Jimu news reporter Xu Ying
Correspondent Cai Luwu Ding Yan
Video clip Xu Ying
2022 will usher in the Year of the Tiger, the tiger tiger is full of wind, the dragon is roaring, and the words related to the tiger are all mighty. The ancients also liked to use the image of the tiger on ceremonial instruments and musical instruments to express the emotions of the owner. Recently, with the cooperation of museum staff, the reporter of Chutian Metropolis Daily Jimu News searched for a number of cultural relics related to tigers from the Hubei Provincial Museum and the Wuhan Museum for readers to appreciate. The reporter found that in these cultural relics, there are not many tigers that appear in a fierce image, but most of the tigers in the cultural relics are very simple and cute, so let's count the "tigers" with us!
Tiger bird drum
The most famous is the "Tiger Bird Drum", and the tiger in the cultural relics is simple and cute
The most famous "tiger" related cultural relics in the Hubei Provincial Museum are the "Tiger Bird Drum". According to the director of the Conservation Department of Hubei Provincial Museum, the Tiger Seat Bird Frame Drum was excavated in Jiuliandun, Zaoyang, Hubei Province, with a height of 135.9 and a width of 134 centimeters, and consisted of a pallet, a tiger seat, a phoenix frame, and a hanging drum. The pallet is rectangular, with two copper rings on each side of the two long sides. There are three groups of two groups of wood carved snakes on the board, each group of snakes tailed together, snakes curled around, looking up, looking at each other, looking at each other. Two tigers are embossed, two tigers are turned back, and four feet are stepped on the snake's body. The tiger crouched down, raised its head and opened its mouth, and the tiger's tail was high, making a manifest roar. Two phoenix birds are embossed, with their backs turned, stepping on the back of the tiger, stretching their necks high, and singing. The whole seems to express the realm of "tiger roaring and phoenixing". This is the most beautifully shaped Tiger Bird Drum ever seen.
What is this artifact for? According to reports, the drum was an important percussion instrument in ancient times. "Mencius Liang Huiwang" Zhao Qi's note: "Music is based on drums as a festival." Kong Yingdashu of the Book of Rites and Learning: "If there is no drum in five sounds, there is no harmonic knot." "The use of large drums and small drums in ancient music performances has been mentioned many times in the literature. The big drum has the name of the drum and the hanging drum, which is used to control the rhythm of the whole music. The Chu state generally used the Tiger Seat Bird Drum as a big drum. At present, there are dozens of tiger bird frame drums excavated in the Warring States Chu tombs in Hubei, Henan, Hunan and other places, generally from the tombs of the nobles of the Chu state, which is a typical artifact of Chu culture.
Changyang unearthed tiger buttons
Tiger-shaped jade pendant
In addition, the Hubei Provincial Museum also has national first-class cultural relics, unearthed in the Western Han Dynasty tiger button in Changyang, Hubei Province, the "tiger" at the top of the cultural relics is thick and cute; the national first-class cultural relics, unearthed in the Spring and Autumn Period of suizhou drum dun, the tiger phoenix pattern jade, tiger head phoenix tail, unique shape; national first-class cultural relics, unearthed in the Three Kingdoms period of the West Mountain of Echeng, celadon tiger is a drowning vessel, that is, what people call "night pot", the "night pot" is made into a tiger shape, ingenious, very cute. A celadon tiger figurine from the Southern Song Dynasty unearthed in Wangjiaqiao, Guhe, Luotian County, Hubei Province, a small tiger held by a person's hands, soft and cute to the point of being a bit like a cat.
Celadon tiger
Celadon tiger figurines
People use the tiger as a pillow and pray for the good wishes of being strong and brave
Green glazed standing tiger pillow
The Song Dynasty shadow glazed tiger pillow in the Wuhan Museum is also a typical tiger cultural relic. According to the staff of the Wuhan Museum, this Song Dynasty shadow blue glazed standing tiger pillow, the pillow surface is concave, oval, the lower sculpture of a tiger, the eyes are round, the head is right, the limbs are walking separately on the pedal, and there is an oval hole on the pedal. The glaze is not as good as the bottom, and the glaze is bluish green. The earliest tiger pillow seen in archaeological materials is a jade pillow with tiger-shaped jade pieces inlaid in the Xi'an Wenjing period excavated from the Han Tomb of Lion Mountain in Xuzhou, Jiangsu Province. The shadow blue glazed standing tiger pillow is a sculptural tiger shaped pillow, which flourished in the Tang and Song dynasties, and occasionally appeared in the Jin Dynasty, and was basically missing after the Yuan Dynasty. Tiger culture is an extremely important part of traditional Chinese culture. It has long been revered as a symbol of power and strength. People use the tiger as a pillow and pray for the good wishes of being strong and brave.
The tigers painted by the painter are fierce, and the painter draws on Western painting techniques to be realistic
In addition to the "tiger" image in the excavated cultural relics, you can glimpse the aesthetics and emotions of the ancients. Literati and inkers of past generations also like to draw tigers, and compared with the cute tigers in cultural relics, the tigers in paintings are quite fierce.
Cheng Yaosheng double tiger shaft
Zhang Shanzi zi tigress axis
The "Cheng Yaosheng Double Tiger Axis" in the Hubei Provincial Museum was created by the modern painter Cheng Yaosheng (1869-1936). In his early years, he did not have a bonework method to work on flowers, and after middle age, he changed his technique and adopted the Western painting chiaroscuro method, paying attention to yin and yang to the back, and the image he made was real. Rewriting life, but without losing the charm of traditional pen and ink; "Zhang Shanzi Zi Tigress Axis", created by Zhang Shanzi (1882-1940), he is a modern famous painter, Zhang Daqian's second brother, a master of painting tigers; "Xu Zhuxian Painting Tiger Doufang" was created by Xu Zhuxian (1872-1928), who was called Nanjing Sanxu together with Xu Peng and Xu Pei. Landscapes, characters, flowers and birds are all-encompassing, deeply influenced by Shen Shitian and Chen Laolian, and have close contacts with He Shisun, Wu Changshuo, and Cheng Yaosheng; as well as the "Tang Wenxuan "Tiger" Axis" that hubei people are familiar with, Tang Wenxuan (1925-2009) Hubei Xiao touching people, studied under Zhang Zhaoming, Zhang Zhenduo, Wang Xiazhou, graduated from Wuchang Art College in 1949, one of the four elders of Hubei.
Xu Zhuxian paints Tiger Fighting Fang
Tang Wenxuan "Tiger" axis
Although the tiger in reality is brutal, the tiger in the zodiac culture is full of auspicious meanings
What is the origin of the "Year of the Tiger"? What symbolic significance did the ancients give to the tiger? Why are the tigers in ancient artifacts so simple and cute? Chutian Metropolis Daily Jimu News reporter interviewed Cai Lei, a doctor of folklore and associate professor of the School of Sociology of Wuhan University, who introduced to reporters: The term "Year of the Tiger" originates from the traditional zodiac chronology, and people use twelve kinds of animals such as rats, cows, tigers, rabbits, dragons, snakes, horses, sheep, monkeys, chickens, dogs, and pigs to date the year, and also use them to date the moon and the day. These twelve animals are matched with the twelve earth branches to form the genus of sub-rats, ugly cows, Yin tigers, 卯 rabbits, Chenlong, 巳 snakes, noon horses, wei sheep, Shen monkeys, unitary chickens, dogs, and hai pigs. According to scholars, the zodiac chronicle was formed in the pre-Qin period at the latest.
The tiger ranks third in the zodiac, from 3:00 a.m. to 5:00 a.m. is Yinshi, when the tiger wanders and forages, the most ferocious, so it is called "Yin Tiger". There is also folklore that the order of the zodiac is selected by the Jade Emperor. Some scholars have also verified that the zodiac order is based on the twenty-eight star sequence.
Although the tiger in reality is brutal, the tiger in the zodiac culture is full of auspicious meanings. As the "king of the hundred beasts", the tiger is a symbol of power and majesty, and the token used in ancient times for dispatching troops is called "tiger symbol" because it is engraved with the image of the tiger. The shangshan tiger in the Chinese painting also symbolizes glory and wealth, and rises step by step. The tiger also represents majesty, bravery and strength, heroic and good soldiers are often called "tiger generals", Xiong Haojie is known as the dragon and tiger, and the folk customs of choosing luck often use the dragon and tiger day as an auspicious day. The bravery and majesty of the tiger give the tiger a powerful function of eliminating evil spirits. Folk people often use tiger paintings, tiger carvings, tiger rings and various tiger-shaped ornaments to come to the town house. The tiger head hat, tiger head shoes and tiger head pillow in folk costumes mean to drive away evil spirits and avoid disasters, auspicious and peaceful. Customs such as shearing and hanging Ai hu in the Dragon Boat Festival are also used to avoid evil spirits.
Shang Zhou ritual vessels became more and more exquisite, and many tiger-patterned or tiger-shaped bronzes appeared, and tiger-shaped jade was also used as one of the six instruments, which was given the meaning of "ceremony" and "virtue". Tiger patterns appear in large quantities in utensils, carvings, buildings and jade, reflecting the tiger worship psychology of the ancestors. The tiger was alienated and became an object of worship and a totem for many peoples. In folk belief, the tiger is regarded as one of the four gods, becoming the mount of many gods and one of the accompanying gods in the temple.
Tiger culture has a long history of development, with a distinct regional style. The white tiger in Chu culture worships the spirit of shangwu, making the tiger an important image in Chu art. Compared with the sacred and aristocratic atmosphere of the dragon and phoenix, the image of the tiger is more secular, so the image of the tiger in folk artifacts has developed a simple and cute style.
Other artifact images:
Tiger Cannibal Bronze Carriage Age: Two weeks ago unearthed at the GuoJia Temple in Zaoyang
Gold and silver alloy tiger ornament Age: Two weeks ago excavated in Zaoyang Guo family temple Caomen Bay
Tiger Button Was Unearthed in the Fifth Group of Xiangjiayuan Village, Rolling Dragon Dam, Enshi Cuiba Town, during the Warring States Period
Celadon tiger-shaped socket Age: Three Kingdoms Period Excavated from Echeng Zhujia'an
Red Pottery Twelve Hours Figurines (Tiger Figurines) Age: Tang Dynasty Excavated from Wuchang Bowl Mountain