The tiger has a complex and rich connotation in the Chinese folk belief system, it is both the embodiment of bravery and the symbol of royal power; it is both a beast that wards off evil spirits and an evil spirit that people cannot avoid.
The belief in tigers in Hehuang people has a long history, and for people living in the Hehuang Valley, is the belief in tigers an imported product or a local cultural product? In history, has there ever been a tiger in the Hehuang Valley and even the entire Qinghai Plateau?
The Year of the Tiger talks about the Tiger. On the occasion of the New Year, Mr. Hou Guangliang, professor and doctoral supervisor of the School of Geographical Sciences of Qinghai Normal University, took us to find the traces of the Qinghai tiger with rigorous evidence and argumentation.
Tigers are typical montane forest-dwelling animals, which means that the living environment of tigers must be forest or the interdependence zone between forests and grasslands, which is a unique living habit of tigers.
There are very few written records about tigers in Qinghai history, but the image of the tiger appears in rock paintings of different periods, And Mr. Hou Guangliang introduced that there are 6 images of tigers in rock paintings found in the Sanjiangyuan area alone. In the 1980s, archaeologists excavated a relatively complete skeleton of a tiger on the northern shore of Qinghai Lake, and the identification revealed that the tiger survived in the early Qing Dynasty, which is the only archaeological remain directly related to the tiger found in Qinghai.
Qinghai in ancient times
Suitable for the survival of tigers
Mr. Hou Guangliang said: "Although this tiger may be an exotic species, it is not excluded that there have really been tigers in Qinghai in history. ”
Speaking of tigers, it must be related to the change of forests, because forests are necessary living conditions for tigers, and most of the forests in Qinghai are currently island-like and band-like distribution, and no trace of tigers has been found in these forests. "Qinghai Lake and the vast area of the Hehuang Valley are at the junction of temperate grasslands, alpine grasslands, and temperate deciduous broad-leaved forest belts, and from the perspective of natural conditions, it is impossible for tigers to exist in this area." Mr. Hou Guangliang said. Historically, however, this is not the case for the ecological environment of this region. Archaeological data show that from 8,000 to 4,000 years ago, the forest resources around the Hehuang Valley and Qinghai Lake were very rich, and the forest coverage area was much larger than today. "At that time, the ecological environment of Qinghai was indeed suitable for the survival of tigers." Mr. Hou Guangliang said.
The image of a tiger in a petroglyph
A series of archaeological discoveries in the Qinghai area confirm Mr. Hou Guangliang's inference.
On a faience pot from the Majiayao culture period dating back about 5,000 years, scholars have found striped decorations similar to tiger skin stripes. Born around the bronze age in the Bronze Age, the image of a tiger also appeared on the rock paintings of Haixigou in Quanji Township, Gangcha County, Haibei Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture. The image of the tiger on this petroglyph, with interlaced stripes and vivid images, has a strong realistic style.
Picture of a tiger eating cattle in the Cheji Township of Gonghe County and a rock painting by Limu. Picture from "Qinghai Rock Paintings" by Tang Huisheng.
The shape of a tiger also appears in the Lushan petroglyphs carved in Tianjun County, Haixi Mongol and Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture during the Wei and Jin dynasties, as well as in the Helimu petroglyphs in Cheji Township, Gonghe County, Hainan Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture around the same time. Is the image of the tiger on the petroglyph a depiction of nature by the ancients, or is it the product of cultural exchange? Mr. Hou Guangliang said that the tiger shape on the Rock Painting has an interesting name - tiger eating cattle, because this rock painting shows a tiger devouring a cow, in order to show the ferocity of the tiger, the chisel deliberately enlarged the shape of the tiger several times taller than the cow. Interestingly, the cow that was swallowed by the tiger was, from the external characteristics, the unique species of the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau - the yak. "This also means that this rock painting of a tiger eating a cow is a reproduction of the real scene of real life by the ancients, and the tiger in the rock painting did exist in Qinghai." Mr. Hou Guangliang said.
The disappearance of the tiger is evidence of the changes in the ecological environment
If tigers once really existed in Qinghai, what caused this species to disappear from the land of Qinghai? Through research, Mr. Hou Guangliang confirmed that human interference is the main reason for the disappearance of tigers from Qinghai.
For many years, Mr. Hou Guangliang has been committed to the study of population change in Qinghai, and he has found that between 5,000 and 4,500 years ago, there were less than 10,000 ancient humans in the Hehuang Valley; from 4,300 to 4,000 years ago, the population of the Hehuang Valley increased to about 30,000 people; and between 4,000 and 3,600 years ago, the population of the Hehuang Valley dropped to about 20,000 people. Mr. Hou Guangliang said: "About 5,000 years ago, it was the Majiayao culture period of the Neolithic Era, during which the climate of Qinghai was very warm, suitable for human survival, primitive agriculture developed rapidly, and the progress of productive forces promoted population growth. "Majiayao culture is divided into four types in chronological order: Shilingxia, Majiayao, Machang, and Banshan, of which the Shilingxia culture type is not found in Qinghai, and the rest of the cultural types are preserved in Qinghai. Mr. Hou Guangliang said that more than 1,000 tombs of the Machang cultural type have been found at the Liuwan site alone, and the number is not small, but when it comes to the Mid-Levels type, there are only 260 tombs, which shows that during this period, the population of the Hehuang Valley was not continuously increasing, but fluctuating. The reason for this fluctuation is that, in addition to the continuous dry and cold climate in the Hehuang Valley, which has greatly affected agricultural production, there are also factors of war. "According to archaeological dating, the period of the first fluctuation of the early Qinghai human population coincided with the westward expansion of the Qi family culture born in the Longdong region." Mr. Hou Guangliang said. The Lajia Cultural Site is the largest Qijia cultural site found in our province, in this site, archaeologists have found a corpse with broken legs and hands tied behind their backs, and most scholars believe that this corpse is a prisoner of war. "Based on this clue, we can infer that after the Westward Qi family arrived in Qinghai, they had a war with the Majiayao people living here, which led to a sharp decline in population during this period, and the climate change affected agricultural production, which made the means of production tense, which may be the main cause of the war." Mr. Hou Guangliang said. Since then, Qinghai has entered the era of civilization dominated by animal husbandry, because it has found a way of life adapted to climatic characteristics, the population of Qinghai has once again risen, and by the time of the Han Wu Emperor Zhao Chong Guo Tuntian Hehuang, the number of Qiang people living in Qinghai has reached about 50,000. In the successive dynasties and dynasties, for different reasons, the population of Qinghai has not increased significantly, and in some periods, the Han population in the Hehuang Valley is even less than 20,000 people. During the Qianlong period of the Qing Dynasty, the official population of Qinghai soared to about 240,000. "The main reason for this phenomenon is that the political situation during the Qianlong period was stable, there were few wars, the people were recuperated, and the population naturally increased." Mr. Hou Guangliang said. In an age of lack of environmental awareness, an increase in population inevitably causes damage to natural resources. According to statistics, during the Qianlong period, the valley area of the Hehuang Valley has been cultivated to the end, and the increase in the area of cultivated land means that the forest has decreased, and Yang Yingju, who was then in Xining Province, said with emotion that the mountains in Huangzhong (generally referring to the Hehuang Valley) have disappeared from the "hair" like the head of the old man. "The tiger by the Qinghai Lake appeared in this period, and this is the last trace of the Qinghai tiger." Mr. Hou Guangliang said.
The rich meaning of the tiger
The relationship between humans and tigers has always been "love and kill each other", Lushan rock paintings depict the scene of human arrows shooting tigers, the Han Dynasty general Li Guang was also famous for shooting tigers, and left a story of "shooting tigers in the stone", records of "tiger plague", often seen in historical texts of different periods, so that the story of Wu Song fighting tigers is almost a household name in the mainland.
Yu Suan, which is now spread in Tongren County, Huangnan Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture, is a typical tiger culture.
Experts have researched that Yu Suo is the meaning of the ancient "tiger", the local people believe that the 20th day of november in the lunar calendar is "black day", this day is the longest night, the shortest day, all kinds of evil spirits are easy to come out of the strange, so the local people will dress young men as tigers, used to expel evil spirits, some scholars believe that Yu Su itself is the embodiment of evil spirits. "In fact, the Han Dynasty ritual of jumping on the ground was very popular in the Central Plains." Mr. Hou Guangliang said. However, because of its brave temperament, the tiger has also been given a richer cultural connotation and has multiple cultural personalities. The tiger was once a symbol of royal power. The important prop soldier symbol that occurred in the story of stealing the symbol to save Zhao during the Warring States period is the image of the tiger; the tiger rune stone stone pot unearthed in Haiyan County, Haibei Prefecture, our province, represents the central government's rule over Qinghai, and its main shape is also a Fu tiger; the Song Dynasty tiger face tile unearthed in Guinan County, Hainan Prefecture, our province, also has the same meaning. The symbolism of the tiger to the royal power even continued into the Qing Dynasty. After the Qing Dynasty unified China, the nomadic Mongol tribes in Qinghai were organized into a left and right wing alliance, and the seal button on the seal issued by the Qing Court Ceremony Department to the left wing of Haixi was a vibrant tiger. In the folk, the image of the tiger is more widely used. "In the folk, the tiger is given the meaning of being brave and fearless, praying for blessings and warding off evil spirits." Mr. Hou Guangliang said. The image of the tiger is therefore widely used in New Year paintings, window flowers, and baby clothes. "The tiger culture that circulates in the Hehuang Valley is also the embodiment of the diversity and integration of the Chinese nation and the characteristics of the diverse convergence of hehuang culture, which is the contemporary significance and era value of tiger culture." Mr. Hou Guangliang said.
This article is reprinted without authorization by the client of Xihai Metropolis Daily
Xihai all-media reporter Li Hao Lu Xiaoqian