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Along the Jialing River in Sichuan, square caves have been discovered intermittently on sandstone, connected one after another. The number of these caves ranges from three to over a hundred, and the locals call them Manzi Caves, or simply Man Caves. It is said that they were once inhabited by the Man people, or alternatively, when Zhang Xianzhong entered Shu, the locals sought refuge here. During the War of Resistance against Japan, archaeologists and anthropologists from both China and abroad conducted surveys and excavations in Shu, discovering numerous Han artifacts in Man Caves. Therefore, the academic community now recognizes Man Caves as one type of Han tomb, not a place where the “Man people” lived. On January 10,1942, the author led ten students to investigate Man Caves near Jiangjiagang in Qingmuguan, Bazhou County. This area was inhabited by the Jiang family, with a fortress built on a large piece of sandstone. The rock is about forty-five feet high and fifteen feet wide, facing east. Man Caves were carved into this sandstone, consisting of fifteen caves, which can be roughly divided into two rows: six caves below and nine above. From left to right, the first cave is now considered Cave No.1, and the last cave on the right is Cave No.15. After thorough investigation and measurement, the shapes and structures of each cave are as follows: Cave No.1: carved into three layers, with the outermost layer being twelve centimeters high and eighty-five centimeters wide, decreasing by five centimeters for each subsequent layer. The total depth of the cave is three hundred and ten centimeters, with no accumulation inside. Cave No.2: carved into one layer, standing one hundred and twenty centimeters high, fifty centimeters wide, and two hundred centimeters deepScore, no accumulation. Cave No.3: The entrance is inscribed with the three characters “Year of Yi Chou.” The entrance is ninety centimeters wide and one hundred twenty centimeters high, with a roof-shaped interior top that slopes to the sides, larger in both height and width than the entrance, measuring three hundred and ninety centimeters wide, two hundred and ten centimeters at the central top, and one hundred fifty centimeters on each side. A raised platform is built at the bottom, likely for placing coffins, making the total depth of the cave three hundred and sixty centimeters. Cave No.4: The entrance has only one layer, ninety centimeters wide, one hundred and ten centimeters high, and two hundred and thirty centimeters deep, with no accumulation. Cave No.5: The entrance has one layer, one hundred twenty-seven centimeters wide, the same height and width, and one hundred and seventy centimeters deep, with no accumulation. Cave No.6: The entrance is seventy-one centimeters wide and ninety-five centimeters high, carved into a niche shape inside, with a central top of one hundred and thirty-four centimeters and a depth of one hundred and eighty-five centimeters, featuring an ancient stove site on the left side. Cave No.7: It is seventy centimeters high, seventy-six centimeters wide, and one hundred fifty-three centimeters deep, with no accumulation. Cave No.8: The largest of the caves, it is two hundred and three centimeters high, one hundred eighty centimeters wide, and three hundred and eighty centimeters deep, with no accumulation. Cave No.9: It is seventy-five centimeters wide, eighty centimeters high, and two hundred and forty centimeters deep, with no accumulation. Cave No.10: This cave is intricately carved and larger in scale than the others, with an entrance that is one hundred and fifty centimeters high and ninety-five centimeters wide, and a niche-shaped interior with a topThe central chamber is 195 centimeters high, with each side measuring 200 centimeters wide, and the entire cave is 380 centimeters deep. At the bottom, there is a raised platform 20 centimeters high, and inside the cave, there are no accumulations. The other five chambers remain unexplored. In summary: the general structure of these caves is divided into three layers at the entrance, with the outer layer being smaller. Each layer has an edge 15 to 20 centimeters thick, and it seems there was once a stone door used to seal the entrance. The innermost layer expands outward in all directions into niches. Most caves have a base platform underneath. On average, each chamber is about 100 to 150 centimeters high at the entrance, 50 to 100 centimeters wide, and about 100 to 300 centimeters deep, with some having winding tunnels extending up to 890 centimeters long. The author has conducted preliminary investigations on these caves, noting that most are exposed above ground. According to local people, when Zhang Xianzhong entered Shu, many locals sought refuge in these caves, so the burial goods and other accumulations inside have all vanished. The author then proceeded to investigate and excavate the caves buried underground, hoping to make some discoveries.
On January 18 of the same year, he led more than ten students to investigate at Jiangjiagang. About half a kilometer to the right of the fort, they discovered a cave that had been sealed with soil and decided to excavate it. They organized three groups of students for hoeing, carrying soil, and recording. After a day of clearance work, they found one Neolithic polished stone axe, two rope-patterned pottery shards, and various other pottery pieces. The excavation of the site and artifacts is as follows: The top of the cave has collapsed, burying the underground part to a depth of ninety-eight centimeters, exposing twenty-five centimeters above ground. The stratigraphy is chaotic but can still be divided into five layers from top to bottom. The surface layer is ten centimeters thick and shows no accumulation. The second layer is a red clay layer, twenty-five centimeters thick, from which two Qianlong Tongbao coins were unearthed. The third layer is yellow soil, where the stone axe and rope-patterned pottery shards were found. The fourth layer yielded a large number of pottery shards. The fifth layer contains small animal scapulae at its base. After removing all the soil from the cave, it was determined that the structure consists of four chambers: the left front chamber is fifty centimeters long and one hundred twenty centimeters wide; the right front chamber is eighty centimeters long and sixty-five centimeters wide; the right rear chamber is one hundred seventy-five centimeters long and one hundred eighty-eight centimeters wide; the rear right chamber is forty-five centimeters long and eighty centimeters wide. The bottom of the right front chamber has an especially high number of pottery shards and ash traces. The stone axe measures eight and a half centimeters in length, with a cutting edge four centimeters wide and a handle twenty-eight centimeters wide. It is fully polished, but the cutting edge is damagedThe small stone axes from the Neolithic period in southern China are similar. Two pottery shards, with rope patterns on their surfaces, are thick-walled and appear to be fragments of small bowls. The fragment is 4.7 cm high, representing the middle part of the bowl. From this, we can infer that the entire vessel was about 8-9 cm tall, similar to the rope-patterned pottery found in the Jialing River Basin during the Neolithic period. Other pottery shards are extremely fragmented. All these items are now in the collection of the author.
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The excavation and study of the Man Cave in Sichuan, as far as the author knows, began with Torii Ryuzo and T.Torrance (Tullens). Torii was dispatched by Tokyo Imperial University to China in 1902 to investigate the Miao people. He traveled up the Yangtze River from Shanghai and conducted trial excavations at several Man Caves along the river, discovering numerous beams, pillars, and stone coffins. Based on these findings, he concluded that the Man Cave was one type of Han Dynasty tomb. In his report upon returning to Japan, he stated: “Today, in the Yangtze River basin and areas south of the Nanling Mountains, although such horizontal caves (Man Caves) have not been found in large numbers, they were widely distributed in ancient times. The Chinese practice of burying their dead in mountain caves today is closely related to this type of horizontal cave. The structure of the Sichuan horizontal cave has already been described in an article published in the Japanese Archaeological Journal. In summary, these horizontal caves are all excavated from the side of sandstone, with rooms inside. The entrance is adorned with carvings, and various carvings and paintings are sometimes added inside, containing stone coffins. They are undoubtedly Han Dynasty tombs.”
Tolens entered Sichuan early to preach and conducted surveys and excavations of various caves, yielding abundant results. In 1910, he wrote a detailed account of the structure and distribution of these caves. It is said that along the Yangtze River basin, from the border between Sichuan and Hubei to the direct upstream of Minjiang River in Xufu, caves are densely distributed. They can be found throughout other small river basins in Sichuan, such as Neijiang and Zizhong, but are most numerous in Jiading, Pengshan, and Xinjin. The scale of these caves is larger than those elsewhere, and their decorations are more intricate. Inside the caves, there is one to two coffins, with some having extremely long tunnels. The cave entrances are adorned with reliefs, mostly depicting Han Dynasty patterns of chariots and horses. The coffins come in stone, tile, and wooden forms. If they are wooden coffins, they are buried with bricks, which also feature Han Dynasty patterns, such as chariot and horse motifs, geometric designs, wuzhu coin patterns, and hunting scenes. There are also many burial objects, including pottery houses, bottles, pots, chickens, dogs, cattle, horses, sheep, pigs, and male and female servants. The servants include those wearing straw shoes, playing musical instruments, dancing, and holding half-liang wuzhu coins. One cave is inscribed with the date March 26, Yongyuan 14th year of the Eastern Han Dynasty, further confirming it as a Han tomb. In 1914, Frenchmen Gilbert (Gilbertdevoisins), Jones (JeanLatirgue), and Siglen (VictorSegalen) came to Sichuan to investigate ancient sites, conducting surveys and excavations in Baojing Prefecture (Langzhong) and Mianzhou (Mianyang) along the Bailong River, and in Jiangkou and Jiading along the Minjiang RiverThe Cave of the Barbarians, as described: located on the waist of Panlong Mountain outside Baoning City, the Barbarian Cave Tunnel is two meters deep and later becomes a square chamber, standing two meters and fifty centimeters high. It has a domed shape with a round arch entrance, consistent throughout. Its distinctive feature is the low door, narrow at the top and wide at the bottom, with grooves on the lintel frame for embedding doors or other barriers. The cave of the Barbarians in Mianzhou is twenty miles south of the city. One chamber leads into a tunnel, which contains a bedroom with two side chambers, each four levels lower than the outer chamber, wide enough to accommodate a coffin. The ceiling of the side chambers is domed, one meter ten centimeters high. As for the caves of Peng Zihao ten miles north of the river mouth, they are even larger. It is said: “The entrance tunnel is twenty-five meters long, getting wider as it goes deeper, ranging from one meter twenty centimeters to one meter ninety centimeters wide. On the left wall of the tunnel, there are two small side chambers, each two centimeters long. One still contains a coffin and painted bricks, and there is an entrance inside the tunnel. The inner tunnel is wider and higher than the outer one, extending from here to the inner end, one meter ninety-five centimeters wide and fourteen meters fifty centimeters deep, making the total depth of this chamber about forty meters, with the inner tunnel being five meters deep. Exiting the inner tunnel leads to a large chamber, which contains a stone pillar with an octagonal body and square ends. Inside the inner tunnel and to the left of the large chamber are three side chambers, one horizontally arranged on the left side of the tunnel and two vertically arranged on the left side of the chamber. The width is the same as the inner tunnel, with an entrance at the inner end facing the large chamber, featuring rectangular windows with lattices, and niches for small items on the walls. A stove is located at the front corner of the side chambersThe stove has three eyes, all carved from stone. In the cave, coffins, human bones, painted bricks, pottery, figurines, and tile coffins were also discovered. On another tomb entrance, carvings of two elongated-bodied animals facing each other were found, with an ancient coin in the center. The one on the left is a dragon, while the one on the right is a winged beast with a slender body and protruding waist, similar to the carvings on the Han Que in Qu County. On another cave, a stone coffin was found, with human figures and birds carved on its lid, resembling Han dynasty paintings. In the caves east of Jiading downstream of the Min River, there are many carvings. “In his report, Siglent also mentioned:” One is square on the front, though much of the carving has fallen off, fortunately without additional additions. The two entrances are very wide, with horizontal lintels built in two layers. The birds carved on them can still be identified. The chamber is very large, seven feet wide and deep. There are numerous inscriptions on the walls, including the three characters “Baiya Cave” carved on a square stone between the two doors… To the left of the cave is a large stone inscription, dated to the Shaoxing era.”
Thereafter, scholars in our country gradually paid attention to the Man Cave. In 1937, Luo Shicheng excavated the Man Cave at Baozi Mountain in Xinjin County, where about four to five hundred caves were discovered. It is said: “The caves are carved into the mountain rock, with cave entrances approximately four feet high and as wide. Upon entering, one finds a passage that varies in depth and curvature, but is smaller than the cave entrance. After passing through the passage, one reaches the cave chamber, which is centrally located. The larger ones are about ten feet high and wide, while the smaller ones are seven or eight feet. The deeper they are, the greater their height and width, and the rooms on either side are smaller than the central room. Some caves have four or five rooms, with at least three rooms, and the distances between the caves vary without any fixed pattern. The caves on Muyu Mountain are connected without interruption, with only a few inches of stone wall separating them. In the center of each room, besides placing coffins made of tiles or stone, items used for burial are placed above or on either side of the room, arranged neatly, though occasionally in disarray. The niches for placing objects are sometimes brick-built or carved from stone.”
The artifacts unearthed from the cave at Man Cave are mainly coarse pottery tripods, li, lei, xi, birds and beasts, houses, wells, stoves, and figurines. Other items include bronze washbasins, crossbows, copper seals, silver bowls, iron swords, and fifty coins of the Da Quan era. Of particular note are: (1) A tripod made in the ninth year of Tai Kang during the Jin Dynasty: it stands two feet four inches tall, with an opening diameter of eight inches and a base diameter of seven inches. The largest part of its belly measures three feet in diameter. The mouth is inscribed with clerical script in ancient style, exquisitely elegant. The belly features carvings of mountains, water, and flying birds. (2) A ceramic candle stand: this vessel has two overlapping strange beasts on top and bottom, with fierce and terrifying shapes, about two feet high. The base is adorned with relief carvings of women in ancient costumes dancing or two people fighting, vividly lifelike. (3) A brick from the Tai Kang period of the Jin Dynasty: the inscription reads “The tomb of Liu Fugun, Governor of Lingling, Jianwei, made in the ninth year of Tai Kang.” The characters are in clerical script, but unfortunately, the brick has sand nails that make the text unclear. (4) Stone coffins with carvings: five were found, all damaged, making it impossible to measure their dimensions. The slightly intact one features carvings of a hundred birds, two people holding spears fighting each other, with a tense scene. Another figure is drawing a bow, while another person kneels below, making a plea. There are also horses pulling carts, with the driver appearing solemn and riding swiftly, as if looking down on the world. The style resembles the stone carvings at Xiaotang Mountain and the stone gate at Qu County. (5) Yongping bricks: these were found at the foot of Muyu Mountain, located on either side of the cave entrance, with inscriptions on the sides. The text reads “Made in March of the thirteenth year of Taiping,” with the characters in reverse clerical script, incomparably ancient. LuosAnd regarding various relics, after verification, it is believed that the scale of the Man Cave in Xinjin, the intricacy of its carvings, and the abundance of funerary objects undoubtedly made it the most prosperous cultural center at the time. Next is Yang Zhigao. Yang had long resided in Jiading. In 1937, he traveled north from Chengdu to Guangyuan, then along the Jialing River to Shunqing, and back via Pengxi and Jianyang to Chengdu, and finally along the Min River from Pengshan to Jiading, conducting extensive investigations of the Man Cave. According to his account, there is an inscription on the stone pillar of the Man Cave in Xinjin from the third year of Yongjian. Behind Lingyun Mountain, in Mahao Man Cave, there is a small statue, one foot tall, wearing monks robes with a cross-legged posture, with Buddha light emanating from its head, the right hand holding the mudras of subduing demons, and the left hand holding a fly whisk. This is a work from the early period when Buddhism was introduced to China. Together with Yang, Wei determined that the Man Cave is indeed a Han Dynasty relic. In 1937, the National Central University conducted a trial excavation of the Man Cave along the Jialing River in Shapingba. According to Chang Renxias report: “The Han Dynasty cliff tombs were excavated south of Chongqing University and along the Jialing River. The tomb cluster consists of six chambers, each similar in size, with a tomb entrance three feet high and a chamber interior seven feet square, all with three layers of doors. The six tombs are arranged in sequence from south to north along the riverbank. Above the first tomb entrance on the south side, there used to be an inscription, faintly visible with the characters Xiping, but everything else has been eroded by weathering and cannot be identified. Above the fourth tomb entrance, there is an inscription of thirteen characters, Made this tomb on the seventeenth day of the sixth month of Yongshou fourth year, which is still intact. This inscription is more complete than those in Qufu.”The stele of the Confucian Temples ritual vessels, slightly later than two years, exhibits a robust and vigorous style in its Han clerical script, similar to the brushwork of the ritual vessels. The characters are written in two rows, but the tenth character remains undeciphered. Outside the fifth tomb, there is also an inscription, but it has become blurred and illegible. Inside the third chamber, there is a small niche on the side, used for placing funerary objects. The sixth chamber consists of two rooms connected by a central passage, shaped like the character for palace. About half a mile south, there is another tomb along the riverbank, with chambers of similar size. In addition, both Sichuan University and the Leshan Public Education Museum have conducted excavations, yielding no significant results. However, the tomb cave behind Wuyou Temple in Leshan once unearthed four funerary coffins and terracotta figurines, one of which is depicted playing the zither while resting on its knees, now in the collection of Mr.Xiong Shili.
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In summary, the cave dwellings in various regions not only feature stone coffins and earthenware coffins but also contain funerary objects, with tomb bricks directly inscribed as “The Tomb of Liu Fugun, Prefect of Lingling, Jianwei.” This clearly indicates that the cave dwellings are cliff tombs rather than residences of the “barbarians.” Furthermore, the structure of these cave dwellings is more elaborate; larger ones have a mortuary hall at the front. In areas like Qingmu Pass, smaller ones also have elevated platforms, similar to the memorial halls found in Han tombs. Behind the mortuary hall is where the coffins are placed, with small niches carved into the side walls for funerary objects, which is consistent with Han tombs elsewhere. Stone pillars are occasionally carved on the front of the cave entrance or at the four corners inside, such as in the tomb of Zhang Changzhong from the second year of Jianchu (127 AD), discovered in the twenty-seventh year of Shaoxing (1279 AD) during the Southern Song Dynasty. The inscription on the pillar reads “Made for the inner resting pillar” (Hong Shi, *Lishi* Volume 13, Zhang Binfus wifes two pillars). According to Shang Chengzuo, this “resting pillar” is a misnomer for “jue pillar,” which refers to the dougong column used in later architecture and commonly found in Han tombs. Additionally, the patterns on the stone coffins and bricks at the cave entrance or inside include scenes of chariots, hunting, dancing, birds, and exotic animals, consistent with the stone carvings at the Wu Liang Temple in Shandong. Therefore, there is no doubt that these cave dwellings are Han dynasty cliff tombs. The inscriptions on the painted bricks unearthed from the caves or at the cave entrances include dates such as the thirteenth year of Yongping (70 AD) under Emperor Ming, the second year of Jianchu (77 AD) under Emperor Zhang, the fourteenth year of Yongyuan (102 AD) under Emperor He, the third year of Yongjian (128 AD) under Emperor Shun, and the fourth year of Yongxing under Emperor HuanIn the year 158 AD (which should be the first year of Yanxi, or due to the border regions not having changed their era names), during Emperor Lings reign in □, and in the ninth year of Tai Kang under Emperor Wu of Jin (288 AD), it is evident that the Man Cave was a product between the Later Han and the Wei-Jin periods. The Han and Jin dynasties carved caves for tombs, but apart from Sichuan, they seem to have been unexplored elsewhere. Scholars have differing opinions on the origin of these cliff tombs. Siglen believes they originated in the West. He states: “Our journey has taken us from Hankou to Yazhou, from northeast to southwest, covering the entire province of Sichuan, from the Bao Fang female chamber to the caves in Mianzhou, then to the decorated entrance at Jiangkou, and finally to the magnificent cave gate in Jiading. The complexity of the objects studied increases from simple to complex, and there is no better result than this. This gradual progression is not due to different functions; whether the structures are above ground or underground, their purposes are the same. In terms of burial practices, both tombs and cliff tombs are similar. Therefore, these two types of burials do not stem from different cultural customs but rather from differences in construction methods. These methods, due to the chosen location and specific era (before or after the Common Era), borrow from each other and coexist in the same region. A connecting element between tombs and cliff tombs is the stone gate. This can be found before the tomb passages in Henan, Shaanxi, and Sichuan, and the carvings on it are very similar to those on the cave entrance and frame pillars. This.”Similar points can be further consolidated through the following observations: generally, the areas with the highest development of cliff tombs (Jiading) also have larger structures and more carvings. If we change the direction of travel from southwest to northeast, from the Sichuan border to the Wei River, we find that the decorations shared by the cliff caves and stone gatehouses are fewer and gradually simpler. From this, it can be seen that two forces originated from different places: one in the east (Wei River and Shandong), and the other in the west, converging in Sichuan. The former method involves building earthen mounds as tombs, which is evident in the passage into Sichuan; the latter method involves carving into cliffs for burial, similar to the use of natural terrain in Egypt, Western Asia, and Persia, but has not yet been revealed in our journey. If we comprehensively study the materials we have gathered, we can conclude that these origins lie far to the west, not in China, and we dare to assert this today. “Our countrys Fang Xin an responded harmoniously:” The practice of using natural terrain to carve out tombs and coffins is unheard of outside of Sichuan, except for ancient Egypt and Persia. If such a system was introduced from the west, there would be roughly three routes to follow.” We do not agree. Based on the limited materials available today: since the cave dwellings were already highly developed during the Han Dynasty, they must have originated before the Han Dynasty. Among these cave dwellings, those in the Min River basin, particularly Xinjin and Leshan, are the largest and most intricately carved and decorated, as are others elsewhereThe area around Qingmuguan in the lower reaches of the Jialing River is not only smaller in scale but also lacks decoration. This indicates that the center of the Ancient Cave culture was in the Xinjin and Leshan regions. South of Leshan and east of Mianyang, this type of culture was at its periphery. In the “Huayang Guo Zhi: Shu Zhi” by Chang Qu, it is said: “Emperor Wang made Baoshe his front gate, Xiong er Lingguan his rear gate, Yulei and Emei his city walls, Jiangqian Mianluo his ponds, Wenshan his pastures, and Nanzhong his gardens.” This refers to the area around Xichuan where the Ancient Cave culture was centered, suggesting a connection between the Ancient Cave and the Shu people. The “Huayang Guo Zhi: Shu Zhi” also states: “When the Zhou dynasty lost its order, the Shu first declared themselves kings. There was a Shu Marquis named Cancong, who had a long nose and began to call himself king. After his death, he was buried in a stone coffin and stone sarcophagus, which the people followed, hence the custom of calling stone coffins as tombs for those with long noses… Nine generations later, there was an enlightened emperor who established ancestral temples, offered daily libations, and played music called Jing. The people favored red. When the emperor declared himself king, the Shu had five strongmen who could move mountains and lift ten thousand catties. Whenever a king died, they would erect a large stone, three zhang long and weighing a thousand catties, as a tombstone. Todays stone pillars are these, known as shulin.” The stone pillars are likely todays tombstones. According to Wu Jinghengs interpretation, the five strongmen were powerful stonemasons of the Shu people, and moving mountains referred to quarrying mountains; the “Shu Zhi” also mentions that the Shu king sent five strongmen to welcome a stone ox, which refers to quarrying mountains and opening paths. This shows the Shu peoples expertise in stonemasonry. If the Shu people could use their excellent stonemasonry skills to make stone coffins, stone sarcophagi, and stone pillars, they could also quarry cliffs for tombs, Or perhaps it originated from the people of Shu. Later, this custom was passed down and developed into the cliff tomb culture during the Han Dynasty, reaching its peak. If we accept this hypothesis as credible, then the Ancient Cave culture must have been an indigenous product of ancient Sichuan, rather than imported from the West.
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The polished stone axes and cord-marked pottery unearthed at Jiangjia Gangman Cave in Qingmu Pass are undoubtedly relics from the Neolithic period. Recently, many artifacts have been discovered in Sichuan. According to the investigations and excavations conducted by Ye Changqing (J.H.Edgar), Dai Qianhe (D.S.Dye), and Ge Weihan (D.C.Grah-am) of Southwest University, there are stone tool remains in various areas along the Min River, such as Jiading, Emei, Guanxian, and Wenchuan; and along the Yangtze River, such as Luzhou, Wanzhou, Chongqing, and Yibin. The Neolithic period includes four types: chipped, polished, flaked, and microlithic. Zheng Dekun has compiled the chronology of the Southwest Stone Tool Culture as follows: First, the Middle Neolithic: including part of the Southwest chipped stone tools, part of the North China Xinjiang Manchuria chipped stone tools, all of the Guangxi cave culture, part of the Annam Huabin Bashu Song cultural relics, and part of the Malay Huabin or Sumatra-style stone tools. Second, the Early Neolithic: including part of the Southwest polished stone tools, part of the Manchuria polished stone tools, part of the Annam polished stone tools or proto-stone tools, and part of the Malay polished stone tools. Third, the Upper Late Neolithic: including part of the North China chipped stone tools and part of the Manchuria polished stone tools. Fourth, the Lower Late Neolithic: including part of the Southwest polished stone tools, all of the North China Neolithic period relics, and all of the Manchuria Neolithic period relicsThe entirety of the Neolithic period artifacts from South China, all the artifacts from the late Neolithic period in Annam, and all the artifacts from the late Neolithic period in Malay. The fifth transitional era of stone and bronze tools: including part of the polished stone tools from Western China, all the artifacts from the transition period of stone and bronze tools in North China, all the artifacts from the transition period of stone and bronze tools in Manchuria, all the artifacts from the transition period of stone and bronze tools in South China, all the artifacts from the transition period of stone and bronze tools in Annam, and all the artifacts from the transition period of stone and bronze tools in Malay. Zhengs dating system is currently problematic due to insufficient artifacts being unearthed, but the widespread presence of late Neolithic culture in Sichuan is a fact. Ge Weihan once stated: “Stone tools made of limestone and igneous rock, belonging to the late Neolithic period, exist throughout Sichuan and even in Central Asia.” The stone tools unearthed at the Ancient Cave site in Qingmuguan are all polished and belong to the late Neolithic period in Western China; while the rope-patterned pottery shards were made by wheelbarrows, with extremely neat rope patterns, indicating they also date from the same period as the stone tools. Given that the age of the stone axes and pottery shards is clear, how should we explain the contradiction between their ages when these artifacts are found in the Ancient Cave site from the Han Dynasty? Upon examination, the stone axes unearthed at the Ancient Cave site in Qingmuguan have several hoe marks on their surfaces, with incomplete edges, and the pottery shards are severely fragmented, with a very chaotic accumulation inside the site. This suggests that the stone tools may have been..In the cave, there are artifacts that were not naturally deposited but transported from elsewhere by later generations, such as stone axes and pottery shards. This has led to a temporal contradiction in the site. Today, materials linking the cave with Neolithic artifacts are extremely scarce. Before similar relics are found in other caves, we can only offer this explanation.
Source: Journal of Ethnological Studies, 1948