Introduction to In Search of the Five Emperors Guo Dashun Trans.by Shi Guoqiang

Introduction to In Search of the Five Emperors Guo Dashun Trans.by Shi Guoqiang

The book was written to fulfill an unfulfilled wish of Mr.Su Bingqi and completed under his academic guidance.

Su Bingqi（1909-1997）was the Board Chairman of Archaeological Society of China，my tutor when I was a graduate student at Peking University，and my instructor when I started my career in Liaoning Province.He established the typologicalarchaeology and cultural typology of regions and systems.He systematically explored the origins of Chinese civilization through his creative investigation of ancient cultures，cities，and states.He proposed theories of trilogy （ancient state-regional state-empire）and three types （protogenesis，subgenesis，successive genesis）.For a long time his theories have not only played a guiding role in Chinese archaeology as an independent discipline，but also gained much attention and wide acceptance.So it is appropriate to say that they are showing a boundless vitality.

To reconstruct the prehistory of China upon archaeological evidence and combine ancient legends with archaeological evidence from anew had been Mr. Su’s life-long pursuit and important components of the theories he established as a discipline.As early as the 1940s，Mr.Su Bingqi and Mr.Xu Xusheng coauthored an article titled“A Tentative Analysis of the Recorded Legends and Study of Legend Age”（“Shilun chuanshuo cailiao de zhengli yu chuanshuo shidai de yanjiu”）.His interest in legends continued in the 1950s though.In the 1960s，in the last part of his article titled“On Some Questions about the Yangshao Culture”（“Guanyu Yangshao wenhua de ruogan wenti”），again he turned his attention to the relationship between the Yangshao culture and legends in ancient history.In the 1970s，for Jilin University’s archaeological teaching and fieldtrip，he himself chose a location in the basin of the Sangganhe River，northwest of Hebei Province，where important clues were finally discovered of the encounter between the Yangshao culture in the south and the Hongshan culture in the north.In the 1980s in particular，when many places in China witnessed new discoveries in prehistoric archaeology，archaeologists shifted their attention to the origins of Chinese civilization，Mr.Su pointed out that it was time to reconstruct the prehistory of China and to combine prehistoric archaeology with the legends recorded in ancient historical texts.His analysis of the old legends through archaeological finds brought about numerous new insights，such as the two-part division of the Five Emperors Epoch，the Three Great Regions and Systems as the centers of development，and the functions of cultural groupings and regroupings from the south and north of the Yanshan Mountain and the middle and lower reaches of the Yellow River to the northwest and southeast regions.Today these theories are treated as guiding principles in Chinese archaeology.In his last book A New Investigation of the Origins of Chinese Civilization（Zhongguo wenming qiyuan xintan），his above theories are further developed，but unfortunately not yet woven into a complete system due to his death.

When I was a college student，my two fieldtrips and one graduation thesis were all centered on the Neolithic site at Wangwan of Luoyang，Henan Province，while my graduate fieldtrip was entirely turned to Neolithic tombs in Dawenkou，Shandong Province，and the unearthed objects of the Liangzhu culture in regions of Jiangsu and Zhejiang provinces.The basin of Luoyang where Wangwan is located belongs to the Central Plains，but too many pottery vessels of “ding，dou，and hu”series emerged from the late period of the Yangshao culture at Wangwan.These vessels were not originated in the Central Plains in terms of cultural factors，but they showed a strong tendency to replace the local cultural factors，such as painted pottery and the narrow mouthed and pointed-bottomed bottles，and became one of the major ceremonial vessels for a long period of time.Why?Researchers at that time turned much of their attention to the transition of the Yangshao culture to the Longshan culture for explanations.But new understandings had not been gained until two years later when unearthed objects were studied at Dawenkou.Major parts of almost every kind of objects from Dawenkou tombs show distinctive differences in time，a very fast pace of change，and especially the complete “ding，dou，and hu” series with strongtypical characteristics，a phenomenon that occurred similarly in the regions of Jiangsu and Zhejiang provinces.

At that moment，Mr.Su Bingqi published his“On Some Questions about the Yangshao Culture.”He pointed out that in the late part of the Yangshao culture，the level of social development in the coastal regions of the southeast gradually became more advanced than that of the Central Plains and in turn exerted a greater influence upon the cultures on the Central Plains，as evidenced by the fact that，in the late Yangshao culture，the“ding，dou，and hu” series in the west of Henan Province were nothing but the results of the influence from cultures such as the Dawenkou culture in the southeast regions.For this reason，he tried to make it possible for his students to have their fieldtrips in the southeastern regions，because he realized that archaeological evidence had already reflected the special significance of the ancient cultures in the southeastern regions.

In the early 1960s when I was a student at Peking University，archaeological typology of regions and systems（ATRS）was still a theory in its rudimentary form，but the archaeological specialty of PU already had its teaching and practice under the guidance of some of the basic principles of ATRS.I was fortunate to be one of those students.When I came to Liaoning，I was bestowed the rare opportunity to discover and excavate the sites of the Hongshan culture at Niuheliang.Because of this experience，I found it easy to accept Mr.Su’s theory that prehistoric cultures of western Liaoning Province is“one step ahead”in the history of the origins of Chinese civilization.

In the recent ten years，again the researches of prehistoric archaeology in China have undergone a fast development，but the above mentioned sites have their typicality and position as a scale plate unchallenged.These sites are remarkable in one more aspect——they happen to be closely connected with the groups in the times of the Five Emperors.

This connection not only provides the rare conditions for me to search for the Five Emperors，but also entrusted me with the responsibility to think more about the topic.In 1995 as a response to the request from Root Tracking （Xungen）magazine，I wrote a short essay titled “An Archaeological Search of the Five Emperors’ Footprints”（“Kaogu zhuixun wudi zongji”）.I asked Mr.Su to go over the essay.He not only warmly encouraged me to continue the work，but also gave me repeated instructions on certain difficult problems.And now the essay has evolved into the present book.

The book is dedicated to Mr.Su Bingqi in commemoration of his centennial birthday.

郭大順，中國考古學會常務理事，國家文物鑒定委員會委員、研究員，遼寧省文物考古研究所名譽所長，赤峰學院教授。

【譯者簡介】史國強，沈陽師范大學外國語學院教授。

現代中國文學