The Artistic Types of China's Primitive Paintings

Banpo-type culture about 6 years ago was developed by inheriting the culture of the old government and Taiwan. There are many animal images on the painted pottery of Banpo culture, depicting rushing deer, crawling giant salamanders (also known as frogs or turtles) and standing birds. Among them, the most representative pattern is fish pattern, which has the largest number and runs through Banpo culture. The image of fish pattern on painted pottery in the early Banpo period is more realistic, and the common fish pattern is a single fish pattern, mostly a flat profile image, which is modeled in a straight line. Although the proportion is accurate, it is slightly flat.

In the painted pottery basin unearthed from Tomb No.159, Jiangzhai Phase I Site, Lintong County, Shaanxi Province, five fish arranged in a circle are painted in two different ways: ① black image, highlighting the outline image of fish; ② Tick out all parts of the fish with lines, and combine the techniques of black and white. The individual fish pattern on the medium-term painted pottery is rich in variety, because its modeling is a combination of straight lines and arcs, and dots, arcs and arcs are used alternately, which makes the fish pattern look lively and smart. Its pattern format, in addition to flat-spread, also appeared in a roundabout, jumping and other postures. The image of the fish swimming on the painted pottery jar with sharp bottom unearthed at the second stage of Jiangzhai site exaggerates the instantaneous dynamic of the fish swimming back and forth. A painted pottery bottle unearthed from the half slope cemetery of Wangjiayinwa, Qin 'an County, Gansu Province, is a masterpiece of original painting, with four swimming fish in different postures painted around the abdomen, swimming flat, diving down, or bending over with their backs relatively. The individual fish pattern on the late painted pottery was treated with exaggerated deformation. The head of the fish pattern changes the most, which highlights the wide mouth and exposed teeth. The fish pattern becomes a symmetrical pattern, and the fish pattern is shaped in an arc shape, which tends to be geometric and decorative.

The human face pattern is also a distinctive pattern on Banpo-type cultural painted pottery. A gourd-shaped bottle with a face image painted on its belly was unearthed at Gongjiachuan in Zhengning County, Gansu Province and Jiangzhai Site in Lintong County, Shaanxi Province. People show their fangs, their eyes are wide open, and they are mighty and fierce, showing superhuman courage.

On the painted pottery in the early Banpo period, there are two strange images of fish combined with human face: ① The composite image of fish in human face. Two sides of the mouth of the human face are symmetrically provided with a fish, and the outline of the human mouth and the fish head form a fish shape; (2) The human face is in the compound image of fish, and a suitable human face image is filled in the round frame of the fish head. This image of fish combined with human face, people and fish live and lend to each other, which means that people and fish are the same body. The personified fish images and various fish patterns may be the totem of Banpo tribe, which has the nature of clan protector. In the painted pottery ornamentation of Banpo type culture in Guanzhong area of Shaanxi Province, there are also very strange images of fish and birds and composite images of fish, birds and human faces. On the belly of the thin-necked painted pottery pot unearthed in Youfeng, Wugong County, there is an image of a fish-bit bird. The exaggerated fish head contains a bird's head with wide eyes, which means that the bird resides in the fish. On a painted pottery pot unearthed in Beishouling, Baoji, a short-tailed bird with a fish was painted with even thick lines. The image of the fish was rather strange, with large scales and protruding fins and small forks on both sides of the fish head. The image of the fish was roughly similar to the dragon pattern on the painted pottery of Longshan culture in the Central Plains. On the belly of the gourd-shaped painted pottery bottle unearthed in No.467 ash pit of Jiangzhai Phase II site, there are pictures of fish, birds and human faces skillfully combined. The image is divided into upper and lower groups. The upper group has three triangular buns, and the lower group contains a human face and a bird's head in a square fish head with teeth. The next image is a square fish head with a bird's head. On both sides of the belly of the bottle, a composite pattern of fish pattern and fish body pattern is also painted. It can be seen that in this complex image of painted pottery bottles, the fish is the theme image, while the bird's head and human face are placed in the fish. About 6 years ago, it is mainly distributed at the junction of Shaanxi, Shanxi and Henan provinces. The early painted pottery in Miaodigou was dominated by natural bird patterns, and the bird patterns were image patterns. Painted pottery pots and bowls unearthed in Quanhu Village, Hua County, Shaanxi Province are painted with bird patterns on the side, with long tails raised and wings spread out, which is the image of magpies. In the late tomb of Miaodigou, Yancun, Linru County, Henan Province, there is an image of birds and fish painted on the abdomen of a painted pottery jar. The picture is 37 cm high and 44 cm wide, occupying half of the cylindrical abdomen, which is the only large picture seen on painted pottery. The bird has a long beak, high feet, short tail and perfect white, which is the image of a stork. There is a big fish in the bird's mouth, and the bird's eyes are round and open. In front of the stork, there is a standing long axe with an X-shaped label on its handle, which may be a symbol of authority. This painting is rich in expressive techniques. The stork is drawn by boneless method, and the outlines of the stork eye, fish and long axe are drawn by black lines. The brushwork is changeable and vigorous. The image of the stork is accurate in proportion and vivid in expression. This picture of a stork with fish is a masterpiece of primitive social painting.

The pattern of the stork's stone axe jar (unearthed in Linru County, Henan Province) is painted in Neolithic pottery, with a height of 47cm and a caliber of 32.7cm. Unearthed in Yancun, Linru County, Henan Province in 1978, it belongs to the Neolithic Yangshao cultural type (collected by Henan Provincial Museum)

The fish aquarium image on Banpo cultural painted pottery and the bird image on Miaodigou cultural painted pottery are probably manifestations of totem art. In the areas adjacent to and intersecting with these two types of cultures, there are also images of fish and birds on painted pottery, which is a reflection of the interaction and integration of Banpo tribe and Miaodigou tribe in painting. About 5 years ago, it was distributed in the east of Gansu Province. The painted pottery of Shilingxia type is characterized by the giant fish pattern. In the early days, the patterns of giant fish were mostly individual, realistic and curved, like crawling in a swinging way. The image of the giant fish on the painted pottery bottle unearthed in Wangjiaping, Gangu County is lifelike in shape, but the head looks like a human face, the mouth has whiskers and only two feet, which is a personalized image of the giant fish. The details of this image of the giant fish are drawn in detail, and the net patterns on the face, claws and body are outlined with strong thin lines, and the painting skills are obviously improved compared with the previous period. The image of the giant fish pattern on the painted pottery bottle unearthed in Fujiamen, Wushan County has tended to be geometric, and the curved body is summarized as a crescent. The giant fish pattern on the painted pottery in the lower and later period of Shiling has been geometrically shaped and has become a symbolic pattern.

In the fourth phase site of Dadiwan, which is about the same age as Shiling Xia, a painted pottery jar was unearthed with a rare picture of two animals fighting, and two groups of pictures with continuous plots were used to show the two animals fighting. A group painted two wild animals glaring at each other, their tails shrugged, and they were about to fight each other; The other group painted two wild animals leaping to make a sumo fight. This picture of two animals fighting with continuous plots is the origin of China's comic books. The residential landscape painting in the late Yangshao period in Dadiwan is the earliest independent painting found in China so far.

in November, 1982, pictures depicting people and animals were found on the living surface of No.413 building foundation excavated and cleaned at the Neolithic site in Dadiwan, Qin 'an County, Gansu Province. The artifacts unearthed from the foundation of this building and the radioactive carbon dating of the same layer belong to the late Yangshao culture, about 5 years ago. The foundation of the building is rectangular, the floor and the remaining wall are polished with white ash, and the middle part of the foundation is a circular fire pit in front. On the ground between the fire pit and the back wall, two groups of pictures are painted in black, and the image figures are painted on the upper group, which can identify two people with the same posture in a row, both standing with their feet crossed, their right arms drooping and slightly bent, and holding strips in their hands. The head is blurred, and it seems that long hair is thrown forward. There are black remnants on the right side of the figure on the right, and there may be a person painted on the right side. There is a black box in the lower group of pictures, in which two rows of mammals are drawn with thick lines. The image is blurred, but it can be roughly distinguished that the animals have vertical ears (or horns) and limbs, and their tails are upturned, which may be animals such as tigers and dogs. Dadiwan House Base Painting, the existing picture is 12 cm long and 12 cm wide. The portrait is 14 cm high. It is about 5 ~ 45 years ago, mainly distributed in central Gansu Province and northeastern Qinghai Province. There are a few picturesque images in the painted pottery patterns of Majiayao type. Some painted pottery pots are painted with fish patterns (also called frog patterns) in the center, which clearly shows the characteristics of fish's saccular tail. The body pattern of human face fish in Majiayao painted pottery basin is a kind of totem pattern, and it also shows the process of developing from concrete natural pattern to abstract geometric pattern.

In a Majiayao-type tomb cleaned in Shangsunjiazhai, Datong County, Qinghai Province, a painted pottery basin with dance patterns was unearthed. Four circles of parallel stripes were drawn on the inner wall of the basin, and the parallel stripes reached the mouth edge. Three groups of the same collective dance images were drawn, with five people in each group. The dancers were neat and side by side, with braids swinging behind their heads, fluttering in front of their waists and dancing hand in hand. The outer arms of the dancers on both sides of each group are drawn in two lines, indicating that the empty arms are constantly swinging frequently, which is a special technique used by painters at that time to express the continuous movements of characters. Dance pictures not only skillfully reflect the dance and music activities of primitive people, but also are one of the earliest paintings that directly and completely show the activities of characters. About 4 years ago, painted pottery patterns were mainly geometric patterns, but there was a special deified human image. The humanoid images on painted pottery in the early and middle period of Mid-Levels are more realistic and concrete, with legs apart and arms raised. Some humanoid images are surrounded by seeds of millet and millet, indicating that the man of God is sowing seeds. The humanoid patterns on painted pottery in the late Mid-levels and the early Machang period gradually decomposed, either headless or without lower limbs. The humanoid images on painted pottery in the late Machang period have been abstracted, with more limbs and claws, which are mostly represented by a certain part of the humanoid figure, and the humanoid pattern is increasingly deified.

On the abdomen of the slant-mouth pot unearthed in Jiarenzhuang, Minhe County, Qinghai Province, there are two human figures, one is straight and the other is upside down. There are many circles of ripples around the human figures. The face of the straight figure resembles a human, while the face of the inverted figure resembles an aquatic animal, which is a personalized aquatic animal image. It can be seen that the humanoid patterns on painted pottery of Mid-levels and Machang types are not real people, but superhuman beings endowed with divine power.

Except in the middle and upper reaches of the Yellow River, there are few realistic figurative patterns on painted pottery of Neolithic culture in other areas. Shipengshan type, distributed in the west Liaohe River basin, is more than 4 years ago. Images of animals that look like goats and birds have been found on painted pottery pots unearthed in Shipengshan, Wengniute Banner, Inner Mongolia.

when the central plains entered the Longshan culture period, painted pottery declined quickly, and painted pottery with ritual properties appeared. Some painted pottery was unearthed in the tomb of Longshan Cultural Cemetery in Taosi, Xiangfen County, Shanxi Province. The painted patterns featured the dragon pattern, which was painted in vermilion in the center of the pottery dish. In the early image of Panlong, the body was shorter and closer to the image of fish. The late Panlong image, with a longer body, is the predecessor of Panlong pattern in Shang and Zhou bronzes.

a considerable number of rock paintings distributed in the north and south are produced in primitive society, and they are an important part of primitive paintings that cannot be ignored.