ChinaScan.org

Old timers in Beijing liked to visit temple fairs in a bygone era. They were held at different locations in the city during the Spring Festival, or the Chinese New Year, bringing great joy to children and adults alike. Peddlers sold a toy called the Golden Cudgel, a weapon used by the Monkey King, the hero in the classic novel Pilgrimage to the West. Children would buy a cudgel home and wield it the way the Monkey King was supposed to do. Of course, children could also tell one or two stories about the Monkey King and mimicked his habitual act of ear tweaking and cheek scratching.

The Monkey King is a popular opera character in China. Every Chinese likes this intelligent, resourceful, daring and just spirit, whose name is Sun Wukong. Children use the Monkey King mask and his golden cudgel to mimic his many feats.

Foreigners interested in Peking Opera are usually invited to see a Monkey King play. They will be dazzled by a group of hyperactive actors jumping and making summersaults like monkeys on the stage. The actor playing the omnipotent Monkey King will invariably leave a deep impression on the audience. The monkey play in Peking Opera comes from kunqu opera, which originated in Suzhou, east China. Today, usually male actors play the role of the Monkey King.

A performer needs to master a whole set of monkey-playing skills, portraying the Monkey King’s breadth of vision as well as his resourcefulness, liveliness and adroitness. A few Peking Opera actors made their name by playing the Monkey King. They include Yang Yuelou (1844-1889) and Yang Xiaolou (1878-1938), who were father and son, Li Shaochun (1919-1975), Li Wanchun (1911-1985) and Ye Shenzhang (1912-1966). During 1937-1942, Monkey King plays had their heyday in Beijing.

Often the Monkey King was staged in several theaters at the same time.  Some theatrical companies even specialized in staging Monkey King plays, offering shows in series. In 1926, Peking Opera actors Yang Xiaolou and Zheng Faxiang staged Monkey King play in Japan. At the time, plays such as Havoc in Heaven (nao tian gong) and Water-curtained Cave (shui lian dong), both are episodes of Pilgrimage to the West featuring the Monkey King, were popular among foreign audiences.

Discovery of the Banpo Neolithic Village in 1954 is regarded as an important supplement to studies of the Yangshao culture. Ruins of the primitive village that existed over a period from 4,800 BC to 4,500 BC are in perfect conditions. Decorative patterns on pottery utensils unearthed from there take the shape of human faces, fish and deer and other animals, and archeologists link them to witchcraft characteristic of primitive religions.

One example is a pottery kettle with the ends bent upward and fishing net-like patterns painted on its body – obviously modeled after a primitive dugout canoe which, archeologists say, expresses hope of its producer for a good catch and should have something to do with primitive witchcraft. Mysteries surrounding some human face-like patterns remain to be cracked. Most “faces”, so to speak, are round and have straight noses and long, narrow eyes with triangular dunce caps on, as well as fish dangling from both corners of the mouth or on the forehead. Archeologists attribute such patterns to wizards chanting incantations for a good catch of fish.

Patterns of astronomical phenomena should be attributed to primitive agriculture and to understanding of astronomy by prehistory people. Some patterns are realistic in style, with the sun and moon, for example, painted as they actually look like. But in most cases techniques of symbolism were used, with the bird symbolizing the sun and the frog, the moon. Research has led to the conclusion that primitive Chinese thought the bird was the soul of the sun and the frog, the soul of the moon.

Bird and frog images are found on painted pottery produced not later than 7,000 years ago. Those on some of the earliest works are quite realistic in style but, as time went by, such images became increasingly geometrical and mysterious. Use of bird and frog images as theme patterns had continued for well over 3,000 years until the bird image changed into a golden crow and the frog image, into a toad with three legs. In classical Chinese poetry and essays, the sun is often referred to as the “golden crow” and the moon, as the “magic toad”.

Bird and fish images in decorative patterns on prehistory pottery can also be seen as totems. Different clans or tribes had different ancestral roots, hence their different totems. Struggles or alliances between different clans or tribes found an artistic expression in patterns picturing fights or unions between different animals. A pottery vase unearthed in Linru County, Henan Province, is a typical case in point. The vase is painted with a picture 37 centimeters tall and 44 centimeters wide, depicting a fierce-looking white stork with a fish, stiff and motionless, in its long beak. A large stone ax is seen at the right side of the bird, with the handle wrapped in pieces of a textile or with a rope wound round it, on which signs that look like alphabet X are painted. The ax might be symbol of the powers enjoyed by the chieftain of a tribe. The bird is done without an outline, its color, pure white, posing a sharp contrast to the fish and ax done with black outlines. It seems that prehistory artists already knew how to increase the artistic effect of their works by using such techniques as contrast.

What merit even greater attention, however, are painted pottery utensils found at a place also called “Miaodigou” on the foot of Mt. Huashan in Shaanxi. These are beautiful with strings of decorative patterns painstakingly designed and arranged. Research has led to the discovery that the workmen first used dots to mark the position of each pattern on the roughcast of a utensil, and then linked the patterns with straight lines or curved triangles to form a decorative belt vigorous and rhythmic in artistic style. A careful Produced 4,800-4,300 years ago, this pottery basin is one of the cultural relics unearthed at the Banpo ruins of the New Stone Age in Xi’an, Shaanxi Province. The decorative pattern features a human face witaltProduced 4,800-4,300 years ago, this pottery basin is one of the cultural relics unearthed at the Banpo ruins of the New Stone Age in Xi’an, Shaanxi Province. The decorative pattern features a human face wit viewer won’t miss those lines cut in intaglio or relief, forming rose flowers, buds, leaves and stems.

Pottery utensils of the same Yangshao culture that are found in different places invariably have different the me patterns for their decorative belts. Nevertheless, patterns with rose flowers as the theme decoration are found on pottery of all types, indicating an inherent link of theirs.

In 1957, the so-called “Miaodigou branch of the Yangshao culture” became known with excavation of a primitive site at Miaodigou in Sanmenxia City, Henan Province, which archeologists believe existed during the transition of the Yangshao culture to the Longshan culture. Painted pottery utensils found at Miaodigou were produced around 3,900 years BC. Flying 4,800-4,300 years ago. It was unearthed at Baoji City, Shaanxi Province birds, distorted bird patterns done with crude lines and frogs in a style of realism are the main patterns on them.

Fish and distorted fish patterns, sometimes with fishing net patterns, characterize pottery utensils found at Banpo in Shaanxi Province. Archeologists believe these represent another branch of the Yangshao culture, which is earlier than the Miaodigou branch. Images of frogs are painted on the inner side of pottery basins found at Banpo, and deer are the only animal figures on Banpo pottery ware.