Culture is the patent of human beings. Culture has been formed since the emergence of human beings. Human beings are the only creators and carriers of culture. Culture is the soul of human beings and the inner foundation on which human beings survive and develop. When we examine Hunan culture, we can first push the lens to the distant past and get a glimpse of the mysteries of Hunan's ancient ancestors.
There is a small county town in the lower reaches of Lishui River in northern Hunan and northwest of Dongting Lake. In ancient times, this place was an important distribution center for supplies, with merchants coming from the south and north gathering here. "A market was set up next to Jin," so it was called "Jin City." After modern land transportation became more convenient, Jin City was no longer as prosperous as it used to be. But after 1988, it attracted people's attention again. This year, archaeologists discovered a batch of stone flakes, stone balls, choppers, scrapers, and large sharpeners used by primitive humans in the soil of a hill more than 50 meters high called Tiger Claw Mountain 4 kilometers east of the county. Shaped utensils, etc., the shape of the utensil is thick and crude, the technique is simple, and the shape is regular. After repeated measurements, it is at least 500,000 years old, roughly the same period as the Peking Man, making it the earliest ancient human activity site discovered so far in Hunan.
Since the 1980s, hundreds of Paleolithic sites and locations dating from hundreds of thousands to more than 10,000 years ago have been discovered in Hunan, distributed throughout the province, especially in Yuanshui There are many in the , Lishui River Basin and Dongting Lake areas. The so-called Paleolithic Age refers to an era when humans used rough stone tools that were made by striking methods without grinding and processing, and lived a life of gathering, fishing and hunting. In the Neolithic Age, humans used ground stone tools, produced primitive crops and animal husbandry, and began to make pottery. Primitive handicrafts such as tanning and textiles led to a relatively stable settled life.
Since 1993, carbonized rice grains, chaff and loose coarse pottery shards have been discovered in Yuchanyan cave in Dao County. After testing by specialized institutions at home and abroad, the date was 21,000 to 15,000 years ago. This is the earliest rice found in the world with traces of artificial breeding and the earliest complete pottery in China. This shows that Hunan at that time had begun to transform from the Stone Age to the Neolithic Age. This is the earliest in China.
Around this time, archaeologists unearthed pottery pieces with high craftsmanship and engraved with patterns such as phoenix and bird patterns, sun patterns, and animal face patterns more than 7,800 years ago in the Hongjiang Gaomiao Temple. The earliest formal sacrificial place in primitive society has been discovered in China. The Chengtoushan ancient city ruins excavated in Li County date back to 7,000 to 6,500 years ago. The city covers an area of ??more than 88,000 square meters, including city walls, moats, driveways, roof foundations, roads, tombs, pottery kilns, altars, rice fields, etc. The city There is a moat and a driveway outside. This is the earliest ancient city discovered in my country so far. Its model became the first exhibition item of the China Pavilion at the 2010 Shanghai World Expo.
It can be seen that in the land of Hunan, there is a very ancient and long cultural heritage. The ancestors created here a primitive culture that played a prominent role in Chinese history. To this day, this cultural inheritance continues. After continuous enrichment, development and improvement, it has formed a splendid culture with unique regional characteristics, namely Hunan culture.
"Culture" is a concept that covers a wide range of areas, and cultural phenomena are diverse and colorful. Over the years, Chinese and foreign scholars have disagreed on the definition of culture. At the beginning of the 20th century, Loweller (1865-1943), president of Harvard University in the United States, a famous educator and jurist, once said with emotion: "In this world, nothing is more elusive than culture. We cannot analyze it because Its ingredients are endless; we cannot describe it because it has no fixed shape. Our attempt to define its meaning in words is like holding the air in our hands, except that when we look for culture. It’s not in our hands, it’s everywhere.” Over the years, people have defined culture in hundreds of ways. It is generally believed that the concept of culture can be divided into broad and narrow senses. In a broad sense, it refers to the sum of the material and spiritual production capabilities and the material and spiritual wealth created by human beings in the process of social practice. In a narrow sense, it refers to the ability of spiritual production and spiritual products.
The latter mainly includes the following aspects:
Ideology, such as values, ways of thinking, religious beliefs, and moral sentiments. Social psychology, social trends of thought, language expression, etc.
Institutional culture, such as lifestyle, customs, personality traits, etc.
Material culture refers to the material products of spiritual culture, such as books, periodicals, and cultural utensils. Arts and crafts, clothing and food, cultural relics, etc.
Among them, ideology is the main body of spiritual culture, while values ????are the core of ideology, and other aspects play a decisive role.
As a historical phenomenon, the development of culture has historical inheritance; in a class society, it has class characteristics; at the same time, it also has national and regional characteristics, and the cultures of different nations and different regions have formed cultural diversity. In human society, economy is the foundation, politics is the concentrated expression of economy, and culture is the economic and political reflection of society. Economy and politics determine the nature and development direction of culture, while culture reacts on politics and economy, exerting a huge influence on politics and economy. Economy, politics, and culture promote and restrict each other and are an inseparable whole.
Huxiang culture can also be divided into broad and narrow senses. In a broad sense, it refers to the sum of the material and spiritual abilities and achievements created by the people of all ethnic groups in Hunan since ancient times in the practice of social production and life activities; in a narrow sense, it refers to the spiritual abilities and spiritual products they have created and continuously developed. , including ideology, institutional culture, behavioral culture and material culture, etc. In the past, people often referred to "Huxiang culture" as a cultural form that already had relatively complete spiritual characteristics of Hunan's region, such as the Hunan culture after the Song Dynasty.
The connotation of Huxiang culture is very rich, including not only the primitive culture created by the earliest aboriginal residents living in Huxiang, but also the traditional culture brought by immigrants from the Central Plains in various historical periods. Mainly foreign culture, as well as new culture formed by the integration of indigenous residents and immigrants; including the dominant mainstream culture of each era and the processing and improvement of intellectuals such as philosophy, political theory, law "Elegant culture" such as institutions, religion, literature and art, educational theory, economic theory, military theory, scientific and technological achievements, etc., also includes "secular culture" such as non-mainstream culture and the folk customs, folk customs, and social psychology of various ethnic groups and people. "Secular culture" is the source of "elegant culture", and the people of all ethnic groups living in Hunan at this time are the foundation for the creation and development of Hunan culture.
Huxiang culture is an important part of Chinese national culture. It is a regional culture with unique distinctive characteristics that continues to develop and continue. It occupies an important position in Chinese national culture.