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The history and culture of bamboo in China.
China's long-standing culture has an indissoluble bond with bamboo, forming a colorful and unique bamboo culture in China. It is the long-term production practice and cultural activities of working people that summarize the morphological characteristics of bamboo as the spiritual outlook of being modest and upright, and its connotation forms the national character, endowment and spiritual symbol of the Central Plains. When people see bamboo, they will naturally think of its indomitable character. This is an inexhaustible spiritual wealth and a special aesthetic value of bamboo. Bamboo is a tall and fast-growing herb with woody stems. It is distributed in tropical, subtropical and warm temperate regions, with the most concentrated distribution and species in East Asia, Southeast Asia, Indian Ocean and Pacific Islands. Bamboo sticks are tall and straight, slender, green in all seasons and proud of rain, which are deeply loved by the people of China. They are known as one of the four gentlemen of Mei Lan, Zhu Ju and Mei Songzhu. There are many literati in ancient and modern China who have a special liking for bamboo and admire it.

China is one of the countries with the richest bamboo resources, the largest bamboo forest area and the earliest development and utilization of bamboo resources in the world, and is known as the "Bamboo Kingdom". Bamboo has always been praised by people because of its green and upright posture, proud snow in Ao Shuang and prosperous seasons. People give it a reputation as a "gentleman" with a guilty conscience, perseverance and natural demeanor. In the long history of thousands of years, bamboo is closely related to people's lives. China's long-standing culture has formed an indissoluble bond with bamboo, forming a colorful and unique bamboo culture in China.

The Chinese nation is a nation with a long cultural history of over 5,000 years. It is a nation that loves life and life, so it is also a nation that loves forests and creates forest culture. Forests are the source of human civilization. Civilization was born and developed in the forest. All the ancient civilizations in history were born in forests, and they developed and prospered in the world. Forests play an indelible role in the development of human culture and civilization, and play an increasingly important role. China's forest culture is based on China's traditional culture and China's unique local conditions. Long-standing forest culture is an important part of the excellent traditional culture of the Chinese nation, and bamboo culture is a unique and important branch of forest culture.

"Eating without meat is better than living without bamboo", a famous saying by Su Dongpo, a famous writer in the Song Dynasty, reveals a special phenomenon in the history of Chinese civilization: bamboo, as a special plastid, has penetrated into all aspects of the material and spiritual life of the Chinese nation. Bamboo is an important resource for the construction of material civilization. It permeates and condenses in spiritual culture, forming the unique color of China culture, thus forming a unique bamboo civilization in China and accumulating into a long-standing bamboo culture in China. Needham, a famous British scholar and authority on East Asian civilization, pointed out in the History of Science and Technology in China that East Asia was once called "bamboo civilization" and China was called "the country of bamboo civilization".

The appearance of bamboo symbols in Oracle Bone Inscriptions and the creation and development of bamboo characters reflect the historical evolution of bamboo civilization in China from an important aspect. Professor Yu, a famous bamboo scientist, made detailed statistics on Oracle Bone Inscriptions? Yin Shang? , Jin Wen? Zhou? , "say the words"? Eastern Han Dynasty? , "Jade"? Liang? , "vocabulary"? Ming? , Kangxi dictionary? Qing? The number of bamboo characters in important dictionaries of past dynasties. According to the unearthed cultural relics and related ancient books, the close relationship between bamboo and ancient Chinese industrial and agricultural production, transportation, military weapons, culture and art, music and people's daily life was discussed. China culture is saturated with traces of bamboo. In the past five thousand years, the growth, expansion and prosperity of the Chinese nation is also a poem of bamboo culture. Therefore, it is well-deserved that China is called "the country of bamboo civilization".

As Su Dongpo said: "People who eat bamboo shoots, cover bamboo tiles, carry bamboo rafts, cook bamboo firewood, wear bamboo skin, write bamboo paper and walk bamboo shoes." Take "calligrapher's bamboo paper" as an example. From the engraving of bamboo slips in the Yin and Shang Dynasties to the invention of bamboo paper in the Six Dynasties, bamboo, as the carrier of China's cultural spread and accumulation, has always occupied an important position in cultural development, and played a direct and indirect role in preserving human knowledge and forming the long and splendid history and culture of the Chinese nation.

"Huaxia bamboo culture, up and down for 5 thousand years, is connected with bamboo everywhere." Bamboo is evergreen all the year round, with elegant posture and developed whip roots. It not only has high economic value, but also has good ecological, tourism and ornamental value. It plays a unique role in greening the environment and plays an important role in economic and social development. The development of bamboo culture not only meets people's material needs, but also cultivates people's spiritual sentiments and becomes a symbol of character.

Connotation and extension of bamboo culture in China. China bamboo culture is China culture with bamboo as its carrier, and its content can be divided into bamboo cultural landscape and bamboo cultural symbols. Bamboo shoots, bamboo writing tools, handicrafts, musical instruments, dance props, daily utensils, production tools, buildings, transportation, etc. It is the material that constitutes the vessel. The display of cultural connotation is not the bamboo itself, but the utensils made of bamboo and their usage norms. It can not only show the nature of cultural humanization, but also show the scene that the Chinese nation consciously creates with bamboo for specific practical needs. This is the bamboo cultural landscape. The "bamboo" in religion, literary painting and ethical norms itself directly represents and symbolizes people's spiritual world such as emotions, thinking, ideas, values and ideals, and is a symbol of bamboo culture. Bamboo cultural landscape refers to the Chinese cultural nature displayed by humanized bamboo, or a scene consciously created by the Chinese nation to meet the needs of life, production, writing and aesthetics. Bamboo cultural landscape not only shows the psychological tendency and characteristics of the Chinese nation, but also reflects the degree of cultural evolution of the Chinese nation. In the daily life of China people, bamboo is closely related to people's clothing, food, shelter, transportation and use.

Clothing-bamboo clothing is one of the bamboo cultural landscapes in China. From the aspect of clothing, bamboo shoes and hats made of bamboo cloth, bamboo crown and bamboo rain protection appeared in Qin and Han Dynasties, and they have been in use ever since. The bamboo hairpin, bamboo grate and bamboo hoop used by the ancients are all ornaments made of bamboo, which shocked the cultural relics unearthed at Mawangdui at home and abroad. There are bamboo clips, corner clips and tortoise shells on the steamed bun, which reflects their pursuit of beauty.

Eating bamboo is the second largest bamboo cultural landscape in China. From the perspective of diet, according to the Book of Songs, Gong Yu and other documents, bamboo shoots have become a delicious dish in the Western Zhou Dynasty, and have been a famous dish on the table of the Chinese nation ever since. Bamboo can not only satisfy hunger, but also be endowed with a strong cultural connotation, pouring into the Chinese nation's special love for plants, which grew up in farming culture.

Folk bamboo architecture is the third largest bamboo cultural landscape in China. From the residential point of view, bamboo is used by the Chinese nation as a building material for all parts of the house, even to the point that "the building has no tiles and bamboo is built;" Not a brick wall, but a bamboo wall; The door has no board, and the door has bamboo. If the rest are rafters, if they are surprised, if they are windows, if they are walls, they are not bamboo. Bamboo architecture in China embodies the Chinese nation's life concept of agriculture-oriented, frugal and simple life interest, beautiful and harmonious, ethereal and elegant aesthetic ideal.

OK- Bamboo Transportation is the fourth largest bamboo cultural landscape in China. In terms of transportation, bamboo is an important building material. People use bamboo to pave roads and bridges, and make boats and cars. The traffic facilities and vehicles invented and created under the constraints of demand and conditions have been handed down from generation to generation in a specific environment and become a prominent cultural particle. On the one hand, bamboo transportation facilities and vehicles show the indomitable will and imaginative creative spirit of the Chinese nation, on the other hand, they also show the hierarchical concept of China traditional culture and the cultural mentality of pursuing equality.

Usage —— The production and living utensils made of bamboo are the fifth largest bamboo cultural landscape in China. Bamboo household appliances. Bamboo is widely used by the Chinese nation to make various daily necessities, such as cookers, drinking fountains, summer utensils, furniture and so on. The manufacturing technology, shape, size and use system of bamboo daily necessities constitute a unique picture of China's national life customs and China's cultural landscape, which shows the strong rational characteristics of China culture and embodies the artistic interest of China's national life.

Bamboo production tools. In the traditional society of China, the main industries such as agriculture, handicraft, animal husbandry and fishery all have bamboo production tools. In the ancient production of China, bamboo was an important material for production tools, whether simple or complex. On the one hand, bamboo production tools reflect the slow development of traditional social productive forces in China and the imbalance of regional economic level; On the other hand, they show the wisdom, courage and ideals of the Chinese nation in understanding and utilizing nature, and the realistic spirit of China culture in treating nature according to local conditions, despising eternity and affirming the past.

Bamboo writing utensils. China's writing tools are unique, and his writing materials are also quite unique and creative, among which bamboo plays an indispensable role. Bamboo pen is the earliest writing tool of the Chinese nation. As a tool to create calligraphy and painting, it has a long history. The pens of famous pens such as Xu Anbi, Tiger Pen and Elephant trunk are all made of bamboo. As early as the beginning of China culture, bamboo began to become the writing material of the Chinese nation-bamboo slips. In the Spring and Autumn Period, bamboo slips have become the main writing materials of the Chinese nation. It was not until the Southern Dynasties that the main writing of the Chinese nation, which was popular for about two thousand years, was completely replaced by paper. However, the close relationship between bamboo and writing materials has not been interrupted. Bamboo is no longer used as a direct writing material, but as a raw material for processing bamboo paper on writing materials, it became an important factor in writing materials at the latest in the middle of Tang Dynasty. Bamboo writing tools and materials, especially bamboo writing tools, are an important driving force to make Chinese characters artistic and form calligraphy art, and also an important driving force to form Chinese painting methods. Bamboo writing tools and materials are permeated with the aesthetic taste and cultural concept of China culture.

Entertainment-Bamboo entertainment is the sixth largest bamboo cultural landscape in China. Handicraft is the result of the change from practicality to aesthetics and the increase of human spiritual needs. It has both practical and aesthetic functions, which not only embodies the material production skills, but also shows the cultural character and aesthetic pursuit. The expression of these two aspects needs to rely on the changes of the shape, color and shape of its constituent materials, so when understanding and analyzing the cultural character and aesthetic pursuit of handicrafts, we can't ignore its structural materials. Among the works of art in China, bamboo handicrafts are quite distinctive and varied, which embodies the Chinese nation's exquisite, fresh and elegant, gentle and graceful aesthetic taste.

Bamboo musical instrument. Bamboo is an important material for making national musical instruments in China. It is listed as one of the "eight tones" in the classification of ancient Chinese music, and even "bamboo" is often used to represent wind music and "silk bamboo" to represent music. Bamboo musical instruments reflect the attitude of the Chinese nation towards the nature of "harmony between man and nature" or "harmony between man and nature", and also show the simplicity and flexibility of China traditional music.

The living environment of bamboo. From the perspective of human living environment, bamboo has also played its special role. Bamboo's unique biological and ecological characteristics determine that it has a wide range of ecological benefits: water conservation, soil and water conservation, wind and sand fixation, climate regulation, air purification and noise reduction, and providing living environment for other biological resources. It is favored by people, and people all over the world use it to protect and beautify the living environment of human beings. Cultural symbol refers to a certain social environment used to symbolize a specific meaning. China culture endows bamboo with the functions of symbolizing religious thoughts and ideal personality, and expressing aesthetic feelings and ideals. The inner feelings and thoughts of the Chinese nation are often symbolized and expressed by bamboo, so bamboo has become an important symbol of China culture.

The religious symbol of bamboo is one of the symbols of bamboo culture in China. China culture began to sanctify and worship bamboo in the Warring States Period. Tianshidao regards bamboo as "spiritual grass" and has mysterious power to send children to prolong their lives. People often worship bamboo to pray for children or healthy growth, so as to drive away diseases and prolong life. Yi, Dai, Jingpo and other ethnic minorities regard bamboo as a plant originating from their own nation or something to save the lives of their ancestors. As their ancestors and protectors, bamboo has become a totem. Bamboo religious symbols symbolize the pious religious feelings, attitude towards reality and vision for the future of the Chinese nation.

Bamboo folk symbol is the second symbol of bamboo culture in China. Bamboo plays an extremely important role in folk culture. Bamboo culture is associated with oral literature and art, entertainment activities and folk customs; Sacrifice, weddings and funerals, communication, festivals, court rules and other community cultures constitute important elements of folk bamboo culture.

The symbol of bamboo poetry is the third symbol of bamboo culture in China. As early as ancient times, bamboo was regarded as the description content of primitive songs. Later, the literary works of the pre-Qin and Han dynasties, such as The Book of Songs, Songs of Chu, Yuefu of Han Dynasty, Nineteen Ancient Poems, etc., all described bamboo and bamboo wares in large quantities, but bamboo or bamboo wares were only a constituent element of artistic conception and had not yet become the central image. During the Southern Dynasties, with the appearance of landscape poems, the literature of chanting bamboo with bamboo as the central image was born, which was represented by Xie Tiao's Autumn Bamboo Qu and Singing Bamboo. Since then, scholars in all previous dynasties have enjoyed chanting bamboo and created a large number of literary works of chanting bamboo. The tall and straight bamboo, the evergreen color, the swaying sound and the clear shadow of bamboo all symbolize and express the feelings and thoughts of modesty, nobleness, frankness, firmness and yearning in the poetic mind, forming several literary symbol types, showing fresh, elegant, quiet and soft aesthetic characteristics.

The symbol of bamboo calligraphy and painting is the fourth symbol of bamboo culture in China. China's painting of bamboo began in the Tang Dynasty, and ink bamboo painting, an important branch of China's painting in the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms period, came out. During the Northern Song Dynasty, Wen Tong, Su Shi and others began to draw a large number of bamboos and perfected the art of bamboo painting. In the Qing Dynasty, there appeared a painter Zheng Xie who took bamboo as his profession. He not only left us a lot of bamboo paintings, but also made many innovations and theoretical summaries in bamboo paintings. From being upright, noble, aloof, loyal and rebellious to being frank, open and caring for people's feelings, painters all use bamboo paintings to symbolize and express themselves, forming a unique simple, light and distant painting style.

Bamboo landscape symbol is the fifth symbol of bamboo culture in China. Bamboo is an important plant material in Chinese classical gardens, and bamboo landscapes are recorded from Shanglinyuan, Wangchuan to Shoushan Genyue. There are many examples of bamboo landscaping in the existing classical gardens in the south of the Yangtze River, such as "a porch outside the bamboo" in Master Wang's garden, "Cuilinglong" in Canglang Pavilion, "Wu Bi Qifeng" in cemetery and "Spring Mountain" in a garden. Bamboo landscaping can render bamboo culture through poems, plaques, couplets, celebrities' former residences, sculptures, bamboo landscape stones, etc., so as to perfectly combine natural landscape with human landscape and create poetic garden artistic conception.

Bamboo personality symbol is the sixth symbol of bamboo culture in China. Bamboo has been personified in China culture and has become an important personality symbol symbolizing the Chinese nation's personality evaluation, ideals and goals. Confucianism and Taoism, the backbone of China's traditional culture, have designed two completely different life paths and personality ideals: making contributions and living in seclusion, being upright and enterprising, and being indifferent and adaptive. This diametrically opposite dual personality standard constitutes the traditional ideal personality system of China, and the bamboo personality symbol refers to the whole structure and system of China's traditional personality with its unique inclusiveness. Bamboo culture is the spirit of modesty and integrity summed up by the working people in their long-term production practice and cultural activities, and its connotation forms the national character, endowment and spiritual symbol of the Central Plains. When people see bamboo, they will naturally think of its indomitable character. This is an inexhaustible spiritual wealth and a special aesthetic value of bamboo. Bamboo is a tall and fast-growing herb with woody stems. It is distributed in tropical, subtropical and warm temperate regions, with the most concentrated distribution and species in East Asia, Southeast Asia, Indian Ocean and Pacific Islands. Bamboo sticks are tall and straight, slender, green in all seasons and proud of rain, which are deeply loved by the people of China. They are known as one of the four gentlemen of Mei Lan, Zhu Ju and Mei Songzhu.

Bai Juyi, the core of bamboo culture in China, summed up the characteristics of bamboo in bamboo cultivation and compared it to a saint and a gentleman. Liu Yanfu endowed bamboo with such qualities as rigidity, loyalty, righteousness, modesty and virtue. In life, people tend to personify the characteristics of bamboo. For example, people can easily associate bamboo's fear of cold with people's unyielding personality quality, and associate bamboo's breeze and fine bones with a "detached and refined" life realm. This natural attribute of bamboo coincides with human personality and is the core of bamboo culture in China.

Zheng Xie asserted that the green hills are not relaxed, and the roots are in the broken rocks. Poems such as "bear hardships and stand hard, let the east, west, north and south wind" all use bamboo to express their feelings or express their personality ideals. ChristianRandPhillips's tears on bamboo make bamboo a portrayal of women's unswerving love. Wang Wei, who enjoys a good reputation, is best at using bamboo to convey his Zen: "Sitting alone in a secluded place, playing pipa and humming a ditty. It's too light for anyone to hear, except my partner, Mingyue. From the materials for production and life to the scenery with natural ornamental value, and then to the aesthetic carrier to express the pursuit of human spirit, bamboo has undergone qualitative changes in people's lives. From nature to "humanized nature" and then to "humanized nature", the change from practicality to aesthetics marks people's ultimate concern for the nature closely related to it.

Characteristics of bamboo culture in China. Bamboo culture is a part of China culture. Compared with other types of culture, bamboo culture has strong characteristics such as literature and aesthetics, religion and folklore, life and local flavor. It not only has the attachment significance of moral personality, but also has the symbolic significance of ideal love, and it is also the carrier of Zen.

Bamboo culture in China has outstanding ethical characteristics. Bamboo culture is a cluster of China culture, which reflects the overall brilliance of China culture, and the ethical characteristics of bamboo culture reflect the cultural ethics of China. The reason why bamboo culture permeates so widely and embodies such a profound national spirit is that some characteristics of bamboo are isomorphic with China's traditional philosophy, and bamboo culture is an eclectic fusion of China's ancient literati thoughts. The strong ethical spirit of China's traditional culture puts forward the cultural demand for bamboo and endows it with rich connotations, while the analogical thinking of "harmony between man and nature" combines bamboo with people and their culture.

Bamboo culture is an important symbol that distinguishes China culture from other cultures. Whether it is the building materials, modeling features, or the cultural atmosphere it embodies, whether it is the signifier of bamboo culture, or the meaning it symbolizes and expresses, it can clearly and prominently show the characteristics of China culture and reveal the profound connotation of China. A pair of bamboo chopsticks, a bamboo building, a bamboo bridge, a bamboo flute, a bamboo fan, a bamboo tube brush, a poem chanting bamboo, and a pair of ink and bamboo paintings, the motto of "People are vulgar without bamboo" ... are all permeated with the rich flavor of China culture different from European culture, African culture and Latin American culture: bamboo chopsticks are the symbol of Chinese food being different from western food, and carriages are unique to ancient Americans. The bamboo brush is a symbol of ancient culture in China, the bamboo flute is a unique musical instrument in China, and the poem of chanting bamboo is a kind of poem of chanting objects in China. Mozhu painting represents Chinese painting, and bamboo's metaphor for personality can only be expressed by China philosophers ... Without interpretation and labeling, people will see things, think of people, see scenery and feel. The basic characteristics of China culture are displayed through bamboo and other cultural phenomena, which distinguishes it from other cultures. Yongzhuwu

Ming dynasty author;

Hanshan Zhangde

Five Bamboo Slip Poems

one

Cold flying thousands of feet jade, clear a forest frost. No matter how heavy the dust is, I will forget it.

Secondly,

Jiao Jiao Ling Yunzi, the night wind roared. Frost and snow don't know the year, I am a cold friend.

third

Frost withered and cold as jade, wind branches ringing like a harp. A night of rain in Xiaoxiang shattered the guest center.

Fourth.

Ye Genshi has a higher guilty conscience. A cold forest blows, and the clear night is accompanied by pines.

Fifth.

Qi 'ao is cloudless in spring, rainy and cold at night in Xiaoxiang. People in the virtual window listened and whispered to each other. The Origin of Bamboo Culture in China

In the 5,000-year history of the Chinese nation, bamboo is closely related to people's lives, and the formation of bamboo culture is a historical necessity, which is reflected in many aspects of material civilization and spiritual civilization. Archaeological and historical documents confirm that bamboo forests in China in primitive times started from Qilian Mountain in Gansu Province in the west, reached the northern part of the Yellow River Basin in the north, Taiwan Province Province in the east and Hainan Island in the south. The two centers of China's cultural origin-the Yellow River Basin and the Yangtze River Basin-are located in the bamboo forest ecological zone. It is in this bamboo ecological environment that our ancestors created splendid history and culture. Bamboo has profoundly influenced China's writing, production, literature, art, religion, customs and daily life, and its influence is as deep and wide as that of stone tools and metals, thus accumulating a long-standing and colorful bamboo culture in China.

The exact record of the use of bamboo originated from Yangshao culture. 1954, the Yangshao cultural site in banpo village, Xi 'an was unearthed about 6000 years ago. The symbol of "bamboo" can be recognized on the unearthed pottery, which shows that bamboo has been studied and utilized by people before, that is, the history of China people's research and utilization of bamboo can be traced back to a new era five or six thousand years ago. Chinese characters originated from Yangshao culture where primitive society collapsed, and the original symbol of the word "bamboo" should have appeared before this. The research shows that the various uses of bamboo have been known in the Shang Dynasty in China, and one of them is used as bamboo slips, that is, writing on bamboo pieces and stringing them together with ropes to form a "book", from which the Chinese character "book" comes. Bamboo slips have preserved a large number of precious documents before the Eastern Han Dynasty for us, such as Shangshu, Book of Rites and Analects of Confucius, all of which were written on bamboo slips and wooden slips. During the Yin and Shang Dynasties, books written with bamboo slips were called "bamboo books" and letters written with bamboo slips were called "bamboo newspapers". The invention of bamboo pen is also a pioneering page in cultural history. Oracle Bone Inscriptions, jade tablets and pottery unearthed in Yin Ruins all have Zhu Mo's brush calligraphy. There is also evidence in the cultural relics unearthed from the tomb of Zeng Houyi in Hubei and the tomb of Ting 'e in the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period.

As early as the ninth century, China began to use bamboo to make paper, about a thousand years earlier than Europe. About making paper with bamboo, there is a detailed record in the Ming Dynasty's Tiangong Kaiwu, and a bamboo paper manufacturing map is attached. Making paper with bamboo marks the great development and achievement of ancient paper-making technology in China, and promotes the prosperity of China culture. With the development of the times, bamboo has played a great role in life and has a closer relationship with people.

Development Status of Bamboo Culture in China

China is the country with the richest bamboo resources in the world. Abundant bamboo resources provide abundant material resources for the emergence and development of ancient bamboo culture in China, which is the material basis for the emergence of bamboo culture in China. China has cultivated and utilized bamboo for more than 6000 years. With the strengthening of human environmental awareness, the excellent characteristics and development value of bamboo have been re-recognized and gradually pushed onto the historical stage of ecological environment construction and mountain economic construction.

Bamboo has many characteristics and advantages that other ordinary trees can't match. Developing bamboo resources and bamboo industry can organically combine ecological construction and industrial development, and promote industrial construction and sustainable economic development while promoting ecological construction.

Typical bamboo parks include Beijing Zizhuyuan Park, Shanghai Wanzhu Park, Nanjing Juhuatai Park, Chengdu Wangjiangta Park and Guangzhou Xiaogang Park. There are mainly Jixiu Garden in Beijing Botanical Garden, Zhu Fang Garden in Hangzhou Huanglongdong Garden and Wanzhuwu in Caishiji Park in Maanshan. China Bamboo Museum, located in Anji County Bamboo Seed Garden, is a special bamboo museum with the largest exhibition area, the richest exhibits and the most advanced facilities in China.

China Bamboo Industry Festival-1997 Since then, the successful holding of China Bamboo Culture Festival every two years and the selection of the first ten "Hometowns of Bamboo in China" have added a lot of color to China bamboo culture. 1997165438+10, the first international intergovernmental organization headquartered in Beijing, the international bamboo and rattan organization, was formally established, which is a major event in the world bamboo industry.

Institutions, scientific research achievements and monographs that study bamboo culture have mushroomed and flourished.

Bamboo culture in China has a long history, colorful, magical and simple. After thousands of years of historical development, it has left a deep historical projection in the long river of Chinese national spirit. With tenacious vitality, it realizes the integration with modern culture through the practice of cultural tradition in production and life, thus forming the cultural consciousness and character of the Chinese nation to keep pace with the times.