Hongshan Neolithic Culture
红山文化
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Cloud and hoof objects
a "basic" cloud object, still discernable as a form of the coiled dragon like the pig dragon and the c-dragon
"compound" cloud object, based on merging two coiled dragons symmetrically
Item at right is from the Taipei Palace Museum; probably hard to believe but this is the final result of a different merging process, by combining two coiled dragons in a nonsymmetric way, once this is understood the Hongshan status of this item was no longer in doubt. To confirm, just compare with its close cousin in the beijing palace museum, which we can more clearly see as two simple cloud objects put side by side and merged.
Another evolved version of cloud object? can only say this seems later in style (also discussed in next page Tools):
another type of Hongshan jade with difficult to interpret meaning; called "hoof object" for want of a better name, it probably represents a passage between heaven and earth; they are usually found under the heads of the buried persons
c-dragon
only two Hongshan c dragons have been unearthed, neither in rigorously controlled situations allowing carbon dating using accompanying material with biological content, but the stylistic and processing similarity with recognized Hongshan jade objects provides reasonable confidence that they belong to the same era
these were found in southeast inner mongolia within the wide region of Hongshan culture
collected privately years ago by Fu family then donated to Beijing Palace Museum;
also from the Fu collection but auctioned off, current whereabouts unknown.
There is also a mysterious photo of another sample, similar to yet different from 2nd & 4th, in particular not having a hole for hanging up
Left and below: from other regions but related in concept: end is begin, thing and nothing are the same, fish with human face/ snake chewing plant show a different manifest of the dragon
there is a clear connection of these with middle east/egypt Uroboros snake that swallows its own tail, signalling end is begin, thing is nothing, concept commonly attributed to Laozi
pig dragons and other creature figures
Left: a set of figures showing aspects of two pig dragons collected by the Palace Museum of Taipei.
Right: one of two pig dragons found in a tomb at Niuheliang (the first was shown on the home page) more crudely crafted than other unearthed pig dragons
Right: Not officially unearthed from a tomb but collected from the same Niuheliang region; the surface of this pig dragon has calcified (silicate turned into carbonate through prolonged contact with carbon-dioxide rich water in soil) and somewhat differently carved compared to others, with shallower grooves that required careful hand carving instead of cutting with a spinning disk (for explanation see Tools page under the jade carving tools section). But all the pig dragons share a common general structure and certain artistic conception, in particular the large round eyes and the forward pointing tusks; the tusks, and the pointy ears on most of the pieces, go against the sometimes made suggestion that these represent bears rather than pigs
Pig bones were extensively found in the Hongshan residential sites and in some tombs, so that hog raising by Hongshan people appears common; the approachable, almost cute, appearances of the pig dragons indicate that pigs were not worshipped as sacred tirbal animals or totems, but were regarded more as friends of humans
Birds are not as extensively represented in Hongshan jade objects as pig dragons, but
appear in more varieties; the figure on the left appears to represent a swan, unearthed in a Chengzishan tomb in 2003 together with several other jade items including the human figure shown below; the tomb's scale indicates its occupant's importance, as does the size and high workmanship of this item
Below: two birds, probably owls or eagles represented in a frontal, prey pursuing posture, reveal a different conception of the aviary
type of creature by the ancient people of Hongshan; the clay moulded fragmentary content of Goddess Temple statues includes two bird claws, indicating some form of bird worship by the people, along with some bear related fragments, and these may have been parts of one or more dragon bodies
Left: this is a somewhat mysterious object, as it is stylistically very different from the other birds; it is in fact somewhat similar to the Shang representations of birds, more abstract and with certain distinctive decorative features, instead of the simple realism commonly seen in Hongshan jade representations of living creatures
Right: a human figure, found in the same tomb that contained the jade swan shown above; this is presumably the representation of an ancester or god figure; it is not clear why more jade human figures have not been found in hongshan
Right: One of a pair of turtles found in a Niuheliang tomb, apparently for a person of high importance, buried with a turtle in each hand, plus other jade objects as shown below. Whether turtle shells were used by the Hongshan people for divination is unknown, despite the discoverey a number of jade turtles/terrapins, as they did not come with carved ideograms like the Shang oracle shells or the dice throwing paraphernalia as was the case with a discovery in a different part of China
Hongshan Neolithic Culture
红山文化
web support: Asia Youth Media
we operate in Palo Alto and
Singapore
ph: 65-96623201
fax: 65-64652558
alt: 65-96539476
mail