试论中国史前雕塑

吴诗池

Chinese art of sculpture is of long standing, can be traced back to the prehistory. My humble article is proposed to make a superficial discussion on the origin, classification, substage, partition, characteristics and achievements of Chinese prehistory sculptures from the prehistory sculptures in the archeological discovery.

Sculpture is a product of the human society that developed to certain stage. It is originated from production and life. On the one hand, this can be reflected in the sculpture artworks of archeological discovery; on the other hand, since the mankind's aesthetic ideals and concepts did not come together with the birth of the mankind, instead they were generated only after long-term of its production practice, gradual evolution of human brain, ideation to create beauty, and the perfection of sense organs, possession of aesthetic susceptibility & needs, and the ability for making sculptures as a result of brain evolution.

Like other arts, art of sculpture has a process of generation and development. Prehistory archeological data showed that, its process of generation and development can be substaged according to different development stages.

In short, the study on prehistory art of sculpture is very beneficial for the research of economy, culture, art, religion, cultural exchange, even Sino-foreign cultural exchange at that time, in addition to realistic significance. This can provide the enjoyment of beauty, cultivation of sentiments, improvement of aesthetic accomplishments, the origin of Chinese traditional sculpture workmanship, as well as the enlightenment of tradition inheritance and future development.

中国雕塑艺术源远流长，其渊源可以追溯到史前。拙文拟从考古发现的史前雕塑作品，就中国史前雕塑起源、分类、分期、分区、特点、成就作初浅探讨。

一、雕塑的起源

雕塑是人类社会发展到一定阶段的产物，它起源于生产与生活。这除了考古发现的雕塑艺术品可以印证外，还因为人类的审美理想和审美观念不是一有人类就具备的，而是需要待到人类历经长期的生产实践，人脑的逐步进化，具备了创造美的思维能力，以及感官随着大脑进化而日臻完善，具备了审美感受能力和人们具有审美需求且具备了雕塑能力时方能产生的。有的学者认为：“中国雕塑史的最初一页，或者说最早雕塑的诞生，是与人类的出现同步的……第一件工具的制作一不仅只是一件纯粹的工具，即人类用以改造自然和社会的武器，它同时也是第一件艺术品，第一件雕塑品。……”对此说，笔者不敢苟同。我们之所以不把经过人类加工过的第一件工具视为第一件艺术作品、第一件雕塑作品，系基于以下几点根据：

首先，姑且不说第一件工具，就是距第一件工具的诞生相距已达数百万年之遥，在山西芮城县西侯渡旧石器时代早期遗址发现距今180万年的砍斫器，无论是单面还是多边单面砍斫器都没有什么对称可言，即使所见选用砾石打制而成的三棱大尖状器刃部有些对称，但也只是为省力加工出较锐利的刃口时无意形成的，而不是为审美而创作的（图一）。