happy New Year
Zodiac culture is a unique phenomenon of traditional Chinese culture, with a long history and a long process of evolution. 2022 coincides with the Lunar New Year, the Year of the Tiger in the Zodiac. As the king of the hundred beasts, the tiger is regarded as a symbol of power and strength, and has always been revered by people. Over the long term, a colorful tiger culture has been formed.
Tiger in text
"Tiger" is a hieroglyph, and the "tiger" in the oracle bone is the shape of a tiger, highlighting the large open tiger mouth, sharp tiger claws, upward curled tiger tail and tiger body with stripes, which gradually abstracted and evolved into today's "tiger" character. The meaning of the word "tiger" has not changed much in ancient and modern times, and it is spoken of as a tiger; but because the tiger is particularly fierce, it takes its fierce meaning and extends it to the meaning of figurative bravery and might. There are many idioms related to "tiger", such as tiger back bear waist, such as tiger wings, tiger roaring wind life, hidden dragon Crouching Tiger, dragon leaping tiger leaping, living dragon living tiger, fox false tiger Wei, tiger head and snake tail, for the tiger to play for the tiger, wolf swallowing the tiger, three people into the tiger, let the tiger return to the mountain, etc.
Oracle
Clementi
Chu is a simplified script
Qin is a simplified script
seal script
Letter of Submission
The Tiger of History
Tiger, "The King of the Mountain Beasts." "As the king of a hundred beasts, it is fierce and powerful, good at killing, is a spiritual object worshipped by the ancestors, and has extraordinary symbolic significance in traditional Chinese culture."
The Tiger Charm, a relic of ancient emperors granting vassals the right to fight and mobilize the army, symbolizes power and status, and flourished in the Warring States, Qin and Han Dynasties. Cast in bronze to form a tiger shape, divided into left and right halves, there are children and mothers whose mouths can be combined. The right symbol remains in the center, and the left symbol is in the hand of the general. If Wang Ruo sent someone to mobilize the army, he needed to bring a right charm and a left and right charm to check the combination before he could mobilize the army.
Tiger Ben, in ancient times, referred to warriors and warriors. "Shang Shu Mu Oath Sequence": "King Wu Rong Cha 302, Tiger Ben 300 people, and the war was fought in Makino. Kong Yingda Shuo: "The warrior said also." If the tiger's benefactor goes away and chases the beast, it will be fierce. "The Zhou Lixia officials had the Hu Ben clan, the king in charge of the entry and exit guards, the Han Dynasty Menlang, until the Han Ping Emperor changed his name to Tiger Ben Lang, and the matter of placing the Tiger Ben Zhonglang general, The Tiger Ben Lang and other main guards was inherited from generation to generation until the Tang Dynasty was abolished.
Tiger head shoes, one of the traditional Handicrafts in China, is a kind of children's shoes, because the toe of the shoe is in the shape of a tiger's head, so it is called tiger head shoes. People think that the tiger is a kind of mascot, embroidering the tiger or tiger head pattern on the front face and upper of the shoe, is to hope that the children will grow tiger head tiger brain, use the realistic tiger head pattern to suppress evil and dispel diseases, and protect children from disease.
Tiger in artifacts
The deepening of people's awareness of worshiping tigers has gradually formed utensils with tigers as shapes or ornaments. With the efforts of archaeologists, the mainland has excavated many relics and relics related to the "tiger", involving stone tools, bronzes, lacquerware, jade and so on.
The mussel sculpture dragon and tiger pattern found at the Site of Xishuipo in Puyang County, Henan Province, is a dragon and a tiger made of mussel shells such as li mussels, spear mussels and wedge mussels, of which the tiger pattern, with a length of 1.39 meters, the tiger's head is slightly low, the eyes are round and open, the mouth is open, the limbs are walking, and the tail is drooping.
The stone carvings of people and tigers excavated from the Shiya site in Shenmu County, Shaanxi Province, are carved in the center of a human face with large eyes, a large nose, and a large face, and the human face is symmetrically carved out of two tigers with exactly the same shape, with the head hanging down and the tiger's head wide open, revealing the upper and lower fangs, the limbs are prone, the tail is rolled up, and the tiger body and tail are carved with patterns.
Du Hufu was unearthed in the village of Beishenjiaqiao, a southern suburb of Xi'an City, Shaanxi Province, and is now in the Shaanxi Museum. Length 9.5cm, height 4.4cm, thickness 0.7cm. The body is vertical tiger-shaped, with a perforated neck, a vertical tail coiled inwards, a protruding relief on the front, and a groove on the back. The tiger's body has a wrong gold inscription nine lines and four crosses: "The Rune of the Armor." Right is only (in) Jun, left is in Du. Whoever is armoured and employs more than fifty soldiers will be able to do so, but he will dare to do so. The matter of flint, though the mother (without) will be in harmony, will do the deeds (also)".
A tiger-shaped jade pendant excavated from the tomb of Zhou Dynasty Yu Zhong in Shangcunling, Sanmenxia. Length 9.3 cm, 4 cm, thickness 0.5 cm. Topaz, locally yellowish brown or with ink spots. The jade is fine and slightly transparent. Tablet carving. Tiger mouth, subject characters, cloud pattern two ears attached to the head, concave back, limbs flexed forward, foot carving four claws, thick tail upturned, body decorated with tabby stripes. The tiger is running, with the same pattern on the front and back, showing an aggressive momentum.
A Warring States Era golden tiger from Zhouyuan Commune, Baoji County, Shaanxi Province (present-day Zhouyuan Town, Chencang District, Baoji City) was unearthed, 2.3 cm high, 4.8 cm long and weighing 35.6 grams. The golden tiger is also crouching tiger-shaped, with exaggerated shapes, huge eyes and large ears, open mouth and teeth, four legs curved, long tail rolled up, and the whole body is decorated with convex carvings and yin carvings. There is a buckle groove on the back of the vessel, there is no inscription, the body shape is small, but the production is exquisite, the carving is vivid, the shape is majestic, and it reaches a high artistic level, which seems to be the work of imitating the tiger symbol.
Among the cultural relics in the collection of Shangqiu Museum, the main cultural relics related to the tiger are Han portrait stones, bronze mirrors, crystal tigers and so on.
Eastern Han Dynasty Xuan Bird, Fu Hu, Descending Cow Portrait Stone
Han Four-breasted dragon and tiger mirror
Eastern Han Dynasty Crystal Tiger
Qing Dragon head tiger with hook
Happy Chinese New Year
Source| Shangqiu Museum