The pottery li with side-attached double lugs is the most distinctive artefactual signifierof the Xinghua archaeological culture distubuted on either side of the Taihang Mountains during theLongshan Neolithic period.From therelationgship between the changes in form and stratigraphy of thispaoticular cultural artifact,we can deduct the sequence in the development of this particular ware. Thetechnology used in the manufacture of this particular type of pottery li also correspondingly underwenttwo fundamental and related stages in its development:(1) in the earlier stage it appears as a “ia-typeli”subject to influences in form from the vessel known as the pottery jia. This type of vessel has thefully formed legs and body of the li but its legs indirectly differ from those of the typical li in thatthey form arc-skirked and flat-skirted varieties.(2) The latter stage is that of the fully defined andformed li.The direct connection between the body and legs of the li is discarded and the object acquiresits unique form,the gaps between the legs of the vessel no longer being skirted,but angular and peaked.The evolution in the manufacture of this artifact demonstrates: innovation in various crafts is anincremental technical change over a sustained period with the frequency of application of a particulartechnical change finally effecting a qualitative change. Although it represents an innovation or revolu-tion in a tradition, the speed and direction in this developmental process are also subject to thetradition itself and to contradictions within the tradition on the path of logical forward movement indevelopment or to controls that define and influence the process.
Without reform or revolution there canbe no break with a tradition yet tradition is the necessary corollary of reform or revolution and majorforces influencing them. In pure craft terms such developments may merely seem habitual or lazy processesof thought but the arts and crafts of manufacture are social acts and must necessarily interact with thedifferent viewpoints of individuals in that society and the contradictions and conflicts resulting fromthese differences between individuals who seek to acquire the upper hand, The conflicts give rise toheated and struggle with a group of persons who emerge to defend and maintain a tradition. In thesequential development of this pottery li we can distinguish between the applications of the object indifferent periods and cultural stages of Xinghua culture at the various sites of the culture: ChagouShuangwudu and Qiaojiagou, on the one hand and You’ao, Linshui and Xinghuacun,on the other. The study ofthe genealogy of this particular type of pottery li demonstrates that Xinghuacun culture developed its owndynamic with self-generated distinguishing characteristics,distingctive evolutionary developments,andits own sources and developmental streams,and that these aspects made Xinghuacun an archaeological culturethat played an important role in exerting significant cultural influences on the surrounding region.