Dragon hunting
Cultural identity in dragon artifacts
Hongshan jade dragon, Taosi pan dragon pattern pottery plate, Lingjiatan dragon head shaped jade, Sanxingdui bronze top Zhang dragon head, Han Dynasty pan dragon pattern dragon jade, Eastern Jin Dynasty Yuren royal dragon pattern Jin Jue, Tang Dynasty gilt dragon, Jin Dynasty copper sitting dragon, Qing Dynasty nine dragon wall ......The dragon relics are dizzying. Since the Neolithic Age, the dragon, as a mysterious and solemn cultural symbol in the vast land of China, has always been active in people's beliefs, art, architecture and even daily life.
Since ancient times, the "dragon" has been an "auspicious beast" in the excellent traditional Chinese culture, and the sons and daughters of China have identified themselves as "descendants of the dragon", and the Chinese dragon has also become a national identity symbol of the Chinese nation's pluralism and unity.
The image of the dragon first appeared**?At present, the earliest image of the dragon in China is more recognized by the academic circles, which appeared at the Chahai site in Fuxin, Liaoning Province 8,000 years ago. The length of this stone pile dragon is 19At 7 meters, the dragon's body is made of reddish-brown stones stacked regularly, and it is speculated that this is the totem dragon god used by the ancestors of the tribe for assembly and worship.
The most representative dragons of the Neolithic period are the C-shaped dragons and Jue-shaped dragons in the Hongshan culture. The jade dragon found in the red mountain cultural site of Chifeng, Inner Mongolia, the whole body curled up in the shape of C, is also vividly called the "C-shaped dragon", it has a beautiful posture, a collection of animal characteristics such as deer eyes, snake body, pig nose, horsehair, etc., there is a small hole in the middle of its body, as long as the line is used to pass through the small hole and then hang in the air, the dragon head and the dragon tail will be on the same horizontal line, the shape is unique, ingenious, it is the largest and highest level of relics in the Hongshan cultural jade found at present, and is known as "the first dragon in China". Another piece of Jue-shaped dragon, it resembles a bear's high ears and large ringed eyes, a pig's protruding outer jaws, and a snake-like curled body with a ring-tailed shape, and some people say that it represents a human embryo or a larva of a metamorphosis insect, which may have the meaning of metamorphosis or feathering and regeneration.
In other Neolithic relics, although geographically distant, they all share a common cultural sense and connection. The pictures of birds and beasts on the pottery of Zhao Baogou culture, and the cultural information contained in the patterns of deer, pig and bird on the vessel, allow the original dragon totems of the three ancestral tribes to converge on the same canvas in a relationship of intimacy and alienation. The earliest ornamentation of the dragon head pattern on the jade of Liangzhu culture, the head and tail ribbon were named "Chiyou Ring" by later generations.
Over the millennia, the shape of dragons has evolved, but we can always find real animal elements such as snakes, deer, pigs, and birds in dragons. Is there such an animal as a dragon in history? Lv Peng, an expert in zooarchaeology at the Institute of Archaeology of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, introduced that from the perspective of zooarchaeology, there is actually no animal such as a dragon, but from the archaeological sites have found the animal prototype of the dragon, our Chinese dragon is actually based on these animal prototypes, and a collection of plants, natural phenomena and so on to form such a deified complex, these differences in details and differences in animal prototypes, representing different time and space ancestors in the process of creating dragons are their own focus. After thousands of years, the image or posture of the Chinese dragon is endlessly changing, but it is the same, representing the integration and symbiosis of diverse and integrated cultures.
At the 6,000-year-old Xishuipo site in Puyang, Henan, there is a group of dragon and tiger patterns carefully placed with mussel shells. The head of this mussel dragon is high, with a curved neck and a hunched body, and it looks like it is soaring. The orientation and angle of the dragon and the tiger correspond to the east palace dragon and the west palace white tiger in the four elephants, and the imagination of the ancients about the starry sky has been confirmed here. Feng Shi, a member of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences and a researcher at the Institute of Archaeology, said that this is a standard celestial phenomenon called "seeing the dragon in the field", and the folk proverb describes the dragon raising its head. February 2 of this year is the dragon raised its head, ten years later it is still like this, a hundred years later it is still like this, time is the most honest, that is, the ancient book said "to the letter as the time", we have no agreement with time, but it will never deceive us, the cycle of the four seasons is also like this, the spring and autumn sequence, when it should be cold, it will be cold, when it should be warm, it will be warm, every year, it will never violate this law. Through such a kind of time-based observation and time-teaching activities, people have cultivated people with "faith" as the core connotation of morality, and established civilization.
At the site of Xiangfen Tao Temple in Shanxi, an ancient observatory dating back 4,000 years was also discovered, which is also the earliest known observatory in China. With the observatory as the center, 13 earthen pillars are arranged from west to east, and the ancients used the gaps between the earthen pillars to observe and record the changes of the sun, moon and stars, speculate on the change of spring, summer, autumn and winter, and realize the dialogue between heaven and man. Also at the site of the Tao Temple, the image of the dragon appears in diameter 40On a large 7-centimeter pottery plate, the dragon's mouth holds a spike that resembles a crop. The appearance of the dragon heralded a good harvest, and the celestial signs of the dragon guided the agricultural time, and the spiritual world of the ancestors thousands of years ago was combined with agricultural production.
The pluralistic and integrated Chinese civilization is inclusive, the Chinese dragon culture is integrated throughout, and the totemic culture and heroic legends from different regions eventually converge and unify with the process of history and the evolution of civilization.
The turquoise dragon unearthed from the ruins of Yanshi Erlitou in Henan Province is spliced by more than 2,000 pieces of turquoise, the age is about 3700 to 3600 years ago, the thickness of each piece of turquoise is only about 1 mm, the main pattern of the diamond symbolizes the scales all over the body, and there is a copper bell in the middle of the turquoise dragon, it is speculated that this cultural relic may be used for sacrifice, it is a dragon flag. There are clouds in the Book of Songs, "The Dragon Flag Yangyang, and the Lingyangyang", which is about the scene when the dragon flag flutters in the wind and the copper bell jingles when the sacrifice is made.
The stepmother Wuding is the largest national heavy vessel in the Shang and Zhou dynasties that can be seen at present, and the body is distributed with dragon patterns, animal face patterns, tiger patterns, human face patterns and other patterns. They are not simple ornamental designs, they contain very special cultural meanings. Zhai Shengli, a research librarian at the National Museum, introduced that the dragon pattern on the stepmother Wuding is very special, and on each face, we can see two dragons standing upright. When you change the perspective and walk to the corner where the two walls intersect, you can find that in fact, the two dragon patterns together constitute a beast face pattern, and these animal face patterns and dragon patterns carry an important medium role in conveying the demands of the sacrificers to the gods to communicate with the gods and express their demands.
The dragon shape of the national ritual vessel is solemn and solemn, the design is three-dimensional and vivid, and the dragon on it is cloudy and foggy, conveying the spiritual appeal of the sacrificer to the gods. In fact, the dragon is still a typical patterned hieroglyphs, three thousand years of time flow, today, the dragon glyph on the dragon Ding, is still so vivid, naughty and lovely. Zilongding is named because of the inscription of the word "Zilong" in its vessel, the word "Zi" is relatively small, it is a single line Yin carving, and the font volume of "Dragon" is relatively large, it is a double hook of the Yin line, like a child, the two arms stretch out one after the other, as if running. The inscription of Zilongding represents the typical style of decoration and writing in the Shang and Zhou dynasties, which is the earliest "dragon" character on the bronze tripod that can be seen at present.
Zeng Hou Yi built a drum base in 1978 unearthed in Suizhou, Hubei Zeng Hou Yi tomb. The base of this huge drum with a height of 50cm and a diameter of nearly 80cm looks like a burning flame from a distance, but when you look at it up close, it is a group of dragons churning up and down, giving people a sense of change, movement and stillness. It is said that the lions on Lugou Bridge are innumerable, but in fact, no one has been able to count how many dragons are on this drum base. Originally, each dragon was inlaid with turquoise, and the golden luster of the bronze itself made it even more gorgeous. From the end of the Spring and Autumn Period to the Warring States Period, the "elephant" of the dragons and the drum formed a relatively stable combination, and the more famous ones are the Jiulidun Tomb in Shucheng, Anhui Province and the No. 4 Tomb of Jiuxian County, Yexian County, Henan Province. It reflects the correspondence between musical instruments and the "elephants" of nature in early Chinese cultural concepts. Yang Lisheng, director of the Academic Research Center of Hubei Provincial Museum, introduced that the drum represents the thunder of spring, and the thunder rises and the stinging insects recover. Because as soon as the drum sounds, the dragon wakes up and no longer hibernates, representing a state of winter going to spring and all industries prospering, giving people a very surging power. In the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period, Shi stepped on the stage of history as a class, he did not worship ghosts and gods like those nobles of the Shang Dynasty, nor did he follow the etiquette system like those nobles of the Western Zhou Dynasty, but pursued aggressiveness and self-expression, which is also closely related to the spirit of our dragon. When we talk about cultural revival today, in fact, it is a kind of creativity to a large extent, and the spirit of innovation embodied in the drum base of the tomb of Marquis Yi is very instructive for us today.
In the Han Dynasty, the image of the dragon was stabilized along with the image of the great unified kingdom of China. Since the Han Dynasty, the Silk Road, as an important transportation artery, has connected the ancient world, and the Chinese dragon, as a symbol of prosperity and development, has long become a witness to the exchange and mutual learning between Eastern and Western civilizations on the Silk Road. As a necessary place on the ancient Silk Road, Xinjiang has become a witness to the exchanges between Eastern and Western civilizations in the long river of history, and the dragon, as a symbol of Chinese civilization, has also taken root in this fertile soil of the Western Regions early, and the image of the dragon has been introduced to the Western Regions where Xinjiang is located by the Silk Road at least in the Han Dynasty.
In the Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region Museum, and the world-famous "five stars out of the East to benefit China" brocade arm unearthed together with the cultural relics, there is a bronze mirror of the Han Dynasty with a dragon pattern, this bronze mirror with four beast patterns was unearthed in the Niya ruins of Minfeng County, Xinjiang, don't look at its diameter is only less than ten centimeters, but on the back is cast the image of a dragon, a tiger, a bird and a unicorn, experts introduced, this is the early Chinese symbol of the four directions of the "four elephants", with precious historical value. The composition of the dragon pattern is very sophisticated, and the dragon's swaggering and high-spirited demeanor is vividly depicted with just a few strokes. Yu Zhiyong, director of the Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region Museum, introduced that this bronze mirror reflects the cosmological world view of the Chinese in the Han Dynasty at that time, and it may have arrived in the ancient oasis country of Xinjiang in the form of a reward, so that an expression of cultural concepts and values should also gradually be recognized by the locals, and this kind of bronze mirror was integrated into local life during this period of the Han Dynasty, and then inspired people's respect and pursuit of Han culture.
The Silk Road is not only a road for the spread and promotion of dragon culture, but also a road for the exchange and convergence of dragon culture and foreign cultures. In the underground cultural relics warehouse of the Xinjiang Museum, on a splendid Tang Dynasty silk fabric, the image of the Chinese dragon and the symbols of various civilizations are fused together. This Tang Dynasty silk fabric is called Lianzhu Dragon Pattern Qi, in the middle of it there are two dragon images, the head of the dragon down, the tail of the dragon rushing up, and around the dragon there are two circles of circular patterns, called Lianzhu pattern, in Persian culture represents the image of light. This piece uses the Chinese textile technology of the Tang Dynasty, which reflects the tolerance of the people of all ethnic groups in China to absorb a variety of cultures, inclusiveness and inclusiveness.
As a cultural symbol, the dragon is often endowed with the spiritual value of diversity and inclusiveness, which transcends geographical boundaries and shows the possibility of cultural exchange and integration. Xinjiang Yili is the place where the grassland civilization and the farming civilization meet, the two pieces of blue and white porcelain dragon pattern bowls of the Yuan Dynasty unearthed here, the texture is warm and moist, the texture is beautiful, looking at them, it is like crossing back to the prosperous ancient Silk Road, seeing the lonely smoke of the desert thousands of years ago, the sunset of the long river, hearing the camel bell from afar, and the neighing of horses.
The dragon goes hand in hand with the origin of Chinese civilization, it was created by the ancestors of the Chinese nation, and it is a sacred object with extraordinary abilities that combines many animals and natural phenomena. Whether it is down-to-earth farming or looking up at the starry sky romantic, the history of the dragon is also the history of the origin, development, integration and spread of Chinese civilization.
*: CCTV News.