"For more than 20 years, I have always had a sense of mission, I feel that the wildlings are calling me, and this matter is none other than me. The wild man is my lover. ”
Referring to the "wild man" of Shennongjia, Zhang Jinxing said.
He has invested 24 years and spent millions of yuan to find traces of wild people in Shennongjia.
Too much energy was devoted to this work, leaving him no time to take care of his family, which led to the breakdown of the three marriages.
Zhang Jinxing, who is now 60 years old, has always been alone.
From the appearance point of view, Zhang Jinxing's beard is very eye-catching - the beard is about 20 centimeters long, and the color is white.
He had sworn to grow a beard, which was the mark of his search for the savage.
When the beard is the longest, it is more than a foot long. Because the beard would always fall into the bowl when eating, he trimmed the beard to a length of 20 centimeters.
Are there really wildlings? After Zhang Jinxing invested so much energy, what kind of gains did he gain?
First, does the wild man exist or not?
Have you heard of Savages? Savages on the mainland have always been rich in legend, according to legend, it is more than two meters tall, can walk upright, hands longer than knees, red hair, hairy.
In some entertainment magazines and newspapers, many stories and legends of wild people are recorded.
From ancient times to the present, people's exploration of wild people has never stopped, as early as the Western Zhou Dynasty, wild people have relevant literature records;
The Warring States poet Qu Yuan, who also wrote poems describing the savages of Shennongjia;
In more than a hundred years, more than 400 people claim to have seen wild people in different places.
Legendary savages
Shennongjia in the western part of Hubei Province, as a "gathering place" for wild people since ancient times, has fascinated countless explorers.
Shennongjia is a well-preserved primary forest on the mainland, with superior natural conditions and many mysterious species living here.
Here, there have also been many "wild man incidents", which seems to indicate that the wild man may be hidden in this unknown mysterious area.
Map of Shennongjia
Therefore, for thousands of years, for the sake of Shennongjia and for the "mystery of the wild man", countless people have paid their youth and blood.
Zhang Jinxing is also one of them.
Zhang Jinxing
Zhang Jinxing, who was born in Yuci, Shanxi, originally lived the life of an ordinary person.
He started out working for a construction company and, like most people, worked nine-to-five, tepidly.
In order to pass the boredom of leisure time, Zhang Jinxing decided to travel around and visit the great rivers and mountains of the motherland.
During this period, Zhang Jinxing traveled to 18 provinces.
Unlike the tourists who like to take photos and punch cards in the bustling street market today, he loves nature and is particularly fond of watching mountains and lakes.
During Zhang Jinxing's travels, he heard a lot of anecdotes.
Among them is the legend of the Shennongjia Savage.
Zhang Jinxing, who longs for nature and has a strong curiosity, has a great interest in Shennongjia, and is even more convinced of the existence of wild people there.
So, in the autumn of 1994, Zhang Jinxing came to Shennongjia from Shanxi.
Here, Zhang Jinxing learned more rumors of savages.
This made him completely sure that Shennongjia was his "dream place" and gave birth to the idea of finding wild people.
Shennongjia
At the end of October 1994, experts, scholars and relevant responsible persons from all over the country gathered here to establish the Chinese "Qikao Association".
The study of the situation of the Shennongjia Savages has accelerated the process of understanding the "Mystery of the Savages".
Zhang Jinxing also attended the meeting and issued a Zhengzheng oath at the meeting:
"If I don't solve the mystery of the savages of Shennongjia, I vow not to leave Shennongjia!" I also want to communicate with the wildlings and make friends! ”
In order to fulfill the oath at the meeting, Zhang Jinxing immediately began to act.
After being recommended by the Shanxi Provincial Science and Technology Commission, Zhang Jinxing wrote a report and applied to the State Science and Technology Commission to visit the Shennongjia Primitive Forest at his own expense.
Zhang Jinxing's righteous deeds were supported by Jia Lanpo, a famous academician of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, and a group of archaeologists and biologists at that time.
With the motivation, Zhang Jinxing returned to Shanxi, first rented out the house where he lived, and grew a beard Mingzhi:
"If you can't find a wild man, don't shave!"
His parents, wife, and six siblings did not understand his approach and expressed strong opposition.
Despite this, Zhang Jinxing still did not change his original intention of looking for the savage.
He sold all the valuable things in the house, prepared more than twenty thousand yuan, and brought a tent and all the luggage.
As the leader of the Chinese Exotic Animal Comprehensive Science Team, he walked into Shennongjia to conduct a wild man expedition.
In the past, any place that organized an inspection in Shennongjia was a long line of people.
Because this place not only has beautiful and rich scenery, vivid and interesting legends, but also countless jackal beasts lurking in it.
And this time, only Zhang Jinxing went deep into the dense forest alone, reckless and reckless, thousands of miles.
What awaited him was a path full of difficulties.
Second, in the face of shennongjia's harsh natural environment, the will is unswerving
Zhang Jinxing's residence was only a tent set deep in Shennongjia.
Here the cold wind is often called, and the cold is incomparable.
The first two nights of his visit, whenever Zhang Venus was asleep, the roaring mountain wind slammed into him.
First there was a buzz on the tent, and as the wind blew harder and harder, even the tent was thrown off.
Therefore, Zhang Jinxing himself used bamboo strips to weave four walls, and then moved stones to pile around.
This is where there is a habitable environment.
In terms of diet, due to the harsh environment, Zhang Jinxing's requirements for food are not high, and he no longer eats meat.
According to him, the sense of smell of wild people is very sensitive, and they can smell all kinds of odors on people.
People who regularly eat meat often have a special smell that will scare away wild people.
Therefore, for more than twenty years, Zhang Jinxing has never been stained with meat.
His cooker had only a pitch-black pot that had been smoked.
When eating, sprinkle some rice into the pot, and then go to the hillside to grab a handful of wild vegetables and throw them in the pot, and boil them together.
Despite the uneven oil and salt, the weak taste, and the ingredients day after day, Zhang Jinxing still enjoys it.
Sometimes I will add two or two shochu to myself, and I will still eat a sweet meal.
When he is in a good mood, Zhang Jinxing will also bring some peanut rice and wine up the mountain, cook wild vegetable porridge, look at the moon, listen to the insects, but also have a different flavor.
However, soon the money brought by Zhang Jinxing ran out and he could no longer go down the mountain to buy ingredients.
In this sparsely populated deep mountain forest, how to solve the source of livelihood has become an urgent problem.
What to do? Zhang Jinxing came up with a good idea to work for farmers.
Zhang Jinxing inspected in Shennongjia
As a result, Zhang Jinxing began to carry things from the bottom of the mountain to the mountain every day, more than 3,000 meters above sea level, and its difficulties can be imagined.
But he understood that only in this way could he solve his own food and clothing problems and provide follow-up support for the search for wild people.
The local residents were touched by Zhang Jinxing's spirit, and even the thieves were "merciful" to him after hearing about his deeds.
There were many bandits in the mountains, but there was not a single thing in Zhang Jinxing's tent.
Some people who come to the mountains to poach, dig up medicine, and cut wood will only take the salt or noodles from his tent, but never take it for free, leaving corn and other things in exchange.
Every spring, many tourists will come to see zhang jinxing and want to take photos with Zhang Jinxing at their own expense.
Everyone feels that although they can't shoot real savages, it is worth it to shoot Zhang Jinxing, a "modern savage".
Therefore, this has also become one of Zhang Jinxing's economic sources.
Zhang Jinxing took a group photo with tourists
Since entering Shennongjia for more than five years, Zhang Jinxing has not only explored the footprints of wild people in Shennongjia, but also made many contributions to the forest, such as patrolling the forest, volunteering tour guides, rescuing lost roads, fire alarms, etc.
His deeds spread throughout the country, and some people donated money and materials.
In this way, Zhang Jinxing's "wild examination" road has been continued.
Third, the search for the wild man is full of dangers and obstacles, and many times he has escaped from death
From cold winter to scorching heat, from early spring to late autumn, Zhang Jinxing travels through the grass, through dense forests, drills deep ditches, climbs cliffs, and resonates with birds and wild animals in this inaccessible place.
Shennongjia conditions are harsh and dangerous, Zhang Jinxing was bitten by locusts and lice, his body was mottled, and he was in constant pain and itching;
Stung by wild bees, they had to flee into the cold stream to hide; they were chased by various beasts such as jackals, and dangers abounded...
It can be said that every day of Zhang Jinxing's "wild examination" is full of unknown risks.
And 1995 was zhang Jinxing's most difficult year.
In January of that year, Zhang Jinxing carried food and more than 60 kilograms of camping equipment, climbed the mountain and waded through the water, climbed the deserted tiger top, and camped here.
Tiger Top
Legend has it that someone once found the trail of wild people at the top of the tiger, and Zhang Jinxing wanted to come here to find out.
When the wind howled and the beasts howled, Zhang Jinxing was excited, feeling that he had come to the mysterious paradise and was about to break through the earth-shattering secrets inside!
So he got out of the tent, searched carefully, and suddenly found several caves in the steep wall ahead.
Zhang Jinxing remembered that the information he had seen before said that wild people liked to hide in caves in winter, so he could not resist the excitement in his heart and climbed up the steep wall desperately.
However, after many attempts, it still did not climb up.
Obsessed, he stubbornly believed that the cave must be the winter habitat of the wildlings.
So he took a detour to climb, and after climbing for several days, he finally came to a cave, where he grabbed the branches and climbed up the cliff to enter the cave.
Deep Bear Cave
To Zhang Jinxing's surprise, a roar suddenly came from the cave, shaking the earth, and then two black bears taller than people emerged from the cave, waving huge bear paws, and rushing straight to Zhang Jinxing.
It turned out to be a bear hole!
Zhang Jinxing was frightened and scattered, but fortunately he brought the tools of defense.
So he resisted with a wooden stick in front of his chest, shouted loudly, and quickly retreated, and the two black bears were frightened by Zhang Jinxing's momentum.
While the black bear hesitated, Zhang Jinxing quickly exited the cave and fell off the cliff.
Fortunately, the slope here is not high, and Zhang Jinxing is hung by the branches to avoid crushing the bones.
Zhang Jinxing set off again, but the ghost made the god enter the "Ecstasy Trip".
In the forest area of Shennongjia, there are more than a dozen places called "Ecstasy Trip".
These places are rugged, and each area has dozens of similarly shaped hills, making it difficult to distinguish between east and west, north and south.
Ecstasy trip
Zhang Jinxing fell into it and wandered inside for three days and three nights, and finally returned to the original place.
To make matters worse, all the dry food brought in had been eaten, and with the heavy snow for several consecutive days, the snow was knee-high, cold and bone-chilling, and it was difficult to walk.
Zhang Jinxing was already exhausted, cold and hungry, falling in the ice and snow, and his toenails were frozen off three.
In desperation, the god of death also descended on him step by step.
In the darkness, Zhang Jinxing seemed to see those who had supported him and heard Jia Lanpo's voice:
"No matter what, you must come alive from the Shennongjia!"
At this moment, a cold wind blew him awake, and Zhang Jinxing desperately stretched out his already stiff hand, grabbed a large part of the moss from his side, and swallowed the snow water.
Gradually, Zhang Jinxing felt that he had a little strength in his body, so he struggled to get up, and continued to move forward shakily, walking down a small river.
Finally, on the fourth day, he climbed to houshan Village in Chaoyang Township and got relief from a villager, once again creating a miracle of survival.
Chaoyang Township
In April of the same year, Zhang Jinxing came to the birthplace of the Yinyu River, at an altitude of more than 2,000 meters above sea level.
He remembered that the administrator who had heard about the area had said that he had seen a series of large footprints in the ravine to the southeast.
Each footprint is one and a half the size of an ordinary person's footprint, and the pace is twice that of ordinary people.
Zhang Jinxing expected that this must be the footprint of a wild man.
The footprints of the legendary Savages
At this time, he smelled a pungent and pungent smell.
Suspecting that it was left by the wildlings, he hurried up the hill to follow the smell.
As a result, I walked for a long time and came to a steep cliff.
Zhang Jinxing was already physically exhausted at this time, and it was late, and there was a heavy fog, so he couldn't rest and had to hurry back.
Fearing that the fog would be trapped in the mountain forest, Zhang Jinxing chose to cut a short path and entered a nine-kilometer bamboo forest.
The sky was getting darker and darker, the way forward was completely unclear, and in the dense bamboo forest, Zhang Jinxing could only rely on a compass and crawl slowly.
Above is a dense bamboo forest, below is a hundred meters deep snow, each time you walk a section of road, you need to re-determine the direction.
The boots didn't know when they lost one, so they had to go barefoot.
It was not until the middle of the night that Zhang Jinxing struggled to climb back to the place where he lived.
His body was already so stiff that he couldn't move, and as soon as he entered, Zhang Venus fell to the ground.
Snow and sweat mingle together to get rid of an ice gourd.
When the rangers saw Zhang Jinxing return, they scolded him for being a "poor man" who did not know how to cherish life, and also drilled out of the bed to make a fire for him to cook.
After a long time, Zhang Jinxing eased up.
During this exploration, Zhang Jinxing not only did not find the footprints of the wildlings, but also suffered frostbite on his hands and feet, leaving behind sequelae.
Years of living in the wild have given Zhang Jinxing a broader understanding of animals and vegetation.
All his activities are always guided by not disturbing wild animals.
Once, while searching for the wildlings, he jumped down a steep slope, only to have a black bear sleeping under the steep slope.
Zhang Jinxing looked at it, things were not good, but there was no way back here, and the black bear was staring at him in front of him.
At this juncture, with years of knowledge of the habits of wild animals, Zhang Jinxing believes that if you don't attack it, it won't hurt you.
So he made one of the bravest moves of his life.
He lowered his hands, half-bent over, and said softly:
"Brother Bear, I'm sorry, I didn't mean to bother you, we are all good friends, for each other's neighbors, just let me go this time."
The black bear seemed to understand Zhang Jinxing's words, but out of hostility towards the "uninvited guest", it still pounced on Zhang Jinxing and scratched Zhang Jinxing's head with its palm.
Suddenly, a large opening more than two inches long appeared, and blood flowed.
While enduring severe pain and deep fear, Zhang Jinxing continued to make a gesture of compensation to the black bear, trying to show that he did not want to hurt it.
Sure enough, the black bear stopped attacking and turned away.
After the black bear left, Zhang Jinxing sat paralyzed on the ground, and it took half a day to ease up.
At the same time, his psychology was greatly satisfied, he felt that he had succeeded, wild animals could understand what people wanted to express, and everything could be explored.
Although the process of finding the savages is full of ups and downs and thrills, Zhang Jinxing has never stopped exploring Shennongjia.
He also said he would spend his life looking for wildlings and would never give up.
Zhang Jinxing lives in Shennongjia
Zhang Jinxing said: I always have a sense of mission in my heart, I feel that the wild people are not far away to summon me, the wild people are my lovers, I must find them. ”
Fourth, give up the small family for everyone, and contribute a lifetime to the cause of science
For more than two decades, Zhang Jinxing has spent millions of dollars to go to 16 townships in Shennongjia.
He surveyed more than 1,500 people, obtained a wealth of information about "wild people" and exotic species, and also conducted field observations and examinations of some of this information.
He has collected more than 100 hairs suspected of being wildlings, found more than 3,000 footprints of wild people, and wrote countless research reports, which caused a sensation overseas.
Zhang Jinxing's book "Savage Charm"
Zhang Jinxing also found rare animals such as red-haired wild boar, South China tiger, donkey-headed wolf and so on in Shennongjia.
While exploring savages, he also contributed to the cause of science.
In addition, he also attaches great importance to the protection of Shennongjia, for 20 years, he has volunteered to plant more than 300 trees every year, and strives to popularize environmental protection knowledge to local residents, calling on people to realize the importance of grass and trees.
Since looking for the wild man in 1983, Zhang Jinxing has been in his sixties.
He sold all his possessions and married three times, all of which ended in failure.
Now he is already alone. As for his relatives, he has great guilt.
When she heard that Zhang Jinxing had returned penniless, her ex-wife immediately gave Zhang Jinxing more than 500 yuan as living expenses; before arriving in Beijing, she raised more than 1,000 yuan for Zhang Jinxing as a travel expense. The ex-wife said to him: "You have given everything you should have given, now you can complete your mission with peace of mind!" ”
The day before Zhang Jinxing left Shanxi to go to Shennongjia again, Zhang Jinxing's six siblings made up 1,000 yuan, plus the whole monthly salary that his ex-wife had just paid and the 400 yuan of pocket money at home, and handed it to him together.
What made Zhang Jinxing cry the most was that his son actually saved ten yuan to ask him to continue to look for the wild man.
My son is about to go to junior high school, and he also needs money! But what can be done?
He could only grit his teeth and take over this heavy love.
He felt that he could only live up to them if he tried harder.
Zhang Jinxing said: "There will be sacrifices if there is struggle, the scientific cause of all mankind only sacrificed me, sacrificed one of my sons, and it is the great thing in the world to find the savage." ”
He said that he had already prepared for the worst, and that no matter what, he would survive in shennongjia until the "mystery of the savages" was discovered.
With majestic mountains and dense jungles, Zhang Jinxing challenged nature with his small body.
Life is limited, but the meaning of life can be infinite.
To this day, Zhang Jinxing is still working hard in the depths of Shennongjia to find the traces of wild people.
Resources:
[1] Tao Kefei. Finding a Lost Link in the Human Evolutionary Chain: Zhang Jinxing, a Savage Seeker in the Depths of Shennongjia[J]. Environmental Education, 2006(07):33-36.
WANG Fangchen. Shennongjia has a Zhang Jinxing[J]. Science and Technology Tide, 2000(05): 24-29.
Yin Sunjun. Zhang Jinxing vowed to uncover the inside story of "Savage"[J]. Friends of Science, 1995(04): 8-9.
ZHANG Guangcui. Chinese Savage Zhang Jinxing[J]. Zhongzhou United Front, 1997(04):44-45.
Editor: Li Xin
Editor-in-Charge: Thalia