中华玉文化与中华文明
一， 中华玉器是延续万年的文化载体是中华文明探源的重要物证。
任何一件文物都会提供给我们一些文化信息，我们称之为文化载体。历史文物是我们追寻祖先的足迹，探索与发现他们曾经创造的辉煌重要物证。在没有文字记载的远古时期，文物更显现出重要性。在人类发展的不同历史阶段都有相关的文物记述了其时代的特征。如陶器记录了新石器时期的文化特征；铜器记录了青铜时代的文化特征，它们都是人类发展某一阶段的重要文化载体。在中国有一种文物，它是自一万年前的旧石器时期至今延续不断的文化载体，它就是中华玉器。它展示了万年前人类曾经有过的辉煌，在新石器时期，玉文化再现了新石器时期的辉煌，在青铜时代玉器与青铜器相映争辉。中国的青铜时代即夏商周三代，这三代期间也是中华玉文化的繁荣期,且三代的礼器多为玉制。汉代以后，青铜文化逐渐衰落，但玉文化却走向高峰，且延续至今从未衰落。中华玉器记录了中华各历史阶段的文化特征，形成了一部自万年前至今延续不断的玉制的中华文明史。崇玉、爱玉的思想理念深入人心，成为了中华民族特有的文化基因。
中华玉文化自其一开始便是与原始宗教紧密相关的。人们将玉视作人、神之间沟通的媒介。各种大型的礼仪、祭祀都要有玉制的礼器与祭器；重要人物的葬礼也要以玉随葬。制玉者也是以最虔诚的心态，最好的艺术表现技能倾注于其玉作之中。大多数古玉器都是集思想理念与艺术表现于一身的创作。许多古玉器与同时期的石器、陶器相比无不远胜一筹，甚至今人观之也叹为观止。
最早的母系氏族社会时期，玉器常与原始宗教中的各种原始崇拜相关联；如自然崇拜、祖先崇拜、图腾崇拜、生殖崇拜、性崇拜，以及对各种神灵和鬼魂的崇拜等。氏族社会过渡到王权时期，出现了很多代表王权的玉器，如斧、钺、刀、圭、璋、权杖等，此时宗教的礼仪器和祭器仍占相当的比重。春秋时孔子提出玉有九德，将玉与人们的道德品质，真善美联系到一起，他的说法也即是当时人们对玉器看法的归纳。这种评价也体现在汉字中，有上百个与玉字组合的汉字都是正面的，真善美的字义。在中国以儒、道、佛为主体文化的封建社会时期，玉文化始终占有重要的地位。尽管玉文化在各个不同的历史时期各有其不同的特点和艺术表现形式，但很多原始观念一直延续至今，如以玉通灵，以玉护身，以玉为美等观念。很多原始崇拜，如祖先崇拜、图腾崇拜等观念也延续至今，如龙凤文化在历代玉器上表现得都很突出。现在我们也常讲：我们是黄帝子孙，是龙的传人，这即是祖先崇拜与图腾崇拜的沿袭。这不是一般的文化传承，而是维系国家统一，民族团结，历史延续不衰的重要因素。中华玉文化自其一开始就属于精神文明的范畴，它是与宗教信仰、礼仪、道德、权力、文化、艺术等人们的思想理念、宗教理念、艺术创作直接相关的，所以中华玉文化是中华文明的重要标志。它在中华文明史上始终是一支历久不衰的绚丽的奇葩。
综合上述，中华玉文化有三大特点：其一是中华玉器的数量多，提供的信息量大；其二是其文化层次高，它属于精神文明的范畴；其三是其连续性，它是自万年前至今延续不断的文化载体。这三个特点就决定了它在中华文明史上的无可取代的地位和作用。特别是在没有完整的文字体系的史前时期，玉文化更显现出其重要性，它是中华文明探源乃至人类文明探源的重要依据。
二， 泛红山文化—- 末次冰期的辉煌。
下面给出一个通过中华玉器探索中华文明的实例，即泛红山文化的发现。 泛红山文化的发现是建立在大量的红山型文化玉器的实物基础上的科研成果。红山文化是中国北方有代表性的高水平的考古文化。它以大型的坛、庙、冢综和的人文景观和高水平的玉器群为其显著的文化特征。一个高水平的考古文化必有其前期的文化背景，而对中华古玉器的研究则是探索其文化背景的重要途径。多年来，在国内外的博物馆及民间 有大量的红山型文化玉器留存。所谓红山型文化玉器是指这些玉器与红山文化玉器有相似的造型与工艺，但不知其确切的出土地点，故称为红山型。因为其数量大，题材广泛，涉及到自然界与人类社会的诸多方面，所以为我们提供了众多的文化信息，从而发现了这个失落了的非常重要的史前文明。它即是‘泛红山文化’，与之相应的玉器群称为‘泛红山文化玉群’。‘泛’字的含义为，该文化的时空范围涵盖了红山文化。其时间大约是距今三万年至一万年，即末次冰期的晚期。其地域范围很广，自东北亚跨越北太平洋，至北美的西北部，其中心地区是东北亚地区，特别是中国的东北地区。红山文化以及中国北方的红山诸文化是该文化的直接继承与延续，它们是新时期时期的泛红山文化。末次冰期与新石器时期之间，距今一万年左右，出现了巨大的自然灾难，造成了严重的文化断层。人类文明经历了毁灭与再生的过程。泛红山文化是高水平的史前文化，可称之为史前超文明。它是中华文明乃至环太平洋地区文明的源头，同时也是玉文化的源头。泛红山文化概念的提出是人类文明史上的一个突破，它将人类文明上溯到末次冰期。它告诉人们人类文明的始端不是新石器时期，而是新石器时期之前的末次冰期，即地质年表上的晚更新世晚期。新石器时期是人类承前启后再创文明的时期。
迄今为止，人们已经在陆地与海洋发现了很多人类创造的万年以前的文明的遗迹和遗存，但多数是零星的，文化信息量少，不足以使人们了解万年前人类发展的概貌。而泛红山文化玉群则不同于一般的文化遗存，它是史前高水平的玉器群，是世界人类文化宝库的重要遗存。它在广阔的时空范围内提供给我们当时自然界和人类社会的诸多文化信息，它使我们了解到我们现代的人类的祖先在末次冰期的晚期曾经创建过一次文明，他们在当时的历史大舞台上曾上演过辉煌的一幕。
下面我们列举几项泛红山文化玉器群所展示的文化信息：
1， 首先从玉群中的多种人物造型可知，当时该地区的人类并不单一，是现代人类与尚有猿人特征的原始智人人种混居的状态。据考古发现，现代人创建文明的遗迹始见于距今3–4万年左右，在欧洲以克拉玛农人为代表。而泛红山文化玉群中的现代人形象则多为蒙古人种，他们的面部特征是面部较宽，高颧骨，吊梢眼。是他们创建了末次冰期晚期的文明。其他的智人人种必然会在生存竞争中被自然淘汰，并在末次冰期的巨大自然灾难中彻底消亡了。由此我们可以推断泛红山文化的时间约为距今三万年至一万年。如果将新石器时期中国北方的红山诸文化算在内，那么他的时间范畴将是距今三万年至四千年。( 参看‘万古奇珍—泛红山文化玉群’图片1.7，1.21，1.26，1.71，1.9，1.34，)
2， 从玉群中的多种母祖的造像和多种具有女性特征的图腾造像，可知当时是母系氏族社会。在世界范围内人类的氏族社会大约出现于距今十万年左右，泛红山文化期间已进入母系氏族社会的繁荣期，多种图腾的造像也表明泛红山文化区 是多氏族的聚居区。（参看同书图片1.1，1.3，1.4，1.5，1.38，1.82，1.89，1.87，1.90，1.110，1.111，5.11）
3， 上古氏族社会也可称是图腾社会，就像今天的姓氏一样，各氏族有其本氏族的图腾。玉群中多种图腾的造型，为我们提供了大量的文化信息。氏族图腾是与其氏族生活紧密相关的，如狩猎的氏族常以凶猛的禽兽熊、虎、象、野猪、鹰、鸮等为其氏族的图腾；农业氏族常以太阳、牛、羊、蛙、蜜蜂、蚕等为其氏族的图腾，而渔业氏族则常以鱼虾类、龟类等为其氏族图腾。而上述所有这些图腾造型均出现于玉群中，这表明当时泛红山文化区已是农、牧、副、渔、狩猎等兼有的繁荣的氏族社会。已进入文明的社会阶段。玉群中还有很多不同种类动物图腾的组合与融合造型。这里所谓‘融合’是指不同种的动物合为一体，如鸟首兽身，兽首鱼身等。这些造型反映了当时的氏族不是孤立的群体，他们之间有氏族间的联合、联姻、吞并等。古史传说中的氏族故事，多是当时强大氏族的故事，如伏羲氏、女娲氏、轩辕氏、有熊氏、神农氏、夸父氏、凿齿氏等。而在玉群中这些氏族的图腾的数量大，出现频率高也证明了他们分布地域广，延续时间久，影响力大。如黄帝族的前身是有熊氏和轩辕氏，有熊氏是狩猎的氏族，他们以熊 为图腾；轩辕氏以海龟为图腾，他们是海上的渔民，黄帝族 是二者的联合，可见其地域广阔，事实上，当时黄帝族的分布是从现在的西伯利亚和中国的东北跨越白令海峡直至北美的西北部。现在加利福尼亚的州旗上的熊就是黄帝族的标志。再如，鹰是伏羲氏的图腾，他的影响更为广泛，西起西伯利亚的贝加尔湖东至美洲大陆。现在贝加尔湖的原著民仍崇拜鹰，北美的很多印地安部族也以鹰为图腾。所以玉群中的多种图腾造型也反映出泛红山文化区的地域广阔。而玉群中的图腾造像多与中华古史传说的人物与图腾相合，故知其中心地区应是东北亚地区，特别是中国的东北。玉群中还出现了南美洲的图腾，如羽蛇神，以及埃及的图腾，如母祖哈索尔、赫鲁斯鹰等。这表明泛红山文化先民与当时世界上的其它地区有广泛交流；由此可以推知末次冰期的晚期世界上很多地区已进入文明社会。另外，从新石器时期的氏族图腾造型可知，他们多是其前期，即末次冰期氏族的延续，他们再创了新石器时期新一轮的文明。（参看同书图片1.38，1.82，1.106，1.86，1.89，1.87，1.90，1.104，1.94，1.95，1.66，1.103，1.96，2.70，4.29，4.23）
4， 玉群中有庞大的动物群。有飞禽类、走兽类、鱼类、两栖类、昆虫类等，这表明当时该地区有较好的自然环境和生态环境。当时正处于末次冰期。且在距今约2.4 万年至1.4 万年期间，还出现了一次冰期的高峰期，海水蒸发，凝聚成巨大的冰川，北美大陆大部分被冰川覆盖，海洋的面积缩小，在距今1.8 万年时，海洋的面积只有今日海洋面积的一半。可是因为受到北太平洋黑潮暖流的影响，在北太平洋的沿岸地区却没有冰川，且气候温湿。正因为如此，人类得以在该地区生存与发展。另外，庞大的动物群，也表明泛红山文化区的地域广阔。（参看同书图片3.1 ，3.13，3.18，3.41，3.53，4.1，4.2，4.3 ，4.8，4.12，4.15，4.16，4.19，4.21，4.25，5.2，5.10，5.11，5.13，5.15，5.22，5.25，6.1，6.5，6.7，6.8，6.10，6.11，6.12，6.17，6.32，6.34）
5， 玉群中有许多生殖文化与性文化的造型，这表明当时人类自身的繁衍和增殖是当时社会的头等要事。那时是现代人的新生期，人类的数量很少，加之处在冰期，生存条件相对比较艰难。要求得发展，必须增加人口，所以人类自身的增长十分重要。玉群中有关生殖崇拜与性崇拜的造型很多，它们多有原始宗教的含义，其中有与母祖崇拜相关的造型，有的是男女生殖器和性爱的直接表现形式，有与图腾崇拜相关的表现形式等，这些作品多是艺术造型与工艺水平很高的作品。（参看同书图片7.1，7.2，7.4，7.6，7.11，7.13，7.14，7.27，9.9）
6， 泛红山文化玉群中有许多器物的造型，其品类之多，制作之精，造型之美在世界考古文化中首屈一指。新石器时期的玉器类型以及夏商周时期很多器物的类型均可在泛红山文化玉群中找到它们的原形。器物大致可分为三类，即礼仪器、实用器和佩饰器。这些器物反映了当时人们的思想理念、宗教理念、生产、生活与科技水平和人们的艺术鉴赏能力等，向人们展示了一个真实的远古文明社会。另外，从玉群中的璧、琮、斧、钺、圭、璋、权杖等礼仪器可知当时的社会风貌已是崇尚礼仪，相对集权，和有等级的社会，已是氏族社会的高级阶段。（参看同书图片9.1，9.5，9.14，9.16，9.18，9.19，9.20，9.22，9.25，9.30，9.33，9.36，9.40，9.42，9.44，9.47，9.48，9.50，9.59，9.61，9.62，9.69，9.74，9.75，9.80）
7， 在中国有一种贯彻古今的文化，即龙凤文化。在泛红山文化玉群中有多种龙的造型，龙是一种想象的超自然的图腾，后来成了华夏族的主图腾，鸟类多是东夷族的图腾，在泛红山文化玉群中，鸟类的造型很多，也有不少龙与鸟的组合佩饰，它是龙氏族与鸟氏族的联合氏族的图腾造型 ，这即是中华龙凤文化的原始。（参看同书图片2.58，2.60，2.61，2.68，3.20）
8， 在泛红山文化玉群中，令人十分惊异的是其中占相当比例的一部分外星生命体的造型。它们形态各异，有的似人，有的似兽类、鸟类，有的似昆虫，以及不同物种的组合与融合形式，也有外星生命与器物的组合形式。它们的出现更使得泛红山文化玉群在史前文化中独具特色，它也是世界范围内的考古文化中的一大奇观。外星生命的研究是现代人们普遍关注的话题。人们自然会想，万年前还是现代人类的幼年期，那时的人们创建了文明社会，是否会有外星科技的介入呢？玉群中的大量外星生命造型为此项研究提供了极具价值的实物资料。（参看同书图片8.1，8.6，8.8，8.10，8.14，8.16，8.19，8.24，8.26，8.30，8.35，8.39，8.40，8.43，8.45，8.52，8.54，8.57，8.61，8.66，8.67，8.75）
当然，泛红山文化玉群所提供的文化信息不只于此，它所提供的文化信息足以证明在末次冰期晚期人类曾创建过文明，东北亚地区的泛红山文化是中华玉文化的源头，也是中华文明以及环太平洋地区文明的重要源头。泛红山文化玉群进一步确立了中华玉文化在中华文明史以致人类文明史上的地位和作用。
注：本文的第二段列出了很多图片，所有这些图片都是《万古奇珍—泛红山文化玉群》一书上的。因为量大，我将陆续给出其中的一些图片和适当的说明。我的部落格开端有23幅图片，阅读本文也可参考。为了方便，我将相应于每一小段的 图片列在下面。每张图片给出它的行列序号，第一个序号代表行，第二个序号代表列。如第一行第二图，它的行列序号是1/2. 本文第二段的8小段相应的图片分别为：
- 2/5, 4/4, 4/5;
- 4/3, 1/2;
- 2/3, 2/4,2/6, 3/1, 3/5, 3/6, 4/1, 4/2, 3/3,3/4;
- 与3相同（因为动物与图腾难于区分）；
- 1/6, 2/1;
- 1/1, 1/2, 1/5;
- 1/4, 3/6;
- 1/3, 1/4, 2/2, 3/2.
– 杨天佑
**Rough English translation, please excuse the grammar**
Chinese jade culture and Chinese civilization
A. Chinese jade works are the continuation of over ten thousand years’ cultural carriers and the important evidences of the Chinese civilization.
Any relic will provide us with some cultural information, so it was called cultural carrier. The historical relics are the important evidences of tracing our ancestor’s foot printings to explore and discover that they had created brilliant culture. During the no written records of ancient times, the historical relics played more important roles. In different historical stage of human development, its related cultural relics described the cultural characteristics of that era. Such as the potteries recorded the Neolithic cultural identity; the bronze recorded the cultural identity of the Bronze Age, they are important cultural carriers of human development at some stage. In China, there is one kind of cultural carrier which had continued over ten thousand years, throughout every Chinese historic period, it is jade. It shows that the human beings had had a brilliant civilization in the Last Ice Age and the civilization in the Neolithic period; during the Bronze Age (i.e. Xia, Shang and Zhou three dynasties), both of bronze and jade had a big leap development. The Bronze Age is also the prosperous period of jade in China, and most of ritual vessels were made of jade in the three dynasties. After Han Dynasty, the bronze culture was gradually declined, but the jade culture was toward to the peak, and has been continuing up to nowadays never stop. China jade has recorded the cultural characteristics of each historical period of China; it has formed a jade historical book of Chinese civilization which recorded the China’s history from the Last Ice Age up to now. The ideas of respecting jade, appreciating jade have deeply rooted in people, and the jade culture has become the Chinese nation’s unique cultural genes.
From the beginning of the Chinese jade culture was closely related to the primitive religion. People believed that the jade is the medium of communication between the people and the God. Any variety of large-scale ritual and worship should have jade ritual objects and ceremonial vessels; important figures in the funeral should be buried with jade. The jade makers always worked with pious mind and the best artistic expression skills to their jade works. The most of the ancient jade creations were combined with the philosophical idea and the artistic expression in one. By contrast, we know that the ancient jade works are much better than the same period stone tools and the potteries; even by modern point of view, they are also amazing. During the matriarchal society, the jade culture often associated with primitive worships, such as nature worship, ancestor worship, totem worship, reproduction worship, sexual worship and various aliens worship. After the transition from the clan society to the royal period, many kind of jade of representing royal power appeared, such as ax, Yue, Gui, Zhang, scepter and so on; while the religion ritual jade and ceremonial vessels still occupied a considerable proportion. In the Spring and Autumn Period, the Confucius proposed that the jade has nine nice virtues, that is to link jade and human virtues together, this is also a summary of when people’s view about jade. This evaluation is also reflected in Chinese characters, there are hundreds of Chinese characters were composited with the jade word, and all of their meanings are positive, such as truth, goodness or beautiful etc. During the feudal society in China, the major cultures were Confucianism, Taoism and Buddhism, and the jade culture had always occupied an important position. Although the jade culture in different historical periods have their own cultural characteristics and artistic expressions, but many of original concepts about jade have been extended up to now, such as using jade as the psychic object, using jade for protecting body and using jade for beautiful and so on. Some of primitive worships, such as ancestor worship, totem worship, have been continuing up to now. Especially, the Dragon-phoenix culture is prominent in every Chinese historical period. Chinese people often said that we are the descendent of the Yellow Emperor, and we are the heirs of dragon. This is the continuation of the ancestor worship and the totem worship. This is not only a general heritage, but also a very important cultural factor for maintaining national unity and ethnic solidarity. Since the beginning of the jade culture, it was belonged to the category of spiritual civilization, which is directly related with people’s ideological philosophy and religious beliefs, such as rituals, ethics, culture, artistic creation, philosophy, political power etc., so the Chinese jade cultural is the important symbol of Chinese civilization, it has always been an enduring brilliant wonderful cultural flower in the history of Chinese civilization.
Overall, the Chinese jade culture has three characteristics: the first is that because of its large quantities of jade works, so that large amount of cultural information provided; the second is its high cultural level, it belongs to the category of spiritual civilization; the third is that it is the continuous and enduring cultural records from the Last Ice Age up to now. These three characteristics have determined its status and role in the history of Chinese civilization. Especially in the prehistoric time in which the complete text system not appeared, the jade culture plays more important role. It is an important base for the exploration of the original source of Chinese civilization and even the human civilization.
B. The Pan-Hongshan Culture—- the glory of the Last Glacial
Here is a practical example of exploring Chinese civilization in terms of studying the Chinese ancient jade, that is the discovery of the Pan=Hongshan culture. The discovery of the Pan-Hongshan culture was a result of scientific research based on the large amount of Hongshan stylistic cultural jade works. Hongshan culture was a high level and representative archaeological culture in north China, in Neolithic period. Its significant cultural features are the large altar, temple and mount cemetery integrated cultural landscape and high level of jade group. A high level archaeological cultural must have its pre-cultural background, to study of Chinese ancient jade is an important way to explore its cultural background. Over the years, there are many Hongshan type cultural jade remains in museums and folk at home and abroad. The so called “Hongshan type cultural jade” refers to both of the jade shape and its process is similar to the Hongshan cultural jade, but the exact excavated site is unknown. Because of large number of Hongshan type jade and their board range of topics which related to many aspects of nature and human society, and so provided us with a large number of cultural information, thereby the lost very important pre-historic civilization was discovered; it is the Pan-Hongshan culture, the corresponding jade group known as “Pan-Hongshan cultural jade group”. The meaning of the word “Pan-Hongshan culture” is that the spatial and temporal spans of this culture covered the Hongshan culture. Its temporal span is about 30,000 to 10,000 years ago, in the late last glacial period. Its geographical range is very broad, from Northeast Asia cross North Pacific to the Northwest America, its center area was in Northeast Asia, especially Northeast China. During the Neolithic period, Hongshan culture and the other archaeological cultures in Northeast China were the direct successor and continuation of the Pan-Hongshan culture. Between the Last Ice Age and Neolithic period, about 10,000 years ago, a huge natural disaster resulted in a serious cultural fault; the human civilization has gone through the process of destruction and regeneration. Pan-Hongshan culture is a high level pre-historic culture; it can be called the pre-historic super-civilization. It is the source of civilization of China as well as the Pacific Rim, and also the source of the jade culture. The proposition of the Pan-Hongshan culture is a breakthrough in history of human civilization; it traced the human civilization back to the Last Glacial period, i.e. the Late Pleistocene on geological chronology. The Neolithic period is the period in which people inherited the former civilization and opened up a new round of civilization.
So far, it has been found in land and sea the ruins and relics of human civilization, which were created ten thousand years ago. But the majority is sporadic and less cultural information, not enough to make people getting an overview of human development at that time. The Pan-Hongshan cultural jade group is different from the general cultural relics; it is a group of pre-historic high level of jade, which is an important group of relic in the world cultural treasure house, it has provided us a lot of cultural information about when the nature and human society in a wide spatial and temporal span, it enables us to understand that our modern human ancestors had created a civilization in the Last Glacial Period, they had performed a brilliant scene in the world historical stage.
In the flowing, we list several cultural information provided by the Pan-Hongshan cultural jade group:
- First of all, from variety of figure modeling in the jade group shows that there was not only one kind of human, but in mixed state of the modern people and the original Homo sapiens which still have the characteristics of ape. According to archaeological discoveries, the sites of the civilization which created by modern people first appeared in France dating back 40,000 to 30,000 years ago or so. In Europe the modern people was known as Cro-magnon during that time; the most the modern people images showed in the Pan-Hongshan cultural jade group looks like Mongolian, they have Mongolian facial feature, such as facial wide, high cheekbones and hanging tip eyes. They were the creators of the civilization in the late Last Glacial period. According to the rule of natural selection, the other race of Homo sapiens must be eliminated in the struggle of existence, and complete eliminated in the huge natural disaster at the end of Last Glacial. Thus, we can infer the time span of the Pan-Hongshan culture is about dating back 30,000 to 10,000 years. (Refer to the book “The Earliest Miraculous Treasure—Pan-Hongshan Cultural Jade Group”, Fig 1.7, 1.9 1,21,1.26, 1.34, 1.71).
- From large number of various ancestress images and a variety of totemic statue which has the female characteristics, we know that then the society was the matriarchal society. The clan society of human beings in the world appeared about 100,000 years ago or so. The Pan-Hongshan cultural period had entered the prosperity period of the matriarchal society, the various totem statues represented the prosperity of the society as well as indicated that the area of the Pan-Hongshan culture was a multi-clan neighborhood. (Refer to the same book, Fig 1.4, 1.5, 1.38, 1.82, 1.87, 1.89, 1.90, 1.110, 1.111, 5.11).
- The ancient clan society is also known as totem society, like today’s last name, each clan had its own totem. The large numbers of totem modeling in the Pan-Hongshan jade group provide us with a lot of cultural information. clan totem is closely related to their clan’s life, for example, the hunting clan often choose the ferocious beasts as their clan’s totem, such as bear, tiger, elephant, wild boar, eagle, owl etc.; the agricultural clan often choose the sun, cattle, sheep, frog, bee, silkworm, etc. as their totem; the fisheries clan often choose fish, shrimp, turtle etc. as their clan totem. All of these totems mentioned above appeared in the Pan-Hongshan jade group, it shows that there had been a diversified prosperous clan society, and had entered the stage of a civilized society in the Pan-Hongshan cultural area. There are much kind of types of combination and integration of the different animal totems in the Pan-Hongshan cultural jade group. Here the so called “integration” refers to mix different animal body parts in one body, such as the shape of the totem with beast body and bird head, or with beast’s head and fish body etc. these totemic shapes reflect that the clan was not isolated group, there were joining, inter-clan marriage, annexation etc. between the clans. The most of stories of the ancient legends of the clans were the stories of the powerful clans, such as the stories about the Fu Xi’s, Nv Wa’s, Xuanyuan’s, Youxiong’s, Shennong’s, kuafu’s, Zaochi’s and so on. There is lot of their clan’s totemic modeling in the Pan-Hongshan jade group; it proved that these clans had a wide geographic distribution, long duration and high-impact. Especially the Huangdi clan has the most far-reaching impact in Chinese history. The predecessors of the Huangdi clan were the Youxiong clan and Xuanyuan clan, Youxiong was a hunting clan, the bear was its clan’s totem; and Xuanyuan clan was a fisheries clan, the sea turtle was its clan’s totem. Huangdi clan is the union of the two, so the area of Huangdi clan’s was vast, in fact, Huangdi clan was distributed from Siberia and China’s northeast across the Bering Strait to the northwest America. Now the bear image on the California state flag is a symbol of Huangdi clan. In addition, the eagle was the Fu Xi clan’s totem; its influence was more extensive, from the Lake Baikal, Siberia of west, to the America continent of east. Now the aboriginal still worship the eagle in the Lake Baikal region, and many North American Indians still take the eagle for their tribe’s totem. So the various totemic modeling in the Pan-Hongshan jade group also reflects that the area of the Pan-Hongshan cultural region was vast. The most of images of human figures and totem statues were coincided with the images in Chinese ancient legends, so we know that the center area of the Pan-Hongshan cultural region is Northeast Asia, especially the Northeast China. In addition, the South American totems, such as the feathered serpent god, and the Egyptian totems, such as the ancestress Hathor and the Horus Eagle etc. were appeared in the Pan-Hongshan jade group, this suggests that there were extensive cultural exchanges between the Pan-Hongshan cultural region and the other part of the world at that time. Here should also be mentioned that according to the archaeological discoveries, most of the Neolithic clan’s totems were same as the late Paleolithic clan’s totems, it shows that the clans in the Neolithic period were continuation of the clans in the Last Glacial, they recreated a new round civilization in Neolithic period. (Refer to the same book, Fig 1.38, 1.66, 1.82, 1.86, 1.87, 1.89, 1.90, 1.94, 1.95, 1.103, 2.70, 4.23, and 4.29).
- There are many kind of animal modeling in the Pan-hongshan jade group. Such as flying birds, walking animals, fishes, amphibians, and insects etc. It suggesting that there were better natural environment and ecological environment at Last Glacial period in this region. Dating back 24,000 to 14,000 years ago was during the glacial peek period, due to the sea water evaporation and condensed into a huge glacier, most of North America continent was covered by glaciers, the ocean was reduced the area. Dating back 18,000 years, the area of the ocean was only half of the area of the present ocean. But affected by the Kuroshio Current, in the North Pacific coast area was no glaciers and the climate was worm and humid. Therefore the human beings were possible to survive and develop in this region. In addition, the large fauna also shows that the Pan-Hongshan culture was distributed in a vast area. (Refer to the same book, Fig 3.1, 3.13, 3.18, 3.41, 3.53, 4.1, 4.2, 4.3, 4.8, 4.12, 4.15, 4.16, 4.19, 4.21, 4.25, 5.2, 5.10, 5.11, 5.13, 5.15, 5.22, 5.25, 6.1, 6.5, 6.7, 6.8, 6.10, 6.11, 6.12, 6.`7, 6.32, 6.34).
- There are many artistic modeling related to the reproductive culture and sexual culture in the Pan-Hongshan jade group, it suggesting that the human reproduction and proliferation was the top priority at that time. The last glacial is the neonatal period of the modern people, which only a small number, and then the living conditions were relatively difficult. The development of the society depended on the increasing population, so the human growth was very important. Many jade works related to reproduction and sexual have the meaning of the primitive religion. Among them, there are the ancestress modeling, direct manifestation of the male and female genitals, and modeling of sexual intercourse, and the modeling related to totem worship and so on. These jade works have high level of art and technology. (Refer to the same book, Fig 7.1, 7.2, 7.4, 7.6, 7.11, 7.13, 7.14, 7.27, and 9.9).
- There are many modeling of objects in the Pan-Hongshan jade group, their categories, fine producing and beautiful appearance is second to none in the world archaeological culture. All of jade object type in the Neolithic or the Xia,Shang,Zhou Three Dynasties can be found their prototypes in the Pan-Hongshan jade group. The objects can be divided into three categories, namely, etiquette, practical and accessories devices. These objects reflected the people’s idea, religious concepts, production, life and the level of science and technology, and people’s art appreciation, etc., which showed us a real ancient civilized society. In addition, from the objects: Bi disk, Cong, Gui, Chang, axe, Yue and mace, etc., in the jade group we know that the prevailing social outlook was advocating etiquette, relatively centralized and hierarchical society, it was the advanced stage of clan society. (Refer to the same book, Fig 9.1, 9.5, 9.14, 9.16, 9.18, 9.19, 9.20, 9.22, 9.25, , 9,30, 9.33, 9.36, 9.40, 9.42, 9.44, 9.47, 9,48, 9.50, 9.59, 9.61, 9.62, 9.69, 9.74, 9.75, 9.80).
- In China, there is a culture which has been continuing for all of the Chinese historical period, which is the Dragon-Phoenix culture. There is a variety shape of dragon in the Pan-Hongshan jade group, dragon is an imaginary supernatural totem, and it was the main totem of the Huaxia nation. There are also many shapes of bird and the combination of dragon and bird in the jade group; most of birds were the totems of the East Ye ethnics, and the combination of the dragon and bird was the joint clan’s totem. So the original moral of the dragon, bird and their combination is totem, but in feudal society period the meanings were changed to royal power, national prosperity, peace, happiness, happy marriage and so on, and the phoenix is the representative of auspicious or queen. (Refer to the same book, Fig 2.58, 2.60, 2.61, 2.68, and 3.20).
- An astonishing subject is that there is a considerable proportion shape of the extraterrestrial life in the Pan-Hongshan jade group. They are in various shapes, some of them like human, and some like beasts, birds and some like insects, and the combinative and integrative forms of the extraterrestrial life with different species or with implements. It makes the Pan-Hongshan culture unique in pre-historic cultures, and it is also a great cultural wonders in the worldwide archaeological cultures. The study of extraterrestrial life is a topic of common concern to modern people. People would naturally thought about that the late last glacial period was still the infancy of the modern human, and when they had created a civilized society, whether there would be the intervention of the alien technology? The large number of extraterrestrial life modeling in the jade group provides a valuable kind of information for us to study.(See the pictures of the same book: 8.1, 8.6, 8.8, 8.10, 8.14, 8.16, 8.19, 8.24, 8.26, 8.30, 8.35, 8.39, 8.40, 8.43, 8.45, 8.52, 8.54, 8.57, 8.61, 8.66, 8.67, 8.75).
Of course, the cultural information provided by the Pan-Hongshan jade group not only mentioned above, it has provided sufficient cultural information to prove that human had created civilized society in the late last glacial, the Pan-Hongshan culture is the original source of Chinese jade culture as well as the important source of Chinese civilization and the civilization of the Pacific rim. The Pan-Hongshan cultural jade group further established the status and the role of Chinese jade culture in the history of Chinese civilization and the history of human civilization.
Please Note: Many picture numbers were listed in the second paragraph of the article, all of these pictures are in my book <The Earliest Miraculous treasure—Pan—Hongshan Cultural Jade Group>, because of the large quantity, I will continue to give some of them and give appropriate instructions. Now you can refer the pictures on the beginning of my blog, there are 23 images there. For convenience, I list the pictures which corresponding each small paragraph bellow, and give the ordered number for each picture. The ordered number like this A/B, A represents the line it’s in, B represents column it’s in. For example, the picture on the first line and second column, its ordered number is 1/2.
- 2/5, 4/4, 4/5;
- 4/3,1/2;
- 2/3, 2/4, 2/6, 3/1,3/5, 3/6, 4/1,4/2, 3/3,3/4;
- The same as the paragraph C, because it is difficult to distinguish the animals and totems;
- 1/6, 2/1;
- 1/1,1/2, 1/5;
- 1/4, 3/6;
- 1/3,1/4, 2/2, 3/2.
Pan Hong Shan Jade (泛红山文化) 