What information would you use to support the view that the Lungshan were more advanced than the Yangshao?

Answer 1

There were two cultures that we know of in the very early years of China. The first civilization in China started around 10,000 B.C. with a group of people known as the Yangshao. They primarily lived in the northern and western regions of China and settled near the Huang Ho River or sometimes called the Yellow River. Because of archeologist's findings we know that the Yangshao culture lived in farmhouses with foundations, used a plaster to form floors and logs to support their roofs. Their homes were below ground level, were round or rectangular shaped and were surrounded by walls of earth. Their dwellings were positioned in clusters, which indicate that they lived near their families or friends.

The climate in China during the Yangshao culture was moist and warm, which is much different than China is today. Today China isn't as forested or lake covered like it was in the Prehistoric Era.

The people of the Yangshao culture grew millet, which is a tall grass used to feed cattle. In the mountains there were plenty of animals, but they domesticated the dog and the pig. They also created painted pottery with geometric designs on it and made axes and tools of polished stone.

The second early culture was the Lungshan culture. They were more advanced than the Yangshao and yet, lived in similar ways. They also made pottery, but theirs was of a finer quality and called black pottery. Black pottery was highly polished, very plain in design and never painted. This black pottery was made on a potter's wheel unlike the painted pottery of the Yangshao. The Lungshan were also farmers and domesticated the pig, dog, sheep and ox. It is during this period that archeologists have discovered the firing of bones for making sharp tools.

The Lungshan were very advanced for their time. This is supported by the discovery that they harvested silk, baked strong bricks for building, and learned to irrigate the land with water from the river.

The process for making silk involved feeding the silkworms' mulberry leaves, watching for them to molt and spin cocoons, and then boiling the cocoons to make raw silk. Many years and cultures later the Silk Road came to be in China. In ancient times the Chinese were the only people who knew how to raise silkworms and weave silk. Chinese silk was a valuable trade item worth its weight in gold in Rome. With silk heaped high on their camels, merchants headed west through China on what became known as the Silk Road, traveling to India, Persia, and as far as the Roman provinces along the Mediterranean, a torturous journey of some 4,000 miles. In addition to an appetite for silk, Romans acquired a taste for spices from Asia, a taste that would later send Christopher Columbus on his voyages of discovery.

The Silk Road was a two-way street. Silk, spices and other Asian goods such as jade and bronze were traded for Western goods, which flowed back along the Silk Road to China. Imports from the west to China included gold, silver, glass, powerful horses, new foods, and the religion of Buddhism. The Silk Road was a great channel of cultural diffusion between the two sides of the immense land of Eurasia.

When the Chinese encountered Roman culture, they had their first contact with a civilization they considered as rich as their own. This was also the civilization that eventually would end the Chinese monopoly on silk. In the 500s A.D., an eastern Roman emperor sent two monks to China to smuggle silkworm eggs out of China in their walking sticks.

Answer 2

To support the view that the Lungshan were more advanced than the Yangshao, one could cite evidence such as technological advancements, urban planning sophistication, or evidence of social stratification in Lungshan culture compared to Yangshao. Additionally, evidence of long-distance trade networks or architectural achievements could also be used to demonstrate the superior development of the Lungshan culture.