Riding the wind of rebirth

Chapter 1715: Humans Evolved from Monkeys

"But if this technique originated from Western saddles, then it would be more appropriate to call it Western saddle paint." Matsuizo was a little puzzled: "Isn't this explanation a bit far-fetched?"

"It is indeed a bit far-fetched, so another Ming Dynasty person named Ren Mu put forward another theory in "Tingyu Ji Tan": 'Rhinoceros skin should be Xipi, Pi means navel. Rhinoceros skin is hard and has patterns. The patterns on the four sides of its navel are like Taotie facing each other. There is a round hole in the middle. It is polished when sitting or lying down, and the color is very smooth. People in the Western Regions cut it and use it as belt ornaments. ... Later lacquerware imitated it, so it took its name.'"

"Dumu believes that the original name of this lacquerware should be 'Xibi', which has the same pronunciation as 'Xipi', but with different characters."

"He explained that the word 'Pi' means belly button. Rhinoceros have strong skin, and when they sit or lie down, their belly button is rubbed very smooth by the ground. There are layers of patterns around it, which look like the Taotie patterns in the Middle Earth."

"People in the Western Regions often used the skin of the rhinoceros' navel to make a belt decoration or buckle. Later, when the Silk Road was opened, this kind of ornament became known to the Han people."

"For example, the Book of Han, Biography of the Xiongnu, records that the emperor gave the Chanyu 'a golden belt and a golden rhinoceros horn.' This shows that the golden rhinoceros horn was one of the symbolic ornaments of aristocracy at that time."

"Because it is a precious decoration used by the nobility, it will naturally affect the public's aesthetic taste and the people will imitate it, and eventually this kind of lacquer art was born."

"I think this explanation is much more reasonable," Jin Chunyi said, "Does China have similar cultural relics evidence?"

"Yes, and quite a lot of them," Zhou Zhi said. "A rhinoceros-skin lacquer wine cup was unearthed from Zhu Ran's tomb during the Three Kingdoms period. The Palace Museum has rhinoceros-skin pen holders from the Ming and Qing dynasties, sunflower-shaped lidded boxes, incense boxes, tea cans, and so on."

"However, the ancient rhino skin lacquer craft used red, yellow and black as the filling, the texture is often like rhino skin, tiger skin, or like the natural wood grain of huanghuali, or like a pineapple with some skin peeled off. Therefore, in the Qing Dynasty, this craft was also called 'pineapple lacquer' or 'tiger skin lacquer' in the Thirteen Hongs in Guangdong."

"However, ancient craftsmen were bound by rules and had many restrictions on their creations." Zhou Zhi said: "What we just said is just to show that this craft has existed since a long time ago. Whether it is the color matching, pattern design, or creative intention, we have surpassed our predecessors. We are completely standing on their shoulders and using the craftsmanship they invented to independently create our own works."

"If you are not someone who has a deeper understanding of the subject, when you see a rhinoceros skin sunflower-petal lidded box from the Qing Dynasty and your lacquer painting, it would be hard to even associate them as products of the same craft."

This is indeed not an empty compliment. The artifacts made of rhinoceros skin lacquer are simple, calm and restrained, while the paintings of Lesoag are gorgeous, strong and unrestrained. It can be said that except for the craftsmanship, the two are completely opposite in almost every other aspect.

Among the traditional patterns, the main ones are those that imitate the texture of wood and water waves.

Some of Lesoag's lacquer paintings are like countless large and small soap bubbles stacked together, some are like lights rippling on water waves to create bizarre lines, some are like volcanic eruptions and the flow of magma, and some are even like the flame patterns in the Sichuan red recently discovered by Zhou Zhi, and some are like wheat fields, rain ponds, snowy streams...

In addition to the craftsmanship of rhinoceros skin lacquer, one can also see the shadows of Western oil paintings and Japanese Takamaki-e. The craftsmanship achievements may not be as good as those of the ancients, but the use of artistic language has far surpassed their predecessors.

It’s the same old saying: a painter who has undergone systematic training is indeed much better at design and creation than a craftsman who does not understand the language and logic of art and only knows how to copy and paste human figures.

Compared to the paintings, those bizarre large gourds made with rhinoceros skin lacquer technique were inferior and not good enough.

But Zhou Zhi's dislike doesn't mean Matsui Zao doesn't like it, especially the large gourd. At first glance, the pattern is integrated, but it can be split in half. After the split, the inner wall is divided into black and red. Both backgrounds are full of clouds. The red half of the gourd is painted with a strong man, and the black half is painted with a gentle and beautiful woman. And around the two people, there are many strange monsters and "humans" of all sizes.

Zhou Zhi now has a deep understanding of Yi legends and knows that Lesoag depicts the founding myth of their nation.

In the Yi ethnic group's creation myth, the world also began from chaos, from which clear air and turbid air gradually separated, and then shadows and shapes were formed.

The pure air rose to become the sky and turned into a man named Ximuzha; the turbid air descended to become the earth and gave birth to a woman named Xiduzuo. These two were the ancestors of mankind.

The clear and turbid qi continued to interact, day and night became distinct, and life began. Mountains and forests flourished, beasts expanded, and the king of heaven, ministers of earth, and countless gods were born.

The Dragon King's daughter, Sayile Jiaoer Yidriva, began to create humans with yellow mud.

The first generation of people created were one-eyed people with a triangular eye on their noses. This generation was called "La Di".

In the era of Ladie, humans and monkeys lived together, lived in caves in winter and nests in summer, ate raw meat and drank blood. They did not know how to plow the fields, could not speak, had no distinction between the old and the young, and lived in a primitive and ignorant era where men and women lived together.

Gradually, the population of humans and monkeys increased, human thoughts and feelings became richer, and humans developed to the second generation.

The second generation had an oval vertical eye on their foreheads. These people were called "Raven". Humans in the Raven era had enhanced their power to conquer and transform nature, and they also produced several famous "sages". Among them, Shi Mokui invented fire, and Bukeke knew about farming and animal husbandry.

One of them became the ancestor of modern humans. When humans were passed down from the first generation Ximuzhexiduzuo to the 29th generation grandson Louzhuwu, Louzhuwu raised twelve children. Except for one named Wuluocuo, the other eleven moved to a place near the water.

The god Tsegezi betrothed his beautiful third daughter to Wuluocu. After three years of marriage, the two had no children. The wise man Bai Bogen took them to worship their ancestors, and they gave birth to three children in succession.

The first two were normal, but the third took three full years to conceive. The baby was born with a pair of horizontal eyes, could speak as soon as he opened his mouth, and could walk on the ground.

This child is Apu Dumu, the ancestor of "modern humans" in Yi legend.

This story is very magical. In Zhou Zhi's impression, among all the myths and legends in the world, only the Yi mythology says that humans evolved from monkeys, and it also has the concept of "evolution".

However, it is a bit nonsensical that the evolution always focuses on the difference in the eyes, but when I told the story to Matsui Zou, he was immediately fascinated.

Zhou Zhi then remembered that many ancient legends of the island country were as magical as this legend of the Yi people.