What's the experience of traveling to Huang Jinguo?

As written in Geography of Africa: "The evidence of lost civilization rises from the interior of Africa like smoke", the eternal rock paintings of great zimbabwe ruins, Kami Site and Matobo Mountain, as well as the totem symbols with far-reaching significance in stone carving art, all bear the essence of African aborigines and spread out before us to form a magnificent canopy, which instantly reflects the once full and splendid "Huang Jinguo" civilization. Pulled by its sensitive and slender tentacles, we walked into Zimbabwe, the only country in the world named after archaeological sites.

When Beijing is near early winter, Harare, the capital of Zimbabwe, is still scorching in the sun. The air distance of 17 hour not only separates the two diametrically opposite seasons, but also almost isolates the civilizations of the two worlds. I can't imagine that there are so many people living like that on the other side of the equator: money is tight, food is rationed, living materials are scarce, and 80% people are unemployed or on the verge of unemployment. However, to my surprise, most local people don't see any sadness on their faces at all. Even if they have to wait in line at the bank for a whole day, the money they can take out can't buy a few slices of bread. Most people in the team waited patiently, talking and laughing in twos and threes, smiling from time to time in the bright and warm sunshine, and their teeth were as shiny as shells.

Zhao is the owner of a travel agency. He stayed in Zimbabwe for 12 years and was the first China I met in Zimbabwe. As soon as we met, he told us three pet phrases of black people-"Don't worry", "No problem" and "I don't want it".

Yes. At that time, I just smiled at the book. Later, when I really got along with the locals, I realized that these words were the best portrayal of black natural philosophy. The exchange rate changes dramatically every day, and today's millionaires may be penniless tomorrow. What may be a disaster for China people is not so effective for blacks. They can still sing ridiculous lyrics when their families are surrounded by walls, still dance every part of their bodies enthusiastically, and still say "Hello!" Smiling. Even though they knew that their hometown was called "Huang Jinguo" thousands of years ago, they never lamented that they didn't use gold cups and jade lamps and didn't get luxurious food. Even though they know that economic recovery will have a long journey, they never worry about what will happen in the future. A leisurely "I don't know" made me happy instantly.

It is the season when Lagerstroemia indica blooms. The streets and alleys of Harare are paved with a long carpet of fine flowers. New petals fall from the air and fall on people's heads and shoulders. They are brushed away by hand, but the lingering fragrance lingers in people's hearts for a long time. It suddenly occurred to me that Zhang Chengzhi said in the preface of "Introduction to Civilization": "A full and beautiful civilization has given strength to my thin body." Looking for a long-lost civilization and uncovering a glorious history, you don't need to bury it in that pile of old paper to chew on the information, nor do you need to dig the remains with Luoyang shovel. As long as you choose one of those silk threads of civilization as a guide, close your eyes and listen to your inner guidance completely, you can find its soul center from the seemingly complicated knot array.

Spacecraft: Looking for the legendary "Huang Jinguo"

The flying stone boat and the golden boulder stood in the Balance Stone Park, looking at their huge bodies. I wonder if this is a coincidence. In the era of great navigation, with the successful opening of new sea routes, the Portuguese occupied some important ports on the coast of East Africa. Looking for gold is an important driving force for them to come here. After gaining a lot of gold on the East African coast, they turned their attention to the legendary "Huang Jinguo" in the upper reaches of Zambezi River.

The surrounding areas with Zimbabwe as the center have been inhabited by human beings since 654.38+million years ago, but they have been in a primitive state. It was not until 654.38+065.438+0 century that the centralized Monomotapa Kingdom was established. The land of the kingdom is rich in gold, so people have been mining and trading gold for a long time. Since 10 century, Zimbabweans began to exchange gold with people from the East African coast. * * Businessmen wearing headscarves and robes travel to and from East South Africa with gold, precious stones and other goods, which promotes economic and cultural exchanges between regions and also plays the role of "spreading false information". In their stories, the name of Mono Motapa is associated with King Solomon, so in the16th century, before the Portuguese Expeditionary Force invaded the Indian Ocean, people thought that "Africa has big cities and big gold mines, ruled by a king named Mono Motapa (meaning the owner of the gold mine), and the fortresses and pagodas of the kingdom of Mono Motapa are all built of huge stones. British poet John? In his book Paradise Lost, Milton directly compares Zimbabwe with Ophir, a city rich in gold and precious stones in the Bible. /kloc-In the second half of the 9th century, Professor Keane, vice-chairman of the British Anthropology Association, put forward a scientific research: he believed that gold in Ophir came from "Zambezi River and the upper reaches of limpopo river", which is Zimbabwe today.

The legend and textual research of Huang Jinguo attracted a large number of explorers and colonists to Zimbabwe to explore the treasures. Antonio? Fernandez was the first Portuguese to arrive at Monomotapa Palace. He successfully met with the then King Monomotapa, went back and suggested that the Portuguese King open the Zambezi River route, and put many warships into the Zambezi River to curb businessmen. 65438+In the early 1930s, some Portuguese businessmen came to the kingdom of Monomotapa, and they established two trading bases in the Seine and Tete on the Zambezi River. Using these bases, the Portuguese gained the upper hand in the trade competition with the people of * *. However, in the next 30 years, they attacked the kingdom of Monomotapa twice and failed. Therefore, they must pay taxes and pay tribute to Monomotapa Kingdom for a long time. Until 1629, Mutapamaoula took refuge in Portugal for the throne and signed the Treaty of * *. A large number of Portuguese people poured in crazily, and the "golden dynasty" which had been brilliant for more than five centuries gradually declined.

These huge stones in the Balance Stone Park obviously have nothing to do with gold and precious stones. They are geological products hundreds of millions of years ago, and only calmly accept the carving and baptism of nature. The existence of human beings is just a drop in the ocean, just as human beings can't shake their current physiological balance, and their desire for gold and precious stones can't shake their existing state. On the contrary, the children who live in the thatched cottage next to them run and play in their huge figures day after day. They seem calm, but the huge oblique shadow has revealed their inner tenderness.

Stone Carved Villages: Wild Totems with a Long History

I don't know if I haven't been able to go deep into the real countryside in a short time. In Harare and bulawayo, two major Zimbabwean cities, I hardly see anyone over 60. I can't pick out some fragments from the precious memory of the old man, which makes my heart looking forward to exploration extremely confused. Fortunately, I met Mr. Sabson in Harare's famous stone carving art park.

Mr. Sabson, who has a typical "Uncle Sam smile", is 56 years old. He has been an administrator since 1985 opened the garden. For 23 years, he has been silently waiting for this open-air art hall, and every day he welcomes and sends all kinds of stone carving artists who may be poor, wild and depressed, and witnesses their interpretation of life with carving knives here. There are many statues in the huge park, some abstract and realistic, some elaborate and some random works, some seemingly simple lines, intangible and indescribable, but Sabson watched its creators immerse themselves here for three years; Some knives are sharp and vivid, which seems to require years of accumulation and thinking, but Sabson excitedly told me about the miracle created by this young man in an afternoon. We quietly approached the man who worked under the biggest tree in the park together. He looks less than 25 years old, wearing a white work clothes and holding a sharp little carving knife to sort out the details of a stone carving. His eyes are very focused, but there is almost no expression. It is difficult to detect his inner excitement from his pure black face. If it weren't here, if he didn't have a meat cleaver in his hand, I would regard him as one of the young people waiting for work on the streets of Qian Qian.

That afternoon, I was deeply shocked by this thing called "stone". I am not an art connoisseur, and I can't estimate the great value of those works of art. I just look at them attentively in the sun. Compared with the stone carvings of Shoushan and Tianhuang in China, their sculptures are not exquisite, even simple, but the wild charm revealed by the rough lines and a little vivid details are always eye-catching, which seems to engrave the totem of their lives into the viewer's heart. What is even more shocking is that these living sculptures are not the works of masters or famous artists. Their author may be just like the young man we met under the tree. He only went to junior high school and had no other occupation. He is full today, and he doesn't know where the bread will be tomorrow. In this barren land, in such a simple creative environment, the great inspiration and charm of their works are unparalleled.

1907 In May, Picasso was inspired by an African woodcarving mask in the Derouet Palace Museum in Thelocka when he was creating an epoch-making oil painting "The Maiden of avignon". Later, it was found that the three faces of five girls in this oil painting were painted into three-dimensional geometric shapes by him. Obviously, it was the African mask that made Picasso find the modern language, thus creating cubism. For a long time, people have worshipped the Egyptian civilization in the Nile valley, but little is known about the black African culture in sub-Saharan Africa. Exquisite pottery figurines found in Nok, Nigeria (about 900 BC-200 AD), realistic bronze statues found in Ife (about12-15th century), exquisite bronze statues and ivory statues found in Beining City (about13-19th century), and 60.

Huang Jinguo's ukiyo-e painting.

As a representative of sub-Saharan African civilization, Zimbabwe's achievements in stone are far more than stone carving, and the cities and palaces built of stone are its real soul. The word "Zimbabwe" comes from Bantu language, which means "stone house" and is extended to "respected stone city". There are more than 200 stone towns of different sizes in Zimbabwe and its surrounding areas, and all the local people are proud of them, and regard them as symbols of country name, national flag, national emblem and currency. The Shona people, the largest ethnic group in Zimbabwe, have called any of the sites of more than 200 stone cities "Zimbabwe" since ancient times, and today the largest stone city site in Masvingo Province is called "Greater Zimbabwe". As the largest and best-preserved stone town complex in sub-Saharan Africa, it was listed on the World Heritage List by UNESCO in 1986.

At 6 o'clock in the morning, before sunrise, we walked into the big paddock of the site. This big paddock is the queen's residence. It is divided into three parts. The innermost part is a circular castle with a diameter of 57 meters. It is all made of stone and covered with moss. Except for some ruins here, aloe vera is scattered all over the mountain. It is a tall and straight tree with a top like a pineapple, in twos and threes. They are straight and seem to jump out of the ground, which reminds me of the coconut trees that jumped out of the sand for no reason in The Mummy's Return. Entering the labyrinthine ruins of the palace, looking at the narrow passage and the stone room without roof, I was inexplicably sad, so I didn't speak and quietly looked forward to the sunrise.

A touch of Xia Hong quickly jumped over the iconic Dajinba Tower and fainted in the ruins. Then countless rays of shy sunshine shone on every corner of the "maze" from the gap of the flower wall next to the tower, carving strange flower shadows on the wall, on the ground and on people. The flower wall was originally a circle around the central castle, but now only the one facing east is still intact, about 10 meters long, and is made of hollowed-out and obliquely inserted stones. It is said that this is to symbolize the prosperity and infinity of future generations. The height of the sign tower is 13m, 7m above the ground and 6m underground, about 2m higher than the external wall. Its use remains a mystery. A colonial archaeologist thought this was the hiding place of gold, so he took out some stones from the bottom of the tower to look for it. It turned out to be solid, so he hastily blocked it again, but it was obviously not very strong, and now he feels that it may collapse at any time. Under the tower is a women's college dedicated to the palace. In fact, it looks like a barn, surrounded by wooden fences and covered with grass, and there is a huge platform inside, which is easy to remind people of terraces drying millet. But this is actually a place to educate unmarried girls. Usually there will be a respected grandmother, and all the unmarried girls who are developing will sit around her and listen to her to enlighten them as women, and perhaps the initial sex education.

The outer wall and inner wall of the paddock have smooth arcs, which makes people admire the ingenious splicing design. Dr. Mfuka, a black African scholar, has written a new book, Greater Zimbabwe, which reflects the latest research results of Stone Town. He believes that the paddock is the king's "three palaces and six courtyards", and there are closed small stone houses in the city, ranging from several square meters to dozens of square meters. Those are the queen's residences, not the traditional Kings Town. The real palace is in the castle at the top of the mountain. The largest stone house in the paddock is the Queen's house, and there is still a lintel inlaid with fragrant wood, and the top should be covered with wood. From this stone house to the north, there is a very thin passage. At first, the well-preserved city wall was more than one person high, and gradually became shorter to the north. Finally, it is similar to the edge of a step. This is a charming road for the king to visit the harem. Or is it a secret escape? I don't know.

Going further north, I suddenly realized. It turns out that there are more stone roads and small stone houses densely distributed around the big paddock. Those are folk houses, which live densely next to the big paddock, and they can be regarded as living in the "imperial city". And that thin and narrow road has always been a mountain city leading to the king's official residence. On the small stone hill with steep stone walls, stands a solid stone fort. Only two narrow paths lead to the foot of the mountain in front of the fortress; Behind the fortress is a steep cliff, which wild animals can't climb. Overlooking the paddock from the top of the fort, it is clear at a glance; Looking at the periphery, the field of vision is wide, and even a rabbit can't slip past. The city wall is still made of rubble, about 7.5 meters high and 6 meters thick at the bottom, which is indestructible. There is only a narrow stone door on the wall of the fortress, which allows a person to enter and exit sideways. It is really "one person's strength is above ten thousand people." Because of this, early archaeological reports called it "Acropolis" and thought its function was to defend the imperial city of the paddock.

The more I lament the magic of this stone city, the more I want to know its construction history. Who built the great ruins of Zimbabwe? Some people think it was built by Phoenicians from the Mediterranean in BC, others think it was built by * * people, but more people think it was built by African blacks. According to historical records, during the Zulu War in 1830, all ethnic groups who eventually lived in this ruined city of Zimbabwe were driven away. Later, the Amungua people who claimed to own Greater Zimbabwe did not actually live there. Now they live in Ma Calanga, a branch of Shona people, but they still live in low shacks, and their lives seem to have nothing to do with these buildings. The real builder of this historic site seems to be lost with the smoke of history.

Why was Stone Town destroyed? A more convincing explanation is that at the end of 15, the mineral resources of Monomotapa Kingdom were exhausted, the pasture was overgrazed, the fertility of farmland declined due to continuous cropping, the ecology deteriorated, and the industrial and agricultural output dropped sharply, which made it impossible to feed so many residents in Stone Town. One year, there was a drought, and wildfire burned crops and cut off the road of life. People had to give up the stone town and move north. The abandoned stone town can't stand the erosion of wind, frost, rain and dew for hundreds of years, especially in the19th century, when western robbers dug and fiddled with it, it finally became a ruin, which can only be left for future generations to study and mourn.

Kami: The Forgotten Ancient Mountain City

Compared with the glory of Great Zimbabwe, Kami site near bulawayo is simply a forgotten corner. It is also the ancient capital of Monomotapa Kingdom and officially recognized as a "world cultural heritage" by UNESCO. Kami is just a small shadow under the great aura of greater Zimbabwe, and even Zimbabweans themselves don't know it. Kami, built from the middle of15th century to the middle of17th century, is also the most striking of the 50 famous urban sites between Zambezi River and limpopo river. Before I set foot on the land of this country, it was just an archaeological symbol in my mind, without any written records or pictures, and it was a blank.

If great zimbabwe ruins almost made my heart jump out of my chest with the rising of the sun, the Kami site released a long-lost glory to me in the afterglow of the setting sun. It's hard to imagine that there is such a small museum outside this small town where there is only a small street sign, but there are authentic blue and white pieces of China in the Ming Dynasty. This coincides with the introduction in Geography of Africa: during the Ming Dynasty in China, that is, during the European Renaissance, Kami was once the most prosperous trade center in Zimbabwe. Businessmen from all countries once conducted frequent trade activities in Kami area, and at the same time, it was also the place where envoys from all countries were stationed.

I can't tell you the taste of approaching this abandoned ancient capital at dusk. Although Kami was also the ancient capital of Monomotapa dynasty, no paddock was built. The king, harem and cronies all live in the acropolis on the mountain. However, this Acropolis is more complete than the Acropolis in Zimbabwe. In addition to strict barriers, the Acropolis fully shows the king's fanatical worship of God. Witch doctors, as spokesmen of the gods, lived in several big houses comparable to the king's bedrooms, and different from other rooms, they also painted the walls with a kind of ochre and indigo paint, which could be regarded as "luxurious decoration" at that time.

Steven, a tour guide who once participated in a joint archaeological team's field trip to Kami site, told us that the landmark building of Kami site turned out to be a granite cross erected by Portuguese messengers on the hillside outside the Acropolis. It sounds a bit funny-a site of civilization built entirely by Zimbabweans themselves, marked not by the Schona totem or the monarchical symbol of Monomotapa, but by the cross of Jesus. 1560 at the end, the Catholic Jesuit monk Gonzalo? Da? Sylvia came here to preach, although he

Later, he was framed and put to death by the king, but it is obvious that his religious imprint in the eyes of Zimbabweans is indelible. Judging from the numerous gold coins on Kami's cross, there are still many people who can't get rid of their expressions.

After walking around the castle, Steven mysteriously took us to the west exit. Everyone thought it was a solid exterior wall, but when we went out and looked back, we found the most shocking secret of the castle. It turns out that the entire western wall of the castle is made of layers of fancy bricks, just like the only complete wall in Great Zimbabwe. This is obviously the same expectation for Sun Yan, and it also proves the inheritance relationship between the two sites again. However, it is a miracle that this flower wall can be preserved so completely after 500 years of turmoil.