An Extremely Long Span of the Sun-Earth Pattern in the History of China

The legendary ancestors of Chinese people, Emperors Yan and Huang, were supposed to live more than 5000 years ago [1]. Since around 5300 years ago, a special pattern of sun-earth paired symbol emerged on painted potteries (Figure 1C,D) in two most important settlements in central China, Shuanghuaishu and Dahecun. These paired symbols were hypothesized to be the symbols of the coalition of Yan and Huang, and showed an important role in Dahecun style of Yangshao Culture. Some of the patterns included a round sun and several continuous rhombuses (Figure 1C), and others simplified the sun into an “∽” with or without two dots, and the rhombuses into a cross [2]. These patterns did not appear in early period of Yangshao Culture, while pottery paintings of early Shangshao might have supplied an origin of the sun-earth pattern. The rhombuses and cross symbols were inferred to evolve from the fish pattern in early Yangshao. However, there might be multiple origins for one artistic form. Almost the same pattern of sun-earth was found in Shangshan Culture of around 9000 years ago in Zhejiang Province. The earliest painted potteries were discovered in Shangshan Culture from Jinhua Basin in central Zhejiang. There have excavated may pieces of potteries painted sun symbols [3]. One of the pieces from Qiaotou site contained symbols of a sun and an hourglass shape which was quite similar to a cross (Figure 1A). The subsequent archaeological culture, Kuahuqiao Culture of around 8000 years ago in northern Zhejiang, exhibited even more symbols of the sun and earth [4]. On one of the pottery pieces from Kuahuqiao, the sun was painted on the upside and a line of crosses on the lower side, showing a picture of the sun above the ground (Figure 1B) [5]. These findings confirmed the authenticity of meaning of the sun-earth pattern. Interestingly, these patterns appeared much earlier than Emperor Yan and Huang’s period, indicating a worship of sun-earth have been practiced for a quite long history in China before it was borrowed to honor the two emperors. The worship of sun-earth was practiced continuously in the history of China. In Liangzhu Culture, round jade plates (Bi) were symbol of sky and square jade tubes (Cong) were symbol of earth. This religious tradition was inherited by most dynasties of China, and round for sky and square (cross) for earth became a common idea of Chinese culture. Interestingly, the original pattern of sun-earth, symbols of sunshine and cross, was frequently discovered in the traditional brocade belts (Figure 1E) woven by females in Fengxian District, Shanghai. These brocade belts recoded a special female writing system which might originate in Liangzhu Culture or even earlier [6]. This finding implied that the sun-earth pattern has been used from 9000 year ago to the present day. Although the shape of the sun was easy to recognize, that of the earth remained confusing. A recent finding of Shangshan Culture provided a clue to the origin of the earth symbol. Some strange yellow chrismatite pyramid stones of gripping size were discovered in Miaoshan site, etc. in Yongkang, Jinhua. These stone tools were polished well, with four slopes shaping a cross from the top view (Figure 1F). This shape was quite similar to that of the tip of jade corns (Cleopatra’s Needles) in Liangzhu Culture and related cultures (Figure 1G). The jade corns were most probably used as acupuncture needles [7], and were inferred to be the “Zhongkui” [8] which was an ancient tool of religion and medicine. The Shangshan pyramids were also probably acupuncture needles, as their shapes were most similar to present wooden needles (Figure 1H) for self-acupuncture. The curative effect made ancient people believe these were power of the earth and draw the shape of pyramid on potteries. Therefore, Shangshan Culture might also serve as one of the origins of Chinese Medicine. In sum, we demonstrated that the sun-earth pattern represented one of the most important cultures of China and may have an extremely long span of around 9000 years.