Based on recent archaeological discoveries, combined with
historical records in pre-Qin Dynasty documents, the long process
of the Hubei-Hunan Culture that developed on both sides of the
Yangtze River, which made significant contributions to the
formation and development of ancient Chinese civilization, can now
be traced back to the pre-Yandi Shen Nong and Yandi-Huangdi
cultures.
Archaeologically speaking, the early and middle periods of the
Neolithic Age in China, i.e. the legendary Shen Nong Era, lie
between 5,000 and 10,000 years ago. The legendary Huangdi Era dates
back to around 5,000 years ago, corresponding with the transitional
period from the terminal stage of the Neolithic Age to the Bronze
Age. In history, Yandi and Huangdi can refer to either two
well-known tribal chiefs, or their tribes or clans. In the latter
case, Yandi and Huangdi represent two eras respectively.
Before these legendary eras, Hunan
Province still has a history of Paleolithic culture lasting
hundreds of thousands of years. Jiangyong, as well as the nearby
region in south Hunan, with a warm and wet climate, is the original
wild rice growing area. At the Yuchandong (Cave of Jade Toad) Site
in Daoxian County adjoining Jiangyong, pottery and three
well-preserved rice seeds over 10,000 years old have been
unearthed. Of these three seeds, both the wild and cultivated rice
are represented, and the latter with combined characteristics of
wild rice, long-grained non-glutinous rice and round-grained
non-glutinous rice is the earliest sample of cultivated rice in the
world. This discovery has proven that prehistoric people living in
today's Daoxian County took the lead in transforming the wild rice
by means of cultivation, heralding the consequent cultivation of
paddy.
As
early as later period of the Paleolithic Age, the middle reaches of
the Yangtze River had already become the link between the Hubei
Culture on the north side and the Hunan Culture to the south. The
Liyang alluvial plain, with spongy soil in the Dongting Lake valley
in Hunan, which is bounded on the north by Jiangling and the
surrounding area in Hubei,
has the natural conditions to develop large-scale cultivation of
paddy. Prehistoric people began to move into this plain in the late
Paleolithic Age.
Pre-written language ideographical pictures, ideographs and totems
have been found at the Pengtoushan Site in Lixian County dating
back eight or nine thousand years. Over 20,000 grains of rice, as
well as farm and processing implements including wooden lei
(ancient fork-like plough), wooden spade, bone spade and wooden
pestle were unearthed at the Bashi Site in the same county dating
back some 8,000 years ago, a prehistoric site producing the most
cultivated paddy in the world. This discovery coincides with the
account in Zhouyi, an ancient divinatory book: "
Shen Nong (Divine Farmer) made lei and si of
wood, benefiting the whole country." It also tallies with the
records of "the 70th generation of Shen Nong's descendants
conquering the country" in Shizi, a history compiled during
the Period
of the Warring States and of "Yandi proclaiming himself emperor
for 530 years" in Sequel to Biography of Three Sage Kings.
It is thus clear that after migrating into Liyang from Shaanxi and
Gansu, the Shen Nong tribe gradually developed settled agriculture
and large-scale paddy cultivation. Their mature technology of
earthenware-making represented by painted pottery, white pottery
and fu in all kinds of forms influenced as far as the
Yuanjiang River valley, Xiangjiang River basin, as well as northern
Hubei.
The excavation of the rice-field and Chengtoushan Old Town ruins in
Lixian County, dating back 6,500 years, has proven the legendary
account that, according to Shen Nong's rules, it was "market time
at midday." At the Bashi Site in Lixian County, ruins of some
buildings based on platforms were excavated. The main body of the
foundation of one building is about 40 centimeters above ground,
with its four corners extending outside as horns. The plane figure
of this foundation is like a starfish. The discovery indicates that
the Bashi Site obviously built for ritual purposes could be the
political center during the Shen Nong Era. Legend has it that Shen
Nong left his homeland for the south to practice medicine, and was
killed by a poisonous herb during his experiments with various
plants. Due to the invention of agriculture, the Shen Nong clan was
supported as the leading tribe. With the lapse of time, after being
defeated in the Battle of Banquan,
Yandi (Red Emperor) -- Shen Nong's last offspring -- led his
tribe to retire to their native land -- presumably, today's Lixian
County as well as the surrounding area -- where Yandi was finally
buried near his ancestors' tombs. By and large, growing in the
heartland of the Shen Nong tribe, the Hubei-Hunan Culture which
developed in the Shen Nong Era was consequently bathed in the
spirit of the Shen Nong tribal culture.
Even before Yandi's death, Huangdi's tribe rose in the Yellow River
valley, and united with Yandi's tribe to enter into the
Yandi-Huangdi alliance, the most powerful tribal league in ancient
China. Yandi -- the founder of this alliance -- was later replaced
by
Huangdi (Yellow Emperor) who expanded the territory and unified
the Central Plains. Since then, ancient China entered the tribal
league epoch on the eve of the appearance of the state. Holding
high the banner of the Yandi-Huangdi alliance, Huangdi advanced the
primitive civilization founded by Yandi to a new historical stage,
and laid the solid basis for China, the most populous country with
an ancient civilization, the greatest number of ethnic groups, and
thousands of years of unification. The Hubei-Hunan Culture was
spontaneously merged into the Yandi-Huangdi Culture.
The basic spirit of the Yandi-Huangdi Culture was epitomized in
Zhouyi as "Self-discipline and Social Commitment," which
became the foundation of the Hubei-Hunan Culture. The pragmatic,
flexible, proactive and matter-of-fact philosophical thinking of
Chou Tun-i in the Northern
Song Dynasty and Wang Fu-chih living in the late Ming and early
Qing dynasties had been deeply influenced by this long-standing
tradition. The early enlightenment thinking in the 17th century
represented by Wang Fu-chih's philosophy provided important
theoretical backing for the modern national salvation movement
popular at the end of the Qing
Dynasty.
(光明日報
[Guangming Daily], translated by Shao Da for china.org.cn,
July 9, 2002)