On the eve of May Day, in the afternoon of the 10th Tourism Publicity Month and the 2nd Hezhou Peony Culture Festival in Linxia, I visited the Majiayao Painted Pottery Museum in Linxia and met Ma Ping, a writer, poet and editor-in-chief of Hezhou magazine in Linxia. We were walking and watching with the audience when she suddenly asked me, "Happiness, do you like painted pottery?" I thought about it and said to her, "I like it." I really don't know how to answer except "like". Then I told my true feelings, "People living in Linxia, especially Linxia people, should know something about painted pottery. Friends from other places come, or ask us what painted pottery looks like. We can say a few words, not necessarily archaeology, but at least we should know more. "

Ma Ping didn't reply after listening. I don't know what she thinks of painted pottery. I don't know whether she appreciates Linxia painted pottery as much as I do. What bothers me is those painted pottery with complicated silk threads, which makes me pay attention to painted pottery, its appearance and modeling style, and the cultural types of the specific era it contains. However, everything seems to be the echo of this world. At this time, I, standing thousands of miles away, stood in front of it, staring blankly for a long time, listening to the enlightenment of the kettle, Linxia painted pottery was silent, always silent, standing in the world outside the window, in a trance, waiting for the Millennium stars, waiting for the silence as always, always only caring about a silent reminder.

Painted pottery is actually colorless. Then why is it called painted pottery?

My understanding of painted pottery began with the exhibition of painted pottery in Linxia State Museum. In the Linxia State Museum of Hongyuan Garden, there is a complete collection of cultural relics and a large number of painted pottery exhibits, ranking first in the country in terms of quantity, scale and grade value. Painted pottery cultural relics unearthed in Nanlong, Linxia and A Jin's tomb are the treasures of Linxia Painted Pottery Museum. In this excavated ancient tomb of the Southern Song Dynasty, archaeologists were pleasantly surprised to find that a stone tablet was engraved with peony patterns. Its excavation, like a stepping stone, opened the study of Linxia's human history and advanced the history of Hezhou peony planting and Hezhou brick carving art more than 800 years ago. Perhaps it will be earlier than this, and the only remaining objects just bring people's attention here.

Any further, the clue will be broken.

At first, I listened to Ma Ling, the lecturer of Linxia Museum, telling tourists about painted pottery. When she participated in the first tour guide and commentator competition in Quanzhou, she still used painted pottery as the opening topic. That was many years later. Although there were no props in her explanation of painted pottery, she smiled at the audience and the judges present, as if she had not come to participate in the competition. She is indeed in the painted pottery museum, confidently and skillfully explaining to the tourists again. Those stories about painted pottery are very touching and left a deep impression on people. The enduring mystery of painted pottery lies in its historical and cultural evolution, which has been attracting the attention of the world for thousands of years. Known and unknown parts, open propositions, just like its shaping, the secrets wrapped in the urn have yet to be interpreted by future generations. After more than ten years of development, Linxia tourism has gradually formed, and tourism products have been continuously improved and enriched. With the deepening of academic research, Linxia painted pottery is unveiling its mystery.

There is an oil painting in the painted pottery museum of Dongxiang Autonomous County Museum, which depicts a simulation picture of painted pottery made by the ancients thousands of years ago. It is a labor scene that people today describe and copy according to their own imagination. Lush mountains and rivers, thatched grass, a warm and pleasant paradise outline the fiery production of men's and women's weaving in Paleolithic age. Around the camp in the picture, a group of people who make painted pottery are mostly women and children. Tribal division of labor, men are responsible for going out hunting or reducing pioneering and heavy physical labor. Due to the simplicity and limitation of labor tools, a lot of work needs the concerted efforts of people in Qi Xin. In matriarchal society, the mother is the head of the family, guarding the house and nursing the offspring to make painted pottery. Perhaps many of the painted pottery we see today were made by my mother. They are very delicate.

Painted pottery technology mainly includes plate building method and strip building method. Making pottery pots by hand without molds and calibrators shows the producer's superb skills and exquisite aesthetic thoughts. On that day, a group of foreign tourists and I visited the Majiayao Painted Pottery Museum and listened to the introduction of the commentator. There are three information points that summarize the development of painted pottery culture. One is the remarkable feature of "living on weeds", which can well explain the characteristics of the birthplace of Chinese civilization and a cultural ecological chain formed in the middle and upper reaches of the Yellow River. For example, the Lajia site in Minhe County, Qinghai Province, among the unearthed remains, there are the oldest bowl noodles in the world, as well as scattered painted pottery cultural relics and pottery pots of Qijia culture, corresponding to Qijia culture unearthed in Guanghe County. One is the change of modeling and ornamentation, which records the ancient people's infinite reverence for nature and entrusts the totem of people's worship for unknown life, from plain wide-bellied thin bottleneck to open basin, from hand-painted wavy pattern to grid pattern, to fairy doll pattern and fairy pattern, and then to the change of three-dimensional texture that suddenly surfaced. One is the rise of Neolithic Age, the gradual transition to patriarchal society, and the degradation of painted pottery. From the Neolithic Age to the replacement of bronzes in the middle and lower reaches of the Yellow River basin, especially in the Weihe River basin, the painted pottery civilization gradually declined, followed by the arrival of the porcelain age, which reached its brilliant peak in the Yuan, Ming and Qing Dynasties.

In the Shaanxi Provincial History Museum, there are some painted pottery of Yangshao culture type on display, and more exhibits are three colors of Tang Dynasty, gorgeous chariots and horses, respectful waiters and full glazed coarse porcelain, all of which show the level of porcelain at that time. The famous fish-pattern pottery basin was unearthed in Xi 'an Banpo site. On the way to see the Terracotta Warriors that day, the taxi driver talked about traveling in Shaanxi. "You can see the history of Shaanxi for more than 2,000 years, Beijing for 500 years, and Shanghai 100 years." His face is full of pride, and I can feel his confidence and happiness sitting next to him. From this, I feel the cultural nutrition that the ideal city gives people and the infinite glory that one person passes on to a city. Let a person get more satisfaction in his heart, have a real sense of gain, have enough reasons and cultural confidence, and fall in love with the city where he lives.

On May 1 this year, Wang Guojun, a writer from Linxia, and I strolled along the Daxia River. We strolled along the Shili Peony Corridor, which was covered with bright sunshine. On the way, he put down his mobile phone and suddenly asked me, "happiness, what do you mean by happiness?" Look at the sparkling river, the colorful cherry blossoms on the shore, and the wicker dancing with the wind. This is what we see in front of us! " He said excitedly that the landscape and ecology of Linxia not only gave Linxia people self-confidence, but also created a culture that turned the stone into gold, which was the same as the people's hearts, and wisdom and nature were integrated. I was deeply moved by his poetry.

Almighty creator, compassionate and caring, God is kind to Hezhou. The gift of Hiderigami's barren land has given Linxia people the courage and courage to start a business, and given Linxia this hot land humanistic enlightenment. In Linxia, the extremely complete painted pottery civilization museum is actually comparable or even worse. Painted pottery displayed in Linxia Painted Pottery Museum, Qijia Culture-Majiayao Culture-Machang Type-Mid-level Mountain Type-Bianjialing Type, dongxiang county, Guanghe County, Kangle County, Jishishan County Museum, and Hezheng County Paleontology Fossil Museum, seem to be a humanistic corridor connected by archaeological sites, and they are in a geological corridor composed of mountains and rivers, which seems to be a journey of justice spanning thousands of years.

Painted pottery was beautiful, but it was not an ornament at that time. What is its main purpose?

At first I thought it was a sacrificial vessel. Because many of them were later found in tombs, it gives people the feeling that they were buried with the ancients. Just like the bones in Oracle bones and Oracle Bone Inscriptions, the tripod cast in bronze, and the chime for playing musical instruments, carbonized millet and Gu Mi particles were found in clay pots. It can be seen that it is used to store food, or to hold water, or to boil water for cooking. Most of them are found in tombs because they are more densely and completely preserved in tombs. Qi Yongren, a farmer from Sanping Village, Anji Township, Jishishan County, once saw a sparkling water in a dry Tuyakou. He stepped forward and pulled open the loess layer covering the surface with his hand, revealing a complete earthen urn containing half a jar of rainwater. This accidental encounter made farmer Qi Yongren the discoverer of the "King of Painted Pottery". There are various legends of painted pottery circulating in the local area. Dry food packed in clay pots is still fresh after a week in the dog days of summer, and it is not moldy, hairy or spoiled. The storage principle and fresh-keeping function of painted pottery are similar to those of teapot. Wei Wenzhong, the Civilization Office of Jishishan County Committee, told me that Qi Yongren is his father-in-law and is familiar with the story of the painted pottery king. He has accompanied reporters to Sanping Village for many times to interview the old man's experience before and after discovering the painted pottery king. On that day, we are going to see the ruins of Sanping Village in Anji Township. The next morning, it suddenly rained cats and dogs, and we were building a road to Sanping Village. We were told that the mud truck on the village road couldn't get in, so we had to give up.

The world in the pot is wide, and the sun and the moon are long in the pot. Painted pottery civilization has won Hezhou, Linxia full of charm and a bright future.