MEI Xinlin, WANG Li, JIANG Leping, SUN Guoping, YAN An, SUN Yidong, HUANG Yan
2026, 25(1): 29-38.
‘The eighteenth day of the eighth lunar month brings a tide unrivalled in grandeur under heaven’-The Qiantang tidal bore depicted by Su Dongpo carries with it a millennia long cultural current surging ceaselessly, bearing witness to Zhejiang's civilization journey from antiquity to the present. As the mother river of Zhejiang civilization and the central axis of Wu-Yue
culture, the Qiantang River basin has nurtured ten millennia of rice cultivation and a thousand year tradition of ritual civilization. It connects a complete civilizational lineage from the Shangshan, Hemudu, and Liangzhu cultures to the culture of the Southern Song dynasty and the modern tidal surge; it stands as a highly representative cultural carrier in the diverse yet integrated progression of Chinese civilization, possessing profound and substantial academic research value. In January 2026, eminent scholars in the academic field from within and beyond the province convened in Qiantang to exchange perspectives and stimulate intellectual discourse on the study of Qiantang River Valley civilization. Grounded in archaeological evidence and textual research, scholars deconstructed this unique riverine civilization from multiple dimensions. This collection of essays compiles the experts' profound insights, not only continuing the research tradition of mutual verification between literature and history, as well as multidisciplinary intersection, but also pioneering new dimensions and pathways for civilizational studies. It highlights the distinctive characteristics of Qiantang River civilization as a continuous and composite civilization. Research on Qiantang River civilization constitutes a vital component of the Origins of Chinese Civilization Tracing Project; furmore, it is the contemporary scholarly responsibility to preserve China's outstanding traditional culture. This journal seeks to leverage this intellectual exchange as an opportunity to propel Qiantang River civilization studies towards deeper and broader horizons, thereby contributing academic rigour to decoding the genes of Chinese civilization and elucidating its spiritual essence.