Ningshan County is located on the southern slopes of the Qin Mountains, boasting a unique natural ecosystem and a highly diverse range of species. It is one of the national key ecological protection areas. This region is not only an important habitat for rare wildlife such as the crested ibis, giant panda, and takin, but also one of the key origins of Chinese mushroom culture. The local people have long relied on forest resources to develop a way of life and knowledge system that coexists with nature, nurturing an extremely rich local ecological knowledge.

 

From an anthropological perspective, the forest culture of Ningshan reflects the complex symbiotic relationship between humans and non-human life forms, addressing the tension between "naturalism" and "analogism" in Philippe Descola's "Beyond Nature and Culture" (Par-delà nature et culture) within his four paradigms of nature and culture relations. In the worldview of the local people, mushrooms are not merely a food resource, but a medium of communication between forest emotions, bodily perception, and seasonal rhythms. This way of thinking challenges the western mainstream naturalist tradition, viewing nature as an intrinsic participant rather than an external object.

 

Additionally, Anna Tsing's depiction of "symbiosis" and "survival wisdom on the margins of capitalism" in The Mushroom at the End of the World: On the Possibility of Life in Capitalist Ruins provides a strong reference for understanding the mushroom gathering culture in Ningshan. The mushroom gathering activities in the Ningshan mountains are not only economic behaviors but also important processes of ecological perception and intergenerational knowledge transmission, embodying a cultural practice logic of "coexisting with uncertainty."

 

Canadian scholar Eduardo Kohn's theory of "anthroposemiosis" in How Forests Think also provides a theoretical perspective for understanding the interactive relationship between the people of Ningshan and the forest. In Ningxia, the forest is not just a gathering place for resources, but a thinking subject—local people identify traces of animals and plants, sense climate changes, and engage in rituals such as mountain worship and logging bans, demonstrating their recognition and respect for the forest's "thinking ability."