ESHS/HSS Annual Meeting

The Formation of Cosmology in the Periphery of China Central Plains Culture 5000-4000BP

• In Event: Sciences of the Deep Past

English Abstract

Chinese civilization was already in the process of formation and development during prehistoric times. In the socio-cultural sphere, the Central Plains region is considered the core area of Chinese civilization. Cosmology reflects how humans incorporate all things in the environment into the life world, representing a holistic understanding of the relationships between humans, objects, gods, heaven, and earth in space and time. The "Monthly Ordinances" in the Book of Rites reflects a traditional cognitive model that integrates spatial layout, the relationship between heaven and earth, humans and animals, humans and plants, death cognition, and sacred imagination into the knowledge system of cosmology. During the middle to late Neolithic period, approximately 5000–4000 years ago, the Central Plains, leveraging its geographical and cultural advantages, became a convergence center for diverse civilizations. The populations and cosmologies in its peripheral areas provided important "peripheral" perspectives. This period is also regarded as a "revolutionary" stage in the global civilizational process. Although lacking written records, archaeological discoveries of material remains provide rich research materials for examining, collecting, displaying, and studying various aspects of the origin stages of civilization. This study aims to focus on the Huangshan site, a regional central settlement located at the periphery of the Central Plains region of China 4000–5000 years ago, and combine its unique economic model and environmental characteristics to examine the connotation and construction process of the cosmology in the peripheral areas of Central Plains culture during this period. It also aims to showcase the governance logic and knowledge system construction process of the late Neolithic regional central settlements at the cultural convergence point between the Central Plains region and the middle and lower reaches of the Yangtze River.

Author

• 煜宸 郭, University of Chinese Academy of Sciences