This year is the Spring Festival of the Year of the Tiger, in traditional Chinese culture, the tiger is a symbol of bravery and strength, the ancients used the tiger to create a lot of idioms, such as: "tiger roaring wind life", "dragon soaring tiger leaping", "tiger tiger vitality". Why is the cultural status of the tiger so important?
Because since ancient times, in the relationship with nature, the ancients have known this large, gorgeous fur, majestic and powerful big cat - tiger, which has produced a sense of awe and admiration, and integrated into the history books and literary creations:
"The tiger is the yang, the chief of a hundred beasts." Can strike the dove-eater also. ——" The Book of Etiquette of the Later Han Dynasty
"The tiger drums and the birds return to the car, and the immortals are lined up like hemp." - "Sleepwalking in Heaven and Leaving Farewell"
In addition to the text, the tiger also appears in history as the shape and ornamentation of the utensils:
Bronze Tiger Hammer Western Zhou/Zhang Zijie
Bronze tiger hammer, folded shoulder jar belly, shaped like a teapot, the top is decorated with tiger patterns, and the lid is topped with a tiger body dragon tail beast, the overall shape is dignified and elegant, and the pattern is exquisite. Because its flow pipe is the shape of a Crouching Tiger, the top cover is also cast with the inscription "Self-made Offering", so it is called a tiger lock. According to experts, it is likely to be a ceremonial instrument used in the ritual ceremonies of the Western Zhou Dynasty. The ancients of the Shang and Zhou Dynasties attached importance to sacrifice, and the ritual vessels of the tiger image carried important religious significance.
This tiger lock was once a collection of the Imperial Garden of the Qing Dynasty, the Yuanmingyuan, and was exiled to a foreign country in the catastrophe of modern nationalities and cultures, and after more than a hundred years of wandering, under the efforts of many parties, it returned to the embrace of the motherland in 2018 and entered the National Museum of Tibet. The tiger lock embodies the profound historical and cultural feelings of the Chinese people and has important historical, artistic and cultural values.
Wrong silver "Marquis of Tangyang" Tiger Fu Western Han / Zhang Zijie
The tiger symbol is an ancient soldier transfer relic, divided into two halves, the monarch and the military general each hold half a symbol, when dispatching the army, the two halves of the tiger symbol must be put together, "in line" with the army. The tiger symbol in the picture, the back and ribs of the left and right half of the symbol have the same wrong silver seal inscription, the back is "with Tangyang Hou", and the rib is "Tiger Rune First", so we named it with the inscription "Tangyang Hou". "Marquis of Tangyang" was a title given to the hero Sun Chi by Emperor Liu Bang of Han Gao. The tiger charm is almost perfectly preserved, the section is clearly structured, and the left and right pieces can still be opened and closed as they were more than 2,000 years ago.
"Desert Cliff Milk Tiger Diagram" axis (partial) Qing Dynasty/National Museum of China
With the development of traditional Chinese art, painting gradually matured, and tigers were naturally loved by painters as a subject matter. However, because painting a tiger must be able to reflect the spirit of the tiger, so the requirements for skills are very high, and there is a folk proverb of "drawing a tiger is not an anti-dog". Ouyang Xiu wrote in the Guitian Record: "The People of Xuanzhou of the Bao Clan are famous for painting tigers, and Ding is the most wonderful. Today's descendants still have the business of painting tigers, and they have not been able to paint their beards", describing the difficulty of painting tigers. The most difficult to draw a tiger is the young tiger, which must reflect both the mighty strength of the tiger and the innocence of the young tiger, such as the milk tiger lying stretched out on the cliff in the painting, and the posture and eyes contain both the mighty tiger and the stubbornness of the young tiger, which can be described as a good product.
The "tigers" introduced today are all from the "Tiggo You'an - 2022 Chinese New Year Exhibition" held by the National Museum of China. In order to create a peaceful and festive New Year atmosphere, the exhibition uses the courtyard imagery in traditional Chinese architecture to express the concept of "home", uses red as the main color to render the atmosphere of the New Year, and uses the concept of five "doors" to imply the Five Blessings Linmen. In the exhibition hall, the sound of firecrackers, red lanterns, spring leagues, window flowers, New Year paintings, cloth tigers - the new year is rich in flavor and full of spring. Exhibits from the Shang Dynasty to the beginning of the 21st century, there are not only precious utensils with brilliant gold and jade, fine craftsmanship, but also the remains of the city with coarse pottery and gray tiles, simple and lovely, with rich categories, reflecting the long-standing and endless tiger culture of the Chinese nation from all aspects of culture.
Exhibition Poster / National Museum of China
In the Spring Festival of the Year of the Tiger, let us celebrate the arrival of the Year of the Tiger with the Tiger Lock, which was exhibited for the first time after returning to the embrace of the motherland.
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Author | Yang Yichen
Editor| Yang Yichen
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