Qualla: Xishuipo https://qualla.com/xishuipo en-us © 2026 Bendyline Mon, 20 Jul 2026 10:21:38 GMT Qualla serial false Qualla support@bendyline.com yes https://qualla.com/_m/w/w/3/g/xishuipo-wp/hero-small.webp Qualla: Xishuipo https://qualla.com/xishuipo Xishuipo: Introduction https://qualla.com/xishuipo/ Photo credit Gryffindor, Public domain. Six thousand years before anyone wrote the word "dragon" in Chinese, someone arranged white clam shells in the shape of one. At Xishuipo, a Neolithic site in the city of Puyang in central Henan Province, archaeologists in 1987 uncovered a burial that has since been called the earliest known depiction of the Chinese dragon. The mosaic, formed from hundreds of carefully placed shell fragments, flanked the skeleton of a tall adult male in a grave designated M45. On his left lay the dragon. On his right, a tiger. The symbolism was already ancient when the first Chinese characters were scratched into oracle bones three thousand years later.

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]]> Sat, 14 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/w/w/3/g/xishuipo-wp/ww3g-xishuipo-intro.mp3 0:06 1 full Xishuipo: The Yangshao People https://qualla.com/xishuipo/ Photo credit Gryffindor, Public domain. Xishuipo belongs to the Yangshao culture, a Neolithic civilization that flourished across the middle Yellow River region from roughly 5000 to 3000 BCE. The Yangshao people were early farmers who cultivated millet and kept pigs, living in settled villages and producing distinctive...

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]]> Sat, 14 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/w/w/3/g/xishuipo-wp/ww3g-xishuipo-the-yangshao-people.mp3 0:06 2 full Xishuipo: The Dragon and the Tiger https://qualla.com/xishuipo/ Photo credit Gryffindor, Public domain. Tomb M45 was extraordinary. The body of a tall adult male lay at the center, flanked by two large mosaics assembled from white clam shells. To the left, the shells formed the unmistakable shape of a dragon, its sinuous body curving through the soil. To the right, a tiger design m...

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]]> Sat, 14 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/w/w/3/g/xishuipo-wp/ww3g-xishuipo-the-dragon-and-the-tiger.mp3 0:06 3 full Xishuipo: Shaman or King https://qualla.com/xishuipo/ Photo credit Gryffindor, Public domain. Who was the man in tomb M45? Some archaeologists believe he was a shaman, a spiritual intermediary whose authority derived from claimed access to supernatural forces. The dragon and tiger imagery supports this interpretation: in later Chinese cosmology, the Azure Dragon and White...

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]]> Sat, 14 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/w/w/3/g/xishuipo-wp/ww3g-xishuipo-shaman-or-king.mp3 0:06 4 full Xishuipo: Before History Began https://qualla.com/xishuipo/ Photo credit Gryffindor, Public domain. What makes Xishuipo extraordinary is not just the age of its artifacts but what they imply about continuity. The dragon is the most potent symbol in Chinese culture, the emblem of emperors, the bringer of rain, the spirit of rivers and waterways. To find its image in a burial tha...

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]]> Sat, 14 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/w/w/3/g/xishuipo-wp/ww3g-xishuipo-before-history-began.mp3 0:06 5 full