A Brief History of the Tujia — Origins and Early Development of the Tujia (I)
Section 2: Origins and Early Development of the Tujia People — I. Traces of Ancient Human Activity in the Hunan-Hubei-Chongqing-Guizhou Border Region. With the discovery of fossils of ancient humans and associated fauna in the border region where Hunan, Hubei, Chongqing, and Guizhou meet, the history of human society there has been pushed back far earlier than the era recorded in China's ancient documents, proving that humans lived in this area in remote antiquity.
This article has been compiled from historical materials on 'Zhangjiajie Tour Guide Network' (33519.com · Specialty Foods / Cuisine / Customs section). Prices, business hours, administrative divisions, and statistical data mentioned in the text may already be outdated. Before traveling, please refer to the latest announcements from merchants, scenic areas, and local competent authorities; the parts involving folk legends and folk customs are local historical and cultural anecdotes, provided for cultural reference.
Section II: The Origins and Early Development of the Tujia
I. Traces of Ancient Human Activity in the Hunan-Hubei-Chongqing-Guizhou Border Region
The history of human society in the contiguous region of the four provinces of Hunan, Hubei, Chongqing, and Guizhou has been pushed much earlier than the era recorded in China's ancient documents, with the discovery of fossils of ancient humans and associated animal groups in the region, proving that human activity existed there in remote antiquity.
In the summer of 1970, Chinese paleoanthropologists excavated fossils of Australopithecus, Gigantopithecus, and more than 20 kinds of associated animals from the Longgu Cave at Gaoping in Jianshi County. Among them, in the same layer as the Gigantopithecus fossils, three lower molar fossils of higher primates were found, and in addition, one lower first molar fossil was found at the Badong County Chinese Medicinal Materials Management Department. These four fossils were identified by relevant paleoanthropologists as four molar fossils of Australopithecus. The size and shape of these teeth differ from the lower molars of Gigantopithecus or gorillas, and also from the lower molars of orangutans and chimpanzees with complex crown occlusal ridge patterns; they have the characteristics of relatively simple crown wrinkles, sharper and higher cusps, longer crowns, and large teeth, and may be relatively close to Australopithecus. Australopithecus belongs to the Hominidae, and its geological age is the late Early Pleistocene. The discovery of Australopithecus in Jianshi, Badong, and other places in western Hubei shows that as far back as the remote Pleistocene era, the earliest ancient humans may already have lived and been active in western Hubei.
In 1956, in a cave deposit at Xiazhongwan in Changyang County, the "Changyang Man" fossils were excavated, represented by one broken left upper jaw and one lower left premolar. The floor of the nasal cavity of the Changyang Man's upper jaw is not as curved as that of modern humans; the canine eminence is prominent, with its upper end exceeding the floor of the nasal cavity, showing well-developed tooth roots; the premolars preserved in the upper jaw are large, and although the molars are worn, many wrinkles can still be seen on their occlusal surfaces. The palatal surface of the Changyang Man's upper jaw is uneven, and the distance between the incisive foramen and the intermaxillary suture is very short, already possessing modern human characteristics. Although the upper jaw is incomplete, one can still discern the underdevelopment of the anterior nasal spine; its piriform aperture is about 28 millimeters, relatively wide, and may be said to be relatively close to the yellow race. The "Changyang Man" fossils are ancient human fossils of the early Late Pleistocene, and the "Changyang Man" was an ancient human of the Middle Paleolithic. In the Changyang area, between 100,000 and 150,000 years ago, ancient humans already lived and multiplied in what is now the Qing River basin.
In recent years, some Neolithic sites have been discovered in the Tujia region. In the summer of 1973, two Neolithic sites were discovered at Pushi No. 2 Middle School and Wulizhou in Luxi County, with very rich cultural contents. From the Pushi No. 2 Middle School site were obtained 27 stone axes (including 17 large, thick, roughly circular in cross-section, mostly chipped and few ground stone axes), 1 stone adze, 5 hammering tools, and 5 stone hoes; the pottery included clay red pottery, gray pottery, and coarse sandy red pottery, with identifiable forms including clay red-black-gray bowls, clay black polished basins, small-mouthed or folded-mouthed jars, black pottery lids, and gray pottery dou. Judging from the characteristics of the stone and pottery artifacts, they may correspond to the Longshan culture period. In the pot-bottom-shaped ash pits at the site, there were snail shells and burned animal bones, indicating that these people may have lived by fishing and hunting.
The Neolithic site at Mayang County Railway Station is one of the Neolithic sites discovered in the Xiangxi region in the past ten years. The site yielded numerous stone and pottery artifacts. Among them, the stone artifacts include stone axes, stone adzes, stone hoes, stone drills, stone hammers, and stone chisels, while the pottery includes sandy red pottery, sandy carbon-black pottery, red pottery, white pottery, and some pottery coating. The decorative patterns include geometric impressed patterns, spiral patterns, and disordered cord patterns. The vessel forms include fu, jars, and basins, with no three-legged vessels, pointed ding vessels, or flat-bottomed vessels. The pottery is mostly sandy ware, mostly with geometric patterns, numerous in period, thick in form, with large chipped stone hoes. The age of this site roughly corresponds to the early Daxi culture.
In May 1978, a Neolithic site was discovered at the Xikou platform in Liye, Longshan County. The site is about 50 meters long from east to west and about 100 meters wide from north to south, with a deposit layer of about 0.3 to 0.1 meters, and the accumulated soil is grayish-brown. The surviving stone artifacts include ground rectangular stone axes, scrapers, grinding stone rods, and struck stone flakes and stone materials and other semi-finished products; the pottery shards are clay black-coated and red-coated, with identifiable forms being boxes, basins, jars, and dou, and the vessel decoration mostly coarse cord patterns, chuan patterns, net-knot patterns, lan patterns, incised patterns, stripe patterns, square patterns, and rhombic patterns. That it is a Neolithic site can be fully affirmed.
The Gurenti site in Dayong County (now Yongding District, Zhangjiajie City) is about 1 kilometer long, with the highest cultural layer more than 1 meter. According to the cultural relics team of the Xiangxi Tujia and Miao Autonomous Prefecture, the lower layer of the site belongs to late primitive society culture.
In the Xiangxi region and the middle and upper reaches of the Yuan River, the Neolithic cultural remains of the Qujialing culture period include the Huaihua Shigao Kanlong site. The stone artifacts unearthed at this site include long strip-shaped large shouldered stone axes, small nearly square stone axes, shouldered stone adzes, gui-shaped stone chisels, stone knives, stone shovels, and spinning wheels. The pottery includes large single-eared jars, single- and double-eared straight-walled cups, and curved-belly cups. The vessel forms are relatively large, wheel-made, mostly black-skinned pottery, decorated with raised and recessed string patterns, with a small amount of painted pottery. The cultural attributes of the Shigao Kanlong site are closely related to the Qujialing culture, while also retaining its own regional cultural style.
In recent years, at Gucangping on the northern foot of Wuluo Mountain in Changyang County, Hubei, two ground stone axes were obtained. In the stone chamber at Pianyanwu at the western foot of Touyan, natural stone axes, pointed tools, and other items are stored. Neolithic artifacts have been unearthed at Changdongping, Qiaohe, and Yuyangguan in Wufeng County, and at Datang in Lichuan County.
Examining the above-mentioned Stone Age human activity sites and their unearthed artifacts, it is still impossible to determine their ethnic affiliation, but as the ancient ancestors of the present Tujia region, there is no doubt that these Stone Age ancients had a relationship of origin with the Tujia.