红山文化玉器内涵的新认识

A new interpretation of the nature of the Hongshan-culture jade

凌家滩玉版等特殊玉器和大量陶器刻画图像表明,先秦文献记载的天极观念在史前时代已经出现,要点包括天极为天体的中心,可以用八角星纹、纽结纹和獠牙兽面表示;神鸟可以托负天极,猪也与天极运行密切相关。红山文化社会上层依托此原始宇宙观和信仰昆虫蜕变、羽化能力的传统,创造新的原始宗教和仪式系统,并以制作和使用特殊玉器为"物化"此萨满式教的重要形式,因此获得构建规模庞大的复杂社会必须的威望和权力。这样的政治实践对良渚文化早期国家的形成产生了深刻影响。

The special jade artifacts from Lingjiatan,featuring the jade plate,and a large number of incised motifs on pottery reveal that the celestial-pole ideology recorded in pre-Qin texts should have emerged in the prehistory.The ideology centers the celestial pole,which could be visually manifested by octagonal stars,knots and animal faces with tusks.The divine bird could support the celestial pole,with the pigs closely relevant with the operation of the celestial pole.The high elites of the Hongshan culture,based on the Lingjiatan primitive ideology,developed a new religion and ritual system,which was materialized by special jade artifacts.Consequently,the Hongshan elites gained prestige and power to construct a large-scale complex society.Such political practice had profound impacts on the formation of the early state of the Liangzhu culture.