Kaoguxuebao 2011-3

Contents
Suo Xiufen and Li Shaobing，
        On the Hongshan Culture……………………………………………………… (301)
Yang Yong，
        On the Bronze Button-shaped Ornament Unearthed in Yunnan-Guizhou Plateau …………………………………………………………………………( 327 )
Huo Wei，
        The Discoveries and Researches on the Buddhist Cliff-side Carvings of Tubo Dynasty in Eastern Tibet-Qinghai Plateau ……………………………………(  353)
Second Henan Archaeological Team, Institute of Archaeology, CASS，
      The Coring Exploration and Excavation of the West Wall of Yanshi Shang City in
      2007 through2008  ………………………………………………………………( 385 )
Three Gorges Museum, Chongqing，
      The Buddhist Cliff-side Carvings of the Yuan， Ming and Qing Dynasties in ChongqingMunicipality ...………………………………………………………(411)

ON THE HONGSHAN CULTURE
by
Suo Xiufen (Inner Mongolian Institute of Cultural Relics and Archaeology, Hohhot 010011) and Li Shaobing (History and Culture College, Inner Mongolia Normal University, Hohhot 010022)

The remains of Hongshan Culture have been discovered at the beginning of the 20th century; the name of “Hongshan Culture” was given in the 1950s. The time span of Hongshan Culture is 6700-5000 BP, which can be divided into four phases, of which the Phase IV can be further divided into the early and later stages. Phase I is dated as 6700-6500 BP; Phase II, 6500-6000 BP; Phase III, 6000-5000 BP; Phase IV, 5500-5000 BP. The joint of the early and later stages of Phase IV would be around 5250 BP.
The remains of Hongshan Culture distributed to the north of Yanshan Mountains can be divided into two types: the one in the south centered by the Laoha River and Daling and Xiaoling River Valleys is named “Niuheliang Type”; the one in the north centered by the Shira Muren and Olji Moron River Valleys is named “Nastai Type”.
The settlements of Hongshan Culture were distributed into clusters: each cluster had a large-scale center settlement, around which the medium- and small-scale settlements were scattered. The main subsistence type of Hongshan Culture was agriculture, which was in the developing stages of slash and burn agriculture to hoe agriculture. Animal husbandry and fishing-and-hunting economies also took important roles in the subsistence. The pottery making, jade carving and constructing and some other handicraft branches were specialized, and the stone and bone processing and carpentry were also important handicraft branches. Through a long-time development, in the later stage of Phase IV the society of Hongshan Culture entered the complexity stage and became a theological chiefdom in the eve of the civilization and one of the origins of Chinese Civilization. In the religious beliefs of Hongshan Culture, Worshipping the Heaven and Earth was the most important content, while ancestral worshipping and totem worshipping took significant positions too; fertility goddess worshipping was very popular; animism was widely believed and the dragon worshipping has emerged.
Hongshan Culture was formed by absorbing the element of fine pottery of Hougang Phase I Culture based on Zhaobaogou Culture, and also succeeded some elements of Xinglongwa Culture. During its development, Hongshan Culture was going on absorbing the elements of Fuhe Culture, Banpo Culture, Miaodigou Culture, Miaozigou Culture and Dawenkou Culture, and intensively influencing some nearby cultures at the same time.

ON THE BRONZE BUTTON-SHAPED ORNAMENT UNEARTHED IN YUNNAN-GUIZHOU PLATEAU
by
Yang Yong (Institute of Archaeology, CASS, Beijing 100710)

Bronze button-shaped ornament is a kind of object with strong local features in the bronze culture remains of Yunnan-Guizhou Plateau. So far, more then 1000 pieces of bronze button-shaped ornaments have been unearthed, most of which were in eastern Yunnan Province, especially the Lake Dian region. Varying in size and shape, these button-shaped ornaments have one feature common: they all have a hook-shaped shank on the back. These bronze button-shaped ornaments are usually made in circular and rectangular shapes or human and animal figures in various postures, on the obverse are there usually decorative patterns and/or gemstones inlaid. Chronologically, these bronze button-shaped ornaments emerged in late Warring-States Period, prevailed in the Western Han Dynasty and were occasionally seen in the early Eastern Han Dynasty; referring to their geographical distribution, we can infer that this kind of artifacts would be left by the ancient Dian people and could be seen as the typical artifacts of Dian Culture.
The function of the bronze button-shaped ornaments found in Yunnan-Guizhou Plateau was mainly fastening and adorning the dresses like the belt hooks or clasps in the Central Plains and the Northern Frontier Zone, but their shapes and wearing methods were different. The wearers of the bronze button-shaped ornaments usually had high social statuses, such as the kings, aristocrats, official attendants, priests and warriors, as well as some rich citizens, most of whom were male.
The manufacturing of the bronze button-shaped ornaments were rather complex, showing somehow originality and technical level. This kind of ornaments originated from the local culture in Yunnan-Guizhou Plateau and might have evolved from common bronze ornaments; during the development, the bronze button-shaped ornaments might have been influenced by the cultures of the Central Plains and the Northern Frontier Zone in different ways and grades.

THE DISCOVERIES AND RESEARCHES ON THE BUDDHIST CLIFF-SIDE CARVINGS OF TUBO DYNASTY IN EASTERN TIBET-QINGHAI PLATEAU
by
Huo Wei (China Tibetology Institute, Sichuan University, Chengdu 610064)

This article gives a comprehensive study on the archaeological discoveries of Buddhist rock carvings of Tubo Dynasty in eastern Tibet-Qinghai plateau in recent years. It consists of three parts. The first part studies the themes and inscriptions of the remains discovered in Tibet, Qinghai and Sichuan Provinces, and gives an identification of their archaeological dates.
The second part discusses the iconographic characteristics of the assemblage of Vairocana and Astamahabodhisattva (the Eight Great Bodhisattvas) in eastern Tibet-Qinghai plateau and the reason for its prevalence in these areas. This paper suggests that it is the result of the historical and religious context that the worshipping of Vairocana became increasingly popular with the spread of esoteric Buddhism in central Tibet, Dunhuang and Sichuan during the middle and late Tubo Dynasty (corresponding to the middle and late Tang Dynasty).
In particular, the paper stresses that because of the special natural condition of eastern Tibetan area, the esoteric Buddhism in these areas communicated with that in Central Plain tradition, such as that from Dunhuang and Sichuan and influenced with each other. Thus, the style of the Variocana image was possibly from the central areas of Tubo Kingdom via Dunhuang or Hexi Corridor. However, the configuration of Astamahabodhisattva seemed to be affected by Central Plain tradition tantric texts prevailed in Dunhuang and Sichuan. It displays a phenomenon of multi-cultural communication and amalgamation. The third part discusses the effect and significance of these Buddhist archaeological remains in the cultural communication between the Central Plain and Tibetan Kingdom in Tang Dynasty. The author suggests that because of the special approaches in the cultural communication between the Central Plain and Tibetan Kingdom, different cultural elements were able to be introduced into these areas simultaneously by the eminent monks from Tibet and/or Tang Empire.

THE CORING EXPLORATION AND EXCAVATION OF THE WEST WALL OF YANSHI SHANG CITY IN 2007 THROUGH 2008
by
Second Henan Archaeological Team, Institute of Archaeology, CASS

In March 2007 through August 2008, comprehensive coring exploration was conducted to the west wall of the Yanshi Shang City Site; based on the inspection data, four localities were selected for excavation.
The Outer Wall Gate X2 (the West Gate No. 2) was re-excavated, the sectioning to which gave us the knowledge that this gate had been built twice for which two layers of gate remains existed; the gate remains discovered in the excavation in 1983 was actually only the upper layer of the gate remains, below which was there a lower layer of gate remains.
During the exploration in 2007, the turning point at the middle section of the west wall was confirmed to be on the north edge of Shixiang Gou (Gully). The excavation to the turning point revealed that the west wall turned to the east at the point about 200 m to the south of the Gate X2, went eastward for a thickness of the wall, and then turned to the south again; the small city wall was covered in the outer city wall after being cut and amended. The reason why the outer city wall turned in at this point was that the wall of the small city, which had been built earlier, turned here already; the outer city wall, which was built by thickening the west wall of the small city, was just following the given course.
During the coring test to the north section of the west wall in spring 2008, a recessing part about 160 m to the south of the northwest corner of the city wall. In the middle of this eastward recessing portion, the remains of a city gate was found and numbered as Gate X3.
In spring 2007, a stone-lined waterway to the west of the moat on the outer side of the west wall of the city was found during the exploration to the section of this moat nearby the Gate X1. Stretching westward for 205 m, this waterway linked to an ancient river course running in south-north direction. This waterway was not only on the same line with that found to the east of the moat, but in the same width and structure as well as time of using, which implied that they were built at the same time as the water supply channel, and would have been linked together somehow.

THE BUDDHIST CLIFF-SIDE CARVINGS OF THE YUAN, MIGN AND QING DYNASTIES IN CHONGQING MUNICIPALITY
by
Three Gorges Museum, Chongqing

Chongqing Municipality, which is located in the east of Sichuan Basin, is the main distribution area of the later Buddhist cliff-side carvings in China. In total, over 200 localities of Buddhist cliff-side carvings have been found, four of which are carved in the Yuan Dynasty, over 60 are carved in the Ming Dynasty and over 180 are carved in the Qing Dynasty; they are mainly distributed in Dazu, Tongnan, Hechuan, Jiangjin, Rongchang, Nan'an and so on, totally 25 counties and districts. The themes of the four Buddhist cliff-side carvings of the Yuan Dynasty are mainly the Eleven-faced Sahasrabhuja-sahasranetra, vidyarajas and Maitreya. The Buddhist carvings of the Ming Dynasty have the richest themes in all of the three dynasties; based on the themes, styles and types, these carvings could be dated into two phases: the early phase included the carvings of Hongwu and Yongle Eras (1368-1425 CE), the themes of which are Tri-Buddha (Aksobhya, Sakyamuni and Amitabha), Sapta Buddha (past Seven-Buddha), Amitabha's twelve titles of light, Guide to the Pure-land (standing statue of Amitabha), the Three Saints of the West (Amitabha flanked by Avalokitesvara on the left and Mahasthamaprapta on the right), the Pure-land of the West, Ksitigarbha, Cintamani-cakra Avalokitesvara, Avalokitesvara and Nagakanya, and the Youth of Good Wealth (Sudhana-sresthi-daraka), and so on. In the early phase of the Ming Dynasty, the Buddhist stone carvings succeeded the traditions of that of the Southern Song Dynasty reflected by the Buddhist cave temples in Anyue and Dazu, both of which are located in the east of Sichuan Basin. The later phase included all of the Buddhist cliff-side carvings after Yongle Era; they scatter widely but sparsely; although can be found in most of the counties and districts, their scales are rather small, usually consisting of one to three niches or so, showing the declining of the Buddhist stone carving after the climax in Hongwu and Yongle Eras. The Buddhist cliff-side carvings of the Qing Dynasty are in very small scales but wide distributions; every county and district has them discovered, but most of them are poorly preserved and usually altered, scribbled and damaged. Referring to the data fetched from the comprehensive investigation, we understand that the themes of the Buddhist stone carvings of the Qing Dynasty are mainly the Tri-Buddha, Sahasrabhuja-sahasranetra, Avalokitesvara, Nagakanya and the Youth of Good Wealth, Children-sending Avalokitesvara, Bull King Bodhisattva, the Three Sages (Manjusri, Avalokitesvara and Samantabhadra), vidyarajas and so on, the Children-sending Avalokitesvara among which is the most special theme, and would be the new one innovated in the Qing Dynasty.