(East-West Question) Special Plan for the Root of Civilization (3) Sixth: Wang Renxiang: How to Look at Faith and Chinese Civilization from Symbols?
China News Agency, Beijing, February 26th: How to look at belief and Chinese civilization from symbols?
——Interview with Wang Renxiang, an archaeologist and researcher at the Institute of Archaeology, Chinese Academy of Social Sciences
Author Wen Longjie Xu Crown
The significance of symbols to civilization cannot be underestimated. Many important characteristics of civilization are embodied or contained in prehistoric symbols.
As the American scholar John Dewey said in "The Transformation of Philosophy": "Man is distinguished from the lower animals by preserving his past experience... Therefore, unlike wild animals, man lives in a simple in a world of real things, but in a world of symbols and signs.”
The gold foil pattern of "Four Birds Surrounding the Sun", which expresses the spirit of "pursuit of light, unity and progress, harmony and tolerance", was designated as a "Chinese Cultural Heritage Symbol" seventeen years ago.
What other symbols are there?
How do these symbols represent the "character" of civilization?
In this regard, Wang Renxiang, a well-known archaeologist and researcher at the Institute of Archaeology of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, recently accepted an exclusive interview with China News Agency's "East-West Question", talking about China's prehistoric symbolic era and the "open" and "inclusive" civilization characteristics it embodies.
The following is a summary of the interview transcript:
China News Agency reporter: It is generally believed that the most direct starting point for the history of Chinese civilization is the emergence of mature characters. Recently, you put forward the new concept of "Symbol Age" in "Writing and Lecture". What is the specific meaning?
Wang Renxiang:
The emergence of symbols in prehistoric China is neither a new discovery nor a new definition.
But the prehistoric symbolic age is a new concept.
Prehistoric symbols have attracted the attention of many scholars, but most of them only examine "whether they are words", or judge "how far away from words".
The many essences of symbols have not yet been clearly identified, without realizing that they are more important than words.
The modern society is full of various symbols, which makes the transmission of information quicker, and human behavior and thinking are obviously benefited.
In the information society, it is impossible to imagine how "dilemma" would be without the participation of symbols.
But symbols do not belong only to modern society, they are innate with human beings.
Of course, the earlier the era, the simpler and more straightforward the symbol system.
Symbols are created by human beings, they are the product of human thinking, and they are also a knowledge system that has always been accompanied by human growth.
In prehistory, there was an exclusive era of symbols, and symbols were also born at this time.
It is generally believed that the appearance of writing is an important symbol of civilization.
In the prehistoric symbol era, symbols were not words, but had quasi-literal meanings, and even played a more important role than words.
Words have shape, sound, and meaning, while symbols have shape, name, and meaning, that is, there is an agreed name without a definite pronunciation.
Symbols in prehistoric times were more of a symbolic nature than to record language.
The appearance of writing and the formation of civilization are related to symbols.
The age of symbols is the gestational stage of the age of civilization.
After the age of civilization, symbols did not die, but flourished.
In fact, in the prehistoric symbol era, symbols have matured, or have more meaning than words.
It can be expected that the definition of the age of civilization and the standard of writing will change, and the length of the history of civilization will be greatly extended.
The "Jade Pig Dragon" of Liaoning, known as "the first dragon in China", is one of the representative artifacts of the Hongshan Culture in the Neolithic Age of China.
Photo by China News Agency reporter Zhao Ying
China News Agency reporter: Any symbol has symbolic meaning. How did the symbols of the symbol era be extracted? What are the main popular symbols in early China?
Wang Renxiang:
When I say the symbols of the symbol era, I do not mean all symbols, but those symbols that are highly recognizable and popular in a wide range of time and space, such as those scattered symbols on pottery are not included.
The refinement of symbols is the key to the creation of symbols and the result of image thinking.
However, image thinking is not simply to reproduce the image of things, but to process new images through imagination and association, that is, symbols such as figures, images, and schemas that can be perceived.
In this process, abstract thinking and figurative thinking need to be skillfully combined, and the creation of symbols can be completed only by "forgetting the image".
For example, the fish patterns on painted pottery of the Yangshao Culture are mostly formed by dismantling the patterns.
After completing the evolution from the typical fish pattern to the simplified fish pattern, the full shape of the fish pattern creates a balanced and symmetrical rhombus pattern, which belongs to the straight-edge decorative system with strict structure.
After the deformed fish lips were disassembled, the west yin pattern and the petal pattern were formed respectively, which are the two arc-shaped composition systems of the Miaodigou painted pottery.
Yangshao culture painted pottery fish pattern.
Photo by Cheng Hao issued by China News Agency
Schematic diagram of the evolution of fish patterns in Yangshao culture.
Photo courtesy of the interviewee
The fish pattern is invisible, and the fish character has no fish.
In this way, following the law of artistic development, many painted pottery patterns have been transformed from complex to simple, from "visible and imaginary" to "invisible and immaterial", and finally presented as geometric symbols.
Yangshao culture painted pottery also has a "big bird pattern system", which is also through the method of simplification and deconstruction to complete the geometric symbolization of the bird pattern and hide the realistic bird shape.
Birds and fish, a pair of constant artistic themes, shine on the faience.
Water and fish, sun and bird are also symbols of yin and yang, water and fire in later Chinese culture.
The same is true for the white pottery decorations of the earlier southern Gaomiao culture. A large number of decorations just use some graphics to refer to the objects of worship.
Many white pottery patterns show a large mouth, two pairs of large teeth, and a large number of figures related to the shape of birds. In some pictures, there are fangs on the wings of flying birds.
These birds and bird wings refer to the mythical Riu.
There is a sun figure between the wings, and the sun is flying with the sun.
The discovery of the white pottery of the Gaomiao culture has convinced us that the myth of the Japanese and Uganda was formed 8,000 years ago.
The fangs on the pottery of the Gaomiao culture should be the soul of the sun, and it was the recognized symbol of the sun at that time.
The radiant sun was depicted by Gaomiao people as spitting out fangs.
This fang-like face flies with the bird again, or grows a pair of wings and flies by itself.
The fangs are in the sun, and the fangs are on Riwu. The Gaomiao culture has nothing but fangs. It can be imagined that the fangs are ubiquitous in the Gaomiao culture.
Schematic diagram of the types of tusks in the Gaomiao culture.
Photo courtesy of the interviewee
It is difficult to find a direct connection between the sun and the fangs, but out of the association of light, it seems that it is not difficult to understand that the sunlight is refined into the shape of the fangs.
There are also eight-pointed stars on the white pottery. There are full-shaped eight-pointed stars and half eight-pointed stars.
Octagonal stars can be seen in many prehistoric cultures, some are painted, some are carved, and some are carved in jade. They are widely distributed and last for a long time. They are a very important symbol and a symbol of the sun.
Octagonal pattern on the pottery pot of Dawenkou Culture.
Photo courtesy of the interviewee
The "Four Birds Around the Sun" gold leaf unearthed in Jinsha Village in Chengdu is also related to the sun.
In the pattern, there are four flying birds, and the four birds are connected end to end, forming a circle.
The sun moves from east to west in the sky, what is the driving force?
The ancients naturally thought of birds. In their sight, only birds can soar in the air.
Therefore, people imagine that it must be a bird that can fly and carry the sun across the sky, and the sun must be helped by a divine bird, which is Riwu.
"Four Birds Around the Sun" Gold Foil.
Photo by China News Agency reporter Zheng Shaochun
China News Agency reporter: How did the symbols that were popular in early China spread? How to reflect tolerance and openness?
Wang Renxiang:
Human beings understand the universe and nature, subjectively recognize and process image information, describe and describe it in a specific form, and create primitive symbols.
Such symbols will be modified in subsequent dissemination, and will eventually be circulated in the world in a complete form.
Semiotics not only studies human culture, but also studies human cognitive activities and spiritual activities.
Those first symbols were associated with belief, and belief was the driving force behind the spread of symbols.
Faith endows symbols with soul and life, and also endows symbols with inclusive and open attributes.
Belief is the only way to bring order to a complex society, and symbols are powerful symbols processed by brain art. Their richness, diversity and wide spread are the embodiment of tolerance and openness in Chinese civilization.
American semiotician Charles Sanders Peirce has a famous saying that "only when understood as a symbol is a symbol".
According to Peirce, symbols can be divided into three types: like symbols, indicative symbols, and convention symbols.
Among them, the statute symbol means that there is no internal connection with the object, but it is established by convention.
The fangs on the white pottery belong to this kind of symbol.
There is no clear connection between the tusk and the sun, but it has spread widely. From south to north, it can be found on white pottery, painted pottery, jade carving and stone carving.
Most of the divine faces depicted on the pottery of the Gaomiao have complete compositions and fixed shapes.
The painted pottery of the Yangshao Culture is also painted with fangs, which is a very vivid image of a human face.
The micro-engraved god faces on the jade wares of Liangzhu culture generally have fangs, and they are also a pair of upper and lower, usually animal faces.
The Shijiahe Culture Jade God Face is characterized by long and sharp tusks, with a pair of upper and lower sides, almost all of which are in the shape of a human face.
Liangzhu jade cong and fangs god face pattern.
Photo by China News Agency reporter Du Yang
The embossing of white pottery, the carving of jade, and the depiction of painted pottery, these three art waves have left similar divine shapes. This is not just a continuation of the artistic level, but the recognition of the belief system.
Looking at the prehistoric symbols of the fangs, we can draw the following impressions: the popular age was about 8000-4000 years ago, and it was widely popular in the north and south regions; The inner and lower teeth are the outer, and the style is in the same line.
In this way, the Tusk God was recognized on a large scale and for a long period of time in prehistory, which can be determined to be related to worship and belief, and reflects the spirit of openness and tolerance.
The personification of animals and plants is a fixed way of prehistoric man-made gods.
When an animal image is put on a human face, it has a godhead.
The prehistoric tusk statue was created by adding animal tusks to the human face.
As a symbol of belief, as well as the octagonal star pattern mentioned above, the fangs can spread across cultures in a long time and space, reflecting the openness and tolerance of Chinese culture.
Also worth mentioning is the fish symbol on the pottery of the Shuangdun culture in Anhui, which is the outline of a fish represented by the intersection of two simple arcs.
Such symbols also appear on Yangshao painted pottery in the central and western Henan Province. It is thanks to openness and tolerance that its vitality lasts for thousands of years.
A collection of fish patterns of the Shuangdun culture.
Photo courtesy of the interviewee
Fish patterns on Miaodigou culture pottery.
Photo courtesy of the interviewee
Symbols convey human thoughts, beliefs, and art in the process of communication.
The reference and absorption in the process of symbol dissemination is a portrayal of cultural openness and tolerance.
Civilization and prehistory are two major periods of human beings.
Although symbols were also widely used in civilized times, their functions and meanings in prehistoric times were markedly different.
On the basis of openness and inclusiveness, cultural preparation for pluralism may begin with the identification of symbols.
From the identification of symbols, we can see the spread of beliefs and the development of artistic thinking.
China News Service reporter: What other paths do you think explore the origin of Chinese civilization?
Wang Renxiang:
Archaeological discoveries have taught us that prehistoric times had an exclusive symbol era. Before the appearance of words, symbols began to dominate people in certain regions.
Symbols affect people's way of thinking and behavior, and also allow people to understand each other, uphold openness and tolerance, and achieve mutual recognition.
Early symbols were more of a belief, open and inclusive. Thanks to this, they attracted more attention in the process of dissemination, and they rolled bigger and bigger like a snowball.
The early beliefs of human beings are reflected in the knowledge of the universe and all things.
Before the advent of writing, schema symbols have become an important expression of faith.
The prehistoric symbols are not yet words, but they record the thinking of the human soul.
Prehistoric symbols are generally geometric figures extracted from the connotation of beliefs, emphasizing symbolic meaning.
The square and circle symbols with the concept of yin and yang as the core, and the fangs and sun-crow symbols with the sun worship as the core, describe the history recognized by ancient beliefs, which are the roots of Chinese culture.
Decoding the meaning of these symbols helps to understand the essence and roots of Chinese culture.
Counting from the prehistoric symbol era, Chinese culture has begun to communicate and merge in a vast space and time, and gradually formed a unique character of cultural integration.
The mode of explanation for the formation of Chinese civilization, thinking and spirit have always been absent.
Pay attention to those ancient symbols, those related to faith, those flags that guide the direction of thinking, and there will be more discoveries.
(over)
Interviewee Profile:
Wang Renxiang, archaeologist, cultural scholar, researcher at the Institute of Archaeology, Chinese Academy of Social Sciences.
Professor of the Graduate School of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, and successively employed by Nanjing Normal University, Capital Normal University Distinguished Professor, and Shanghai Jiaotong University School of Humanities Distinguished Researcher.
The chief author and editor of more than 100 books, mainly including "The Art Wave in Prehistoric China", "Chinese Prehistoric Archaeology Collection", "Half Window Image", "Mortal World and the Divine Realm", "The Mausoleum of Tibetan Kings", "The Beginning of Chaos", "Diet" And Chinese Culture", "The Taste of the Past", "Good Self-restraint - Ancient Belt Hooks and Buckles", "Surrounding and Circular Integration - Research on Jade Cong", "Da Yangshao", "Nanfan Haihunhou" and so on.
In recent years, he has focused on the research on the connotation of belief in early Chinese art, and related articles will be published in succession.