Page 517 - The Golden Age of Chinese Archaeology: Celebrated Discoveries from the People’s Republic of China

Afterword

SU BAI | Most of the treasures included in The Golden Age of Chinese Archaeology, which represent a six-
thousand-year time span (5000 BCE to 1000 CE) and a wide geographical range — the Yellow
River valley, the Yangzi region, and the Pearl River delta — were excavated by Chinese archaeol-
ogists in the last twenty-five years. Every item in this exhibition has immense artistic and histor-
ical value, and the selection presents a microcosm of Chinese archaeology's golden age.
China is a vast country comprising a rich variety of ethnicities among which the Han
predominate. It stretches from the Mongolian plateau and desert in the north, to the Tibetan
Mountain Plateau in the southwest. The east and southeast of China verges on the Pacific
Ocean, and the west is divided by the Kunlun, Altun, Tian, and Altai mountains, and the Tarim
and Junggar basins — the outlets of rivers that flow down from the mountains. These bound-
aries presented a considerable obstacle to the ancient Chinese as they attempted to communi-
cate with the outside world, but once transportation and technology had improved, they were
quick to enrich their civilization by interacting with an assortment of diverse cultures. The
stimulation provided by this cultural interaction and intermingling contributed to the develop-
ment of a distinct Chinese civilization, which would become one of the four great civilizations
of the ancient world.
The domestication of the horse in approximately 3000 BCE extended the range of Chinese

cultural influence, and archaeologists have found traces of imported Western culture dating as
far back as the Siba Culture and the Lower Xiajiadian Culture (both contemporaneous with the
Xia dynasty) in the eastern and western ends of the Great Wall. The increased contact between
the West and the powerful nomadic cultures that were developing in the Great Wall region dur-
ing the late Shang period accounts for the presence of western elements in the Yinxu culture of
the late Shang. During the Western Han period, Zhang Qian's exploration of the western region
opened up the passageway of the famous Silk Road, making way for progressive interaction and
increased communication between east and west during the Han and Tang dynasties. Along
with artifacts and components of culture, the Chinese imported elements of foreign philoso-
phies and systems of belief, of which Buddhism was the most important. A long period of inter-
action between Confucian and Buddhist thought resulted in the birth of the Chan school of
Buddhism and Neo-Confucianism, from which Chinese culture entered a new stage. An ancient
Chinese saying, "tolerance creates greatness," might also be interpreted as "acceptance creates
greatness," for their tolerance of other cultures and their willingness to accept new cultural
elements led the Chinese to develop a rich and eclectic civilization that assimilated facets of
other cultures, while retaining and enhancing a tradition of their own. Nor was the interaction
one-sided, for foreign cultures as well benefited from interactions with China.

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