Kneeling and begging Chinese bronze culture, Chinese culture of bronze culture

Academician Zhang Guangzhi clearly pointed out in the book "Chinese Bronze Age" that the Xia, Shang and Zhou dynasties were at their peak, and then there was the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period. However, according to the views of Academician Du Zhengsheng in "Ancient Society and State", from the Stone Age to the Bronze Age, there has been no breakthrough development of production tools, only the transformation of class and society, because bronze is mainly used as a ritual and weapon as a symbol of political power.

According to archaeological findings, in the early Shang Dynasty, the ruins of the Yin Shang period, such as Erligang in Zhengzhou, Liuli Pavilion in Huixian County, and Donggangou in Luoyang, belonged to this era; In the later period of the Shang Dynasty, with Xiaotun Village in Anyang as the center, the upper layer of the Zhengzhou Park Area, the Taishan Temple ruins and tombs in Luoyang belonged to this era; In the early period of the Zhou Dynasty (Western Zhou Dynasty), the main representative sites are the tombs of the Fenghao Village area of Xi'an City and the Western Zhou Dynasty of Baoji; In the Spring and Autumn Period, Luoyang Jianbin (Jianbin) was the center, Shangcun Lingyu Tomb, Xinzheng Zheng Tomb, and Shouxian Caihou Tomb were the representatives of this period; During the Warring States Period, Luoyang Jianbin was the center, Huixian Liulige, Guwei Village, Changsha and Tangshan Warring States cemeteries belonged to this era.

According to the latest excavation results, southern China also entered the Bronze Age in the early Shang Dynasty, the most representative of which are the ruins of Panlong City in Wuhan, Hubei, the site of Tanheli in Changsha, Hunan, and the Shang Dynasty tomb in Xingan, Jiangxi, which confirm that there was also a developed bronze civilization in the Yangtze River basin.

In the Bronze Age, China had already established a state (but this is Guo Moruo's division according to the Marxist view of history, if we follow the four stages proposed by Willian and Barbara: tour, tribe, chiefdom, and state, then there are two necessary conditions for the formation of the state according to this: first, blood relations are replaced by geographical relations in the organization of the state; The second is the possession of legal force, so the Shang culture may belong to the chiefdom rather than the state), with a well-developed agriculture and handicraft industry, and the Chinese characters have also matured.

That is, the material culture and spiritual culture created in the Bronze Age. Around the beginning of the Xia Dynasty, China entered the Bronze Age. By the Shang Dynasty, the application of bronze ware involved almost all aspects of social life.

Because bronze tools were far sharper than stone tools, and the casting technology of the time made it possible to make a variety of hand tools and agricultural tools suitable for different purposes, which strongly promoted the development of social production. As a result, a city with a large population appeared. In these capitals, huge palaces were built; building large royal tombs; Fortifications such as walls and moats were constructed.

There are horse-drawn carriages, boats and other means of transportation between the capital and other places; There are also inscriptions on oracle bones, which are used to record events in social life; Astronomy, calendars, medicine and other sciences also developed. Bronze tools are used in the mining industry to extract more ore. As a result of the development of the smelting industry, which in turn contributed to the development of the bronze casting industry.

This virtuous cycle allowed China to fully develop the Bronze Age. The splendid bronze culture it has created occupies a unique position in the world cultural heritage.