Original Yu Gongzi
The image of witchcraft is reflected in the material remains of prehistoric culture. From the vague sense of death in the Paleolithic Age, to the gentle style of the early matriarchal Neolithic, to the mysterious and terrifying image of the ruling class under slavery, the functions, methods, and images of witchcraft have changed with the change of social material conditions and the adjustment of social structure. These are all embodied in the charcoal paintings of pottery, the style of jade, the casting of bronze and the words of ancient books.
One Ben Shou: A shrewd and crazy primitive
Primitive man, is he dwelling in a cave, drinking Mao Ru's blood, thirsty for killing, humble as mud, or is he stupid and stubborn, not knowing life and death? Neither!"
At the level of intelligence, archaeological research has found that the skull and brain capacity of primitive people before the last ice age was larger than that of modern humans. In other words, if a primitive baby is brought to modern times, he or she may be more clever and cute than a modern baby. In terms of appearance and form, primitive people are almost indistinguishable from us. If there is a chance to have an appearance evaluation, primitive people may not be more vicissitudes than us, handsome and beautiful are also adjectives that belong to them.
Modern man invented "occupational disease"
In terms of living standards, there was no population pressure in the primitive era, and the vast forests, fertile fields, and wild beasts running around were quietly open in front of them. This group of primitive people, following the instincts of nature and the experience passed down from generation to generation, roamed freely between heaven and earth.
In front of you is always poetry and distance
If you think about it, who can say that modern people with mortgages and car loans must be happier than primitive people? Throw away all the prejudices in our minds before we can begin this pleasant journey.
In the dimension of biological evolution, this is a matter of course. Millions of years are just a moment in the evolution of organisms, and they bring only minor adjustments to the structure of organisms. But how did human beings, the greatest outliers in this evolutionary process, surpass 99 percent of the living things on this planet in the last few hundred thousand years, or more precisely, in the last few thousand years, after the birth of agriculture in the last few hundred thousand years? This power is embodied in the modern age of civilization as the power of society and law, and in the ancient times of the vastness of information, it is mostly embodied in the power of sorcerers.
II. Saying: Wizard - the materialization of the imagination
Overseas, two people who have never met before will naturally become close to each other and support each other when they say that they are both Chinese. This is because they all believe in the existence of a mimetic subject - China. In a sense, this is also a kind of modern large-scale "witch" activity. From birth, we are indoctrinated with imaginary concepts that essentially influence our behavior and cooperation. By virtue of this imaginary fabrication, cooperation between people who have never known each other in the vast motherland is possible. By extension, law, religion, and secular beliefs are all an imagination. Fuller's definition of law is "to make people subordinate to the rule of rules", and this kind of thinking that affirms the existence of rules and takes them as norms is actually the imagination of people's subconscious minds.
However, the spiritual imagination must have a material basis in its reality. In modern times, this is based on the asymmetry of the power of the public over the individual and the abundance of material conditions of life.
In ancient times, due to the relative equality of power between individuals, this imaginary union was achieved by the actions and organization of external sorcerers, and the existence of inner gods or ancestors. At this time, the shaman's behavior is not only a realistic celebration, but also a declaration of the existence of the race and the sacred realm.
Wizards play an indispensable role in the union of the clans
Three beginnings: Death is the earliest enlightenment of mankind
The first person who is in a state of ignorance knows must be the one who provides him with food and clothing, the one on whom he lives. This person is usually a mother. Therefore, the social structure of the Paleolithic period was naturally matrilineal. This attachment to the mother animal is an instinct that all living creatures have, and it is inevitable under the law of survival.
But when death comes, creatures will panic, while humans will remember, and there will be long-lasting and cherished thoughts, and this emotion will also become the driving force for the survival of the race. Zengzi's so-called: "If you are cautious and chase the distance, the people's morality will be restored", which is the expression of this phenomenon.
This is also what the cave people at the top of the mountain pursue. They would sprinkle red powder around the bodies of the deceased. This process must be accompanied by the auxiliary requiem of the wizard. Even, the person who was buried was himself a blood relative of the wizard. Red, in the "culture" of the cave people, has a different meaning. This is reflected not only in the requiem of the deceased, but also in the decoration of everyday life, the latter being an extension of the former. In the archaeological discoveries of the cave people on the top of the mountain, there are many ornaments with relatively regular animal teeth, and most of these animal tooth piercing holes are artificially dyed with hematite powder. And this kind of animal tooth decoration with special meaning should be the main witchcraft of wizards at this time. Perhaps thought to be a medium of communication between the spirits of the dead?
Neat and beautiful, carefully polished animal tooth decoration
Therefore, in the early matriarchal groups, the image of the shaman was mainly reflected in the solemn and unified concealment of the deceased and the activities of the requiem afterwards. He is the medium of communication between the living and the dead, carries the emotional sustenance of the members of the group, and often becomes the leader of the survival activities of the group in reality.
Tinder: The Poetry of Safari Gathering
The abundant water and grass, the abundant animals, and the vast land may be the picture that unfolds in front of the primitive man in the Neolithic Age. With the complexity of production and life, the expansion of human cognition directly led to the cognitive revolution about 70,000 years ago, and the behavior of shamans began to expand from the traditional worship of the dead and encouragement of the living, to the study and imitation of all things in nature and the description of human life. This trend of image change is reflected in the pottery and its patterns unearthed in the Neolithic period. And the pottery itself, the product of a wonderful reaction of water, fire, and earth, may be a major source of the spiritualization of shamans. Early totem worship began when shamans combined ancestors with images, and such early totems were often associated with ancestors. This trace is also reflected in later generations. The so-called "Destiny Xuanniao, descending and giving birth to business", is also the saying.
1. The "Instrument" of the Ancient Wizards
The invention of pottery is a highly symbolic thing. The interweaving of water, fire, and earth eventually resulted in a different substance (at least in the eyes of primitive man). Therefore, pottery is not only a tool for life, but also a place for shamans to show their spirits. Through the study of pottery excavated from Neolithic sites, we can get a sense of the perception of the shaman hidden in it and his image in the community.
01 snake body pattern and bird pattern
The image of the snake body, for modern Chinese, comes more from Nuwa and Fuxi. The two can be considered to have appeared on the portrait bricks of the Han tomb for the first time. An earlier period that can be traced back may be the description of many snake-bodied gods in the Classic of Mountains and Seas.
The head of the North Mountain Sutra, from the mountain of the single fox to the embankment mountain, where there are twenty-five mountains, five thousand four hundred and ninety miles, its gods are all human faces and snake bodies. The head of the two classics of the northern times, the mountain of self-management of the water as for the mountain of Dundi, where the seventeen mountains, five thousand six hundred and ninety miles, its gods are all snakes and human faces. ("The Classic of Mountains and Seas, The Classic of the North Mountains") The head of Shouyang Mountain, from the first mountain to the Bingshan, where the nine mountains, two hundred and sixty-seven miles, its gods are all dragon bodies and human faces. (The Classic of Mountains and Seas, The Classic of Zhongshan)
In addition, there is also the image of the candle yin candle dragon in the Classic of Mountains and Seas, all of which are the appearance of a human head and a snake body.
What's more interesting is that the "snake body human face pot" unearthed in the Yangshao Banpo site overlaps with the absurd mountain and sea classics and myths.
A figure of a serpent with a postmodernist atmosphere
Mr. Wen Yiduo pointed out in "Fu Xi Kao" that the god of the snake image mainly appears in the three directions of southwest and north in the "Classic of Mountains and Seas". In the east, there are many images of birds. This may show that in the ancient land of China, the snake and bird totem were in a situation of confrontation between the east and the west?
There are colorful birds...... But the emperor Jun is a friend, the emperor has two altars, and the colored bird is the division. (The Classic of Mountains and Seas: The Great Wilderness East Classic)
In later generations, the image of the bird totem was further upgraded to the phoenix bird, and it completely transformed into the totemic symbol of the Eastern political group. In the Neolithic Age, bird inscriptions were repeatedly reflected on the vessels.
The clumsy lines outline a lively bird
02 Fish pattern and frog pattern
The simulation and worship of animals comes partly from fear, so snakes and insects are the objects, and partly from envy, for example, the envy of roaming the sky gives birth to the worship of birds, and the yearning for the water gives birth to the worship of fish, and the good wish for many children gives birth to the worship of frogs.
For example, the pottery pots unearthed in the Yangshao culture with human face and fish patterns may represent the good wishes of primitive people to swim in the waters?
The face is serene, but the brushwork of the fish is deeply passed on to the kindergarten children
03 Patterns of life
When human beings come out of their naivety, life becomes more and more complicated and diverse. As a result, discovering the activities within one's own group has also become one of the major functions of shamans. The crossed lines on the boat-shaped pot unearthed by the Yangshao culture seem to represent fishing nets, and the ingenuity is to make the pot into a boat-shaped, which not only conforms to the life scene, but also is easy to hold.
The echo of the graphic auxiliary decoration and the main body is amazing!
In addition to the imitation of animals, the imitation of plants also appears in the vessel. The most beautiful of these is the petal pattern, which is perhaps the earliest still life painting ever discovered. Does this mean that the enlightenment of human beings to the perception of beauty has begun?
Repetitive lines skillfully draw beautiful flowers
But in any case, in this era when material production is not abundant, this perception and description of beauty mostly belongs to a small number of people who are out of production or semi-out - wizards.
04 The abstraction of the vessel
With the refinement of observation and the accumulation of experience, the primitive direct description of all things gradually withdrew from the stage, followed by the abstraction of object patterns, and the concrete birds, fish and frogs gradually evolved into a visual feast on the line.
Abstract patterns on pottery
The evolution of the bird pattern
The evolution of frog patterns
The evolution of the fish pattern
2. The "Dance" of the Ancient Wizards
For a community, survival is the most important thing. Survival, on the other hand, depends on production, that is, the production of matter and the reproduction of man. And large-scale collective events, such as sacrifices or festivals, are made for this. All humans in a certain area may meet at a specific time and place, exchange items, and exchange yin and yang. This kind of large collection plays a decisive role in the "imaginary unity" and the continued existence of the ethnic group.
This solo dancer may be the first "star" to be seen in the material
At these gatherings, primitive people may be led by shamans to sing and dance, and this scene is also transmitted through the patterns of pottery. This is the Neolithic dancing pottery unearthed in Qinghai, the pattern on the vessel is neat and orderly, lively and lovely, and it also shows a relatively high aesthetic ability to a certain extent.
3. The "Joy" of Ancient Wizards
Due to its peculiarities, it is difficult for sound to survive in the long course of history. But the obvious voice has a strong ability to mobilize people's emotions. Bone flutes unearthed thousands of years ago in Jiahu, Henan Province, have opened the door to understanding the music of ancient wizards. It is a bone flute made from the leg bones of a crane, which was lovingly placed on the side of the deceased and is so well preserved that it still makes a pleasant sound today.
4. The gentle and gentle style of the ancient sorcerers
In the early days, when human intelligence was in its infancy, large groups of cooperative people had risen to the top of the food chain, and their resources were almost unlimited. This material condition is also reflected in the image of the shaman.
Pig-patterned pottery may have been the pastime of a primitive wizard
Most of the artifacts from this period have a cute and immature style, and the pictures and texts on them are childish like children's graffiti, but they also show the peaceful face of the ancient wizards. In the not-too-distant future, this precious cuteness will be lost in the clan wars, and will be replaced by a terrifying mystery.