The Year of the Tiger says the tiger, the tiger under the archaeological perspective of animals

2022 is the Year of the Tiger, and the rise and fall of tiger populations and cultural connotations reflect the psychological changes and behavioral changes in human cognition of wild animals. On the occasion of the Year of the Tiger, let's talk about tigers from the perspective of zooarchaeology.

Cultural connotations

The tiger is found only in Asia and has important symbolic significance in cultures throughout Asia. For example, the Hindu goddess Purga rides a tiger, and the monkey god Hanuman also has the image of riding a tiger; the tiger is a national symbol of the Korean nation, and the "Taiji Tiger" Dori is the mascot of the 1986 Seoul Asian Games and the 1988 Seoul Olympic Games.

Tigers are carnivores, so it is their nature that "tigers hurt people". The ancients reflected this fact through artistic works, and the tiger cannibal was widely concerned for its peculiar shape and mysterious meaning. So far, there are two bronze bronze tablets of tiger cannibalism, which are hidden in the Izumiya Museum in Japan and the Senoshichi Museum in Paris, France, all of which are rumored to be from Hunan, China. The bronzes of the human tiger motif are mainly distributed in southwest China and the Central Plains, such as Hubei, Hunan, Henan, Shaanxi, Sichuan and other places. Its connotation, some scholars believe that the tiger eats people, and some scholars believe that it is the human tiger intercourse. Zhang Guangzhi interprets man and tiger as a wizard and animal assistant, and Chen Xingcan believes that the tiger is actually a tiger skin, the so-called tiger mouth person should be a person wearing a tiger skin, and its actual source should be a person wearing a tiger skin hunting or dancing and practicing in ritual activities.

The earliest tiger shape comes from the 6400-year-old dragon tiger mussel sculpture excavated at the Xishuipo site in Puyang, Henan. The main species of mussel shells are lisine mussels, spear mussels and wedge mussels. Feng Shi believes that the shape of the dragon and tiger can only be explained by astrological signs, and its layout is consistent with the east and west two continents, coupled with the Beidou pattern with the mussel sculpture, its composition is completely consistent with the real celestial phenomenon, "the chinese twenty-eight star system of indiscriminate period and the ancient Gaitian theory of the production of the greatly advanced." The tiger is one of the five spirits (dragon, tiger, phoenix, turtle, lin), and one of the four gods, the elephant of the West, and the Erya Shitian says: "The West becomes the shape of a tiger." ”

Tigers are often associated with the military because of their bravery. The Yellow Emperor Xuanyuan "taught bears, cats, cats, cats, cats, and tigers to fight against emperor Yan in the wilderness of Banquan" (Shiji, Five Emperors). When the King of Wu was cutting down the silk, "three hundred chariots, three hundred tigers" ("Shangshu Mu Oath"), using the tiger ben as a warrior began, "Shang Huan Huan, like a tiger like a cat, like a bear like a cat, in the suburbs of Shang" ("Shang Shu Mu Oath"), and then used bears, tigers and other beasts to describe their army as mighty and majestic. In ancient times, the soldier symbols used to convey orders and dispatch troops were engraved with tigers, called "tiger symbols". At present, the earliest tiger rune is from the Warring States period, and there are records in the "Records of History" about the Prince of Wei, Xin Lingjun, stealing the "tiger rune", seizing military power, and breaking Qin to save Zhao. The National Museum of China has a collection of "Yangling Tiger Symbol", which is a certificate for Qin Shi Huang to mobilize the army, cast in bronze into the shape of a Crouching Tiger, which can be divided into two, the left and right necks of the tiger have the same wrong golden seal inscription 12 characters "The Symbol of the Armor Soldier, the Right is in the Emperor, the Left is in Yangling", when the army is mobilized, the envoy holds the upper half of the symbol from the Emperor, and goes to Yangling (present-day Xianyang City, Shaanxi) to check with the left half of the symbol before giving orders.

Kaogu see "Tiger"

At least since the Yangshao cultural period, the ancient Chinese ancestors have been very clear about the boundary between domestication and wild, with the distinction between "I" and "non-me", "I" includes domestic animals, and "non-I" races are either hunted objects or conquered objects, even people. There are not many animal remains excavated from the Lingjiatan site in Hanshan, Anhui (5600-5300 years ago), but there are tiger bones unearthed, which should be obtained from hunting, and there are also jade tiger shouhuang and yushuanghu shouhuang. Among them, the Jade Double Tiger Shou huang was excavated from Tomb No. 8 excavated at the Lingjiatan site in 1987. The jade is gray and white, the instrument is flat and rounded, and there are tiger heads in relief at each end of the huang, and the wrinkles on the eyes, nose, mouth, ears and brain gate are carved with the yin line, and the front paws of the forward flutter are carved, and the yin carved pattern on the huang shows the tiger's flower spots, with a unique shape, like a tiger going up the mountain.

The Lingjiatan site unearthed the Jade Double Tiger Shou Huang

Based on the animal archaeology and animal image of the site, the author believes that the use of precious jade to carve animal images reflects the spiritual appeal of prehistoric ancestors both in terms of material and image, and the animal image is first of all a wild animal known to the prehistoric ancestors of Lingjiatan. They selected animals representing the sky (birds and eagles), earth (pigs, tigers, rabbits) and underground (turtles) as the source of their images, and then deified them into the images of dragons and phoenixes, thus realizing the sublimation of animal images and further pinning their spiritual aspirations.

The ancestors of the late Shang Dynasty had a deeper understanding of tigers. In the 1936 issue of Mammals in Anyang Yin Ruins, the skulls and mandibles of tigers unearthed at the Yin Ruins site were recorded, and De Rijin and Yang Zhongjian designated them as "wild and indigenous animals". The "tiger" in the oracle bone is a hieroglyphic character with obvious recognition characteristics, which vividly shows the image of the tiger in the mind of the merchant: the tiger's mouth is wide open, the upper and lower jaws have raised fangs, and even the tiger's body is painted with stripes, and the clawed feet and curly tail are carefully depicted. Tigers are fierce and fierce, and in the era of only bows and crossbows, they were generally only captured by forming a large hunting party. The tiger hunting formation recorded in Yin Xubu's remarks was very large, but very little was obtained. For example, in a field hunt, the Shang King's team hunted 40 deer, 164 wolves, 159 elk, etc., while the tiger had only 1 (Oracle Bone Collection, 10198 Bin Group). A successful tiger hunting operation is recorded in the oracle bones of the Royal Ontario Museum of Canada, in which they sacrificed the humerus of the tiger in a sacrificial event and carved and inlaid to highlight its preciousness. The tiger is rare and precious, and because of its ferocity, it arouses human awe, and is the most common and used animal image in the Yin Ruins site.

In the face of tiger plague, it is the wisest way to "yield the 'tiger's' soldiers without fighting." The "Jingzong Fuhu Jade Ornament" collected by the National Museum of China uses the original jade skin color to present the tiger's colorful coat color. It depicts the situation in which Liao Jingzong surrendered to the tiger: Jingzong wore a crown and a narrow-sleeved robe, sitting next to the stone cave, and the "non-threatening" tiger obediently lay down next to Jingzong.

Harmony and symbiosis

Chinese folk often take the auspicious meaning of the tiger. The family looks forward to the children and grandchildren of the tiger's head and tiger's brain, the tiger's back and the bear's waist, and the king's high promotion, and gives the children tiger shoes, tiger hats, tiger belly pockets, sleeping tiger pillows, and worshiping tiger gods. The tiger-shaped night pot is called tiger, and it is said that it originated from the famous Western Han Dynasty general Li Guang shot a crouching tiger, cut off the tiger's head as a pillow, and cast it into a toilet with copper.

According to historical documents, tigers are widely distributed in China, and tigers have been found in at least 20 provinces, autonomous regions and municipalities directly under the Central Government in history. The remains of tiger bones have also been found in archaeological sites in China from the south to the north, counting more than 30 places. The very small number of tigers in the natural environment is corroborated by the small number of tiger remains unearthed at archaeological sites.

Worldwide, tigers have been widely distributed in a continuous distribution in a vast area of Asia from western Turkey to the eastern coast of Russia. In the last 100 years, the world's tiger population has declined by 97%. In 2010, when the Year of the Chinese Tiger arrived, the countries with tigers signed a groundbreaking agreement: by 2022, by 2022, through the protection of natural habitats, the suppression of international illegal trade, the focus on cracking down on tiger bone liquor and various traditional pharmaceutical market demand, the signing and implementation of this agreement has been effective: by 2016, the global tiger population has increased for the first time; by the year of the tiger in 2022, according to statistics, the global tiger population is estimated to be 5300- 7300 pieces.

Humans and animals share the blue planet earth, and the relationship between the two is intricate and changes over time. A small number of wild animals have completed the transformation into domestic animals, and a new "covenant" has been "concluded" between humans and domestic animals: mutually beneficial symbiosis, and the number of domestic animal populations and populations will increase. As humans expand, protected areas may be established in the wilderness to protect wildlife populations; within human territories, they can be sheltered by means of zoos, etc., and some individuals in the wild animals are also "trying" (forced) to integrate themselves through self-domestication.

The vicissitudes of the sea, the wilderness is difficult to find, the beasts are hidden, and mankind is in the process of the sixth mass extinction. In the face of the severe environmental degradation problem that endangers survival, the protection of biodiversity and the joint construction of a community of human and natural life are mankind's solemn commitment and action guide for the future.

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