Cui Shengrui, vice president of Hubei Water Conservancy Design and Research Institute, was a soldier of the New Fourth Army. When the fifth division of the New Fourth Army broke through to Shennongjia, it said:1In the autumn of 946, the fifth division began to break through. 1947 Before the Spring Festival, we came to the junction of Xingshan and Fangxian, which is now Shennongjia forest area. March at noon one day, came to a ravine. It turns out that it is desolate here. After walking for dozens of miles, I didn't see anyone, but I found two animals standing at the bottom of the ditch, smiling when we passed the top of the ditch. At that time, we were only more than twenty meters away from the savage. Some comrades said: this is a primitive man, some said: this is a human bear, and some said: this is a savage.
1976 When Nanhai, deputy commander of Hubei Military Region, came to Fangxian County, he also recalled his encounter with savage. He said: About 1949, I was on a mission. On the way from Fangxian to Zhushan, I rode a horse and the soldiers followed me. Suddenly, all the soldiers ran to me. What happened? I looked around carefully, and there stood a savage on the hill opposite the ravine, covered in hair and with loose hair. Because the distance is not far, I can see it clearly. On the way from Yangshan to Changling, I also heard a lot about savages. At that time, Nanshan in Fangxian County was today's Shennongjia forest area.
The legend of capturing and killing savages
For decades, the legend of killing savages has been circulating in Shennongjia area.
Liu Jikuan, a female worker at Chengguan Hardware Factory in Fangxian County, said, "1942, our family lived in Panshui. One day, I heard that the seventy-five regiment of the Kuomintang was going to escort the savage down. At that time, all the men ran away, afraid of catching young men, and there were only a few children and old women at home. It was nearly noon when the barbarians arrived. Officials also ride horses, and all our children go to see them. I saw two barbarians, a man and a woman, bound by chains. There are soldiers pulling the palm rope at the back. It is said that the seventy-five Kuomintang troops went from Bagua Temple to Songshuping, and this savage was caught in the imperial realm where no one married. 』
Zhang Yujin, a farmer from Hongta Commune in Fangxian County, said, "1942 Spring, Shennongjia was haunted. Jia, then the county magistrate of Fangxian County, said that he didn't believe in evil, so he rode a dark horse and led fifty or sixty people from the second squadron and the first squadron of the public security team to Shennongjia, a place called Huanglong Mountain about fifty miles away from the Great Shennongjia. There was only one family there, and they reported that there was a monster screaming behind the hillside for a long time. Jia sent thirty men, three machine guns, to take the path and surround the place. They looked down and saw two savages. One sat there yelling, and the other was spinning around. They watched it for about half an hour, and with the cough as a signal, they fired with machine guns together. The sitting savage immediately fell headlong, and the standing savage immediately fled. We went to the front and saw that the man who was shot dead was a male, and his genitals were caught in a wooden chopping block. They carried the killed savage half a mile away from the house and then killed him. The skin is so thin that it is not easy to peel off. As a result, the meat was still covered with shameful fur and cooked in a marching pot without being burned. I don't want my intestines and my head. Most of the people present ate wild human flesh, which made them feel fishy. At this time, Jia wrapped the bag in that family and brought him a bowl. I wonder if he ate it. Jia left a savage leg and said he would give it to the governor.
Yan Mingde, the second team of Fangxian Bancang Commune, is over 60 years old. He is a hunchbacked old man with gray hair. He told us what he saw with his own eyes about rounding up eight barbarians. He said: "In about 1947, he was dragged by Kuomintang troops to transport salt, crossed Liulindian Wharf in Zhushan County, and arrived at Yangjiaodong in Zhuxi County. Around September of the lunar calendar that year, eight wild men with red hair ran out of the virgin forest in Yangjiaodong and were chased by Kuomintang soldiers and security guards for more than ten days. Later, all eight savages hid in a unique house. There are three rooms and three people in this family. All eight barbarians fled into the house. At this time, more than 2000 soldiers surrounded the house, set up machine guns, rushed into the house and set fire. Seven savages lifted the roof beam and ran away. The soldiers didn't catch them, only the last short savage didn't escape and was dragged down by the soldiers. The barbarians were escorted to Yang Jiao Cave, and the onlookers were packed. I saw this savage standing there, with lux long hair, monkey face, long hair shawl and no tail. The soldiers said that the savage could be used as medicine, so they cut the savage into pieces on the spot, giving each battalion a piece of meat and some only a handful of hair. 』
The characteristics of barbarians
What is the savage in Shennongjia? What are their basic characteristics? Judging from the large amount of information we have at hand, the appearance of Shennongjia savage is roughly like this:
1) Walk upright with two feet, and walk on all fours when frightened to escape or climb steep slopes.
2) There are two kinds of heights: large and small. The big one is about two meters high and the small one is about one meter six.
3) The whole body is covered with thick hair, and the hair colors are red, brown, black, yellow, hemp, gray, white or scarlet, brownish red, purplish red, black red and red yellow, brownish yellow, brownish black, grayish red and white hemp. The savage in Shennongjia is redder.
4) Some people are fat and have a thick waist, while others are slim. Chest and back are flat.
5) Legs are longer than people, and legs are longer than people's own arms; The legs are thick, the calves are thin, and there is a calf. Palm and sole are hairless. Hands are big, hands and fingers are longer and thicker than people's, nails are long and thick, and hands can grasp them. The sole is wide at the front and narrow at the back. The big ones are more than 30 boxes of rice to nearly 50 boxes of rice, and the small ones are more than 20 boxes of rice. There is no arch on the impression. Your toes are thicker and longer than people's. The big toe is particularly thick and separated from the four toes, which seems to have a certain grasping ability.
6) The head is slightly larger and longer than human beings, and the hair is long and drooping, and some are not too long. The face is slender, wide at the top and narrow at the bottom, some with short hair and some without hair. Some mouths are slightly prominent, while others are very prominent. The nasal bone is low and long. The front teeth are thicker than people's and canine teeth are thicker, but they are not as long as the tips of tiger teeth. Ears are bigger than people's, and the helix leans forward, some are hairless, and some have sparse hair in their ears. Some eyes are like people's eyes, some are round, relatively large, with deep eye sockets and no reflection at night.
7) Female breasts and male genitals naturally droop.
Tailless.
The living habits of barbarians
According to the existing data, we have made the following preliminary summary of the life habits of Shennongjia savage:
1) Legs are light and flexible.
Barbarians are used to walking on two legs. The ratio of their arms and legs is similar to that of people, or their arms are slightly longer than people. In a word, arms are shorter than legs, which is different from modern apes. Savages walk upright on their legs without arm support, and can travel long distances in the deep mountains and forests, even climbing the hillside is much faster than people. The savage recorded in China ancient books are "Walking Fast" and "Walking Fast".
Witnesses expressed surprise at its pace and speed in the mountains. It can also be seen from its stride that it is strong and tall. The records in ancient books are long and redundant.
Because the legs walk upright, the savage's hand is liberated, which shows the role of the hand. The savage's hand is very tight. Twenty Ming reflects his encounter with a savage. When I raised the stick, it caught me. Liu Jikuan saw that when someone handed the corn to the caught savage, he looked at it with his hand and chewed it.
Savages have long hair and are used to combing their hair by hand. Cai and other six people saw two savages basking in the sun and having long hair on the lawn of Tielugou hillside in the Bagua Temple of Panshui Commune. The barbarian swung his head back and forth from time to time and combed his hair with his hands from time to time. Barbarians can't speak and have no language, but they also signal with their hands, which plays a role similar to sign language.
Recalling the killing of a savage in Shennongjia forest area, Zhang Yujin said, "We saw two savages. The man in the circle touched the savage sitting with his hand, and if he sat still, he hit the savage in the circle with his hand. The two barbarians touched each other with their hands, which was obviously a signal.
Although the savage can walk upright for a long time, it also shows its transition, which shows that he can walk on both feet and limbs. Generally speaking, you walk on two feet, and under special circumstances, you will walk on all fours. Zhang Yujin said: After the gunshot, the savage who circled immediately ran away, started running on two legs, ran for a while and then used four legs, and then disappeared. When a savage walks on two feet, his upright posture is not perfect. Tsun-shing Chen talked about an old hunter's brown-red long-haired savage he met in Luo Song, and said, He walks, bends down and lifts his back.
2) infested with mountains and forests, can withstand the cold.
Savages avoid humans and enter the mountains. They must adapt to the cold climate of high mountains, which is different from modern apes living in tropical climate. People often see the crucian carp prints left by it on the snowy mountains in winter. Li Guohua first discovered the footprints of savages in the mountains and snow of Shennongjia. Looking down at the results, he saw a savage with seven feet of brown-red hair, which showed that the savage could go out in the heavy snow and cold in winter, although he went out less at this time. Some people live near the equator as modern apes, denying the possibility of savages in cold mountainous areas. In fact, cold resistance is one of the characteristics of savage life habits.
In addition, we should also see that animals like great apes can easily survive in the valley jungle. The sudden change of altitude produced a plant from tropical to cold zone on the steep slope. The fierce monsoon makes the mountainside misty all year round. Oak, magnolia, azalea, fir, alder and lemon have formed a continuous and prosperous dense forest, and countless large mammals have enjoyed this generous condition and maintained a considerable figure. Kraulin's [Snowman] said: Savages can use the temperature difference in different places on the mountain to deal with God. You can run up if it is too hot in summer, and down if it is too cold in winter.
3) Staple food plants have more than one activity.
The barbarian's food is mainly plants and some small animals. Witnesses reported seeing savages eating walnuts, bamboo shoots, wild chestnuts, acorns, potatoes, corn, tender sorghum, wild grapes, wild mulberry, coriaria fruit and other wild fresh fruits and young leaves. Some people have seen it stealing honey to eat, and some people have seen it stealing pigs.
[Fang County Records] records that it sometimes bites people, which shows that it eats small animals. According to the general public, besides wild fruits in the mountains, it likes to eat tender corn and honey best.
Although the savage's food in the primeval forest is rich, because he can't work and produce, he has a large appetite, and the narrow food area can only meet his short-term consumption. Therefore, barbarians often have to migrate to find new food areas and wander around the vast Shan Ye. This living habit of the savage also constitutes that it is not only brisk, but also good at walking alone. Because if we form a United team, we will not have enough to eat, and even a considerable number of individuals will starve to death, and they will also fight for food.
Zhu Hao reflected that among the savages he saw, except for three or more individuals together, they were usually a man and a woman, or a mother with a child together, and more were alone. It is estimated that savages usually only get together when mating, or spend the winter together in winter. Usually, they may go out for a long time, looking for food.
4) Build a nest anywhere, and maybe live in a hole.
Where do barbarians live? Some people saw the reflection of savage footprints in the cave. In the mountains of Zhuxi County on the edge of Shennongjia, there is a stone tablet of Qing Dynasty, which is said to be erected for the savage to enter the cave. Unfortunately, the handwriting on the stone tablet has been blurred for a long time.
Fang County Records also said that savages lived in caves. Therefore, it is estimated that in the cold winter, savages may live in caves, which is beneficial to keep out the cold and is also necessary for raising young children. However, judging from the savage's sleeping nest made of bamboo branches, bamboo leaves and branches and leaves found many times in Shennongjia forest area, it may not have a fixed residence in spring, summer and autumn, so it may have found a suitable place to sleep anywhere in Shan Ye.
5) There is no language yet, but it will be signaled by voice.
At present, all kinds of sounds made by savages are collected as follows: (quack quack), (wow), (chicken pull), (gnome male-), (hehehe), (boom), (shout), (oh), (cheep wow), (tut tut tut) and (cheep la la). According to witnesses, some of these cries are happy, some are panic, some are angry, some are laughing, some are the sounds of a pair of savages gesturing to each other, and some are the sounds made by savages after being hit by stones. But the meaning of many speech signals remains to be studied.
However, the savage's nonverbal gestures, including gestures and various sounds, indicate that it has some initial communication needs. There is a gesture language like dumb language to convey meaning to each other, and there is a situation where it makes sounds like a baby, which makes the savage different from other general animals. Perhaps this also shows the progress compared with modern apes in this respect.
6) Laugh at people and get close to human beings.
The saying that savages will eat people has a long history. Shimo [Erya] said: Narrowness and loneliness are like a person, wearing hair, walking fast and eating people. Luo Yuan's Er Ya Yi in the Southern Song Dynasty said: Baboons ..... when people begin to laugh happily, their upper lips will be covered and they will eat from time to time. Because the tube penetrates the arm, when you see it, you just take your hand out of the tube and chisel its lip on your forehead.
The ancients believed that baboons had long mouths and big lips. When it opens its mouth and laughs, its lips can be nailed to its forehead, so that it can be caught because of pain and bleeding. Until now, there is a saying in some mountainous areas that savages eat people, saying that when arresting people, they will laugh first and then eat people.
The solution is to put a bamboo tube on your arm so that when you are caught by it, you can take your hand out and run away. Or, as the ancient book says, gouge its lips on its forehead and catch it. Are savages cannibals? Gan's experience can illustrate this problem. He met an adult savage, which was called "fate" in China's ancient books. If the savage wants to eat him, I'm afraid he can't escape.
The vast majority of people reported that when they saw the savage, the distance was only a few feet or dozens of meters or nearly 100 meters, but the savage didn't follow, or it took a long time to stop. So far, there is no conclusive case of savage eating people. It is estimated that savages mainly live on plants and eat small animals. Unlike tigers and leopards, tigers and leopards mainly live on meat and eat everything. So the savage's character is not as fierce as that of tiger and leopard. Judging from the available data, the savage's character is still relatively mild, and he likes to be close to people and generally does not hurt people.
Chimpanzees have feelings, and so do savages. Especially in China's ancient books, it has been recorded many times that it is good at laughing and will laugh at people; Some books say that people laugh when they see it; Some people say that it only laughs at itself, not because of people. Others say: close your eyes and smile when you see people. Many people say that savages laugh at people because they eat people and laugh at everyone. This kind of smile is a sign of happiness because they get food from people. Some people think that the savage's smile may not be the kind of smile that human beings understand, or even a threat to people.
But from the actual situation, it can't be concluded that the savage smile is to eat people, nor can it be concluded that this smile is a threat to people. On the contrary, the savage's laughter is similar to that of chimpanzees. They have many expressions similar to human emotions, such as laughter, crying and anger. Barbarians laugh at people, not to eat people.
Barbarians can get crops such as corn and honey, chickens and puppies from modern labor production. So they have a good impression on human beings. As the human activity area has extended to the hillside, it is connected or staggered with the savage living area, and the chances of meeting each other are increasing day by day. Humans generally don't hurt it, and most of them will run away when they see it. So savages generally don't feel threatened by human beings. As reflected by Fan Jingquan, Uncle Xiao, the single family on the ridge, and the savage * * * collected wild chestnuts, and the savage became friends with him.
Savages are advanced primates close to humans, and many things are interrelated, which is why savages like to be close to humans.
7) Dare to be near the fire, and the night is good.
The use of fire is one of the main signs of human ignorance from the low stage to the intermediate stage. The fossil site in Zhoukoudian, Beijing proves that Beijingers can use fire. Where are the barbarians? It has not yet entered the ape-man stage, but it is more advanced than ordinary apes, and it is also manifested in the handling of fire. Savages can't use fire, can't cook, and only eat raw food. However, there are some signs that it has dared to approach the fire. Chen Dating reflected that the savage walked to the man's overcooked fire to keep warm.
Nocturnal behavior is also an important feature of barbaric living habits. In Shennongjia area, the witness of savage was met by six members of the Party Committee of Shennongjia forest area at night, and most of them were met at night. If the savage goes to the mountains to avoid human beings, can the nocturnal nature of the savage be said to avoid human beings in time? Or is it convenient to catch small animals that come out at night? These all need further investigation.