[3] In 1940 Su wrote a book analyzing the types of li (鬲) pottery tripods excavated at Doujitai, but lost the manuscript in the chaos of the Second Sino-Japanese War.

[3] Su used li vessel typology to determine ethnic affiliations of archaeological sites, and his methodology has been adopted by generations of Chinese scholars.

Rejecting the traditional point of view that the Central Plain (Yellow River valley) was the cradle of Chinese civilization and radiated out to backward regions in the rest of China, Su argued that archaeological data had proven that ancient cultures were developing simultaneously in multiple regions and influenced each other, including the Central Plain.

In the view of Li Feng of Columbia University, although the theory "does little more than synthesize what had already been revealed by the extensive archaeological work" of the recent past, it was a powerful tool for analyzing prehistoric development in Neolithic China.

[7] According to archaeologist Kwang-chih Chang of Harvard University, Su's theory legitimized a view of ancient China that had been regarded as heresy.