What kind of spark will be sparked by the collision of the wisdom of the present person and the ancestors more than 5,000 years ago?
The Beijing Winter Olympic medal is one of the answers.
The Beijing Winter Olympics are about to officially open, and nearly 3,000 athletes from all over the world will compete on the field to present the style of ice and snow sports. The Beijing Winter Olympic medal condenses the wisdom of the Chinese ancestors more than 5,000 years ago – the design inspiration and visual source on the back of the medal is the jade double bi in the Lingjiatan culture more than 5,000 years ago.
Lingjiatan, once an ordinary village in Hanshan County, Anhui Province, has become famous and famous at home and abroad for excavating Neolithic ruins dating back more than 5,000 years.
This time, what kind of story is hidden behind the "handshake" of the Winter Olympic medals and The Lingjiatan culture?
Aerial photo of Lingjiatan panorama. People's Daily Zhang Jun
A collision of wisdom through more than 5,000 years
In October 2021, two happy events followed in Lingjiatan: one was that on October 18, the list of "Top 100 Archaeological Discoveries in a Hundred Years" was released, and the Lingjiatan site became the only project selected in Anhui; the other was that on October 26, the Medal of the Beijing Winter Olympics was announced to the public, and the jade double bi unearthed from Lingjiatan became one of the design inspiration and visual sources of the medal.
For the people of Lingjiatan, the two happy events are both unexpected and reasonable. "Unexpectedly, it was because we didn't know it before, and it was reasonable because we were confident in The Lingjiatan culture." Sun Liangfeng is the deputy director of the Lingjiatan Ruins Management Office and the director of the Hanshan County Museum, and he knows the Lingjiatan culture very well.
The vision on the back of the Medal at the Beijing 2022 Winter Olympics is derived from the Lingjiatan Jade Double. Image source: Beijing Winter Olympics Organizing Committee
Knowing that the jade double bibi has become the design inspiration for the Winter Olympic medals, Zhang Jingguo, a researcher at the Anhui Provincial Institute of Cultural Relics and a famous archaeologist, could not hide his excitement. Since the first excavation of the Lingjiatan site in 1987, Zhang Jingguo has served as the head of the archaeological team for five terms, and the jade double bi was excavated by Zhang Jingguo in 1987.
"At that time, I saw it in front of the TV, and I didn't have to mention how excited I was." Zhang Jingguo introduced in an interview with the media that the outer diameter of the jade double bi is 11.2 cm, the inner diameter is 2.9 cm, the thickness is 0.5 cm, it is jade off-white, flat and round, the surface is glossy, the whole is concentric circle shape, the middle circle is hollowed out, and there are four symmetrical holes on the outer ring side.
The exquisitely made and cleverly designed jade bi not only reflects the superb craftsmanship of the ancestors more than 5,000 years ago, but also is a symbol of the thoughts and wisdom of the ancestors.
Zhang Jingguo believes that the outer circle of Yubi has four round holes with right angle symmetry, representing the four squares, the outer circle represents the universe, and the inner circle represents the space in which people live. The arc-shaped connection between the inner circle and the outer circle divides the inner circle and the outer circle, and also forms a central axis on the jade bi, which contains the philosophical ideas of the Ancestors of Lingjiatan on man and nature, between the four squares and the central axis.
Penetrating the dust of more than 5,000 years of history, the philosophical ideas of the ancestors of Lingjiatan collided with the ideas of the designers of the Winter Olympic medals, creating a spark of wisdom.
The medal designers for the Beijing Winter Olympics are the team of Professor Hang Hai of the Central Academy of Fine Arts. In an interview with the media, HangHai introduced that the ancient Yubi expressed the ancient Chinese's thinking on the relationship between astronomy and humanities or the relationship between man and nature. At the same time, according to the traditional concept of "Cangbi Litian, Huang Zhen Lidi", they decided to use jade to praise the winning athletes and the Olympic spirit.
After repeated discussions, Professor Hanghai's team determined the "five rings of one heart" scheme, which means that the five rings are concentric and the concentric circles are returned to the circle, which not only expresses the Chinese cultural connotation of "heaven and earth and people's hearts", but also symbolizes that the Olympic spirit brings people together, the glory of the Winter Olympics, and the global sharing. Among them, the visual source of the medal on the front is the concentric circle pattern jade bi of the tomb of the King of Nanyue in Guangzhou, and the back is the jade bi of Lingjiatan in Hanshan, Anhui.
Lingjiatan, an important symbol of Chinese civilization
The Lingjiatan site is located in Tongzha Town, Hanshan County, Ma'anshan City, Anhui Province, which is bordered by the Yuxi River in the south and the Taihu Lake Mountain in the north. With a total area of 2.2 million square meters, the site is a central settlement site of the late Neolithic period dating from 5800 to 5300 years ago.
Local map of the Lingjiatan ruins. People's Daily Zhang Jun
In 1985, when local villagers buried the deceased, they dug out a batch of jade rings, stone chisels, stone tools and other jade and stone tools from the ground. In 1987, the first excavation of the Lingjiatan site was carried out, and so far it has been excavated 13 times, with a total excavation area of 6,280 square meters and more than 3,000 cultural relics. Since then, the ruins of Lingjiatan, which have been sleeping underground for thousands of years, have been recreated in the human world. The archaeological findings of Lingjiatan and the prehistoric civilization they represent have been officially recognized as the "Lingjiatan culture".
Scholars recognize that the Lingjiatan site is the largest central settlement in the lower reaches of the Yangtze River in the Neolithic Songze cultural period, it is one of the most representative sites in the dawning stage of Chinese civilization, and has a symbolic position in the origin and formation of Chinese civilization. The status of the Lingjiatan site can be seen from this.
In the Lingjiatan ruins area, there are artificial altars built in the late Neolithic period, large clan cemeteries, as well as important relics such as sacrifice pits, red-boiled earth and stone circles, and exquisite jade ceremonial vessels, stone tools, pottery and other precious cultural relics have been unearthed.
Among them, jade is the most widely known.
Jade bracelet unearthed from Lingjiatan. People's Daily Zhang Jun
Of the more than 3,000 cultural relics unearthed in Lingjiatan, there are as many as 1,200 jade artifacts alone. Representative jade has people, turtles, eagles, dragons, etc. The jade excavated from Lingjiatan has large ears, a high nose bridge, a round crown on its head, bent arms, and hands on its chest, which are lifelike. Incredibly, The jade man also found a small hole thinner than a human hair, how did such a small hole come out? It's still puzzling.
"Judging from the production process and design ideas of the excavated cultural relics, the ancestors of Lingjiatan have superb wisdom and craftsmanship." Sun Liangfeng said that the jade culture of Lingjiatan represents the highest level of jade culture of the same era, and it is called the "three major jade cultures in prehistory in China" along with the Hongshan culture and the Liangzhu culture.
A jade man unearthed from Lingjiatan. People's Daily Zhang Jun
Since its discovery, the Lingjiatan site has been highly valued and protected by party committees and governments at all levels. In June 2001, the Lingjiatan site was listed as the fifth batch of national key cultural relics protection units; since 2006, it has been included in the national "Eleventh Five-Year Plan", "Twelfth Five-Year Plan", "Thirteenth Five-Year Plan" and "Fourteenth Five-Year Plan" major site protection plans, in December 2013, it was officially approved by the State Administration of Cultural Heritage as the second batch of national archaeological site park project units; in 2016, Anhui Province issued the first special regulation on cultural heritage protection - "Lingjiatan Site Protection Regulations"...
Today's Lingjiatan is in full swing to build a planned area of 3.35 square kilometers of the National Archaeological Site Park, which integrates the functions of cultural relics protection and display, scientific research and education, and leisure tourism. Since its partial opening in 2017, the park has received more than 600,000 visitors. According to Sun Liangfeng, after the park is fully completed, it can receive more than 500,000 tourists per year, and will become an excellent model project for the protection and utilization of large sites in Anhui Province.
In the view of Sun Liangfeng and all Lingjiatan people, the integration of Lingjiatan elements into the Winter Olympic medals this time is not only the pride of Lingjiatan, but also a good opportunity for the external dissemination of Lingjiatan culture, "With the successful holding of the Winter Olympics, Lingjiatan culture will definitely spread to all corners of the world." ”