Throughout history, the Xia Dynasty has captured the imagination of archaeologists and history buffs with its hazy outlines.
After more than 400 years of development and change, the cultural ideas and aesthetic pursuits of the society are also constantly changing.
As one of the most famous ritual vessels of the Xia Dynasty, the pottery ritual vessel is like an inexhaustible ancient code, telling the belief rituals and power structure of ancient times.
They are not only the artistic crystallization of earth and fire, but also the witnesses of the fusion of kingship and divine power.
How many unsolved mysteries are hidden in these silent artifacts?
The etiquette system, which has sprouted since prehistoric times, was further developed in the Xia Dynasty, forming a relatively complete etiquette system.
"The Book of Rites and Rituals" says: "The rites of the three generations are one also, and the people share it, or they are plain or affectionate, and Xia creates Yin's cause." It shows that the Xia Dynasty ritual system laid a solid foundation for the development of the Shang and Zhou ritual systems, and was the foundation of the mature etiquette system in later generations. In addition to the sacrificial rituals of the Xia Dynasty, there was also a new development of secular hierarchical rituals.
Compared with ordinary pottery, pottery ritual ware adopts more exquisite craftsmanship and has rare shapes and ornaments of ordinary utensils, so as to stand out in the huge number of pottery groups and become ritual vessels. It shows that the Xia people have consciously separated ritual utensils from ordinary utensils, so that the daily utensils and ritual utensils are distanced. The creation design of Xia Dynasty pottery ritual ware also presents a different style in the context of the new era.
Modeling features: abstract ideogram of the casting tripod image
There is little literature about the creation design of the Xia Dynasty. A passage in "Zuo Chuan: Three Years of Xuangong" can vaguely feel the creation culture at that time: "In the past summer, there were virtues, distant pictures, tribute and gold and nine herds, casting tripod elephants, and preparing all kinds of things, so that the people knew God and treacherous." Therefore, the people enter the mountains and forests of Sichuanze, not if they are not as good as the charm, they can not meet them, and they can cooperate up and down with energy, so as to take the rest of the day. ”
Although judging from the existing archaeological discoveries, the Xia Dynasty has not yet found the copper tripod mentioned in the literature, but the description of the "cast tripod elephant" reflects that the Xia Dynasty has paid great attention to the symbolic ideographic characteristics of the artifact. After a long period of prehistoric accumulation, the summer time artifacts have incorporated more prehistoric traditional cultural genes in the process of production. At the same time, it constantly absorbs the new thinking brought about by the process of social change and integration, and gradually forms distinctive aesthetic characteristics, highlighting the cultural symbolic characteristics that are obviously different from those of the prehistoric period.
From a worldwide perspective, the symbolization of artifacts is a common phenomenon in the process of ritual and ritual construction. The construction of Xia Li also follows this law of development, and pays more attention to the etiquette behind the utensils in addition to the ontology of the utensils. Compared with the prehistoric period, the social structure of the Erlitou cultural period has undergone great changes, and the establishment of state institutions marked by large palaces and the formation of a strong ruling mechanism will inevitably lead to the change of the ideology of the entire upper class, and the ritual system has also changed in this context.
The increased political significance of the ritual system requires that the ritual system should not only have a certain degree of solidified combination, but also show strict hierarchical differences in the social structure system and regional cultural traditions. The symbolic characteristics of ritual vessels are also more obvious, and more attention is paid to the abstract ideographic nature of pottery ritual vessels. During this period, the substantive meaning of ritual vessels was constantly weakened, and symbolism gradually occupied a dominant position in the functional system, forming the concept of ritual objects that "the more tangible they are, the more expressive they are".
For example, the Tao Fang Ding of the Xia Dynasty broke through the traditional Tao Ding round belly and three-legged model, the practical function was weakened, but the sense of form was strengthened, and the whole type appeared more majestic and heavy, showing more ceremonial paradigms. Taking Tao Jue as an example, Tao Jue, as a pottery wine vessel with distinctive personality and unique shape in ancient China, is one of the more representative utensils that appeared in the Erlitou cultural period.
Xu Jinxiong, a Taiwanese scholar on the mainland, believes that the shape of Jue is very peculiar and unique to China. It occupies a special and lofty position in all kinds of ancient ritual vessels, and its formation has some special significance. As an ordinary daily vessel, the early pottery jue has many types, and the form is relatively messy, the body and bottom are mostly round, and the shape is restrained and simple.
With the development of the ritual system, the Tao Jue who entered the ritual system has a narrower stream, the tail gradually becomes pointed and upturned, the waist is more tied and the abdomen is thin, and the body and bottom of the vessel begin to change from round to oval, and the shape is more chic. From the perspective of pottery production and molding, the non-round body is not conducive to the formation of pottery, and the reason for this change in shape is probably to reflect a sense of majesty, which is more ideographic in ceremonial activities.
Because Jue has three legs, it is easy to heat with fire, so many people think that Jue is mainly used to warm wine. However, a closer look at the shape of the ceremonial pottery jue found that in all the pottery containers, the actual capacity of the jue is relatively small, generally not more than 100ml, and the capacity of the matching pottery or pottery is relatively large. Through comparison, it is believed that it is not very reasonable for Jue to warm wine, and people in the Xia Dynasty liked to drink cold wine and did not have the habit of warming wine.
Some people also believe that Jue is mainly used for drinking as a wine vessel, but Tao Jue as a ritual vessel usually has a stream and a tail, and some streams are relatively slender. Although there is a 鋬, the 鋬 and the flow are vertical. For general utensils, such as pottery, etc., the squeaster and the flow are located in the same straight line, which is convenient for the liquid to flow out. The design of Tao Jue is easy to lose the center of gravity of the drinking vessel, and it is obviously very inconvenient to drink directly. Considering that Jue has always been a member of the core combination in the tomb and has a very high status, the design of Tao Jue, as a ritual vessel, may be more for the sake of drinking vessels in sacrificial activities to meet a ritual function.
During the Xia Dynasty, the mainland ritual system had a new development, and the ritual system was combined with the relationship between royal power, integrated into the state and social life, and became an important means for the ruler to govern the country. During this period, sacrifices were at the heart of liturgical activities. Therefore, the theory of "pouring wine and worshiping God" put forward by some scholars may be more in line with the actual situation of Tao Jue, that is, Jue holds fragrant wine in sacrificial activities and pours wine to worship God, "the chief priest (patriarch, patriarch, king, priest, etc.) holds the lord and sacrifices, and the rest of the people kneel and worship; After the sacrifice (after the toast), the chief priest holds the knight with his right hand and slowly pours the wine on the sacrifice."
Xu Shen's explanation of the word Jue in "Shuo Wen Jie Zi Hu Bu" is: "Jue, ritual utensils also." In the form of a sparrow, there is wine in it, and it holds on to it. So drink. Those who are like knights, take their ringing knots. "There is wine in it, and it is held" may refer to the use of Tao Jue as a wine vessel in the sacrifice. Judging from the shape of some Tao Jue, the slender "flow" can facilitate the flow of liquid from the body, and the position of the pot is just perpendicular to the flow, and grasping the part of the pot with your hand can avoid the flow from rushing straight to the object of the sacrifice, in order to show a kind of respectful sincerity.
In addition, the slender flow extends the path of the liquid flow and makes it easy to control the speed of the water flow, thus creating a sense of slow and serious rhythm in the ritual and facilitating the performance of rituals. Many ceremonial activities also play a role in educating the people ethically, so people attach great importance to the rhythm of etiquette. The slow rhythm of the ritual enables both the performers and the spectators to feel the beauty of the ritual process in the performance of the ceremony, so as to achieve the educational purpose of the ceremony. In the ritual activities, the value of the individual Tao Jue is transformed into a unit of meaning in the overall ritual system.
In addition, Xu Shen believes that Jue is "in the shape of a sparrow". If we place the Jue horizontally on the left and the tail on the right, and look at the eyes at the same level as the Jue, we will find that the upper part of the Tao Jue is indeed "like a bird". And Jue's three legs are also like the feet of a bird, which makes the body more stable at the same time, but also heightens the body, and Tao Jue also has a sense of elegance in solemnity. Some pottery jue mouths have a "cockscomb-shaped decoration" between the mouth and the stream, and when viewed from down, they also resemble the head of a bird. The production of Tao Jue has a certain relationship with the Tao Gong in Haidai area, which has the characteristics of a bird, and the form of Tao Jue is like a bird.
This styling feature is not just for the sake of aesthetics, but is related to the religious beliefs of the time. It is no accident that people use the totem shape of Tao Jue to worship the gods and ancestors, and make it an important member of the ritual combination, but a reflection of the cultural concept of the Xia Dynasty ritual system in the shape and function of the utensils.
With its special shape, Tao Jue has become a symbolic symbol in ceremonial activities such as sacrifices. In the article "The Production and Production of Tao Jue - Taking the Unearthed Data of Erlitou Site as an Example", the author Peng Xiaojun conducted multi-dimensional measurements of 46 pieces of Tao Jue unearthed from the Erlitou site as specimens, including vessel height, foot height, caliber, etc., and found that "from the second to the fourth phase of Erlitou culture, the standardization of Tao Jue production has been continuously strengthened. By the fourth period, the magnitude of the change in individual projects even reached a very small value".
As a ceremonial vessel, the pottery is more stable and solidified than the type of ordinary pottery. This shows that the shape of Tao Jue was not randomly generated, but was inseparable from the ritual culture of the time. Tao Jue entered the system of etiquette discourse, as a special instrument for practicing etiquette, and became a basic ideogram. It conveys abstract etiquette with a tangible carrier of utensils, so that the utensils contain richer meanings.
Zhao Yiheng believes that the power of the symbol system also lies in the fact that it can weaken the practical function of artifacts, serve the society with its symbolic and normative role, and enable a culture to maintain long-term cohesion. In the process of changing from daily utensils to ceremonial vessels, the practical function of pottery and other utensils is gradually weakened, and the ideographic nature of symbols is enhanced. Moreover, the norms of the ritual system, the modeling also had strict requirements, and gradually solidified, became a symbolic symbol, and spread to other surrounding areas. The shape of pottery ritual ware is not only an aesthetic expression, but an expression of culture and concepts.
Decorative features: refined and elegant symbolism
During the Xia culture period, rituals were divided into special rituals and daily rituals, and exclusive rituals were mainly used for communication between people and gods. Its ideographic mode is interpretive, and it must be interpreted through multiple interpretations in order for the hidden connotation to be expressed. Daily ritual utensils were a new element in the ritual system of the Erxia Dynasty, allowing rituals to enter daily life from a single religious ritual space.
Depending on the field and object of use, the ornamentation of the ritual vessel also presents different style characteristics. Many of the daily ritual utensils are polished with a plain surface, and even if they are decorated, they are decorated with simple and plain decorations such as geometric patterns. Compared to the prehistoric period, there are many fewer types of ornamentation.
Some simple straight lines, triangular patterns, etc. are mostly decorated on the shoulders of utensils such as Xuan, Jue, and Zun, or the inner edge and abdomen of the Zun. Although the ornamentation is not gorgeous, it presents a different characteristic due to the penetration of the aesthetic factors of the new era. The surface of the utensils is mostly centered on the rope pattern and the basket pattern, and the pile plus pattern, string pattern, checkered pattern, etc. are interspersed back and forth, and the cloud and thunder pattern and animal pattern usually escape from the side branches, and sometimes they will be decorated with small mud or small pittings, which appear plain and vivid.
This shows that the daily pottery ritual ware of the Xia Dynasty is not as gorgeous and colorful as the painted pottery in the prehistoric period, and it is also different from the extreme pursuit of craftsmanship and vessel type of the pottery ritual ware of Longshan culture, and presents more of a simple, calm and restrained design style. Most of the clay black pottery ceremonial ware is calm and heavy, and although the production process and firing technology of white pottery are better than ordinary pottery, the overall design style is mainly plain or supplemented by simple ornamentation.
There are also some pottery ritual vessels, even if they have more complex carving patterns, which are not purely aesthetic as the main purpose, but similar to hieroglyphs, which are important symbols for the Xia people to record and exchange information. According to the "Excavation Briefing of Henan Yanshi Erlitou Ruins", there are 24 kinds of carved symbols on the pottery unearthed in Erlitou.
The Xia Dynasty also appeared some special ornaments engraved with the images of gods and animals, among them, the image of a high feather crown, some animal faces, and a dragon (snake) should be the gods worshiped by the Xia people. These objects are specially used for communication between man and the gods during specific ritual activities, and these ornaments give people a mysterious and cold feeling. In the article "Restoration and Preliminary Understanding of the Newly Seen Gods and Animal Images at the Erlitou Site", the author preliminarily restored 15 images of gods and animals at the Erlitou site.
According to the analysis of relevant documents and archaeological data, these ornaments reflect the unique belief and worship of the Xia people, and this system is closely related to the political deconstruction and religious beliefs of the Xia Dynasty. The Shang Dynasty's ornamental system with gluttonous patterns as the core was also developed on the basis of the Xia Dynasty. The visual images with high feather crowns, dragons (snakes), fish, birds, turtles, etc. as decorative motifs are repeated on different pottery ritual vessels to emphasize culture. Symbolic ornamental symbols often have a dual meaning, that is, the meaning of the object itself and the conceptual meaning of its metaphor.
These surreal ornamental images are not only a certain spiritual support for the Xia people's life, but also the source and motivation of their creational design. During the Xia Dynasty, based on the worship of the gods, people expanded their abilities infinitely, and the expansion had to be achieved with the help of some special carriers. As a result, the images of these gods were solidified on utensils and performed in rituals to strengthen the worship of the gods.
With the development of society and the formation of hierarchies, it became the active choice of the ruling class to maintain the rationality of this system materially and spiritually. They need to use the carrier of ritual to metaphorize a certain sense of power and hierarchical differences. In the Xia Dynasty, the bronze ritual ware was not mature, and the pottery ritual ware took on this important task.
The motif of pottery ritual ware is dominated by natural patterns and geometric patterns, reflecting the symbol system of daily life space. The ornamental motifs such as high feathered crowns, dragons, and turtles reflect the symbolic system in the surreal sacred space.
These two spaces sometimes do not have absolutely clear boundaries and may merge with each other, penetrate each other, or be replaced. With the maturity of people's configuration psychology, people have the ability to freely control various points, lines, planes, and shapes, and the original pattern tendency of ornamentation is more intense, and a variety of new images are constantly derived to meet people's different psychological needs.
epilogue
The Xia Dynasty pottery ritual ware inherited the prehistoric cultural genes, and at the same time constantly absorbed the new thinking brought by the process of social change and integration, forming a distinctive characteristic of the times.
With the establishment of state institutions marked by large palaces and the formation of strong ruling mechanisms, the ideology of the upper class is also changing, the political meaning of the ritual system is enhanced, and the symbolic characteristics of ritual utensils are more obvious, paying more attention to the abstract ideographic nature of utensils, and emphasizing the hierarchical differences in social life.
During this period, the original physical meaning and daily use function of pottery ritual ware were constantly weakened and the symbolic meaning gradually occupied a dominant position, and through the strict control and conscious choice of shape, ornamentation, material and combination, the concept of "the more tangible and the ideological" was formed.