The Use of Fire

5 min read

Fire is a part of the Nature as reflected in the conflagration caused by the thunderbolts or the flicker by the rubbing of certain objects. In the remote ages people came across such a strange phenomenon of fire and then intentionally kept the kindling before they figured out ways to make fire. The process of using fire goes like this: initially unintentional, then intentional, that is, human beings discovered the natural fire by accident such as the conflagration incurred by the thunderbolts, then they kept the kindling on purpose and later invented ways to make fire. As for when the first fire-making took place, there are divided opinions in the academia. Actually traces of fire could be detected in each phase of the Paleolithic Age, to be specific, they were identified in the Xihoudu site of Ruicheng City in Shanxi province and estimated to have lasted for 1,800 thousand years and the Peking Man’s site at Zhoukoudian also witnessed ashes heaped up meters high with burned beast bones scattered around, which was telling evidence that fire was used on purpose.

On the use of fire, in the beginning people happened to find that fire could gri1l food, then they made use of fire to cook food; they burned bonfire to frighten away the beasts and used fire as a weapon to scramble for caves against the beasts; with the passage of time fire hunting was invented. It must have been a prolonged process of untold gropes and essays for people to command the use of fire and grasp the rudimentary knowledge of inflammation and learn to keep and control the kindling lest the kindling should spread. After going through such a process people’s constitution had been improved and the civilization advanced. The use of fire enabled people to enjoy a more colorful life as fire made the making of ceramics and metallurgy possible.

The Paleolithic Age can be divided into two phases regarding the use of fire: the first phase or the early period which was the Paleolithic Age saw the use of the natural fire caused by the thunderbolts, the rubbing between the branches and twigs of the trees in dry conditions or the collision between stones, and the fire was kept as a kindling for later use. At that time people had got the rudimentary knowledge that fire could be used to cook food, provide warmth, kill beasts and so on; the second phase or the latter period of the Paleolithic Age saw people hadaccumulated handy skills to make fire based on their observation that flickers occurred in the collision of stones and rubbing of objects. Thus at that time people enjoyed greater freedomin using fire.

As for the use of fire, there is a beautiful fairy tale.

It is said that in the remote ages there was a country called Suiming (Bright) Country in a faraway area of the Western world. Despite its name, in the country there was neither sunshine in the daytime nor moonlight at night. But this country boasted a tree called”SuiWood”which was a staggeringly colossal tree in that the entanglement of its roots, branches and leaves covered as large an area as ten thousand equal to 66,667 hecters. Just imagine Suiming Country was a world devoid of both sunshine and moonlight in the first place, and the colossal tree would have further darkened such a world. But to one’s amazement the colossal tree was ablaze with things like gems and jewels and pearls which shed light around. People in Suiming Country never exposed to the sky lived under such illumination. Someday a wise and wide-traveled guy at long last arrived in the Country void of sunshine and moonlight. Feeling exhausted, he took a rest at the foot of the huge tree called “Sui Wood” and he wondered why the whole area was plunged into darkness except the spot he stayed at.

At this thought the wise man felt motivated to trace the origin of the light and he hit upon the answer through careful observation and contemplation. The fact was that some osprey-like big birds with long talons,a black back and a white belly pecked at the tree’s trunk with their short but stiff beaks possibly for the worms inside the trunk. The moment these birds pecked at the trunk glim mers of light would flash. But the wise man didn’t rest content with such a discovery.

He asked himself whether there would be a way to get light without the involvement of the birds. Later an idea occurred to him: he broke off some branches from the Sui Wood and drilled the big branches with the small ones, then as expectedfleeting flickers could be detected. But it was a pity that there were no flames and such flickers were not as bright, warm and enduring as the normal fire. Then he tried with other branches, though the attempts were laborious, at length he found smoke spiraling from the burning branches amid the “rustling”sound. What a victory that he could make fire by himself! Afterwards he returned to his homeland where he imparted the method of making fire to the local people. From then on fire becameindispensable in people’s life as varieties of things were done by use of fire.

People could produce fire whenever it was needed, and didn’t have to wait for the natural fire caused by the thunderbolts or keep watch on the burning fire all the year round for fear that it might get extinguished. Thanks to fire people enjoyed a more convenient and pleasant life. As a token of tribute to the wise inventor of fire-making by drilling wood, people called him”Sui Man”which meant”the person who made fire”. The beautiful fairy tale reflects the boundless wisdom of human beings as well as the folks’ respect and gratitude for the wise man. In fact each and every progress of human beings embodies the accumulation of human wisdom. We have every reason to be thankful and respectful for the ancestors who contributed so much to the advancement of civilization.