From January 1st to February 15th, the Nanjing Museum held the "Celebrating the Year of the Year - Special Exhibition of Zodiac Cultural Relics", which brought together 171 pieces (sets) of zodiac relics collected by the Nanjing Museum, traced back to the roots, told the story of the zodiac in depth, and fully presented the culture of the zodiac.
The New Year of 2022 is about to usher in the traditional Chinese Year of Nongyin, and the exhibition focuses on the cultural connotations of the zodiac tiger. Archaeological studies have shown that from the Xia, Shang and Zhou dynasties, the development of tiger culture gradually shifted from "deification" to "for the use of rulers", often used for royal artifact decoration.
During the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period, the connotation of tiger culture underwent some changes, and its psychic function was continuously diluted, and its symbolic function as a royal position was further strengthened, such as the tiger symbol used to dispatch troops and military power.
After the Qin and Han dynasties, the symbol of the tiger's royal power was replaced by a dragon, and the symbolism was concentrated in the military.
In the field of literature and art and life, the tiger is also an important creative subject, and its image is widely circulated in sculpture, painting, folklore and other fields.
There have always been many allusions, idioms and proverbs related to tigers, such as dragon pan tiger standing, tiger tiger shengwei, living dragon living tiger, dragon tenghu leaping, Crouching tiger hidden dragon, such as tiger wings, descending dragon fuhu and so on.
