Yangtze River**-Yangtze River reporter Li Jianhua
On December 3, ** pointed out in a congratulatory letter to the first "Liangzhu Forum" that the Liangzhu site is an empirical evidence of the history of Chinese civilization for 5,000 years and a treasure of world civilization.
On the same day, the first "Liangzhu Forum" co-sponsored by the Ministry of Culture and Tourism and the people of Zhejiang Province opened in Hangzhou, with the theme of "Practicing the Global Civilization Initiative and Promoting Exchanges and Mutual Learning among Civilizations".
Speaking of Liangzhu culture, there is an unavoidable figure: Liu Bin, former director of the Zhejiang Provincial Institute of Cultural Relics and Archaeology and now a professor at the School of Art and Archaeology of Zhejiang University. On December 1, 2023, the "Reading China along the Yangtze River - Ten Thousand Miles of Yangtze River Tour" delegation came to Zhejiang, and on the 3rd, a reporter from Yangtze River **-Yangtze River Network interviewed Liu Bin.
Liu Bin at the Liangzhu archaeological site Courtesy of me.
Those academic questions and unsolved mysteries will lead you to solve them little by little, and you will find it more and more interesting to engage in archaeological work. Liu Bin focuses on prehistoric archaeology and prehistoric jade in the lower reaches of the Yangtze River, and has profound attainments in Chinese prehistoric archaeology and prehistoric jade research. In 1985, Liu Bin entered the Zhejiang Provincial Institute of Archaeology, served as deputy director in 2009, and served as director in 2015, participated in and presided over the archaeological excavation of Liangzhu for a long time, and discovered the ancient city of Liangzhu from 2006 to 2007. Since 2020, he has served as the dean of the Institute of Cultural Heritage of Zhejiang University and the director of the Museum of Art and Archaeology of Zhejiang University. He has won the honors of "Four Batches" of Cultural Masters of the Propaganda Department of the CPC Central Committee, Leading Talents in Liberal Arts of the National Ten Thousand Talents Program, and National Advanced Workers.
It was he who gave us "a glimpse of the dignity of this King of Liangzhu."
In 1936, archaeologist Mr. Shi Xingeng conducted an investigation in his hometown of Liangzhu Town, Yuhang, Hangzhou, and found more than ten Neolithic sites characterized by black pottery, which became the origin of Liangzhu culture and prehistoric archaeology in Zhejiang. In 1959, the archaeologist Mr. Xia Nai officially proposed the naming of the Liangzhu culture. In 1979, the Zhejiang Provincial Institute of Archaeology was established to carry out a wider range of archaeological work on the Liangzhu site.
Liu Bin is sorting out the cultural relics.
In 1985, after graduating from the Department of History of Jilin University, Liu Bin was assigned to the prehistoric archaeology department of the Zhejiang Provincial Institute of Cultural Relics and Archaeology. In 1986, on the occasion of the 50th anniversary of the discovery of the Liangzhu culture, a major breakthrough was made in the archaeology of the Liangzhu culture, and the anti-mountain tomb of the Liangzhu culture was excavated for the first time. In 1987, Liu Bin and his colleagues discovered the Liangzhu aristocratic cemetery at the Yaoshan site, and discovered the altar of the Liangzhu culture for the first time, which showed the importance of the Liangzhu site and the status of the entire Liangzhu culture.
Liu Bin participated in the excavation of tombs 12, 15, 18, 20 and 22 of Antishan. The unearthed scenes of the Yucong King and the Yuyue King of Tomb 12, and the dragon head pattern jade plate and jade fish of Tomb 22 are still vividly remembered, allowing archaeologists to see the "dawn of civilization" for the first time.
Tomb No. 12 unearthed a large number of exquisite jade objects and several pieces of lacquerware, including a large jade cong weighing 6,500 grams, known as the king of Yucong. Yan Wenming, former director of the Department of Archaeology and senior professor of Peking University, introduced in an article that the four sides of the Yucong King were carved with two gods, men and beasts, and the fineness of the lines and the mystery of the expression were breathtaking. This tomb is also the highest level tomb in the Liangzhu culture that has been discovered so far, so it is called the tomb of King Liangzhu.
Thanks to his (Liu Bin, the excavator of this tomb), we can get a glimpse of the dignity of this Liangzhu king. Yan Wenming wrote.
His proposal promotes the integrity of the Liangzhu site and surrounding environmental protection
In 1992, Liu Bin and his colleagues discovered the foundation site of a large palace built by hand through the excavation of the Mojiao Mountain site on the side of the anti-mountain, and believed that this should be the center of Liangzhu culture and the Taicheng where the Liangzhu nobles lived.
In 1994, the Zhejiang Provincial Institute of Cultural Relics and Archaeology set up the Liangzhu workstation, and by the end of the 90s, more than 100 Liangzhu sites were discovered through dragnet exploration and investigation. In 1999, Liu Bin served as the director of the first research office of the Zhejiang Provincial Institute of Cultural Relics and Archaeology and the director of the Liangzhu workstation.
Liu Bin excavated at the Liangzhu site Courtesy of me.
In view of the special importance of the Liangzhu site, it was listed as a national cultural relics protection unit in 1996.
In 2002, Zhejiang Province hired 12 experts such as Liu Bin and Yan Wenming to serve as members of the Liangzhu Site Advisory Committee. At the overall protection planning meeting of the Liangzhu site, Liu Bin put forward the understanding that the Mojiao Mountain as the center to the north and south mountains is a complete geographical unit at equal distances, which was affirmed by the experts attending the meeting, so as to increase the protection scope of the Liangzhu site from 33The expansion of 8 square kilometers to 44 square kilometers ensured the integrity of the Liangzhu site and the surrounding environment.
The insight comes from Liu Bin's in-depth investigation of the Liangzhu site and his thoughts. Liu Bin believes that compared with rivers, mountains are a more definite and graspable frame of reference. Moreover, the ancients must have used the surrounding mountains as a basis for their choice of residence, which was a part of their lives, so the mountains near the ruins should also be an organic part of the ruins environment.
Liu Bin introduced that the city designed by the Liangzhu people includes water conservancy projects, with a planned area of 100 square kilometers. The water conservancy system around the ancient city is also a part of the inscription. After the successful application of the ancient city of Liangzhu as a World Heritage Site, we adjusted the scope of the protected area, and the actual protected area is 998 square kilometers.
"The significance of the discovery of the ancient city of Liangzhu is comparable to that of Yin Ruins".
Liu Bin's archaeological work is extremely meticulous, and at the same time, he does not forget to conduct a comprehensive investigation of the entire ruins group, skillfully combining the macro and the micro.
The year 2007 was an important time node for both Liu Bin and the excavation process of the ancient city of Liangzhu.
During an excavation in 2006, Liu Bin stumbled upon a river, and an autopsy showed that the banks were artificially piled up. Decades of "Liangzhu experience" have already made Liu Bin very familiar with the nearby terrain and landforms. He was keenly aware that this layer of stone was either a river embankment or a city wall that would prevent floods. The following year, Liu Bin applied for an investigation and drilled in the assumed direction. In November of that year, all four ancient city walls, about 1,700 meters from east to west and 1,900 meters from north to south, were found, and the ancient city of Liangzhu was finally discovered and confirmed.
Liu Bin (first from left) at the press conference on the archaeological discovery of the ancient city site of Liangzhu Photo courtesy of me.
This discovery is of great significance for proving the existence of the Liangzhu culture in large-scale projects in the early state. Liu Bin said, "The ancient city of Liangzhu covers an area of 3 million square meters, which is far beyond our previous understanding of prehistoric society, and only archaeological achievements such as ancient Egyptian civilization can be compared with such a scale." ”
On November 29, 2007, the press conference of the ancient city of Liangzhu was a sensation, known as "the earthbreaker", and experts commented that "the significance of the discovery of the ancient city of Liangzhu is comparable to that of Yin Ruins".
It was also from this year that the domestic research on the Liangzhu site shifted from passive excavation to active exploration.
"The name of Liangzhu is being celebrated all over the world."
After the discovery of the ancient city of Liangzhu, Liu Bin has insisted on field exploration and excavation for more than 10 years, and has carried out a meticulous study on the pattern of the ancient city of Liangzhu.
Which places are palace districts?Where are the rivers?What is the connection between the dam outside the city and the ancient city?Asking questions, tracking answers, and solving mysteries, every brick and tile 5,000 years ago has a great power for Liu Bin. "Archaeology is all about constantly creating new problems," he says, "and a lot of things are discovered by chance, and it may seem like a clue or a symptom, but if you don't chase it and stick to it, it's gone." ”
Considering that the ancient city cannot exist in isolation, there must be related supporting facilities around. On the one hand, Liu Bin led the team to carry out detailed investigation and excavation inside and outside the city, and on the other hand, to carry out a large-scale investigation of the net, and discovered hundreds of new ruins, and found and confirmed the outer Guocheng of the ancient city of Liangzhu, as well as the earliest large-scale water conservancy system found in China so far. In addition, large areas of rice fields, encircled moat settlements, and large-scale jade workshops have been discovered. By 2017, the majestic appearance of an ancient oriental country was presented to the world, and Liangzhu had met the conditions for a world-class heritage application.
Liu Bin (second from right) at the 43rd session of the World Heritage Review Conference.
Since then, Liu Bin has actively devoted himself to the work of Liangzhu's application for World Heritage Status, continuing to organize field archaeology during the day and writing research materials at night.
On July 6, 2019, at the 43rd session of the UNESCO World Heritage Committee held in Baku, Azerbaijan, the ruins of the ancient city of Liangzhu were rated as a world cultural heritage, and the history of Chinese civilization of more than 5,000 years has been widely recognized by the world. Vernon Scarborough, a professor at the University of Cincinnati in the United States, said: "Liangzhu's archaeological research has not only rewritten Chinese history, but also world history. ”
That night, Liu Bin excitedly wrote a poem "I'm in Baku Tonight", in which he wrote that the name of Liangzhu is being praised by the whole world The same moment is not the same time Is it you Who has traveled through 5,000 years Or I have traveled tens of thousands of miles ...... mountains and rivers
Why is Liu Bin so excited?Today, he still can't hide his excitement to explain the reason: Liangzhu existed between 5,300 and 4,300 years ago, and it is in the same era as the other three major civilizations in the world, namely the ancient Egyptian civilization in the Nile Valley, the Sumerian civilization in the two river basins, and the Harappan civilization in the Indus Valley, all of which are about 5,000 years old. Liangzhu not only represents the form of civilization in the lower reaches of the Yangtze River in China, but also represents the earliest national civilization in East Asia. One of the important meanings of Liangzhu's inscription is to let the West know that the evolution of Chinese civilization is synchronized with other ancient civilizations such as Egypt.
The success of Liangzhu's application for the World Heritage Site has a special meaning for Liu Bin, "The previous arduous exploration is worth it. ”
From 2009 to 2018, the Liangzhu archaeological team fixed the workstation in the Octagonal Pavilion. It was originally a fruit farmer's house, with brick walls and tiled roofs, and it was very old. The living and working facilities are not very perfect, "the geographical location is very superior, and the ruins of the Liangzhu palace area are right outside the door." Liu Bin quipped.
In the early years, they did not have a fixed place to live, and followed the excavation site to several farmers' firewood or utility rooms. "Every day, soon after the lights are turned off, there are rats crawling around on the quilt, and Xi don't care about them anymore. One day I was woken up by a mouse, and when I opened my eyes, it was squatting on the edge of my head!”
Liu Bin's home is very close to the Octagonal Pavilion, but he is absent for more than 300 days a year. During the Chinese New Year, Liu Bin picked up his family and worked with archaeological technicians from other places to hold the Chinese New Year's Eve dinner in the Octagonal Pavilion. "Actually, who doesn't want to go home", but he knows better than anyone else that archaeology is a game against time.
Cultivating outstanding talents for China's archaeological cause
In September 2020, with the country's increasing emphasis on cultural heritage and archaeological education, Liu Bin entered Zhejiang University and shifted his work from research institutes to universities, "cultivating outstanding talents for China's archaeological cause." ”
He believes that archaeology, as a basic discipline, should become a solid "foundation" for cultural relics research, museology and other disciplines. Therefore, he actively promoted the preparation of archaeology undergraduate courses at Zhejiang University, and welcomed his first batch of students this year. "Archaeology is a platform and window for understanding oneself, the world, and China. The current strength of China's archaeological education and development is far from enough, and we still have a long way to go in the future. ”
Liu Bin at Zhejiang University Courtesy of me.
In addition to teaching and research, Liu Bin has been paying attention to the progress of Liangzhu cultural research. He said that the existence of Liangzhu culture has answered the question of "5,000 years of China", but the success of the application for the World Heritage is far from the end, and the Liangzhu culture has lasted for 1,000 years, and there is still a lot of work to be done in the study and excavation of it.
In recent years, Liu Bin has also actively spread Liangzhu culture. The "Liangzhu Civilization Series" and the children's picture book "Five Thousand Years of Liangzhu Kingdom", which he organized and participated in, have been published in China and translated into the languages of many countries. Projects such as the complete collection of jade unearthed in Liangzhu and the large-scale documentary on the inheritance of Liangzhu civilization are also carried out under his organization.
After 40 years in the industry, from the field to the podium, Liu Bin still maintains his passion for archaeology today. The attraction of archaeology is in **?Liu Bin believes that the greatest pleasure is scientific research itself. Those academic questions and unsolved mysteries will lead you to solve them little by little, and you will find it more and more interesting to engage in archaeological work. "It is archaeology that allows us to see the development and evolution of Chinese civilization very clearly, understand the wisdom of the ancients, and provide reference for the present and the future." ”
At the end of the interview, Liu Bin talked about the protection and inheritance of the Yangtze River culture. He said: The common characteristics of the civilization in the Yangtze River basin are the mode of life in the water towns south of the Yangtze River in which rice farming, the construction of high mounds, the mode of living near the water and the transportation by water, the worship of gods marked by jade, and the mode of civilization linked by divine power, which have made important contributions to the ritual system of the Chinese civilization.
Knowing that the reporter was from Hubei, he also talked about the cultural characteristics of the middle reaches of the Yangtze River: Hubei and Hunan were an independent region in the middle reaches of the Yangtze River in the Neolithic Age, from the Youziling culture, the Qujialing culture to the Shijiahe culture. The unique landscape environment in the middle reaches of the Yangtze River has created a civilized scene surrounded by mountains and rivers and numerous city-states in the early civilization here. The population density in the middle reaches of the Yangtze River has been low for thousands of years, the natural landform and environment are well preserved, and the environmental pattern of 5,000 years ago is still clear today, which provides excellent conditions for the protection and display of cultural heritage.
Editor: Li Zhiheng.
Duty Officer: Zhang Meng.
Editor-in-Chief on duty: Chen Zhiyuan.