Phùng Nguyên culture (Văn hóa Phùng Nguyên)

Văn hóa Phùng Nguyên
Tìm về cội nguồn của dân tộc Việt.

Phùng Nguyên is the name of a village of the same name in Lâm Thao district of Phú Thọ province where the remains of this culture are found. It is now known that the Dong Son culture is the culture of the Lo Yue who are the ancestors of today’s Vietnamese. Through archaeological excavations carried out in important places with several cultural layers, Vietnamese archaeologists have discovered that there is no hollow separating them as is the case at the Đình Chàng site in Đồng Anh commune (Hanoi). It is within the Gò Mun site that we find the burial tombs of the Dong Son culture, but under the layer of the Gò Mun culture, there are the Dong Du and Phung Nguyen cultures. This shows that there is no break in the continuity between these cultures. Thanks to this we can see the Phùng Nguyên-Dồng Đậu-Gò Mun-Dồng sơn genealogy that archaeologists have established very precisely with the further confirmation of radiocarbon dating. These cultures succeed each other in time. This means that from each of them, we find its development in the next and its distribution in the Middle Red River region where the provinces of Phú Thọ, Hà Nội, Vĩnh Phúc, Bắc Ninh, Ninh Bình etc. are located. We can say that this is the original sacred territory of the Vietnamese people. According to archaeology professor Hà Văn Tấn, these cultures can be easily distinguished thanks to their ceramics.

This is when our country Văn Lang was ruled by the Hùng kings in legends. According to archaeology professor Hà văn Tấn’s observation, the tribes of the Phùng Nguyên culture constitute the first nucleus in the process of forming the Việt-Mường ethnic group and that of nation-building.

At first, the Phùng Nguyên artifacts found in the excavations reached a very sophisticated level: jade, stone, ceramics, bone, horn that everyone identified as belonging to the late Neolithic, particularly in stone and ceramic manufacturing techniques. But in the presence of a number of bronze objects found later, researchers such as Hà Văn Tấn, Trần Quốc Vượng agreed that the Phùng Nguyên culture was at the origin of the Bronze Age in northern Vietnam and had a notable influence later in many parts of Southeast Asia through the Đồng Sơn culture.

Are the inhabitants of the Phùng Nguyên culture the Luo Yue, the ancestors of today’s Vietnamese (the Kinh), or are they simply a Yue ethnic group or people who came from somewhere to settle in the Red River region? Did they come from Malaysia or the Yangtze River? The origin of the Vietnamese people is very confused in history because relying solely on legends, it’s hard for us to believe and accept the irrationality in the legend of the “Lạc Long Quân-Âu Cơ” with a pouch hatching a hundred eggs. For researcher Paul Pozner [1] Vietnamese historiography is based on a very long and permanent historical tradition, which is represented by an oral historical tradition during the 3rd – 1st half of the first millennium BC in the form of historical legends in ancestor cult temples.

The next two lines:

Trăm năm bia đá thì mòn
Ngàn năm bia miệng vẫn còn trơ trơ.

With a hundred years, the stone stele continues to deteriorate
With a thousand years, people’s words continue to remain in force

testify to the practice consciously carried out by the Vietnamese in preserving the culture they inherited during the Hồng Bàng period in the face of relentless Chinese repression at the time of their country’s annexation.

From the confiscation of numerous bronze drums by Generalissimo Ma Yuan of the Eastern Han dynasty to be melted down into horses for his emperor, to the systematic destruction of pagodas, the burning of books, the arrest and exile of over 10,000 talented Vietnamese, including Nguyễn An (or Ruan An), the chief architect of Beijing’s Forbidden City during the reign of Yongle (Ming dynasty), showed us that the Chinese were methodically and maliciously attempting to assimilate the Luo Yue, the only ethnic group in the “Hundred Yue” still retaining independence to this day. Fortunately, it’s only in the last twenty years since 1998 that research into molecular phylogenetics carried out by research groups in the USA and Europe, along with advances in DNA analysis techniques in anthropology, have made it easier for us to obtain more precise data on all genes and DNA molecules. As a result, we no longer have historical hitches, and we know more clearly the origins of the Vietnamese people.

Leaving Africa, prehistoric humans migrated in two waves. The first wave headed towards Southeast Asia, including Vietnam, through the eastern coast of India around 60,000-30,000 BC before reaching Australia and heading back to North America via the Bering Strait, and the second wave attempted to move towards the Middle East and Central Asia and along the Himalayas to Southeast Asia, including Vietnam, around 30,000 BC, thanks to known genetic data. Based on the documents of genetic research, a number of Vietnamese authors (Cung Đình Thanh, Hà Văn Thùy, Lang Linh or Hoàng Nguyễn) have suggested a theory that is entirely compatible with legends, history and archaeological excavations undertaken in the past in Vietnam.

It was at that time in Southeast Asia that prehistoric humans (Indonesian group) resulting from the fusion of the two important Mongoloid and Australoid races, had left their mark in the Red River basin with the famous Hoà Bình culture (18000-10000 B.C.) that the French archaeologist Madeleine Colani discovered in 1922. This is also the culture that was at the origin of the civilization of the Proto-Vietnamese. It had spread and influenced the Neolithic cultures of China such as the Yangshao (Shanxi) and Hongshan cultures. The British physicist Stephen Oppenheimer went beyond what was thought at that time by demonstrating through scientific and logical methods that the cradle of human civilization was in Southeast Asia in « Paradise in the East ». According to the genetic research documents of McColl and his colleagues [2], the Hoà Bình people at that time had genes closest to those of the Onge people living on Andaman Island and not yet merged with other ethnic groups. This is the type of black man with short, curly hair that we can identify with the Hoà Bình people. They were the first to know well the cultivation of irrigated rice and other agricultural techniques such as growing cereals etc… (The Spirit Cave for example). Yet they were described by Western archaeologists as people living by fishing, hunting and gathering. Worse still, in the “Later Han Writings (Hậu Hán Thư)” it is also said that the Chinese governors Si Kouang (Tich Quang) and Ren Yan (Nham Dien) had taught our ancestors how to cultivate rice. This is absurd and paranoid.

Then came a great flood 12,000 years ago. This caused much of the land inhabited by prehistoric populations, such as the Red River basin, to sink into the sea. The latter were forced to leave and flee, taking refuge all over the world: to the east in the Pacific Ocean, to the west in India or to the north in the Yangtze River region, taking with them the characteristic objects of the Hoa Binh culture found at the Xian Ren Dong site (Tiên Nhân động) in Jiangxi province (Giang Tây), for example. According to genetic research, these are indeed ancient inhabitants of Southeast Asia (or the Hoà Bình people) making their stop in the Yangtze River basin, as this area was favourable at the time for the development of irrigated rice cultivation. But there was yet another group of people who liked to continue their migration to East Asia by taking their domesticated rice with them (Shangshan site, Thượng Sơn) and their millet and taking the passage to Zhejiang (Chiết Giang) to settle not only in the Yellow River delta but also as far as the Liao River region in the Inner Mongolia of today’s China (Liêu Hà, Nội Mông Trung Hoa).

It was in the latter that they had united with the nomadic natives of North Asia whose remains were found in the Devil’s Gate cave in the Russian territory bordering Korea (Western Siberia) to give birth to a typical Northern Mongoloid race and a culture called « Hong Shan (Hồng Sơn) » discovered from the region of Inner Mongolia to Liaoning. These Northern Mongoloids had descended into the Yellow River region where the Hmong lived, who were very gifted in agriculture. They were part of the Yi tribe. Being originally the drawing of a man 人 carrying a bow 弓, this character « Yi » 夷 gives us a precise idea of the particularity of these people of the North. They distinguished themselves by archery and they were very skilled in combat. Therefore, they managed to win victories against the Hmong led by their leader Chiyou (Xi Vưu) at Zhuolu (Trác Lộc) in the year 2704 B.C. in the province of Hebei (Hà Bắc) and Shennong (Thần Nông) three times in a row, which then gave birth to the Chinese civilization (Yangshao (Ngưỡng Thiều) and Dawenkou (Đại Vấn Khẩu) and the new Southern Mongoloid race with the ancient inhabitants of Southeast Asia. Being more and more numerous, these new Southern Mongoloids thus became the subjects of the Yellow River basin and the ancestors of today’s Chinese.

On the other hand, there are also the Pre-Austronesians – Tai-Kadai of Southeast Asian origin who migrated and later settled in the Shandong region. Then from there, they descended into the Yangtze River basin (or Blue River, Dương Tử) about 6000 years ago, taking millet with them. This cereal was found at the Tanshishan site dating back to about 3500 BC in the Fujian region [3] according to data from genetic research [4][5]. The Austronesians continued to migrate to the island of Taiwan and then dispersed to the islands of Southeast Asia.

In the Yangtze River basin, the formation of the Yue-Tai-Kadai ethnic community took place due to the proximity of the indigenous inhabitants of the Austroasiatic language family and the Pre-Austronesian -Tai-Kadai who came later. Given the genetic factors caused by the fusion of the indigenous people and the newcomers from the waves of migration from North Asia to South Asia and vice versa over thousands of years, there were changes in the structure of genes, especially under the influence of the environment, which caused a natural change in size and skin color and led to the formation of the North and South Mongoloids and the Yue of the Austroasiatic family. This consists of several ethnic groups in East Asia. Even in their language, there is evidence of borrowing from the coexistence of the Yue ethnic groups in the Yangtze River region. This is why the Austroasiatic language family emerged. American linguists Mei Tsulin and Norman Jerry [6] identified 15 loanwords from the Austroasiatic language in Chinese texts from the Han Dynasty.

This is typical of Chinese characters such as the word jiang 囝 (or river in Vietnamese) or the word nu 弩 (or ná in Vietnamese). They conclude that there is contact between the Chinese and Austroasiatic languages in the southern part of present-day China. It was here that the Yue realized that they were clearly different from the nomadic tribes of the Yellow River region. They called themselves Yue. The word “Yue (axe)” they used to refer to themselves as the people living in the Yangtze River region, or as those who used the axe to cultivate grain and defend themselves when invaded by the northerners (the Chinese). The latter still regarded them as Man Di (savages). Yet it was they who led to the formation of great civilizations such as Liangzhu and Shijahe. The Liangzhu culture was discovered in the 1970s, thanks to archaeological excavations in the lower reaches of the Yangtze River. It was far more advanced than the Yang Shao culture, dating back to 3300 BC, with the discovery of pictograms carved on stone, turtle breastplates and animal bones used in divination sessions and religious services.

These figurative drawings predate the Shang oracular inscriptions by over 2,000 years. It is known that the Liangzhu inhabitants had a stable, sedentary lifestyle, with an irrigation system using water stored in canals, and a labor-intensive social organization for production and distribution.

Are they the Man Di (savages) or not? But the national awareness of the Yue people is obvious and can be found very early on an artifact from the Liangzhu culture circa 3300 BC, bearing the following inscription composed of 4 symbols that Chinese researcher Đổng Sở Bình managed to decode to give the following meaning: the federation of Yue communities (Phương Việt hội thi).

This is why the Chinese accepted the Yue way of identifying themselves to speak of them in the oracular inscriptions of the Shang dynasty and also used Yue ceremonial axes in human or animal sacrifices according to the remark of the French archaeologist Corinne Debaine-Fracfort. Being considered as the jade culture, the Liangzhu culture had many jade artifacts such as jade axes, cong ritual cylinders, jade bi ritual discs in honor of Heaven, jades etc…. All of these were discovered in the tombs of the ruling and aristocratic class while ceramics were reserved for the lower class. The ceremonial jade axe was both a ceremonial weapon and an object of power that only began to be discovered in the Liangzhu culture in Taihu (Jiangsu) in the Xích Quỷ area of King Kinh Dương Vương, the first ancestor of the Yue clan and father of Lac Long Quân in legend. According to the Vietnamese writer Nguyên Nguyên [7], the name Kinh Dương Vương 涇陽王 can be translated into Vietnamese: King Yue is solemn.

The legend that Kinh Dương Vương ascended the throne and founded the kingdom of Xích Quỷ in 2879 B.C., after the formation of the state of Liangzhu in 3300 B.C., shows that the birth of the kingdom of Xích Quỷ corresponds to the flourishing period of the Liangzhu culture. The owner of this culture chose for his totem the union of a bird and an animal. There is thus a close link with the Hồng Bàng dynasty, implicitly evoking the bird and the serpent, i.e. the Fairy and the Dragon.

Due to rising sea levels, the Yue people had to move to the middle reaches of the Yangtze River in the area around Dongting Lake (Động Đình Hồ). This is where we see the continuity through the birth of the Shijiahe culture (Thạch Gia Hà) 2600-2000 years BC. This is a culture at the end of the Polished Stone Age in Hubei with 1000 artifacts found. Similar to Liangzhu City, Shijiahe City has a system of canals dug around urban areas and connected to nearby rivers. Among the artifacts found, there is one object that catches everyone’s attention. It is a ceramic vase with the image of a leader whose head is adorned with a headdress decorated with bird feathers and which is perfectly suited to the dancing figure wearing a feather costume on the bronze drums of the Dong Son culture (Ngọc Lũ for example). It is the symbol of the Yue people. Shijahe city is located in the territory of the Văn Lang kingdom.

Given the geographical description in the legend, we know that the latter possesses a very vast territory bordering Dongting Lake (Động Đình hồ) to the north, Champa (Hồ Tôn) (Chiêm Thành) to the south, the Hai Nan Sea to the east and the Ba Thục kingdom (Sichuan) to the west, where numerous Yue tribes live scattered from the middle to the lower reaches of the Yangtse River. The name Văn Lang is derived from the ancient Yue word Blang or Klang, which mountain people often use to designate the totem; it may be an aquatic bird of the heron family. The kingdom of Văn Lang can be considered at this time as a federation of Yue ethnic communities. It is also the first state of the Yue ethnic group according to Vietnamese history legend.

There is one thing that we should pay attention to is that in this Shijahe culture there is an artifact called « Nha Chương » meaning a jade tooth used for ritual ceremonies in honor of mountains and rivers. This ceremonial blade was discovered very early in the site of Erlitou (Nhị Lý Đầu) belonging to the Shang culture recognized today by archaeologists. But in Vietnamese legend, there is also reference to the military confrontation with the Shang through the mythical story of the celestial king Phù Đổng or Saint Gióng). So there is the contact between the kingdom of Văn Lang and the Yin-Shang culture. This finally shows the fundamental truth of the legend, especially with a fairly large number of « Nha Chương » discovered in the ancient villages of Phùng Nguyên and Xóm Rền considered as sites belonging to the Phùng Nguyên culture.

In 2000 BC, there was a drought in the middle reaches of the Yangtze River, according to archaeological and meteorological studies. This forced the inhabitants of Shijiahe and Liangzhu to migrate because they could no longer continue farming. Based on the genetic research of Hugh McColl and his colleagues, we know that the Austro-Asiatic agrarian population migrated to Southeast Asia around 2000 BC and merged with the indigenous population, who lived by gathering and hunting, to a negligible extent.

The Yangtze River Yue Tribe Federation was also dissolved. This also caused the disappearance of two cultures, Liangzhu and Shijiahe. This disintegration is very consistent with the legend of Lac Long Quan Au Co at the time of the separation: 50 children followed their father to the plains (Lạc Việt), while the other 50 children accompanied their mother, Au Cơ, to settle in the mountains (Âu Viet). Under the rule of the Hùng kings, the Van Lang kingdom also shrank in 1879 BC, with the 15 tribes.

In the Yellow River Delta, there were three successive dynasties: Xia (2000-1600 BC), Yin-Shang (1600-1050 BC), and Zhou (1050-221 BC), marking the end of prehistory and the beginning of Chinese civilization.

In the Yangtze River basin, many small Yue states were initially formed, then gradually annexed to give rise to important states that we know throughout Chinese history such as the Wu-Yue state of Wu Zixu (Ngũ Tử Tư) or the Yue state of Goujian (Câu Tiễn) during the Spring and Autumn periods and the Warring States period (770-221 BC). Then these were annexed in turn by Ngô Khởi (Wu Qi) of the Chu state before the unification of China by Qin Shi Huang Di (Tần Thủy Hoàng).

In summary, the Yue farming people who returned to Southeast Asia and the Red River Delta at that time are the descendants of the prehistoric people of Southeast Asia (or the Hoà Bình culture people) who migrated to the Yangtze River region 12,000 years ago. They are the ancestors of today’s Vietnamese. It is thanks to anthropological and genetic characteristics, customs and language that we have the right to claim that we are now the Southern Mongoloids belonging to the Austroasiatic language family, although only legends remain to prove our origin after 1,000 years of Chinese rule.

Bibilography

Stephen Oppenheimer: Địa đàng ở Phương Đông. Nhà Xuất Bản Lao Động.2005
Hà văn Tấn: Theo dấu các văn hóa cổ. Nhà Xuất Bản Khoa Học Xã Hội. Hànội 1998.
Corinne Debaine-Francfort : La redécouverte de la Chine ancienne. Editions Gallimard 1998.
Léonard Rousseau: La première conquête chinoise des pays annamites (IIIe siècle avant notre ère). BEFO, année 1923, Vol 23, no 1.
Bình Nguyên Lộc: Lột trần Việt ngữ. Talawas
[1] Paul Pozner : Le problème des chroniques vietnamiennes., origines et influences étrangères. BEFO, année 1980, vol 67, no 67, p 275-302
[2]. Hugh McColl, Fernando Racimo, Lasse Vinner, et al. (2018). The prehistoric peopling of Southeast Asia. Science; 361(6397):88-92.
[3] Zuo, Xinxin & Jin, Jianhui & Huang, Yunming & wei, Ge & jinqi, Dai & wei, Wu & fusheng, Li & taoqin, Xia & xipeng, Cai (2021). Earliest arrival of millet in the South China coast dating back to 5,500 years ago. Journal of Archaeological Science
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0305440321000261
[4] Sun, Jin & Li, Yingxiang & Ma, Pengcheng & Yan, Shi & Cheng, Hui-Zhen & Fan, Zhi-Quan & Deng, Xiao-Hua & Ru, Kai & Wang, Chuan-Chao & Chen, Gang & Wei, Ryan. (2021). Shared paternal ancestry of Han, Tai-Kadai-speaking, and Austronesian-speaking populations as revealed by the high resolution phylogeny of O1a-M119 and distribution of its sub-lineages within China. American journal of physical anthropology. 174. 10.1002/ajpa.24240.
[5] Ko AM, Chen CY, Fu Q, et al. Early Austronesians: into and out of Taiwan. Am J Hum Genet. 2014;94(3):426-436. doi:10.1016/j.ajhg.2014.02.003.
[6] Norman Jerry- Mei tsulin 1976 The Austro asiatic in south China : some lexical evidence, Monumenta Serica 32 :274-301
[7]Nguyên Nguyên: Thử đọc lại truyền thuyết Hùng Vương.