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Statue of Fuxi Nuwa unearthed in Turpan
In the Astana tomb group in the Turpan Basin, dozens of hemp and silk "Fuxi Nuwa Tu" have been unearthed, which are nailed to the top of each burial chamber by wooden nails, and the picture is facing down, overlooking the eyes of the dead lying on their backs. Fuxi Nuwa, all of them are human heads and snakes, embracing each other with their tails, Nuwa holding a moment (the curved ruler of the painting square) in her right hand, raising her jade arm, and Fuxi holding a rule (an instrument for drawing circles), they draw the heavenly circle place and set rules for human beings. The surrounding sun and moon run, the vast universe, the stars ring arch. Why did this image of Fuxi Nuwa, which prevailed in the Central Plains during the Two Han Dynasties, appear in large numbers in Gaochang in the Western Regions of the Tang Dynasty after being interrupted for hundreds of years? And is it really a coincidence that the intertwined image is similar to the DNA double helix structure of our human genetic code?
Fuxi nuwa brothers and sisters
Fuxi, the first of the Chinese people's humanities and one of the Three Emperors, is also the zhengzheng god of blessing sheji, and also the earliest creation god recorded in mainland literature. Nuwa, the goddess of creation in ancient Chinese mythology, is the ancestor of the Chinese nation's humanities and the righteous god of blessings.
The Anthology of Wang Yanshou says: "Fu Xi scales the body, the female snake body." The second volume of the Later Han Shuren Table Examination quotes the Spring and Autumn Shipu as saying: "Hua Xu gave birth to a man as Fuxi, and a woman as a nuwa." ”
In Fuxi's hometown of Tianshui, there was a story that there was only one old woman in the world in ancient times, and one day, she saw a big footprint and stepped on it. Unexpectedly, she became pregnant. The old woman gave birth to two dolls, a man and a woman. After the old woman's death, the brothers and sisters lived on gathering and hunting and grew up to adulthood. The two brothers and sisters discussed the matter of being two mouths. The use of stone mills to occupy the marriage, from the Guatai Mountain rolling stone mill is indeed a coincidence. Brothers and sisters got married and multiplied human beings. Legend has it that the act of calling each other brothers and sisters when one of the husbands and wives in the Tianshui area wept after his death originated from this.
The legend of Fuxi Nuwa appeared throughout the country and took a variety of forms: there were rap forms, such as "Huainanzi", etc.; there were excavated cultural relics, such as portrait bricks, stones, murals, paintings, etc. In the excavated portraits, fuxi nuwa has a variety of forms of expression: some appear in a single body, some are in the form of two people intertwined, and some are different from their shapes or objects held in their hands. Different forms of Portraits of Fuxi Nuwa represent different information in each era and culture.
Henan unearthed a jade pendant of the head of a snake
In 1983, two pieces of human head snake body jade ornaments excavated from the tomb of Huang Junmeng of Baoxiang Temple in Guangshan County, Henan Province, were made in the early Spring and Autumn Period, and archaeologists believe that they are "or the legendary statues of Fuxi and Nüwa". The size and material of these two pieces of jade ornaments are the same, which are complete sets, and their shapes are "human head snake body" and "one man and one woman", which is the image of the early Fuxi and Nüwa, which should be undoubtedly righteous.
Typical pattern structure of Fuxi Nuwa
The legends of Fuxi and Nüwa can be traced back at least from the Spring and Autumn Period, but were popular during the Two Han Dynasties.
The Eastern Han Dynasty Fuxi and Nüwa portrait bricks unearthed in Chengdu, Sichuan, the two did not intersect; Cave 285 of dunhuang Mogao Grottoes was built in the Western Wei Dynasty, and on the top of its bucket-shaped cave, there are Fuxi and Nüwa figures, which are roughly similar to the portraits of Chengdu Han bricks, And Fuxi and Nüwa are separated separately on the left and right, and there is no cross-tail, which should maintain an early image.
The Eastern Han Dynasty Fuxi and Nüwa figures unearthed in Xuzhou intersect with each other, which is the same as the composition of "the upper body embraces and the snake's tail goes around" seen in Turpan, which should be the later evolutionary form.
From the voluminous tail scroll of the head and tail of the Fuxi Nüwa people unearthed from the Mawangdui of the Western Han Dynasty in Changsha, the portrait brick of the Fuxi Nüwa at the top of the Nanyang Tomb in Henan in the middle of the Western Han Dynasty, to the stone carving of the Fuxi Nüwa unearthed from the Wuliang Ancestral Hall in Shandong, the "Fuxi Nüwa" seems to hide an ancient and magnificent mysterious force behind it, accompanied by offerings and tombs, becoming a work of art that has been sleeping in the mud for thousands of years.
The years go by, the times change. The Wei and Jin Dynasties after the Eastern Han Dynasty were a time of deep water. In the midst of war, people cannot live and work in peace.
Under such circumstances, ancestor worship and funeral can only change with environmental conditions, and cannot continue to follow the old customs of the Han Dynasty - if tomb art loses the carrier of "people", then it will also die.
With the chaos of the war, the nationalities of the north and the south gradually migrated, and the great exchange and integration of culture also injected fresh blood into the culture of the Central Plains, so that the classics and metaphysics of the Han Dynasty were widely disseminated. Under the bombardment of various cultures, the artistic image of Fuxi Nuwa has gradually become cold and forgotten by the world.
Until the fall of the Eastern Han Dynasty, for a time, there was no Fuxi Nuwatu in the world.
After more than two hundred years of silence, the time of the Tang Dynasty. The image of Fuxi Nuwa, which flourished during the two Han Dynasties, suddenly appeared in large numbers in Gaochang (now Turpan City, Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region) far away from the Central Plains, and was widely used in tombs.
The earliest picture of Fuxi Nuwa unearthed in the Turpan tomb was discovered in 1928 when Mr. Huang Wenbi participated in the Sino-Swiss Northwest Scientific Expedition. Until the middle of the 21st century, 70% of the 40 tombs excavated in Turpan had a picture of Fuxi Nuwa on the top of the burial chamber.
In ancient times, the inhabitants of the Gaochang area were mainly Han Chinese who migrated from the interior, accounting for about 80% of the total number of local residents.
Some of them are to escape the chaos of war, and some of them moved in with the early days of the family, but what remains unchanged is the Central Plains cultural tradition that they have been adhering to for generations. The cultural concepts deeply rooted in the hearts of the Han people also make the Gaochang area permeated with a strong Han cultural atmosphere.
Therefore, as an important part of the Han funeral culture, Fuxi NuwaTu became a popular burial item at the beginning of the establishment of the Gaochang Dynasty and later the Western Prefecture of the Tang Dynasty.
The Han Dynasty attached great importance to funerals, regarded the dead as resurrection, and people generally believed in the traditional concept of life and death of soul worship and ascension into the heavenly court after death.
Therefore, it is a matter of course to create human life and all things in the universe and to represent the ascension of the soul of the deceased as a symbol of national cohesion.
Hanging the "Fuxi Nuwa Tu" in the tomb not only reflects the ancient people's prayer to the gods to bless their children and grandchildren, but also has the meaning of hoping that the deceased can be reincarnated.
Anthropologists often believe that funerals originate from the fear of the ghosts of the dead. In this psychology, the Han Dynasty's concept of "death is like life" was born, and through the treatment of the remains of the deceased, funeral ceremonies were held to express the good wishes of the deceased to reach another eternal world smoothly.
Yin and Yang and the Ancients hoped that under the blessing of the god Fuxi Nuwa, the deceased could continue to enjoy glory and wealth in another world. This also makes Fuxi Nuwa become a messenger between the yin and yang realms, and become a symbol of yin and yang.
In that fiery era, Fuxi Nuwa not only soothed the Han people who had left their hometowns, but also aroused the belief and admiration of the local ethnic minority residents.
A figure of Fuxi Nuwa unearthed from a Turpan tomb
It is not difficult to find from the local excavation of the "Fuxi Nuwa Tu" that the Fuxi Nuwa, who originally looked like a Han Chinese in the Central Plains, has "entered the countryside and followed the customs" and has been transformed by the local ethnic groups into the appearance of the natives of the Western Regions: the eye sockets are deep, the nose bridge is high, the beard is curly, and the beard is on the placket.
The localization of Fuxi Nuwa is precisely an important symbol of the Han culture taking root in the western region.
Art is the product of the soul, but also the spiritual sustenance of people in special periods and environments. In the ancient society of frequent wars and turmoil, painters did not paint "Fuxi Nuwa Tu" for self-amusement or viewing, but to reflect the desire of ordinary people to communicate with the gods and pray for protection.
Life is the beginning of death, and death is the end of life. The ancients have been silently pouring out endless nostalgia for the deceased in "Fuxi Nuwa Tu", and the hope of longing for blessing and blessing, using the image of the creator of life to accompany death, longing for protection.
Until hundreds of years later, after being excavated in the dust, it still showed a shocking artistic vitality.
Later generations can often feel the strong sense of life of the ancients from this painting symbolizing the cycle of life - whether it is for the living or the dead, they are full of enthusiasm and pursuit.
DNA double helix structure
Buried in the western region of the ancient Gaochangguo of these pieces of "Fuxi Nuwa Map" and today's human genetic code of dna double helix structure is the same, there is a striking similarity, the ancients in the dark, seems to tell us what kind of secrets, from Fuxi Nuwa to modern human beings, from the Central Plains civilization to the Western Regions culture, under the pluralistic integration of Chinese culture, how should our human civilization continue, we should turn our eyes to such an ancient western region mystery to seek answers.
Resources:
Xinjiang Youth Publishing House, Wang Rong, "Echoes of Western Culture"
Xinjiang Education Publishing House, Concise Reader of Local History of Xinjiang
Baidu Encyclopedia
Baidu Images
Author's introduction: Xiyu Lao Fan, a post-80s western culture enthusiast, a senior historical researcher in the middle school entrance examination, focuses on Xinjiang's historical and cultural writing and the history education of the middle school entrance examination, and believes that helping others is to help yourself.