Research On The Rock Paintings Of The Frog-shaped Man In Helan Mountain

The Helan mountain rock-painting group is one of the most intact and most concentrated rock painting groups in China.A kind of rock paintings with its own outstanding characteristics has been found in Helan Mountain rock paintings.The academic circles call this kind of rock paintings "frog-shaped man" rock paintings or "crouching man-shaped" rock paintings.This article mainly takes the Helan mountain frog-shaped rock painting as the research point.This paper analyzes the rock paintings with peculiar posture,few in number but common in character,combines literature and archaeological datas,from the perspectives of history,Archaeology and historical geography,aiming at the shape of "frog-shaped man" and its significance,and compares the rock paintings with the "witchcraft thinking" of the nomadic minorities at that time.The relationship between primitive beliefs and sacrifices is at the same time explained.This article is divided into five parts.The first chapter is the introduction,which introduces the current research status of the relationship between belief and rock painting at home and abroad,explains the ideas and methods of this study.In the second chapter,the historical and geographical background of Helan Mountains,the special human environment and the ethnic composition of Helan Mountains are comprehensively described,and the basic classification of Helan Mountains rock paintings are expounded.Chapter three firstly defines the definition of frog-like rock painting,summarizes the artistic characteristics of frog-like rock painting,and analyzes the spiral rhyolite pattern which appears many times at the same time with frog-like rock painting.On this basis,the location features of frog-like rock painting in Helan Mountain area are discussed.The fourth chapter makes a comparative analysis of the frog-like figures on rock paintings and painted pottery in other areas.The frog-like rock paintings in Helan Mountains and those found in Yinshan,Ulanchabu,Sunite Left Banner,Ge’aobaogou,Alashan Right Banner and Zuojiang Huashan,as well as frog-like patterns on painted pottery unearthed in Majiayao,are analyzed and discussed from the aspects of picture composition and image style.The fifth chapter explores the origin of the frog-shaped man’s image,combines with the literature to excavate the sacrificial tradition of the local minorities,reveals the spiritual connotation of the primitive religious beliefs reflected in the frog-shaped man’s rock paintings.The conclusion of the paper puts forward and emphasizes four points: 1)Frog-shaped rock paintings are produced by the primitive ancestors’ worship,fear or awe of a particular thing or phenomenon.2)The frog-like people image in Helan Mountains,Xinjiang,Northeast Daxing’an Mountains,Inner Mongolia is not accidental,but regional ethnic phenomena with the same cultural connotation.3)If the human need for gods is rooted in the desire to break the limits of their own abilities,the primitive religion of life and nature worship is the symbol of the primitive hunting people who learned the meaning of their own lives and balanced their psychological assumptions.4)Rock paintings of frog-shaped people with distinct regional characteristics in Helan Mountains and its surrounding areas reflect that people at that time,in the practice of social life,were constantly recognizing themselves,transforming themselves,understanding nature,transforming nature and gradually establishing the relationship between man and nature,then penetrated into the clan society produced a variety of social rules,collective ideas and lifestyle aspects.