Preliminary Study On Taodou Unearthed In Jianghuai Area Of Anhui Province During The Zhou Dynasty

From the Western Zhou Dynasty to the Spring and Autumn Period,there were many small countries existing in Jianghuai area of Anhui Province.These small countries known today as Qunshu.Qunshu,surrounded by big countries nearby,has existed for over 500 hundred years and fostered splendid cultures,making great contribution to the thriving of Jianghuai culture in the early-stage.Many experts and scholars have conducted various researches on Qunshu’s origin,location,military and diplomatic affairs,and achieved a lot.In terms of archaeology,many bronzes,ceramics and residential sites have been unearthed and studied,especially the bronzes with typical regional characteristics,such as Xishouding(a king of tripod),Qubinghe(a kind of jar),etc.However,there are few pottery found in this area,especially Taodou(a kind of plate made by mud).At present,no special study has been made on Taodou in this area during the Zhou dynasty.Therefore,I selected Taodou of the Zhou dynasties from Jianghuai area as my research object,rendering more innovative sense to this paper.The main research object of this paper is Taodou.Historically,Qunshu mainly refers the areas of today’s Lu’an,Anqing and Hefei of Anhui Province.However,in order to study the cultural exchange between this area with the surrounding areas,the geographical scope of this paper’s research has been extended to the whole Jianghuai area,namely,area reaches the Yangtze River in the south,the Huaihe River in the north,and the border between Jiangsu and Anhui Provinces in theeast.The purpose of this study is to explore the evolution of Taodou and the cultural interaction between Qunshu with its surrounding areas.The second part of this part revels the main sites and tombs of the Shang and Zhou dynasties in the Jianghuai area,mainly selected and studied some sites with a large number of unearthed Taodou.Because the Huoqiu Yantai site owns a rich stratum accumulation and a large number of unearthed relics,ranging from the Early Western Zhou Dynasty to the Mid Spring and Autumn period with almost no interruption in the period,especially lots of pottery beans unearthed in the site(reaches 84 pieces).So this paper takes Huoqiu Yantai site as the standard,tells the difference among them,and tries to find out the relative early and late relationship of these sites,forming a preliminary understanding of the shape and decoration characteristics of Taodou found in the area.In the third part,through a simple comparison of Taodou unearthed in Xinyang area of Henan Province,northwest area of Hubei Province,southeast of Shandong Province,with south area of Anhui Province and other surrounding areas at the same time,we find out the similarities and differences of their shapes and decoration styles,and thus guess that there is close interaction between this area culture with its surrounding cultures.Through the above comparative study,we come to know that this area Taodou not only owns distinct regional characteristics,but also contains different cultural factors.The main factors are Shang Dynasty culture,Central Plains(also Zhongyuan)culture,Wu State culture and so on.And the proportion of these cultural factors varies at different time periods.In the early and middle period of the Western Zhou Dynasty,the culture of the Central Plains was the main factor.At this time,the national strength of the Western Zhou Dynasty was strong.Jianghuai area was influenced by it,and the proportion of local indigenous culture was petty.At the same time,a small number of artifacts found in this area featured the late Shang Dynasty culture factor.Since the middle and late period of the Western Zhou Dynasty,its national strength has become increasingly weak,unable to control the Jianghuai area.At this time,the development of indigenous culture in the region was rapid,and a number of local characteristics of artifacts had emerged,such as Qubinghe,Zhefugui,Xishouding,etc.Since the early Spring and Autumn period,the state of Chu and the state of Wu have become more and more powerful,and began to fight for the Jianghuai area.At this time,the local characteristics of cultural factors gradually disappeared,many artifacts with Chu’s and Wu’s culture factors.From the late Spring and Autumn period to the early Warring States period,Qunshu was completely destroyed by the Chu State,and the indigenous cultural factors disappeared.The Chu cultural factors obtained the main position in the Jianghuai area.The last part discusses the origin of Qunshu ethnic group.First of all,there are two main views on the origin of Qunshu ethnic group,one is that it comes from Dongyi,the other is that it mainly made up by local indigenous people.I tend to the second point.Its main supporting argument is that if Qunshu ethnic group is from Dongyi,there should be similar artifacts in Qunshu’s relics at the same time.Through the analysis of Mr.Wang Xun’s statement,I think that there are similar artifacts found in Jianghuai area at the same time,but the number is very small,which is not representative.However,more archaeological materials are needed to confirm whether the Qunshu ethnic group developed from local indigenous people.Finally,this paper discusses the function and decoration of Taodou,and concludes that the early modeling and decorative patterns of Taodou are mainly for usage.With the development of productivity,Taodou is not only a practical tool in daily life,but also has the function of sacrifice and symbolic status.At the same time,a large number of Taodou or Qingtongdou(a kind of plate made by bronze)are also found in the tombs,which shows the importance of Taodou.The above research has a systematic understanding of the development and evolution of Taodou in Jianghuai area of Anhui province during the Zhou dynasty,and has carried on some discussions on the origin of Qunshu ethnic group and the function and decoration of Taodou,hoping to be helpful for some following related research.