Go to the Museum on Tuesday (4): Soul of Pottery: Gansu Painted Pottery Exhibition

Yi's love lasted longer than many people's love. She continued to visit the museum online on Tuesday. There are many things we don't know today, but in fact we don't know much about things in the past, such as painted pottery. I am interested in painted pottery mainly because I personally think it is the only thing that combines all the elements of wood, fire, water and earth. This is my great discovery. I won't tell him about it.

As usual, the main line of the exhibition is introduced: preface → dawn of civilization: Dadiwan site (about 8000 years ago) → splendid first exhibition: Yang Yun culture (about 5000 ~ 7000 years ago) → crown of painted pottery: Majiajiao culture (after mid-levels, Machang period, Qijia culture, Xindian culture and finally Shajing culture about 2500 years ago). Painted pottery culture is prehistoric culture.

If you are from Lanzhou, you will find cultural relics that make you feel particularly cordial at the painted pottery exhibition, such as the bottles and jars in Hualinping and Shajingyi five thousand years ago. Lanzhou itself is the hometown of painted pottery. With the amateur level of only asking bold questions and never carefully verifying them, this visit tried to find out the following questions:

The first question: Why does Gansu Provincial Museum have a special painted pottery museum?

According to the lecture materials given by researcher Lang Shude, a prehistoric expert, painted pottery discovered in Gansu lasted for more than 5,000 years as early as 8,000 years ago, until the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period in 2500. At present, the earliest painted pottery was discovered in Jiangsu and Zhejiang, about 9000 years ago. However, only Gansu has a relatively complete development series of painted pottery culture, and the existing number is huge. There are about 10000 pieces in the official museum, and there are at least10000 pieces in the folk. In other words, the painted pottery culture not only appeared early in our place, but also lasted for a long time, with a large number of existing ones. People without me have my advantages, and Gansu painted pottery is a master of painted pottery culture.

The second question: How are the patterns on painted pottery drawn?

So far, we haven't seen the related drawing tools in our archaeological excavation, and archaeologists speculate that soft pens and hard pens should be used at the beginning. Why is there a soft pen? On many painted pottery, we see branches of lines, and the ends of the lines are all like the brush we use, so we speculate that they are soft pens, such as those made of animal hair. But at the same time, the ancients may have used hard pen to make painted pottery, because some painted pottery has a fine grid on it and can only be painted with hard pen, but these are just speculations. Archaeology also pays attention to physical evidence, so without physical objects, you won't say anything completely certain. So my friends, if you find a pen or brush to make painted pottery, you will fill the gap in history.

The third question: What are those painted bottles and cans called painted pottery?

There are fish swimming in the water. The fish pattern on the earliest painted pottery is pictographic, gradually textured in the middle period, abstracted at the back, and finally only one origin and two arcs are left. In the excavation of various sites of Yangshao culture in Longdong, there are a large number of fish patterns and pottery pieces. Later, there was a rule: whoever has Yangshao culture must have such a fish pattern.

There are birds flying in the sky. Bird patterns appeared in the middle of Yangshao culture. There is no realistic bird pattern in Gansu at present, but we have found a simplified bird pattern, which has developed from this simplified pattern to the arc claw pattern of Majiayao culture. The evolution of this decoration, from Yangshao culture to Majiayao culture, shows that Majiayao culture developed from Yangshao culture. The ancestors of Yangshao went to the middle reaches of Taohe River to create Majiayao culture, which is the evolution of bird type. Their particularly popular claw pattern, one line divided into three arcs, may be the evolution of bird pattern.

Amphibians, frogs. From the early Yangshao culture to Majiayao culture, and even to the Siba culture discovered in Shandan, my hometown, there are probably patterns of frogs, which have been in painted pottery for two thousand years.

In addition, there are many animal patterns on painted pottery, such as sheep, pigs, dogs and deer, which shows that prehistoric ancestors lived a life of semi-farming and semi-grazing. I think the ancestors who made painted pottery should have asked some children to draw some at that time. I think children's extraordinary imagination will enrich the patterns on painted pottery, and according to philosophers, children have a hazy profundity at the beginning of mankind and will disappear when they grow up.

The fourth question: Why are fish, birds and frogs painted on painted pottery instead of pine, bamboo, plum trees or others?

Some people say that the fish pattern is the earliest totem. Totem worship is generally a sacred animal, but the early ancestors of Yangshao culture ate fish because many bone hooks were found in the ruins. Wen Yiduo said in "Many Fish" that fish has the meaning of blessing in China language, and in "Shan Hai Jing", it is said that "a snake turns into a fish". Is there any connection between Yangshao's fish and human face and the later snake body?

As for the frog pattern, it lasted for so long that it was easy to understand. The ancients attached great importance to the reproduction of population. Frogs are ubiquitous in nature, with strong adaptability, many children and tadpoles. So prehistoric ancestors had unique feelings for this animal.

Where are the bird prints? Yan Wenming said in The Origin of Painted Pottery in Gansu: In ancient myths and legends in China, there are many stories about birds and frogs, many of which may be related to totem worship. Later, the image of a bird gradually evolved into the sun representing the sun, while the image of a frog gradually evolved into a toad representing the moon. That is to say, the bird pattern and frog pattern from Banpo period, Miaodigou period to Majiayao period, the quasi-frog pattern from Banshan period, Machang period to Qijia culture and Siba culture, and the quasi-sun pattern from Banshan period and Machang period may all reflect the worship of the sun god and moon god on painted pottery patterns.

I think: If this is the case, painted pottery culture is a combination of the sun, the moon and the five elements of our ancestors.

Fifth question: Apart from decorative patterns, what other unique pottery shapes are there in China?

One is Tao pig. The domestication and breeding of pigs is a major feature of the ancient nationalities in China, marking the intensive cultivation of settlements and agriculture. In the late Yangshao period, the pig head was buried with it. The second one is a tripod. Not reality, but from practicality. Three-legged tripod is more stable and simple than four-legged tripod, and it has developed into a sacrificial vessel-tripod.

It is worth noting that the early pottery patterns were full of ecology, childlike interest and fluency in the early days, and became mysterious, weird, dignified, scary, rigid and closed after being transformed into bronze vessels. Human evolution is like a grown-up baby. No one in the adult world is easy. May this love become history as soon as possible. New? Hat, let's go. If you never come to see me, people in the future will build a museum for you.

Ps:

I was fortunate to know Master Yan, a non-genetic inheritor of painted pottery. Last year, when I came back from the construction site for the Double Ninth Festival, I was lucky enough to visit his studio and buy two painted pottery crafts for my friends. People gave me a cartoon-style clay figurine. I drilled a hole with the Yellow River stone and made a necklace for the terracotta figures, which I think should be the standard of ancient dolls. After I came back, I wrote a doggerel about painted pottery in the car:

Double ninth festival coloured pottery

Lanzhou painted pottery Majiayao,

The wonderful hand is in Lintao.

The mason smiled,

Flowing flames shaped painted pottery.

Frog patterns constantly hunt animals,

Water waves catch birds.

Five thousand years ago, the color of fire,

Shake and shake to reflect the present.