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Chinese Civilization: Origin and Development. The Yuanmou Man (1.7 million years ago) The Beijing Man ( 700,000-200,000 years ago) Yangshao Culture (5,000-3000 BC) Banpo Culture Hemudu Culture (5,000 -4,000 BC). The Yuanmou Man.
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Chinese Civilization: Origin and Development • The Yuanmou Man (1.7 million years ago) • The Beijing Man ( 700,000-200,000 years ago) • Yangshao Culture (5,000-3000 BC) • Banpo Culture • Hemudu Culture (5,000 -4,000 BC)
Human life has been found in Yunnan as early as 1.7 million years ago, predating Beijing Man of northern China by up to 1.5 million years. The remains of "Yuanmou Man" (元谋人), unearthed by railway engineers in the 1960s, have been determined to be the oldest in China. By the Neolithic period, there were human settlements in the area of Lake Dian (滇池). These people used stone tools and constructed simple wooden structures.
These two teeth, belonging to the same male adult. These are the earliest ape-man fossils that have been found in Yunnan, China.
The Peking Man is believed to have led a communal life in caves some 700,000 to 200,000 years ago, and be using crude stone tools for a living on foraging and hunting. Beijing Man
Characteristics of Neolithic Way of Life • This kind of life is characterized by reliance on farming for food, by the use of pottery, and by the making of stone implements by grinding.
The best known Neolithic sites remain those of the Yellow River valley. The first discovery was made in 1920 by farmers of Yangshao Village in northern Henan, near the great bend of the Yellow River. • Typically Yangshao Culture was one practiced by settled farmers, living in villages sited in the valleys of the Yellow River drainage system.
They cultivated foxtail millet, and, to supplement their diet they collected wild • grain and went hunting and fishing. They had domesticated dogs and pigs and a few cattle, sheep and goats, and they may have grown hemp and raised silkworms. • The best known production of Yangshao culture is itsceramics and in particular the painted pottery used at meals and for rituals.
During the early Neolithic period vessels were made using the coil technique where ropes of clay are circled on top of each other, pressed together and the surface smoothed over. To obtain the elegant shape, two halves were made then joined together while the clay was still damp. A mix of fine clay and natural pigments was painted onto the vessels and the entire surface was gently burnished to shine the surface. This is the earliest form of glazing (上釉).
Yangshao culture of Neolithic age period, Painted pottery basin.
Yangshao culture of Neolithic age period, Painted pottery basin
A matriarchal clan society featured the early phase of the New Stone Age. • The Yangshao Culture, which dates to 5,000 to 3,000 years BC, was the best representative of the matriarchal clan society during its heyday. • The Yangshao Culture falls into several types dating to different periods. One is represented by the Banpo Ruins in Xi’an City, Shaanxi Province.
半坡文化三角纹钵 The best known Yangshao site is that of Banpo near Xi’an in southern Shaanxi. It was quite a large village, containing perhaps one hundred houses surrounded by a ditch. Unearthed in Qi’an. This pottery is about 6,000 year’s old. Banpo Culture
Excavations done so far on the ruins there prove that the Banpo residents were able to build residential buildings. • They led a settled life in villages of fairly large size, used pottery containers to cook food or hold things with, and made pottery swords for cutting.
In one of the pottery jars excavated from the Banpo Ruins, archaeologists found cabbage, leaf mustard and other seeds. • Many pottery vessels are painted in red with brown or black motifs in shapes of human figures or fish, and for this they are referred to as Cai Tao or “painted pottery”.
The Hemudu Culture on the lower reaches of the Yangtze River dates to 5,000 BC to 4,000 BC. • Its discovery at Hemudu Village, Yuyao County, Zhejiang Province, east China, is equally important to studies of the New Stone Age in China. • Pottery ware unearthed here ---bowls, plates, basins, jars, etc.--- are black in color and in shape that are rarely seen in pottery artifacts belonging to other primitive cultures identified in China.
A wealth of stone, bone and wooden articles for daily use were also unearthed. • Among these, structural parts of looms, textile pieces made of plant fibers, painted wooden bowls and ivory carvings testify to how developed primitive production techniques and handcraft skills had become.
Longshan Culture • About 5,000 years ago, China entered the patriarchal clan society. In the Yellow River Valley, a typical example of this patriarchal clan society was the Longshan Culture (from 3,000 years BC to 2,200 years BC), which was also found in Zhejiang Province.
Hongshan Culture (about 3,500 years BC) • The Hongshan Culture ( about 3,500 years BC) on the outskirts of Chifeng City, Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region, is unique among those primitive cultures found so far in China.
A large altar, a fairy temple and a tomb of piled up rocks are the most salient features of Hongshan Culture.
Early Dynasties • Yao was said to have devised agrarian calendars. • Shun: a model ruler who continued Yao’s practice and chose a paragon, a man named Yu. • It was at this point Chinese history begins to supplement the archaeological record, because Yu was believed to have founded a dynasty called Xia (夏, about 2205-1766 BC)
The Xia Dynasty (about 22-17 BC) • In about 21st century BC, Xia Dynasty, China’s first monarchical power, came into being in the western part of what is now Henan Province and the southern part of what is now Shanxi Province. • Classical history works show that the Xia people built water control projects and worked out a calendar for farm work in different seasons of the year.
The Shang Dynasty (about 16th – 11th BC) • Shang Dynasty came into being in the northern part of the Yellow River Valley, and had moved its capital several times before it settled in Yin or what is Anyang of Henan Province. • In Anyang, archeologists have found the foundations of scores of Shang rulers.
Ideographs cut on tortoise shells or animal bones unearthed from the Yin ruins. Those oracle bone inscriptions known as Jiaguwen (甲古文), are in fact Chinese characters in the most primitive form known to us.
Bronze smelting techniques of the Shang period were fairly sophisticated . Meat, grain and wine vessels used by Shang rulers at sacrificial sites were all made of bronze. • In the Shang and succeeding dynasties, there was a wide spread use of bronze vessels in court ceremonies, banquets and burials, etc. In other words, bronze vessels were no longer used just as containers. They symbolized the power and positions of their owners.
