What kind of culture is Meishan culture?

Central Hunan is a land that needs to be developed urgently, with meaningful landscapes and simple folk customs. Since ancient times, mysterious and quaint witch culture has been bred here. Under the influence of this primitive witch culture, various primitive relics and colorful folk customs are preserved here, which is of great academic and utilization value. This unique witch culture is what we call Meishan culture today.

Part I: Cultural origin.

Meishan culture is a well-preserved cultural form in central Hunan since ancient times, and it is a regional national culture with distinctive characteristics created and inherited by people in Meishan area from generation to generation. It belongs to an important tributary of Jingchu culture, one of the two main streams of China culture. It is isomorphic with other regional cultures and supports the traditional culture of the Chinese nation together.

To understand Meishan culture, first of all, what is Meishan?

The so-called Meishan is a historical geographical name. According to the biography of Meishan people by the Song Dynasty, "Meishan is a pretty mountain with a distance of thousands of miles, connecting Tan (Chenzhou, now Changsha, Hunan) in the east, Shao (Shaozhou, now Shaoyang, Hunan) in the south, Chen (Chenzhou, now Yuanling, Hunan) in the west and Ding (Dingzhou, now Changde, Hunan) in the north." That is, today's south of Dongting Lake, north of Nanling Mountains, southwest-northeast Shui Gu-Xuefeng Mountain area between Xiangyuan River. The land area is nearly 50 thousand square kilometers.

Then, why is this area called "Meishan" in history? At present, a statement affirmed by most people is that during the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period, the central part of Hunan was the residence of the King of Chu, Chu was Mi, and Chu people lived in Mi Mountain. By the time of the Qin and Han Dynasties, Mei had helped the Emperor Gaozu to destroy the Qin Dynasty, so he sealed Hou, and the land was Zhongshan, Hunan (now Xinhua and Anhua). People call his place Meishan, which coincides with the local voice of rice. After that, it became a custom, and this land was called Meishan.

Before the Song Dynasty, Meishan area was "closed to the outside world" because of its high mountains and dense forests, strong folk customs, "language barrier" and inconvenient transportation, and the blockade policy implemented by the ruling class at that time. People here live a primitive life of farming, fishing and hunting, forming a primitive and closed indigenous culture with a strong witchcraft culture. At that time, the residents here were mainly Yao and other aborigines.

In the fifth year of Xining in Song Shenzong (A.D. 1072), after Cai Yu and Zhang Dun opened Meishan to Xinhua and Anhua counties, feudal rulers of past dynasties intended to immigrate here, and Meishan gradually became a place where Han, Miao, Yao, Tujia and other ethnic groups lived together. Due to the relatively closed living space and the relative independence of ethnic groups, for more than 900 years, the profound and long-standing indigenous culture and the foreign culture brought by immigrants from past dynasties have been continuously integrated, blended and assimilated, forming a colorful and unique Meishan culture. Meishan culture, based on ancient fishing and hunting culture, has its own unique folk culture and customs, and has a distinct regional brand. It is of great significance to the study of ethnology, sociology, history, religion and other fields.

Although Meishan culture originated and formed in Gumeishan area, as a cultural system, its spread scope far exceeds that of Gumeishan. In our province, it covers three quarters of the territory and almost involves many provinces and ethnic groups in southern China. At present, traces of Meishan culture have been found in North America, Western Europe, South Australia and Indochina Peninsula.

Medium-length: Cultural Connotation

Meishan culture is rich in connotation, which is embodied in three aspects: first, religious belief; Second, living customs; The third is the cultural way that reflects the work and life of the Neanderthals in Meishan and expresses their thoughts, or it is called the cultural carrier.

Religious Belief Meishan people believe in the primitive religion "Meishan religion", which has systematic spirit, symbol, expression, society and doctrine. The male god they believe in is Meishan Zhangwulang. Zhang Wulang, also known as Kaishan Wulang, is the founder of Meishan. According to legend, he is a man who is good at hunting, a skillful craftsman, a man who builds mountains and roads, and a hero who resists foreign invasion. He walks with a pair of upside-down feet, and all the birds and animals are his messengers. People worship their gods in shrines, and they must make sacrifices before going into the mountains to hunt and fight against foreign enemies on holidays. This habit has not changed for thousands of years. There are many goddesses that Meishan people believe in, among which Bai Xianniang, Mei Po Judy and Mei Chang, the hunting god of Meishan, are widely spread. These three Meishan goddesses have never been bound by feudal ethics. They are extremely primitive and show human nature.

Folk customs and unique national customs are another important aspect of Meishan culture. Meishan area is divided into three parts: upper cave, middle cave and lower cave, and its production customs are slightly different in different areas. "Hunting in the upper cave and going up the mountain", "Duck shed in the middle cave" and "Fishing for shrimps in the lower cave" have their own characteristics. In addition to the production customs, the villagers also have their own wedding and funeral customs. When treating diseases, exorcising demons, weddings and funerals, the villagers beat gongs and drums. During holidays or festivals, all men and women blow, fight, sing and dance together for several days. In addition, Meishan people also have unique customs such as feeding monsters, swearing, frying insects and feeding cigarettes. It can be said that the peculiar and colorful customs of Meishan are unprecedented in other regions, especially in the Yellow River Basin.

Meishan culture, a cultural carrier, is an ancient witch culture, and its oral literature is very rich. In particular, some ancient myths and legends, epics, ballads and folk arts can be described as a hundred flowers in the Grand View Garden of Chinese cultural heritage.

Meishan cave people use ballads to express their thoughts, transmit information, reflect their lives, record books and even religious teachings. Meishan ballads, when combined, represent and depict the history of Meishan people. In terms of chronicles and biographies, they include funeral songs, folk songs, solar term song, woodcutter songs, yangko and so on. These songs either tell the history directly, or sing in detail, or explain the experience or explain the truth. For example, the epic "Wine Song" has more than 3,000 lines, covering astronomical geography, tribal migration, ethics education, customs and habits. It is an epic with high comprehensive discipline value. Meishan's poems are strongly realistic and romantic, based on life, rich in imagination and unique in artistic conception. At the same time, the syllables are symmetrical and the numbers are neat, which has the beauty of music. Children are taught to sing by their parents or brothers and sisters since they are sensible, which has been passed down from generation to generation. These poems, together with the legends of Emperor Yan, Shennong and Meng Jiangnv, are the pearls in the treasure house of China folk culture.

As an art in Meishan culture, it is also colorful and unique. For example, the ever-changing paper-cutting art, the beachhead New Year pictures, the only performing art in Meishan cultural area-puppet show, and so on.

Part II: Protection and Utilization

Meishan culture is a bright pearl in Chu witch culture, which has great influence and radiates at home and abroad. However, due to the acceleration of social materialization, the rapid change of people's production and lifestyle, the irreversibility of time and the successive death of old folk artists, many Meishan cultural events and folk treasures are rapidly losing or dying out. Those ancient buildings that record valuable cultural information are being demolished or collapsed one after another; Musical instruments, classics and genealogy handed down by the older generation as treasures are being destroyed or lost one by one, while ancient folk skills, customs, allusions and dialect proverbs are being decomposed or dissipated one by one with the death of the old man. Therefore, the protection of Meishan culture is imminent.

The value of Meishan cultural research far exceeds the cognitive function in academic sense. From the above example, its available value is various.

We can use its rich and colorful cultural resources to prosper our literary and artistic career. For example, the famous Flower Drum Opera "Liu Hai Pi Chai" originated from the "Liu Hai Story" of Baishui Cave in Chengbu, and many chapters in The Romance of Yang Jiajiang in Ming Dynasty originated from the "Yang Jiajiang" series of stories in Chengbu. Nowadays, the myths and legends in Meishan Cultural District can continue to provide a source for novel creation and drama creation. A lot of ballads can enrich the art of music. Huayao costume embroidery and beach New Year pictures can provide materials for artistic creation, while "puppet show" and "Nuo play" can provide artistic nutrition for drama scripts and comprehensive performances.

We can use its unique folk customs and natural attractions to promote the development of tourism. The Meishan Cultural District, which is "ancient but not connected with China", is a non-renewable tourism resource, with many strange mountains, grotesque caves, ancient trees, strange rocks and primitive and quaint natural villages. The primitive folk customs endow these tourism resources with magical and magnificent humanistic background. The combination of the two has great tourism value. If properly developed, such as the construction of "Meishan Cultural Folk Village", the strange folk customs will be reasonably selected and concentrated, which will definitely attract tourists.

In addition, the folk Chinese herbal medicines in Meishan culture are in urgent need of medical research to serve the development of modern medicine. Simple and simple folk martial arts, ancient and simple folk smelting and casting, pottery weaving and dyeing, etc. There is also a lot of room for development.

Fortunately, in the academic circles of social sciences, since the academic status of Meishan culture was officially confirmed at the China Yangtze River Culture Research Conference held in May 1988, in just over ten years, the research on Meishan culture has expanded from the regional scope to the national and even global scope, providing a good academic foundation for the protection of Meishan culture. In an interview with reporters, many experts called for the establishment of diversified protection mechanisms and means, the use of modern high-tech achievements, and the full play of special functions such as archives, audio-visual and pictures to protect these folk treasures. What is commendable is that many scholars, while appealing, also carried out in-depth exploration and rescue.

In Meishan, some local governments have also responded positively: Shaoyang City and Longhui County are planning to hold a new Meishan cultural symposium; Lengshuijiang City set up Meishan Chiyou Culture Research Center, and got 40 volunteers to carry out rescue field investigation. Xinhua County, led by the county CPPCC, expanded the original Meishan Culture Research Association and built a local cultural brand with the strength of the county. ...

It can be expected that with the official start of the national folk cultural heritage rescue project, the excavation, arrangement and research and development of Meishan cultural topics will surely enter a new stage with the wind.