The Year of the Tiger is coming soon. Because of the bravery and strength of the tiger, the ancients were very afraid of it and regarded it as the king of the hundred beasts. The Shuowen Jiezi said, "Tiger, the king of the mountain beasts." The Customs and Customs ritual also says: "The tiger, the yang, the chief of the hundred beasts." Can fight and frustrate, eat ghosts. At the same time, the tiger was given a symbol of heroism, power, ward off evil spirits, and auspiciousness. So, what did archaeology find out about the earliest tiger worship on the mainland?
The earliest tiger-shaped artifacts
Floor plan of the M45 tomb mussel on the west water slope of Puyang, Henan. Source: Cultural Relics Magazine, No. 3, 1988
In August 1987, archaeologists made a surprising discovery in the burial chamber during the excavation of the M45 tomb at the Xishuipo site in Puyang, Henan Province.
In the middle of the tomb is the skeleton of the male tomb owner, and on the left and right sides of the tomb owner's skeleton, there is a set of dragon and tiger patterns placed with mussel shells. Among them, the right side of the human bone is a dragon pattern, the head of the dragon faces north, the back faces west, the body length is 1.78 meters, the height is 0.67 meters, and the head is raised, the neck is curved, the body is bowed, and the take-off is shaped. The left side of the human bone is a tiger pattern, the head of the tiger faces north, the back faces east, the body length is 1.39 meters, the height is 0.63 meters, and it is staring, opening the mouth, hanging tail, and walking. To the west and north of the tiger motif, there are also two mussel shells. The mussel shell on the west side is more chaotic, the mussel shell on the north side is a triangle, and two human tibias have been found on the east side of the mussel shell.
After the discovery of the first group of mussel sculptures, archaeologists found two other groups of mussel sculptures.
The second group of mussel sculptures is located in a shallow crypt 20 meters south of the M45 burial chamber, with patterns of dragons, tigers, deer and spiders; of which the dragon head faces south and the back faces north; the tiger's head faces north, faces west, and the back faces east, and the dragon and tiger are united, the deer lies on the tiger's back, and the spider is east of the dragon's head. The third group of mussel sculptures is located in a gray ditch 20 meters south of the second group of mussel sculptures, with people riding dragons and tigers; the dragon head faces east and the back faces north; the tiger is north of the dragon, with its head facing west and its back facing south. In addition, some mussel shells are placed around the dragon and tiger, and the western mussels are shaped like birds, and the other three sides are round.
Archaeologists believe that the Xishuipo site includes the Neolithic Yangshao, Longshan and Eastern Zhou and Han Dynasties sites, of which the tombs where these three groups of mussel sculptures are located belong to the early Yangshao cultural sites, dating back more than 6,000 years, 2,000 years before the establishment of the Xia Dynasty. The clam-shaped dragon here is not only a unique discovery in archaeological sites, but also the earliest dragon-shaped artifact found in the age of discovery. Because the dragon has a unique symbolic significance in Chinese culture, scholars have paid attention to the clam dragons here, especially the first group of clams, calling them the "first dragons in China".
In fact, the mussel sculpture tiger is also the earliest tiger-shaped cultural relics found in the age. Then, naturally, it can also be called "China's first tiger". Moreover, the "First Tiger of China" and the "First Dragon of China" are located on the left and right of the tomb owner; in these other three groups of mussel sculptures, dragons and tigers also appear. It can be seen that in the hearts of people at that time, the tiger and the dragon should be rival and inseparable divine beasts.
So, why did the ancients put up the mysterious "China's First Dragon" and "China's First Tiger" patterns?
The connotation of "China's first tiger"
Lacquer box lid for the tomb of Marquis Yi of Zeng
Mr. Feng Shi, an astronomerologist, pointed out that the first set of mussel sculptures is actually an astronomical pattern. To the east of the tomb owner's skeleton is the clam plastic dragon, and to the west is the clam plastic tiger, which is actually the prototype of the "four elephants" in later generations. The "four elephants", including the Eastern Green Dragon, the Western White Tiger, the Southern Suzaku and the Northern Xuanwu, originate from the ancients' division of the Twenty-Eight Stars into four major regions, each with seven stars. So, why are there only dragons and tigers at the Xishuipo site? The more likely answer is that at that time, the ancients attached the most importance to the East and the West, and the Twenty-Eight Stars only had the distinction between the Eastern Green Dragon and the Western White Tiger.
What can be confirmed is that in the early years of the Warring States, the tomb of Marquis Yi of Zeng unearthed a lacquered wooden coat box cover, which wrote the names of the twenty-eight stars and the name of the Big Dipper. In addition, a dragon is drawn on the east side of the pattern, a tiger is drawn on the west side of the pattern, and there is also no suzaku and xuanwu. Moreover, the triangular mussel sculptures and two human bones in the first group of mussel sculptures at the Xishuipo site should actually symbolize the bucket spoon and bucket handle of the Big Dipper. In this way, it can be found that the pattern of this lacquered wooden coat box cover is the same as the pattern reflected in the first group of mussel sculptures, which can indicate that the system of the ancient twenty-eight stars on the mainland has been prototyped as early as six thousand years ago.
In addition, the first set of mussel sculptures of M45 tombs excavated at the Xishuipo site is shaped like a human head, rounding the north and south; and the skeleton of the tomb owner is also placed in the north of the first south foot. Such a setting is definitely not accidental, and it is likely to be related to the "Gaitian Theory" of the heavenly circle place in the concept of the ancients, and the ancients took the head as the southern heaven and the foot as the northern territory. This can be inferred that the "Gaitian theory" may have originated as early as six thousand years ago.
These three groups of mussel sculptures have dragon and tiger motifs, and the second group of mussel sculptures also has deer motifs, and historian Zhang Guangzhi believes that the dragons, tigers, and deer here are actually Taoist "qiāo". The so-called "three cripples" is a concept proposed in Ge Hong's "Baopuzi" of the Eastern Jin Dynasty. "Baopuzi" said: "If you can take advantage of the trampling, you can flow around the world, regardless of the three rivers." There are three methods for all the way, one is the dragon, the second is the tiger, and the third is the deer. The "Taishang Dengzhen Three Corrections Spiritual Response Sutra" also says: "Those who have three corrections (蹻) scriptures, the upper ones are dragon corrections, the middle ones are tiger corrections, and the lower ones are deer corrections." It can be seen that the "three hooves" are the ascent techniques of riding three different animals.
In the third group of mussel sculptures, there is exactly one person riding on the dragon. The prototype of this person should be the owner of the M45 tomb, which is also a leader or priest of the Xishuipo site. However, the mussel deer pattern is in the second group of mussel sculptures, which may not be juxtaposed with dragons and tigers at that time and classified as one of the "three stalks". But at least it can be considered that there is probably already a concept of "two poles". Early Taoism absorbed a lot of primitive witchcraft, and the discovery of the third group of mussel sculptures shows that the concept of "three stalks" can also be traced back to 6,000 years ago. Chinese culture has a long history, and archaeological discoveries provide the most intuitive and credible evidence, which has to be amazing.
It is worth mentioning that the second group of mussel sculptures of dragons, tigers, deer and spiders, some scholars believe that it should be dragons, tigers, unicorns and birds, and further pointed out that this is the early "four elephants" pattern. However, these four patterns do not coincide with the four directions, and only the dragon and tiger appear in the other two groups of mussel sculptures. It can be seen that the importance of deer (unicorn) and spider (bird) cannot be compared with dragons and tigers. Therefore, at present, it should be cautious to identify this group of mussel sculptures as the prototype of the "four elephants". As for what the connotation of the second group of mussel sculptures is, further research is needed.
The "tiger god" harvest in the pre-Qin period
Entering the Warring States period, a relatively perfect theory of "four elephants" began to be available. In the latest tsinghua university Tibetan warring states bamboo jane "Five Ages", it is mentioned that "East Weilong, Southern Wei Bird, West Wei Tiger, Northern Wei Snake", the four images began to correspond to the four directions, but also corresponded to the seasons, colors, and five elements. Among them, the tiger corresponds to the West, autumn, white, and gold, and the western god of the Spring and Autumn Warring States period is called "rù harvest", according to the "Chinese Jin Language", it is the image of a human face, white hair, tiger claw, and clinging to the qi. Because Qiu Wei si Kou was in charge of punishment, Gong Harvest was also in charge of punishment in Heaven.
In the Classic of Mountains and Seas and the Classic of the Western Mountains, there is a record of harvest. It lives on top of the Mountain, also known as the Red Light of the Gods, and looks like a tiger with a human face, a snake hanging from its ears, and a clinging to a cymbal in its hands. The Overseas Western Classics also record the image of the harvest, saying that it has a snake coiled around its left ear and two dragons on its mount. "Chu Ci Da Zhao" says that there are gods and monsters in the West with pig-like heads, straight eyes, scattered hair, long claws, saw-like teeth, and crazy laughter, which probably refers to harvest. The "Zuo Biao" says that Shao Hao had four descendants, among whom he should have become the god of harvest. Shao Hao is also considered a Western god, and Harvest has become Shao Hao's assistant.
There is also an interesting story about the harvest. According to the Chinese Jin Language, in the early Spring and Autumn Period, the monarch of the guó state (present-day Sanmenxia, Henan) dreamed that in the Zongmiao Temple, there was a god with white hair and tiger claws, holding an axe and a palladium standing under the eaves of the western roof. Yu Gong was frightened and fled. The god said, "Don't go! Heaven commands that the Kingdom of Jin be allowed to enter your kingdom. Gong Yu immediately knelt down and prostrated his head. After waking up from the dream, he summoned the historian Shi Shi (yín) and asked him to divinate the auspiciousness of the dream. Shi Wei said, "If it is as you describe, then this god is the god of the West, who is in charge of punishment in heaven, and the commands of heaven are all done by God!" In other words, this dream indicates that heaven is going to send a harvest to destroy the kingdom.
Enraged, Duke Yu ordered Shi Di to be imprisoned and ordered the people of his country to congratulate him. In the view of Duke Yu, when the State of Jin entered the gate of the State of Yu, did not mean that the State of Jin would be annexed by the State of Yu? So, he thought it was an auspicious dream. When the doctor, Zhou Zhiqiao, heard about it, he told his people, "Instead of seriously considering God's will, the monarch asked the people of the country to congratulate him. He thinks that his dream is auspicious, so the luxury will become even more intense! I can't bear to see the country perish! So he led his people to defect to the Jin Dynasty.
Six years later, there was an incident of "false road cutting", and the Jin state really destroyed the state of Yu.
Interestingly, the word "虢" is also related to the word "tiger". The word "虢" in the oracle bone is changed from "tiger" to "ge", which means to hunt the tiger with ge, and later written as "虢", which means to fight the tiger with bare hands. In any case, "虢" means that it can fight tigers, and the name of the country is "虢", reflecting its tradition of good martial arts. The state of Yu was founded by the younger brother of King Wen of Zhou, and the state of Western Zhou was relatively strong, and it was able to defeat foreign enemies repeatedly in the early Spring and Autumn Period, and even the State of Jin suffered a lot of hardships from the state of Yu, but it also declined due to poor military force. In the end, the Heavenly Emperor sent the "Tiger God" who was the counterpart of "Yu" to announce the demise of the Kingdom of Yu, and it had to be said that the story design was extremely clever.
Text/Hayashi House Boy
Source/Beijing Evening News