A Study On The Primitive Agricultural Culture In Chinese Petroglyphs

Petroglyphs are called books of human history inscribed on stones, and they mainly refer to those artistic images painted, carved or cut on such places not reconditioned by human beings as natural caves, cliffs, rock backings, raise rock holes, bedrocks or a single boulder. From the ancient hunting era to later primitive tribes, they have recorded the continuity of human survival activities and touched on ancient people's philosophy, religion, aesthetic concepts, economic ups and downs, national migration, etc. They are the important cultural heritage of the early human society. Compared with the traditional literature, petroglyph material has its special record means and important academic value. The traditional literature is a type of literature which takes paper as the carrier, printing as record means, words as the main form of transmitting information, while Chinese petroglyphs cover various disciplines such as ethnology, ethnology, linguistics, the history of primitive religion, art history, economic history, mythology, philosophy, the history of science and technology, and can provide abundant and vivid image materials for the relevant scientific researches. They are of important value to fully recognize and deeply research prehistoric historical culture。According to the published materials, Chinese petroglyphs are widely spread cover much of China. There are more than 500 sites, with about 5 million pictures. In the area from the middle and lower reaches of Mudanjiang in Heilongjiang province in the north, to the coasts of Zuojiang and Mingjiang in Guangxi in the south, from the shore of the sea in the east, to Kunlun Mountains in Xinjiang in the west. More specifically, petroglyphs have been founding in 18 provinces (or districts)--- Heilongjiang, Liaoning, Inner Mongolia, Shaanxi, Ningxia, Gansu, Qinghai, Xinjiang and Tibet, Sichuan, Guizhou, Yunnan, Guangxi, Taiwan, Fujian, Jiangsu, Anhui, Guangdong, and one region---Hong Kong. If counting in Henan, Shanxi, Shandong, Hunan, Zhejiang and other provinces recorded in such historic works as Commentary on the Waterways Classic and local Chronicles, the total is up to 23 povinces (districts), more than 50 counties (banners), and only a few provinces in china such as Jilin, Hebei have not found petroglyphs. The densest central areas are Yunnan province and the central regions of the middle Yellow River in Hetao area.Chinese petroglyphs are not only widely spread and long in time span, but also characteristic of obviously regional color. It can generally be divided into two big systems---northern petroglyphs and southern petroglyphs. Northern petroglyphs are most densely distributed in nomadic areas in northern grassland, which is also the dense area of most of Chinese petroglyphs, including chifeng petroglyphs, Yinshan petroglyphs Wulanchabu petroglyphs in the southeast part of Inner Mongolia with BaiChaHe as its center, ALaShan Zuoyou Banner petroglyphs in Inner Mongolia, petroglyphs in the northern part of Helan Mountain in Ningxia, Tianshan north-south petroglyphs in Xinjiang Altay petroglyphs in northern Xinjiang etc. These petroglyphs are mostly found after the national cultural relic census in 1980s, and comprehensively reflect all the aspects of the economic life at that time, with some expressing the activities such as hunting, moving about in search of pasture, war, and dancing, and some depicting stars, fingerprints, footprints and various original symbols. Northern petroglyphs in accordance with the themes can be mainly divided into human facial petroglyphs, hunting petroglyphs, and reproduction petroglyphs.Southern petroglyphs include those in Yunnan, Sichuan, Guizhou and Guangxi, Jiangsu and other regions, among which, Yunnan is the densest province, with 31 sites in 14 counties. Cangyuan petroglyphs are most densely distributed and have about 750-800 images. According to their contents, they can be divided into character, animal, hunting, herding, war, housing, symbols, print, web, utensils, dance, acrobatics, etc. The territory of Liu city represented by Flower Mountain in zuoJiang, Ningming, Guangxi province and three counties in Youjiang has 90 sites, and is one of the most densely areas in china. These petroglyphs are same in time and style, showing large dance, war and god offering activities, so they are collectively referred to as Huashan petroglyphs.In accordance with regional characteristics petroglyphs, China can be further divided into five areas--- the farming and lumbering area in northeast, the grassland area in north, the desert area in northwest, the mountain area in southwest, the coastal area in southeast. The farming and lumbering area includes the large regions to the west and east of the Great Xing'an Mountain and the eastern part of Heilongjiang province, and the petroglyphs are mainly about the reindeer and husbandry deer. The northern grassland area includes the region from the south Great Xing'an Mountain in the east, along Inner Mongolia, Shanxi, Ningxia, Qinghai and Gansu, to Xinjiang, Tibet in the west, and is one of the most widely distributed areas in China in which petroglyphs are largest in number, and richest in contents. The subjects cover wild animals, animal husbandry, vehicles, religious activities, all kinds of miraculous signs, etc, mainly reflecting the livestock production, life and cultural activities. The petroglyphs of Northwest desert area, mainly distributed in the southeast Tengery desert and the southeast edge of BaDanJiLin desert, are primarily images of animal husbandry, domicile, column ride, animals and the realistic social life. The main contents of the petroglyphs in Southwest mountain area, including Yunnan, Guizhou, Sichuan, Guangxi, are about wild animals, deity masks, objects, sacrifice, folk activities, etc. Southeast coastal area includes Fujian, Taiwan, Guangdong, Hong Kong and other provinces and regions, namely the areas around yellow sea, east sea, and south sea. It is on the verge of waters, and people are born closely related with sea, so it is natural for the petroglyphs to reflect the social life and psychological activities of the ancient fishermen. Chinese petroglyphs, especially the early petroglyphs were mainly about animals, though later appeared the human figures, the petroglyphs still centered on animals and the relationship between people and animals. For example, the petroglyphs about animals in Inner Mongolia surpass 80% of all. Therefore, to a great extent, The diagrams of animals in petroglyphs not only have important significance in revealing the cultural connotation of all petroglyphs, but also can provide important information for understanding the ancient climate, temperature, vegetation and the ecological changes according to the behaviors of various animals and living conditions. Although the southern petroglyphs don't directly reflect agricultural environment of the local areas, there are a lot of indirect contents about this. For example, Guangxi Zuojiang petroglyphs reflect the dragon boat culture of water environment, guizhou petroglyphs reflect the harmonious relationship between human beings and nature in a rural environment, and the southeast coastal petroglyphs reflect the fishing and hunting culture of marine environment.The paddy agriculture reflected in Chinese petroglyphs mostly are concentrated in the south, represented by Lianyungang petroglyphs in Jiangsu province. Lianyungang general petroglyphs are not only the earliest found ones in south China, but also reflect the scenes of life and production in DongYi tribes over 3000 years ago. Hunting is the main theme of early petroglyphs in north China. A good number of Petroglyphs have been found in the area from Great Xing'an Mountain in the east, along Bai ChaHe, Yinshan Mountains, Wulanchabu grasslands in Inner Mongolia, Helan Mountains, to the north and south parts of Tianshan in Xinjiang in the west. Among the already found petroglyphs, hunting ones account for more than half of the total, which makes us have good reasons to believe that, in ancient times, there existed a long hunting era in northern china. In some areas, as a result of the specific natural condition and time background, until the animal husbandry era, hunting industry was still an important sector of the economy. In the animal husbandry era, those subjects such as breeding livestock, tending sheep and horses, seasonal changes, working animals and the herdsmen images generally appeared in Chinese ancient northern petroglyphs, which reflected economic life of husbandry.At the end of the primitive society in our country, a certain amount of astronomical knowledge had been accumulated in the struggle and practice in agriculture and animal husbandry production and the petroglyphs of astronomical and seasonal observation in different areas are the earliest records and the reflection of the developed astronomy in ancient times. The earliest Astronomy emerged and developed from the production practice. For the shepherd, they needed to grasp the regularity of grass flourishing and withering and the changes of weather in order to mate animals at the appropriate time, deliver lambs and help young animals safely pass through the cool winter. For agriculture, farmers must master the natural laws of changes in seasons, sunshine, rainfall, temperature, frost etc, so that to plant and harvest at the right time. There are many pictures of agricultural life and technological creativity of ancient farmers in Chinese petroglyphs, such as the shelters, villages, vehicles, ships and costume. These petroglyphs help us understand the living standards and technological creativity of ancient people in a direct way.There are a great number of petroglyphs of primitive religious contents, especially in the southern provinces. Some petroglyphs, though belonging to those of social production or life, are often related with primitive religion; at least, their purpose is connected with primitive religion. Many petroglyphs directly reflect the primitive religious beliefs, which is mainly represented in the form of worship. China has a rich variety of worship forms and like the other religious worship forms in the world, they are around the three fundamental purposes---human survival, reproduction and death. As for the primitive religion in Chinese petroglyphs, the main forms include nature worship, totem worship, ancestor worship, reproductive worship, etc. the interpretation and study of the primitive religious culture in Chinese petroglyphs is an important way to explore the origins and development of Chinese primitive religion and plays an important role in studying human civilization progressTo sum up, the study on primitive agricultural culture in chinese petroglyphs takes the existing Chinese petroglyphs archaeological data as the breakthrough point, comprehensively interprets the agricultural culture reflected in the Chinese petroglyphs, on mutual confirmation with documentations, mainly from the farming ecological environment, the development of primitive agriculture production, the primitive agricultural living standards, the astronomical phenomena and seasons in farming, and the sacrifice and worship, investigates development of Chinese primitive agricultural production and life in ancient times, explores the relationship between the primitive religion and primitive farming culture, and reveals the development level of prehistoric spiritual culture and material culture, and the various relationships between man and man and man and nature.