Where did ancient Chinese carriages originate?

Where did the ancient Chinese carriage originate?

Archaeological excavations at the Yinxu Ruins in Anyang have shown that two-wheeled carriages were used in China in the late Shang Dynasty. The origin of Chinese carriages has always been a matter of great concern but still unresolved. In this regard, the domestic and foreign academic community debate. Some domestic scholars hold the "carriage of China's local independent origin," and some hold the "outside to say", that the Chinese carriage is from Central and Western Asia or the Eurasian steppe. One of the most representative point of view is: originated in the middle of the 30th century BC in West Asia, the two river basin Sumerian carriage, in the late Shang Dynasty when the transfer to China.

On the invention and use of the car in China, there are many records in ancient literature. There are accounts of the invention of the car by the Yellow Emperor, Xia Yu or Xi Zhong at the time of Xia Yu. There are also documents that describe the Xiaqi had used chariots to conquer the Hu clan, Shang Tang to cut Xia Jie also used a lot of chariots, and even the Xia dynasty has been the management of the car government officials car Zheng and so on. If these records are true, the summer car and car system has been quite developed, but until now, has not found archaeological evidence.

In the past archaeological work, the early Shang dynasty capital site Zhengzhou Mall has found casting car bronze fittings of the ceramic model, in the same period with the Yanshi Mall has also been excavated car with bronze fittings. These all indicate that our country in the late Shang dynasty before, not only have the car, and the car has been used in the bronze fittings. After the discovery of Yanshi Mall rut, presided over the excavation of Yanshi Mall, Du Jinpeng, Wang Xuerong has written that by the literature and archaeological discoveries, it is clearly inappropriate to late Shang horse-drawn carriages of the origin of the direct tracing to West Asia.

The Chinese Academy of Social Sciences Institute of Archaeology Erlitou team leader Dr. Xu Hong that the Erlitou site found rutting, it can be said with certainty that China's tradition of using the car as early as hundreds of years before the Yinxu has appeared. The ruts found at Erlitou and Yanshi Mall are closer in character, smaller in shape, and very different from the horse-drawn carriages found at Anyang Yinxu. During the Erlitou period, whether manpower drove or used livestock to drive, and what kind of livestock was used to drive, are to be confirmed by future archaeological discoveries. In addition, the bones of horses are rare in the sites before the Late Shang Dynasty in China. Therefore, China's late Shang dynasty to horse driving custom, has not yet found its local source in archaeology, the origin of the late Shang period carriage is still a mystery to be solved.