The Liangzhu culture, dated to 3310 – 2250 B.C., is a late Neolithic (or Chalcolithic) culture located in Southeast China. Well known for its high quality and number of jade artifacts, it succeeded the Majiabang culture and later became part of the Shang Dynasty. The Liangzhu culture is roughly contemporary with the Longshan and Hongshan cultures to the north.
The Liangzhu culture consists of over 100 sites, of which 30 have been excavated, residing south and east of Lake Tai on a peninsula formed by the Yangzi River and Hangzhou Bay. This peninsula, named Tai Hu Bandao, has played an important role in China throughout its history. Shanghai lies on the east seashore and to the southwest, the city of Hangzhou was the capitol of several dynasties in China’s past. Hangzhou was a small town during the Chalcolithic Liangzhu culture and was originally named “Liangzhu”. The small town was renamed many times and eventually became a very important city and one of the cradles of the Chinese civilization.
The Liangzhu culture, growing keng rice and making black-based and black-burnished pottery, represents the earliest Chalcolithic Culture in southeast China. They also left significant evidence to reveal some of their social practices. The evidence shows a pronounced social structure, a reckless consumption labour, extensive human sacrifice, and the iconography of power.
Near Shanghai, in qingpu lies a great mound raised exclusively for Liangzhu burials named Fuquanshan. The mound contains massive numbers of sacrificially burned slaves, as well as tombs of the more opulent people of the culture. In the center of the mound lies a tomb, Tomb 144, which was surmounted by three levels that had been scorched by fire. This tomb encased an inner and outer coffin. The Inner coffin held a skeleton surrounded by many fine jades. On top of the outer coffin lied the remains of a sacrificial victim.
The most remarkable part of the Liangzhu culture is their large number and high quality of green jade artifacts, and their religious importance. Many other cultures that were contemporary to the Liangzhu culture also had jades, but none could compare to those of the Liangzhu culture. Unlike the later dynastic periods, the Neolithic jades are easily distinguishable by style, quality, and the technique used to make them. The Liangzhu jades are set far apart from those from other cultures.
There were two kinds of jades that were prominent for their ritual use during this time. These are called bi and cong jades. The bi is a circular ring used to worship heaven, and the cong is an elongated square tube used to worship earth. Over 5,000 jades have been collected so far. These jades, especially the congs, also have the earliest taotie mask designs as a part of their inscriptions. The taotie mask is an image formed when the elaborate carvings on a jade are arranged in such a way that the image of a face can be seen in the macro image. These taotie designs were later used and stylized by the peoples of Shang and Zhou cultures.
Though this page has been carefully researched, the author does not claim expertise on Liangzhu culture.
Please send questions, comments, and corrections to emuseum@mnsu.edu and include the URL.
Written by Jerrod Roalstad
Sources:
Maisels, Charles. Early Civilizations of the Old World. New York: Routeledge, 1999
“Dawn of the Chinese Civilization: Jades of the Liangzhu Culture.” Art Museum. The Chinese University of Hong Kong (26 Nov 1999) http://www.cuhk.edu.hk/ics/amm/ exhibit/ex98mar.htm 5 Dec. 1999
“Regional Technical Differentiation in Chinese Archaic Jades.” J. Noel Chiappa Home Page http://users.exis.net/~jnc/nontech/jadetech.html