The origin of the Yangshao culture has been studied for eighty years, but neither Western scholars' theory of western diffusion nor Chinese scholars' indigenous and pluralistic concepts have solved this problem. The theory of western diffusion believes that the Yangshao culture was concerned with cultural spread from abroad. It is based upon the hypothesis that the techniques of painted pottery originated in the Middle East. The indigenous concept has significance only for denying the theory of western diffusion but has not solved the essential problem. The pluralistic notion is the concretization of the indigenous concept. It holds that a number of cultural sources, such as the Laoguantai, Lijiacun, Cishan and Peiligang cultures, gave birth to the Yangshao culture that varied in different regions. Actually it takes the Yangshao as an entity varying not only in source but also in stream. The most realistic is the multi-stream theory, which identifies the main stream and then clarifies other sources and streams as well as their relationship. It believes that the Shanxi and Henan Yangshao differs from the Guanzhong Yangshao in origination and that its source must have been the Peiligang culture or other contemporary cultures. The Yangshao culture in the Guanzhong region and its vicinity must have originated in the Baijiacun (Laoguantai/Dadiwan) culture in the broad sense. The most direct source of the Yangshao culture was at the beginning believed to be the Lower Beishouling culture, and then to be the Lingkou culture. So far, no true answer has been found to the problem of the Yangshao's origin.
The rereading,classification, and the study of the "flower" motif of the painted pottery of Miaodigou Culture ascertain that the whorl design was a mainstream design of prehistoric Chinese painted pottery. The whorl design is commonly seen on the painted pottery of Miaodigou, Dahecun, Dawenkou, Hongshan, Daxi, Majiayao, and Fengbitou cultures. The author argues that the whorl was not an ordinary decorative design, nor was it a unique design of a particular culture. Its fertility emanated from its symbolic meaning that we could not identified at this moment. It was not simply the dispersal of an artistic style, but was the dispersal of a cognitive system.The dispersal of the whorl design indicates that a common cognitive system was formed during the prehistoric period of China after 6000B. P.
