The Year of the Tiger Says "Tiger"
Text/Ma Xuemin
My understanding of tigers began when I was 8 years old and I was 8 years old, and I was in the Chinese painting of "Descending The Tiger" on the east gable of my family's hall.
In the painting, the tiger ignites the markings with thick ink, which has a strong visual impact; The tiger's nose and whiskers are delicately painted, which shows the thickness and thinness of the painter; Painted with yellow tiger eyeballs, and with thick ink to point out the eyeballs, the tiger is looking at the eyes, the eyes are cold, which is admirable. In Chinese painting, the descending tiger is the most common, which means that people are rising step by step, showing their grand plans, and have an unimpeded future.
Later I listened to the song "Two tigers, two tigers, running fast, running fast, one without ears, one without a tail, it's strange!" It's weird!" It is even more mysterious and in awe of the tiger.
The nickname of the "Yu Su" tiger is recorded in the "Four Years of Zuo Chuan Xuangong": The Chu people called The Milk Valley, and the tiger Yu Yu. The "Ciyuan" explains: The famous statesman of the Chu state, Ling Yin Ziwen, was an illegitimate son, abandoned in the place of Yun Mengze, and was raised by a tigress, whose name was Gu Yusu, and gu was breastfeeding. This shows the worship of tigers.
The tiger is a large carnivorous mammal (Panthera tigris) from Asia, and the Siberian tiger is the largest surviving cat, with a yellow-brown fur with black stripes, a long tail without tufts, black circles, and a large white underparts with no hyena.
The worship of the tiger should originate from the totem worship of the tiger in Chu culture, the tiger is known as the king of the hundred beasts, he is fierce and mighty, is a symbol of justice, bravery and modesty, majesty, has always been worshiped by the Han people, but also the darling of the painters of all generations.
Every time a child has a birthday, we still have the custom of grandma making a "tiger head hat" for her grandson, and a grandmother sending a pair of tiger pillows to her nephew, and the "tiger head pillow" is often pillowed on the one hand to ward off evil spirits, but also more is the meaning of blessing "living dragon and living tiger".
The tiger ranks third in the zodiac and is assigned "Yin" in the Twelve Branches, so the "Yin Time" in the twelve o'clock of the day, that is, from three to five o'clock in the morning, is also called "Tiger Time". When people mention tigers, they are all respectful and afraid, and tigers always give people a very domineering feeling.
Legend has it that in ancient times, there were lions and no tigers in the zodiac, but the lions did nothing evil and had no good reputation, so the Jade Emperor decided to remove the lions and let the tigers in front of the temple make up for them. However, due to the absence of the tiger, the beasts in the human world began to riot, and the Jade Emperor had to let the tiger go to the human world to suppress it, and the tiger asked that every time he won, he should give himself a credit, and the Jade Emperor gladly agreed.
The tiger heard that lions, bears and horses were the three most powerful animals, so the tiger challenged them and defeated the lions, bears and horses in succession. The other beasts heard of the tiger's prestige and fled in fright. The Jade Emperor was overjoyed, so he carved three horizontal lines in front of the tiger's forehead.
Later, because the East Sea Divine Turtle began to rebel, the tiger went to defeat the Divine Turtle, and the Jade Emperor added another vertical to its forehead, and from then on, the tiger became the king of the hundred beasts, and to this day, the tiger has a majestic "king" in front of its forehead.
Since ancient times, there have been many idioms that begin with the tiger: tiger fighting dragon fight, tiger dragon disk, tiger and wolf power, tiger slightly dragon Tao, tiger falling Pingchuan, tiger born three sons, there must be a biao, tiger vision, tiger body bear waist, tiger head tiger brain, tiger howling wind life, tiger den dragon pond, etc., tiger has this courage and courage and one body, representing power and glory, symbolizing the ability to overwhelm and conquer everything, people have given Chinese painting tigers a very high status, it is always recited by poets in a righteous and majestic identity.
The allegorical story of the fox pretending to be the tiger's might, "The Fox Fake Tiger Wei", must be very familiar to everyone. When foxes are mentioned, people think of "cunning", think of "fox spirits", and smell the stench of "fox dogs". These pejorative terms are the reputation and value of the fox. Why do people always consciously and unconsciously divide the fox into bad things that are opposed to the good? The fox of the "false tiger will" in the "Warring States Policy" is a fox that relies on the "power of the tiger" to oppress the weak.
For thousands of years, countless people and beasts have lost their lives, and for thousands of years, how many people have been able to stand alone in front of the tiger who is watching the tiger and look at themselves, not only not to be alarmed or afraid, but to defeat the tiger in a hurry? Even Wu Song was desperate to do his best, which was much inferior to the preemptive fox, just as the yellow dog was inferior to the camel.
It is inappropriate to use a story such as "fox fake tiger power" as a metaphor for "bullying others and bullying the weak". Is it Tiger Wei or Fox Wei? The reason why the fox deceived the tiger and frightened the beast was entirely to save his life, and he had no choice but to do so, not his intention. This is not in line with bullying and bullying weak and small winds. Speaking of which, if you think about it with your toes, you will realize that the meaning of "fox fake tiger wei" is actually equivalent to "fox sweeping tiger wei".
The story of "Fox Fake Tiger Wei" makes the tiger brave and majestic, and makes me have a "silly second brother" view of it.
There is a village in Gaozhuang Town, Mudan District called "White Tiger Collection", and it is said that in the early Ming Dynasty, a white tiger died of illness here, hence the name. Later, when I went to work in heze Development Zone, I knew that there were three villages near tenant Tun Street called "Hutou Li", "Hu waist Li" and "Hu Bing Li".
In the fifth year of Ming Zhengde (1510), Li Gong led his three sons to move east from Hongdong County, Shanxi, and when passing through Hongdagang (in the territory of present-day Tenant Tun in the Development Zone), he encountered a fierce tiger, led his son to beat him to death, and the eldest son was given the tiger head and settled here, so the village was named Hutou Li. The second son was given the tiger waist, and after settling down, he took the name of the village as Tiger Waist Li, and now the name of the village is changed to Shuangmiao Village. The three sons were divided into the second half of the tiger, and the village was named Tiger Belly Li, and the villagers changed it to Ding Li Zhuang in order to avoid secrecy, which is now located in the jurisdiction of the He Lou Office in Mudan District.
There is an article in the Book of Rites and Tan Bows: Confucius crossed the side of Mount Tai, and there were women weeping at the tomb and mourning. The Master listened to it, and made the Zilu ask, saying, "The cry of the Son is also like a person who is worried." And said, "Yes." In the past, my uncle died of a tiger, my husband died again, and now my son died again. The Master said, "Why don't you go?" "No harsh government." The master said: "The boy knows it, and the harsh government is fiercer than the tiger." ”
The article says that the woman would rather die in the tiger's mouth than accept the rule of the tyrants, and use the opposite method to set off the brutality and arbitrariness of social politics, which is unbearable. This fiery situation may be a bit exaggerated, but it speaks to a reality: human society is sometimes darker and more violent than the beast society, and man is sometimes more cruel than man-eating beasts.
The individual is powerless to resist a tyranny more ferocious than that of a beast, and even a saint like Confucius has only a lament. The only way out for the common people is to escape, and the crows in the world are as black as black, they can't run away, they have no choice, it is convenient for the beasts to be together, and they would rather eat for the beasts than to be ghosts under the knife.
Darkness and brutality also have a role to play, that is: it is a mirror from which we can see the ugliness and ferocity of human nature, and see ourselves as we are. It is said that people are the most afraid of looking in the mirror. When people see their true colors in the mirror, they are frightened and unincorporated. I don't know if we will be frightened when we see in the mirror that "the harsh government is fiercer than the tiger"?
So the animality of the tiger makes it the same as the "jackal". As a result, the condemnation and flogging of "the country of tigers and wolves, the harsh government is fiercer than the tiger, and the officials and tigers are wolves" is incessant. ——This concept is out of criticism of the real society, in fact, it is to use the tiger to say things to stab the world's diseases and evils.
The Year of the Ox is about to be sent away and ushered in the Year of the Tiger.
The Year of the Ox is an extraordinary year, the epidemic, the flood that has not been encountered in a hundred years, can be described as a year of many disasters, testing people's will and the love of the world.
The Year of the Tiger must have a tiger weather, the Year of the Tiger must have a tiger as a tiger, this tiger as not a "Hu" as an act, but with a scientific method, high morale, full of enthusiasm, down-to-earth style, little by little, day by day, thick accumulation, I hope that the Year of the Tiger will not disappoint!
About the Author:
Ma Xuemin is a member of the Chinese Prose Literature Association, the Shandong Provincial Prose Literature Association, and the Heze Writers Association. Graduated from Shandong Normal University, he was the editor-in-chief of today's Development Zone Newspaper, an organ newspaper of the Working Committee of the Heze Development Zone of the Communist Party of China. He is the author of more than ten books, including "Chunhua Qiushi" and "History of Heze Development Zone". His works have been published in Contemporary Essays, Qilu Evening News, Heze Daily, etc. In 2021, Qilu Evening News Qilu One Point "Qingwei Supplement Contracted Writer" and the winner of the first "Qingwei Prose Award".
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