China News Service, Hangzhou, October 20th. Title: 90th Anniversary of the Discovery of Liangzhu: It is more important to understand the diversity of civilizations than to stick to a single theory.
Author Lin Bo
In 1936, Shi Xin, a curator at the West Lake Museum, collected black pottery fragments from the bottom of the chessboard tomb in Liangzhu, Hangzhou, thus kicking off the archeology of Liangzhu. Over the past ninety years, several generations of archaeologists have continued to explore the origins, making the appearance of this prehistoric city in the lower reaches of the Yangtze River gradually clear.
At present, the fourth "Liangzhu Forum" is being held, and Chinese and foreign scholars are gathering in Liangzhu again. This gives a question a new discussion context: What does Liangzhu mean to the world? The significance of Liangzhu to the world's understanding of Chinese civilization lies not so much in rewriting the chronological coordinates as in rewriting the scale for measuring civilization.
On October 18, the fourth "Liangzhu Forum" opened in Hangzhou. Photo by Wang Gang
For a long time, the international archaeological tradition has been accustomed to measuring civilization with the three rulers of "words, metals, and cities." This set of standards is not made out of thin air, but is based on the archaeological experience in Mesopotamia, Ancient Egypt and other regions. However, under the influence of existing standards, academic circles once tended to set the upper limit of Chinese civilization at the Shang Dynasty, about 3,500 years ago.
The problem is not the academic value of the ruler itself, but that it is easily regarded as a universal template that can be applied everywhere.
The discovery of the Liangzhu ruins started from the "substandard" place.
In 1959, Chinese archaeologist Xia Nai officially named the "Liangzhu Culture"; in 1986, a large number of jade congs and jade axes were unearthed in Fanshan Cemetery, revealing a mature ritual system; in 2007, the ancient city walls of Liangzhu were confirmed, and a prehistoric city covering an area of more than 3 million square meters surfaced; in 2015, the peripheral large-scale water conservancy system was identified as a whole.
On October 17, tourists from home and abroad visited the ruins of Liangzhu Ancient City. (Photo courtesy of Hangzhou Liangzhu Heritage Management Area Management Committee)
City walls, class differentiation, unified beliefs and rituals, and cross-regional collaboration systems were gradually put together. Liangzhu was no longer just synonymous with exquisite jade, but an observable early state form.
In 2019, the Liangzhu Ancient City ruins were included in the World Heritage List. An increasing number of international scholars point out based on physical evidence that Liangzhu society, about 5,300 years ago, has entered the stage of early national civilization.
This is not to deny the traditional civilization yardstick, but to remind the academic community that the yardstick comes from local experience and cannot be the only threshold for global civilization. What Liangzhu provides is a key to correcting a single scale.
This is the important revelation that the 90th anniversary of the discovery of the Liangzhu ruins has brought to the world: the origins and development paths of human civilization are diverse, and a single template should not be used to cover ancient civilizations in different regions. It is more important to understand the diversity of civilizations than to stick to a single conclusion.
This is also the value of this Liangzhu Forum. Ninety years later, Liangzhu is no longer just a Chinese archaeological discovery, but has become a dazzling coordinate for cross-civilization dialogue.
On October 17, tourists at home and abroad viewed the jade cong at Liangzhu Museum. (Photo courtesy of Hangzhou Liangzhu Heritage Management Area Management Committee)
Scholars from around the world discuss the protection of large sites and mutual learning of early civilizations here. Liangzhu provides a clear example: Archeology can become a public discourse that transcends language and cultural differences. Heritage technology, activated communication, cultural creativity, etc. are also carriers of civilizational exchanges; different civilizations can fully rely on physical evidence to carry out equal dialogues.
As a researcher who pays attention to the Liangzhu ancient city ruins and an important promoter of the Liangzhu ancient city ruins' application for World Heritage, the famous archaeologist and professor at the University of Cambridge in the UK once said, "I am an admirer of Liangzhu." He compared Liangzhu to the civilizations of ancient Egypt, ancient Mesopotamia and ancient India, and believed that China's national civilization was advanced by more than 1,000 years through Liangzhu.
Not only did he devote two pages to introducing the Liangzhu ancient city ruins in his book "Archaeology: Theory, Method and Practice", but he also promoted it in many public academic lectures.
The cognition of civilization is never a one-time conclusion, but a process of continuous discussion and mutual correction based on the physical evidence that is constantly discovered. The significance of Liangzhu is not to add an earlier chronological number to the history of civilization, but to remind the world that there should be more than just one ruler when measuring civilization; understanding civilization requires continuous deepening through physical evidence.
Ninety years later, in Liangzhu, exploration is still continuing. This civilizational debate initiated by the ancient city is also expected to arouse more resonance in continued international academic exchanges. (over)
