Source: People's Daily Overseas Edition
"Chu Ji" copper Yong Bell Tian DouDou photographed
Tiger button in Tian Dou Bean photo
"Sun Man" stone carving (imitation piece) Tian Doudou photography
Spring and autumn wooden building drum field bean shoot
The Three Gorges of the Yangtze River have attracted worldwide attention. Yichang, known as "Yiling" in ancient times, is known as the "Gateway of the Three Gorges" and "the throat of Sichuan". "The gorge is open to the sunrise, and the mountains and rivers are wide and the city is floating." Guo Moruo once lamented the scenery of the Gorge River and the city of Yichang. Today's Yichang is a modern civilized city, if you want to explore the long Gorge River civilization, the unique Bachu culture, you may wish to take a trip to the Yichang Museum.
Yichang Museum is a comprehensive museum integrating history, nature, folklore and ancient architecture, and is the largest among the prefecture-level museums in Hubei Province and even the central region. The main building area of Yichang Museum is 43,001 square meters, the exhibition area is 12,988 square meters, and there are 58,727 pieces (sets) of various collections, including 1,623 sets and 2,555 precious cultural relics.
Mysterious civilizations come from ancient times
Entering the museum hall, a huge relief with great momentum standing on top of the sky burst into view. The green mountains on both sides of the strait are facing each other, and a bay of clear water rushes forward. Between the mountains and rivers, the 4 big characters of "the gorge is open to the sky" are exciting.
The Yangtze River is the mother river of the Chinese nation. The Xiajiang civilization came from ancient times. The history of this land, through the museum's exhibitions such as "Opening Up Hongmeng", "Ancient Xiling", "Bachuyi Mausoleum", "Qianzaixia Prefecture", from geological evolution, dinosaur era, to Paleolithic and Neolithic... Spread out one by one.
Around 540 million years ago, a series of animal species that were basically the same as modern animal forms appeared on earth in a relatively short period of time, known as the "Cambrian Explosion of Life". The Fossils of the Lin Jolly worm on display at the Yichang Museum date back to the Early Cambrian period 518 million years ago. Qingjiang is a first-class tributary of the Yangtze River, in recent years, scientists have found a large number of "Qingjiang biota" fossils in the Changyang area of Yichang, which are in the same period of explosive origin and evolution of animal phyla along with the "Chengjiang biota" discovered in Yunnan in the 1980s. Of the 4351 "Qingjiang Biota" fossil specimens, 109 genera have been classified and identified, of which 53% are new genera that have never been recorded before.
The evolution of life is like the Yangtze River rushing endlessly. In the "Natural Selection" exhibition area of Yichang Museum, specimens of Chinese sturgeon and white sturgeon can be seen. Chinese sturgeon is a miracle of natural selection, they lived in the same period as dinosaurs, survived on earth for 140 million years, and are one of the oldest surviving vertebrates. The Chinese sturgeon is a large migratory fish that grows up in rivers and grows up in the ocean, and it takes up to 10 years from the time the juvenile sturgeon swims into the sea to the adult sturgeon returns to the Yangtze River to breed offspring. Due to the changes in the ecological environment brought about by industrial development, the number of Chinese sturgeon has declined sharply. In 1982, the Chinese Sturgeon Research Institute was established, and a series of effective Chinese sturgeon protection measures were adopted, such as banning fishing in the whole river, restricting fish for scientific research, and implementing the release of Chinese sturgeon. In recent years, the number of Chinese sturgeon has begun to pick up. However, it is frustrating that the white sturgeon, which appeared on earth earlier than the Chinese sturgeon, has declared extinction at the beginning of this century. At the Yichang Museum, one can see a simulated model of the white sturgeon. The demise of the white sturgeon is a wake-up call to the world: to protect the Yangtze River, there is a long way to go, and man and nature should coexist in harmony.
The emergence of human beings is far later than these ancient beings. About 195,000 years ago, Changyang Homo sapiens appeared in Changyang, Yichang. In a cave surrounded by green vines in the museum, fossil teeth of the Changyang people and restored sculptures of the heads of the Changyang people are displayed. From the Paleolithic to the Neolithic, increasingly sophisticated stone tools demonstrate the development of human craftsmanship. The stone carving of "Sun Man" more than 1 meter high reflects the increasingly colorful spiritual life of human beings. The "Sun Man" stone carving was excavated in 1998 at the Beixi Cultural Site in Dongmentou City, Zigui County, Yichang City. The front of the stone carving depicts a portrait with concise lines, the sides of the body are depicted with stars, and the sun shines overhead. This is the earliest Neolithic solar totem worship artifact found in China, which provides extremely valuable information for the study of primitive religion, art, culture and social nature. The original stone carving of "Sun Man" is now in the Hubei Provincial Museum.
Due to the construction of the Gezhouba and Three Gorges Water Conservancy Hub Projects, rescue archaeological excavations have been carried out at the site of the project, and the Neolithic archaeological culture of Yichang area has been clearly and completely displayed to the world. The Chengbeixi culture, Daxi culture, Qujialing culture and Shijiahe culture are in the same vein, showing the whole picture of the evolution and development of the early Xiajiang civilization.
Unique style of cultural collision exhibition
Yichang is the birthplace of the early Ba culture and Chu culture, where the two cultures meet and collide. In the exhibition areas such as "Bachu Yiling" and "Three Gorges of Style", a wealth of cultural relics show the unique historical style of this place.
The Qingjiang River Basin, where the Changyang incense hearthstone cultural site was discovered, is considered by scholars to be an important area for exploring the origins of the early Ba people. Since the Cubans worship the tiger and use the tiger as a totem, the Tujia people still continue to worship the white tiger. The Yichang Museum displays a number of tiger buttons from different ages but with similar shapes. It is an ancient military instrument, with buttons to hang, and to sound with a mallet, mainly used for commanding advances and retreats in military brigades, and also for ceremonial celebrations, large gatherings, temple shrines and other activities. It became popular from the Spring and Autumn Period and flourished in the Warring States of qin and Han dynasties, and then gradually disappeared. The Inba people worship the white tiger, and when the donkey is introduced, the Ba people inherit the shape and musical function of the donkey, and at the same time transform and innovate the donkey, using the tiger as a button to pray for the blessing of the tiger god.
Yichang Zigui is the birthplace of Qu Yuan, an outstanding politician and writer in the history of the Chu State. Chu culture has left a deep imprint in Yichang. The "Chu Ji" copper Yong Bell, which is evenly covered with green rust, is the treasure of the Yichang Museum. In 2012, excavations during the construction of Baiyang Industrial Park unearthed 12 Yong bells and 1 bronze ding. One of the Yong bells is inscribed with the inscription: "Chu Ji Bao Zhong Xun Sun Ti was blessed by gong gong for ten thousand years", which means that the person who made the bell was called "Chu Ji", and later the grandson of Chu Ji was dedicated to his father (jun), so that the "gong" was blessed for ten thousand years. This Yong bell is the first time that Chu Guobao Bell with the inscription "Chu Ji" inscribed in the Western Zhou Dynasty was found in China. The expert group identified that the bronze dings, bronze chimes, inscriptions and pottery excavated from the Yichang Wanfu'an site should belong to the middle and late Western Zhou Dynasty, which is a major discovery and breakthrough in the archaeology of the Chu culture and fills the gap in the research of early Chu culture.
The Spring and Autumn Wooden Drum, which took 9 years to repair and was exhibited at the beginning of this year, is known as "the first construction drum in China". There is a record of "building drums" in the "Left Biography". Kong Yingda of the Tang Dynasty explained: "Build, stand also, stand drums and strike as war also." "In ancient times, when armies fought, they had to build drums and command advances and retreats. Drums are also used for feasting. Jiangu drum body is wooden, not easy to preserve, so most of the pre-Qin period drums unearthed today only have a base or wooden poles, and the Yichang Museum's jiangu was excavated in Danyang City in 1997, because the whole drum is chiseled from the whole wood of jinsi nan wood, and the preservation environment is better, which is the only piece of jiangu drum body that has been seen in China so far. This drum has a black primer, red deformation and stolen pattern, and distinctive characteristics of Chu culture, which is of great value for the study of pre-Qin music, military, art and lacquer wood craftsmanship.
Innovative displays allow the audience to stop
The ba and Chu cultures collided and stretched, leaving more than 20 representative items of national intangible cultural heritage in Yichang, including Xingshan folk songs, Yangtze River trumpets, Yichang silk bamboo, Tujia Saye Erhao, Qu Yuan's hometown Dragon Boat Festival, Dangyang Guanling Temple Fair, etc. Walking into the "Three Gorges of Style" exhibition hall, it is as if you have entered the immersive experience field of these unique folk customs. Mountain-shaped walls studded with displays of songs, dances, folklore performances, and related photographs stand out from side to side, turning the tour route into "Nine Curves and Eighteen Bends". The representative sculpture of the Three Gorges Porter is strong and powerful. In front of the antique Tujia Stilt House, the fiery red flower palanquin and melodious weeping wedding song introduce people to the Tujia wedding scene. In the stilt building, the sculptures are vivid, the parents sit in the high hall, the husband and wife are worshipping, and the TV screen introduces the "six ceremonies" and the Tujia marriage customs that follow the song and dance. In the exhibition hall, there are also Yichang shadow puppets, Dragon Boat Boats, etc., which are appreciated by both elegant and customary, and the young and the old are suitable.
On the next floor, I suddenly felt that the sky was high and cloudy, suddenly cheerful, and looked up to see that I had crossed back to the ancient city of Yichang a hundred years ago. In the four-storey open-air area, Yichang Museum has uniquely set up the "Memory of the Ancient City" Yichang Ancient City Style Exhibition. Mottled wooden boats dock at the side of the relief cliff boardwalk, and further on to the retro streets lined with houses. Liuguang Photo Gallery, Zou Guoshun Blacksmith Shop, Wanshun White Iron Shop, Wanchanglong Grocery Store, etc., condensed the memory of the city.
"The wall tiles, Taishi chairs, screens, window ledges, flower beds, etc. here are all old objects; stores, chambers of commerce, temples of literature, archways, etc. are also original to old Yichang City, carrying the memories of many old Yichang people." It has become a popular punch card for Yichang people, and it is also an innovative move displayed by the museum. Xiao Chengyun, director of Yichang Museum, said, "Our exhibition has both natural landscapes and humanistic connotations, both historical relics and modern folk customs, which can allow audiences of different ages and different cultural backgrounds to find places that are willing to stop." (Reporter Tian Doudou)
People's Daily Overseas Edition (April 19, 2022, 07th edition)