 String- cut mark on bi disk M14:228 from Fanshan 124
4.7 Jade ornaments made with the xiansou string- cut openwork
technique, from the Gushan site, the Xuejiagang site, and
the Lingjiatan site 125
4.8 Huang semi- circular ornament M4:34 from the
Yaoshan site 125
4.9 Five sets of matching flat round rings from Yaoshan tomb
no. M11 126
4.10 Assembled split cong tubes M2:14 and M2:21, from the
Hengshan site in Yuyao 127