On the occasion of the upcoming Year of the Tiger, the "Ruihu You'an - 2022 Chinese New Year Exhibition" held by the National Museum will be open to the public from January 19, and hundreds of sets of classic "tiger cultural relics" will be collectively unveiled in the exhibition hall like a courtyard, including bronze tigers, Western HanTang Yanghou Tiger Charms and many other national treasures.
The tiger cultural relics exhibited in the exhibition total 100 sets, more than 70% of which are exhibited for the first time, including precious utensils with brilliant gold and jade and fine craftsmanship, as well as the remains of the stoneware gray tiles and simple and cute ichijing, showing the history and culture of the tiger and related festivals and customs from the aspects of faith and etiquette, history and culture, and artistic life.
Gao Xiuqing, Research Librarian and Curator of the National Museum: From the Shang Dynasty to the beginning of the 21st century, almost we have covered various themes and cultural relics this time. After the audience entered, they felt that it was indeed a strong taste of the year.
After returning to China, he reappeared as a national treasure to welcome the Year of the Tiger
In the exhibition, the national treasure tiger is placed in the most prominent position. The bronze heavy weapon tiger ying cast in the Western Zhou Dynasty, which was once a collection of the Yuanmingyuan, was exiled to a foreign country for more than 100 years and returned to the embrace of the motherland in 2018. The heavy weapon Tiger Ying once again came out of the mountain, adding a bright color to the arrival of the Year of the Tiger.
Gao Xiuqing: This cover has a "tiger body dragon tail", which is a very godly state, crouching tiger shape, and the tail is a bit like a dragon's demeanor. Dragons and tigers sometimes appear together, closely related to our traditional Chinese culture, and we feel that both the dragon and the tiger are a symbol of auspiciousness, or represent a kind of ability and strength.
Tiger Charm Small cultural relics carry the major events of ancient military states
According to reports, since ancient times, the ancestors have known the tiger, the majestic and mighty king of nature, and have a reverence and worship for it, which has become an important element of ancient ceremonial tools and weapons.
The Tiger Charm is a representative cultural relic. Tiger symbol is the ancient transfer of troops, divided into two halves, the central and the commander each hold half, when the dispatch of the army needs to hold the spell to check the right, completely integrated to send troops, this system of sending troops originated in the Spring and Autumn Warring States period.
The first-class cultural relics of the Western Han Dynasty Yanghou Tiger Symbol, which is also unveiled in the exhibition, this tiger rune is almost well preserved, with a neat silver inscription on the back, the section structure is clear, and the left and right pieces can still be opened and closed as they were more than 2,000 years ago. Although the height of the pass is only 2.5 cm, the length is 7.9 cm, and the little tiger cultural relics carry the military and state events of ancient China.
Gao Xiuqing: We have a word today called "conformity", and the soldier's symbol should be aligned left and right, indicating that this army or this group of people and horses can go to war, and it should be said that "conformity" is evolved from the soldier's symbol. Xin Lingjun "stole the symbol to save Zhao", there is a record in the history books in this regard, this symbol refers to the soldier symbol.
According to experts, the tiger, in the traditional culture of the mainland, has also been endowed with romantic imagination and mythological colors, appearing on jade pendants, pillows and other life utensils used close to the body, expressing people's good wishes to use the tiger to drive away evil spirits and hope that life will be smooth.