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Everyone who is interested in literature knows a little about the history of literature, but it is more difficult for professional literary researchers to determine the true source of literature, which is a difficult problem in the history of literary research. Among the four categories of literary genres: poetry, prose, drama and fiction, poetry originated first, but who was the world's earliest poet has always been doubtful.
The 2022-2023 exhibition of wedge clay tablets of ancient Sumerian-Babylonian female poets at the Bank Maison Morgan Museum in New York rewrites the history of world literature by dating back more than 4,300 years to the earliest poets ever recorded.
The earliest recognized literary work of mankind should be poetry. The origins of poetry are very early, but the poetry that can really be recorded in the history of world literature is much later.
According to research, as early as the late Stone Age, human beings began literary and artistic activities, and the academic community verified that the invention of poetry and human music was roughly the same period, and by the Bronze and Iron Ages, human poetry and narrative forms were basically stereotyped, but human beings had not yet invented writing in this period. Therefore, early human literature was passed down in the form of oral or pictorial-visual symbols, and today the definition of the term "literature" refers to "written works", and its etymology is litera/littera, which means "letter".
Therefore, literature before the advent of words and letters can only be posthumously considered "oral literature" or "pre-literature". In this way, human literature should occur much earlier than the written works that can be "written down"; The earliest literature and the invention of human language should be almost synchronous, while the invention of writing is much later.
There should be tens of thousands or hundreds of thousands of years between the beginning of human beings learning to speak and the origin of language and the invention of writing. In this long period of prehistory, although human beings did not have written "literature", there was no shortage of poetry. How to see it?
There is a large number of archaeological and anthropological data on the fieldwork of modern and contemporary primitive tribes.
These materials prove that even in prehistoric societies without writing, music, dance and rap forms were developed, and these forms of music and rap were recorded as poetry after the invention of writing, and these oral poetry should be the source of primitive literature.
Therefore, anthropologists generally believe that the source of literature should be symbiotic with music. Long before the invention of written poetry, humans created singing and dancing poetry and oral-rap literature.
According to anthropological and archaeological research, music has a very long history, and it is almost the same as the evolution of human beings and the development of civilization. Modern archaeology has found bone flutes used by humans 50,000 to 60,000 years ago, but it is far from the earliest musical instrument; Because most of the earliest musical instruments used by humans were woodwork, animal skins and other substances that were easily picked up or easily degraded and could not be preserved.
More anthropologists have verified that the origin of human music and language is almost symbiotic, which means that as early as ancient times, human beings had the instinct of musical expression, and long before the invention of primitive musical instruments, the human body itself was the most primitive musical instrument. Their subconscious clapping, clapping, clapping, buttocks, chanting, and dancing when they are excited or need to express themselves in their life activities are the earliest sources of music. The "song" that primitive man contained when he sang and danced was poetry.
According to this clue, the history of human poetry or the source of literature goes back countless thousands of years.
But alas, these ancient poems and music have passed away forever with the years. There is no basis for oral theory, and the records and definitions of the literary origins of the countries of the world are related to the earliest literary origins of their written records.
Based on this, the later judgment of the origin of a country's literature depends on the time of its literary invention. In this way, civilizations with early inventions of writing will be ingenious and their literary origin records will be early, while the literary origin of peoples with late invention of writing will be greatly delayed by researchers.
Therefore, the four ancient civilizations with relatively early written inventions, such as Sumerian Babylon, Egypt, India and China, have earlier written records of their literary origins; Although Australia and the Native Americans also have tens of thousands of years of poetry and other literary styles, because they did not invent writing and writing systems before modern times, these ancient civilizations are considered literary late, and their literary origin records have been greatly delayed.
For example, the aforementioned four ancient civilizations and Greece can be roughly defined as four or five thousand years due to their written history, while the written and literary history of some peoples is only a few hundred years old (even some modern anthropologists have newly discovered that contemporary primitive tribes scattered around the world still live in unwritten prehistoric times).
For example, Oceania, much of sub-Saharan Africa, and parts of the Americas mostly did not develop a formal writing system before the arrival of the Eurasians, so their prehistory can be traced back to relatively recent times. For example, 1788 is often considered the end of Australian prehistory.
Since there are no documented "formal" literary historians, the literature of these regions is considered to have a very late origin. In fact, measured by the theory of the origin and development of anthropological art, this old view of literary history has great limitations.
In addition to relying on these evidences from the above-mentioned sources of written historical evidence, literary researchers have to admit that the hard power of cultural communication is also a weapon for the propaganda of civilization and literary history. Such propaganda is also prone to reinforcement and misleading.
For example, ancient Greek and Hebrew biblical literature, which are the source of Western civilization, should be regarded as later than the four ancient civilizations mentioned above, but because of the strong influence of the West after the Renaissance, it is obvious that "Western literature" is better known to the world. Based on the great influence of European and American cultural forces in modern times, when it comes to the origin of literature, many scholars often "call Greece what they say", while ignoring Sumerian civilization and ancient Egyptian civilization, as well as Indian and Chinese literature, which are much earlier than Greek literature. In fact, to explore the roots of Greek civilization and literature, its direct source in genesis can be traced back to the influence of the Two River Valley and the Near East.
Therefore, in the field of world literature, when it comes to the earliest poets, it is often thought that it is Homer (9th-8th centuries BC); And the female poets, most of them think of it as the ancient Greek Sappho. In fact, if we talk about poetry and subject matter, and Hugh talks about ancient Sumerian and Egyptian literature, even the Book of Poetry (circa 11th century BC-6th century BC), which is a symbol of Chinese literature, is much earlier than Greek written literature;
and the Chinese pre-Qin female poet Lady Xu Mu (c. 690 BC-?) It was more than sixty years before Sappho (circa 630-570 BC). Sappho's works mostly preach love and lyricism, but Madame Xu Mu's poetry is much deeper and quieter.
The mainland poetry classic "Book of Poetry" includes Mrs. Xu Mu's poems "Zaichi", "Spring Water" and "Bamboo Pole". Mrs. Xu Mu is the daughter of Wei Zhaobo and Xuanjiang, married to Xu Guo, and later her motherland was almost destroyed, she rushed to her home country to rescue and wrote the tragic and tragic chapter of "Zaichi", which has been passed down through the ages.
Her other poems are also full of deep nostalgia for her motherland, so she is revered as the ancestor of patriotic poets (about 350 years before Qu Yuan). The mainland poetry treasury "Book of Poetry" only contains more than 300 poems, most of which are unknown authors, and Mrs. Xu Mu can be entered into three is actually better than many princes and cultural celebrities, and can be regarded as a hero among women in ancient times.
Moreover, a recent exhibition of ancient female poets in New York has completely rewritten the record of world literature and even the history of human civilization. The exhibition uses artifacts unearthed at ancient Babylonian sites to examine primitive clay tablets and tells us that the two Chinese and Greek female poets are far from the earliest female poets in the history of world literature.
Exhibit sources show that an earlier poetess was Enheduanna (circa 2300 BC), the Sumerian priestess of ancient Mesopotamia. She lived more than 4,300 years ago in the Sumerian-Akkadian era, nearly 1,600-1,700 years before the two aforementioned poetess! According to a large number of historical sources and physical research, Enchduana is not only the first female poet ever verifiable, but also the earliest named writer of mankind with written confirmation—a discovery that rewrote the history of human literature.