✎ “No site can have the elements and symbols of the origin of civilization like the Taosi site.” As one of the three key sites in the Chinese civilization exploration project, the Taosi site is a must-pass place to study Chinese history and ancient culture and perceive the spiritual connotation of the Chinese nation.
▲Taosi Site
On July 21, 2022, the academic seminar on “Tiantian and Weidi, Shining the Four Directions – Taosi, the Origin of Chinese Civilization, was held in Taiyuan, Shanxi Province, hosted by the Shanxi Provincial Bureau of Cultural Relics and the Institute of Archaeology of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences.
This meeting was to explore the Taosi ruins, the city site in the Central Plains that had entered the primary civilization stage early, and to showcase its fruitful archaeological achievements, such as: an unprecedented city site, a magnificent palace wall, a regular cemetery, the world’s earliest observatory, the earliest text to date, and a set of ritual vessels…
The original China
Since ancient times, the Taosi ruins have been a sacred place in the minds of the locals. According to the aerial film taken, for thousands of years, no matter how the nearby villages have developed and changed, they have been encircling and tightly surrounding the Taosi site, and rarely occupying the burden.
▲Taosi Ruins Navigation
In the dark, it seems that there is a magical power protecting this ancient capital ruins.
In the ruins of more than 4 millionCinema 1950 witch cloth draw, the city site occupies 2.8 million square meters and the palace city is nearly 130,000 square meters. The entire site has clear functional distinction and exquisite layout. The tombs are of clear hierarchy, just like the basic form of the country.
Many scholars believe that Taosi is the “Yaodu Pingyang” recorded in classics. According to the years of excavation, the gap between the rich and the poor in Taosi society is huge, and a few nobles have accumulated a large amount of wealth, formingThe privileged class. By this time the social development has been developed, the prototype of the country has been formed and a civilized society has arrived.
The Taosi site is a typical representative of early China.
The capital of Yao and Shun
There are only dialects near the Taosi ruins in the country, and the sun is called “King Yao”. Is it a coincidence? Or the inheritance of civilization? Or is it a certain worship? The great Komiks 1960 witch cloth drawJiang Yao, who has ever built a great capital?
In 2018, on the wall of the Taosi ruins palace city, archaeologists were surprised to find the remaining “Qilou”-style door site.
The tall Que Tower has always been called the gate of etiquette. The two tall Que Buildings extend from the southern wall of the palace city, and the pattern is similar to the style of the Yingtianmen Que Building in Luoyang City during the Sui and Tang Dynasties. Even the Meridian Gate of the Forbidden City later followed this Que Tower model more than 4,000 years ago.
▲The “Qilou Style” door address of the Nandong Gate
After more than 40 years of excavation, the Taosi site has become the capital of the Yao and Shun era recognized by many scholars. Wang Wei, chief expert of the “Chinese Civilization Source Exploration Project”, believes that no site can have the elements and symbols of the origin of civilization like the Taosi site. The Taosi site was in its age and was in line with Yao’s geographical location and the level of civilization it reflected in. It was an important fulcrum and cornerstone for empirizing the civilization process of China for more than 5,000 years.
The cemetery of the Chinese Dragon in the tomb of the king
The cemetery of the Taosi site is the largest in the Yellow River Basin. More than 40 years of excavation show that more than 4,000 years ago, the society here had undergone serious polarization. Unlike the tombs of ordinary people with a large number of tombs, there are relatively few aristocratic tombs, very high-quality and particularly rich burial objects.
In 1980, a special round pottery was revealed in the M3016 tomb. This is not an ordinary pottery plate. The center of the plate is vividly painted with a dragon.
▲Taosi Panlong
In the entire Taosi site, only four such dragon plates were unearthed from the king-level tomb. Archaeologists believe that the dragon plate should belong to the king of the time and is a symbol of high-level status. The dragons drawn in the dragon plate of Taosi are all shaped like coiled dragons, with crocodile-like scale marks on their bodies, and the sides of the head are square like bear ears, with long jaws protruding, especially the image of branches holding mouths, which is very rare. The Panlong of Taosi is very close to the image of the descendants of Xia, Shang and Zhou dynasties and later generations. Taosi is the original prototype of China’s state, so the Taosi dragon is the true Chinese Komiks 1960 witch cloth draw dragon.
▲Longpan unearthed from the Taosi site
The world’s earliest observatory
More than 4,000 years ago, Taosi had relatively advanced astronomical calendars and had the world’s earliest observationsKomiks 1960 witch cloth draw网站网.
When archaeologists first discovered 13 arc-shaped rammed earth pillars, they were confused by the strange combination of “walls are not like walls, and roads are not like roads”.
According to the records of “Shangshu Yao Dian”, astronomy was very developed during the Yao Emperor’s period, and the astronomical and calendar was related to agricultural production. It had become part of the royal power. The observatory was an essential building in the capital.
Can these 13 strange stone pillars be the observatory from more than 4,000 years ago?
After years of exploration and verification and simulation observation, archaeologists finally discovered the secret of the observatory. It turned out that the ancestors determined the seasons and solar terms by observing the observation gaps of the pillars and the sunrise direction of Taer Mountain. From the second observation slit, the sunrise is seen as the winter solstice, and from the 12th observation slit, the sunrise is seen as the summer solstice. Both the vernal and autumnal equinoxes see the sunrise from the 7th observation slit.
▲Taosi Ruins Observation Station
▲Restoration of Taosi Ruins Observation Station
This is the earliest observatory in the world and the ancestral source of China’s 24 solar terms. It is 500 years older than the Stonehenge Observatory in the UK.
Mysterious Zhu Shuwen
In the excavation of H3403, a broken flat pot, the two “characters” written in cinnabar caused a great sensation.
One of the red characters is not very controversial, and many scholars believe that he is very similar to the word “玉” in the oracle bone inscriptions.
▲Zhu Shu Ping Pot
Babaylan 1990 cloth drawThe second controversial character is whether it is the word “Yao” or “Yu”.
Although Cinema 1950 witch cloth draw are only two simple characters, it is the earliest text clearly discovered in China. It was about 800 years earlier than the mature oracle bone inscriptions.
The initial formation of “ritual and music civilization”
29 musical instruments unearthed from the Taosi site, including the turtle (tuCinema 1950 witch cloth drawo) Drum, earth drum, special chime, pottery bell, copper bellCinema 1950 witch cloth draw, mouth string calves, etc. The combination of turtle drum and special chime is the earliest known instrument of the same kind.
Babaylan 1990 clothes draw▲Crown drum and restoration copper bell are the earliest metal instruments discovered in China. The oral string jingle is the smallest ethnic group in China. The Komiks 1960 witch cloth draw instrument. Until today, the Qiang, Mongolian, Yi and Oroqen peoples are still in use.
▲Oral string calves
The drum that uses crocodile skin mask only appears Cinema 1950 witch cloth drawIn the king’s tomb. The same is true for earth drums. Among them, one pair of turtle drums, one stone chime, and one earth drum are all fixedly placed on the lower left side of the tomb owner of the noble tomb in a fixed combination. The combination of turtle drums and special chimes was inherited from the Shang and Zhou dynasties and became the unique burial tool of the nobles.
Tao Temple also unearthed jade ritual instruments such as jade axeKomiks 1960 witch cloth draw, jade cong, jade bi, jade gui, etc. They and the above-mentioned instruments indicate that the “ritual and music civilization” has been initially formed at this time.
▲Jade unearthed from the Taosi site
▲Jade Beast Face
The earliest astronomical measurement instrument
In the autumn of 2002, a wooden pole was found in the mid-term tomb of Taosi site, coated with black, green and red markings, which caused archaeological work to verify the “Gui Biao”.
Gui Biao is an astronomical instrument that measures the length of sun shadow in ancient my country. It can measure the sun shadow in the earth and determine the location of the capital; it can conduct geodetic measurements, recognize the actual scope and territory of the world; it can also be used to formulate a calendar.
Study proves that the wooden pole found in the M22 tomb is a ruler. The discovery of Taosi Guizhi also shows that the instrument used in ancient China’s astronomical measurements first appeared in the middle of the Taosi culture 4,100 years ago.
▲TaoBabaylan 1990 cloth drawThe Guzi unearthed from the temple site
From this point of view, the Taosi site is the Jicheng Wall and Palace discovered in China so farEarly capital ruins with complete functional elements such as cemeteries, musical instruments, observatorys, large storage areas, etc.
All kinds of archaeological signs also show that as early as more than 4,000 years ago, Taosi entered the national stage and entered a civilized society. First, the Taosi culture period was not an equal society, but a serious social hierarchy differentiation occurred. For example, the difference between the tombs mentioned above in Babaylan 1990 cloth draw actually reflects the social status of the tomb owner. Second, the emergence of the “king” in Taosi culture and society, which means that a country dominated by royal power emerges. Third, in Taosi society, the ritual system was initially formed and became the essence of the social system to be passed down through the future generations. Fourth, most of the material and spiritual civilizations created by Taosi society were inherited and developed by the Xia, Shang, Zhou and later generations, and were in line with the lineage.
It can be said that Taosi was “the original Chinese and the main vein of China.”