Many countries in the world have found rock paintings, which have become an important symbol of prehistoric civilization. In recent years, archaeologists have discovered nearly 50 thousand rock paintings in Yinshan Mountain. According to Mr. Gaishanlin's investigation, the areas where rock paintings were found were Ergon Zuoqi and Ergon Youqi in Hulunbeier League. Zhalute Banner of Zhelimu League; Bahrain Right Banner, linxi county Banner and Hexigten Banner in Chifeng City; Xilin Gol League Su Nite Zuo Qi, Abayi Banner and Yellow Banner; Chayou Houqi, Siziwang Banner and Darhan Maoming Anhe Banner of Wulanchabu League; Guyang County, Baotou City; Urad Middle Banner, Urad Houqi and Dengkou County of Bayannur League; Table Mountain in Wuliang City; Alashan League Alashan Left Banner, Alashan Right Banner and Ejina Banner. In short, ancient and vivid rock paintings can be seen everywhere from Daxinganling in the east, Badain Jaran Desert in the west, the border between China and Mongolia in the north and the Yellow River in the south.
The themes of Yinshan rock paintings can be roughly divided into three categories.
The first category is all kinds of animal images. These mainly include horses, cattle, sheep, deer, roe deer, tigers, wolves, leopards, dogs, Han Daryun, foxes, wild donkeys, camels, turtles, snakes and geese. There is a single animal image here, but it is more like a group of animals. These images are not completely true, but exaggerated. For example, the deer's body is extremely simple, but the horns on its head are painted like bushes, the stripes on the tiger's body are very clear, and the tiger's face is very ferocious. The horn of argali is bent like a bowstring, which is very prominent. Its jumping power is exaggerated to the extreme. There is a rock painting in Urad Zhongqi. The center of the painting is a bison, with a circle carved on it, and a group of goats under its belly, one next to the other. These animal images show the strong characteristics of animals.
The second category is the combination image of animals and people. Hunting is an important mode of production in the life of ancient nomadic people. Therefore, the description of hunting in rock paintings occupies a certain space. Hunting pictures include single hunting, double hunting and hunting. On the south-facing vertical wall at the top of the mountain in Montenegro, that is, Di Ri Ha Ri mentioned in Hai Qiyi Hate Ula, two hunters with bows and arrows each shoot a wild animal. In the middle of the picture is a hunter chasing a horse, and at the bottom of the picture is a hunter shooting a goat. There seems to be a witch after the capra Wild Goat. Wulanchabu rock paintings have a picture of grazing. In the picture, a shepherd is leading a horse, and there are four sheep and a circle below, which is estimated to represent the vault, covering an area of about a quarter square meter. Another rock painting depicts more than 20 animal figures on a rock about 1.5 meters long, including a barn, two horses, cows and sheep. And a shepherd on horseback. Such a picture is full of strong life breath.
The third theme is all kinds of faces. Face can be roughly divided into two categories. One is the image of a dancer. Dancers are single, double and collective. Its movements can be described as varied. There are also feet with hands akimbo, hands akimbo turning, hands squatting and kicking, arms jumping up and so on. It is worth studying that this dance is not an ordinary dance, which contains extreme exaggeration and even deformation. There is a rock painting in the middle banner of Wulate Mountain. The dancer's arms are open and there is a curved horn headdress on her head. There is a rock painting in a place called Wako Dawachad Valley by local residents. A dancer hands in the air, fingers apart, legs apart. The Yinshan Rock Painting 1 129 depicts five dancers. Their movements are different, and the genitals of the three dancers are carefully portrayed. Such a picture does not seem to be a direct imitation of dance, but contains some profound connotation. The other is the face in the shape of * * *, with strange faces and different images. Some monkeys have sharp faces and chins; Some have sharp heads and thorns on their heads; Some seem to wear pointed hats and have thorns on their cheeks; Some are square, with complete facial features and big mouths; Some are round and radiant, like the sun; Some have no head contour, only eyebrows, eyes and nose; Some facial patterns are very patterned and abstract, giving people an elusive and confusing feeling. What do these strange faces represent? This is indeed an unsolved and controversial issue in academic circles. Many experts put forward various opinions. These faces exist as idols of primitive religious worship, and at this point, the academic community has reached a * * * understanding. These human faces, as primitive idols, can be roughly divided into three forms: the worship of natural gods (such as the face of the sun god), the worship of animals (such as the face of an animal) and the worship of ancestors (such as a person's face and a person's face). Nature worship and animal totem worship seem to be easier to identify, while ancestor worship is often more complicated. Some ancestor images are only the deformation or comprehensive re-creation of animal totem images, and only begin to take the form of human faces, leaving no traces of animals. What do these primitive religious beliefs tell people? According to christopher dawson's view, "Faith … has injected a spiritual freedom factor into human life, which can exert a creative and subtle influence on the cultural and historical destiny of human society and people's internal personal experience. Even a religion that obviously belongs to the other side of the world and seems to deny all the values and standards of human society will still have a * * * effect on culture and provide a driving force for social change "(the rise of religion and western culture). The faces in the rock paintings in Inner Mongolia are the remains of primitive religious worship and the embodiment of the spiritual freedom factors of the nomadic people in the north.
The staging of rock paintings has always been an unsolved problem. However, the academic circles agree that this precious open-air gallery, which stretches for thousands of miles, has a very long time span and is by no means a work of an era. According to Mr. Gai Shanlin's analysis, this dazzling ancient rock painting belongs to three eras. First, the Stone Age from ten thousand to three thousand years ago. Its pictures mainly include ostriches, bighorn deer, bison, human faces and animal faces. Secondly, from the bronze age to the early iron age, from 3000 to the early centuries of AD. Its pictures are hunting and nomadism. Compared with the previous period, these rock paintings are more concrete. Thirdly, according to the rock paintings from 6th century to19th century, the prominent signs of rock paintings in this period are the appearance of Uighur, Sogdian, Xixia and Mongolian. As far as ethnic groups are concerned, Yinshan rock paintings can include Xiongnu, Tubo, Turkic, Uighur, Tangut, Mongolia and other ethnic groups, and Yinshan rock paintings are the expression of the infinite wisdom and creativity of northern nomadic people.
The question is, in the distant primitive society, why did the ancestors of the nomadic people in the north leave the mark of this civilization on the cliff with extremely low productivity? What kind of psychological desire does this express?
Primitive humans, how difficult it is to survive. In nature, they have to accept all kinds of disasters brought by nature: storms, severe cold, wild animals and diseases. They often starve and even struggle to survive because of fishing and hunting. For them, all kinds of beliefs closely related to the economic life of hunting are indeed extremely important and vital events. They are eager for great gains, but their success or failure is uncertain and they are helpless. The perfection of ideal is opposite to the embarrassment of real life. The contradiction between this strong desire to conquer and the impossibility of conquest is conceptually embodied in the contradiction of primitive nomadic ancestors in the north. In the primitive society where people can't control themselves and nature, people pin their hopes on witchcraft in an attempt to find a way out under the control of this primitive probability. "In this cultural situation, the role of Yinshan rock paintings is to externalize the realistic desire of people-the reproduction of people or animals-into images, or assimilate the reproduction of people or animals into the human own system of action and will" (Niu Kecheng's Reproductive Witchcraft and Reproductive Worship). In Yinshan rock paintings, there are endless hunting contents. These images are always archery. This is not a documentary after hunting, nor is it an aesthetic photo after hunting. It's imagination, not operation. This initial imagination is fundamentally different from later creative imagination. On the one hand, it shows that people are out of the state of chaos and ignorance, on the other hand, it shows that the physical causality of things is also. Shooting with a bow and arrow means that the action exerts witchcraft influence on the prey. They think there is a secret perception between hunting rock paintings and hunting practice. Primitive humans even thought that having an image was equivalent to mastering the entity to a certain extent, and its moral was reproductive witchcraft.
All kinds of hoof prints in Yinshan rock paintings have the same meaning. There are hoof prints of various wild animals in Yinshan rock paintings. For example, there are dozens of animal hoofprint in Guoluo Ventero Gai, Wulate Middle Banner. Such themes often appear in European rock paintings. This is obviously an expression of a strong desire to pray for reproduction. "According to the herdsmen in Maomingan Banner of Darhan, until liberation, the herdsmen in Maomingan Banner of Darhan went to the mountains to carve hoof prints in order to increase their livestock" (Yinshan Rock Painting). Carving hoofprint is as magical as taking pictures.
In the primitive society with low productivity, the first need of human survival is food supplement, and the purpose of food supplement is for the endless reproduction of human beings. As a prehistoric culture, Yinshan rock paintings show human's strong desire for life. Female genitals are painted on the north side of a boulder on the west side of Tongkugou in Yinshan, Langshan area, which shows naked female worship. On the rock paintings near Table Mountain in Wuhai City, there are male genitals, which is another worship of male roots. How urgent people's desire to have children is. Therefore, people can re-examine the connotation of Yinshan rock paintings. Shooting arrows at animals not only shows the self-confidence and desire before hunting, but also shows the inducement of childbirth: "Primitive people, although acknowledging that men and women can have children, are more convinced that the reason of childbirth is that childbirth enters women's bodies, which is the potential energy or life source directly existing in all objects, just like watching the wind and watching the fire" (Niu Kecheng's Reproductive Witchcraft and Reproductive Worship). It is this source of life that the cultural significance of shooting and hunting maps pursues.
In the face of harsh nature, if human beings want to survive, they must pursue the reproduction of animals and human beings, otherwise human beings will become extinct. This is the strongest and most basic human need. A rock painting of Wulate Zhongqi is carved on the top of a rock, in which three couples are having sex. Their heads are opposite, their upper limbs are stretched and their legs are bent. There are horses, cows, goats and other animals in the picture. With arms outstretched and legs spread apart, there is another person beside him. There are animals again. Such a complicated picture has a clear theme. Sex witchcraft promotes the reproduction of livestock, and people also use the reproduction of livestock to improve human reproductive ability. "heaven and earth?" Everything turns into alcohol ","men and women practice intensively, and everything turns into life ",which is the life melody of ancient human beings.
Hegel, a famous aesthete, said: "In the era of discussing symbolic art, we have mentioned that what the East emphasizes and respects is often universal vitality, not the spirit and strength of ideology, but the creativity of reproduction." The primitive and vivid Yinshan rock painting is a symbol of vitality.