ALL POINTS OF ORIGIN
A nationwide archeological project is challenging previous notions of Chinese civilization through fresh approaches and technologies to better understand the ruins and the stories they left
On a scorching August afternoon, Gao Jiangtao drove his old SUV into Taosi Village in Xiangfen County, Linfen City, Shanxi Province. He honked a greeting to a shepherd on the road. A researcher with the Institute of Archeology, Chinese Academy of Social Sciences (CASS), Gao has been involved in the Taosi excavations for 15 years. His long hours in the field have left him as tanned as the local farmers.
The village is home to the ruins of an ancient city dating back 4,300 to 4,000 years. Experts suggest they are the remains of the capital of a prehistoric kingdom ruled by Emperor Yao, one of China’s mytho-historical Five Emperors. The site is located on the Loess Plateau between the province’s highest peak, Ta’er Mountain, and a tributary of the Fenhe
River. Corn and herb farms dot the area.
The site was perfectly suited for a capital according to Guanzi, a political text compiled between the 5th and 3rd centuries BCE: “A state capital should not be at the foot of a big mountain, but on open land above a river. It should not be too high in elevation, as it will be prone to drought. It should not be too close to the river to avoid floods.” Ancient texts place Emperor Yao’s capital in today’s Linfen.
Along with the Taosi site, ruins of cities dating back 4,000 to 5,000 years have been unearthed around China. Experts believe them to have hosted the dawn of Chinese civilization.
These findings result from the “Origins Project,” a decadeslong, multi-disciplinary research endeavor that aims to trace the origin and development of Chinese civilization. Led by
the Institute of Archeology, CASS and the School of Archeology and Museology, Peking University, the project involves some 400 scholars from across China and nearly 70 scientific research institutes, universities and local archeological institutions. The project gives Chinese researchers opportunities to explore alternative approaches not only to decode
China’s prehistory, but also to redefine the concept of civilization itself.
Conventional Controversy
From an early age, Chinese people are taught they are the descendants of the Yellow Emperor and Emperor Yan, legendary figures who led two tribes in the Yellow River Basin over 5,000 years ago. Stories about them abound in ancient Chinese texts. The Yellow Emperor is credited with making weapons from jade to conquer rival tribes, while his wife, Leizu, introduced silkworm rearing, which developed into silk production. After the death of the Yellow Emperor, the primitive tribes of the Yellow River Basin were ruled in succession by the legendary figures Yao, Shun and
Yu. Following their reigns came China’s three earliest recorded dynasties, the Xia (2070-1600 BCE), Shang (1600-1046 BCE), and Zhou (1026-256 BCE). However, the stories of the Yellow Emperor and his successors were mostly based on local folklore and records written long after those periods, not archeological evidence.
The definition of civilization is contended among archeologists and historians. Western scholars cite three indispensable elements for a civilization: metallurgy, written characters and urbanization with a sophisticated division of labor and social stratification. But ancient cultures long recognized as civilizations do not always follow this rule. For example, the Mayans did not have metallurgy. The Incas did not have a written language, instead using knots to record information. While the Indus Valley Civilization had hundreds of symbols, it had not codified its language. According to these metrics, the earliest Chinese civilization did not appear until around 3,300 years ago with the Shang Dynasty. This is backed by the discovery of the oracle bone inscriptions retrieved in the 1920s from the Yinxu Ruins in Central China’s Henan Province, which scholars recognize as the capital city of the late Shang (1300-1046 BCE).
The discovery earned the Yinxu Ruins a UNESCO World Heritage Site designation in 2006, as the oracle bones “bear invaluable testimony to the development of one of the world’s
oldest writing systems, ancient beliefs and social systems,” the organization said.
However, there is no sufficient information about the periods before, during and after the late Shang. In response, the Chinese government launched the Xia-shang-zhou Chronology Project in 1996 to gain a more accurate chronology and geographical framework of these three dynasties.
After its completion in 2000, many scholars involved in the project, including Wang Wei, chairman of the Chinese Archeological Society, called for continued research into Chinese civilization that went beyond a linear timeline of the Xia, Shang and Zhou dynasties.
Wang told Newschina in August that scholars approached the Ministry of Science and Technology in 2001 to continue the multidisciplinary research of the Chronology Project to explore the origin, formation and development of Chinese civilization. The ministry approved, creating the “Trace the Origins of Chinese Civilization Project” (Origins Project). Beginning in 2004, the ongoing project focuses on the developmental trajectory of ancient societies in both North and South China. Wang now co-leads the Origins Project’s expert group.
Research and findings over the years have called the conventional criteria of civilization into question and proposed new ones. Previous criteria came during excavations in Egypt and the Tigris-euphrates River Basin, known as Mesopotamia or the fertile crescent. Now in modern Iraq and Kuwait, it is where Western archeology practice first developed.
“To measure ancient China with metrics from Mesopotamia and Egypt was improper,” Wang told Newschina.
“So Chinese archeologists tried to redefine a more universal standard for civilization.”
“I don’t think there was controversy about the age of China’s civilization and there is none today,” Jessica Rawson, professor of Chinese art and archeology at the University of Oxford, told Newschina in early September. “Something historians seem to ignore is that China’s civilization is independent of the ancient civilizations of Western Asia and Egypt. Agriculture, cities, states and crafts such as silk weaving were created independently and therefore are very different from the similar phenomena in Western Asia and Egypt.”
At a press conference in 2018, Zhao Hui, professor with the School of Archeology and Museology, Peking University and co-leader of the Origins Project’s expert group, laid out the project’s stance on what makes up a civilization: It features highly developed agriculture and handicrafts, a pyramidal social structure with highly defined classes, cities with labor division and social stratification and even regional states with sovereign power.
These indicators largely coincide with the urbanization that Western scholars propose, but do not include a written system or metallurgy. “They show both the commonality and uniqueness in the development of human civilization,” Zhao said.
‘Stars in the Sky’
Archeology developed rapidly in China in the 1980s when a series of Neolithic sites were discovered during the country’s first construction boom. Among them are landmark sites dating back about 5,000 years that reveal evidence of imperial
power and social classes 1,000 years earlier than the Xia and Shang dynasties.
Professor Zhao Hui told Newschina the 1980s discoveries prompted academia to shift focus to the study of ancient societies. Previously, archeological research was relic and site specific, from pottery and jade to tombs and city ruins.
“It doesn’t mean that we didn’t pay attention to ancient societies, but were unprepared to conduct research due to lack of a timeline. How could historical research be conducted effectively when the emergence of basic culture was yet to be clarified, relative and absolute dating were unclear, and the chronology was still vague?” Zhao said.
But discoveries across China brought conventional theories on Chinese civilization into question, such as the Niuheliang Ruins (3,500 -3000 BCE) in Liaoning Province, the
Liangzhu Ruins (5,300 - 4,300 years) in Zhejiang Province, the Lingjiatan Ruins (5,800 - 5,300 years) in Anhui Province and the Dadiwan Ruins (5,800-2,800 BCE) in Gansu Province. None is in the Central Plains, which served as a major political center for over 3,000 years and was long regarded as the cradle of Chinese civilization.
New ideas were first explored in the late 1990s with the release of A New Exploration into the Origin of Chinese Civilization, based on the oral narratives of archeologist Su Bingqi. He proposed a multi-regional model of cultural development, identifying six major cultural areas, each with separate origins and developmental paths. Calling the areas “stars in the sky,” he highlighted the diversity of cultural origins inside ancient China. Building on Su’s work, notable archeologist Yan Wenming proposed the idea of “overall unity,” saying the advantageous location of the Central Plains facilitated better exchange with surrounding cultures.
Chinese archeologists gradually broadened their view, arguing that while these cultural areas were independent, they shared long histories of interaction. Multiple integration theory has since become the core approach to Chinese civilization studies.
“Research [during the Origins Project] has greatly contributed to our understanding of Chinese civilization’s characteristics,” Wang Wei told newspaper China Daily in late May. “Its development has been continuous, and various roots of our civilization were linked with and frequently exchanged with one another. They gradually formed a shared community.”
Professor Rawson from the University of Oxford shared similar views with Newschina: “There is no single origin for China’s civilization. China is an enormous country, and many factors such as landfall, climate and demography contributed to it.”
Wang Wei said that because of its strong focus on ancient societies, the Origins Project prioritized research of cities, city walls, palaces and other major archeological sites.
Cities and Capitals
Instead of indulging in research of mysterious relics excavated from the Taosi site, archeologists focused on something less eye-catching: the foundations of the city wall made from earth not found in the immediate area and lime discovered in the palace’s foundation. Gao Jiangtao said that experts from the Origins Project came to the site in the 2010s and suggested he focus on the palace, as it represents sovereign power and will likely reveal the political and social landscape.
“According to the latest archeological findings, all these cultural regions had ushered in the dawn of civilization around 5,500-5,300 years ago. There were exchanges between the upper tiers of society of each one, forming the earliest Chinese cultural circle,” Lü Weitao, a researcher with the National Museum of China, told Newschina.
At Shijiahe, a walled Neolithic complex in Hubei Province that covers 120 hectares, researchers identified a sacrificial area, palace and handicraft workshop. They unearthed tens of thousands of red clay vessels and many small clay figurines. As the largest and most important site in the middle reaches of the Yangtze River, Shijiahe may have been a political and cultural center, experts said.
At Taosi, archeologists unearthed hundreds of large tombs with exquisite burial objects and many small tombs without them, showing that class division in the middle reaches of the Yellow River was already established. “All these facts are basically uncontroversial,” Lü told Newschina.
Taosi is one of the four major capital cities the project is investigating. “We have searched for the earliest state in China since the Origins Project launched,” Zhao said.
“Of all the contributing cumulative factors, kingship and the state are the key elements that [brought culture] across the threshold to civilization,” Wang said. Four capitals of prehistoric states stand out, including Liangzhu in Hangzhou, Zhejiang Province, Taosi in Shanxi Province, Shimao in Shenmu, Shaanxi Province, and Erlitou in Luoyang, Henan Province.
Among the Origins Project’s achievements was the discovery of the 5,300-year-old Liangzhu site. On July 6, 2019, UNESCO listed it as a World Heritage Site, recognizing its status as an early “regional state with a unified belief system based on rice cultivation in late Neolithic China.” In the 1980s, two Liangzhu cemeteries were uncovered. Thousands of exquisite burial artifacts suggested that a developed society had prospered there. In the 1990s, a 30-hectare palace complex was unearthed. Since the Liangzhu site was identified as a capital of an ancient State, excavations in the following 10 years revealed 300 hectares of the inner city, 630 hectares of the outer city and the remains of large hydro projects. For archeologists, it was not until the discoveries of city walls, hydro projects, a palace complex and large granaries that Liangzhu could be considered a civilization.