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In 1976, with the excavation of the northwest highlands of Xiaotun Village in Anyang, Henan, the number of burial items in the tomb was amazing.
More than 11,600 pieces of funerary items have been excavated, of which 468 are bronzes.
Two of the bronze ceremonial vessels have attracted everyone's attention: the bronze ceremonial vessels of birds and beasts, and there is no "back of the head" when it was first excavated, which archaeologists once thought was open. But that doesn't affect its overall aesthetics.
After studying the inscriptions on the bronzes, we can know that this is the tomb of the wife of King Wuding of the Shang Dynasty, and in addition to this, we also know that these are two owls.
Owl, i.e. owl, also known as owl.
owl? Is it the one who screams so poignantly that people can't like it?
yes! It's him, didn't you think? Yes, I didn't expect that either.
Perhaps the owls did not expect that they would have such a glorious moment.
However, in the Shang Dynasty, as a bird of war, it was invincible and invincible.
Later, when cleaning up the fragments of the bronze, the back of its head was found, and at first no one dared to recognize it.
There were a lot of thoughts, or an old worker said, "Will it be the back cover on the two Owls?" "It's the back of an owl's head."
Archaeologists felt that what they said was reasonable, so they took out the two owl statues to verify, and the results coincided with the mouth of the owl statue.
At this time, look at the owl, wide beak and high crown, round eyes, slightly raised head, upright chest, wings and feathers, two feet thick and powerful, with a wide tail hanging on the ground to form a plane, giving people a sense of arrogance, strong and resolute, can be regarded as the "god of war".
It seems to be slightly inconsistent with the image in our minds.
The imaginary god of war is not a dragon but also a phoenix.
But it is also related to totem beliefs between different tribes.
According to the literature records of the "History of Yin Benji", "Yin Qi, the mother known as Jian Di, the daughter of the female Rong clan, was the second concubine of the Emperor Zhao, and the threesome bathed, and saw the bird fall its eggs, and Jian Di swallowed it, because of the pregnancy and birth contract." ”
Mr. Ye Shuxian, a well-known anthropologist on the mainland, believes that the "Heavenly Destiny Xuan bird, descending to give birth to the Shang" section of the "Poetry Classic, Shang Song, Xuan Bird". The "bird" in "Genji" is the owl.
It can be seen that in the minds of merchants, the birds are their ancestors.
The owl moves fast and agile, and is used by merchants as a totem of war, and the image of the owl is called the "god of war".
The tomb master, Lady Hao, is the queen of Wuding, and the first female general recorded in the ancient history of the mainland, and she is also a female politician and female diviner.
This time, the Owl appeared in the tomb of the woman, which is the best interpretation of the identity of the female general.
In addition, the woman was also a high priest, and before each war, it was the woman who performed divination, and conveyed the divine will of "heaven" after divination to the Shang King Wuding.
The ancients said: "The great affairs of the country are in the worship and rong." ”
According to the oracle bone literature: "Xin Weibu, Dengnu Hao 3,000, Denglu Wan, Hufa Qiang." This was also the most frequent expedition led by Wu Hao, and Wu Ding gave half of the Shang Dynasty's troops: 13,000 people, to Women Hao, including Wu Ding's beloved general, who won a great victory in this battle with the Qiang side.
Among the countless battles in the life of the woman, the most exciting one was to conquer the Bafang with Wu Ding.
Before the expedition, he consulted with Wu Ding, and The Woman Hao ambushed the army in the west of the enemy, while Wu Ding led the elite troops to launch a surprise attack on the Pakistani army in the east.
The Pakistani army lost sight of one another in the encirclement of the Wuding army and the women's good army, and the formation was chaotic, and finally it was surrounded and annihilated, and the southern border was pacified.
This is probably the earliest written "ambush battle" in China.
And the death of the woman is a lot of opinions, some say that they died in childbirth, some say that they died in battle.
However, more scholars still prefer the latter, and it is recorded in the Zhou Li Tsukasa: "Those who die in the army do not enter the Zhao Domain." ”
According to the shang dynasty's rituals, those who died in battle were not allowed to enter the royal tomb, and the women who did not enter the royal tomb also confirmed this.
Due to the long time, we cannot verify how the woman died, but as her husband who loved her deeply, Wu Ding buried her next to the palace that handled military affairs every day.
In addition to being a status symbol for the general, these two owls are also Wu Ding's love for his wife as a husband, allowing the "God of War" owl to protect her in another world.
The bronze craftsmanship of the Shang Dynasty was the heyday of mainland history, and the Owl Zun as a bronze ceremonial vessel, its craftsmanship was more exquisite.
As a vessel for holding wine, the shape of the Owl Zun adopts the bionic method for the overall design, in order to better show the functionality of its wine, the abdomen of the Owl Zun is exaggerated and enlarged.
It stands vertically, allowing the vessel to hold more liquid.
There is a handle in the neck, called "鋬", which is decorated with the head of the beast, and there are no limbs, which is convenient for grasping movement.
It is also interesting that the entire head of the Owl zun is not used as an opening at the time of design, but only the back of the head is used as a lid, which is more conducive to the sealing and storage of the wine, and the taste of the wine is easier to preserve.
In terms of overall shape, the Owl Zun gives people a fierce momentum of being ready to go at any time, hunting prey, and the upright posture gives people a feeling of majesty and solemnity, strength and strength, which is a perfect integration of modeling beauty and functional beauty.
Exquisite craftsmanship is not only reflected in the shape, but also in the overall decoration.
There are many patterns such as animal face pattern, dragon pattern, owl pattern, cicada pattern, dragon pattern, snake pattern, thunder pattern, cloud pattern, gluttony pattern and so on.
Among the many patterns, the gluttonous pattern, the dragon pattern are the main pattern, the cloud pattern, and the thunder pattern are mostly shaded.
Gluttony is an ancient divine beast, and it is recorded in the Lü's Spring and Autumn Prophets: "Zhou Ding wrote gluttony, had a head and no body, ate people without swallowing, harmed his body, and repaid him with words." ”
Many scholars have made different interpretations of the gluttonous pattern, some people think that the gluttony is the tiger; some people think it is the head of the bull; and more people call it the animal face pattern.
Its meaning is considered by some to be "to pass through heaven and earth (also through life and death)"; some people think that it is "to ward off evil spirits and drive away ghosts"; some people think that it is "to abstain from greed"; some people think that it is "symbolic of might, bravery, and justice"; others think that it is "to sacrifice gods" and so on.
In addition to the intuitive pattern image itself, it should also be combined with the purpose of use of the utensils.
The bronze ware of the Shang Dynasty was mainly used as a sacrifice, and this decoration was related to sacrifice.
In this way, the animal face pattern, which is called gluttony, should be the image of cattle, sheep, pigs, etc. as sacrifices.
And our lady, the Owl, is decorated with a bull's noodle stripe on our chest. The head has a pair of large horns, the face is divided into two halves by the ribs on the chest, forming a symmetrical shape left and right, and the eyes bulge out to be oval. With a cloud thunder pattern substrate.
From a distance, it looks like a cow's face, but it is actually more like a pair of bull's face armor to protect the chest.
The Lady Good Owl is buried as a bronze sacrificial vessel in the Tomb of the Lady Good.
However, these patterns are often not completely realistic, but symbolized, abstracted, or synthesized. This type of pattern has religious significance.
In addition to the gluttonous pattern, there is also another most important pattern is the dragon pattern.
In Xu Shen's "Commentaries on the Interpretation of Texts": "夔, the divine rays are also like dragons, one foot." ”
However, on the owl, whether it is the inverted dragon pattern on the high crown of the owl's head, the double-headed dragon pattern on the neck of the owl, or the embossed dragon pattern on the stout feet, they are placed on both sides of the utensil, the dragon pattern is not the protagonist, and the round carved dragon is only the decoration on the lid.
Through these patterns, we can also see that the merchant's respect and worship of the owl even surpassed the worship of the dragon totem for a period of time.
In the hearts of the ancients, the gluttony and the dragon were the gods that dominated the heavens and the earth, and the combination of these two gods and owls on one artifact was a portrayal of the faith and strength of the people at that time.
The praise of the owl as the god of war is the embodiment of the collective unconscious of all people in the context of the war-torn history. It has also become the main source of subject matter and content in bronze art creation.
However, after the Zhou Dynasty, few bronzes related to the owl were unearthed, and even its status changed dramatically: it fell from the altar to the ominous fierce bird and the evil bird.
The Classic of Mountains and Seas and the Great Wilderness of the West records: "There is the mountain of Xuandan. There are five-colored birds, and people have hair on their faces. There are green owls, yellow plovers, blue birds, yellow birds, and those who have gathered them have perished. ”
Xu Shen in the "Explanation of Words": "Owl, not filial piety bird also." ”
To this day, owls are still regarded as ominous birds and rarely appear in works of art.
In fact, the morals of these animals are formed by us humans in the early days of exploration of nature, without knowing anything.
It is their spiritual support, and with these spiritual blessings, they can face the world and live more bravely.
All living beings in the world are equal, not because you are special because of how you are, and the change in the status of the owl after the Shang dynasty is actually a change in the ruling class.
In addition to the change of regime in the ruling class, there is also the reconstruction of the cultural level.
The "Book of Poetry, Chen Feng, tomb door" has: "There are plums in the tomb door, and there are owls at the end." ”
In the poem, the owl appears on the tomb door, symbolizing the association of the owl with death. Merchants love owls, but Zhou is not a merchant. The Zhou Dynasty destroyed the Shang who ruled for six hundred years, and the belief in the owl totem in The Shang culture was abandoned.
The establishment of a new dynasty does not allow you to inherit the political, economic, cultural, and ideological aspects of the previous dynasty, because it is not conducive to their rule, nor is it conducive to the consolidation and stability of the new dynasty.
Today, the Owl is just a work of art, and the cultural connotation behind it can bring us closer to understanding and understanding the culture, art, thought and other aspects of the late Shang Dynasty.
It also makes us realize that the specifications of the tombs of the kings of the Shang Dynasty, as well as more confirmations of the identity and status of the tomb owner, are no longer limited to the records of literature.
For our modern product design, it is a source of inspiration for our modern product design in terms of shape, pattern and innovation, and it is also an important part of our cultural output and cultural self-confidence, and it is also a valuable heritage of the mainland.
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Resources
History of Chinese Arts and Crafts, Tian Zibing, Oriental Publishing Center
"Analysis of the Artistic Characteristics and Cultural Connotations of yin xu women and good owls", Long Chuyi
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