large-scale documentary "Why China" is currently being broadcast on Dragon TV and other platforms. The film tells the story of the birth, origin and development of Chinese civilization. It is the first long-term narrative documentary that uses archaeological writing to explore the origins of Chinese civilization. During the filming, the film crew placed jade, pottery, bronze and other cultural relics according to the rituals and scenes of the era based on archaeological research, restoring their former positions and functions in history; at the same time, professional actors and the film crew recreated the The engraved props "cooperate" to reproduce the ancient social style. A few days ago, the film's director Qian Chao accepted an exclusive interview with a reporter from the Beijing News and said that "Why China" not only shows the grand history, but also specific people from all walks of life.
Huo Qubing goes straight into the desert scene (restored from the movie).
Original intention: to fully display the stories behind the artifacts
Beijing News: In terms of theme expression, how does this documentary answer the grand proposition of "Why China?"
Qian Chao: The first level of is from the creation stage of Chinese civilization to the establishment of a unified multi-ethnic country in Qin and Han Dynasties. It uses tens of thousands of years of history to tell the cultural pattern of China from diversity to unity and then to unity, and also shows The entire Chinese civilization continues to develop continuously. In fact, the entire eight-episode documentary tells the story of the creation of a diverse, integrated, and sustainable Chinese civilization. The first half of the historical process of "Why China" is basically consistent with the current results of the Chinese Civilization Discovery Project, emphasizing the regional diversity of early China's development and the increasingly in-depth regional interaction and integration; the second half follows the historical periodization of the three dynasties of Qin and Han Dynasties , and at the same time, more emphasis is placed on the era and cultural characteristics reflected in archaeological materials.
Scene of Liangzhu craftsmen making jade (restored from the movie).
We found that the narrative starting from the "cradle" cannot directly respond to or propose the proposition "Why China?" The early social development was the steps that different cultures in different regions in the history of human civilization took in unison. Although early China in East Asia had its own unique development background and path dependence, from settlement to agriculture, from villages to the country, this macro The pace of development is not unique to China. Therefore, the main creative team chose the form of flashback and planned to trace back episode by episode starting from the Qin and Han Dynasties. The intention is to first give what China is, and then gradually show when various characteristics began to form. However, the form of complete flashback goes against the general logic of historical narrative and is very difficult to achieve. We finally chose to use "Qin and Han" as the prologue, and then narrate the positive development process from the cradle to the world, which is equivalent to throwing out the answer first and then explaining the solution. ideas.
Qin army scene (restored from the movie).
Beijing News: Compared with other common humanities and history documentaries, what is the biggest difference between "Why China"?
Qian Chao: Most of the historical documentaries in the past were based on historical documents and artistic imagination, but "Why China" is "archaeological writing of history", that is, finding the exact physical evidence and remains that project "history". Based on this, and through multi-disciplinary research methods such as archeology, we can connect and summarize a large number of physical evidence projected in the vast time and space into a logically verifiable and credible historical narrative. The result is that at least half of the chapters in "Why China" have not appeared in historical documents at all, and archeology is our only means of restoring history.
Terracotta Warriors and Horses from the Mausoleum of Qin Shihuang.
We need to see things through and see people, and we also need to restore the appearance of that era. For example, about the Qin and Han Dynasties, everyone may have an imagination, but how should we guess in prehistory? You don’t know what the society was like at that time, and you haven’t even seen what the houses in the north and south looked like. So we have to do restoration. Many of the artifacts, costumes, and buildings in the scene were restored based on archaeological evidence. This is the basis for our authenticity. Through the actors' performances or the artistic shaping of the entire atmosphere, the audience can experience a sense of historical reality. Good actors such as Hu Ge, when he played the scene of Xuanquanzhi, we introduced the background to him in detail. He studied the script a long time ago, and he also read a lot of reference books.After he arrived, we told him that Sefuhong was the longest-serving person known to have worked in the history of Xuanquanzhi. He worked here for eighteen years and welcomed many people. During these eighteen years, he also witnessed the frontier history of the Han Dynasty. Then he asked a question, why do you wear such a set of robes and such a red soft scarf on your head. We immediately took out a physical picture of the unearthed pottery figurine. In the picture, the clothes similar to today's small local director level are what he looks like now. For example, the scenes we restored, such as "He Yi Village", the stilt-style houses in the south and the semi-crypt houses in the north were all reconstructed based on the study of archaeological sites.
Xuanquanzhi Shi Fuhong (movie restoration).
Archeology seeks truth, and documentaries should do the same. In today’s era of blockbusters, “beautiful” documentaries abound, but don’t forget the original intention and mission of us documentarians. Compared with beauty, truth is more precious.
Beijing News: There is a lot of historical information in the film. How can the audience receive the huge amount of information immediately?
Gan Chao: I cannot ensure that viewers without a background in archeology can receive all the information in the program. In fact, we designed a lot of details and echoes between each episode, between episodes, and even between the first and last episodes. Each viewer's cultural background, viewing environment and other factors will determine his experience of watching the film. I want to express that we have included the most important archaeological discoveries, historical clues, and cultural relics involved in these eight episodes, which is very rare. However, such a huge span of time and space, the temporary gaps in some archaeological narrative points, and the limitations of our creative team’s own abilities all determine that this will not be an easy-to-read entertaining work. On the contrary, if the audience is willing And if they can spend time doing some additional study and understanding, their gains will far exceed their previous expectations, and they can even become co-creators of "Why China".
Lingjiatan jade-making scene (restored from the movie).
As far as we are concerned, we are not only displaying the utensils, but also fully demonstrating its shape, usage or the story behind it. For example, more than 300 jade artifacts were unearthed from the 07m23 burial coffin at the Lingjiatan site. We filmed archaeologists re-dividing it into four layers and restoring and placing them according to the order of burial. We are not just showing the craftsmanship and beauty of the jade itself, but the cultural and social meaning it carries.
style: Let the audience jump out from a single appreciation of the artifact itself
Beijing News: "Why China" relies on unearthed cultural relics and archaeological sites, and uses scene reproduction to present historical stories. Why use this narrative and aesthetic style?
Qian Chao: You can usually look at cultural relics in the museum. Should we present a documentary version of the museum? That seems meaningless. When you look at cultural relics through glass, you actually see a lot of details. What the museum shows you is the beauty of this cultural relic, its function, craftsmanship, shape, and the connection between it and the cultural relics next door. But if we want the audience to connect with history, historical situations, and real social features, we need to start from archaeological artifacts and sites and present a scene or story presented by archaeologists’ research across time zones and directions. The essence of scene re-enactment, in this film, is not only to make history come alive or to allow the story to be told, but it is also a goal of archaeological historical research. It is extremely important to understand this. Many historical documentaries reproduce scenes in order to blur, stage, and conceptualize the narrative process, but "Why China" is the opposite. We need to make the historical scenes seen through archaeology real, clear, and full.
Liangzhu sacrificial ceremony scene (restored from the movie).
Beijing News: How to balance depth and popularity when making a documentary?
Gan Chao: Nowadays, archeology has introduced multiple disciplines: genetics, physical anthropology, botanical archaeology, zooarchaeology... We are now building on these results to find a core carrier. Sometimes this carrier is a specific artifact.For example, when we talk about the spread of painted pottery and jade wares, we see that there are similar jade wares in the north and south, which allows the audience to have an inner connection with those early people. In a sense, we want the audience to feel that these ancient ancestors are just far away from us. But what he thought about, expected, hoped for, and feared can actually be perceived by us today. I think the purpose is to allow the audience to slowly jump out of a single appreciation of the artifacts themselves and enter into an understanding of history.
Painted pottery from Gansu and Qinghai regions.
Beijing News: There must be some concessions in the documentary production process. What can be transferred?
Qian Chao: subjectively we have nothing to transfer. Like archaeologists, we have our own bottom line and principles for our works. But objectively, funding issues and time issues had to have an impact on our actual presentation. Because subjectively we tried our best, we have no regrets.
We have been competing throughout the whole process. The archaeological community has different views on many issues. Some archaeologists are more rigorous, while others are more imaginative. I think what we must stick to is the archaeological evidence we know and the mainstream consensus in the archaeological community. But there are still various practical problems, such as the turquoise dragon medallion in Erlitou, which we have studied for a long time. Whether the turquoise was inlaid on a soft material like cloth or on a wooden board is undecided. If there is no absolute conclusion on a certain issue, but it needs to be presented visually and cannot be avoided, we will communicate this matter with many senior archaeologists who have directly studied this period. Research on some professional issues takes an extremely long time, so much so that we are often filming while doing archaeological analysis and experiments. There is a map of the scope of internal and external control and influence in the late Shang Dynasty. We have studied it more than 40 times with Mr. Niu Shishan, an archaeologist who studies the Shang Dynasty. There are countless such cases.
Turquoise dragon-shaped vessel - Erlitou site.
Narrative: Little people are equally moving
Beijing News: Judging from the content that has been broadcast, in addition to emperors and generals, the film also has a considerable proportion of "reappearances" of small people in the process of civilization. What are the standards for excavation of small people in history?
Gan Chao: We wrote this sentence in the second issue of "The Cradle": "What we think of as history is often related to power, war and dynasty changes. In fact, those who truly support the millennium of human civilization and warmth are those Daily life, day and night, and smoke curling from cooking stoves." The history presented by archeology is actually multi-dimensional. We cannot abandon these writings about princes and generals, because in their tombs we can see the top craftsmanship of this era. , technology and material resources, and see the construction of national systems, culture and projects.
The scene of a Jiahu boy playing the bone flute (restored from the movie).
On the other hand, archeology has revealed a broad base of society, which is full of fireworks, living things, and can even touch emotions and vitality. This is what teacher Li Xinwei said, "It has both a strong and mighty side, and a side of vitality and family affection." Many so-called little people or ordinary people in the folk, the things they left behind, things of daily life, concerns and emotions, such as letters and pottery of simple life, these things are buried in coffins, which are also touching to us. .
Beijing News: There are many female characters in this documentary. What do you think of the role of women in history?
Qian Chao: we value female roles. In the past, much of history was about emperors, generals and ministers, and they were all male narratives. Women have played an extremely important role in the course of history, but unfortunately are sometimes forgotten. Not to mention the matriarchal societies of the past, in fact, in these later eras, we can always see women through archeology.We can see the working tools of ancient women, the ceramic goddess images of Hongshan society, the way women wear jade articles, their transformation of the entire community, and the powerful resilience and wisdom of Princess Jieyou. These all left a deep impression on me. Therefore, a female perspective was added to the narrative during the production process, making it softer, more detailed, and more humane to reach the audience, giving it a power of integration and sublimation.
Princess Jieyou in Wusun (movie restoration).
Beijing News reporter Liu Wei
editor Xu Meilin
proofreader Liu Jun
