Twelve-year-old Shan Yujia, wearing a long flowing traditional dress with floral embroidery and holding a delicate silk fan, stood out from the crowd in the Palace Museum, once the royal palace, in Beijing.

She was there with her mother to see the exhibition Liangzhu and Ancient China: The 5,000-Year Civilization Demonstrated by Jade, which opened to visitors on July 16.

"In this outfit I feel closer to China's traditional culture and these jade artifacts from 5,000 years ago," she told Beijing Review. "I wanted to come to this exhibition when I learned Liangzhu has been named a world heritage site."

Liangzhu, an ancient city that existed in the Neolithic Age 5,000 years ago, was located near what is today Hangzhou, capital of Zhejiang Province, in east China. Ten days after it was declared a UNESCO world heritage site, the most exquisite jade items, including ornaments, burial objects and tools, arrived at the Palace Museum to be displayed at the exhibition that will run for three months.

From the once thriving city that was the capital of a kingdom to the current political and cultural center of China, these priceless heirlooms unmask a civilization previously unknown to historians and provide compelling evidence of the 5,000-year-old lineage of the Chinese civilization.

Liangzhu jade

China has a long tradition of jade worship. Not only the stuff of ornaments, jade embodies rituals, social stratification and artistry. Liangzhu jade is characterized by fine lines and decorative patterns that portray Liangzhu people's beliefs. They believed wearing jade carved into amulets and charms gave them protection and even magical power, enabling dialogue between deities and humans.

The most astonishing jade object at the exhibition is a cong, a funeral article that belonged to a Liangzhu king. A square object with a cylindrical mouth, it is engraved with lines and monster faces. The pattern was the emblem of the king, who was regarded as the incarnation of god, connecting heaven and earth.

"I was most impressed by the cong; the square and the round represent earth and heaven respectively," a tourist from Brazil told Beijing Review. "I enjoyed the philosophy involved in this object."

"Liangzhu had formed a ritualistic society with a hierarchy and jade was the embodiment of this social system," Jiang Weidong, Deputy Director of the Hangzhou Liangzhu Archaeological Site Administrative District

Management Committee, told Beijing Review. While people of noble birth were buried with delicate jadeware, civilians could afford only ceramics, at the most.

Radiocarbon dating of the jade pieces determines that the culture existed in the period between 3,300 B.C. and 2,300 B.C. There was a gap about this period in China's archaeological history. The new evidence discovered in as many as 135 Liangzhu culture heritage sites backs up the claim, once controversial, that Chinese are the inheritors of a 5,000-year-old unbroken cultural tradition.

Archaeologists in Hangzhou examine cultural relics excavated from the Liangzhu archaeological site on May 27, 2016 (XINHUA)

Liangzhu archaeological site

One day after the archaeological site was named a world heritage site, it was opened to visitors as the Liangzhu Archaeological Site Park. Visitors now have the chance to see gigantic historical remains, such as city wall foundations and tombs of the royal family, and even experience archaeological digging and sew, using replicas of the ancient stone and jade tools unearthed at the site. "Unlike other world heritage sites, like the Giza Pyramid complex in Egypt, many structures in Liangzhu are too fragile to be opened to the public," Jiang said.

So the park features many interactive programs to enable visitors to experience the daily life 5,000 years ago. It is equipped with the latest technology, such as 5G and mixed reality, which merges the real and virtual, and visitors can "see" the underground structures and "touch" the delicate jade artifacts. They can even "dig out" replicas of the jade artifacts to have a taste of archaeological excavation.

At the delta of the Yangtze River, the Liangzhu people blazed a trail of civilization, thanks to their genius in designing an irrigation system, just like Egypt developed around the Nile delta and ancient Mesopotamia between the Tigris and Euphrates rivers. A huge hydraulic system, built between 5,300 B.C. and 4,300 B.C., including artificial canals, ditches and gates, managed the waters in the Yangtze delta.

Thereafter, the Liangzhu people figured out how to domesticate animals, farm, grow crops and found a stable society. "The archaeological ruins of Liangzhu provide unparalleled resources for the study of Chinese city planning," Jiang said.

World heritage recognition

The Liangzhu archaeological site was declared a world heritage site by UNESCO's World Heritage Committee at its 43rd session in Baku, Azerbaijan, on July 6. Along with Liangzhu, the Migratory Bird Sanctuaries along the Coast of the Yellow Sea-Bohai Gulf in Yancheng, east China's Jiangsu Province, was listed as a natural world heritage site.

The committee recognized Liangzhu's "outstanding universal value" as "an outstanding example of early urban civilization." From being first discovered by a local archaeologist in 1936 to being named a world heritage site, it has been an 80-year journey.

Jiang described the role played by Chinese President Xi Jinping. Between 2002 and 2007, when Xi was the secretary of Communist Party of China Zhejiang Provincial Committee, he visited the Liangzhu archaeological site and Liangzhu Museum multiple times.

In 2003, to protect the underground structure of the ancient city, all the mining sites around Liangzhu were suspended. But a few still operated in nearby Huzhou City. Xi visited Huzhou and coordinated with the local government to halt the mining activities. Thanks to his efforts, the overall structure of the ancient city was excellently preserved, Jiang said.

The exhibition at the Palace Museum ends with jade objects in the later periods, showing the influence of Liangzhu jade. The Chinese love the mineral and the belief in the power and prestige of jade has passed down the generations. Today jade is still a valuable gift, representing virtue, peace and power.

The discovery and recognition of Liangzhu has filled the gaps in China's history, inspiring more young Chinese, like Shan Yujia in the traditional dress, to appreciate this 5,000-year-old civilization.

Copyedited by Sudeshna Sarkar

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