Si le passé pouvait parler 3 – Épisode 20 : Peinture Fuxi et Nüwa d'Astana

You have a new message sent from the past. It is an ancient land, vast and elevated. In 48 BC, the Han dynasty of the West established the city of Gaochang in the region of Turfan. During the Tang dynasty, it was the center of the prefectures of Xizhao and Jiaohe, and was twice the seat of the protectorate of Anshi. For more than eight centuries, many immigrants from the central plain settled here to defend the borders or to escape the troubles of war. On a surface of 10 square kilometers of the Gobi Desert, between the Mountain of Fire and the old city of Gaochang, are the tombs of the inhabitants of this city, dating from the 3rd to the 10th century. It is an ancient constellated sky. Among the stars are two mythical gods of the Chinese nation, Fuxi and Nuwa. Since 1959, a hundred paintings with similar representations of Fuxi and Nuwa have been erected in the tombs of Astana. Made from the 6th to the 8th century, these paintings on silk or linen have an inverted trapezium shape and were either suspended on the ceiling of the tomb or placed on the coffin. At the top is the sky, at the bottom the earth. Man is located in the center. With the starry vault representing the sky, the dark tomb becomes a luminous universe where the deceased can rest for eternity. The origin of the mythical characters Fuxi and Nuwa dates back to Antiquity. During the Han dynasty of the West, under the influence of the philosophy of Yin and Yang, they began to appear together as a symbol of harmony between Yin and Yang, which is created and transformed into infinity. Fuxi and Nuwa have human busts and intertwined snake tails. They wear a plaited skirt around their waist, a red vest with a round collar and a wide sleeve, with dyed flowers and black borders. Fuxi on the right and Nuwa on the left, only their make-up and their hairstyle allow them to be distinguished. Nuwa holds a compass in his right hand and four sticks to calculate in his left hand. Fuxi holds a square in his left hand and a rope to draw in his right hand. If the intertwined snake tails symbolize the desire for existence and reproduction, as well as the evolution of beings since the creation of the world, the compass and the square, the square and the circle, the sun and the moon, the yin and the yang, symbolize the rationality and the will of a new civilization to give unknown rules and criteria to the world. On the traces of the migrants, the culture transmitted by the central plain is anchored in this distant land. Time and the mixing of populations of different origins have led to a great variety of representations of Fuxi and Nuwa. Cultural evolution took place through encounters and crystallized during the same process. Thanks to these representations of Fuxi and Nuwa, the deceased return to heaven under the protection of the ancestors and gods, despite the vicissitudes of the world and the inevitable decline of life. In impermanence, the pursuit of fulfillment and the prolongation of life remains in our cultural memory. The ancient land is no longer but a vestige, but the starry sky will remain the same. New messages from the past await to be read.