[Zhao Dongju] Interaction between museums and intangible cultural heritage

Executive summary: Intangible cultural heritage is very important and has a close relationship with museums.

The two sides are an interactive process.

Museums have multiple advantages in engaging in intangible cultural heritage, and the advantages of museums should be made good use of to contribute to the preservation of cultural diversity.

The author once inspected the culture and existing relics of the original Rongmei Tusi in Pingshan Village, Hefeng County, Hubei Province, which ruled the Tujia area for more than 400 years and flourished for a time.

We walked into the village amid the chorus of folk songs between a cadre from the local propaganda department and a folk singer in the village.

This village is located 11 kilometers east of Hefeng County.

The terrain is long and narrow, the top of the mountain is relatively gentle, and the surrounding areas are very steep.

The cliffs are thousands of high, making it easy to defend and difficult to attack.

Eight generations of chief chiefs of Rongmei Tusi worked hard here to build large-scale architectural communities such as Juefu.

Most of these buildings are now gone, but the relics are scattered throughout Pingshan.

The Juefu in the Pingshan site is about 1200 square meters, and there are still architectural relics such as Sishu, streets, halls, two halls, and stone carvings with "high mountains and long rivers".

On the entire Pingshan Mountain, there are also cave buildings such as Wanquan Cave and Zhaidong, as well as Qiwuzhang Tucheng, Dahuangkou Pass, and Fangbu Gorge stone wall (more than 500 meters long and 5 meters high).

Outside the wall, there are Pingbu Bridge, Tiesuo Bridge, Xiang's tombs, as well as ruins related to Tusi activities such as the theater, Wrigley, Yuetai, Liangfeng Terrace, Martial Arts Racecourse, Tianlao, Dungeon, and Shanren Gulch.

At the west end of Pingshan Back Street, there is also a monument to Wanquan Cave that remains on the mountain valley leading to Wanquan Cave.

Along the dangerous cliff road, you can descend Wanquan Cave.

Inside the cave,"Airi Pavilion","Jiuyue Pavilion","Weibo Tower" and other cave dwelling architectural relics still vaguely exist.

In 1735, the last Tusi Tian Minru was forced to hang himself in this cave, proclaiming the end of the Tusi era.

Here, many national precious cultural relics such as the "Tusi Official Seal" and the "Hetu Luoshu Brick Map" were unearthed in Pingshan, making the Pingshan Tusi Site Group the most representative Rongmei Tusi site.

When talking about the relationship between physical materials and non-physical materials, that is, with "non-objects", Marx also said: "Crafts reveal the relationship between humans and nature, reveal human activities, as well as the social relationships in which human activities are located and the resulting various concepts.

The direct production process of concepts...

To understand the own organization of extinct animals, we must study the structure of relics; to identify extinct social and economic forms and study the relics of animal means, it is of equal importance.

What divides economic periods is not what is done, but how it is done.

What means to do it.

The means of labor are not only a measure of the development of the human labor force; they are also an indicator of the social relations in which labor is located.".

It also points out the relationship and importance between physical materials "objects" and intangible materials, that is, intangible cultural heritage, and explains that intangible cultural components such as craftsmanship, skills, techniques, means, and methods in physical materials are important for the interpretation of physical materials.

Materials are extremely important.

Even now, we can still absorb and draw on the beneficial elements from it.

Third, demonstrate your advantages.

At present, most museums in my country have fixed display and exhibition venues, as well as relevant display design and exhibition talent teams.

As intangible cultural heritage, the various materials protected and rescued are not for the sake of rescue, but need to be publicized and interpreted to the public so that they can understand, become familiar with, and identify with their own nation and culture, so that it can shorten the distance between history and reality, humanities and nature, and achieve communication, coordination and harmony between culture and culture, man and man, man and nature, so as to protect cultural diversity and inherit human civilization.

So, it must also be displayed.

However, due to the aforementioned reasons, some units currently engaged in "intangible cultural heritage" rescue work do not yet have the conditions for display.

As for the "National Exhibition of Intangible Cultural Heritage Protection Achievements" exhibited in Beijing not long ago (February-March 2006), why did the leading units include the Ministry of Culture, the Development and Reform Commission, the Ministry of Education, the Civil Affairs Commission, the Ministry of Finance, and the Tourism Bureau, but the exhibition site was selected in the National Museum? I wonder if this is related to the empty exhibition space of the National Museum and the high level of exhibition design of the National Museum.

At the local level, many units currently engaged in "intangible cultural heritage" work also lack or do not have places to display intangible cultural heritage achievements.

It is better to make good use of the museum than to seek far away, which will save a lot of material, financial and human resources.