From the ‘Eight-Cord Pattern Pottery Plate’ of the Liu Linxi Site: Examining the Origin of the Eight Trigrams, Ancient Astronomy, and the Empirical Connection to the Ba Suo Texts

This paper presents a systematic study of the “Eight-Cord Pattern Pottery Plate” unearthed from the Liu Linxi site in Hubei Province, arguing that it serves as the material prototype of the lost ancient canonical text, the Ba Suo. The pottery plate constructs a standard eight-direction spatial framework through its orderly “eight-cord pattern,” representing the archetype of the “Eight Trigrams Plate.” Its symbol system precisely encodes the “Eight Solar Terms,” including the two equinoxes, two solstices, and the four seasonal commencements, constituting a sophisticated “solar calendar.” Furthermore, through unique symbolic combinations such as “Wu (五)-Tian (田),” it transforms astronomical nodes into rigid agricultural instructions, forming a “Charter of Agricultural Timings.” This research achieves a complete mutual verification between the artifact and the Ba Suo as recorded in later texts (“the theory of the Eight Trigrams, seeking its meaning”) from the triple dimensions of “name, substance, and meaning.” The study reveals that the “Eight-Cord Pattern Pottery Plate” is not a divination instrument, but rather a “pre-literary comprehensive codex” integrating cosmology, scientific observation, and administrative decree. It signifies that around 7000 years ago, Chinese civilization had achieved a crucial leap from mystical symbols to rational governance, significantly predating the empirical evidence for systematic knowledge and advanced governance models in Chinese civilization.