Wen You Tian Xia (420) Yinshan Rock Paintings

? Li Daoyuan was a famous geographer in China during the Northern Wei Dynasty. He described it like this in the Notes to the Water Classic: "On the rocks, there are naturally words, like tigers and horses, and suddenly they become works, similar to pictures, so they are also called painted stone mountains." Li Daoyuan is talking about Yinshan rock paintings, which are patterns carved on rocks by the ancients. However, it remained unknown for centuries and was not discovered on a large scale until after 1976.

? After decades of searching, researchers found more than 50,000 Yinshan rock paintings, mainly distributed in Wulate Middle Banner, Wulate Houqi and Dengkou County under the jurisdiction of Bayannaoer City, Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region, covering a huge area of 340 kilometers from east to west and 0/00 kilometers from north to south. The time span began in the Paleolithic Age more than 30,000 years ago and continued until the end of the Qing Dynasty. Yinshan rock paintings rank first among similar cultural relics in China in terms of scale, scope, quantity and theme.

? The content of Yinshan rock paintings is very rich, including images of birds and beasts, divination and hunting, war dance and even men and women making peace, which fully reflects the production and life scenes of ancient nomadic people in northern China. 85% of them are animal shapes, including more than 40 kinds of wild animals such as goats, argali, camels, elk, tigers and wolves. Most of the shapes are simple and simple, only a few sketches and delicate pictures of Liao Liao, and the five tigers map is a typical representative.

? Carved on a big stone with a length of 5 meters and a height of 1.5 meters. There are both adult tigers and young tigers. They either lie still meekly and cleverly, as if taking a nap, or stand upright majestically, as if to pounce on food and hunt. Simple and smooth lines vividly depict the king of beasts, which is comparable to modern painting. The "Five Tigers" map reflects the reverence of the ancient ancestors of China for the Beastmaster, and also shows that there were many wild animals here in those days, unlike the rare and protected animals now kept in cages.

? Limited by the ancient ancestors' limited understanding of nature, many strange phenomena can't be explained, so totem belief came into being, and double god Map is a typical painting to express this worship of gods. Hanging from a cliff ten meters high, it consists of two faces. On the left is the shape of big eyes and long face, and on the right is the shape of round eyes and big ears. Experts speculate that they are the embodiment of the sun god and the moon god, and some people think that they represent yin and yang. I always think this painting is a little magical, like an alien, and maybe it contains a special cosmic code. Moreover, scholars have different views on the meaning of many Yinshan rock paintings.

Perhaps it is these unsolved mysteries that make Yinshan rock paintings unique, so there are experts and scholars like Li Daoyuan who go deep into the mountains for scientific research, as well as ordinary tourists who go to the hinterland of Yinshan to explore treasures and seek surprises. Although most people didn't come back, they enjoyed the infinite scenery in the mountains and valleys during their trip. They all felt glad for your arrival and admired the graffiti creation of ancient ancestors more and more. Yinshan rock painting is an eternal book, a hundred-mile gallery and an inexhaustible cultural treasure house, waiting for you to decipher those unsolved mysteries.

? 2022.6.24