The Significance of Witch Culture

Witch culture is a regional culture of Han nationality, which is created by ten witches in ancient Lingshan, headed by five immortals, centered on Baoyuan Mountain, an ancient town in Ningchang, Wuxi, with astrology and divination as the main forms and salt culture and medicine culture as the main contents. According to Shan Hai Jing Ye Xi Jing, there are Lingshan, Wu Xian, Wu Ji, Wu Pan, Gu Wu, Zhen Wu, Wu Li, Wu Di, Wu Xie and Wu Luo, and all kinds of medicines have risen and fallen since then. Guo Pu's "Wu Xian Fu Shan" even includes that Wu Xian took Hongshu as the doctor of Emperor Yao and was born as an official. According to textual research, Baoyuan Mountain, an ancient town in Ningchang, Wuxi, is not only rich in Baoyuan Mountain salt spring which can be directly eaten by the ancients, but also rich in cinnabar, an immortal medicinal material. Therefore, Baoyuan Mountain is a Lingshan where ten witches, led by five immortals, climb from top to bottom to collect medicine and brine to make salt, and it is also a real Wushan Mountain. The mysterious and distant mother culture of Ba culture-witch culture (salt culture, medicine culture) was born here. In the Tang Yao era, Wu County was established, which formed the origin of witch culture in the Three Gorges area (Dawushan area). From here, Wu Shengwu surnamed Ba moved to Zhongli Mountain in Changyang, Hubei Province. The integration of Wu culture and Chu culture produced the once prosperous Ba culture, and produced the opening masterpieces of literature, such as Shan Hai Jing, The Book of Songs and Wu Ge Chu Ci, which made fruitful achievements in astronomy, literature, writing, art, medicine and geography. Cultural events such as Bashan night songs and five folk songs, which still exist widely in Wuxi, are full of ancient customs, and the mystery of Du Yan Ningchang ancient town, Daning River ancient plank road and hanging coffins, which are the remains of witch culture and history, is even more mysterious and secluded.

Witch has a long history, and there are witch characters in Oracle Bone Inscriptions, which shows that it appeared before Shang Dynasty. Professor Xu, an expert from Oracle Bone Inscriptions, summed up the evolution of witch characters as shown on the right (according to Xu's The Root of Ancient Homophony in China, Taiwan Province Commercial Press, first edition, 1995). The earliest witch character is the intersection of two I characters, which is probably the pictograph of the utensils used in magic; Later, two people were dancing, and it was the witch who invited the fairy with her body movements.