Written by: Xinhua News Agency
Posted on: March 28, 2018 | 
| 中文
Bird's eye view of Liang Zhu Ancient City
“I have been to Liang Zhu four times and every time I am surprised by new discoveries. I have told many people that they should definitely spare some time to go to China and visit Liang Zhu,” says Lady Jessica Roseson, a renowned British historian and Archeology Professor at Oxford University. In 2017, she visited the ruins of ancient Liang Zhu City of Zhe Jiang Province, South China, to further explore the important relics of ancient China from about 5000 years ago.
This time, her focus was on the periphery irrigation system of the 5000-year old city, which is believed to be the earliest water conservancy project of China, discovered until now. Alone with Lady Roseson, there were 20
authoritative scholars in the international archaeological circle from USA, Britain, France, Italy, Canada, Mexico, Belize, Australia, Israel, and Nigeria, etc.The archaeologists of Zhejiang Province announced that at the end of 2007, they had discovered an area of 3,000,000 square meters, and the ruins of a 5000-year city in Liang Zhu district of Hangzhou, capital of Zhejiang.
In the following decade, Chinese archaeologists made remarkable discoveries in the larger area around the site. Liu Bing, director of Zhejiang Archaeology Institute, said that they had discovered an outer city of 6.3 square kilometers in area, from 2009 to 2012 in Liang Zhu. This proves that the whole ancient city contained a triple structure: palace city, inner city and outer city, which is very much similar to the typical structure of capital cities discovered in later dynasties.
From 2009 to 2015, they discovered yet another amazing periphery irrigation system consisting of 11 dams, covering an area of 100 square kilometers, with comprehensive functions of flood prevention, transportation and irrigation. It’s believed that this was the earliest large-scale water conservancy project ever unearthed in China, and the earliest flood-control dam in the world of its kind.
Lord Colin Renfrew, member of British Academy of Science and professor of Cambridge University, once expressed at the third Shanghai Forum that Liang Zhu civilization existed at the same period as the Ancient Egyptian Civilization and Mesopotamian Civilization. Other participants present at the event also expressed strong interest in the Liang Zhu Civilization.
“The archaeological findings in the Far-East area show that normally the establishment of a state would be followed by vast infrastructure construction. However, Liang Zhu offered another possibility: the large-scale collective labor came before the formation of a royalty. Organizing extensive and collective labor requested not only power, but protocols as well,” explained Mr. Vernon Scarborough, a professor at the University of Cincinnati of the United States.
Lady Roseson, a former long-standing head of the Oriental Department of British Museum, argued that the complex irrigation system required for coordination of design, planning and labor management, indicated that there was in ancient Liang Zhu city a leadership such as a king. Moreover, a large city needs support of developed agriculture, social system, as well as ideological thinking system.
The discoveries have proved Lady Roseson’s speculation. Liu Bin introduced that at the warehouse area within the city, they had found a great deal of remains and traces of burned rice, with an estimated quantity of 100,000 kilos. Wang Ningyun, Liu’s fellow researcher also reported there might have been 25,000 people living in the city at that time.
“We have found more than 160 relics in the past decade, and the relic spots within the Liang Zhu Reserve Zone have exceeded 300 odds,” Liu said. They also identified its river channel network, and city function areas, such as the royal palace, royal cemetery, warehouse area and workshops, indicating that the main residents of the city were royal and noble men, and handicraft men. Undoubtedly, Liang Zhu serves as a powerful proof of China’s 5000-year history.
At present, the archaeological research of Liang Zhu is in the phase of cross-subject exchanges and discussion. The findings by experts in animal and plantation reveal that the food that the citizens of ancient Liang Zhu ate was rice, water chestnuts, Gorgon fruit, wax berry and they raised domestic animals, too.
Associate professor, Yang Xiao Ping, even found out several technical highlights in Liang Zhu’s irrigation system. For example, the dam was built up through clay and dirt wrapped with couch grass, which enhanced its pressure resistance by six times more than adoption of clay only.
Translated by Wu Jinying
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