On June 14, the Information Office of the State Council held a press conference to introduce the preparations for the Asian Para Games in Hangzhou. At the press conference, the time and place of the Hangzhou Asian Games fire collection were announced——
The tinder collection ceremony will be held on June 15 at the ruins of Liangzhu Ancient City, Yuhang District, Hangzhou.
Liangzhu once again stood in the global spotlight. Why was Liangzhu chosen for the fire collection site of the Hangzhou Asian Games?
One
To answer this question, you can first take a look at the previous Asian Games, where the fire collection places were chosen.
Whether it is the Olympic Games or the Asian Games, the flame has become a symbol of the Olympic spirit, representing light, unity, friendship, peace and justice.
When the first Asian Games were held in New Delhi, India’s capital in 1951, the Olympic flame was carried on. To light the flame, it is necessary to collect the fire first.
Unlike the Olympic fire, which is fixed in front of the Temple of Hera in Olympia, Greece, the birthplace of the Olympic Games, the location of the Asian Games is different almost every session.
The tinder of the 1st New Delhi Games was collected in the Red Fort, the royal palace of the Mughal Dynasty in India;
The flames of the 5th and 6th Asian Games in Bangkok were collected at the Royal Palace of the King of Thailand;
The tinder of the 18th Jakarta Asian Games was collected at the Daiyachande National Stadium in New Delhi, India, where the first Asian Games were held…
The 11th Beijing Asian Games and the 16th Guangzhou Asian Games held in China, I believe that many people are still impressed by the fire collection location and collection ceremony——
The fire collection site of the Beijing Asian Games, under the Nianqing Tanggula Peak, more than 100 kilometers north of Lhasa City and at an altitude of 7,117 meters, was collected by Dawa Yangzong, a 15-year-old Tibetan girl at the time, and then handed over the fire to Li Ning, the “prince of gymnastics”.
The fire of the Guangzhou Asian Games was collected by fire messengers at the north beacon tower of the Great Wall of Juyongguan in Beijing.
Looking at the selection of the fire collection site of the previous Asian Games, there is the “ingenuity” of the host country behind it, and there is the “silent language” that it wants to convey to the outside world.
The Qinghai-Tibet Plateau, where the fire was collected for the Beijing Asian Games, is the highest place in the world.
The Great Wall of Yongguan, the fire-gathering place of the Guangzhou Asian Games, is an important pass of the Great Wall, and has been known as “the first majestic pass under the world” since ancient times.
Both sites symbolize China’s long history and splendid civilization, and reflect the Chinese people’s good wishes for peace and friendship.
Two
Then focus on Liangzhu.
According to the selection of fire collection sites for the Beijing Asian Games and Guangzhou Asian Games, the selection of fire collection sites for the Hangzhou Asian Games should be nationwide.
So why did you finally choose the local site of Liangzhu Ancient City?
Because its weight is heavy enough, the coffee is large enough, and the significance is deep enough: the Liangzhu site is a sacred place that empirically demonstrates the history of Chinese civilization for more than 5,000 years.
It is the calendar.A “sacred place” with rich historical and cultural significance. Archaeological research has confirmed that as early as 5300-4300 years ago, there was a regional early country based on rice agriculture in the lower reaches of the Yangtze River around Taihu Lake – Liangzhu civilization.
It is the earliest national civilization found on the land of China so far, and it is also the earliest civilization relic in East Asia.
The archaeological achievements of the Liangzhu ancient city site have rewritten Chinese history and world history, and the national unified compilation of middle school history textbooks has taken Liangzhu culture as one of the important sources of Chinese civilization.
It is a “highland” that is widely recognized worldwide. On July 6, 2019, at the 43rd UNESCO World Heritage Conference held in Baku, the capital of Azerbaijan, the site of Liangzhu Ancient City was successfully inscribed on the World Heritage List.
This means that the history of China’s civilization of more than 5,000 years has finally been internationally recognized.
UNESCO clearly pointed out that the site of Liangzhu Ancient City represents the outstanding contribution of the Yangtze River Basin to the origin of the “diversity and integration” of Chinese civilization, is a great achievement of East Asian and Chinese rice cultivation civilization, and is an outstanding example of early urban civilization in the history of human civilization.
Colin Renforu, a well-known British archaeologist, has visited the Liangzhu ancient city site twice, and has a high evaluation of the Liangzhu site, and has repeatedly introduced the Liangzhu site to the Western academic community——
“The understanding and excavation of Liangzhu has advanced the world’s understanding of China’s early civilization by more than a thousand years.”
“If you look at it in the framework of the world, Liangzhu pushed the origin of Chinese national society to the same extent as Egyptian, Mesopotamian and Indian civilizations, almost simultaneously.”
It is a “scenic spot” for the comprehensive display of Chinese civilization. After the successful application of the Liangzhu Ancient City Site, the Liangzhu Ancient City Site Area, Yaoshan Ruins and Peripheral Water Conservancy Facilities Site, which are an important part of the application, were successively opened to the public in the form of a heritage park.
The three site parks integrate the protection and display, education, scientific research, sightseeing, leisure and other functions of the archaeological site itself and its environment. In the Liangzhu Museum, there is also a permanent theme exhibition “Liangzhu is a sacred place that empirically demonstrates the history of Chinese civilization for more than 5,000 years”.
The three heritage parks and the Liangzhu Museum have become important places for global visitors to experience and understand the “5,000-year-old Chinese civilization”, and have also become important windows to display ancient China and modern China. Up to now, it has attracted more than 7 million visitors, and initially launched the brand of “5,000 years of China to Liangzhu”.
Keeping in mind the instruction of “to make the cultural relics collected in the museum ‘live'”, Yuhang makes full use of digital technologies such as AR and VR to allow visitors to have an immersive experience in parks and museums; “Hand in hand” with Dunhuang to jointly tackle the problem of “protection of soil sites in humid environment”, and has been explored at the site of Tiger Ridge on the southern city wall of the ancient city of Liangzhu and the site of the peripheral water conservancy system, and strive to allow ordinary visits.Customers also feel that “there is something to see” and “can understand”.
It is a “treasure land” for the refinement of the spiritual symbols of the Chinese nation. Under the overall guidance of the Provincial Cultural Heritage Bureau, the Liangzhu site actively participated in the Chinese civilization source exploration project and the research on the civilization model of the lower reaches of the Yangtze River in “Archaeological China”.
At present, breakthroughs have been made in the research on topics such as the formation of Liangzhu in the early stage and the process of civilization in prehistoric society in the lower reaches of the Yangtze River, which provides strong support for the definition of civilization and the identification of China’s plan to enter civilized society.
Standing at the intersection of history, the Liangzhu culture, which carries the memory of more than 5,000 years of civilization, has become a unique spiritual vane of the Chinese nation.
Three
The Hangzhou Asian Games fire collection site was selected at the site of Liangzhu Ancient City, what is the “silent language” we want to convey?
To sum up, it is four words: cultural confidence.
General Secretary Xi Jinping stressed at the symposium on cultural inheritance and development on June 2 that it is our new cultural mission to continue to promote cultural prosperity, build a cultural power, and build the modern civilization of the Chinese nation at a new starting point. We must strengthen cultural self-confidence, undertake missions, work hard, and work together to create a new culture belonging to our era and build a modern civilization of the Chinese nation.
To build a modern civilization of the Chinese nation, we must recognize the outstanding characteristics of the Chinese civilization. The first outstanding characteristic of Chinese civilization is continuity, which fundamentally determines that the Chinese nation must follow its own path.
Therefore, if we do not understand China from the perspective of its long historical continuity, it is impossible to understand ancient China, nor modern China, let alone future China.
Liangzhu is an important window for understanding China from the perspective of historical continuity——
From urban construction, water conservancy facilities construction, to jade carving, engraving and ornaments, they all reflect the “Liangzhu spirit” of Liangzhu ancestors’ originality, initiative, originality and expansion. This is in line with the enterprising spirit of the Chinese nation for more than 5,000 years, which has not been honest and not conservative, respected the ancient and not retro, and the fearless character of not being afraid of new challenges and daring to accept new things…
Whether in the material field or in the spiritual field, the precious wealth and excellent culture created by the Liangzhu ancestors on the land of China more than 5,000 years ago are still deeply affecting the current China, and have become cultural genes engraved in the bones of Chinese in the precipitation of history.
At present, Hangzhou is planning to build the Liangzhu Cultural Corridor. This cultural corridor, first proposed by Yuhang, takes Liangzhu culture as the core, connecting more than 5,000 years of Liangzhu culture, more than 2,000 years of canal culture, more than 1,000 years of Jingshan culture, double thousand years of ancient town culture, Goxi culture, red culture, etc., and is committed to forming a continuity of history and culture.
Taking a step higher, we consider the broad connotation of Liangzhu fire collection from a higher position. The great ancient civilizations of mankind are all connected.
Two years ago, when the Yaoshan ruins were first opened to the public, Yue opera performance artist Mao Weitao used the chanting of Baihe from Yue opera.The singing voice, in the form of a song team of ancient Greek drama, performed a fragment of the ancient Greek drama “Oedipus the King” on the “altar” of the ruins of Yaoshan Mountain. This is a great ancient civilization paying tribute to another great civilization, artistically expressing respect for the inheritance of civilization and the expectation of mutual learning among civilizations.
In this sense, collecting the Hangzhou Asian Games flame at the site of Liangzhu Ancient City is a small step for us to stand at the moment of building the modern civilization of the Chinese nation, look back at the great footprints of our ancestors, cautiously pursue the long term, look back to the past, find “where we come from”, clarify “where we are going”, and firmly move towards the bright future of Chinese-style modernization and even a community with a shared future for mankind.
Liangzhu tinder, candles illuminate the future. Chao Sheng丨Written by Tang Junyao Shen Listen to the rain