The book of songs, four dry

Like a bamboo bud,

Loose.

-The Book of Songs P200

Accumulated rocks and flowing springs,

Maolin xiuzhu

-Wang Jin Xizhi's Preface to the Lanting Pavilion

Bamboo also has wind,

Laugh heartily.

-Su Shi

Trimming bamboo and fixing makeup,

The crying poplar is a horse.

-Liu Song ray's words

Zhu Yong, the head of the water tune

Qian zhangming

Articulated bones are strong, but they are not intentional.

After several storms, I would rather bend than bend.

The four seasons are still green and do not compete with the crowd.

Look up at the sky

Unknown land, bleak and towering.

Die bravely, die happily, without complaint.

Balcony, courtyard columns and mud flute holes fall into the curtain.

People in China have always loved bamboo, and China is also the first country in the world to study, cultivate and utilize bamboo. From the great role of bamboo in China's historical and cultural development and spiritual and cultural formation, from the long-standing relationship between bamboo and China's poetry, calligraphy and painting, and from the close relationship between bamboo and people's lives, it is not difficult to see that China deserves to be called "the country of bamboo civilization". No plant can have such a profound impact on human civilization as bamboo. We call the role and influence of bamboo on human material civilization and spiritual civilization bamboo culture.

First of all, the history of bamboo and China.

In ancient myths and legends of China, the use of bamboo has been reflected, and the exact record originated from Yangshao culture. 1954, the Yangshao cultural site in banpo village, Xi 'an was unearthed about 6000 years ago. The symbol of "bamboo" can be recognized on the unearthed pottery, which shows that bamboo has long been studied and utilized by people, that is, the history of China people's research and utilization of bamboo can be traced back to a new era five or six thousand years ago. Chinese characters originated from Yangshao culture where primitive society collapsed, and the original symbol of the word "bamboo" should have appeared before this. Bamboo was also found in Hemudu primitive social site in Yuyao county, Zhejiang province 7000 years ago, which shows that bamboo has a close relationship with people's lives in primitive society. Because only bamboo has been used by people, it is necessary to create a text symbol to represent it.

Studies have proved that the Shang Dynasty in China already knew the various uses of bamboo, one of which was used as bamboo slips, that is, writing characters on bamboo pieces (sometimes with sawdust), and then stringing them together with ropes to form a "book", from which the Chinese character "book" came. Bamboo slips preserved a large number of precious documents before the Eastern Han Dynasty for us, such as Shangshu, Book of Rites and Analects of Confucius, all of which were written on bamboo slips. During the Yin and Shang Dynasties, books written with bamboo slips were called "bamboo books" and letters written with bamboo slips were called "bamboo newspapers". The invention of bamboo pen is also a pioneering page in cultural history. Oracle Bone Inscriptions, jade tablets and pottery unearthed in Yin Ruins all have Zhu Mo's brush calligraphy. There is also evidence in the cultural relics unearthed from the tomb of Zeng Houyi in Hubei Province and the tomb of Tian 'e in the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period. Another great achievement in using bamboo is papermaking. As early as the 9th century, China began to use bamboo to make paper, about 1000 years earlier than Europe. Of course, the great development of bamboo paper is still after this. About making paper with bamboo, there is a detailed record in the Ming Dynasty's Tiangong Kaiwu, and a bamboo paper manufacturing map is attached. Making paper with bamboo marks the great development and achievement of ancient paper-making technology in China, and promotes the prosperity of China culture. In fact, before bamboo paper appeared, paper-making tools could not be separated from bamboo. From the appearance of bamboo slips to the appearance of bamboo paper, bamboo has always occupied an important position in the history of cultural development, and played a direct and indirect role in preserving human knowledge and forming a long and splendid history and culture of the Chinese nation.

In ancient China, bamboo was used in many ways. For example, during the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period, our ancestors had made a bamboo tool "Orange" to lift water with a lever and a "high dump truck" to lift water with a bamboo tube for irrigation. Bamboo has also played an important role in the history of weapons development, from the initial bamboo bow archery to the trebuchet in the Spring and Autumn Period, the gunpowder arrow and the bamboo barrel musket in the Song Dynasty.

From the analysis of bamboo characters in Chinese characters, we can also see the history of bamboo utilization in ancient China. The ancients called plants "neither rigid nor soft, neither grass nor wood, small and empty, big and harmonious" bamboo. Morphologically, bamboo is processed into objects, and the characters of bamboo slips are derived from the word "bamboo". With the continuous improvement of human understanding of bamboo, the application of bamboo is more and more extensive. The number of bamboo slips is bound to increase. China Cihai (version 1979) has 209 bamboo slips, such as pens, books, slips, articles, chopsticks, cages, flutes and sheng. Various dictionaries of past dynasties are even more impressive. Idioms such as "Peace in Zhu Bao", "Declining Bamboo", "Childhood friends" and "Late in the morning" also contain interesting allusions related to bamboo. These bamboo slips and idioms involve all fields of society and life. On the one hand, they reflect that bamboo is more and more recognized and utilized by human beings; On the other hand, they reflect that bamboo has played an important role in industrial and agricultural production, culture and art, daily life and so on in China's thousands of years of history.

Second, bamboo and spiritual culture

In the long cultural history of China, pine, bamboo and plum are called "three friends of the old cold", while plum, orchid and bamboo chrysanthemum are called "four gentlemen", among which bamboo ranks side by side. It can be seen that bamboo occupies an important position in the hearts of our people because of its tall and straight stems, unique and colorful leaves and diverse shapes. It is evergreen, graceful, unique and interesting. When people stroll leisurely under the green bamboo forest, a sense of infinite comfort and distance will arise. No wonder Su Dongpo said, "Eating without meat is better than living without bamboo". Therefore, in parks and villages, patches of bamboo forests not only beautify people's lives, but also cultivate and sublimate people's noble sentiments.

Bamboo is not as rich as peony, as majestic as pine and cypress, as delicate as peaches and plums, but it is praised for its dignified and elegant appearance and noble moral integrity. It is honest and selfless, not artificial, not demanding the environment, not showing off itself, giving shade to the earth and wealth to the people in obscurity.

In the long-term production practice and cultural activities, the working people sublimate the biological characteristics of bamboo into the spirit of modesty and integrity, and bring it into the category of moral beauty of personality, and its connotation forms the symbol of Chinese national character, endowment and aesthetic spirit. Indeed, when people see bamboo, they will naturally think of its indomitable character of being fearless of adversity and hardship. This is an inexhaustible spiritual wealth and a special aesthetic value of bamboo.

In terms of spiritual culture, bamboo culture is very rich and unique, which affects China people's aesthetics, aesthetic consciousness and ethics, and plays an extremely important role in promoting the development of China literature, painting art, arts and crafts, garden art, music culture, religious culture and folk culture.

Bamboo is an important theme in China literature. Since the era of The Book of Songs, there have been excellent poems and songs praising bamboo in all previous dynasties, and countless literary works have been created, forming a unique bamboo literature in China, which is unique and colorful in China literature.

Arts and crafts are the combination of aesthetics and life, the product of science and art, and bamboo is an important material of arts and crafts. For thousands of years, China ancestors have woven and carved various pleasing handicrafts from bamboo, enriching the connotation of bamboo culture. Archaeological data confirmed that bamboo weaving began in the early Neolithic Age, and reached a high level in the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period, especially in Chu State, which was the most developed and rich in varieties, and was famous for its superb skills and unique style. Carving technology was formed in Shang and Zhou Dynasties, and bamboo carving art works remained in Han Dynasty. There are records of bamboo carving art works in the literature of Six Dynasties. After the Tang Dynasty, a large number of famous bamboo engravers emerged. Zhan Cheng appeared in the Song Dynasty, Jiading Bamboo Carving School represented by Zhu Zusun appeared in the Ming Dynasty, and other bamboo carvers appeared in Jinling (now Nanjing). In the middle of the Qing Dynasty, bamboo carvings with double reeds were formed in Shaoyang, Hunan, Jiang 'an, Sichuan and Huangyan, Zhejiang, which became the mainstream of bamboo carving art. In the early years of the Republic of China, bamboo carvings of the Northern School initiated by Zhang Zhiyu appeared in Beijing. Bamboo is also a theme in arts and crafts, which contains auspicious contents such as celebration, auspiciousness, longevity, happiness, wealth, prosperity and auspiciousness. It has been popular in folk decorative arts for thousands of years and is widely used in the creation of various handicrafts such as sculpture, embroidery, printing and dyeing, ceramics, weaving, paper cutting and so on.

Bamboo has an important connection with China's music culture. Bamboo is an important material for making musical instruments. Traditional wind instruments and plucked instruments in China are basically made of bamboo. Bamboo had an important influence on the origin of China's temperament. Historical documents and archaeological data confirm that bamboo has been used to determine the temperament of successive dynasties since the Zhou Dynasty. Therefore, in the Jin Dynasty, "silk bamboo" was the name of music, and there was a saying that "silk is not as good as bamboo". In the Tang Dynasty, artists who played musical instruments were called "bamboo people". It can be seen that bamboo is an irreplaceable material carrier in China music culture.

Bamboo also has a great influence on Chinese religious culture. Ancient ancestors worshipped bamboo totem as the object of totem worship and used bamboo as a tool and sacrifice. Taoism and Buddhism worship bamboo as their doctrine and pursue the environment created by bamboo.

Bamboo plays an extremely important role in folk culture. Bamboo culture is associated with oral literature and art, entertainment activities and beliefs and customs; It has entered the ritual system of human beings and formed an important element of folk bamboo culture in community culture such as sacrifice, wedding and funeral, communication, festivals and court rules.

Third, bamboo and China's poems and paintings.

Green bamboo has attracted countless literati from ancient times to the present. They have a deep affection for bamboo, created thousands of bamboo myths, poems, paintings and calligraphy, and formed an important part of bamboo culture in China.

The Book of Songs is the first collection of poems in China, in which there are a large number of bamboo poems, five of which are directly mentioned and appear seven times. There are dozens of indirect quotations. For example, the poem "Feng Weizhi's Qi 'ao" says, "Look at him making Qi 'ao magnificent." . Historically, there are different views on the above records of bamboo in the Book of Songs, but in fact, it is indisputable to mention bamboo. The Book of Songs was compiled in the Spring and Autumn Period. Since then, bamboo poems and paintings have been recorded in various ancient books of various dynasties.

When describing bamboo poems and paintings, we have to mention several touching stories about loving bamboo. According to Taiping Yu Lan, Wang Huizhi (Zi You), a great calligrapher in the Jin Dynasty (the son of Wang Xizhi), once "temporarily sent people to live in empty houses and ordered people to plant bamboo. Or ask, why stay? " He talked for a long time, pointed to Zhu and said, "How can you live without this gentleman for a day?" He loved bamboo all his life, and bamboo was his good friend. In the Song Dynasty, Su Dongpo also praised bamboo. In the poem Lu Yunxuan, a hermit, he said, "You can eat without meat, but you can't live without bamboo. No meat makes people thin, and no bamboo makes people vulgar. " Thin people can be fat, but ordinary people can't rule well ... "... Zheng Banqiao was one of the outstanding painters in Qing Dynasty, and he was particularly fond of and good at painting bamboo. There are also hundreds of his bamboo painting poems, which are colorful and unique. He inscribed a poem on the thrush of a bamboo stone: "I insist that the green hills are not relaxed, and the roots are broken rocks." Despite the difficulties, it is still strong, and the wind is strong in the southeast and northwest. It highly praised the nature of bamboo, which is not afraid of adversity and thriving. In the revolutionary history of China, many ancestors wrote poems on bamboo, among which Fang Zhimin martyr was the most typical. He wrote couplets and hung them in his bedroom to encourage himself: "There are three wonderful books in my heart, beautiful mountains and rivers, four objects in the garden, pines, bamboos and orchids in Bai Mei." Even his children are named after pine, bamboo, plum and orchid, which shows the position of bamboo in his heart. At the difficult juncture of the revolution, he wrote Changhong's epic: "The snow presses the bamboo head low, and the low one wants to be muddy." A red sun rises, still in harmony with the sky. "

It is no accident that traditional painting art in China has attached importance to painting bamboo since ancient times. Bamboo's noble spiritual outlook and special aesthetic value not only inspired artists' creative inspiration, but also became a model that artists respected.

Bamboo painting occupies a considerable position in the traditional painting art in China. In the middle Tang Dynasty, bamboo has formed a special painting theme. Wentong in the Northern Song Dynasty founded Huzhou Bamboo School, which was respected by later generations as the originator of Mozi painting. Ke, Gao and Ni Zan in Yuan Dynasty, Wang Bi, Xia Chang and Xu Wei in Ming Dynasty, Shi Tao, Pu Hua and Wu Changshuo in Qing Dynasty all painted a large number of bamboos, which promoted the development of bamboo painting art and made important contributions to the development and perfection of bamboo painting techniques and theories. So far, the art of bamboo painting in China has maintained an enduring momentum, which is a unique cultural phenomenon in China.

Bamboo painting has been popular in the Tang Dynasty, and the ink bamboo in Chinese painting was founded in the Tang Dynasty. After the Song Dynasty, painting bamboo was more successful. Famous bamboo painters emerge one after another. The great poet Su Dongpo is a master of bamboo painting, and his second son Su Guo is a master of bamboo painting. His best friend Wen is also a master of bamboo painting, and he has superb bamboo painting skills. Su Dongpo's painting theory of "having a plan in mind" has been followed by Mohist painters in past dynasties and by traditional painting creation. His painting "Ink Bamboo Map" is a masterpiece, which can get the graceful charm of "full of natural and unrestrained posture, forcing the beautiful scenery to be scattered, suspecting the wind and making it without bamboo shoots". His masterpiece "Appreciation of Xiao Gu Zhu Document Painting" is a masterpiece handed down from generation to generation. The article said: "Draw bamboo first."

Famous bamboo painters of past dynasties have their own characteristics and formed various schools in painting practice. Their paintings of bamboo are very vivid and lifelike, so Bai Juyi once praised "looking up suddenly like a picture and listening to doubt" in "Brush Songs".

Bamboo painting flourished in Qing Dynasty, and the sudden emergence of "Eight Eccentrics in Yangzhou" created an unprecedented situation for bamboo painting. The traditional requirement of Chinese painting is to truly reflect the objective form of natural scenery, while Zheng Banqiao's bamboo painting not only shows the natural characteristics of the objective object, but also shows the author's personality, thoughts and attitude towards society. He not only left many wonderful bamboo paintings, but also left "Sixty-nine Inscriptions on Bamboo", praising "Zhu Jun, Master Shi, Chitose Friends, Four Seasons Spring".

4. Bamboo and China Gardens

Bamboo is an indispensable part of classical gardens in China. China's gardening history began in 1 1 century BC when Zhou Wenwang built a platform, a marsh and a coffin, which can be said to be the earliest royal garden. According to Shangshu Gong Yu, "bamboo arrows, where can I remember the beauty of the southeast", it can be seen that the ancients knew how to appreciate the beautiful bamboo forest scenery earlier. After Qin Shihuang unified the six countries, he vigorously built the "Shanglin Garden" and introduced bamboo from Yungang, Shanxi Province to Xianyang (see "Collection of Notes", "When the emperor was empty, he was poor on all sides and got bamboo in Yungang Plain"). This is the earliest record of bamboo being used in gardening. At that time, planting bamboo and building bamboo gardens were mostly limited to building hunting grounds and strategic material bases, and bamboo gardening was still in its infancy.

During the Wei, Jin, Southern and Northern Dynasties, China gardens entered the development period from the embryonic stage. At that time, influenced by political turmoil and religious trends of thought, it became a fashion for literati and officialdom to admire the mysterious and visit famous mountains and rivers. Poetry and budding landscape paintings eulogize the natural scenery and pastoral scenery, stimulate the garden, and produce a "natural landscape garden" different from the palace, and bamboo is immediately integrated into the gardening. At that time, bamboo landscaping in the royal forest and official private gardens also developed accordingly. Hualin Garden, a famous royal garden in the Northern Wei Dynasty, said in the Notes on Water Classics: "Bamboo and cypress are shaded by stones, embroidered with thin spring edges." Luoyang Galand records the private gardens of Luoyang dignitaries, all of which are "peaches, plums, Xia Qing, bamboos, cypresses and holly".

Among the "Wangchuan Bie Ye" planned by Wang Wei, a scholar in the Tang Dynasty, there are bamboo scenes such as "Jinzhuling" and "Zhuliguan". Song Huizong Evonne, the Emperor of the Northern Song Dynasty, personally participated in the planning of "Shoushan Genprison". It can be seen from Song Huizong's handwritten Record of Genprison that it is a typical example of bamboo landscaping in the gardens of the Northern Song Dynasty. In the Southern Song Dynasty, Hangzhou was designated as the capital and renamed Lin 'an. Nobles, bureaucrats and wealthy businessmen lived in Jiangnan, and the prosperity of palaces and private gardens was self-evident, which promoted the later development of Jiangnan gardens. During the Tang and Song Dynasties, bamboo was widely used. The Book of Luoyang Famous Gardens written by Li in the Northern Song Dynasty commented on 19 private gardens, and specifically described the bamboo scenery of 10 home gardens, such as Guiren Garden, Dongshi Garden, Fuzheng Garden and Miaoshuai Garden. We can also learn from the careful gardens in Xing Wu during the Southern Song Dynasty that there are also bamboos in the gardens of Wu Xing's family. Bamboo gardening has entered its heyday.

Gardens in Ming and Qing Dynasties inherited the traditions of Tang and Song Dynasties and gradually formed local styles, among which gardens in the south of the Yangtze River, represented by gardens, reached a peak in the late feudal society of China. The combination of bamboo with water, rocks, garden wall buildings and bamboo forest landscape is one of the greatest characteristics of Jiangnan gardens and Lingnan gardens. Six famous gardens in Suzhou, such as Canglang Pavilion and Lion Forest, as well as Yangzhou Geyuan and Huizhou Xiaoyao Hall, have been successfully applied to bamboo gardening, and many gardening techniques are still adopted by modern people. During the Ming and Qing Dynasties, a number of theoretical works on gardening techniques were published, such as Wang's Qunfang Spectrum, Tu Long's Notes on Leisure in Shanzhai, and Li Yu's Rooms Essays. The most influential works are Yuanye and Wen Zhenheng Chronicle, both of which have made detailed and incisive exposition on bamboo gardening, which is admired and imitated by later generations. Gardens in Ming and Qing Dynasties, especially bamboo gardens, entered a mature stage.

With the development of poetry, books, paintings, gardening art and technology, people are no longer satisfied with courtyard landscaping, so bonsai, a miniature of natural scenery that can be enjoyed and played at any time in the house, appears. According to research, China bonsai appeared in the Tang Dynasty. Bonsai made of bamboo can be seen in many famous paintings in Song Dynasty. In the Ming and Qing Dynasties, the bonsai of "Three Friends in Cold Years" was widely circulated. The production and appreciation of bamboo bonsai are introduced in the rest of the examination tables and the group spectrum. The Palace Museum in Beijing also treasures a bamboo bonsai made of jadeite, which was presented by ministers on the 80th birthday of Emperor Li Hong of Qianlong. Nowadays, there are many exquisite bamboo bonsai products, such as Seven Sages of Bamboo Forest and Interesting Pictures of Bamboo by Mr. Zhou Shoujuan, as well as a large number of representative bamboo bonsai works such as Xiaoxiang Running Water, Cuiye Map, Bamboo Forest Escape and Dongpo Heritage in Yangzhou.

China bonsai has always been called "silent poem, three-dimensional painting", which is deeply loved by people in the East and West.

Verb (abbreviation of verb) Bamboo and People's Life

Bamboo grows fast, has strong adaptability and is widely used. Bamboo is closely related to people's life, and its utilization involves clothing, food, shelter, transportation and use. Bamboo has a long history in building. In ancient times, bamboo played an important role in the evolution of human beings from nesting, digging holes to living on the ground. Bamboo was found as a building material in the late Neolithic site of Caoxieshan in Wuxian County, Jiangsu Province. Ganquan Palace and Huanggang Bamboo House in the Han Dynasty were both built with bamboo and enjoyed great fame.

From the perspective of clothing, bamboo plays an important role in the origin and development of China people's clothing. Bamboo shoes, hats and umbrellas appeared in Qin and Han dynasties, with bamboo as cloth, bamboo as crown and bamboo as rain, which have been used ever since. In the Tang Dynasty, bamboo cloth was one of the important tributes of some counties in Lingnan area, and bamboo was also the decorative material of the ancients, which showed the contribution of bamboo to human clothing culture.

From the edible point of view, bamboo shoots and dictyophora are very popular delicacies, and bamboo is an important crop raw material for famine relief in past dynasties. According to the pre-Qin literature, bamboo shoots more than 3,000 years ago were delicacies on the table. There are many ways to eat bamboo shoots, and thousands of delicious foods can be cooked. Bamboo also has special medical value. In the earliest medical books in China, there is a historical record of using bamboo to treat diseases. Bamboo is full of treasures. Bamboo shavings and juice made from leaves, fruits, roots and stems are all effective medicinal materials. Bamboo yellow and dictyophora are also good medicines for treating diseases.

The appearance and development of vehicles and facilities is one of the symbols of China civilization. Bamboo has played an important role in transportation. The origin and development of ancient vehicles and facilities are closely related to bamboo. Ancient people used bamboo to make bamboo carts, rafts, boats and bridges, which created many firsts in the history of world transportation and made great contributions to the development of world transportation tools and facilities.

Archaeological data prove that in the late Paleolithic and early Neolithic, ancient ancestors began to make bamboo utensils with bamboo. The pottery unearthed from Xi 'an Banpo site of Yangshao culture has the impression of bamboo woven fabric at the bottom, a large number of printed pottery with bamboo patterns have been unearthed from Liangzhu cultural site in the south, and more than 200 bamboo wares have been unearthed from Qianshanyang site in Xing Wu, Zhejiang. With the continuous development and progress of society and culture, there are more and more kinds of bamboo products. By the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period, the production of bamboo ware had become an important production department in the society at that time-bamboo handicraft industry, and bamboo ware had become an indispensable item in the life of the general public at that time. There are more than 60 kinds of bamboo wares in Han Dynasty, more than 100 in Jin Dynasty, nearly 200 kinds in Tang and Song Dynasties, and more than 250 kinds in Ming and Qing Dynasties. Such as reeds, reeds, bowls, chopsticks, spoons, plates, bowls, steamers, etc. Cooking utensils, baskets, barns, barns and boxes for articles. Furniture includes beds, sofas, seats, chairs, pillows, chairs, screens, tables and cabinets.

From the perspective of human living environment, bamboo has also played its special role. Ancient ancestors discovered the special protective function of bamboo very early, and attached importance to the protective function of bamboo in cities and the safety of residential buildings. Bamboo was used as a fence wall in past dynasties to prevent thieves and protect the safety of cities and residential buildings. Bamboo forest is favored by people because of its functions of regulating climate, conserving water, conserving soil and water, reducing noise, purifying air and preventing wind damage. People at all times and all over the world are not allowed to use it to protect and beautify the living environment of mankind.

Thus, bamboo has made an extremely important contribution to the daily life of China people, showing the elegant demeanor of bamboo civilization. Therefore, the relationship between bamboo and people's life, as Su Dongpo said: "People who eat bamboo shoots, live in bamboo tiles, carry bamboo rafts, cook bamboo firewood, wear bamboo skins, order bamboo paper and walk bamboo shoes can't live without this gentleman for a day."