Throughout the ages, there are many poems describing the scenery of the Three Gorges itself, and it is precisely because of the beautiful scenery here, coupled with the unique artistic atmosphere of the literati and inkers, that many famous sentences have been circulated here.
In modern times, the Three Gorges has once again attracted the attention of the whole country, and there is no more important water conservancy project called the Three Gorges Dam.
At that time, because there were many undiscovered monuments and sites near the Three Gorges, archaeologists also played a twelve-point spirit when surveying, carefully excavating every corner that may contain cultural relics.
As a result, in the process of demolition of the Three Gorges, experts really found a "monster", and the mysterious strangers of 7,000 years ago were also able to see the light of day.
The "monster" that has been sleeping for thousands of years
The Chinese context of the Ming Dynasty for five thousand years has brought a sense of continuity to most people, and this archaeological discovery is too old to be imagined.
Human civilization has a very long history, even in the ancient times, the survival of the same depends on the natural world, the need for the warmth of the sun, but also need rain and dew and mountains, the original Three Gorges ancestors are the same.
In that era, human beings had already suffered natural hazards such as mountain collapse and flooding, and due to their limited cognitive ability, they had the worship of mountains, animals, and "gods".
Many of them are fantasies given by human imagination, but this is also an important product of the development of human civilization consciousness.
It is said that art originates from life, no matter how old it is.
Since the end of the last century, the Three Gorges Project of the Yangtze River has intercepted, stored water, navigated, etc., and the rescue excavation of the Three Gorges cultural relics has also been carried out in an intense and orderly manner, during which countless precious historical relics have also been excavated.
As early as June 1994, in order to formulate the planning report for the protection of underground cultural relics in Zigui County of the Three Gorges Project, the Hubei Institute of Cultural Relics and Archaeology also began an intensive investigation, and in the process of investigation, the Dongmentou site was discovered.
In 1998, the Hubei Provincial Cultural Relics and Archaeology Team excavated the site of Zigui Dongmentou, and Meng Huaping archaeologists excavated pottery fragments such as supports, which also proved that many years ago, there were traces of residence here.
In November, Meng Huaping used his leisure time to patrol the neighborhood, and Xu Menglin of the Tianmen City Museum in Hubei Province also came to the scene, and they searched carefully in the messy grass, and as a result, Xu Menglin suddenly shouted:
"Warping, look, there seems to be a word on the stone."
In this way, everyone actually found a prehistoric art relic: "Sun Man" stone carving, its length is about 105 cm, the width is 20 cm, and the thickness has reached 12 cm, such a major discovery, directly surprising.
In addition, when the archaeologists excavated again, they also excavated pottery from the Chengbeixi culture era in the northeast, and such a discovery also shocked all the staff involved in archaeology.
This has also been able to confirm that as early as 7,000 years ago, a certain tribal civilization was formed in the Zigui area.
The study of the "Sun Man" stone carvings has been on the agenda since this moment, and in view of the age, there are many details, which have been debated by scholars and experts.
Five years later, in 2003, the Three Gorges Cultural Relics Protection and Archaeological Research Symposium was held, and many of the top figures in the industry participated in the conference, and some of the cultural relics unearthed by the Three Gorges were displayed in the warehouse of the Yichang Museum.
The stone carving of the "Sun Man" in Zigui has been placed in the most prominent position, which has also attracted the attention of countless scholars.
Mr. Chen Wenwu, a well-known expert in the industry, said:
When he first saw the "Sun Man" stone carving, he was particularly surprised, the whole image looked full of "ancient clumsy" taste, and there was a very strong original atmosphere, but the sun graphic carving was very neat, and each "light" carved was particularly vigorous and powerful.
At the scene, many artists also put forward their own thoughts: the head of the figure is slightly smaller than the sun, but strangely, there is a small pointed thin object on the top of the head, what kind of thing is it?
In addition, the shape of the whole body is a slender inverted triangle, the line looks relatively soft, the lower two lines are not painted to the top, but there is a horizontal line in the lower part, and there is still a triangle below the horizontal line, which also makes many people puzzled.
Some experts said that the small triangle represents the "male root".
However, this statement still makes many people suspicious.
The lower limbs and parts of the body, on the left and right, have a small circle, much smaller than the other two, indicating probably stars.
Overall, the entire stone surface has been carefully polished, the surface is very flat, and the facial expressions of the characters are particularly dignified, as if they are singing the praises of the sun and benefiting the people.
No matter what kind of perspective you think about, the "Sun Man" stone carving seems to tell people an ancient story.
In the final analysis, because the purpose and social function of the "Sun Man" stone carvings are too old, it is not easy to figure out the true meaning of them.
So experts thought of a good way: looking for some valuable information through contemporaneous images.
In the context of that era, ancient people were stuck in their own narrow worldview, and there was no way to understand the world through inherent thinking and cognition.
In the case of the sun, what rotation or rotation is not within their comprehension, the logic to which they adapt is:
Behind all natural phenomena, there is a very special mysterious force driving it.
In this context of thinking, witchcraft was born.
People certainly wanted to be able to communicate with the "gods", so they elected their own wizards.
Wizards also have their own "skill", they can make full use of their magic skills and the laws of nature they have learned, so that the vast number of ordinary people believe in their ability, and it is easy for everyone to regard them as "incarnations of god".
In ancient China, there was a saying of "Ten Witches of Lingshan", such as the Shenlong Clan, and Xia Yu, who is well known to the public, often presided over divination, sacrifices and other activities linked to witchcraft.
Looking back, it was only against the background of great respect for these great wizards that such a figure as the stone carving of the "Sun Man" would appear.
In the environment of the times, everyone especially worships the sun, and hopes to eliminate disasters and avoid evil through worship activities, which is also the embodiment of the worship of the sun gods and meets the needs of the sacrificial psychology.
In order to show their mysterious majesty, the chiefs of the tribe need to make some ornaments, and the "Sun Man" stone carving is one of them, which also reflects the chiefs' prayer for the peace and prosperity of the tribe.
In ancient times, sacrifices were not small-scale, but the result of the racking efforts of planners and craftsmen, who imitated common things in life and eventually reflected them in the pictures of sacrifices, and the difficulty of this process can be imagined.
The story behind the "Sun Man" stone carving
From the perspective of modern handicrafts, it is not very difficult to make the stone carvings of "Sun Man", but more than 7,000 years ago, this was already a huge project.
The stone carvings of that meeting usually choose brown sandstone, and the materials must be accumulated for a long time, making good use of the resources of the Three Gorges, and gradually groping out a set of rules.
Usually, the craftsman will first choose a harder object to make a tool, make the stone into a strip, and then grind the side of the carved figure very flat.
After designing the carved content, it is made by tapping a little on the stone surface with sharp utensils, so that it looks like the lines can be more uniform and concave.
Looking at the "Sun Man" stone carving, itself is a great creation of the ancestors of the Three Gorges, this area has a belief in the sun gods, and the habit of sacrifice has been passed down for a long time.
On the site of Zigui Wangjiaba, sun ornaments have been found on clay pottery tablets, sun ornaments have also been found on the sacrificial pits excavated on Zhongbao Island, and sun-related shapes have also been excavated on the taiziwan site.
Many of the Dao, Temple, and Shrines of the Xia River are dedicated to various gods and immortals, and the sun god is also the most common embodiment of them.
In addition to the possible use of sacrifices, the stone carvings of the "Sun Man" may also be the embodiment of the merits of a tribal leader.
Such a statement has also been recognized by many scholars.
The carving technique of stone carving is also somewhat similar to the form of Chinese engraving art: yin carving.
It refers to the flat modeling language, which is also the oldest means of artistic expression in Chinese and foreign stone carving, and such carving techniques are not special cases in China, and are widely used all over the world.
For example, in the Tacitus rock paintings in the Sahara Desert of Africa, there are triangular figures; the fourth district of the seventh place in Cangyuan, Yunnan, the Forbidden City, is also painted with the sun and feather people, and the sun inside is also radiant, and there is a giant holding a bow and arrow, which is also the image of the sun god among the vast number of ancestors.
In addition, the stone carvings of the "Sun Man" and the rock paintings "Dance Diagram" and "Sun God and The Witcher" of Cangyuan have many similarities in terms of the body of the character, in these paintings, the body of the character is drawn as a triangle, and the limbs are expressed in straight lines.
In addition, there is also a picture of sun worship in the Wolf Mountain area of Inner Mongolia, where a person raises his hands above his head and bows to the high sun, which is on the left or above his head.
The figure in the painting has his hands held high above his head, his legs are bent, details are discarded and the main features are emphasized, and the shape is very clear, which has a striking resemblance to the stone carving of the "Sun Man" in Zigui.
The depiction of the sun graphic has been described almost in the place where ancient civilizations existed, and different peoples also have their own forms of belief, and the similarities and differences are easy to intuitively feel.
"Sun worship" has been produced as early as the Neolithic Age, and many cultures regard the sun as a living spirit, whether it is Chinese or Western existence, which can fully illustrate the important position of the sun in the eyes of the ancients.
At the Shanghai World Expo, the "Sun Man" stone carving of the Three Gorges Zigui was also exhibited, and in the Chinese Pavilion, a total of 8 national treasures were selected, and the timeline is from the Neolithic stone carving to the Ming Dynasty acupuncture point copper man, which is enough to reflect the profound historical value of this cultural relic.
This exhibition is not only the bloom of the dawn of Chinese culture, but also a review of human civilization.
The "Sun Man" stone carvings in Zigui are also the earliest sun-related stone carvings found in the Three Gorges region of China, filling the gap in physical materials in the history of Neolithic art, ending the history of no works of high artistic value in stone carvings in the Three Gorges area, providing researchers with a physical basis for fine arts, and having high original artistic value.
The secrets contained in them also need to be continuously discovered and supplemented by future generations.
reference
The First Light of Dawn: The Stone Carving of the Sun God in the Three Gorges, China Education Daily, 2010