He Academic Monthly 2005/08, click: 597.
Integrity of Indochina Peninsula and Southwest China in the Third Bronze Age
Integrity of Indochina Peninsula and Southwest China in the Third Bronze Age
Archaeological data show that all cultures in the Bronze Age in southwest China have their own characteristics and some features, which indicates that the integrity of this period has reached a new height. The earliest bronze culture in Sichuan is Sanxingdui culture (that is, Shu culture) and Ba culture, which is contemporaneous with or even earlier than the Shang culture in the Central Plains. The bronze culture in Yunnan can also be divided into several branches, including central Yunnan, western Yunnan and southern Yunnan, each with its own differences. Guizhou has Yelang culture; Western Guangxi is mainly similar to the giant tripod culture in southern Yunnan. In Vietnam, it is mainly Dongshan culture; The northeastern part of Thailand is Banqing culture. These major archaeological cultures are different and * * *. Zhang Guangzhi once pointed out: "The discovery of Shizhai Mountain, Taiji Mountain and Lijiashan cannot be underestimated. They are similar to the typical site of Dongshan culture in Tokyo Bay, and many similarities between the three tombs undoubtedly show that they represent the same culture. They have the following characteristics: bronze drums; Fan-shaped and shoe-shaped shafts; Bronze relief; Cattle and peacocks as the theme; Some ornamentation, etc. ..... I think that this highly developed civilization is obviously centered on Yunnan and northern China, but its influence is very extensive. " [10] Obviously, Mr. Zhang has realized the integrity of bronze culture in southwest China and Indochina Peninsula. Wang Dadao divided Yunnan's bronze age civilization into two regions, one from Erhai Lake, the vast area east of Jimo River-Jiang Lixian and south of Jinsha River, and the other from Erhai Lake and the area west of Mojiang-Jiang Lixian. Specifically, he divided the former regions into three types, namely, Yunnan culture (called Shizhaishan culture in Ningsheng Wang), Erhai regional culture and Honghe regional culture. The latter area can be divided into two types: bronze culture in the upper reaches of Nujiang River, Lancang River and Jinsha River and culture in the middle and lower reaches of Lancang River [1 1].
Many scholars have written about Yunnan culture and bronze culture around Erhai Lake, and they all think that it has many * * * relations with other cultures. Honghe culture is geographically connected with Yunnan culture and Dongshan culture in Vietnam. Therefore, to discuss the integrity of this large area, we should take it as a key point and reveal its characteristics as a transit point for two major cultures [12]. Honghe culture is distributed in the present Honghe field, and its tombs are the same as Yunnan culture, all of which are rectangular vertical hole soil pit tombs; Agricultural tools, like Yunnan culture, are mainly long strip hoes with shoulders and pointed copper shovels; In addition, there is a square bronze dagger. Among the ruins of Pomegranate Dam, there is also a kind of Hugo with wings, which was also found in Ansan and the Qing court in Vietnam. There are winged pigeons in Lijiashan in Jiangchuan, Shizhai Mountain in Jinning and Dongshan and Xiangshan in Vietnam. The difference is that they are all beards [13]. In the northeast of Wenshan Prefecture, it was the territory of Jumachi in the Western Han Dynasty. The funerary objects found here in the tombs of bronze drums and coffins earlier than the early Western Han Dynasty are similar to those in the Central Plains, but they also have a strong local color and can be compared with Yunnan cultural relics [14]. Zhuding, located between South Vietnam, Yelang and Yunnan, has become the hub of these three economic zones. It is adjacent to Yelang and Louwo in the north, Yunnan in the west, and convenient transportation provided by Panjiang and Nanpanjiang in the middle. It is adjacent to South Vietnam in the east, accessible along Honghe and Yujiang, and accessible along Jinjiang and Mingjiang in the south. Convenient transportation is conducive to cultural exchanges between ethnic groups. "Huayang Guozhi Nanzhongzhi" said that the town country "comes from Pu, not". Similar to Yunnan, Yelang, Galand, Mimo and Louwo [15], the production level and customs are similar, so its bronze culture has a strong consistency with Yunnan and Yelang. As mentioned earlier, typical bronze drums, bronze swords and jade rings in the Central Plains and Yunnan cultural systems were unearthed in the Warring States Tomb in Tiandong County, Guangxi. These two different styles of objects were found in the same cemetery in the middle reaches of Youjiang River, indicating that the communication between Lingnan and Yunnan and the Central Plains had been opened before the Han Dynasty. Archaeological discoveries in Wenshan, Guangnan and Xichou all proved this point [17].
Many typical artifacts in the southwest of China are also widely distributed in Southeast Asia, which are important materials to explore the ancient culture and its relationship in this area. The most important piece of this kind is a bronze drum, and the other piece is a copper cymbal [18] with asymmetrical ends at the blade. Since the 7th century BC, there have been bronze drums in Chuxiong, central and western Yunnan, which have been circulating for more than 2,600 years. They are distributed in China's Yunnan, Guizhou, Guangxi, Chongqing, Sichuan and other eight provinces and regions, and Southeast Asia's Vietnam, Laos, Cambodia, Myanmar, Thailand, Malaysia, Indonesia and other countries, covering a large area and having quite complex ethnic composition. The study of bronze drums is of great significance to the study of ancient national history and culture in southern China and Southeast Asia. Since the bronze drums were unearthed at Dongshan Cultural Site in Vietnam in the11920s, many bronze drums have been unearthed in Yunnan, Guizhou and Guangxi since the11950s. These archaeological excavations have been dated by carbon 14, and according to the known age knowledge of * * * objects, they have been able to accurately judge their burial age, which provides a reliable ruler for judging the age and distribution area of similar bronze drums handed down from generation to generation. Many scholars have done a lot of research on bronze drums, so I won't go into details here. To be sure, the distribution area of bronze drum culture is exactly the area to be discussed in this paper, and its distribution just confirms this view.
In Honghe area, the widespread popularity of shoe-shaped graupel (asymmetric graupel) is also a major feature of this area. Although the Red River region may be the origin of the boots-shaped cymbals, only Shizhaishan and Lijiashan have unearthed asymmetric cymbals in Yunnan culture, and only 2 1 piece of 65 bronzes in the two places is asymmetric, so asymmetric cymbals are not the main form of Yunnan bronze cymbals [19]. In fact, this kind of shoe-shaped asymmetrical cymbal, like many bronzes in the south, has many production centers: "Due to the cultural origin of South China and Southeast Asia, many ethnic groups living in this area often use the same utensils and maintain the same and similar customs. ... The study of asymmetrical bronze cymbals shows once again that the bronze civilizations in South China and Southeast Asia share some common cultural characteristics. The Bronze Age in southern China and Southeast Asia reached its peak in Yunnan and its neighboring northern and central Vietnam. ... asymmetrical bronze cymbals and other signs show that Dongshan culture and Shizhaishan culture, which represent the heyday of the bronze age in southern China and Southeast Asia, have a certain cultural inheritance relationship with the early bronze culture in this area "[18]. This view is very insightful. Ningsheng Wang, who holds this view, said that cymbals of this shape could not have originated from stone tools, because there are no stone axes of this shape in Southeast Asia and Yunnan, so where did they originate? Archaeological data show that in the middle reaches of the Lancang River basin, a kind of shoulder stone tools with very similar shapes have been found in western Yunnan, western Sichuan, Manghuai, Changning, Yunxian, Jingdong and Longling, as well as in the lower reaches (namely the Mekong River) in northern Thailand and southern Vietnam. In the Stone Age sites in Changning and Yunxian, there are also many asymmetric segmented stone axes, which are very similar to asymmetric graupel, so it is estimated that the earlier ancestor of asymmetric graupel may be this stone tool [20]. One of the earliest bronze age sites in Yunnan and Indochina Peninsula is the Haimenkou site in Jianchuan. Three cymbals were found in this site, one of which is slightly asymmetrical, and the asymmetrical cymbals in Indo-China Peninsula and Southwest China may have evolved from this shape. Judging from the above evidence, asymmetric graupel first originated in western Yunnan, and then spread eastward and southward. Its transmission route may be all the way along the Lancang River to Thailand and southern Vietnam, and the other is all the way along the Lijiang River and Yuanjiang River to the Red River Basin.
Banqing culture in Thailand was first discovered in Banqing village, Wulong prefecture, northeast Thailand, and located in the middle reaches of Lancang-Mekong River basin. From the Bronze Age to the early Iron Age, it was an important site in Southeast Asia. According to the excavation report of the Thai-American joint archaeological team, the Banqing culture can be divided into three stages: First, in the early stage (3600 BC ~ 65438 BC+0000 BC), adults were mainly buried with straight limbs, and buried pottery was placed on the head or feet of the deceased. In addition, there are funerals with bent limbs, and babies are buried in jars. Pottery is mostly printed with rope patterns and scratches on the shoulders. Bronzes include spears and bracelets. , but the number is small. Second, in the middle period (BC 1000 ~ 300 BC), only the buried bodies were found, and the buried pottery was deliberately broken and covered on the deceased. Pottery is characterized by a sharp bottom or red paint on the mouth. There are more bronze ornaments than in the early days. Third, in the late period (300 BC-200 AD), the burial style was still straight limbs, but the pottery buried with the dead was completely placed on the dead. Pottery is painted in red, mainly with circular vortex patterns. At the same time, it is also found that many bronze ornaments and ironware, as well as patterned pottery rollers, may be used to print patterns on bark cloth. In the northeast of Thailand, there are many sites belonging to Banqing culture. Bronzes made of double fans were found in the cemetery of Nengnota, and the shape was the same as that of Ban Qing. From this stage on, the early Banqing culture, like the Dakeng culture in Taiwan Province Province and the Lapita culture in Porini Islands in West Asia, was characterized by Tao Wei. Judging from its distribution, it may be related to the origin and migration of Austronesian language families, and the migration of ethnic groups is an important condition for the formation of integrity in Southeast Asia and Southwest China.
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(1) For an overview of bronze drum research in the 20th century, please refer to Jiang's A Century of Copper Drum Research, published in Ethnic Studies,No. 1 issue, 2000.
② For discussion on the era, ethnic group and cultural connotation of Ban Ching culture, please refer to "Ban Ching: Discovery of a Lost Bronze Age" by American scholar Joyce C White, Philadelphia, University of Pennsylvania Mu-seum, University of Pennsylvania, Smithsonian Institution, 1982. It must be pointed out that the era of Ban Ching culture has always been controversial in international academic circles. Archaeologists in China generally believe that it was not that early, and there were disturbances when the site was excavated. According to the author's experience in the study of ethnic archaeology in southwest China, the artifacts unearthed from Banqing culture, especially bronzes, are exactly the same as those unearthed in Erhai Lake area in western Yunnan, so the estimated age is not far away and they are of the same origin. Judging from the fact that iron wares have also been unearthed from the site of Banqing, the earliest age is no more than the Spring and Autumn Period in China.
China and Viet Nam, two neighboring countries linked by mountains and rivers, have a long history, and archaeological evidence and documentary evidence are more abundant and obvious. In ancient times, Vietnam was called toe crossing. There are many records of Shen Nong, Zhuan Xu, Yao Shun touching their toes in the south or crossing their toes in the south in the ancient books of pre-Qin China. Shennong and Zhuan Xu are both legendary figures. These records are not faithful to history, but they reflect that in the Western Zhou Dynasty, the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period, or even more distant times, the Central Plains region had direct or indirect ties with the South. Archaeological data show that the bronzes unearthed in Dongshan, Vietnam, all have the style and features of the Bronze Age in southwest China, indicating that the "Dongshan Culture" in Vietnam grew up under the influence of ancient culture in southwest China. Dongshan culture belongs to the late Bronze Age to the early Iron Age, ranging from the 4th century BC to the 2nd century AD. It was influenced by the bronze culture from Warring States to Han Dynasty in China. In its typical site, Dongshan Village, Tsinghua Province today, there are stone axes, shoulder stone axes, drums, weapons, containers and decorations made of bronze, as well as pottery, jade and money. , is a typical relic of China culture. Bronzes, in particular, are decorated with circular patterns, sawtooth patterns, flying bird patterns, ship patterns and frog patterns on the drum surface and drum wall, which are beautifully made and highly decorative, and are similar to [2 1] (P300 ~ 4 13) unearthed in Yunnan, Guangxi and other places in China. According to this batch of published bronze culture materials, it is actually an extension of the bronze culture originated in Yunnan, China, in Gujiao, and the bronze unearthed schema published in Vietnam is a good proof. The bronzes discovered in Vietnam are not earlier than those found in Yunnan, China, and are consistent with the time when King Zhu (Shu) crossed his toes recorded in the old history of China [22]. This situation shows that the bronze culture in Vietnam and the bronze culture in southwest China, such as Yunnan culture, Honghe culture and Jumachi culture, are of the same origin, and all of them are within the distribution range of Baiyue Cultural District in the same period: "To find out the origin of the bronze culture in Dongshan, Vietnam, we should look for it in the bronze culture of the Vietnamese people. If we realize that there are frequent cultural exchanges between various branches of the Yue nationality, then we will understand the similarities in form between Dongshan bronzes and Huaihe bronzes, which may be due to the influence of Warring States bronzes on Lingnan Baiyue bronzes and the influence of Yue bronzes on Luoyue bronzes. " [21] (p 381) ② After Qin Shihuang unified the six countries, he pacified South Vietnam in 2 14 BC, and established Nanhai, Guilin and Xiang Jun, among which Xiang Jun was in the northern and central parts of Vietnam. At the end of the Qin Dynasty, Zhao Tuo took advantage of the chaos to capture Guilin and Xiang Jun, established himself as king and established Nanyue State. It soon belonged to the Han Dynasty, became a vassal of the Han Dynasty, and maintained close political and economic ties with the central government of the Han Dynasty. In 65438 BC+065438 BC+02 BC, Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty pacified South Vietnam and established nine counties directly under the central government, among which Jiaozhi, Jiuzhen and Rinan counties were in the northern and central parts of Vietnam. From then until the independence of Vietnam in 10, it was under the direct jurisdiction of the central government of China, and it was a county in China. With the southward movement of the military and political forces in the Central Plains, Chinese culture has been widely spread to the south, and advanced agricultural production technologies and tools have also been continuously spread to the south. In the early years of AD, Ren Yan and Ren Guang were appointed as Todu and Jiuyuan respectively, and taught local people to plant crops, set up schools, cast iron, make wedding etiquette and dress styles, and be polite. This has made a great contribution to the local dissemination of China culture. The Book of the Later Han Dynasty said: "The Han style in Lingnan began with the second observance. "That is, since then, Vietnam has been included in the cultural map of China cultural circle. So far, the integrity of southwest China and Indo-China Peninsula has reached a new situation.
From the reign of Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty, Jiaozhi County and Yizhou County were established, and Yongchang County was established in the Eastern Han Dynasty, and the southwest was incorporated into the dynasty territory. The bronze civilization in the southwest and Indochina Peninsula gradually declined. However, the decline of bronze civilization does not mean that the communication between Central Plains people in southwest China and Indo-China Peninsula has ended. On the contrary, due to the massive southward advance of Central Plains culture, ethnic communication and exchanges between Southwest China and Indo-China Peninsula are more frequent. Since then, the integration of southwest China and Indo-China Peninsula has been greatly strengthened, laying the basic pattern of exchanges between the two sides in the next millennium (that is, Vietnamese independence at the end of A.D. 10). On this basis, we bid farewell to ancient times, and this large area has entered a historical era with written records, and the exchange activities between different civilizations have also entered a new era.