Located in the Yangzi Jiang delta on the southeast coast of China, they tell the very long story of a civilization that can be described as exceptional.
The site of Liangzhu actually illustrates the transition between a small Neolithic city and a large socially organized state with its hierarchy, its rituals and its economy based on rice cultivation. If the dating of the ruins is staged between 3200 and 2300 BC, the cultivation of rice goes back more than 5000 years, carbon dating testifies to this. In short, we contemplate here the evolution of Chinese society in situ between the late Neolithic and the Bronze Age.
Multiple locations
Liangzhu is a series of sites: the ruins of buildings that extended over six times the surface of the Forbidden City; the extraordinary ingenuity of water conservation (two areas of dams, irrigation canals, etc.); the terraced cemeteries distributed according to social ranks and, of course, the contents of the royal tombs and high dignitaries. We see the omnipresence of the famous Jade Cong, the symbol of unification of an entire population and, beyond that, the sign of a highly developed society.
The Cong, heaven and earth…
The Cong is a piece of jade that is square in shape but has a circular interior. Two significant forms of earth and sky for the Chinese. It is engraved with a stylized mask (two eyes connected by a blindfold, a horizontal line for nose and mouth) surmounted by an ape-like face topped with feathers… God, sorcerer clan leader, shaman? It is clear that the Cong was a talisman, a tool of communication with higher forces, but nothing more is known.
UNESCO
Inscribed on the UNESCO World Heritage List in 2019, Liangzhu was the subject of a major exhibition in Beijing. It was then broadcast in Europe via the Chinese Cultural Centers.
People able to travel to China can access the site and the nearby Hangzhu Museum-Gardens. Different bridges give access to the superb exhibition buildings located in the middle of a lake…
Every major museum in the world offers at least one Jade Cong for public admiration. In Paris, these are the Guimet and Cernuschi museums.
