论两广出土的先秦青铜器

PRE-QIN BRONZES UNEARTHED IN GUANGDONG AND GUANGXI

先秦时代,我国东南沿海和岭南一带,曾经是古代越人活动的地区,战国秦汉时期,统称为"百越"。《汉书·地理志》颜注引臣瓒曰:"自交阯至会稽七八千里,百越杂处,各有种姓。"考古发现证实,这说法大体上是可以信从的。百越地区,统属于考古学上的几何印纹陶系统;因地域辽阔,支系众多,历史发展不平衡,文化面貌也有差异。依照习惯的说法,当时居住在今两湖地区的称扬越;居住在今皖南、苏南、浙北一带的称吴越;居住在浙南的叫东越(东瓯);在今福建的叫闽越;在今江西的叫干(于)越;居住在岭南地区。

Pre-Qin bronzes have been unearthed in over 40 counties in the Provinces of Guangdong and Guangxi, totalling over 800 peices. Of these, 717 peices were found in the controlled excavation of 38 pre-Qin tombs and the upper cultural layers of the Shixia site in Qujiang County, Guangdong Province, and they are of great value to researches. The rest 110 pieces are occasional, usually individual discoveries and therefore less valuable to our purpose.A comprehensive study of these bronzes and a careful comparison between the finds of this sort obtained in the Central Plains and those from the region of the ancient Yue people lead the author to the following conclusion.Firstly, the author does not consider it acceptable that the earliest date of the bronzes from Guangdong and Guangxi means the time by which the culture of the region had been in contact with that of the Central Plans. Up to now, there is not a single finding in both Guangdong and Guangxi which can stratigraphically prove that the region reached to the level of a bronze culture in the Shang-Yin and Western Zhou period. Judging from the level of social development of the regon and its geographical condihions at that time, most of the bronzes unearthed in two provinces can be taken as imported from the outside or imitated locally after the Chu State had opened up routes into the region. A small number of them might have been buried in a later period.Secondly, the bronze culture in the two provinces was formed during the Spring and Autumn Period or a little later. The bornzes unearthed from the upper layers of the Shixia site are the earliest evidence of the bronze culture in the region as far as we know at the present. They belong to the Spring and Autumn Period and the staring point of their age may be traced back to a little earlier time than the date of the upper layers of the Shixia site.Thirdly, an overwhelming majority of the pre-Qin bronzes unearthed in the two provinces have their analogies among the finds from the interior of the Central Plains, the territory of the ancient Chu State and the area formerly inhabitated by the Yue people south of the Yangtze River. Meanwhile, in the territory of the two provinces there are a small number of bronzes similar to those from the area of the ancient Pu people in the southwest. The former are earlier than the latter. A comparative study of them convinces the author that the bronze culture in the two provinces was formed and developed on the basis of the Neolithic culture in the area, with a driving force from the Yangyue and Wuyue cultures in the Yue region itself, and under the strong influence of the bronze cultures of the Chu State and the Central Plain's. It was essentially an aboriginal culture with its own characteristics, but was influenced by the style of the Central Plains and mixed with some elements of the Pu culture.Fourthly, all the pre-Qin bronzes unearthed in the two provineees are articles for daily use. Those with local features, for the most part, are small-sized weapons and tools, thin,poorly cast. Very few of them have only unique characteristics of the South Yue culture.Although bronze metallurgy came into being quite early in the two provinces, it failed. to produce any profound changes in the production and social structure of the region. Bronze industry and technology seem to have not been well developed here.Fifthly, up to the present, no ruins of pre-Qin cities have been discovered in the provinces. Maybe there had never been any cities in the region by that time. The pre-Qin tombs excavated do not have much difference in size, and up to now, no rule whatsoever has been discovered regarding funerary objects. No 'ritual system' has been found and no marked distinction between the poor and the rich has been observed. No staffs and ritual vessels that symbolized power and social distinction has ever been found among the unearthed objects. All this seems to imply that the pre-Qin society in this region had not then cast off the stage of primitive society.