Five thousand years-- Hongshan Yulong Culture

Legend and Discovery

Inner Mongolia Chifeng

Hongshan is a famous mountain in the northeast of Chifeng City, Inner Mongolia Autonomous region. It is called "Wulanhada" in Mongolian, which means red peak.

Legend has it that in ancient times, the nine fairies accidentally knocked over the rouge box and sprinkled it on the mountain. The mountain turned red overnight, named Chifeng.

In the 1960s, Mr. Lao she, a people's artist, wrote a poem about Hongshan while visiting Inner Mongolia:

"the red mountain reflects the blue pond, and the Mao Pavilion looks at the willow silk. Do not ask the autumn news in the face of the wind, the wild geese do not want to return to the flowers and fall late. "

Hongshan, Chifeng, Inner Mongolia

The formation of red peaks is due to the high content of iron in local rocks.

Chifeng is the place where Hongshan culture was discovered in China.

More than five thousand years ago, the ancient agricultural civilization in the West Liao River Basin of China was formed. At the same time as Yangshao Culture in the Central Plains, it is considered to be one of the earliest origins of Chinese civilization.

Linhai Snow Field in Chifeng, Inner Mongolia

The remains of Hongshan were first discovered in 1908.

Japanese anthropologist Niiju Ryuzo found some pottery pieces used by ancient humans in the area, and then experts and scholars from France, Japan and other countries came to investigate.

In May 1971, villagers in Sanxing Tara Village, Wengniute Banner, Chifeng City, Inner Mongolia, dug up a jade dragon device in the soil while planting trees.

Following this discovery, in the early 1980s, a number of Hongshan period architectural sites and tombs represented by the Niuheliang site were unearthed, which became a landmark discovery of Hongshan culture, as well as the world-famous Hongshan jade. At this point, Hongshan jade culture begins to show its true appearance, which is a household name.

The external meaning of "Jade" in Hongshan Culture

Ishitsuka

"Liangzhu looks at form, Hongshan sees meaning" is a popular saying in archaeology and jade culture industry.

Niulianghe Jishi grave is an important site of Hongshan culture, its unique tomb form, has a very high archaeological value.

As the tombs are exposed to the surface and easy to dig, many accompanying jade articles in Hongshan tombs are lost.

Compared with the Liangzhu jade which is famous for its exquisite and exquisite in the same period, Hongshan jade has a more simple shape, exquisite grinding skills and simple lines, which make all kinds of carvings vivid and vivid, although the shape is simple, but full of spirit.

Experts found that the original stones of Hongshan jade are mainly divided into tremolite and serpentine, as well as a small amount of agate, crystal, turquoise and other types.

But what is puzzling is that there is no tremolite or serpentine produced in Chifeng area, and some people speculate that it was imported from Xiuyan in nearby Liaoning, while others say that the source of Hongshan jade articles and jade materials in Mongolia or as far away as the Russian far East has not yet been determined, which is still an unsolved mystery.

The Chinese elements of Hongshan Yulong Culture

Hongshan jade products are mainly divided into two categories: camera and bionic.

Camera jade articles refer to all kinds of jade articles formed by the ancients through ingesting natural phenomena and then through artistic processing, such as jade wall, jade dress, hole-shaped ware, hoof-shaped ware, hook cloud-shaped ware and so on.

Compared with the camera category, bionic jade wares produce obviously exaggerated effects by imitating animal and human images, such as jade pig, jade dragon, jade bear, jade bird, jade turtle, jade man and so on, which are basically used in sacrificial places and are a symbol of rights.

The first carved dragon in China

Among these various kinds of jade articles, the most eye-catching one is the jade dragon, or C-shaped dragon.

The jade dragon found in Sanxing Tara Village, Wengniute Banner, Chifeng City, is a well-preserved large Jasper carved dragon, with its head and mouth protruding forward, slightly warped, nose truncated, symmetrical double round nostrils, diamond-shaped eyes, upturned eyes, elegant and beautiful shape, which is called "the first jade carving dragon in China" by Su Bingqi, a famous archaeologist.

Many experts and scholars believe that the Huangdi nationality may have originated in the Hongshan cultural region.

Analysis of the Yellow Emperor as the leader of the ancient tribes can unify China, itself should be the supreme wizard. In oracle bone inscriptions, the word "yellow" starts from "big", which refers to the person who wears jade around his waist, and "emperor" refers to inserting salary and offering sacrifices to heaven.

The Yellow Emperor naturally refers to the person who presides over the sacrificial activities on the altar with jade on his body, which corresponds to the sacrificial remains found in the Hongshan area and the image of the owner of the tomb surrounded by jade articles.

In the Niuheliang stone mound, we saw the image of the owner of the tomb with a jade Phoenix on his head, a cloud-shaped dress on his chest, a jade pig dragon on his belly and a jade tortoise in his hand.

Jade pig dragon

Among them, the jade pig dragon, or "dragon-shaped dragon", as another typical Hongshan jade dragon, its head is like a pig, shaped like a dragon, and mostly has a closed ring structure connected from beginning to end, which is a kind of bionic jade.

If the C-shaped dragon is the image of an adult dragon, then the jade pig dragon can be regarded as an embryonic dragon, because it is mostly found in the pelvic cavity, and its head and tail are curled, indicating that it has the meaning of gestation and reproduction.

Jade pig dragon

The discoveries of Hongshan jade articles, like other totems of the Huangdi nationality, such as turtles, birds, bears, etc., are close to the ancient four elephants and 28 stars.

Therefore, a variety of bionic jade is not only a tool for the ancients to worship gods, but also the initial memory of understanding the universe, representing the original sprout of Chinese civilization.