The formation of a regional culture is always conditioned to its geographical environment, and its prosperity may well add cultural coloring to the environment: as the old saying goes, “the area is known for its celebrities.” As far as Hunan is concerned, this interrelation is touched on in Qian Jibo’s geographical determinism of humanities: “Hunan is obturated on all four sides…and Hunanese people are mostly obstinate, thus the ethos there tends not to be influenced by the culture of Central China. …Hunanese people tend to be independent, stanch and high-hearted, and this fact probably results from its natural environment.” Concisely summing up the features of Hunan’s geographical environment, folkways and the environment’s one-way action on the folkways, this materialist assumption fails to probe into the interrelation between geographical environment and other categories of a regional culture, leaving much room for interpretation to later cultural experts. Actually, in different historical periods or the different phases of a regional culture, the influence of natural environment upon a regional culture and the later’s independence are reflected variously, and have to be studied macroscopically and diachronically in historical materialist and dialectic terms.
Geographically, Hunan is located in the south of the middle reaches of the Yangtze River, stretching from 108°47′to 114°15′east of longitude, and 24°39′to 30°08′north of latitude. It is bordered by Jiangxi on the east, Guangdong and Guangxi on the south, Guizhou on the west and Hubei on the north, hence a center of communications between South China and North China, and between East China and Southwest China. In terms of environmental determinism, Hunan has always been a region of great strategic importance, a strongpoint where great achievements may be made. During the Three Kingdoms Period (220-280), Hunan was the heavily stationed border of Wu and the major battlefield where Wu and Shu were long locked in war. In the early Qing dynasty (1644-1911), Hengyang, a key city in South Hunan, served as the capital of Wu Sangui, who betrayed the past dynasty and then the new dynasty. During the War of Resistance Against Japanese Invasion (1937-1945), West Hunan, a topographically perilous area, proved to be the final frontal line of defense of the Nationalist troops, and Zhijiang Airport there is where the Triumphal Arch was built to commemorate the unconditional surrender of the Japanese fascist army. As all those historic events show, Hunan has always been a strongpoint in terms of geopolitics and military strategy.
A subtropical area, Hunan has a humid monsoon climate, which is characterized by a clear distinction between seasons and a rather short period of severe cold. The mean annual temperature varies from 16? to 18?. In January, the coldest month, the average monthly temperature ranges from 3°in the north to 8?in the south; and in July, the hottest month, it ranges from 27°in the north to 30°in the south. Each year it has a moderate rainfall of 1,200-1,700 mm, a sufficient sunshine time of 1,300-1,900 hours and a frost-free period of 270-310 days. All those elements of its climate are favorable to the growth of subtropical crops, e.g. rice, sugar cane and cotton. Meanwhile, North Hunan Plain and Central Hunan Basin are rather fertile, and the water system of Lake Dongting abounds in aquatic products. Therefore, Hunan has long been a “Land of Fish and Rice.” As the old saying “a harvest in Hunan and Hubei is sufficient for the world” goes, Hunan, with its friendly natural conditions, has always been the barn of China. Now, the birthplace of hybrid rice is still worthy of the name “a great agricultural province” or “a key producing area of rice.” In view of its long development, Hunan’s economics is undoubtedly determined by its natural conditions.
Topographically, Hunan is situated between the second and third ladders of China Mainland, thus it has a varied landform that is marked by mountains, hills, plains and depressions in their good order. On the whole, it is high in the south and low in the north, therefore rivers within its boundaries run northward, forming a most important water system in the middle reaches of the Yangtze River. There in its east stand the Mufu Mountains and the Luoxiao Mountains, in the south the Five-Ridge Mountains or the Southern Ridges, and in the west the Wuling Mountains and the Snow-Capped Mountains. Whereas, in its middle is a horseshoe-shaped hilly area covered by stretching hills and wide basins, and in its north are the vast Dongting Lake and a low alluvial plain. The high mountains in its border served as the shelter of the troops led by Chinese Communist Party in their initial phase of development; it was there that the troops of the Autumn Harvest Uprising (1928), the South Hunan Insurrection and the West Hunan Revolution managed to survive. Or rather, Hunan’s geographical features were favorable to the birth of Mao Zedong’s military guideline “Surrounding cities from the countryside” and the application of his guerrilla warfare tactics. To a great extent, the relationship between Hunan’s geography and history is a clear reflection of the general interrelation between nature and culture.
The fact that Hunan is surrounded by mountains on 3sides has helped to stave off the invasions of other cultures and thus keep the uniqueness of the local culture. In other words, Hunan had proper geographic conditions for the truly multi-cultural era that came before globalization. Thus, Hunan is not apt to be thoroughly assimilated, but manages to keep its unique culture. In fact, the differences between Hunan dialect and North China dialect in pronunciation, grammar and vocabulary are the reflections of cultural differences at the language level in terms of environmental determinism. Yet owing to its relative geographic obturation and cultural backwardness, Hunan, gaining no power of discourse during the prosperity of North China Culture, was contemptuously called “Southern Wilderness,” to which officials out of favor used to be banished. Meanwhile, the hypsography is propitious to the formation of a roughly unified and relatively independent region within its boundaries, or to the official establishment of Hunan as an independent region in all dynasties. Actually, since the establishment of Changsha State by the Han court in 206 BC, there has been little change in Hunan’s boundaries, and the center of downtown Changsha should have remained at what we call Zoumalou today. Ultimately, geography is crucial to the framework of culture and regionalism.
The birth of Hunan’s chief toponyms and pertinent terms is the reflection of environmental determinism at the language level, or rather dominant geographical features are the reasons for nomination. Firstly, in contrast to “Hubei” (North of the Lake), “Hunan” (South of the Lake) is named so because it’s mostly located south of the Dongting Lake. Secondly, among Hunan’s four long rivers, Xiang, which runs through the whole province from south to north, is the biggest, and the Xiang River valley is the most developed area in Hunan. As a result, Hunan is call “Xiang” for short, and from this placename are derived such cultural terms as “Xiang Cuisine,” “Xiang Embroidery,” “Xiang Opera” and “Xiang Army.” Thirdly, since the upper, middle and lower reaches of the Xiang River are respectively named Xiaoxiang, Zhenxiang and Yuanxiang, Hunan is also popularly known as “Land of 3 Xiang’s” or “3 Xiang’s and 4 Rivers.” In view of etymonology, environmental determinism can also be traced in other cultural terms. For example, nurtured by both the Dongting Lake and the Xiang River, Hunanese people are proud of being “the descendents of Hu-Xiang,” and the regional culture that has been thriving there at modern times are “Hu-Xiang Culture.” As far as Hunan is concerned at least, behind language is usually the trace of nature, and culture is impressed with geography.
Hunan’s natural environment has indirectly influenced the character of Hunanese people and the coloring of Hunan Culture. This fact is obvious in the image analysis of pepper and lotus, which grow lush in Hunan. Since its introduction from South America in the 17th century, hot pepper has taken root in this warm and moist region, and, owing to its medical effects, has been popular with Hunanese people. It has even risen from the table level to the cultural and political level so that such slogans have come into being as “Pepper Hunan” and “unable to have hot pepper, you are no revolutionary.” Just as hot pepper is “the totem of Hunanese people,” the lotus flower is the aim of eulogy in Hunanese literature. Such blossoms that grow in profusion not only greatly beautify Hunan, but have also left their impressions on Hunan Culture. A line by Tang Yongzhi, a poet of the Tang dynast (618-907), reads, “Autumn breeze strokes the vast land of lotus blooms.” Zhou Dunyi (1017-1073), the founder of Neo-Confucianism in the Song dynasty (960-1279), wrote “the Lotus Bloom,” an essay worthy of recitation by all gentle men of letters. And Mao Zedong, a founder of New China, speaks favorably in his poem, “the morning sunlight floods your Land of Lotus Blooms.” Hence, Hunan is also known as “the Land of Lotus Blooms.” The fact that hot pepper and lotus have become significant images in Hunan Culture has favorable natural environment, e.g. soil and climate, as its pre-requisite, thus some cultural and natural concepts that seem not to be connected are actually interrelated subtly.
As the above image analysis has indicated, when culture has developed into an open and self-sufficient system, it tends to break off from environment. Yet, though their connections are implicit, we may well associate one with the other. Take Hunan’s topography for example again. Surrounded by mountains on 3 sides, Hunan tends to be occluded, but with its wide basin in the middle and the vast lake in the north, it also seems open to the north, to those once advanced cultures. Since the Spring-Autumn Period (770-476 B.C.), the aboriginal culture of Hunan merged into the culture of North China, forming a unique and prosperous culture of Chu. Such culture not only gave birth to one generation of craftsmen and literary men after another, but also laid the initial foundation of modern Hunan Culture. The earliest steel sword, writing brush and silk painting that have ever been known in China were all excavated from tombs of Chu in Changsha, and the first sheet of plant fiber paper in the world was invented in the Han dynasty by Cai Lun (65-121), a native of Leiyang in South Hunan. Those great achievements of Hunanese civilization demonstrate that “South Wildness”, far from the political center, was actually not a desert of culture, but a fertile land of cultural exchange and prosperity. After all, environment determines not the details of culture, but the framework.
The topographical openness of North Hunan seemingly has granted modern Hunanese people a broad mind and a broad view of the whole world. Since the Tang and Song dynasties, especially since the southward transference of the political center in the Southern Song (1127-1279), Hunan Culture freely absorbed the advantages of other cultures and developed rapidly in the course of breaking through its geographical restrictions. Yuelu Academy, the most prosperous institution of learning in the Song dynast, lasted for over 1,000 years, and grew to be a holy seat of learning in South China and the cradle of modern Hunan Culture. Its gate couplet, “Chu is the sole cradle of talents, most of whom are graduated here,” boldly shows both the pride of Hunanese people and its unmatched significance in Hunan Culture. Between the latter half of the Qing dynasty and the New Democratic Revolution (1919-1937), this academy gave birth to a great number of influential talents, who made up the main force in those struggles of saving China from civil wars and segmentation waves. After a lasting process of syncretization and optimization, the culture of “South Wildness,” which was born in basins and mountains, rose at last to a second phase of prosperity, and Hunanese people gained the position to declare that “pepper should be as hot as possible.” The land of patriots is the cradle of modern political, green and cultural revolutions. While multi-culturalism is being endangered by economic globalization, Hunan continues to push its culture forward and smooth out the trace of ancient cultural hegemony.
