The tiger is one of the important motifs in bronze modeling, not only independent bronze tiger sculptures, but also tiger ornaments, tiger shaped vessels and tiger ornaments. The tiger shape in bronze is more often found on ceremonial vessels, bronze weapons and car tools, and its function and meaning have evolved from mysterious religious functions to symbolic functions. In the Year of the Tiger, The Paper combed through the collections of bronze tiger cultural relics such as the Palace Museum on both sides of the strait, the National Museum of China, the Jiangxi Provincial Museum, the Yunnan Provincial Museum, and the Sanxingdui Site Museum.
The tiger shape in the YinShang bronze ware appears more on the ceremonial vessel, conveying a mysterious and terrifying atmosphere, especially the bronze ornamentation with the theme of "tiger cannibalism", which shows a mysterious primitive religious meaning.
During the Western Zhou Dynasty, bronze ware developed towards ceremonial systematization, the religious function of ornamentation gradually weakened, and the representative food pattern also evolved to decorative, so the tiger shape also appeared in large quantities on bronze weapons and vehicles, and its function and meaning also changed, from the mysterious religious function to the rational symbolic function of the mighty enemy.
During the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period, the Zhou royal family lost its dominance, the ceremonies collapsed, and the bronzes of the various princely states began to break through the etiquette norms of the Western Zhou Dynasty, highlighting the regional characteristics on the basis of the Shang and Zhou bronzes, and the tiger shape also showed the artistic characteristics of freedom and romance to a certain extent.
The Paper combed through the collections of bronze tiger cultural relics such as the Palace Museum, the National Palace Museum in Taipei, the National Museum of China, the Shanxi Museum, the Jiangxi Museum, the Yunnan Provincial Museum, the Jinsha Site Museum, the Sanxingdui Site Museum, and the Chongqing Three Gorges Museum.
Among them, the remains of The Jiangxi Xingan bronze ware are another major archaeological discovery after the Yin Ruins in Anyang, Henan, and the Sanxingdui in Guanghan, Sichuan, and the treasure of the Jiangxi Provincial Museum and Town Hall, the "Fu bird double-tailed bronze tiger", is a representative artifact excavated from this southern bronze center, which can be called the "King of the Tiger"; the Bronze Cow and Tiger Case and the Tiger Deer Cow Copper Shell Vessel in the Yunnan Provincial Museum are also unique bronzes of the ancient Dian Kingdom, representing a regional culture; the academic circles are known as "Ba ren Shang Hu, Chu people revere phoenix", so the number of cultural relics with tiger elements unearthed in the Sichuan-Chongqing region is numerous The Jinsha Site Museum, Sanxingdui Ruins Museum and Chongqing Three Gorges Museum located in the southwest Bashu region also have a large number of bronze tiger cultural relics, such as the Sanxingdui Ruins Museum containing turquoise bronze tigers and bronze dragon and tiger statues, and the Chongqing Three Gorges Museum hiding the Warring States Tiger Button And so on.
Bronze Tiger Sculpture
Shangfu bird double-tailed bronze tiger Jiangxi Provincial Museum collection Excavation of Oceania Shang Tomb in Xingan County, Jiangxi
This Shang Dynasty double-tailed bronze tiger is the treasure of the Jiangxi Provincial Museum, excavated in September 1989 in Oceania, Xingan County, Jiangxi Province, as the largest surviving pre-Qin bronze tiger, the king of the tiger, with strong regional characteristics. Its appearance reveals the mighty and bravery of the tiger, and inside it hides the spirit of cunning and immortality, which shows the divinity of the tiger and the admiration of the tiger to the extreme.
Although this tiger looks very good, it does not lose its mighty and courageous wind, and its posture is ready to be launched, showing the domineering image of the king. The tiger queen has two tails, contrary to natural common sense, I wonder why the ancestors of The new Oceania had this novel idea, is it simply for the sake of design beauty? Or is there something else mysterious about it? On the back of the tiger lies quietly a small bird, raising its neck, leisurely, and the fierce insect under it forms a sharp contrast between movement and stillness, strong and weak, large and small, a little black humor. Although the bird is small, it is completely unafraid of the majesty of the tiger, like the master of the tiger, quite a philosophical meaning of soft kegang.
Jiangxi Xingan bronze remains are another major archaeological discovery after the Henan Anyang Yin Ruins, Sichuan Guanghan Sanxingdui, the excavated bronzes show that it is not only influenced by the Central Plains bronze culture, but also show strong local characteristics, decorated on the annex of the tiger shape and tiger-shaped ornamentation, showing that its cultural attributes are very different from the Central Plains Yin Shang culture, indicating that the Shang Dynasty Ganjiang River Basin had an indigenous bronze culture that developed in parallel with the Central Plains Yin Shang culture. In particular, there are some rare artifacts and ornaments in the past archaeological relics, such as tiger shapes and tiger-shaped ornaments, which can be described as unique and refreshing.
Bronze tiger ornament
Western Zhou Teng Hugui Collection of the Palace Museum
Western Zhou Tiger-shaped palladium Collection of the Palace Museum
The palladium is oval in shape, flat in mouth, and has a semi-circular button on the "dance". The button is decorated with cloud patterns, the two sides of the body are decorated with animal face patterns, there are narrow and long lace edges in the middle, the upper part of the mouth is decorated with circular swirls and petal patterns, and the two tigers are decorated on both sides of the cadmium, and the image of the four tigers is not realistic but patterned, reflecting the mythology of the bronze ornamentation at that time. This cadmium is indeed a very rare material for the study of Western Zhou bronze ornamentation and ancient plastic arts.
The palladium and the bell are both percussion instruments, appearing in the middle of the Western Zhou Dynasty, later than the Yong bell. This pendant is not only uniquely decorated, but also an early bronze pendant.
Western Zhou Hu as Zhong Collection of the Palace Museum
Western Zhou Tiger Pattern Ding Collection of the Palace Museum
Western Zhou Bronze Tiger Lock Collection of the National Museum of China
The bronze tiger hammer (yíng) is a bronze artifact of the late Western Zhou Dynasty. "鎣" has the meaning of light and beauty, "鎣" is a different name for "盉" (hé), like other bronzes, it was generally used as a ceremonial vessel for sacrifice in the Shang and Zhou Dynasties, and the late Western Zhou Dynasty was mainly used for the practical water vessel of "Wo Li" in rituals such as sacrifices and feasts. The inscription on The 4 characters of the inscription: "Zi Cha (Zuo) □ (鎣)", and the third character is questionable in interpretation. Due to the tiger-shaped ornamentation of the lid and the flow section, the "tiger hammer" got its name. Square lips, short corset neck, wide folded shoulders, circular bottom, foot root decoration, lower abdomen decorated with tile patterns, upper abdomen decorated with horizontal S-shaped oblique cloud patterns, the shape of the fuhu on it is exquisite... Illuminated by the light, bronze "radiates a mysterious, noble light."
Originally from the qing palace collection, the "Tiger Lock" was looted by the British officer Harry Evans in 1860 and collected by his family. In March 2018, when the news came out that the "Tiger Lock" was about to be auctioned in the Uk, the State Administration of Cultural Heritage immediately carried out multi-faceted work to promote the "Tiger Lock" to return to the motherland and enter the National Museum of China.
Spring and Autumn Tiger Head Zao In 1988, the tomb of Zhao Qing in Jinsheng Village, Taiyuan City, was excavated from the collection of the Shanxi Bronze Museum
Bronze tiger ornament weapon
Shang Hu ornament dagger in the collection of the Shanxi Museum
Tiger ornament dagger shaped vessel, belonging to the Cultural Relics of the Shang and Zhou Dynasties, 4.6 cm wide Excavated from the Peach Blossom In Shilou County in 1959. A tiger with a large head and a long tail, a front of the object, and the tiger's eyes are embedded in turquoise.
Spring and Autumn Tiger Eagles Fight Each Other In the Collection of the Shanxi Bronze Museum
Tiger eagles fight each other, in 1988, Taiyuan City, Jinsheng Village Zhao Qing tomb excavation, the upper part of the bronze and the inner upper eagle a fierce tiger to strangle the eagle, the tiger opened its mouth, curled tail, the front paws grasped the eagle's tail, the back paws strangled the eagle's head, the eagle extended its neck and tail, fighting hard, forming a tense and fierce, lifelike tiger eagle fighting map.
Warring States Tiger Pattern Sword Collection of the National Palace Museum in Taipei
Warring States Tiger Pattern Sword (partial) Collection of the National Palace Museum in Taipei
The upper part is slightly wider and the lower part is slightly wider, the middle ridge is slightly thicker, which is the body of the sword; the handle is not terminated, and the hilt is cylindrical, and the stem has two convex hoops. The sword is decorated with a tiger pattern with a shaded line pattern.
Tiger Rune
Since ancient times, the ancestors have known the tiger, the majestic and mighty king of nature, and have a reverence and worship for it, which has become an important element of ancient ceremonial tools and weapons. The Tiger Charm is a representative cultural relic. Tiger symbol is the ancient transfer of troops, divided into two halves, the central and the commander each hold half, when the dispatch of the army needs to hold the spell to check the right, completely integrated to send troops, this system of sending troops originated in the Spring and Autumn Warring States period.
Qin DuHu Bing Fu Collection of Shaanxi History Museum
This Qin Duhu Soldier Charm was cast during the reign of King Huiwen of Qin (356-311 BC). In 1975, it was excavated from the village of North Shenjiaqiao in the southern suburbs of Xi'an City, Shaanxi Province.
This symbol is made of a standing tiger shape, the tiger stands tall and tailed, as a trend, there is a groove on the back of the instrument, and there is a small hole in the neck of the tiger. It has a wrong gold text of 9 lines and 40 words, and its inscription reads: "The rune of the armor, the right is the king, the left is in Du, the fan Xingshi is armored, the soldier is more than fifty, he will meet the king's rune, but he dares to do it, and the thing that burns the tunnel, although he will not be able to do it." "Most of the inscriptions on this rune are small seals, the font is thin and powerful, and the inscription clearly records the use of the tiger rune, so it has precious historical relics value."
Western Han Dynasty Wrong Silver "Marquis of Tangyang" Tiger Charm
The Western Han Dynasty "Tangyang Hou" tiger symbol in the Collection of the National Museum is a first-class cultural relic. The tiger charm is almost perfectly preserved, with a neat silver inscription on the back, a clear cross-section, and the left and right pieces can still be opened and closed as they did more than 2,000 years ago. Although the height of the pass is only 2.5 cm, the length is 7.9 cm, and the little tiger cultural relics carry the military and state events of ancient China.
Han Bronze Tiger Charm Collection of the Metropolitan Museum of Art
Wei Three Cities Protector Tiger Charm Collection of the Palace Museum in Beijing
Warring States Wang Ordered the Tiger Festival in the collection of the Palace Museum in Beijing
King's Order of the Tiger Festival, Warring States, height 10.7 cm, width 15.7 cm. The tiger's body is flattened and tiger-shaped, with its head held high and its long tail bent from the hips to the back of the spine. One side is inscribed with an inscription of 5 characters: "King's Order, Destiny Transmission (Ren)." "The inscription indicates that the bearer of the Tiger Festival bears the king's order, and the station he passes through is responsible for reception.
The Tiger Festival is evidence that the messenger can get food and lodging by traveling far. The post station was a place of temporary rest and accommodation in ancient times for the transmission of documents, official travel and transportation. This section of the tiger is cast in full shape, light and elegant.
Warring States Tiger Charm Collection of the Palace Museum in Beijing
Tiger Rune, Sengoku, length 8.1 cm, width 3.9 cm. The spell is crouching tiger-shaped, with its head held high and its tail rolled up. The surface of the tiger body is inscribed with 10 words: "The Letter Festival of the Doctor, the Mound and the Paper, Expensive". "Zuo Chuan Zhao A.D. Year" "Zi Zhi Zi Nan Yue: Zi Hao Shang Dafu, Female Concubine Dafu, and Fu Xiazhi, not honorable also." "Chinese Wu Language" "Ten lines and one doctor, jianjing drum, and the scripture bingzhi". Wei Zhao's note: "Xiao, the next doctor also." It was known that in the Spring and Autumn Period, there was already an official of "Dafu Dafu", whose status was equivalent to that of "Lower Dafu", who was responsible for building flags and drumming in the army. "嬖" is a homophonic pseudo-loan word for "嬖".
Warring States Tiger-shaped Temple, Beijing Palace Museum collection
Tiger-shaped town
Before the Qin and Han dynasties, the main way of living was to "sit on the ground". In order to avoid folding the corners of the seat or worrying about the clothes when getting up and sitting down, thus affecting the manners, there is a seat town, that is, the weight of the four corners of the seat.
There is also a saying that before the common use of tables and chairs, people sit on the floor, and the four corners of the seat need to have a pressed object to avoid blowing and lifting.
In the Warring States and Han tombs, there are often four groups of copper beast towns excavated, that is, with this kind of seat town function, which is the most prosperous in the Han Dynasty. After the Song Dynasty, the literati often took the animal-shaped town for paperweight.
Han Copper Gilded Tiger Town Collection of the National Palace Museum in Taipei
This is the bronze gilded tiger-shaped town of the National Palace Museum in Taipei, the tiger limbs are raised, the body is flexed like a ball, the overall shape is similar to the hemisphere, and the details are simply outlined with lines, and the shape is round and cute. Two front paws are slightly exposed under the tiger's head, the tiger's kiss is symbolized by a groove, the two cheeks are bulging, the tiger's whiskers and hair are carved in thin lines, the eye tips are deep and long, there is a pair of pointed ears on the forehead, from the end of the nose there is a groove connected to the spine to the tail end, and a diagonal line is also carved along the groove to symbolize its hair.
Western Han Dynasty Gilded Tiger Town, Shanghai Museum Collection
The Shanghai Museum's collection of western Han gilded tiger towns is in the shape of a roll,around the body, with a tabby pattern engraved on the body, a collar on the neck of the tiger, decorated with shells, and a semi-circular ring near the back of the head. The tiger is filled with lead to make it more stable, and the whole apparatus weighs 3600 grams.
Tiger ornament bronze artifacts
Warring States Bronze Cow and Tiger Case Collection of Yunnan Provincial Museum
This bronze case is a ritual vessel made of bronze materials from the ancient Dian and Warring States periods, and its shape is skillfully combined by two cattle and one tiger. With a strong bull as the main body, the four feet of the cow as the case foot, the back of the ox with a reverse bow as the oval disk surface, a fierce tiger pounces on the ox's tail, and the four claws stomp on the cow's body to bite the ox's tail, and the tiger looks at the case plate. A leisurely calf stands under the belly of the big cow, and the head and tail are slightly exposed outside the belly of the big cow, which means that the big cow sacrifices its protection for the calf. The large bull neck muscle in the bull tiger copper case is abundant, and the two giant horns are stretched forward, giving people a sense of forward shifting and shaking of the center of gravity, but the tiger at the tail end leans back, and the backward falling force restores the balance of the case. The calf placed horizontally under the belly of the large cow enhances the sense of stability of the case. Its strange shape and novel conception not only have the characteristics of the four-legged case in the Central Plains, but also have strong local characteristics and national styles, this copper case has reached a very high artistic realm, has great artistic appreciation value, and is a masterpiece of Chinese bronze art.
Warring States Tiger deer cattle copper shell vessel Collection of Yunnan Provincial Museum
Warring States Tiger deer cattle copper shell vessel (partial) Yunnan Provincial Museum collection
Shell vessels are bronze vessels unique to the Yunnan Kingdom. It is named after the shells that were found in the excavations. The Dian people stored the shells in bronze vessels. Shells, in the lives of the Dian people, were equated with wealth, either stored or locally used as general equivalents for the exchange of livestock, metals, slaves, precious stones, etc.
The top of this shell vessel presents a fierce and unusual battle scene. In the center was a large bull, wide-eyed, threatening the tiger in front of it. Around the cattle, there are also three fawns around. The tiger, on the other hand, followed three deer, as if it were about to pounce on it at any moment.
This wrap-around design creates a repetitive, continuous sense of movement, which some scholars believe originated from the sacrifices of the ancients.
Western Han Dynasty Gilded Hu Fu Copper Warm Wine Bottle Unearthed in Dachuan Village, Youyu County, Shanxi Province, Shanxi Museum Collection
Unearthed in 1962 in Dachuan Village, Youyu County, the Hufu Wen Wine Bottle is decorated with two layers of relief animal patterns on the abdomen, including more than ten kinds of mythical animals such as tigers, sheep, camels, cattle, monkeys, dragons and phoenixes. The inscription along the mouth of the instrument and the mouth of the lid zizi reads: "Zhongling Hu Fu Copper Warm Wine Bottle, weighing twenty-four pounds, made in the third year of Heping (26 BC)". The shape of the instrument is upright and generous, the ornamentation is exquisite, and the animal image is realistic. The vessel has the characteristics of the northern grassland culture, but also does not lose the elegant style of the Central Plains, and is a model of bronze art and technology in the Han Dynasty.
Han Dragon and Tiger Pattern Flat Pot Collection of the National Palace Museum in Taipei
Open mouth, corset neck, flat oval abdomen, trapezoidal circle foot. On both sides are the animal face rings, tied with chains, one side of the abdomen is in the shape of a dragon, the other side is in the shape of a tiger, and a god and man stand on the back of the tiger.
Warring States Tiger Button is in the collection of the Three Gorges Museum of China, Chongqing
It is an ancient percussion instrument, which began in the Spring and Autumn Period, flourished from the Warring States to the early Western Han Dynasty, and was found in the Yangtze River Basin and South China and Southwest China, of which the Most Concentrated in the Homeland of the Ba people has become the most characteristic bronze instrument of the Ba culture.
This piece of hammer belongs to the late Warring States period, its whole body is complete, the sound quality is excellent, the shape is thick, the shape is extra-large, and it has the reputation of "Hammer in the King". The upper button is in the shape of a tiger, lifelike, not angry and threatening, and the tiger's leg depicts the characteristics of the god with a swirl, which is another important example of the worship of the Ba people and the tiger. Around the tiger button, there are five sets of "pictorial languages": the face of the vertebrate, the drumming and canoe of the feather, the fish and the hook cloud pattern, the palm pattern, the sacred bird and the persimmon pattern. These pictorial languages are extremely important materials for the study of Pakistani culture, among which the drumming and canoe of the feather people have been selected as the central pattern of the reliefs on the outer wall of the China Three Gorges Museum in Chongqing.
Han Hu Niu is in the collection of the Palace Museum in Beijing
Tiger-shaped trim
Western Zhou Tiger-shaped ornaments collected by the Palace Museum in Beijing
Inlaid turquoise bronze tiger Sanxingdui Museum collection
The length of the stump is 43.4 cm and the width is 13.05 cm. The bronze tiger giant stands with ears, opens its mouth and teeth, looks up with anger, the tiger's tail is dragged down, the tail tip is curled, one side of the micro-arch is semi-embossed, the light is unprinted, and the other side is cast with tabby grooves, and the groove is filled with small square turquoise inlays. The front and back leg arches of the copper tiger have half-ring buttons, which should be used to wear rope or copper wire, which is vivid. It not only shows that the Shu people observe the tiger quite carefully, but also the example of "Shu people still tiger".
Han Eagle Tiger Pattern Ornament Collection of the Palace Museum in Beijing
Han Tiger Bites Sheep Bronze Plaque Collection of the Palace Museum
Western Han Dynasty Tiger Sheep's Head Bronze Plate Collection of Datong City Museum
Tiger-striped copper mirror
Wei Jin Dragon and Tiger Mirror Collection of the National Palace Museum in Taipei
Round mirror, hemispherical button, round button holder. The relief dragon and tiger face each other, hugging the button seat. The main ornamental area has three circles of stripes such as thin line castor, serrated stripe and corrugated stripe. Triangular bevel.
Tang Tiger Pattern Square Mirror Collection of the Palace Museum