Hehuang, referring to the upper reaches of the Yellow River, Huangshui River Basin and Datong River Basin, was called "Sanjiang" in ancient times. Since ancient times, many ethnic groups have thrived in this area. At least since the Qin and Han dynasties, ancestors of many nationalities have cultivated and grazed in it, creating a splendid Hehuang culture. Hehuang culture is the crystallization of spiritual civilization of ancestors in eastern Qinghai and the border area between Longxi and Qinghai on the basis of certain material civilization, and has its unique connotation and characteristics. Studying its connotation and characteristics is very important for the inheritance and unification of traditional culture and modernization.

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Hehuang culture is an important symbol of the process of human civilization at the source of the Yellow River. Since ancient times, China has regarded the Yellow River Basin as the cradle of the Chinese nation and the birthplace of Chinese civilization, from Huaxia to Han and Tang Dynasties to Yuan, Ming and Qing Dynasties. The ancients regarded the source of the Yellow River as sacred, and Li Bai lamented that "how the water of the Yellow River moves out of the sky can't be seen"; There is no place where people explore the source of the river or even migrate frequently. Today, the area bordering Gansu in eastern Qinghai is the "Three Rivers" mentioned above.

Looking at the position of Hehuang culture in the ancient civilization of the Yellow River basin, I divide the Yellow River basin into four excellent traditional cultures to compare: Hehuang culture in Qinggan area; Hetao culture in Ningxia and Inner Mongolia today; Central Plains culture in Shaanxi, Henan and other regions today; Qilu culture in Shandong today. Hehuang culture is an important symbol of the source civilization of the above four traditional cultures in the Yellow River basin, which is related to and different from the three traditional cultures in the middle and lower reaches of the Yellow River. Take Liuwan, one of the major archaeological discoveries in China 100 in Hehuang area in the last century as an example, 37,925 cultural relics were unearthed, including nearly 20,000 painted pottery, which is unparalleled in other areas. There are 30 tombs of Majiayao culture, Racecourse culture, Qijia culture and Xindian culture from the New Age to the Bronze Age. The frog pattern in the decorative pattern of painted pottery is also a kind of deity pattern, which reflects the ancestor worship of ancient ancestors in China. The earliest visual mode in ancient myths and legends, frogs share the same baby, and Nu Wa creates people from the earth. The author thinks that Hehuang culture, Hetao culture, Central Plains culture and Qilu culture created the early cultural connotation of China traditional culture in the process of the civilization of the Yellow River basin, and at least these four excellent traditional cultures had been shining before the Northern Song Dynasty. If Hetao culture is dominated by grassland cultural corridor, that is, nomadic road; The Central Plains culture is dominated by the cultural content of the agricultural cultural corridor, namely the Silk Road. Qilu culture is dominated by land and sea culture, namely Penglai myth, so Hehuang culture has both grassland culture and farming culture.

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Hehuang culture is the treasure of the intersection of grassland culture corridor and farming culture corridor.

It is easy for people to understand that Hehuang area is one of the agricultural cultural corridors. But why is it one of the grassland cultural corridors? The author thinks that the ancestors of all ethnic groups in northern China cultivated and grazed on the basis of the natural environment in their living areas. In many areas, farming and animal husbandry alternate, and farming and animal husbandry production complement each other. Take Xianbei people as an example. Their tribe used to be engaged in agriculture and animal husbandry in Liaoning Province, northeast of China. Later, man and beast multiplied. Xianbei ministries gradually entered Mobei Plateau from the northeast, grazing at the foot of Yinshan Longshan Mountain, some nomadic to the northern foot of Qilian Mountain, and some crossed Qilian Mountain into Qinghai-Tibet Plateau and even northwest Sichuan. In the history of Qinghai, Tuguhun people mainly focused on animal husbandry and agriculture; The main body of Nanliang State is agriculture and animal husbandry; There are many examples of the transition from animal husbandry to agriculture of several ethnic groups living in eastern Qinghai, such as Tu nationality and eastern Tibetan nationality. Therefore, the folk song Teenager, which is widely circulated among Hehuang people, has the duality of nomadic culture and farming culture.

In Hehuang area, the communication between farming people and nomadic people is very frequent, which forms the diversity of Hehuang cultural connotation. There are many cultural phenomena that are not unique to a certain nation, such as sheep totem worship since ancient times. So far, there are many ethnic groups in agricultural and pastoral areas. Do Tibetans still have "longevity sheep"? Cai Lou, called "God Sheep" by Han people, means to keep a Capricorn in the flock and never kill it. Is this custom related to the ancient "Qiang people's service"? In other words, the custom of argali comes down in one continuous line. I have heard a folk proverb "Xining has Fu Zi, Lanzhou has drums". Fu Zi in Xining is the main theme of the art of sitting and singing with flat strings, which is elegant and distant, giving people a sense of lingering sound. The art of sitting and singing with flat strings is also called "eighteen mixed tunes", and the melody of singing is mainly historical allusions, which is the product of music farming culture. The author had the honor of listening to the singing of drums in Lanzhou. The timbre is desolate and tragic, deep and high-pitched, which obviously has the charm of northern desert grassland culture. Xining and Lanzhou are the two closest provincial capitals in western China. From Lanzhou to the north, it is the land of grassland cultural corridor; From Xining to the east, it is the land of agricultural cultural corridor. Fu Zi Ci and Guzi Ci survived in the evolution of the times. Isn't it a masterpiece of Hehuang culture?

Ignoring the grassland cultural corridor and its cultural research is a misunderstanding in Chinese cultural circles. In addition to studying historical records carefully, the remedy is to make a field trip to Wan Li Road today with convenient transportation. In particular, the important grassland cultural heritage should be excavated and sorted out, and protected and carried forward with the help of today's scientific and technological means, such as the drum lyrics in Lanzhou. The artists I saw in Lanzhou many years ago are old, weak and sick. If they are not rescued, there is no danger of successors. There is little inheritance of shadow play music in Qinghai, which should be recorded as soon as possible. Rescue measures should also be taken for folk music, dance and painting of ethnic minorities in Hehuang area. The author once wrote that we should strive to revive two cultural corridors in the history of western China. Cultural self-improvement is an important part of the well-off life of the Chinese nation and cannot be ignored.

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Hehuang culture is the inevitable result of the coexistence of multi-ethnic cultures.

There used to be ethnic groups that created culture in Hehuang area, such as Rong, Qiang, Di, Xianbei, Tatar, Tuguhun and Tubo. These ancient ethnic groups not only engaged in animal husbandry in cold regions, but also engaged in agriculture and handicrafts, and actively developed commercial and cultural exchanges with neighboring ethnic groups. For example, how many cultural relics have been left by an ancient Tang-Fan road? Only a ravine in Yushu Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture in Qinghai has left countless stone carving artistic heritages around Princess Wencheng Temple. The well-preserved temples and pagodas in Hehuang Valley 1840 are all cultural heritages left by our ancestors, such as Qutan Temple, Rongwo Temple, Ta 'er Temple, Xining Dongguan Mosque and so on. Broadly speaking, Yungang Grottoes, Maijishan Grottoes, Bingling Temple and Guo Huang Art are the inevitable results of the coexistence of multi-ethnic cultures in the history of western China.

During the Yuan, Ming and Qing Dynasties, the motherland was unified, and cultural exchanges between ethnic groups became more frequent. During this period, drama, as a comprehensive art, got unprecedented development. With the emergence of a large number of handicraft workshops in Hehuang area, folk singing art also got unprecedented development. I have heard many folk artists sing, and some songs are not written by folk artists? Including sound artists, more than 20 years ago, the author heard that there was an old man named Zhang in Xiaonanchuan village in Huangzhong. The dead folk art program "Gong Men Gua Band" and "Sun Bin Longevity" and so on. Judging from their words and sentences, praising the past and praising the present are all attributed to the down-and-out literati in Hehuang area in history, and only passed down through the mouth of folk artists. Many years ago, a blind artist named Liu sang "Fang Siniang" in a small garden in Xining, which is also related to the popular "Four Sisters Baojuan". It can be seen that Hehuang culture is the inevitable result of the coexistence of multi-ethnic cultures, which is beyond doubt.

In this case, our attitude towards Hehuang culture can only be an innovation based on inheritance. Although we have done a lot of useful work in this field in the past, we have not done enough because of many restrictions. There are many successful moves in Qinghai, such as "Three Merges", 665,438+08m painting, adaptation and performance of traditional songs, but there are also some unsatisfactory places. Especially under the condition of socialist market economy, how to make Hehuang culture play a greater social benefit is an important historical mission for Hehuang cultural people.

Here I want to compare the traditional culture of the Yangtze River basin, another mother river of the Chinese nation, to illustrate the importance of inheritance and innovation. The author also divides the Yangtze River basin into four traditional cultures, namely: Jiangyuan culture? The southern part of Qinghai is dominated by Yushu Kangba culture, Bashu culture, Jingchu culture and Wuyue culture. Among them, some people of insight in Wuxi, Jiangsu Province founded Wu Cultural Park, which realized the policy of academic going to the people and embarked on a successful road of social forces to run culture. They put forward the slogan of "treating the poor with economy and the foolish with culture", and thought that the concept of "today's culture, tomorrow's economy" was completely in line with the spirit of the times. Qinghai Province held Tulip Festival, China Xiadu Cultural Tourism, Kunlun Culture and Art Festival, and China Western Literature and Art. It's just that our in-depth study of the connotation and characteristics of Hehuang culture is too little. In view of this, we should take the above humble opinion as a reference for Hehuang magazine.