Analysis of the tail of the iris, the snout, the capricorn, the snout
Zhou Dry
At both ends of the main ridge of the ancient building of the Forbidden City (the intersection of the front and rear roof slopes), there are dragon-shaped animal heads, and their names are "mantis kisses". The snout is a town object used for fire prevention in the ancient buildings of the Forbidden City, and its shape is the result of several evolutions of the "partridge tail" of the Han Dynasty.
First, the prototype: the tail of the partridge
The prototype of the "snout" is "owl tail", and the earlier allusion to "owl tail" can be seen in the fire of the Bailiang Hall in the Western Han Dynasty. Volume 28 of the Records of History, written by the Historian Sima Qian of the Western Han Dynasty, contains "(Emperor Taichu of the Han Dynasty, 104 BC) In november, the Disaster of Bailiang. The Northern Song Dynasty official Li Jie added a follow-up in volume II of the "Building the French Style": "After the disaster of the Han Dynasty Bailiang Temple, there were fish in the sea of Yue Wuyan, and the tail was like an iris, and the rapids were raining, so they were like houses, so as to be disgusted with fire." That is to say, after the fire of the Bailiang Hall, there are Yue (Cantonese) shamans who say that there are big fish in the sea, the shape of a dragon, and similar to the "Owl", which can stir up huge waves, produce rainfall, and extinguish the fire, so the image of the owl tail is placed on the roof and can suppress the fire.
Since the earliest existing wooden structure ancient building in China is the Nanchan Temple of the Tang Dynasty, the architectural style before the Tang Dynasty can only be judged by cultural relics such as Ming ware and tomb murals. The Xuzhou Museum houses the Eastern Han Dynasty (25-220) pottery tower (Fig. 1), and its roof ridge is upturned at both ends. Although it cannot be proved that the cocked part is definitely an iris tail, the style is very similar to that of the iris tail, and it is not excluded that the practice of the tail at the end of the roof ridge was already practiced in the Eastern Han Dynasty.
Figure 1 Xuzhou Museum Collection of Pottery (Eastern Han Dynasty, 25-220)
Volume 77 of the Book of Wei written by the Northern Qi dynasty Northern Qi (507-572) contains "(Assassin Li Shizhe) forced to buy houses, Guangxing houses, all placed on the tail", which can reflect the practice of placing a tail on the roof at least in the historical records of the Cao Wei period (220-266), and this practice was generally used in higher-grade buildings. The 36th volume of the Commentary on the Water Classics written by the geographer Li Daoyuan (466-527) of the Northern Wei Dynasty (386-534) contains "Flying Over the Tail of the Bird, Blowing the Clouds in the Wind". The building he described should have been the State of Lin Yi built by Fan Wen (?-349), about in present-day Hue, southern Vietnam, and was under the jurisdiction of Xiang County during the Qin and Han dynasties. From the above, it can be seen that the term "Iris tail" appeared at least during the Northern Wei Dynasty. Figure 2 shows a pottery house in the Northern Wei stone rafter on Yunbo Road in Datong City, and it can be seen that there are obviously upturned partridge tails at both ends of its roof ridge. In addition, the term "iris tail" was still used in the Qing Dynasty, such as the twenty-eighth volume of the "History of Ming" written by the Qing Dynasty official Zhang Tingyu (1672-1755) and others, which contains "The third month of the Wanli calendar, the sixth month of the wanli calendar, the thunder strikes the Jianji Temple, the kiss; nongchen, the lightning strikes the end of the door of the partridge tail".
Figure 2 Pottery house in the Northern Wei Stone Rafter on Yunbo Road, Datong City
Second, from the tail to the kiss
The term "partridge kiss" was first used in the Tang dynasty monk Shi Daoshi (?) -683) in the Fayuan Zhulin. Shi Dao Shi, the character 玄恽, because of the avoidance of Tang Taizong (Shimin) secrecy, in the form of characters. The twenty-first volume of the Fayuan Zhulin contains "thunder and lightning shocks, smoke and puffs kiss, and fiery clouds". "Partridge kiss" means the same thing as "clam kiss". The volume of the "Su Shi Yanyi" written by the late Tang Dynasty novelist Su Yan contains "The Worm, the Sea Beast Also." Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty made the Bailiang Hall, and there was a cloud of the upper dredgers: the tail of the clam, the essence of the water, the hall that can be put away, and the people of this day are mostly used as the owl characters" and "see its kiss like a bird's iris, so it is called a bird's kiss". This passage shows that when Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty built the Bailiang Hall, some ministers suggested that the tail of the clam be placed on the roof for fire suppression; "蚩" was a sacred beast in the sea, which could suppress fire; because the mouth of the "clam" resembled "Iris", it was later (mainly referring to the Tang Dynasty) called "Iris Kiss". So, what is a "bird kite"? In fact, it refers to the Harrier Eagle. For example, the poem "Iris Seizes the Nest" written by the Tang Dynasty poet Wei Yingwu contains "Wild Magpie Nest Forest Tops, Iris Iris Bully To Seize the Magpie's Nest".
From the perspective of shape, compared with "Partridge", the shape of "Partridge" has changed significantly, and it appeared in the Tang Dynasty. For example, the tail of the main hall of the Nanchan Temple (782) shows only the upturned fish tail (Figure 3), while the tail of the east hall of the Foguang Temple drawn by Liang Sicheng (Liang Sicheng: "Remembering the Architecture of Foguang Temple on Mount Wutai", "China Construction Society" Volume VII, No. 1, 1944), not only has a fish tail, but also clearly shows a dragon-shaped sacred beast in the front of the fish tail, staring at the mouth and swallowing ridges (Figure 4). It is not difficult to find that in the Tang Dynasty, the image of the "partridge" changed: from the early "partridge" to the middle and later "partridge kiss". The so-called "partridge kiss", that is, exposing the dragon-shaped face, grinning fangs, making an open mouth to swallow the ridge, the shape is vicious, used to drive away evil spirits and suppress fire. Since then, the snouts of the Liao (Figure 5), Song (Figure 6), Western Xia (Figure 7), Jin (Figure 8), Yuan (Figure 9), Ming and Qing (Figure 10) and other periods have all become the Zhenhuo Divine Beast with the body of the Dragon's Head Fish, and the image of the divine beast is mainly derived from the Indian Buddhist "Capricorn Fish".
Figure 3 The Great Hall of nanchan Temple, Xinzhou City, Shanxi Province (Tang, 782)
Fig. 4 Mr. Liang Sicheng hand-painted the kiss of the East Hall of Foguang Temple (Tang, 857)
Figure 5 Kiss of the mountain gate of Dule Temple, Jixian County, Tianjin (Liao, 984)
Figure 6 The Great Hall of the Shaolin Temple in Dengfeng City, Henan Province (Northern Song Dynasty, 1125)
Figure 7 Owl kiss in the Collection of the National Museum (Western Xia, 1038-1227)
Figure 8 The Kiss of the Great Xiong BaoDian of Huayan Temple, Datong City, Shanxi Province (Jin, 1140)
Figure 9 Glass partridge kiss in Sanqingdian, Yuncheng City, Shanxi Province (Yuan, 1247)
Figure 10 The Kiss of the Palace of the People's Republic of China (Ming, 1420)
Third, the foreign intermediary: Capricorn fish
Capricorn fish, also known as "Mocca fish" and "Mogaro fish", is a large fish imagined in Indian mythology, which is considered to be the essence of the river and has the divine power to overturn the river and the sea. Capricorn fish are evil in nature, can damage ships and harm people, and are tamed by Shakyamuni and abandon evil and follow good. For example, the Tang Dynasty monk Shi Huilin wrote "All The Sutras and Meanings" volume 41 contains: "Capricorn, Sanskrit also." The big fish in the sea devours everything", which can show that capricorn fish is initially evil. According to the fifth volume of the Luoyang Jialan Chronicle written by Yang Xuanzhi, an official of the Southern and Northern Dynasties, "To the Xintou River, on the west bank of the river, there are such people as Capricorn big fish, which come out of the river, and for twelve years, they took the meat to help the people and started the tower as a record." This sentence shows that the Capricorn fish is a Buddhist deity, and it is a big fish that the Buddha of Rulai jumped into the water and incarnated in order to cure the diseases of the people of Capricorn. The people of capricorn ate the flesh of capricorn fish, and as if they were taking a panacea, their bodies were cured. Around the time of the Eastern Han Dynasty, with the spread of Indian Buddhism to the east, the image of Capricorn fish began to appear in China. The "Luoshen Endowment" written by Cao Zhi, a famous literary scholar of the Three Kingdoms of Cao Wei, contains "the rongzhi of the cloud car, the whale salamander is enthusiastic and the hub, and the waterfowl is flying and defending", and the "whale" (non-literary fish) is likely to be Capricorn fish. Another "salamander" refers to female whales, such as the "Ancient and Modern Notes" contains "whales, sea fish also ... Its female salamander". The Eastern Jin Dynasty painter Gu Kaizhi (348-409) made a famous painting "Luoshen Futu" based on the content of the "Luoshen Fu", which specifically painted the image of the Capricorn fish: large in size, fish-shaped, curly nose, open mouth and teeth, and hideous face (Figure 11).
Fig. 11 Capricorn fish in roselle futu (Jin).
Capricorn fish is as large as a "whale", and its shape has been related to dragons since the Tang Dynasty. This kind of statue of a dragon's head and a fish with wings can be said to be the basic appearance of Capricorn Sinicization, which was basically formed in the Tang Dynasty. Volume 20 of the All Sutras contains "Magaro fish, also known as Magaro fish, Masanamo fish, this cloud whale also"; volume 23 contains "Capricorn fish, this cloud is also in general." It is said that this square giant fish, with two eyes like the sun, open mouth like a valley, swallow a boat out of the light, the flow of the river is like a tide, the water is like a ravine, high and low is like a mountain, and the big one can grow for two hundred miles." The above text description: The moras are large, similar to whales, and have similarities in appearance to the fish.
So, what is a "fish"? The Ming Dynasty novelist Xu Zhonglin wrote the eighty-third "Cihang Subdued Lion Elephant Roar" in the "Fengshen Yanyi", which contains "only to see the dark cloud immortal shake his head, transform into a golden whiskered fish, cut his tail and shake his head, and get on the fishing rod", which shows that the fish was once tamed by Guanyin (Cihang). Volume 15 of the Putuo Mountain Chronicle, written by the Ming Dynasty official Zhou Yingbin, contains the "Guanyin of the Aoyu Fish on the East Side of the Midas Buddha", describing the guanyin statue seen standing on top of the Aoyu. The Statue of Guanyin in the Nine Dragon Hall of the Fayu Temple in Putuoshan, Zhoushan, Zhejiang Province, is called "Island Guanyin"; the Guanyin statue of Fanyin Dong'an is connected to the Aoyu and is called "Aoyu Guanyin". From the actual sculpture of the Floating Sea Guanyin Statue in the Guanyin Temple in Xinjin County, Sichuan (Ming, Figure 12), Guanyin's foot is standing in the midst of terrifying waves, and its background is a panorama of Mount Emei in Sichuan, Putuo Mountain in Zhejiang and Wutai Mountain in Shanxi. The image of the fish in the statue is exactly the shape of the body of the dragon's head fish. In addition, the Ming Dynasty bibliophile Guo Lianghan wrote the "Qiqi Lin" volume 28 contains that "the fish is shaped like a dragon, good at swallowing fire, so it stands on the roof ridge.". It can be seen that the Capricorn fish, Anchovy (Fig. 13) and the snout on the roof of the ancient building are the same sacred beasts.
Figure 12 Statue of Guanyin Floating Sea at Xinjin Guanyin Temple, Sichuan (Ming, 1490)
Figure 13 Anchovies on the roof ridge of the Chen Clan Ancestral Hall in Guangzhou, Guangdong Province (Qing, 1888)
Fourth, from the kiss of the bird to the kiss of the cockroach
The Forbidden City is a Ming and Qing Dynasty imperial palace complex, and the fire beasts at both ends of the ridge of its roof can be called "whip kisses". The term "snout" appeared earlier in the Song Dynasty scholar Long Gun's "History of Jiangnan Wild", the third volume of which contains "At the beginning, each of the Taige Halls had a kiss". After the Ming and Qing dynasties, the name "Dragon Kiss" began to appear in large quantities, and most of them were closely related to the "Nine Sons of The Dragon". The second volume of the Ming Dynasty scholar Sun Nengchuan's "Xi Man Pen" contains that "in the Han Dynasty, the palace was plagued by many disasters, and the magician said that there was a fishtail star in the sky, and it was advisable to crown its elephant in the room." Since the Tang Dynasty, the temple has viewed the old temple, and there are still flying fish-shaped tail fingers, and the head of the beast on the present house is one of the nine sons of the dragon species, known as the kiss of the mantis, sexual good hope." This passage explains that the main reason why the use of the snout is to extinguish the fire is that the han dynasty magicians believed that there was a "fishtail star" in the sky, and placed its image on the roof to suppress the fire, and the sacred beast belonged to the nine sons of the dragon, called the snout. The eighty volumes of the Sheng'an Collection, written by the Ming Dynasty official Yang Shen, contain that "it is said that nine sons of the dragon are not dragons, and each has its own good... The second is the kiss of the mantis, which resembles a beast and has good sexual hopes, and the head of the beast on the present house is also", further explaining that the kiss is the second eldest of the nine sons of the dragon. The volume of the "Record of the Sea of People" written by the Qing Dynasty literary scholar Zha Shenxing contains "Nine sons of the dragon ... Whip Kiss is good to swallow (fire)", that is to say, the stingray kiss, as the identity of the nine sons of the dragon, can swallow fire and has the ability to extinguish the fire.
It should be noted that "mantis" refers to a dragon without horns. For example, the Eastern Han Dynasty philologist Xu Shen wrote in volume 13 of the "Commentaries on the Interpretation of Characters", which contains: "螭, if the dragon is yellow, the northern is called the earth fly, from the insect, the sound, or the cloud without horns", that is, the "mantis" is a dragon-shaped beast, hornless, yellow in color." In the field of ancient construction engineering, "whip kiss" is also known as "positive kiss". The main reason for this is that the snouts are located at opposite ends of the roof ridge. The Taehwa Temple stinger shown in Figure 14 consists of a snout, a dragon body, a neck, a curly tail, a center, front paws, hind paws, flames, a sword handle, and a back beast. Its teeth and claws, "biting" the positive ridge, is extremely shocking, and is conducive to fire suppression.
Fig. 14 The kiss on the roof of the Taihe Hall of the Forbidden City (Qing)
5. Conclusion
From the above analysis, it is not difficult to find that the Han Dynasty "iris tail" shape was placed on the roof ridge and was a town object used to extinguish fires; in the middle of the Tang Dynasty, the "iris tail" gradually evolved into the "partridge kiss" of the dragon head fish tail, and the intermediary was the image of the Capricorn imported from Indian Buddhism; and the prevalence of the Ming Dynasty "dragon born nine sons" made the "iris kiss" shape further evolved into the dragon-shaped animal head "cricket kiss" common in the Forbidden City; from the "iris tail" to the "cockroach kiss", its placement site and fire-containing function remained unchanged.
(Author Affilications:Institute of Forbidden City Studies, Palace Museum)