Jingchu, the birthplace of the Yangtze River's skyline flow for millions of years | Site | Yangtze River

This is Hubei,

——An important birthplace of ancient humans and the homeland of Eastern humans,

——The birthplace of agricultural civilization and the center of civilization that has lasted for thousands of years in the middle reaches of the Yangtze River,

Witnessed the legend of Zeng Guo and the dazzling Chu culture.

The millions of years of historical and cultural heritage together tell the story:

The Jingchu culture is an important component of the long-standing Chinese civilization and holds a pivotal position in the development history of Chinese civilization.

01

"Three people form a group",

Empirical evidence of millions of years of human history

On the evening of July 11th, the highly anticipated "Yunxian Man" No.3 skull fossil was once again featured in CCTV's "Exploration and Discovery" program. "After the successful extraction of fossils from the Xuetang Liangzi Site in Shiyan City, they have been transferred to the Chinese Academy of Sciences for research on ancient vertebrates and ancient humans. Currently, full efforts are being made for indoor restoration and interdisciplinary research," said project leader Lu Chengqiu.

Fossil skull of "Yunxian Man" No.3 exposed

The No. 3 skull is even more rare than the No. 1 and No. 2 skulls discovered in 1989 and 1990, and is the most intact ancient human skull fossil of the same era in Eurasia, preserving important and scarce anatomical features of humans in this stage.

The skull of the third person from Yun County was extracted and unearthed.

"Three people formed a group, witnessing an upright human." According to Gao Xing, a researcher at the Institute of Vertebrate Paleontology and Paleoanthropology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, the "Yunxian people" were at an important critical period in the evolution of ancient humans, demonstrating the million year history of human evolution on the land of China. "Archaeological research shows that humans in the East Asian region have evolved continuously from Homo erectus to early Homo sapiens, and then to modern humans. The place we are standing now should be our ancestors' hometown, which is one of the birthplaces of East Asian humans."

Fossils and Reconstructed Models of the Skull of Yunxian People No.1 and No.2

From the founding people about 2 million years ago, to the people of Yunxian about a million years ago, to the people of Changyang about 200000 years ago, and the people of Huanglongdong about 100000 years ago, Hubei is one of the regions in China where the most ancient human fossils have been discovered. The enrichment and systematicity of ancient human relics are rare in the world and only in China.

Xuetang Liangzi Site

02

The dawn suddenly appeared and lasted for a thousand years,

Civilization originated here

The stone carving of "Sun Man" in Beixi, Yidu City, dating back about 8000 years ago, features a circular sun pattern on top of his head, emitting 23 rays of light. The ancestors of the Chengbeixi culture worshipped the sun, a symbol of agricultural fertility, and agriculture emerged in the middle reaches of the Yangtze River.

Pottery unearthed from Chenghe Site

Hubei is located in the middle reaches of the Yangtze River, with a long history of civilization. The stone carvings of the "Sun Man" in the Chengbei River, obsidian sculptures, large-scale joint tombs at the Chenghe Site, high-temperature black glazed pottery from Qujialing, and the ancient city of Shijiahe are witnesses of the gradual progress of civilization towards glory in the middle reaches of the Yangtze River.

Qujialing National Archaeological Site Park

The Qujialing Site in Jingmen, located approximately 5900 to 4200 years ago, is the earliest and most representative large-scale settlement site discovered in the middle reaches of the Yangtze River during the Neolithic period. It is an important birthplace of agricultural civilization, with a large number of prehistoric rice remains unearthed and the earliest millet remains found in the middle reaches of the Yangtze River. The eggshell colored pottery with a thickness of only 0.5 millimeters at the thinnest part of the pottery body, exquisite colored pottery spinning wheels, and a large number of prehistoric rice cultivation relics unearthed bear witness to the development of pottery making, textile, and agricultural technology in the Qujialing site and the Qujialing cultural radiation area.

Qujialing Culture Colored Pottery Spinning Wheel

The "Number One Phoenix in China" Yutuan Phoenix was unearthed at the Shijiahe Site in Tianmen. The statues of gods and humans, dragons, phoenixes, eagles, cicadas, and other shapes on the Shijiahe jade artifacts have had a profound impact on future generations. The jade bird unearthed from the tomb of Fu Hao in the Shang Dynasty has a striking resemblance to the jade phoenix in Shijiahe; The mysterious bronze statue of Sanxingdui is in line with the shape of the Shijiahe jade statue, including fang, vertical eyes, and large ears.

Jade Tuan Feng Unearthed from Shijiahe Site

According to the leader of the Xia Shang Zhou Project Team of the National Cutural Heritage Administration and the Hubei Provincial Institute of Cultural Relics and Archaeology, the Shijiahe Site has lasted for thousands of years, and its heyday is about 5000 to 4000 years ago. The area of the city was recently confirmed to be 3.485 million square meters, which is the largest, highest ranking and longest lasting prehistoric city site in the middle reaches of the Yangtze River. The large-scale sacrificial site of Shijiahe Yinxintai, the high-level jade urn coffins in Tanjialing, and the large-scale professional pottery workshop in Sanfangwan reveal the cultural genes of early China from multiple dimensions.

Jade figurines unearthed from the Shijiahe site

More than 20 prehistoric city sites have been discovered and confirmed in the middle reaches of the Yangtze River, with the vast majority located in Hubei. As the center of this region, the ancient city of Shijiahe has become a capital city, constantly integrating culture and resources, leading the development of the middle reaches of the Yangtze River, and making it an important region for the origin of Chinese civilization.

Unearthed Jade Jue with Two Coupled Head Statues at the Shijiahe Site

03

"Jindao Xixing"

Supporting the rise of early countries

On July 11th, the "Let's Tell the Story of Jingchu Together" summer camp of Hubei Provincial Museum opened. People were pleasantly surprised to discover that two of the top ten treasures of the museum were bronze artifacts from the Zeng Dynasty - Zeng Houyi's Bianzhong and Zun Pan. In fact, there are still many bronze artifacts unearthed from the Tomb of Marquis Yi of Zeng, including a banned copper pot, a bronze Jian Fou, and copper deer antlers and standing cranes, each of which can be considered a rare treasure.

Zeng Houyi Bianzhong

From Yejia Mountain, Guojia Temple, Sujia Ridge, to Zao Shulin, Yidi Gang, and Leigudun, thousands of bronze artifacts have been unearthed from Zeng State, and with the addition of ancient bronze artifacts, the overall quantity is even greater. Only the tomb of Marquis Yi of Zeng unearthed over 10 tons of bronze artifacts.

Zeng Hou Yizun

What kind of secret does Zeng Guo hide behind a large number of bronze artifacts?

Originally, Zeng State belonged to the Zhou royal family and was a vassal state with the same surname. It was established in the early Western Zhou Dynasty and its initial fiefdom was located on an important north-south passage in ancient times - the Suizao Corridor. The Suizao Corridor is the main route of the Jin Dao Xi Xing, which is the southern route of the ancient Copper Road. Zeng Guo was entrusted by the Zhou Dynasty with the responsibility of controlling, transporting, and managing copper and tin resources in the south, ensuring that they were continuously transported northward through the Suizao Corridor to the Zhou Dynasty.

Zeng Houyi Bronze Mirror Foul

Some scholars believe that the "Golden Road and Tin Industry" supported the rise of early countries, and a large amount of copper and tin resources were transported to the central dynasty, laying the foundation for creating a brilliant bronze civilization.

Zeng Hou Bing Cuo Jin Yun Wen Jian

Panlong City, the root of Wuhan City, served as a stronghold of the Shang Dynasty's rule over Southern China. A large number of bronze artifacts were unearthed, and it is considered the center of early bronze civilization in the Yangtze River Basin.

Bronze ware combinations unearthed from the tombs of aristocrats in the Zeng Dynasty in the jujube tree forest during the Spring and Autumn period

04

Chu unifies the middle reaches of the Yangtze River

Laying the foundation for Qin's unification of China

There are Terra Cotta Warriors in the north and Xiongjia Tomb in the south.

Xiongjiazhong National Archaeological Site Park

The well preserved Chu King's Mausoleum, magnificent chariot and horse formations, and exquisite unearthed cultural relics have amazed overseas tourists visiting the Xiongjiazhong National Archaeological Site Park in Jingzhou.

The typical representative of Chu culture is the Tiger Bird Drum

At the beginning of the establishment of the state of Chu, with a radius of only fifty miles, the monarch and nobility of the state were low. With a pioneering spirit, hundreds of years later, its territory covered half of China, covering a distance of "5000 miles", and it became the largest country standing tall in the East of the world.

Phoenix shaped pendant

Famous Chu cultural expert Liu Yutang believes that over a long period of eight hundred years, the Chu people not only created material civilization achievements such as exquisite bronze casting, exquisite silk embroidery, and exquisite bamboo and wood painting, but also created profound Lao Zhuang philosophy, stunning Qu Song literature, and mysterious spiritual civilization achievements such as art, music, and dance. "The contribution of Chu culture to Chinese culture has attracted worldwide attention, and it can stand on par with ancient Greek culture in many aspects."

People riding camel lanterns

The unification of the middle reaches of the Yangtze River by the Chu people laid the foundation for the unification of the whole country by Qin and the completion of the Huaxia process in the middle reaches of the Yangtze River.

Copper Dun

The "Dragonfly Eye" glass beads unearthed from the tombs of nobles in the state of Chu are the earliest known tokens of cultural exchange between China and the West. The cultural interaction between the Chu Kingdom in the East and the West occurred nearly four centuries earlier than Zhang Qian's feat of "hollowing out" the Western Regions during the reign of Emperor Wu of Han.

Wang Wei, Chief Expert of the "Exploration of the Origins of Chinese Civilization Project", Member of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences and Director of the History Department, previously stated in an interview that the middle reaches of the Yangtze River are one of the important areas for exploring the origins of Chinese civilization, and Hubei, represented by the Jingchu culture, has played an important role in the origin and development of Chinese civilization.