In the history of China, no real animal has been active in our cultural life for thousands of years like a tiger. As the origin of the tiger, the mainland has had a special affection for the tiger since ancient times. From the earliest tiger totem worship and the ancient sorcery of using the tiger to the heavens, to the decorative art of tiger stripes derived from it, and then to the later nobles who took pleasure in fighting tigers and associated the tiger with military and war, and then integrated it into the Chinese mythological system and folk traditions as a help to the deceased to feather the immortals, as well as to drive away evil spirits and avoid evil and protect peace. It can be said that the tiger carries an extremely important part of the memory heritage of Chinese civilization.
Figure 1: Part of the Tomb of the Dragon and Tiger at the Yangshao Cultural Site on the West Water Slope of Puyang (left) and the projection of the stars it represents (right)
Figure 2: Lacquer box cover of the tomb of Marquis Yi of Zeng (green dragon on the left, white tiger on the right, Beidou in the center)
As early as about 2 million years ago, the ancestors of modern tigers have appeared on the land of China. In the Neolithic period, the tiger was one of the totems worshipped by ancient tribes. In the eyes of our ancestors, the tiger has a supreme position in the animal kingdom, and the Shuowen Jiezi says "the tiger, the king of the mountain beast", and the "Customs and Customs" says "the tiger, the chief of the hundred beasts". In the middle of the Yangshao culture of about 4400 BC, the ancestors living in the Central Plains, on the basis of observing the celestial signs, divided the four square stars centered on the Big Dipper into groups, and creatively corresponded to the general outline of each group of stars with the image of the sacred beasts worshipped at that time, so that the mussel sculpture dragon and tiger tomb (Figure 1) were produced, of which the dragon corresponded to the east and the tiger corresponded to the west, which was the oldest source of the later "left green dragon, right white tiger" (figure 2). In the Zhou Dynasty, the Zhou Li Chunguan Dazongbo recorded that during the sacrifice, "the West was worshipped with white amber", that is, the Tiger-shaped white jade was used to worship the West, which is probably also a continuation of this idea.
Figure 3: (Top left) Yin Ruins Houmu Peng Da Fang Ding Er, National Museum of China Collection; (Top right) Dragon and Tiger Pattern Bronze Statue, National Museum of China Collection; (Bottom left) Yin Ruins Women's Good Tomb Excavated Copper Cymbal, Chinese Academy of Social Sciences Institute of Archaeology Collection; (Bottom right) Tiger Cannibal Bronze Tablet, Collection of Izumiya Bogu Museum, Japan
The dragon and the tiger, as abstract images of the stars in the sky, represent the heavens in a sense, so the Heavenly Son who is arranged by the heavens to rule the world also carries the "dragon and tiger qi" on him. The "History of Xiang Yu Benji" records that Fan Zengren ordered people to show Liu Bang, "I am looking forward to it, all are dragons and tigers, into five cai, this Tianzi qi is also." As early as the Shang Dynasty, "dragon and tiger qi" was related to an ancient witchcraft at that time. In The Shang Dynasty bronzes, there is a decorative image of a tiger's mouth open and a human head appearing under or between the tiger's mouth (Figure 3), and Zhang Guangzhi points out in Art, Mythology and Sacrifice that "the image of the man on the artifact is nothing but a witch, symbolizing that he is completing the journey of communicating between the two worlds with the assistance of animals". According to the Zhou Yi Qiangua, "the cloud is from the dragon, the wind is from the tiger", the tiger can produce the wind, so he further believes that "(the tiger) opens its mouth into the wind to help the witch ascend", on this basis, combined with Chen Mengjia's view in "The Myth and Sorcery of the Shang Dynasty" that "the Shang king is sometimes the head of the witch", it can be speculated that the Shang king as a high priest is using the tiger to achieve the soul ascension to heaven and complete the dialogue with the heavens.
Figure 4: The image of a tiger ascending to heaven as a mount during the Eastern Zhou Dynasty
Figure 5: The image of the borrowed tiger ascending to heaven on the Bronze Wrong Gold Danglu of the Western Han Dynasty, collected by the Nanchang Han Dynasty Hai xiahouguo ruins museum
In the Eastern Zhou Dynasty, the tiger no longer used the "open mouth into the wind" way, but as a mount to help the soul ascend to heaven. This was exemplified in 1957 by the jade riding tiger pei unearthed in Xiaotun Village, a western suburb of Luoyang, Henan Province (Figure 4-Left), and not only in the Central Plains, but also in the Chu State in the south. The Chu people use the phoenix as a totem, and there are clouds in "Leaving the Sorrow", "Chao Fa is in Tianjin Xi, and Xi Yu reaches the western pole." The phoenix emperor is full of wings and wings that soar high", and the phoenix can fly straight into the sky and travel the world, but at the feet of the phoenix is the image of the Tenghu (Figure 4- right). In the Han Dynasty, the idea of ascending to heaven with tigers to help the undead continues, whether it is the tiger on The Danglu (Fig. 5) and the painting (Fig. 6) unearthed from the tombs of the Western Han nobles, or the "Dragon and Tiger Play" on the portrait bricks excavated from the tombs of the Eastern Han nobles (Figure 7). When the combination of the figurative tiger on Lu and the abstract multi-human face shape reflects a mysterious sense of the ascension of the soul; a pair of tigers looking back at the distance in the painting are holding up the platform of ascension to help the tomb owner ascend to the heavens; the dragon and tiger claws on the portrait brick are wrapped with ribbons symbolizing the heavenly jade bi ("Li Ji Zhengyi Vol. 25" quotes Zheng Zhu "Zongbo" Cloud, "Biyuan Elephant Heaven"), guiding the tomb owner's undead spirit to the Taoist Immortal Realm, and even seeing the Western Queen Mother, as "Yi Lin LinzhiZhizhi" said, "Riding the dragon and riding the tiger, all over the world, for the gods, the West to see the Queen Mother." , do not worry about danger".
Figure 6: The image of the ascension of the soul in the painting of the No. 1 Han Tomb of Mawangdui, hunan provincial museum collection
Figure 7: (Top) Sichuan Pixian Dragon and Tiger Drama Portrait Stone Rubbing, Sichuan Museum Collection; (Bottom) Immortal Playing Tiger, Dragon and Tiger Ring Bi Portrait Brick Rubbing, Xuchang Museum Collection
Because the tiger possessed the divine power of "going around the world", it became the traction beast of the cloud car ridden by the immortals (Figure 8-left); or the travel escort, the Western Han Dynasty Zhuang Ji "Lamenting the Fate of the Times" has "made the owl Yang (that is, the baboon) lead the way, and the white tiger before and after it". In addition, the tiger is also one of the mounts of Taoist gods, and on the portrait stone excavated from the tomb of the New Capital Han in Sichuan, the Queen Mother of the West sits on the back of the tiger (Figure 8-right); in addition, the mounts of Zhang Tianshi and Zhao Gongming are also tigers. One of the three methods of Daoist flying mysteries is "Tiger Stalk", which is recorded in ge hong's "Baopuzi Inner Chapter, Volume 15", "If you can ride on the flying, you can travel around the world, regardless of mountains and rivers", and the Ming Dynasty's "Orthodox Daozang" quoted in the "Taishang Dengzhen Three-Fold Spirit YingJing" also particularly emphasizes, "The Sutra of Fu Sanqi is the spiritual text of heaven and earth, the secret art of the gods and immortals, if it is not passed on to others, first destroy the nine ancestors, you must make an oath, you can pass it on to people with virtue", only those who have virtue can be taught the art of riding the rope.
Figure 8: (Left) Yingzhuang Han Tomb Unearthed Portrait Brick of Yuren Driving three tigers driving a cloud car, Nanyang Han Painting Museum Collection; (Right) Eastern Han Dynasty Xindu Han Tomb West Queen Mother Portrait Stone Rubbing, Sichuan Museum Collection, Ren Jiang photograph
Although people give the tiger such a mysterious side, in reality, the tiger cannot escape the fate of being killed by the nobles for fun. The last monarchs of the Xia and Shang dynasties all liked to fight tigers: "Emperor Ji Ji was sexually abusive and talented, able to stretch his hooks and iron, and his hands could fight bears and tigers"; the "History of Yin Benji" recorded, "Emperor Huan (reigned 1075 BC - 1046 BC) was quick to discern diseases, smelled very sensitive, had excellent material strength, and had fierce hands", the King of Shang also made a jade tiger pillow for posterity, and Gao Cheng's "Chronicle of Things" of the Song Dynasty recorded that "Wei Xianxizhong (264-265), Deliang Ji (Note: Eastern Han Dynasty foreign relatives, traitors) jade tiger pillow, There is an inscription under the hypothesis: Nine Years of Di Xin". During the Spring and Autumn Period, many nobles were good at fighting tigers, and the Book of Poetry, Zheng Feng, And Uncle Yu Tian records the scene when Zheng Zhuanggong's brother fought tigers in the wild: "Uncle zai Xue, fiery and fierce. Tǎn (tì) violent tiger, dedicated to the public office", first ignited the grass and trees to block the tiger's escape route, and then went shirtless to fight it; the Huainanzi Miao Zhixun records that the Jin general "Zhongxing Miao Bo, hand fighting the tiger"; the Yanzi Chunqiu records that the three courtiers of The Duke of Qi Jing, Gongsun Jie, Tian Kaijiang, and Gu Yezi, "fought the tiger with courage". The wind of fighting tigers in high society also affected the low-level people, and Mencius Records a Woman in the Jin Dynasty who "fights the tiger well, and the pawn is good, and the soldier is good." There are many people chasing tigers in the wild, tigers in the corner, and Mo Zhi dares to pick up (yīng, offense). Seeing Lady Feng, she tended to greet her. Feng Woman got out of the car with her arms (Note: rolled up her sleeves), everyone was pleased, and she laughed at the soldiers", this tiger fighter was once a teacher, but as soon as she heard that there was a tiger, she went to fight the tiger at all costs, and posterity used the metaphor of "being a Feng woman again" to return to the old business. However, Confucius was not accustomed to such a person, and in the Analects of ShuEr, he said to Zilu: "The violent tiger Feng He, who dies without regret, I am not with him", Confucius will not work with such people who do not take death seriously.
Figure 9: (Top) Eastern Han Dynasty Tiger Fighting Tiger Portrait Brick Rubbing, Nanyang Han Painting Collection; (Bottom left) Eastern Han Warrior Taming Tiger Portrait Brick Rubbing, Xinye Han Portrait Brick Museum Collection; (Bottom Right) Eastern Han Tiger Taming Portrait Brick (Partial), Shanghai Museum Collection
Because the tiger can bring people sensory stimulation, the court began to live the tiger for entertainment very early. The Taiping Imperial Records, Beast Department, Volume III, quotes the Pipe as saying: "At the time of the Death, there were 30,000 female musicians. Let the tiger go to the city and watch it frighten", Xia Jie released the domesticated tiger to watch the female musicians flee in a panic. King Mu of Zhou (reigned 977 BC – 922 BC) also raised tigers and livestock hunted by his men, according to the Ming Dynasty Peng Dayi's "Shantang Huang kao volume 30", "King Mu of Zhou hunted ZhengPu (southwest of present-day Zhongmu County, Henan Province). Tianzi ordered him to be raised in Dongyu (in the area of present-day Surabaya Town, Henan Province), because of his name "Tiger Prison", which is the origin of the place name "Tiger Prison". During the Warring States period, when people were already familiar with animals and tigers, it is recorded in the "Zhuangzi Inner Chapter, Human World", "Ru does not know that those who raise tigers do not dare to kill them with creatures; they do not dare to kill them with all things; they do not dare to use all things with them, and they are also the anger of their decisions." When he is hungry, he is angry. The tiger is different from others and flatters himself, Shunye; therefore, his killer, reverse also", this was originally a passage from Yan Yan asking Yu Boyu how to serve the naturally cruel Prince Weiguo, who answered the metaphor of raising a tiger, in short, to go along with his heart and not to anger it. The Northern Song Dynasty Song Minqiu "Chang'an Zhi Vol. 3" quotes the "Han Palace Shu" as saying, "Qin's old tiger circle, Zhou Za thirty-five steps, west to Chang'an fifteen miles", that is, the Qin state set up a "tiger circle" in the west of Xianyang City. Liu of the Western Han Dynasty wrote to the "Biography of Li Shi", "King Qin Zhao will be the King of Wei, the King of Wei can't do it, so that Zhu Hai will be a pair of bi, the King of Qin is furious, put in the circle of Zhu Hai's tiger, Hai looks at the tiger with disgust, all cracked, the blood spills out of the tiger, the tiger does not dare to move", Xin Lingjun's protégé Zhu Hai was actually thrown into the tiger circle by King Qin Zhao, and the result was that the blood was angry, and the tiger was frightened and did not dare to move.
Figure 10: Schematic diagram of the location of the tiger circle in jianzhang palace in the Han Dynasty
In the Han Dynasty, it was very popular to watch the competitive performance of fighting tigers in the court. According to the Book of Han, Vol. 25, Andia Qizhi V, the Jianzhang Palace built by Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty (reigned 141-87 BC) was "in the western part of the Shang Dynasty, in the tens of miles of tiger circles" (Figure 10). Once, when Emperor Wu of Han heard that Li Guang's great-grandson Li Yu had courage, he put him into the tiger circle, and according to the Book of Han, Vol. 54, Li Guangsu Jian's Biography, "Summoning Yu shang, making the thorny tiger, the county (that is, hanging) in the circle, before it reaches the ground, there is an edict to lead it." Yu slashed from the fall with his sword and wanted to stab the tiger. In the end, Emperor Wu of Han was touched by Li Yu's bravery and fearlessness and ordered the suspension of the beast fighting performance. After the death of Emperor Zhao of Han (reigned 87-74 BC), Liu He the King of Changyi took the throne, and in the face of this arrogant new emperor, according to the "Book of Han, Volume 89, Biography of the Officials", Langzhong ordered Gong Sui to cry to Xiang Anle, "Wang Li is the Son of Heaven, increasingly arrogant, and the advice is no longer heard, and now the grief is not over, the day and the close subjects eat and play, fight tigers and leopards, summon Pi Xuan (that is, Pi Xuan car, one of the Tianzi travel cars, here refers to traveling around for fun), the car nine streams, driving things, the way to go against the road", Liu He did not think about the government, and was afraid to watch the performance of the fighting tiger and leopard, He also liked to play around in a big way, and was eventually deposed in less than a month. During the reign of Emperor Yuan of Han (reigned 48-33 BC), according to the Book of Han. Volume 97 : Biography of Foreign Relatives" contains, "Jianzhao Zhong, Shangxing Tiger Circle Fighting Beast, Harem All Sitting", the Emperor also liked to bring harem concubines to watch the tiger fighting performance together.
Figure 11: "Stone tablets often used by King Wu of Wei", collected by the Henan Provincial Institute of Cultural Relics and Archaeology
After the Han Dynasty, the tradition of fighting tigers continued among the nobility. In 2009, two stone tablets were excavated from cao cao's tomb in Anyang, Henan, which were inscribed with the words "Gehu Short Knife Used by King Wu of Wei" and "Euphorbia of Gehu used by King Wu of Wei" (Figure 11). During the Northern Wei Dynasty, according to the "Yuan Gui Vol. 466 of the Book of Records", "In the second year of Taihe (478), Xiaowen (reigned from 471 to 499) and Empress Dowager Wen led hundreds of officials and guests from all sides to the tiger circle, there was Yihu Dengge Road, several to the imperial seat, the left and right guards were shocked, Rui Du held the imperial throne, and the tiger retreated." It is worth mentioning that in the last years of the Northern Wei Dynasty, BoHu was also used as a means of punishing corrupt officials and corrupt officials, and the Book of Wei, Volume 74, Erzhu Ronglie's Biography, said, "Glory is good at hunting, and it is not willing to give up cold and heat... Rong then elbowed Tianmu Yue: '... This autumn, he wanted to order his brothers to discipline the horses of Le Shi, to hunt Songyuan, and to make the corrupt courtiers enter the battle of the tigers'", the Northern Wei chancellor Erzhu Rong ordered that the corrupt officials in the imperial court be driven into the hunting ground to fight the tiger with their bare hands.
In the Song Dynasty, for the first time in history, there were records of imperial court officials raising tigers in their homes, according to the Southern Song Dynasty's careful "癸辛雜識· Former Collection", "Zhao Nanzhong's Cheng Xiang Liyang privately made circles, and the four tigers were on the side of the gunpowder depot", and the Southern Song Dynasty anti-Jin general Zhao Kui actually raised four tigers at home to guard the gunpowder depot, but unfortunately they died tragically in an explosion: "One day, the roasted medicine was made, the cannons were fired, the sound was like a tremor, the ground moved the house, and the four tigers were killed", and later someone found out that the cause of the explosion was "Gai Chu Yan, manufacturing all the southerners." The reason is that the southerners colluded with each other, so that Zhao Nanzhong had to replace him with northerners who did not understand the nature of gunpowder, which led to this tragedy. At the same time, there are many folk stories about Fighting Tigers, and Li Misun recorded in the "Collection of Junjie" that he met two firewood hunters at Daning Temple who were "short and small and poor (qú jí, thin) and very tough, and said that he was good at fighting tigers... For more than twenty years, the person who met him was a hundred tigers and did not lose it"; the description of "Wu Song fighting the tiger" in the "Water Margin" can be described as well-known to women and children. It is precisely because there are many tigers in the wild, it is not easy to fight tigers, and the rescue of tigers has become a subject of enlightening significance, and the Taiping Imperial Records Volume 415 refers to the "Alien Garden": "Yang Feng and his daughter (note: biological daughter) Yang Xiang of Shunyang Nanxiang County (now southeast of Huaichuan County, Henan) Yang Xiang was awarded by the local government for saving his father, his father was a tiger, the fourteenth year of incense, the unarmed knife, the tiger collar, Feng Yin was spared, Taishou Pingchang Mengzhao's gift valley, Jingqi Gate Lu Yan", yang Xianghukou, who was only fourteen years old and unarmed, saved his father. Later, Guo Jujing of the Yuan Dynasty included his deeds in the Twenty-Four Filial Pieties.
If you look at it from another perspective, the reason why there are a large number of records of folk fighting tigers is not unrelated to the squeeze of tiger habitat by population growth and frequent exchanges. Usually, when politics is clear, society is prosperous, and commerce is close, tigers will stay away from the places where humans live; conversely, the people's livelihood caused by harsh government and tyranny will make the tigers return. The Taiping Imperial Pavilion, Beast Department, Volume III, quotes from the Spring and Autumn Interpretation of Kong Tu, "The Mandate of Heaven is swinging, and the White Tiger plays the Dynasty." In the end, the white tiger was in the wild." What is particularly interesting is that when the tiger leaves, it often manifests itself as crossing the river and going away, and the Beitang Shuqian Vol. 75 quotes the Book of later Han, "Liu Kun moved to Hongnong Taishou, first of all, there were many tiger disasters on the Kunshu Yidao Road, and it was impossible to travel. Kun was in power for three years, Renhua was in power, and the tigers all crossed the river with their negative sons", Hongnong Taishou Liu Kun implemented renzheng, the merchants gradually recovered, and the tigress carried the young tiger north across the Yellow River; the Taiping Imperial Records, vol. 891, Beast Department III, quoted in the Book of later Han, "Song All moved to Jiujiang Taishou, and the county was more tiger riots, and there were many human troubles." Often raise a threshold, and Judo hurts. All arrived, and the following county said: "The tiger and leopard are in the mountains, and the shrews (yuán tuó, that is, giant turtles and Yangzi crocodiles) are in the water, and each has its own support... Now the people are harmed, and the blame lies in the remnants... However, once they went to the threshold, in addition to the cutting system, it was rumored that the tiger phase and the east traveled across the river", Song Jun believed that the government disregarded the ecology and caused tiger infestation, so he ordered a ban on tiger hunting, alleviating the contradiction between man and tiger, and the tigers crossed the river in groups. Later generations used "crossing the tiger" to praise the government and people, and Li Bai of the Tang Dynasty had a poem: "All the rivers are crossing the tiger, and the three counties are all returned to the pearls" ("The Zhongcheng Song Gong went to Henan with three thousand Wu soldiers to seek the Yang and escape the remnants of the prison staff shogunate because of the gift").
Figure 12: Bronze Tiger Festival in the Warring States period
As the "chief of a hundred beasts", the tiger's status is no different from that of the king, so the artifacts related to the tiger appear in the king's ceremony. In the Western Zhou Dynasty, the princes of all places had to hold relics to pass through the local passes, and Zheng Xuan wrote in the Zhou Li Shu Shu Di Guan, "Whoever reaches the world will have a festival to pass on it; those who have no festival, there are some who do not reach it." According to the "Zhou Li Di Guan", "the envoys of the state of the state, the tiger festival of the mountain country, the festival of the people of the country, the dragon festival of the Ze country, and the gold festival", indicating that the tiger festival was the relic held by the envoys of the mountain princes at that time (Figure 12). When the envoys came to the capital and made a formal pilgrimage to Zhou Tianzi, they were to pay tribute, and the Zhou Li Zhushu Zongbo clearly stipulated, "Lonely pi ... The leather drapery, the bundling and the surface is decorated with leather... The orphan of the Son of Heaven is decorated with tiger skins", even if the courtiers need to wrap the tribute bundles in tiger skins in advance, when they are formally presented, "set up in the court with skins, and hold the bundles in their hands and give them".
Figure 13: Zheng Guohu's bronze skull and its details, national museum of China
In the great archery ceremony presided over by Zhou Tianzi, tiger skin was also used to make the highest level of arrow targets used by Tianzi, according to the Song Dynasty Chen Xiangdao's "Book of Rites, Volume 15", "The Great Shooting of the King, the Tiger Marquis, the King's Self-Shooting" (for "Shooting Ceremony", see the humble work "Between The Man and the Leopard: From the Gentleman's Leopard Ornament to the Leopard Hunting Hermit"). In addition, the image of the tiger often appears on many ceremonial vessels and wine vessels. The Zhou Li Chun guan states, "Where between the four hours of worship and enjoyment, the tiger Yi and the dragon yi are used", which means that ancestors are sacrificed between the main sacrifices, and the rituals are to be used to use the yi with the tiger engraved on the body; some wine vessels such as bronze statues and bronze pendants are also shaped by tigers (Figure 13). In addition, the Zhou Yi Ge Gua contains "Adult Tiger Changes, and Its Wen Bingye", which means that in the process of growing up, the inner qualities of a gentleman will be manifested like the stripes on the tiger's body when he grows up, so the tiger and the gentleman are also linked, plus Confucius once said in the Book of Rites and Marriages: "... Fu Shi Junzi Bede Yu Yu Yan", tiger-shaped jade pendant was quite popular at that time. The tiger-shaped town (Figure 14), which was very popular in the Later Han Dynasty, also carries a similar meaning.
Figure 14: (top left) Tiger-shaped jade pendant, shanxi museum collection; (upper right, lower) DayunShan Han tomb excavated copper tiger town, Nanjing Museum collection
From the beginning of the Han Dynasty, the Tianzi Halogen Book (Note: the Emperor's Travel Honor Guard) also appeared in the PiXuan car with tiger skin as the Xuan, according to the "Song Shi Zhi 122", "Pi Xuan car, Han front drive car also ... Take the meaning of the Qu Li 'Before there was a scholar, then carry the tiger skin'". Du You's Tongdian Volume 64 records that "the Han-made Pixuan car is based on the tiger skin." The Jin and Song Dynasties (Note: Southern Dynasty Liu Song) are related to each other, driving four horses, all of which are carried by doctors. It's been unknown since. The Great Tang Dynasty is second only to the evil car." The Northern Song Dynasty continued the ritual tradition of the Han and Tang Dynasties Pixuan car, but changed the real tiger skin to paint tiger stripes, according to the Song Shi Zhi No. 122, "Pixuan car ... Red, curved wall, with columns running through the five wheels of the weight, painting tiger text. Four horses, eighteen men. The system of political harmony, using lacquer pillars through zhu lacquer pi xuan five (figure 15)", later to the song Huizong (reigned 1100-1126) Xuanhe first year (1119), because of the "ceremonial bureau said: 'The old halogen book has three cars of egret, luan flag, and pi xuan, and its system is not ancient'", so the tianzi travel halogen book was changed to the system of five cars (that is, qingjing car, singing car, feihong car, tiger car, cat car), the so-called "ten thousand multiplied, five cars must be loaded, so the police are also", the original pi xuan car was replaced by a tiger car. The intricate shape of the five-fold phase wheel painted with tiger stripes was changed to a simple banner painted with tiger patterns: "Red, curved, medium-loaded tiger skin, with a drapery for it, the edge is red, and the tiger skin is painted on top", and this system reform also affected the Jin Dynasty and the later Ming and Qing Dynasties in the same period.
Figure 15: Pi Xuan Che (Anon. name) before xuanhe reform depicted in the "Picture of the Great Driving Halogen Book", in the collection of the National Museum of China
The mighty power of the tiger makes the beasts feared, and it is enough to shock people's hearts, so from ancient times to the present, people have associated the tiger with the military and the army. The "Ten Years of Zuo Chuan Zhuang Gong" records the earliest "tiger skin camouflage war" in Chinese history, in 684 BC, the "Cao Jiao Controversy" caused the Duke of Qi Huan to suffer defeat at the Long Spoon, and in June of the same year, the reluctant Duke of Qi Huan joined forces with the Song State to attack the State of Lu again, and the Duke of Lu "stole from the YanMen" and was attacked by Meng Gaobi (Jin Dynasty Du Pre-note: "Gao Bi, Tiger Skin"). Obey it. Defeated Song Shi yu Chengqiu. Qi Shi Nai also", the Lu army generals under the leadership of Gongzi Yan put The Tiger Pi Meng yu on the horse to carry out a sneak attack, resulting in a great rebellion of the Song army of the Qi allies, and the State of Qi was forced to retreat. Later, the Battle of Chengpu in Jinchu broke out, and according to the Twenty-eighth Year of zuo chuan, in 632 BC, "Xu Chenmeng was a tiger skin and first attacked Chen and Cai." Chen, Cai Ben, and the Chu Right Division collapsed", Xu Chen, who was then the subordinate of the Jin Dynasty (i.e., the deputy of the army general), led the army to hu pi meng on the horse, and took the lead in defeating the Chen and Cai armies of the right army of the Chu state. More than a thousand years later in the Tang Empire, when the Later Turkic Khaganate Ashide Yuanzhen invaded the border, the famous Tang general Wang Fangyi launched a "tiger skin camouflage war" and returned with a great victory, and the Quan Tang Wen Vol. 228 quoted in the "Monument to the Prince of Taiyuan, the Governor of The Tang Dynasty," said, "Yuan Zhen Koubian, ordered to attack... To the north to The Pass, first fight with the captives, if you drive the beast, Meng Gaobi, Mo's enemy also. Huma ran in horror and received two sips, and Sanggan and Sheli came down." It is precisely because the tiger skin is indeed effective in frightening the enemy that in modern times there is Lu Xun's "pulling up the big banner as a tiger skin, wrapping oneself around oneself, and scaring others" ("And Jieting Miscellaneous Essays, Answering Xu Maoyong and On the Question of the Anti-Japanese United Front").
In addition to being used as a camouflage, tiger skins are also an early warning signal issued to the rear troops after the front camp encounters the enemy army on the march. According to the "Book of Rites and Qu Lishang", "If there are soldiers in the front, then carry the tiger skin", Kong Yingda explained sparsely, "If you see a crowd of soldiers in front, then raise the tiger skin on the head of the pole, so that the soldiers will see it as a defense", the soldiers in the front will hang the tiger skin on the top of the bamboo pole, and the soldiers in the rear will know that they will encounter the enemy, so as to prepare in advance. In addition, the northwest ethnic minorities in the pre-Qin period would also use tiger skin to make bow bags, that is, "tiger skin (chàng)", such as "Mengfa Youyuan, Tiger Whip" in the "Book of Poetry, Qin Feng, Xiao Rong", this kind of tiger skin bow bag with nomadic color can still be seen in the Liao Dynasty army more than a thousand years later, known as "tiger skin hugui".
Figure 16: Tiger striped bronze goth, sichuan museum collection
Figure 17: Schematic diagram of the tiger button and the golden hammer and drum
In addition, since the Spring and Autumn Period, bronze weapons painted with tiger stripes and military musical instruments decorated with the shape of tigers have begun to appear, the former mainly based on bronze ge (Fig. 16), and the latter includes the 镈 (a type of bell, zhou li zhiyi vol. 73), "the system of examination bells, there are hammers, there are hammers, there are chimes"), hammers (also known as 錞 Yu, fig. 17) and duo". The "Chinese Volume XI, Jin Yu V" contains, "Cut the bells and drums, sound its sins, and fight with Zhen Yu, Ding Ning (Wei Zhaoyue: Ding Ning, Ding Ye), and The people of Qi", the sound of tapping On Yu can alert the enemy people. The "Chinese Volume XIX Wu Language" records that Wu and Yue were at war, and The King of Wu personally rang the bell and drum, Ding Ning, Zhen Yu, and Zhen Duo to cheer the three armies, "Ming Ming, Wang Nai Bingtuo, personally sounded the bell drum, Ding Ning, Zhen Yu, Zhen Duo, brave and timid, the three armies all rushed (cheered) to vibrate the brigade, and their voices moved the heavens and the earth." Although such military musical instruments gradually withered away during the Two Han Dynasties, due to the frequent wars and chaos in the Eastern Zhou Dynasty, there are many heirlooms: "Literature Tongkao Volume 134" contains, "In the Jianxing of the Jin Emperor (reigned 313-318), The Jin Ling Chen favored five bronze doves in the fields, all in the shape of dragons and tigers"; the Northern Song Dynasty's "Xuanhe Bogutu" also has records of the Zhou Dynasty tiger dragon and tiger hammer.
Figure 18: (Left) The left half of the Duhu Symbol of the Qin Kingdom, collected by the Shaanxi Provincial History Museum; (upper right) Yangling Tiger Symbol, written on the top of the book "The Symbol of the Armored Soldier, The Right is in the Emperor, the Left is in the Yangling Tomb", collected by the National Museum of China, taken by Ren Jiang; (bottom right) Right Yiwei Bronze Tiger Symbol, collected by the Pingliang City Museum
In the Eastern Zhou Dynasty, a tiger-shaped artifact also appeared in the army, the Tiger Charm, whose importance is self-evident and has influenced future generations for more than a thousand years. During the Western Zhou Dynasty, the Zhou Li Chunguan Dianrui (周礼春官典瑞) states that "Yazhang raised a military brigade to govern the army and defended"; in the Eastern Zhou Dynasty, the Tiger Charm replaced Yazhang as a relic for dispatching troops. The story of Xin Lingjun stealing a charm to save Zhao in the "Chronicle of the Duke of Wei" is perhaps the earliest record of the Tiger Rune, in the twentieth year of the Reign of Wei An (255 BC), the Qin army besieged Handan, the King of Wei was afraid of the Qin army and did not dare to send troops to save Zhao, and the Great Liang Yimen Supervisor Hou Yin offered Ji Ji Xin Lingjun, "Gongzi Chengyi opened his mouth to ask Ru Ji, if Ji Bi promised, then the Tiger Fu captured the Jin army, the north saved Zhao and the west was Qin, and the five hegemons were also cut down", and finally "Ru Ji Guo stole the Jin soldiers and gongzi", the State of Wei sent troops, and the State of Zhao was able to break the siege. At present, the earliest surviving tiger symbol is the Du Hu symbol of the Qin State, the above golden seal book "The rune of the armor, the right is (that is, "in") Jun, the left Cai Du, the Fan Xingshi wears armor and uses more than fifty soldiers, will meet the king's rune, but dare to do it, burn the thing, although it will not be the symbol of the line" (Figure 18 - left), in the pre-Qin period, the right side was honored, the right half of the tiger symbol was kept by the emperor, and the left half was handed over to the generals stationed abroad, and the military actions of more than fifty people needed to be "conformed", which is also the origin of the word "conformity". The Tiger Symbol went through the Qin, Han, and Wei and Jin Dynasties, and in addition to the Tang Dynasty's evasion of Li Hu's name and changing the Tiger Symbol to a Fish Symbol and a Turtle Symbol, in the Song Dynasty, the forbidden army subordinate to the central government was still dispatched by the Tiger Rune: "The Three Dynasties Northern League Compilation Volume 174" says, "The generals of the present-day prefectures and counties are subordinate to the generals, those who use the tiger symbols, and the soldiers of the Privy Council; those who are not subordinate to the generals, the soldiers of the prefectures and counties."
Figure 19: The Golden Character Circle Symbol of Riding Yi, Tashilhunpo Monastery, Tibet
In the Yuan Dynasty, although the Sacred Will Gold Medal replaced the mobilization function of the Tiger Rune, the Tiger Rune did not completely disappear, but became a seal symbolizing the power of the officials of the imperial court. According to the "New Yuan History, Volume 96", "Zheng Yi Pin, Three Pearls Tiger Rune; From One Pin, Two Pearl Tiger Rune; Zheng, From Two Pin, One Pearl Tiger Rune; Zheng, From Three Pin, Tiger Rune". It is worth noting that in the historical records about the Yuan Dynasty, the tiger symbol can also refer to the "circle symbol" of the ride (Figure 19), which is recorded in the Yuan Shi Zhi 49, "Standing Chi ... The translated name of the yichuan also... In the case of military emergencies, they also took the gold character yuanfu as the letter, followed by the silver character, due to the chaos of management, a large number of "yuan symbols" even flowed into the hands of merchants, the "Yuan Shi , volume 22" records, "down to the merchants, close to the attendants, so that the flood, out of no return", so "Emperor Wuzong to the first year of the great year (1308) In April, ordered the kings to seal the symbols of each quasi-old system, and chased the merchant Tiger Symbols" ("King Ding Continued Literature Tongkao , volume ninety-nine"). After the Yuan Dynasty, Tiger Rune completely withdrew from the stage of history.
In addition to the artifacts in the shape of tigers, the generals in the ancient army also used the name of the tiger, the most famous of which was the tiger army. As early as the last year of the Shang Dynasty, "Tiger Ben" was used to refer to the most courageous soldiers around the King of Zhou, and the Shangshu Zhou Shu Mu Oath stated, "King Wu Rong Cha 302, Tiger Ben 3,000 people, and fought with The Muye", and later in the "Zhou Li" official sequence, Zhou Tianzi's close attendant guards were called "Tiger Ben Clan", responsible for the defense of Tianzi, and in special circumstances such as war, they sent envoys to convey the Tianzi's orders. The same is true of the princes who will meet the Son of Heaven. Sheze guards Wang Xian (Note: 梐枑, the heavenly son travels to the accommodation set up a defensive wooden barrier), the king is in the country, then guard the royal palace. If the state is great, it guards the king's gate. The same goes for great mourning. and burial, crying from the dispatch of the cart. Suitable for the four envoys, then from the scholar doctor. If the road is impassable and there is a sign, the book is written to the four sides." In the Han Dynasty, the Han Ping Emperor (reigned 1-5 years BC) set up the post of General of the Tiger Ben Zhonglang, according to the Song Dynasty Sun Fengji's "Officials and Officials, Volume 36", "than two thousand stones, the Later Han Dynasty".
In the Tang Dynasty, because of avoiding the "Li Hu" secret, one of the guards in the army was called "Longwu Army", and the Zizhi Tongjian Volume 266 recorded that "the Dragon and Tiger Army is the Tang Longwu Army, and Liang was changed to a tiger by Tang Zen", and it was not changed to "Dragon and Tiger Army" until later Liang destroyed the Tang Dynasty. The Central Forbidden Army of the Song Dynasty did not have an army named after a tiger, but some local armies named after the tiger, such as the "Flying Tiger Army" formed by Xin Shuyi to maintain local law and order. In the Ming Dynasty, there were Tiger Ben Left Guards in the zhuwei forces directly subordinate to them, but their terms of reference were very limited, according to the "Ancient and Modern Book Integration Minglun Compilation Officer Changdian Sicheng Department", only "guarding the south of the imperial city and the gates of the patrol capital". In the Qing Dynasty, the Upper Three Banners of the Eight Banners Army had a tiger gun battalion, and its duties were recorded in the "Imperial Literature Tongkao Volume 181", "When a car is driven and searched... Carry the tiger gun to the leading guards, and after setting up camp, detect the entry and exit of the tiger and leopard", that is, the emperor's retinue when he travels to patrol.
In addition to the army named tiger, people use the tiger more to describe brave soldiers, and there is "Entering the Tiger Chen, Kan Is like a Tiger" in the Book of Poetry, which shows the mighty and majestic army of Zhou Tianzi; in the Book of Poetry, Lu Song Panshui, there is "both pan palace and Huaiyi you serve." Correction of the Tiger Chen, Offering Steamed Bread in Pan", tells the story of Lu Gong's victory in Panshui to greet the heroic soldiers who conquered Huaiyi, and held a great ceremony for the sacrifice of prisoners. In Du Fu's poem "Watching soldiers" in the Tang Dynasty, when the poet saw the soldiers on the expedition, he exclaimed, "The North Court sends strong soldiers, and the number of tigers is especially large." In the Song Dynasty, Xin Abandoned Disease sighed in "Yong Yu Le Jingkou Beiguting Huaigu", "I think of that year, Jinge Iron Horse, swallowing like a tiger". It is precisely because the generals are like tigers, and then people also use tigers to describe countries with strong military strength, such as the Eastern Zhou Dynasty Qin State was regarded as the "Country of Tigers and Wolves" by the Six Eastern Kingdoms, and in the "History of Su Qin", the King of Chu commented on Su Qin: "Qin, the country of tigers and wolves, can not be kissed."
Figure 20: The image of the stone tiger in the past
In addition to the mighty power of the tiger, it can also deter ghosts in the eyes of the ancients. From the Han Dynasty to the Ming and Qing dynasties, most of the stone statues next to the shrine of the princes and princes had the image of a stone tiger (Figure 20), which was both a symbol of status and also had the role of a town tomb. The idea that the tiger can drive away evil spirits and shock ghosts may have originated from the "Classic of Mountains and Seas", and Liu Xiang's annotations to the "Classic of Mountains and Seas" in the Book of Later Han And Etiquette liu xiang quoted in the Classic of Mountains and Seas, "There is Dushuo Mountain in the East Sea, there are large peach trees, and there are three thousand miles of colonies, and the northeast of its branches is known as the ghost gate, and the ten thousand ghosts are also in and out." There are two gods on it, one is the god poison, and the other is Yu Lei. The Lord reads and leads the evil and evil of the ghosts, and insists on using reeds, and uses tigers to eat tigers", to the effect that there is a ghost gate on the head of a large branch on a sacred mountain in the East China Sea, and the two gods and immortals use tigers who specialize in eating evil ghosts to guard the town; "So the Yellow Emperor's law is like this, because of the peach stalk on the portal, draws a depression and a reed rope, to ward off the fierce ghost, draws the tiger at the door, and when the ghost eats also", so the ancestors of the Yellow Emperor tribe painted the gods, the reeds and tigers that exorcise the ghosts on the door, and later this custom continued.
Figure 21: "Tiger eats female ray" portrait stone rubbing, Nanyang Han painting collection
In the Han Dynasty, according to the "Customs and Customs", "so county officials often used Chinese New Year's Eve to decorate peach people riding on reeds, drawing tigers on the doors, all following the previous events, hoping to defend against them", and at the same time pointed out that "the tiger, the yang, the chief of the hundred beasts." Can hold on to setbacks, eat ghost rays. Now the man has suffered a wicked encounter, and burns the skin of the tiger and drinks it. Striking its claws can also ward off evil." At the same time, on the Han Dynasty tomb portrait bricks and burial items, the decorative image of the "tiger eating female ray" can also be seen (Figure 21). At the time of the Wei and Jin Dynasties, the Eastern Jin Dynasty Ganbao's Book of Search for Gods records that "in this day's customary law, every time it ends with the Chinese New Year's Eve ... Draw the tiger on the door, and place two lights on the left and right, like the eyes of the tiger, to get rid of ominousness. In the Tang Dynasty, residents still liked to paint tiger heads on the doors, according to the "Youyang Miscellaneous Tricks • Sequel Volume IV", "it is better to paint tiger heads on the door, and the book "聻" (jiàn) is the name of the ghost of the yin knife, which can be suppressed." Later, from the Song Dynasty onwards, the New Year paintings developed from the Door God Painting began to prevail, and the tiger became an important subject of the New Year painting. During the Ming and Qing dynasties, folk also appeared to children wearing tiger hats, wearing tiger shoes, sleeping tiger pillows, and tiger pockets (Figure 22), praying that tigers can drive away evil spirits and protect children from healthy growth, and this tradition has been influenced to this day.
Figure 22: Contemporary street tiger hats, tiger shoes and other assorted folk goods