Ancient Cultural Symbol of the Li People: Li Canoes

Ships, as a means of transportation on water, have been made of trees in China thousands of years ago. According to the records of Li culture, the ancestor of Chinese ships is the Li canoe, the canoe is an indispensable means of transportation for the Li traditional folk life, which is not only a symbol of Li culture, but also an embodiment of the unique wisdom of the Li people. So, let me take you to take a look at the Li ancient cultural symbol: Li canoe.

According to "China's maritime history" and "China's boat spectrum" records, rafts and canoes are the originator of the ship. In the Li canoe apparatus, the canoe is the most famous. As early as thousands of years ago, Hainan ancestors and canoes have a thousand links. Li legend says that their ancestors came to Hainan Island by canoe, Li traditional houses in the "boat-shaped house", it is said to be based on the shape of the inverted buckle canoe cover.

"Ancient view of the fallen leaves because of the boat" ("Shiben"), "the ancients see hollow wood floating and know for the boat" ("Huainan Zi - said mountain training"), the ancients finally realized that some objects have floating, natural floating objects become the creation of the boat tool Natural floating objects became the earliest incentive for people to create boats and ships. "Router wood for the boat" ("Zhouyi - Department of Rhetoric"), "router" is the meaning of cutting, hollowing out, "boat" refers to the direct ancestor of the ancient ship - canoe. -canoe.

Although the ancient records of the canoe, the specific appearance of the age can not be determined, Hainan's archaeology has not been found. But in 1977 in Zhejiang Yuyao Hemudu Neolithic site, unearthed a handle with a whole wood "river" into the wooden paddle, which shows that at the latest in about seven thousand years ago, China has begun to use the canoe. The Li people are most famous for their dugout canoes.

This probably stems from an ancient Li legend - their ancestors are riding a canoe to Hainan Island, so all the utensils are not only to "canoe", and their traditional residential "boat-shaped house" is also said to be to the "boat". "is also said to be an imitation of the shape of the inverted canoe. To make a canoe from a large banyan tree, the outer bark is first removed, an oval or regular space is dug out with an iron chisel, and then a slow fire is placed in the middle of the trunk to burn it, and then the blackened area is chiseled clean with a sharp stone or other hard object. Burn a little, dig a little, until the canoe is ready.

Provincial intangible cultural heritage protection expert Fu Cechao has introduced, nowadays the production of canoes is not particularly difficult, because there is iron, in the absence of iron, the ancestors are relying on their own unique wisdom to make: the first choice of a thick straight trunk, will not be ready to dig out the parts coated with wet mud, and then barbecue with fire not coated with wet mud parts, to be coke-like, and then stone axes and other After the parts not coated with wet mud were grilled with fire, and when they became charred, stone axes and other tools were used to cut and chisel them, so that the loose layer of charcoal was soon "routered", and this was repeated many times, and the doki was finally "routered" into a boat with a groove. Doki utensils are a kind of materialized culture. The physical attributes of the dolomite utensils show the specific production mode, life style and national characteristics of the Li people.

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