What kind of culture is Meishan culture?

Central Hunan is a land in urgent need of development, with timeless mountains and rivers and simple folk customs. Since ancient times, a mysterious and simple witch culture has been nurtured here. Under the influence of this simple witchcraft culture, the original relics and folklore phenomena here are diverse and full of academic and usable value. This unique shaman culture is what we call Meishan culture today.

Part 1: Cultural Origins

Meishan culture is a relatively well-preserved cultural form in central Hunan from ancient times to the present. It is a culture created and inherited by people in Meishan from generation to generation. A regional national culture with distinctive characteristics. It belongs to an important tributary of Jingchu culture, one of the two mainstreams of Chinese culture, and together with other regional cultures, it constitutes the traditional culture of the Chinese nation.

To understand Meishan culture, we must first know what "Meishan" is?

The so-called "Meishan" is a historical regional name. According to the "History of the Song Dynasty·Meishan Man Biography": "The upper and lower Meishan Cave Mans are thousands of miles away, bordering Tan (Tanzhou, today's Changsha, Hunan) to the east, Shao (Shaozhou, today's Shaoyang, Hunan) to the south, and Chen ( Chenzhou, now Yuanling, Hunan), and to the north is Ding (Dingzhou, now Changde, Hunan), which is south of today's Dongting Lake, north of the Nanling Mountains, and between the Xiang and Yuan rivers in a southwest-northeast direction. Zishui Basin-Xuefeng Mountain Area. The land area is nearly 50,000 square kilometers.

So, why was this area called "Meishan" in history? At present, a theory that is affirmed by most people is that during the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period, the central Hunan area was the residence of the tribes of the King of Chu. The surname of Chu was Mi (sound Mi), and the residence of the Chu people was Mi Mountain. During the Qin and Han Dynasties, Mei was granted the title of Marquis for his contribution to the Han emperor's victory over the Qin Dynasty. The land he was granted was the mountainous area of ??central Hunan (today's Xinhua and Anhua areas). People call the place where he lives Meishan, which coincides with the local Mi sound. After that, as customs became established, this land was called Meishan.

Before the Song Dynasty, the Meishan area was "not connected to China" due to its high mountains and dense forests, strong folk customs, "distant language", inconvenient transportation and the blockade policy implemented by the ruling class at that time. The people here live a life of primitive 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 people and other indigenous residents.

After Cai Yu and Zhang Dun established Xinhua and Anhua counties in Meishan in the fifth year of Xining (AD 1072), Emperor Shenzong of the Song Dynasty, all feudal rulers of all dynasties intended to immigrate here, and the Meishan area gradually became a Han It is a place where many ethnic groups such as Miao, Yao and Tujia live 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 in by successive generations of immigrants have been continuously integrated, blended and assimilated, forming a rich, colorful and unique Meishan culture. Meishan culture is based on ancient fishing and hunting culture. Wrapped in ancient witchcraft, it has its own unique folk culture and folk customs, giving it a distinct regional imprint. It has very important reference significance for research in the fields of ethnology, sociology, history, religion and other fields.

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

Part 2: Cultural Connotation

Meishan culture has rich connotations, which are concentrated in three aspects: first, religious beliefs; second, life customs; third, reflection of the people of Meishandong Labor, life, and cultural ways of expressing thoughts are also called cultural carriers.

Religious Religion Meishan people believe in the primitive religion "Meishan Religion", which has systematic gods, symbols, performances, meetings and teachings. The male god they believe in is Meishan Zhangorang. Zhang Wulang, also known as Kaishan Wulang, is the founder of Meishan. According to legend, he was an expert in hunting, a skilled craftsman in building mountains and roads, and a hero in fighting against foreign invasions. He has a pair of reverse legs and walks upside down. Birds and beasts are his messengers. People enshrine his statue on the shrine, and during festivals and festivals, they go into the mountains to hunt and make sacrifices before fighting against foreign enemies. This custom has remained unchanged for thousands of years. Meishan people believe in many goddesses, the more widely spread ones are Bai's Xianniang, Meipoti Lord and Meishan Hunting Goddess Mei Chang. These three Meishan goddesses have never been bound by feudal ethics and are extremely primitive, demonstrating human nature.

The unique national customs and customs are another important aspect of Meishan culture. The Meishan area is divided into three parts: Shangdong, Zhongdong and Xiadong. Different regions have slightly different production customs, such as "hunting on the mountain in Meishan in Shangtong", "herding ducks in the shed in Zhongdong Meishan", "hunting in Meishan in Xiadong". "Fish touches shrimp" reflects their respective characteristics. In addition to production customs, the Dong people have their own wedding and funeral customs. The Dong people use drums and gongs to treat diseases, exorcise evil spirits, and perform weddings and funerals. During festivals or harvest celebrations, men and women in the whole cave play, sing and dance together for several days. In addition, Meishan people also have unique customs such as feeding food, cursing, frying insects, and smoking. It can be said that the customs in Meishan are all kinds of strange and colorful, which are unprecedented in other areas, especially in the Yellow River Basin.

Meishan culture, the cultural carrier, is an ancient shaman culture. The oral literature in this region is very rich.

In particular, some ancient myths and legends, epics, ballads and folk arts can be said to be flowers in the Grand View Garden of Chinese cultural heritage.

The people of Meishandong express their thoughts, convey information, reflect their lives, record events and pass down documents, and even use songs to express religious doctrines. Meishan ballads, when combined, are a reproduction and portrayal of the history of Meishan people. In terms of recording events and passing on scriptures, they included Dongshi songs, ethnic songs, solar terms songs, woodcutter songs, Yangko, etc. These songs either directly conveyed historical events, or sung and passed down prose, or detailed experiences, or explained religious principles. For example, the epic "Drinking Song" has more than 3,000 lines, including astronomy and geography, tribal migration, human ethics education, folk customs, etc. It is an epic with high comprehensive academic value. Meishan's poetry has strong realism and romanticism, is based on life, has rich imagination and unique artistic conception. At the same time, the syllables are well-proportioned, the number of pauses is neat, and it has the beauty of music. Children are taught singing by their parents or siblings from the time they are sensible, and it is passed down from generation to generation. These poems, together with many legends such as "The Legend of Emperor Yan", "The Legend of Shennong" and "The Legend of Meng Jiangnu", are pearls in the treasure house of Chinese folk culture.

As an art in Meishan culture, it is also colorful and unique. Such as the ever-changing art of paper-cutting, the beach New Year paintings known as the best folk art, the only performing art in Meishan Cultural District - puppet show, and so on.

Next article: Protection and Utilization

Meishan Culture is a brilliant pearl in Chuwu culture, and its influence is great, radiating at home and abroad. However, due to the accelerated materialization of society, rapid changes in people's production and lifestyle, coupled with the irreversibility of time and the successive deaths of old folk artists, many Meishan cultural events and folk treasures are rapidly being lost or extinct. Those ancient buildings that record precious cultural information are being demolished or collapsed one after another; the instruments, scriptures, and genealogies passed down like treasures by the older generation are being destroyed or lost one after another, and the ancient Folk arts, customs and habits, origin allusions and dialect rumors are being discontinued or dissipated one by one with the death of the elderly because young people have no time to take care of or disdain them. Therefore, the protection issue of Meishan culture is urgent.

The value of the study of Meishan culture goes far beyond the cognitive role in the academic sense. Judging from the above examples, its usable value is multi-faceted.

We can make use of its rich and colorful cultural resources to prosper our literary and artistic undertakings. For example, the famous Flower Drum Opera "Liu Hai Chopping Woodcutter" is derived from the "Liu Hai Story" of Chengbu Baishui Cave. Many chapters of the Ming Dynasty's "Yang Family Generals" series are derived from Chengbu's "Yang Family Generals" series of stories. Today, the myths and legends of Meishan Cultural Zone can continue to provide a source of novel and drama creation. Numerous ballads can enrich musical art, Huayao costume embroidery and beach New Year paintings can provide materials for art creation, while "Puppet Opera" and "Nuo Opera" can provide artistic nutrition for drama scripts and comprehensive performances.

Its unique folk customs and natural scenic spots can be used to promote the development of tourism. The Meishan Cultural Area, which was "not connected to China in the old days", is mostly filled with strange mountains, strange caves, ancient trees, strange rocks and primitive and simple natural villages. These are non-renewable tourism resources. The original folk customs give these tourism resources a magical and magnificent cultural background. The combination of the two is of great tourism value. If it is properly developed, such as the construction of a "Meishan Cultural Folk Village", and the unique folk customs are reasonably selected and condensed, it will definitely have a huge attraction for tourists.

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

What is gratifying is that in the social sciences academic community, since the academic status of "Meishan Culture" was officially confirmed at the "China Yangtze River Culture Research Association" held in May 1988, in just a short period of time, Within more than ten years, the study of Meishan culture has expanded from a regional scope to a national and even global scope, which provides a good academic foundation for the protection of Meishan culture. In interviews with reporters, many experts called for the establishment of diversified protection mechanisms and protection methods, the use of modern high-tech achievements, and special functions such as libraries, audiovisuals, and pictures to protect these folk treasures. What is commendable is that many scholars also went into the fields to excavate and rescue while making appeals.

In Meishan itself, some local governments have also made positive responses: Shaoyang City and Longhui County are intensively planning to hold a new Meishan Cultural Academic Seminar; Lengshuijiang City has specially established the "Meishan Chiyou" Cultural Research Center" recruited 40 volunteers to carry out rescue field surveys; Xinhua County, led by the County CPPCC, expanded the original "Meishan Cultural Research Association" organization and mobilized the entire county to build a local cultural brand...

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