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*ROCK ART IN CHINA*

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*Chen Zhao Fu*

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INTRODUCTION

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Rock art is widespread in every continent. Its globosity extent and
historical depth become a cosmopolitan pop study.

Recent discoveries show that the early man chose to depict and
engrave on rock surfaces. Although exploration has by no means been
exhaustive, rock art is reported from thousands of sites. Scientific
evidence such as Carbon-14 dating, paleo-climatic data and
archaeological analysis indicates that the oldest rock art known today
was executed ca. 40,000 years ago.

At many rock art sites and in the earliest forms of writing, ideographs
are signs conveying ideas, in a process of transmission from writer to
reader and from the painter to the real or imaginary beings to which the
message is addressed.

　

Research reveals a number of constants in rock art, on whatever
continent it may have been produced, such as the use of similar
techniques and colors, a narrow and repetitive range of subjects, the
same ways of combining different elements, the same type of logic, the
recurrence of a range of symbolic ideographs and, especially, the
combination of pictographs, ideographs and psychographs. This raises
further questions and suggests that the same structural basis and the
same conceptual dynamics may underlie all creative art.

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The western scholars almost knew very few about the rock  art  in 
Far  East. In fact, the discovery of rock art was made very long  ago 
in China,  and the literature about rock art is also very old. The 
earliest book which record rock art is "Han Fei zi" written 2,300 years
ago, by an ancient philosopher Han Fei (280 - 233 BC)

A geographical book about rivers named "Shui Jing Zhu" was written
over  1,500  years ago, by Li Danyuan, a geographer of the  Northern 
Wei dynasty (386-534 AD).It records many rock art sites which were found
in that times. the regions cover half of the area of China.  Actually,
China is the earliest country that had discovered rock art in the world.

Since  then  more  rock art sites have been  found  in  China.  At
present,  throughout the whole country over 130 counties in 19 
provinces have discovered sites, but this is by no means a complete
count of all of the  drawings  and  figures. The discoveries include 
the  coast  of  the Pacific (Ocean) in the eastward, and go to the
Pamirs in the west, in the north  they reach the Amur River and Inner
Mongolia, and go as far  south as the border with Burma.

　

(1) North rock art system, distributing in Inner Mongolia, Xinjiang,
Ningxia, Gansu, Qinghai, the subject matters mainly are animals, the
artistic dominant style is realistic, rock engravings are widespread.
They are the works of hunting and herding nationalities that lived in
northern and northwestern China.

The hunters consists mainly of large animal figures and a great deal of
symbols. In the rock art of northern China, the large animals include
wild oxen, tigers, deer, horses; camels are represented in what is now a
desert area. Some of these animals are now extinct. It has been
suggested that the Americas and Australians were originally colonized
from East Asia. The early rock art of these three continents is abstract
designs, as that of China also appears to be. Discussion of early art
origin cannot therefore be limited to evidence from western Europe, as
the large animal figures has been the case almost exclusively so far.

Meanwhile, during the hunter time the worship of divinity was
appeared. The masked beings are also frequently depicted, revealing a
very rich romanticism.

(2) Southwest rock art system, distributing in Tibet, Yunnan, Guangxi,
Guizhou and Sichuan, the subject matters mainly are the activities of
human being, special the religious activities. Rock paintings, mostly
using red mineral pigments, are common in the southwest.

Yunnan  and Guangxi provinces, bordered by Laos, Burma and Vietnam, is a
tropical  and mountainous  region.  Many ethnic groups lived there. It
is  one  of  the least  explored  parts of the world, and very little
was known  about  it until recently. Cangyuan rock paintings are
distributed in the border  of Burma,  and  10  rock  painting sites
were  located  and  recorded,  with numerous  prehistoric  people's life
scenes. Eighty sites have  found  in Guangxi along Zuojiang River;  and
all sites are described the praying figures about 4,000  in the sum
total. The meaning is ritual and the style is schematic. The C-14 and
archaeological analysis indicate that they were worked Ca 3,000 years ago.

When I took a small boat down to the Zuojiang River of Guangxi, the
scene along the River struck me. I have visited Huashan Rock paintings
site many times. In the March of 1985, we started early.  It is rainy;
the wide expanse of misty Zuojiang River is draped in a veil of mist.
The mist and clouds are moving and running, and gradually vanished then
we could see undulating hills, forests and bamboo, green hills and clear
waters really picturesque scenery.

(3) Southeast coast rock art system, distributing in Jiangsu,
Fujian, Guangdong, Taiwan, Hong Kong and Macao. The rock art mainly
correlation with the activities on the sea, many rock art are engraved
before launch out. The technique is carving, and the most subject
matters are abstract designs. 

　

The Lianyungang rock engravings in Jiangsu province are of great
interest. Most of the figures show mythical  beings represented as
anthropomorphic faces on the end of stalks - perhaps  they reflect  the 
worship of the earth and sun, as agriculture was  the  main resource of
the people. Most Chinese scholars consider that they  belongs to the
Neolithic Age.

　

This CD perhaps is only a small fraction of the China's heritage of rock
art. But they reflect this art reveals the human capacities of
abstraction, synthesis and idealization; it describes economic and
social activities, ideas, beliefs and practices, and provides unique
insight into the intellectual life and cultural patterns of man. Rock
art contains the most ancient testimony of human imaginative and
artistic creativity, long before the invention of writing, and
constitutes one of the most significant aspects of the common heritage
of humanity.

　

　

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