文明重光：从良渚看历史的另一种可能(2)

图为即梦AI生成的“良渚文化与现代文明”

因此，“文明重光”的真意，并非复刻某个逝去的文化标本，而是借良渚所代表的多样性与可能性，拓宽我们面向未来的视野。它提醒我们：人类的未来，不应被束缚在单一的发展模式里。守护文化遗产，正是守护文明在漫长时光中沉淀下的多元智慧。今天，我们对良渚的每一次回望，都是在进行一场跨越时空的对话。我们从中理解“何以中国”的深厚根基，也怀着对文明多样性的敬畏，去更加从容清醒地探索人类共同的未来。

撰稿人：何博媛

The Re-illumination of Civilization: Liangzhu and the Other Possibility for History

Editor's Note: Following the "Homo longi" discovery that sparked our imagination about ancient life, a spectacular cultural marvel from the eve of civilization five millennia ago is now transcending time and space, issuing a profound challenge to us. As the third Liangzhu Forum opens in Hangzhou, a dialogue with the future, mediated by cultural heritage, begins anew. This is not merely a look back at the past but an exploration of the path forward for modern civilization. As an outstanding representative of the late Neolithic Age, the profound value of the Liangzhu Culture lies in its revelation that, beyond the standard narrative of "civilization," human society is equally capable of achieving complexity in alternative ways. Its "unfinished" state—arrested before fully transitioning into a mature civilization—preserves a precious, alternative blueprint for history.This alternative constantly reminds us that the trajectory of history is never singular, thereby reflecting the contingencies and possibilities in the development path of modern civilization that are often too easily obscured.

The archaeological community often uses the formation of cities, the emergence of writing, and metal smelting as key metrics for measuring "civilized society". Based on this standard, Liangzhu, which lacks both writing and bronze artifacts, might seem difficult to categorize as a "civilization". However, the archaeological findings at Liangzhu compel us to re-evaluate the very definition of "civilization".

Archaeological research shows that the large-scale dam system outside the ancient Liangzhu city was constructed of 11 embankments, totaling approximately 6.3 kilometers in length, and has been recognized by UNESCO as one of the "world's earliest large-scale water conservancy systems". This monumental hydraulic project, along with the vast layout of the ancient city, a strict social hierarchy, and an intricate ritual system centered on exquisite jade artifacts, constituted a complete system of civilization. All this demonstrates that the Liangzhu society established a highly complex and stable social organization without relying on writing or metal technology. It also reveals that the evolution of human civilization is not restricted to a single paradigm, and complex societies can indeed be built and sustained based on an alternative cultural logic.

If the civilization model of the ancient Near East emphasized the concentration of technology and power, Liangzhu offered an alternative possibility based on the cohesive force of belief and order. The functioning of Liangzhu society was rooted in a unique non-written encoding system. A group of ritual objects, primarily the Cong (a square-sectioned jade tube) and Bi (a circular jade disk), constructed a complete system integrating spiritual belief and social structure. This "Jade-based Ritual System" in an era without written law, effectively regulated the relationships between individuals, between people and the gods, and between people and society, becoming the ideological foundation that maintained the social structure. On a practical level, its colossal water conservancy project demonstrated a powerful capacity for collective mobilization and resource control, forming the material basis of the royal power structure. The close integration of spiritual identity and social cooperation allowed Liangzhu to forge a path different from the ancient Near East civilizations, establishing an early civilization model deeply adapted to its local ecology and focused more on integration and order.

Although this unique cultural experiment of the Liangzhu Culture ultimately failed to progress to a more advanced stage due to various factors and eventually fell into silence in the long river of history, the dignity of a civilization is first and foremost in its glorious existence. The "unfinished" state of the Liangzhu Culture is not an absolute failure but a unique intellectual legacy. It allows us to see an alternative possibility outside the mainstream historical narrative and forces us to reflect: should highly developed cultural experiments be simply defined as "interrupted" or "extinct" merely because they did not merge into our linear historical narrative?