Metaphors and white spaces of stone
Text/Cao Jie
Walking on the Loess Plateau in northern Shaanxi, you will step on the ancient word "stone breaking the sky" at any time. Earth and stone, these two kinds of things that grow in the heart of the earth, are close to the daily life of ancient human beings with their simple and simple beauty. Ancient ancestors dug deep into the earth as a burrow, lay loess as a bed, and clutched stones into tools. The coldness and hardness of the stone and the softness, rigidity and softness of the loess are in harmony, and they have become an unavoidable medium for future generations to look back at prehistory.
In March, the spring sun is like snow, a color of white, like practice, follow the footsteps of the sun, running up the mountain. Along the road, there is little soil, more stones, layers of bedrock long to the high, pieces of stones that have been touched by the ancient water currents, alive, like blue birds, bouncing, attentively looking.
Above the loess, there is an ancient stone city: the ancient city of Shiya.
This is the village of Dongchuangou Inokawagou, Shenmu Gaojiabao Town, Yulin City, Shaanxi Province. On the north side of the mountain beam, a super-large central settlement castle that flourished in the middle or slightly late Yongsan culture sits on the top of the undulating mountain. This can be called the "first gate of China" in the history of Chinese culture, the earliest stone city gate seen in archaeological excavations, and its great significance in the history of The Yellow River civilization and the history of human civilization is difficult to estimate.
Entering from the east gate of the outer city, there is no honor guard, and it is solemn in its own right. Walking through the city, time is like water, a soup, a roar. Gently stepping on the passage where the ancestors had passed, they were worried and helpless, and they were shocked to find that their hasty intrusion had disturbed the peace they had been sleeping for a long time. Holding his breath, he walked cautiously, afraid that the soles of his feet would trample on the ancient soil, and they were grainy and conveyed the enigmatic survival code.
This code is stored in pottery bristles and jars, such as the string-patterned high-necked bristle, the checkered single-handle bristle, the lace mane, the wide flowing bristle, the basket-pattern folded shoulder jar, and so on. These clumsy vessels, if the ancients with a humble appearance, close to them, you can smell clean, clear, mellow, a little, looming. I heard some sounds passing through, like shuttles, longitude and latitude, flocks of birds, grass worms whispering, willows flying leaves into butterflies. The spring breeze passed by, the hostility dissipated, and some secrets that could not be said were favored by the birds, and the birds were silent. Above the wilderness, the trees, the grasses, the roots of the crops, the stalks and the fruits that remain, the voles and sparrows, all seemed to have retreated, and they seemed to be present.
This is the original state of human existence, they bow their heads, hold the loess in their hands, squeeze out the desired appearance, do not ask for decoration, do not show off, only to store food as clean as sunlight, air and spring water. Once you get close to the humble nature of this earth and stone, you want more and more to give up the pearlescent aura of modern civilization. Perhaps, in the bones of a person's life, there should be the texture of stone, the stone standing bone, the loess as the vein, and only then will he stand like a person.
Standing on the high pier of the East Gate, it seems that as soon as you reach out, you can touch the forehead of the blue sky. Overlooking the ancient city, this site of more than 4 million square meters is home to palace buildings, primitive villages, residential sites, handicraft workshops, places of worship, sarcophagus tombs, pottery urn burials, ash cellars and so on. In the early Xia Dynasty, this prehistoric city was destroyed, but the stones stood shoulder to shoulder in a group posture next to each other, proving that she could not die. In fact, this is not just an ancient city, it retains a huge living space that human ancestors once had, Neolithic, or Paleolithic, these people's habitual words have long been unable to cover the time and space of the ancient city of Shiya.
On the white and gray background soil wall of the east gate of the outer city, red, yellow, black, orange, etc., various lines form a variety of geometric figures, flying into paintings. Those figures or objects interpret the simple and simple way of life of the ancestors with clear lines, presenting the original appearance of human beings. Or to put it this way, they waved their arms and hailed a past life of unprecedented grandeur of a nation.
In this past life, there were only pure human beings who were as clean and pure as earth and stone. They were unarmed, their feet were on earth and stones, their heads were on earth and stones, and they were also clutching the palms of their hands. Stones are sharpened into knives, swords, and axes, not for war, but for survival. With a stone axe in hand, you can reclaim wasteland, sow grain, harvest food, build cities, build homes, and defend against foreign enemies. The stone is an object that they can carry with them, and it is also a treasure that ensures food, clothing, shelter and transportation, and is held by the rough palms of the hand to the temperature, grinding out an immeasurable price. This expensive was regarded as normal by the ancients, hiding the head of the city wall in a stone posture and hiding it as a psychic jade rune.
The footsteps once again lost their order, and a word that sounded "burial jade" resounded through the ears, like the sound of white clouds polishing the sun, brittle and raw. It is rumored that in the famine year of the Republic of China, nearby villagers dug up stones to get jade, sheng jade and easy to fight rice, and cage stacks to buy and sell. How many of these thin heaven and earth spiritual creatures have been scattered among the people and lost overseas. Nor can you imagine that inside the dense stone walls, there will be pieces of ancient jade of different shapes, which will be deeply buried by the ancients as messengers communicating with heaven and earth. Stone is yang, jade is yin, exquisite and light jade head, exquisite and transparent jade Xuanjie... They are the simple and honorable hostesses here, with their thin and warm bodies, softening the hard and dry heart of the stone...
The sunshine that dominates the mountains and rivers is still there, the moon of the cycle of profit and loss is still there, and the sun and moon, carrying the information of eternity, pervade the sky over the stone barrier. Sitting in the jungle of stones, it is like sitting in the ancestral wisdom of the phalanx, some so-called modern technology quietly faded. You see, on the stones of this masonry city, there are clear eye patterns and stone carved human faces, and in some places, the technique of yin carving is adopted, weathering and erosion, and the outline is clear. Stone, your humble heaven and earth spiritual creature, the phalanx intricately arranged by the ancients, what kind of metaphors and blanks are left for future generations?
Stepping out of a stone home thousands of years ago, the soles of your feet are fragrant. One by one, the grass and trees, like a pipe of a pipe and a flute, some mysterious psychic suddenly lit up, leading me to fall like snow. Clean white, much like the white space of this ancient city, or metaphor, or Zen. The past life of the ancient city is over, but in this life, the temperature of the earth and stone is a metaphor for the gods that the ancestors have given to the future generations. You see, they just left, they just left, they went to the mountains to farm, to wash by the water, to graze on grass slopes.
A beige dog lay at the base of a stone wall, its eyes hiding memories of another life. Close to it, silently opposite it, silent and peaceful, I do not say, it is not called, people and animals are at peace, heaven and earth are auspicious. After a while, it bypassed the city walls and went home from the east gate.
Image source: Culture and Art Newspaper, Network
This article is excerpted from the "Culture and Art Newspaper"
Responsible for the | Liu Zhilin
Review | Liang Feiyan
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