A grain of rice shatters myth of Chinese civilization 5,000 years old
The world's first grain of domesticated rice, unearthed at Shangshan Culture in Zhejiang Province.
One often hears the expression "5,000 years of Chinese civilization" to define the nation's history.
This common description was further validified in 2019, when the 5,300-year-old archeological ruins of Liangzhu were designated a UNESCO World Heritage Site.
Now, 11 archeologists have authored a new book entitled "Ten-Thousand-Year China: Origin and Formation of Chinese Civilization." They push the clock back a further 5,000 years.
"Ten-Thousand-Year China" redefines Chinese civilization.
"The concept of 5,000 years, though widely quoted, is only a vague idea describing how ancient and deep-rooted our civilization is," said Jiang Leping, who in 2005 discovered the world's first grain of domesticated rice, dating back 10,000 years.
"The new idea of 10,000 years to describe China's civilization is backed by many new discoveries in the last 20 years or so," Jiang told Shanghai Daily. "It also raises the question: How do we define Chinese civilization?"
The new book includes more recent discoveries by field archeologists like Jiang Leping (center).
Areas along the Yellow River have traditionally been considered the "cradle of Chinese civilization." But modern finds are going further afield in defining the geographic spread and lifestyle of ancient cultures.
The discovery and UNESCO recognition of ancient sites like Liangzhu expanded the focus to include areas like the Yangtze River Delta, where the rice-growing, Neolithic culture existed in about 2500 BC in what is now Zhejiang Province. Chinese archeologists are now encouraged to be more open-minded and explore further.
The 5,300-year-old archeological ruins of Liangzhu were designated a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 2019.
Jiang, who recently retired from Zhejiang Provincial Institute of Culture Relics and Archeology, led the team to discover a site in the province's Pujiang County in 2000. It contained pottery and carbonized grains of rice dating back between 8,400 and 11,400 years.
He has since devoted over 20 years of research on the find. Nineteen such ancient sites – in aggregate classified as Shangshan Culture – have been discovered along the upper reaches of the Qiantang River in Zhejiang.
The pottery with red patterns unearthed at Shangshan are believed to be the earliest colored pottery in the world.
The sites reveal a chain of evidence that includes domesticated grains distinct from their wild counterparts, as well as tools used to plant, harvest, thresh and cook the rice. Brewery tools dating back 9,000 years also indicate the ancients used rice to make alcohol.
"Ten thousand years may sound very long to you, more like an abstract concept of time," Jiang said. "But for us in the field of archeology, it's sometimes just a distance of 20 centimeters. At Shangshan, we literally dug 20 centimeters down, and suddenly we were back 10,000 years – not in the sense of an abstract relative concept of time, but in the concrete forms of grains and ceramics."
A research co-authored by Jiang shows evidence for beer drinking 9,000 years ago, unearthed at today's Yiwu, the world's largest wholesale market for daily commodities.
The 10,000-year-old rice is now a star attraction of archeological exhibitions, but Jiang can't quite recall the moment of excitement at its initial discovery.
"You see, time is relative," he said. "In archeology, it often requires years of hard work before you find something significant like this. Well, that's also the fun of it."
He went on to explain, "The acid soil in the area means it would be difficult for the grains to be well preserved after 10,000 years, and it indeed was very challenging to find them.
"We looked through hundreds of buckets of soil and initially got excited whenever we saw some tiny black spots in it. But, ultimately, we found only four grains. And it took some time for them to be carbon-dated in the lab. The best-kept of the four is the star you see today."
Signs found on the pottery are very similar to bagua, or eight trigrams, a set of symbols composed of broken or unbroken lines.
Shangshan Culture presents the earliest-dated findings in the new book, which focuses on newer discoveries that extend beyond central China.
The book is divided into three sections.
The section on the origins of Chinese civilization showcases discoveries dating back between 8,000 and 10,000 years, including ancient scripts on oracles, a flute made of bones, evidence of early astrology and indications of large-scale rice-paddy cultivation.
Experts say the two measurement tools, gui (above) found at 9,000-year-old Jiahu Neolithic settlement in today's Henan Province and ju found at Jiahu, were used for astrological purposes. Guiju means rules.
The section on the evolution of Chinese civilization recounts the discovery and significance of three relics dating back around 5,000 years. They reveal three different ancient lifestyles with comprehensive social-class systems and religious rituals.
The third section covers states and dynasties, with three different early states dating back around 4,000 years.
A jade eagle unearthed at Lingjiatan Culture in the area of the Lower Yangtze and Huai in today's Anhui Province.
The authors not only challenge the old idea that only the plains of the Yellow River gave birth to the Chinese civilization, but they also shed new thought on how "civilization" should be defined.
"People often emphasize three elements as the criteria for a civilization – a city-like structure, bronze items and written text," Chen Shengqian, an archeology professor at Renmin University of China, wrote in the book's preface. "But they are outdated criteria that many Western archeologists don't really talk about anymore."
He explained, "For example, the Inca empire didn't have a written language. The Maya civilization had no metal smelting techniques. Are these two not civilizations then? Of course they are!"
Chen observed that any criteria must consider regional differences because not all regions used the same materials. Many jade objects, for example, have unique symbolic meanings in Chinese civilization, yet they don't exist in many other civilizations.
Jade objects have unique symbolic meanings in Chinese civilization.
For Jiang, agriculture is the "intentional cultivation of edible plants" and an important indicator of civilization. He is fascinated by the initial transition of early humans from nomadic hunters to permanent settlers and rice cultivators.
"Were they running out of meat and desperately searching for more stable food sources? Were they trying to diversify their diet?" he asks. "How did they first discover these grains to plant? Unfortunately, we can only hypothesize about the answers."
However, he noted, "Only with reliable food supplies can populations increase, small communities expand and complex societies form – all conditions for the birth of civilizations."
Jiang has devoted over 20 years to his research of Shangshan Culture.
