The Story of A GirlMr. Crandall used to do something very funny and annoying. He spent a lot of money in buying a skull of a primitive man from Africa, and then buried the skull in an out-of-the-way place in U.K. He predicted on a newspaper that the U.K. was one of the birthplace s of mankind and the U.K. would find the fossils of ancient people soon in the future. He encouraged a group of archeologists to look for fossils around the U.K. Finally, they found the fossils underground buried by him, but archeologists and palaeo-anthropologists were worried in front of this fossil, for it was a cranial bone of the black race. Did the blacks originate from the U.K.? Those scholars soon saw through the small tricks made by Crandall and left by giving a bitter smile and shaking their heads.Mr. Guo Moruo used to write a poem describing the jar funeral of children of the Banpo village.When a child died, the parents would use jars as his coffin. They made the mouths of two jars opposite to each other and put the body of the child in it. They did not bury the jar in the outskirts, but round their houses and they made a hole on the jar so that the child’s spirit could come in and go out of the jar freely and go back to his/her mother. All of these are not very magical. What is really miraculous is the funeral of a girl who was buried in a wood coffin with stretching body. Her funerary objects include 6 pieces of potteries, a bowl of grain, one jade eardrop and 3 stone balls. In the relics of the Jiang Village, the funerary objects of a girl about 15 years old include 12 stone beads as toys, 2 jade eardrops, one stone knife, one pottery bowl, one pottery jar and one pointed bottom bottle. The most important thing is that there are 8563 bone beads and sets of decorations on her chest and around her waist.Those serious archeologists, who were scrupulous about everything, discovered all these things. Therefore, they are not Crandall’s imitation, nor are they Verne’s fiction. It is true and believable.After finishing their tasks, the archeologists can leave these thins behind. However, they hand over mysteries to us.Who was this girl? Was she very beautiful? How did she die?I began to make Holmes’ inference about this pure and beautiful skeleton. The only pity is that what I hold was not pipe but a cigarette, and it was my sleeping wife who was beside me not the faithful Watson.The smoke in front of me helped me enter the fond illusion. At first, I saw a big primitive village with well-arranged thatched houses. Many of our ancestors who were naked were busy working. What were they doing? Why were they so excited?Now the sun was the early spring sun. It was good that I saw the sun which was a bridge for it shone upon our ancestors and now still upon me. The sun pushed my ancestors and I closer. We can start our topic from the sun.The sun in early spring has already risen at the bank of the Chan He River. People in the village came out of their houses one after another. At this moment, there should be some kind of sound that called the people. It could be the sound of the Xun or a wolf-skinned drum. That fourteen-year-old girl was among these people. I called her ‘鲜’(a character combined with the ‘鱼’ means ‘fish’ and the ‘羊’ means ‘sheep’) because the Banpo tribe respected fish and the girl was as meek as a lamb.Now, ‘鲜’ is coming.First I conceive her the emissary of love, because it can meet the public taste of a society full of material desires.The early spring, the Feb. is a period for the bursting out of life. Being stroked by the tender and new sun, all the animals and plants develop their life impulse to extremes. The plants blossom in order to attract bees an butterflies to give birth to their descendants. Animals are in tumult. Although they have no medium, they can experience the happiness and pleasant sensation by themselves.In the meantime, the human also are working hard for the problem of reproduction. During this period, they are already disturbed by the sound and actions of animals. Hence, the woman chief called an elder meeting and prepared to show girls of this tribe outward so that they could accept love from other tribes. ‘鲜’ is of course among these girls.‘鲜’ is certainly very pretty. Only if she is beautiful she can obtain love and 8563 beads and those decorations.How should I describe her beauty? You can fancy her as the Saint Mother or Venus. In fact, she is more like the Chinese beauty Yang Yuhuan for they belong to the same race.There is a large-scale dance called ‘the Grand Sacrificial Rite’, in which we can watch a scene called ‘ Bathing in the River’. It just shows us the scene our ancestors are having a bath and seeking a spouse on the side of the Chan He River.The girls are coming to the river early.In the forests of the opposite side of the river, thousands of eyes are glimmering. Those eyes are burning with fire of life. What they have is the adoration on women’s body.The masters of these eyes are dancing wildly. Their dance is a simple jumping just like that of the ostrich or the kangaroo. They must continue jumping until the sunset. There is a rule in this tribe that only those men who can jump constantly until the falling down of night and do not die or fall down because of extreme tiredness can enter the girl’s room. This is a very important measure to ensure stronger descendants of this tribe.Therefore, those dancers begin their dancing mow. They stare at those fresh and beautiful bodies in the river as they make preparations for this Marathon’s match.Here, I must declare that our ancestors did not allow wedding in the same tribe. Their marriage called walking marriage system. That means to all the men in this tribe, after they grow up, they must find a spouse in other tribes. This is an unconscious measure carried on by people after they suffered the racial degeneration brought by inbreeding in the experience of millions of years of group marriage. As a result, those men at the bank of the river all come from other tribes. Some are from the monkey tribe in the Qin Ling mountain, some from the wolf tribe on the White Deer Plain, even some from the hunting dog tribe or the leopard tribe in the north of the Wei He River.Those beautiful girls are bathing in the river. The early spring shines on their light yellow skin. All of them are plump and healthy with youthful vigor. Like the dancing men in the forests, they also hope earnestly the sunset on the central Shaanxi plain. They hope to accept love and to give birth to children and make contributions to the development of mankind.Those old women and men who have list the fertility ability and those children who have not had this kind of ability are sitting beside this river. Some of them are blowing the Xun, some are beating drums, and others are playing. They are smiling happily and watching this moving scene.The sun today may be the most naughty sun in the world. The daytime of today may be the longest one in the world. Two thirds of these men have already fallen down while the sun still hasn’t set. Doesn’t it have the heart to set? What is it watching?‘鲜’ has already bathed for more than ten times. Her long hair is around her waist and her body has become red by soaking in the river. Small fishes constantly kiss her skin, which makes her feel itch with a sensation of pleasure.Her mother, the woman chief of this tribe, now is standing at the bank with a witch covered with feathers of the crows. She is watching the girls among whom there are more than 20 girls born by her. Then, she looks at them with love and sympathy, esp. her youngest daughter, ‘鲜’.At last, the sun sets down with only some red sun set glows. The dancing figures become less and less. Those sound of panting as a large-scale orchestra is playing the last music.The moon is the clear proof for love. The moon is rising. Our great ancestors, ‘鲜’ is embraced by a man into her room.She is accepting love. Each time she accepts love, one man will offer a bone bead at the foot of her. Then she has 8563 bone beads and those sets of decorations worn in front of her chest and around her waist. She dies suddenly for she is extremely excited in love and dies like a white swan after its song.Perhaps she does die of love but die in the sacrificial rites.Therefore, I suppose the second cause of her death is about the sacrificial rites.The primitive people held in awe and veneration to the mysterious power, and they had to hold a tolerant and forbearing attitude towards it, which was developed to an extent of ingratiating to it. The highest form of this ingratiating is sacrifice. People use self-sacrifice to ask for the forgiveness of God. Sacrifice needs forms so people get together to set up sacrificial altars and incense burner tables. And all people recite incantation in order to let God know people’s good faith.The primitive men of the world all considered sacrifice as the main part of the sacrificial rites. Besides pigs, cattle and sheep, the most compelling and grandest victim is man.According to the historical data: in the Orhomenus, there was a primitive tribe, all men were called Pusorois, i.e. the blackened and all women were called Olya, i.e. the injurious. Each year, when it was the time for the festival of Agolion, masters of ceremony would chase after these women by holding a sword. If the master caught up with one woman, he would have the right to kill her and offer her to God.We can also find numerous records about killing princes and princesses as sacrifice in historical data about folk custom around the world. The king of Sweden once offered his nine sons to God in order to keep his own life. In a city of the ancient Greece, the king married Nephele and they had a son and a daughter named Phrixus and Helle respectively. Soon, the king married the second wife named Ino and they had two sons called Leodis and Molicedis. Ino envied the children of the first wife and wanted to murder them. At first, she persuaded women of the whole country to bake crops before seeding. The next year, people had no harvest at all and all died of starvation. Then Ino spread rumors everywhere that the starvation would kill the two children to sacrifice. Afterwards, the two kids escaped from death through the help of God.We can’t really know what had happened in the tribe at the bank of the Chan He River 6700 years ago, but the skeleton of the girl and these incredibly numerous funerary objects beside her obviously embody that the girl didn’t die of a normal death. Was she pushed to the sacrificial altar by the dirty hands of a witch in a festival? Did she walk on the altar in a determined manner when there was a wanton pestilence, a big flood or a long drought?There is no doubt that she died for public benefits. Every member of the tribe offers those 8563 bone beads. It was her mother who put those sets of decorations around her body.
The Sound of Nature---XunXun is the oldest musical instrument in the world, which is the originator of band music. It is the only musical instrument that is made by soil. The sound of Xun is the sound of soil, the sound of nature.When Xun was produced is a mystery hard to solve. We can’t make sure that if there existed such kind of instrument before the age of the Banpo. What we can assure is that we really excavated Xun in the relics of Banpo village.Its shape is like a half part of a gourd with small mouth and big belly. The mouth is a gas hole for blowing. Small holes are made on the belly to distinguish different scales. The Xun of the Banpo village has only two holes and its scales are very simple, but its sound is resentful, sweet and heart trenching.In the Museum, there is a Xun band. More than ten players in primitive clothes are sitting on an artificial hill with a shape of a Xun. The hill was painted with human faces and fish. Many pottery jars and bottles used by those primitive men are put on the hill. Seen from a long distance, the hill is more like a deserted pottery kiln. When these players sit there and blow their Xuns, a piece of downcast music is spreading around the whole village as a piece of cloud or fog is enveloping above the village.I used to guess over and over again that who is the inventor of genius that invented this originator of musical instruments in remote antiquity.I was wandering in the village and a pile of pottery jars gave me enlightenment.The day was windy, and the wind was blowing in a spiral way, when it blew on these jars, I heard a sound of droning and hooting.Hence, I come to realize that one of our ancestors happened to be in the same situation with me and discovered this kind of musical instrument.He must be dumb or stammering. After all, he is certainly simple and reticent and could not put his wild ideas across. Then he brought the jar back home and began to blow it.It was him who performed the first piece of music of the world. From then on, no people ever looked down upon him any longer and he became a respectable man. At dusk, when the moon was going to rise, he would sit beside the Chan He River and blew his Xun. Those people who were working and hunting would stop to return. It was from that time when music, musical instrument and player who made a living on it appeared.The historical records say that Xun has big and small sizes. The small one is called Xun, and the big one is called Jiao. This instrument has different shapes, such as the shape of a gourd, elliptical shape and round shape. I have never seen the Jiao. There is a big one on the hill of the BanPo village, which is as big as a vat with a diameter of one meter. I suppose it is the Jiao, but nobody could blow it. Maybe only the wind of sky can make it send out the real sound of nature.Master Nie’s Diagram about Three Rites introduced Xun that: “ Xun, in general has 6 holes with one on the top of it; three in front of it and two behind it.” What I saw in the museum is just the same one with the same shape.Another ancient book explained Xun that: “ Xun has a sound of soil, strong and deep.” Here it talked about the musical quality of Xun. I have listened the music of it for three times: the first time, I learned that a widow was weeping at night; the second time, I got a story of a little girl crying for her parents in the wolves; and the third time, it was a history of human beings in remote antiquity.I always thought that the music could fascinate only me, but I was wrong. To my surprise, an old woman aged 70 years old from the Holand also dropped in tears when she heard the music. It was pity that we didn’t belong to the same human race. Different languages keep a distance between us. And until now, I still don’t know what she was crying for.A composer from Beijing composed a whole set of Xun music. When the music wsa performed in the museum, the whole village was full of the miraculous color.The sound of Xun can most express characteristics of the Chinese Nation. It is soft, sanguine, mellow and smooth. Xun is good at expressing grief feeling. Xi’an is the birth place of the Chinese Nation and it can most represent the history of our nation. Xun especially the one made by the soil of Xi’an can produce the truest sound of our nation.I heard that a Japanese musician is also good at making Xun. He bought one from the Banpo museum and produced several hundred copies. He trained apprentices and established a Xun music band. However, these Xuns made by the soil of Japan sounded noisy and disorder, and full of militarist color. At last, he had to give up and came to listen to the performance of Banpo.The City MoatThe city moat of the Banpo village is about 6 to 7 meters wide and 5 to 6 meters deep. Since we didn’t excavate it fully, I cannot jump to a conclusion. This moat can be assumed as the earliest artificial defense work of human beings. If we fill up it, it can resist common offence.Now, let us sit in front of the defense work and imagine a war between two primitive tribes.On the sides of the Chan He River, there are two strong tribes, the fish tribe and the wolf tribe just wanders from the North.The wolf tribe is blood thirsty, fierce and good at running. Ant bags discovered by them cannot escape from their sharp teeth and hands. They mainly wander freely among the forests, plains and marshlands in the north of the Loess Plateau and south of the big prairie. They mainly hunt wolves, tigers even the boa. The competition between the flesh eating human and the carnivores is cruel and heat. They are crazy about invading without cherishing life, then, their population grows very slowly. Finally, one day they have established the formidable and deterrent force in roaring.No rivals means there is not enough food. They are under a hopeless situation.Hence, the wolf tribe begins moving towards the south and arrives at the bank of the Chan He River.On the contrast, the fish tribe has been living near the river for quite a long time. Because of the development of the farming, they live a steady life with peaceful mind. They have a sense of collection, friendliness, peace and kin affection. They have fine and delicate interest. They love life, animals, fields, music and dances. They control the whole tribe on great maternal instinct; they tame animals by their tender attitudes; they instruct men to hunt by women’s intelligence and meticulousness; they comfort men’s wound by great love and make them shed in grateful tears.The fish tribe is strong because of its civilization while the wolf tribe is strong by the cruelty.There is no need to explain why they show hostility to each other. There is naturally a feeling of dislike between any developed and backward nations. The difference of culture and civilization leads to their antithesis.The fish tribe calls on people by blowing Xun.The wolf tribe is beating a huge drum covered with wolf skin.When they came from the north, animals all ran away. They faced starvation. In the beginning of spring, the old chief divided a wolf among the members of the tribe and hung the skin on a withered stump. A few days later, there was no food available. The chief became very depressed. He knocked the skin unconsciously, then, all members came together and waited for their doomsday.Suddenly, a miracle appeared. A large number of wolves gathered around them. The green eyes connected a round of green fire. The sound of the wolf skin called those wolves together for they couldn’t bear the knocking on their chief’s skin.Those wolves began to attack those men.This fatal fight brought hope of life to the wolf tribe.This cruel battle had lasted for a long time. People died one by one while they got more and more dead bodies of wolves. They not only devour the flesh but also bound skins on stumps and knocked them.The sound of knocking stirred up crueler fighting. Gradually, the animals became less and less. At last, they retreated with plaintive call.Now the two tribes are going to fight.The fish tribe has made a good preparation.Three days before, a young warrior of this tribe went out for hunting. He encountered the wolf tribe that was dog-tired. According to the common rule, he gave half of the wild boar he hunted to the wolf tribe, but the wolf tribe wanted the whole. Then they quarreled bitterly. The result was that the wolf tribe ate up both the warrior and his bag.A boy who was hiding in the grasses saw this and told all this to the woman chief. The tall and robust woman was too angry to say anything but ‘fight’.The war is not cruel and bitter at all, because the arms used by the wolf tribe has already been obsolete in the fish tribe. In addition with the shield of the moat, the wolf tribe couldn’t approach the fish tribe so that their sharp teeth and hands became useless. Most of them fall into the moat, and some are killed by the flying arrows.Finally the wolf tribe surrendered. They lied on their stomachs, waiting to be killed. However, the woman chief doesn’t put them to death but allows them settle down here by establishing a new tribe. From then on, they become servants of the fish tribe. Each time there is war they are assigned at the first band of the army by beating war drums to boot the morale of the soldiers. In peaceful time, they make drums of different sizes and spread them to different places. Drums become popular and famous around the whole country with the extending of people of Qin.This is the story happened 6700 years ago beside the moat of the Banpo village.If you don’t believe it you can come here and listen to it by yourself. In the dead of the night, a deep sound of drum always can be heard in this small village.The Big ContestThere is a recreation house in the museum. It is as big as a hall and can hold 100 people. In the middle of the house, there is a flat just like the boxing ring. This is the place where the primitive people have a contest.The contest performance is so vivid that it shocks everyone at present.Mr. Wang Xinlu told me before this contest that three old women from the America used to be faint when they were watching the contest. However, in my opinion, a man like me would not be frightened by such kind of performance. I was wrong.The fight I watched was between a girl and a man. She was about 18 years old. If nobody told me that she used to be an athlete, I would regard her as a man. One moment she stepped on the man, the next she threw him above her head. Now she seized him by the throat and now she kicked him out of the ring. How could I imagine that she was a girl?Once I watched a video that showed the contest between the primitive men in Africa. They were called ‘ the last men’. Those black men, naked, wore an iron ring around their wrists. Two warriors embraced each other and knocked their heads strongly until they shed blood and died of exhaustion.The strangest thing is that they didn’t fall down but stand still with smile on their faces.Mankind no matter what human race they belong to or whenever they exist, in their blood vessels, the cherishing and hoping for honor is flowing all the time.I used to design such kind of primitive contest of the Banpo in a television manuscript. I suppose 3 primitive tribes regarding animals as their totems live in Banpo 6700 years ago. They are the fish tribe, the wolf tribe and the leopard tribe.There is no wonder that all works manifest the primitive life are related to the contest, because in the early historical period, men upheld power most and the highest manifestation about power was the contest.In the manuscript, this big contest is held at dusk of a summer day.The place is on a low-lying land of the White Deer Plain.Under the command of their woman chief, members of the fish tribe are around a witch in black. The witch is covered with feathers of crows, and she is pointing to the sky with a feather. All the men are lying on their stomachs on the ground and beating rocks with hands, at the same time shouting. All the women are dancing around them.Three warriors are squatting on the ground while the witch is conducting the power from God to them by the feather. Their bodies are painted with many red stripes like the zebras. They are serious and waiting for the trial of strength.In the mean time, the wolf tribe and the leopard tribe are holding their sacrificial rites.Members of the leopard tribe are forming a long queue and they are all painted with black all over. The man behind is knocking the back of the man in front of him and sending out a sharp cry.The warriors of this tribe are standing at the front row of the queue with their backs accepting power conduced by arms of their fellow people, the chief man is a very tall and strong man who is killing three volunteers who are willing to conduct their own power to those warriors. Then the chief painted their blood on the around the bodies of these warriors.The sacrificial rites of the wolf tribe look disorder. They are jumping and beating their chests vigorously. Their chief is a strong and fat woman who cut a sheep by a stone ax in order to let their warriors drink down the sheep blood.When the sun sets in the west, these warriors rush into the contesting place and begin to fight with each other. Their movements are very clumsy and the contest is bloody and terrible. They embrace, push, bite and kick each other.Who will win this contest is not very important at all. The most important thing is that they give their life for their tribe’s obtaining honor and confidence.Just like a fashionable saying today: participating is more important.
The Mystery of the Pointed Bottom Bottle
We have lived in modern cities and breathed the dirty air for a long time. We have been exhausted sty the forests of buildings and can’t sleep easily at night by thinking about our fame and gain. At this moment, where shall we go?
“ We will leave you now, I swear/ for a happier land/ A happier land where we may have a free hand.”
This is a calling from the West Zhou Dynasty 2000 years ago. And it always rings in my ears.
I find such kind of paradise in the Banpo Matriarchal Village. It lies in the south of the village square. Seen from the distance, ancient tombs stand still and weeds grow wildly there. When we approached it, we noticed a big cave under these tombs. On the top of the cave, two characters were written, which mean the pottery kiln. Many ‘primitive men’ in alpine rushes are making potteries. A lot of tourists also were participating in this activity. Everyone was fully concentrated like a skillful crafts man.
Mr. Wang Xinlu told me that they designed this place especially for those tourists. They could make pottery as they like and engrave their names on it for a permanent souvenir.
The most eye-catching persons there were two American old women mainly because of their childlike laughter.
They have already made eight unpainted clay idols, among them there are donkeys, elephants, cars and the particular pointed end bottles of the Banpo village. Although there is mud on their faces, their laugh is comfortable and brilliant. At that moment, I almost envied them. Although l have lived in Xi’an for quite a long time, I have never get the chance to enjoy such kind of warmth and pleasure. Those old ladies just arrived there earlier than me. In their developed country, maybe they can’t find such kind of primitive place. That is the reason they came here from a far distance and found here so early. They wanted retreat to nature and original life.
Without any hesitation, I walked into the kiln. Two ‘primitive girls’ brought me a ball of mud. I wanted make a pointed end bottle for it is a mystery invented by my ancestors.
The pointed end bottle of the Banpo has small mouth and pointed bottom, and it was made by clay. Two ears are on the opposite side of the bottle, and people can tie ropes through these ears and hung the bottle on the waist. We can make a conclusion that the bottle was a house utensil in the daily life of our ancestors.
We still don’t know why the bottle is pointedly ended. As we all know that this kind of bottle could not be placed easily.
If a modern designer makes it, we will feel excited about his uncanny creation. However, it was made by our ancestors 6700 years ago. That is where the mystery lies.
According to the guide of this museum, the bottle is a container for drawing water. It embodies the wisdom of our ancestors because they made it on the basis of the theory of the center of gravity. When it is full of water, it will stand straight naturally. Master Wang Xinlu said that they had copied for 100 bottles with the same size and the same thought, but none of them could stand straight after they were full of water.
He also told me that it is incredible for these ancestors to draw water by this kind of bottle, because when we draw static water, we can’t fill in the bottle because of the straying center of gravity. When we draw water in a river, the bottle can’t get any water because of its streamlined body and the up-moving center of gravity.
Then, what the bottle is used for?
Another authorized supposition is that because the Banpo people lived near river, they could insert the pointed end into the soil of the river’s bank. That is obviously a wrong remark. Even the children know that the flat bottom bottle can be placed without any efforts. There is no need to make a pointed end bottle. Besides, we also excavated lots of flat end bottle in the Banpo.
In different places of the world, people also found such kind of pointed end bottles.
Then what is the magic of the bottle?
Mr. Cai Dacheng wrote in his book The Sex Adoration of the Chinese Nation in Ancient Times that:
“ The bottle should only be a container for drawing water, because its diameter is forty cm that makes the bottle difficult to be moved after it was filled with water; It was made by clay, so it can be broken easily and also it can not be placed normally; In the period of the Banpo, our ancestors did not dig wells but lived near the river so that they needn’t draw water depending on buoyancy; There are also small-bellied bottles that can not be used for drawing water. Therefore, the pointed bottle should be regarded as a kind of sacrificial vessel, a symbol for woman’s breast, a relic for the * adoration in primitive times.”
Perhaps Mr. Cai’s conclusion is closer to the real answer.
You ·I·We
‘You·I·We’ is the main title of the primitive dance performed in the Banpo Matriarchal Village. This unrefined name comes from the director’s thought on the primitive language of this village.
Since there is no records for the period of the Banpo village, we cannot make sure if that is a period with languages.
Fortunately, we have found some symbols left behind by out ancestors in the potteries of this relic.
A textbook of history says that: “ The Banpo people left behind 113 symbols to us, all together 22 kinds. The strokes of these symbols are very fluent with good order, some of them are very simple but others are very complex. With regard to the shape, they are more like the oracles that appeared later.”
I used to see these symbols in that museum. To my surprise, I found 24 symbols very familiar to the English letters.
I was very excited about my discovery and I told it to an old palaeographer. However, he insisted that these symbols had nothing with the western words, but the original forms of the Chinese characters.
It is not polite for me to argue with an old scholar, while I can assure that the similarity shows the wonderful parallels between human’s wisdom.
We don’t know what kind of magic power is controlling the whole globe so that astonishing parallels can be found frequently around the whole world. For example, our mankind almost appeared at the same time in different places of the world. Therefore, it is possibly that they invented the same kind of characters.
Since there were characters at that time, our ancestors should have their own languages.The dance performed in the Banpo museum is called ‘ You·I·We’, because the designer thought these three prepositions should be the earliest languages appeared among the ancestors. A line of young women is coming with graceful steps, which reminds us of the perfect description abut beautiful girls in the Dream of the Red Chamber.When they are dancing and smiling in front of us, we find ourselves in Heaven.Their wonderful dance is in harmony with the music of Xun.This large-scale dance was designed by an artist from Beijing, which consists of a group dance for several lady performers and a dance for two performers. It main, ly embodies the life miracle and the living scene in this Matriarchal village.The primitive people are the ones who respect life most, so the dance begins with the birth of a baby: a healthy and beautiful mother is going to give a birth to a new life. Now she is waiting quietly for such kind of moment. Her sisters are standing beside her and waving arms like angels. They gather beautiful flowers and fresh waters for her.Suddenly, the light changed into red, performers are brandishing red silks and satins. A new life emerges in the atmosphere full of warmth and wishes.I have appreciated this dance for four times. From it, I comprehend the power and remoteness of life. It is true that our life is very short, but we carry on the gene from our ancestors. We are only the small ring of the chain of our human history.Then, we can watch the Bamboo Dance that is with bright rhythm. It shows us the working scene of our ancestors through the performers’ bodies that are full of expression.The designing of the dancing clothes used to be a big problem to many people.The archeologists thought that we should keep to the historical facts that there was no real clothing at the period of the Banpo. The performers should be naked; at least they should wear transparent clothes.The ethic scholars thought that the naked dance would stir up an evil thought, therefore the woman dancers should wear long dresses.The artists held that the dance was not a restoration about the history, nor did it have nothing with the history. Therefore we should recreate on the basis of truth. That means we should make the clothing not only similar to the original one but also can cover up dancers’ embarrassment.As a result, the dance clothing has experienced a complex development.At first, the female performers all wore only three leaves like the Bikini. Their naked backs made the ethic scholars very furious.Then they changed dress into alpine rush rain capes that covered two thirds of their bodies. The historians protested it strongly for it became unfaithful to the reality.In expectation and dissatisfaction, we invited many artists and designers from Beijing, Lanzhou and Xi’an.Finally, the new dress emerged. Dancers wear a colorful garland on their chests and a green grass dress. This kind of collocation is very harmonious and expresses the theory of unity with Heaven and man, which was accepted by many experts.Henceforth, it spreads around the whole village museum.The Big Sacrificial RiteIt is the main performance in this museum. It is also called ‘ a hundred people sacrificial rite’ because of its grand scene and a large number of performers.The big rite is hold in the center square of the village at night. There are bleachers for the tourists around the square, which has the similar structure with the arena of the Roman Empire.When it is evening, constant drumbeats spread around the square. And lights are twinkling around the square, too. A robust and tall woman chief wears leads a troop of primitive people rushing into the square. The woman chief who is a very strong and heroic woman wears feather hat and is covered with feathers of crows. All her women followers cover their breasts with linen clothes and all her male followers wear leaves around their waists. They rush into the square like gusts of wild wind.It is a happy astonishment for us to watch the activities of our ancestors in a mysterious atmosphere.The big rite begins with a scene expresses the birth of a new life. Many people escort a young mother who will give a birth to a new baby. After their woman chief put the mother on a platform make by soil, all the people kneel down and pray with hope and worry, and the young mother writhes in pain on the platform. Then a new life is born with the blood of the mother and in the hope and worry of the relatives. Through a vivid performance, we feel the truth of life.In a short while, the woman chief raises the baby to the sky to show the strength of mankind to God.The following scene is about a sacrificial rite held by the witch to pray for good weather bringing good harvests.This scene reminds me of the ceremony which has been held by the Macedonians until now in order to pray for rain.Every time when there is a long-lasting drought, the Macedonians will send a troop of children to walk around all the wells and springs nearby. A little girl wearing flowers is walking in front of the troop. At every stop near a well or a spring, her companions will make her drenched by water and sing a song to pray for a good and rich life for their people blessed by God.However, I don’t know what kind of pray song out ancestors sang.When our ancestors stood near the surging river or the forests haunted by wild animals, or when they were confronted with astonishing thunder, constant raining and long-lasting drought, their bright eyes would be filled with surprise, wonder and awe.What is the sky, the earth, the thunder or the rain? Where do all these things come from?From the remote antiquity, these questions have been handed down for centuries. Until now, in some remote villages, some people still ask such kind of questions.My grandmother was the ‘top deity’ in a small town of the mountain area she lived in, which means that she can pass God words to the human beings and also tell our thought to God. When I was a child, I used to hear she explain the theological problems to her worshippers. She just started from the simplest question: “ if there is no God, who creates the sun, who arranges stars on the sky, who shed rains to the earth. If there is no God, how can we dream?”The mysterious nature and the changeable human life are the sources of the sacrificial rites. The mankind wanted to know the nature and to predict their life, so they dreamed of a God with will, senses and life to take charge of all creatures. When people adored God, they had to adore those wizard and witch who created the mysterious stories. Therefore, wizard appeared as well as the God.In human society, God and the sacrificial rites is the main component part of our culture.As a result, there is no wonder that our ancestors would value God and the sacrificial rites highly.This performance about a grand sacrificial rite just shows us such kind of activity of our ancestors in a solid and artistic way. This is the most vivid performance I have ever seen around this country. No wonder that many scholars in and outside China all come here to appreciate this big sacrificial rite.After the wizard prays for the world, a program that expresses the primitive hunting will be performed. A group of strong and vigorous young men are fighting hand in hand with wild animals.The earliest record about hunting is possibly the ‘ song of Tange’ in the Spring and Autumn Annuls of the area of Wu and Yue.Return to Mother Since Mr. Tao Yuanming left behind a perfect illusion about a Utopian village to our society full of material desires, this village that is as beautiful as a paradise has been becoming the ideal living place pursuit by people.When you read such purely imaginative literary work, you will simultaneously feel intimate to that small village.“Suddenly many beautiful peach trees that were blossoming were in our sight. At the end of those trees, there was a big mountain with a hole in it. Entering the hole, we found a well-arranged village. Fine fields and good trees were everywhere. Here paths and roads made our walking convenient. Those people here also raise many kinds of animals like chickens and dogs.”What a poetic and carefree place!We have been looking for it for a long time.Even Mr. Tao himself said that: “ later, I could not find the right way”In the 1980s, an American scholar drew out an astonishing conclusion after reading Mr. Tao’s world-famous passage. He said: “ We must not use any social system to explain this poem. It does not mean any social system but mother, the selfless and great reproductive organ of the mother.His point of view makes all the scholars a surprise.Those researchers who always attempt to classify Mr. Tao to a certain thinking school, and who strive to sum up the wish to a social system and call on people to fight for it, now have to be rendered speechless.If that soft, selfless and love-filled place is not the mother, where it should be.If that fresh, beautiful and carefree place is not the mother, where it should be.It is the place where everyone in spite of social status and human race yearn for. As a result, if it is not the mother, where it should be.Through thousands of years, we always evade the source of our life and look for it in the society full of our gains and losses. That is because we have ignored our mother, the place that silently provides us love, nourishments, safety and life and wishes for our returning all the time.It’s our fault that we have ignored our mother.And now, we should go back to mother and accept the soft sunlight of love again.Where is our mother? There is no doubt that she is in the Banpo.The human society has experienced a long-lasting male domination. Man becomes mechanical by male reason and becomes predatory by male strength. The earth has been modified beyond recognition because of man’s learnedness and strong power.A poet says: “ In the thousands of years of human history, the wind of civilization blew from the man’s beard, like the powerful, trembling high-tension current has been blowing man’s boldness from the remote antiquity to the future.”During the travel of male leading man towards civilization, male also leads them to disasters. The male axes change the earth full of flowers and grasses into a dry, cold, bleak and withered core. Male shotguns almost kill all the animals up of the world. Male smoke almost has polluted every possible place in the world.In the meantime man treads on the earth, they also insult their own people.Women belong to men is claimed by St. Buwell.The Koran curses that woman will bring the fire.The insane man, Schopenhauer suggested that when one was going to meet a woman, bring his whip with him.“ Women and people of low birth are very hard to deal with!” is the famous saying of the Confucius.Man’s power has already excluded woman outside the main part of the social life.Thousands of years of depression already makes woman less logic and suspicious. They have reduced to the appendix of man like a tie or a brooch.When the male civilization walks towards an impasse, it is necessary for us to reexamine our experience in the female dominating society.At that time, the Banpo women were tender and vigorous. They sympathized the weak. They were calm, soft and lived with the peaceful globe harmoniously.They comforted and controlled the wild men as they guarded carefully the tinder and infants at the foot of them. They gathered seeds and planted them underground.They tamed wounded animals into docile livestock so that people could overcome plight and disasters.The famous poet Tagore used praised women that they had soft quality that is also necessary to our civilization.What did this old Indian predict to us?It is the time to portray the social image of woman again.There is one point worth of elucidating: we long for a patient, comforting, fraternal, pure and equal female society, but not the revival of feminism at all.We love the equal and natural female society.Our ancestors of the Banpo make us realize what is the real female domination. They control the human beings not by power or force, but depending on obeying the nature and the deep heart emotion.Man is growing in the gentle bosom of women. Women’s kindness and tears drew in their wild horns. Their desire for destroying and attacking was modified gradually, and then they become refined and courteous. Finally they step on the way of propriety.I always hold that in the oriental culture, those essences of mind like the fraternity, the doctrine of the mean, the gentleness, kindness, politeness, thrift and tolerance, were put forward by the Banpo women. After the period of Banpo, wars appeared in human history from the Huang Di. One scholar said that the history of China was a history of war. It is not an exaggerating evaluation. The male society from the Huang Di showed the cruelest part of human nature by wars. Even Huang Di himself had established his position as the ancestor of Chinese humanism by force. How can those who advocated power and adored wars put forward such kind of mild remarks?The core of the Confucianism might be the result of the thought of some famous scholars on war and male power.The Bible describes an ideal country, a land of promise, the Canon for us.In fact such kind of land is the recollection and wish the ancient people held for the early Matriarchal society. Milk is the product of mother and honey is the product of the female bee. Actually God shows us a big social transmigration with the beginning and ending of the Matriarchal society.The German theologian Wendell used to have the same opinion with me. He pointed that the milk is not only the material food but also the spiritual one for us. It not only brings life but also brings immortality. In many myths, the fairies used it to nurture the hero and kings, which implies the origin of our life and nature.The milk is love and care, and the honey is sweet and love and happiness of life.Richter said that the meaning of women is to limit those destructive activities of the male megalomania.At last, let us review the famous saying of Goethe: “ The great woman leads us to go upwards.”（责任编辑：冰山）
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