Chinese tiger culture has a long history
China Social Science Network: China's tiger culture has a long history, the tiger is the king of a hundred beasts, the majesty is majestic, the tiger is full of wind. In archaeological research, many footprints of tigers have been found in the academic community. Please briefly describe the remains of the tiger culture in the archaeological finds.
Yuan Jing: Compared with hundreds of archaeological sites that have unearthed animal remains, so far we have found few tiger skeleton sites, mainly distributed in Jilin, Liaoning, Gansu, Shaanxi, Henan, Beijing, Shandong, Anhui, Chongqing, Hubei, Shanghai, Zhejiang, Guangxi, Guangdong, Fujian and other places, a total of 36. The dating of these sites is mainly concentrated in the Neolithic Period, and a few sites are from the Xia, Shang, and Zhou Dynasties, and as late as the Han Dynasty. The tiger bones found in the archaeological site are basically broken, mainly skulls, maxillas, mandibles, teeth, shoulder blades, humeral bones of the forelimbs, radius, tibia and toe bones of the hind limbs, etc. We have collected all the tiger bones excavated from 36 sites together, and we cannot spell out a complete tiger skeleton, especially the lack of limb bones, which may be related to the fact that the tiger was a rare animal at that time, plus the tiger was extremely fierce, and there were very few examples of being captured by the ancients.
Li Xinwei: The earliest tiger image in China, or can be traced back to the Gaomiao culture more than 7,000 years ago. The Gaomiao culture has exquisite white pottery with intricate images on it. The most common pictorial element is a rectangular or oval broad mouth that deliberately represents four fangs, possibly the mouth of a tiger. In Chinese prehistoric art, the most commonly depicted are fangs, pigs and tigers. We believe that the fangs of the High Temple are broad-mouthed to represent tigers, because four fangs found in the mouth are more likely to be tigers. After the Gaomiao culture, more than 5,000 years ago, the image of the tiger is more numerous.
Lü Peng: The earliest known cats are proto-cats from 30 million years ago and false cats from 20 million years ago, and most of the cat taxa we know of mainly appear in the past 10 million years. Tigers are members of the leopard family and are closest to snow leopards, which are differentiated from a common ancestor more than 2 million years ago. The oldest tiger fossil is the Ancient Chinese Tiger, from The Island of China and Java, dating back about 2 million years.
Found only in Asia, tigers can live in tropical, subtropical and temperate forests and the dense vegetation that connects them, but at the top of the food chain, in small numbers in the natural environment. According to historical records, tigers are extremely widely distributed in China, and tigers have been found in at least 20 provincial-level administrative regions in history. Zooarchaeology pays special attention to the remains of tigers unearthed in archaeological sites, according to statistics, tiger remains are also found in archaeological sites in China from south to north, counting more than 30 places, which can be corroborated with the wide distribution and small number of tiger remains unearthed in archaeological sites.
Han Ding: Although there is debate in academic circles about the origin of tigers, there is growing evidence that tigers first appeared in mainland China. Wen Rongsheng combed through the remains of Pleistocene-Holocene tigers excavated from 105 sites in 105 sites in 27 provincial-level administrative regions of the mainland, and proposed that tigers originated in the middle reaches of the Yellow River in the early Pleistocene and spread outwards. During the historical period, the material of tigers in various documents and archaeological materials was more abundant. Such a rich tiger relic makes the tiger deeply integrated into Chinese culture.
Shang Dynasty Fu bird double-tailed bronze tiger
The Chinese ancestors have preserved a rich tiger cultural heritage
China Social Science Network: In the broad and profound Chinese culture, animal culture occupies a very important position. In the long development process of mankind, the Chinese ancestors have a complex emotion of reverence, reverence, worship and other intricate emotions for the tiger, and have left many historical and cultural relics related to tigers for posterity, please briefly sort out what are the existing typical tiger cultural relics?
Yuan Jing: There are many cultural relics related to tigers. For example, typical artifacts found at the Shi'an site in Shenmu County, Shaanxi Province, are stone carvings. In addition to the human face and the god face, the more common motifs in the stone carving theme are the tiger shape.
After the end of the Yongsan Age, to which the Shiya site belongs, the Bronze Age was entered, and the bronzes associated with the tiger were very distinctive. For example, the bronze tiger of the Shang Dynasty collected in the Chinucci Museum in France has a unique shape. The mouth is round, with a standing deer as the cover button, the two ends of the beam are decorated with the same small tiger head, the tiger's ears are erected, the tiger's eyes are round, the tiger's mouth is wide open, the tiger's front paws hold a person tightly, the person's hands are high on the shoulders of the tiger, there is no fear expression on the face, the legs are half-squatted, the feet are on the tiger's feet, and the tiger's back two feet and the tiger's tail form three fulcrums to support the entire body.
In the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period, bronze vessel shapes and ornaments showed obvious regional styles, crab patterns appeared and became popular, and plain bronzes were popular for inlaid gold, silver and other craft decorations. The wrong gold and silver tiger devouring deer screen seat was excavated from the tomb of King Zhongshan in Sanji Township, Pingshan County, Hebei Province, which belongs to the Warring States period and is now collected by the Institute of Cultural Relics of Hebei Province. The screen seat is dominated by a tiger, with its limbs creeping on all fours, its eyes wide open, its ears straight, its mouth biting a weak fawn, and its claws grabbed the deer's neck. The fawn struggled desperately in the tiger's mouth, and the short tail was upturned vigorously. Tiger and deerskin coat stripes are made of gold and silver inlays. The tiger has a rectangular brass on its neck and hips. The two sides of the bronze are decorated with goat head faces, and the mouth of the sheep is the mouth of the sheep, and the screen is installed in the shape of a curved ruler.
After the Han Dynasty, a typical tiger-shaped artifact made of bronze is the tiger head in the bronze statue of the twelve animal heads in the Yuanmingyuan of the Qing Dynasty, with its ears erected, its eyes rounded, its nostrils obvious, its mouth open, and its fangs exposed. In addition to the tiger shape of the bronze, the tiger shape made of jade also has its own characteristics.
Li Xinwei: After the Gaomiao culture, more than 5,000 years ago, the image of the tiger is more. A piece of jade huang was unearthed from the Lingjiatan site, and at both ends is a realistic half-body tiger, with an image of the tiger's head, four fangs in the mouth, and bent front legs. The Chifeng Museum in Inner Mongolia collects a realistic jade tiger from the Hongshan cultural period. In the Liangzhu culture dating back about 5300 years, the highest level of jade and jade on the jade, there are "gods, people and beasts face pattern". The animal has large round eyes, a garlic nose, and four fangs and a wide mouth. In my opinion, it is also the image of the tiger, and it is the representative of the god of the heavenly pole.
After the decline of the Liangzhu culture, the prehistoric era of China entered the Longshan period, which was 4300 to 3800 years ago. Liangzhu religious concepts were widely disseminated and had a far-reaching impact. In the Xiaojia roof culture in the Jianghan region, a large number of jade objects appear, many of which are realistic tigers, with side full-body images and tiger heads.
By about 3800 years ago, the Erlitou culture emerged, which is believed to represent the culture of our first dynasty, the late Xia Dynasty. The famous inlaid turquoise plaque on the erlitou has an animal face image, and some speculate that it is a tiger's head, and I agree with this view. The image of the tiger was more in the Shang Dynasty and beyond.
Eastern Han Dynasty Bronze Double Tiger Button
Lü Peng: The animal and cultural relics of the tiger can reflect the behavior and thoughts of the Chinese ancestors on the relationship between man and nature, domestic breeding and wild animals, and pinned their spiritual aspirations and artistic pursuits. Since 10,000 years ago, the Chinese ancestors have successively domesticated and raised dogs, pigs, cattle, sheep, horses and chickens and other "six animals", with the development of animal husbandry, at least from the middle and late Yangshao culture, the ancient Chinese ancestors have been very clear about the boundaries between domestication and wild, with the distinction between "I" and "non-me", "I" all include domestic animals, and "non-I" species, mainly including tigers, including various wild animals, and even conquered.
There are not many animal remains excavated from the Lingjiatan site in Hanshan, Anhui (5600-5300 years ago, Lingjiatan culture), but there are tiger bones unearthed, which should be obtained from hunting. In addition, the site also unearthed the Jade Double Tiger Shou Huang and the Jade Tiger Shou Huang, of which the Jade Double Tiger Shou Huang was excavated in 1987 at Lingjiatan Tomb No. 8, the jade is gray-white, the instrument is flat and circular, the two ends of the Huang are embossed tiger heads, with yin line relief carved out of the eyes, nose, mouth, ears and brain doors and forward claws, huang on the yin carved pattern to show the tiger's spots, unique shape, like a tiger going up the mountain. Based on the research on animal archaeology and animal images at the site, I believe that the animal image carved with precious jade materials reflects the spiritual appeal of the prehistoric ancestors both in terms of material and image, and the animal image is first of all the wild animals well known to the prehistoric ancestors of Lingjiatan, from which they select animals representing the sky (birds and eagles), the earth (pigs, tigers, rabbits) and the underground (turtle) as the image source, and then deify it into the image of dragons and phoenixes, thus realizing the sublimation of the animal image and further pinning their spiritual appeals.
The ancestors of the late Shang Dynasty had a deeper understanding of tigers. The 1936 issue of Mammals in Anyang Yin Ruins records the skulls and mandibles of tigers unearthed at the Anyang Yin Ruins site in Henan Province, which De Rijin and Yang Zhongjian designate as "wild and indigenous animals" (i.e., native wild animals). The "tiger" in the oracle bone is a hieroglyph, and the identification features are obvious: the tiger's mouth is wide open, the upper and lower jaws have raised fangs, and even the tiger's body is painted with stripes, and the clawed feet and curly tail are carefully depicted, and it can be seen from its glyph that the ancestors of the late Shang Dynasty were very familiar with the tiger. Tigers are fierce and fierce, and in the era of only bows and crossbows, they were generally only captured by forming a large hunting party. The tiger hunting formation recorded in Yin Xubu's speech is very large, but it has received very little. For example, in a field hunt, the Shang King's team hunted 40 deer, 164 wolves, 159 elk, etc., while the tiger had only 1 (Oracle Bone Collection, 10198 Bin Group). A successful tiger hunting operation is recorded in the oracle bones of the Royal Ontario Museum of Canada, in which they sacrificed the humerus of the tiger in a sacrificial event and carved and inlaid to highlight its preciousness. The tiger is rare and precious, and because of its ferocity, it arouses human awe, and is the most common and used animal image in the Yin Ruins site.
Han Ding: Here we specially comb through an important type of tiger relics: the theme of "human tiger" in the Shang and Zhou Dynasties. There is more discussion on the theme of "human tiger" in the academic circles, and the whole can be divided into two types of views: "tiger cannibalism" and "human tiger". Regarding the nature (function) of "tigers", there are views on the family emblem, totem, ancestors, ward off evil spirits, the way to death, tiger fang, etc.; about "people", there are human animals, witches, hunters and other views. However, there is a problem with existing studies: the connection between the "human-tiger companion" and the "half-human," half-tiger type has not been paid attention to. The common feature of the "half-man, half-tiger" type is that the tiger head replaces the human head, forming the image of the "tiger head". In the "Early "Human Snake" Theme Study", I once mentioned that the image of the "human head snake body" originated from the witch's legs crossed by the snake, and speculated that the part of the human body "covered" by the beast in the theme of "Human-Beast Companionship" would be replaced by animals, forming the image of "half-man and half-beast". The evolution of "human head into the tiger's mouth" in the theme of "human tiger" into "tiger head human body" once again proves this speculation. "The head of the man enters the mouth of the tiger" shows the situation of the witch wearing a tiger skin, "in the Shang Dynasty, animals served as the assistant of the witch, assisting the witch to communicate between heaven and earth" (Zhang Guangzhi). The tiger's mouth is likely to be, as Alan said, "symbolizes the path of life and death", so the human head enters the tiger's mouth, representing the purpose of the witch to communicate with the ancestors of the human gods by entering the "other world". "Tiger head human body" is an abstract expression of the "human and tiger companionship" type.
Western Han Tiger striped round gold medal ornament
The remains of tiger culture reveal the special feelings of the Chinese ancestors towards the tiger
China Social Science Network: What special cognition of tiger culture reflected by these tiger cultural relics and tiger cultural relics of the Chinese ancestors?
Yuan Jing: Through the excavation and study of the remains of the tiger culture, it is not difficult to find the special feelings of the Chinese ancestors for the tiger, the tiger as a ferocious beast poses a threat to the survival of mankind, but the bravery carried by the tiger itself is indeed admired by the Chinese ancestors, hoping to attach the tiger's divine power to the human body in a special form, and then produce great power. In the ruins of the stone ridge just mentioned, in the center of a stone strip, a human face with short hair on the back, slightly upturned hair, large eyes, large nose, and large face is carved, and the human face is symmetrically carved out of two tigers of exactly the same shape, the tiger is hanging its head, the tiger's mouth is wide open, exposing its upper and lower fangs, its limbs are prone, its tail is rolled up, and the tiger's body and tail are carved with patterns. Such a vivid carving should be that the ancients carefully observed the activities of the tiger, left a deep impression, and then used artistic techniques to vividly reproduce the characteristics of the tiger. Tigers can eat people, it can be imagined that the ancients more than 4,000 years ago, when encountering tigers, risked their lives, carefully observed, and then carefully conceived, symmetrical design, carefully carved, and finally left the typical tiger image on the stone for eternity, I think that that carver or those carvers are worthy of the title of the great artists of that era. Another example is the bronze tiger of the Shang Dynasty collected in the Chinucci Museum in France, with a unique shape. Because the human head is located in the tiger's mouth, this gourd was once called the "tiger cannibal" 卣, but Zhang Guangzhi did not agree that the pattern of the tiger was the judgment of the tiger eater. He believes that the tiger's open tiger mouth does not chew and swallow, which is a person's use of the tiger's power to communicate with heaven and earth, which has religious significance.
Lü Peng: I would like to make two main points on this issue. First, "the tiger hurts people", so the Chinese ancestors were full of reverence and even fear for the tiger, and the tiger was a symbol of bravery and strength, and the ancestors tried to obtain magical and courageous strength through the tiger. The famous tiger piranha (2 pieces in total, now in the Izumiya Museum in Japan and the Chinucci Museum in France) gives a very realistic description of the tiger's blood basin mouth and sharp teeth and claws. However, some scholars believe that the person with the mouth of the tiger should be a person in tiger skin, and its actual source should be the dance and practice of hunting in tiger skin or ritual activities. Tiger General, Tiger Ben, Tiger Rune, etc. are the respect for tigers in the military field. Second, in the face of tiger infestations, it is indeed the wisest approach to "yield the 'tiger's' soldiers without fighting." The "Jingzong Fuhu Jade Ornament" collected by the National Museum of China uses the original jade skin color to present the tiger's colorful coat color. It depicts the situation in which Liao Jingzong surrendered to the tiger: Jingzong wore a crown and a narrow-sleeved robe, sitting next to the stone cave, and the "non-threatening" tiger clothes obediently crouched next to Jingzong, showing the greatness of human strength from one side.
Han Ding: Through the Yinshan petroglyphs and Ordos bronzes, it can be seen that the tigers depicted by the northern nomads often appear as predators, with large mouths, fangs, or biting, or culling, and some of them also holding deer, sheep and other prey. Hunting is also an important survival skill of nomadic people, and in the natural environment of the weak and the strong, the tiger shows that it is the characteristics that a good hunter needs. Therefore, the admiration for the king of the hundred beasts is fully demonstrated in the grassland art. On the other hand, when someone in the petroglyph has a tiger, the tiger occupies most of the space in the picture, and the proportion also reflects the nomadic respect for the tiger.
Through the oracle bones, the understanding of tigers by the farming peoples in the Central Plains of the Shang Dynasty can be explored: the oracle bone "tiger" character () is characterized by: the tiger's mouth is wide open, the tail is raised, and the body has many stripes (some are simplified:). Shan Yuchen pointed out that in addition to making animal names, human names, Fang Guo names, and deities, the "tiger" will also cause disasters. Related words, such as the word "abuse" (He, 17192), are also meaning disaster. In the face of the threat of tigers, Zhongyuan Chumin took the following measures: (He, 30998), "" to drive the tiger away; ("He" 10206), "to fight the tiger with Go; ("He" 20710), "to catch the tiger with a net."
We see the different understandings of tigers by the ancestors of the nomadic and agrarian peoples due to differences in their living patterns: the former advocating the ferocity of the tiger; the latter fighting the tiger in secular life, and in religious ceremonies, the symbolic communication of the ancestors of the gods and gods (the theme of "human tiger").
Warring States Of Kindo Tiger Charm
Tiger culture research helps Chinese civilization to explore its source
China Social Science Network: What is the role of the discussion of tiger culture in promoting the overall research of Chinese civilization?
Yuan Jing: Among the tiger-related artificial remains found in archaeological excavations, the most famous is the clam sculpture dragon and tiger pattern at the Xishuipo site in Puyang County, Henan Province. The Site of Xishuipo belongs to the Neolithic Period. In the second phase of cultural remains at this site, which dates from 6500 to 6300 years ago, three groups of mussel sculptures related to dragons and tigers were found. For example, the owner of Tomb No. 45 is a prime-aged male, with a length of 1.84 meters, his head facing south, his back straight, and the east and west sides of the tomb owner have a dragon and a tiger with mussel shells. Among them, the tiger pattern is located on the left side of the human skeleton, the head is facing north, the back is facing east, the body is 1.39 meters long, the tiger head is slightly low, the eyes are round and open, the mouth is open, the teeth are exposed, the limbs are walking, and the tail is drooping. 20 meters south of Tomb No. 45, a group of mussel-shaped dragon and tiger conjoined figures were also found. The tiger's head faces north and its back goes east, its tail is connected to the upper body of the dragon, and on its back there is an animal similar to a deer. 25 meters south of the mussel sculpture dragon and tiger conjoined figure, a group of clam sculptures riding dragons and running tigers were found. Among them, the tiger's head is facing west, its back is facing south, its head is tilted upwards, and its limbs are slightly bent, in a running shape. According to the ancients who used mussel shells to pose the dragon and tiger pattern in Tomb No. 45 more than 6,000 years ago (only this is the case in the nearly 100 tombs in the entire cemetery), it can be inferred that the status of the owner of the tomb is extraordinary.
Excavated in 1985 in Min'an Village, Maohe County, Shaodong County, Shaoyang City, Hunan Province, the Four Tigers ornamental copper pendant has a different meaning. This bell belonging to the Western Zhou Dynasty has a larger body, with an oval profile, a straight mouth, and a button on the top. The bird's stripes with protrusions in front and back of the bell body are ridged ridges, with double tigers on each side, the tiger's head down, its limbs slightly curled, and its tail curled up. It was used by kings and nobles in conjunction with chimes and chimes during feasts or sacrifices. Ancient China began to make ritual music from the Western Zhou Dynasty, and the Book of Rites and Music records: "Those who are happy are also those who are immutable in love; those who are also rites, those who cannot be changed by reason." Music is the same, etiquette is different. Li Lezhi said, it is humane. Kong Yingda Shuo: "If the lord of music is the same, then it is close and far; if the lord is respectful, it is noble and orderly." "Since ancient times, music has the role of expressing people's thoughts and feelings and life conditions, which can mobilize people's emotions and stimulate people's resonance." Imagine that more than 3,000 years ago, in the banquet or sacrifice activities of the nobility, the ancients may have repeatedly struck this instrument decorated with tiger stripes, which not only expressed the joy of the atmosphere, but also rendered the solemnity of the scene, so that everyone could accept the solemn etiquette in that atmosphere.
Yin Ruins Museum Jade Tiger
Li Xinwei: The study of the development and evolution of the tiger image in the prehistoric period has played an important role in understanding the concept of Chinese prehistoric religion, and in understanding the origin of Chinese civilization and the formation of early states.
In the Hongshan culture, there is a kind of cloud-shaped device, and the middle part is also the face of the fanged beast, which should also be the image of the tiger. The parts on both sides, like pig heads, represent the Beidou and have the same connotation as the jade eagle in Lingjiatan. There should be direct communication between the upper echelons of the two cultures in order to share such similar cosmological and religious views.
Liangzhu culture jade and jade have "god-man beast face pattern", the animal face has large round eyes, garlic nose, four fangs wide mouth. What should be expressed is also the image of the tiger, and it is also the representative of the god of the heavenly pole. The gods wear a crown of feathers, their arms are in the shape of wings, and their feet become bird claws, which is the image of a human-bird combination. I speculate that the divine human beast face pattern shows that the Liangzhu King, who is also the most powerful divine sorcerer, can turn into a divine bird, assist the god of the heavenly pole represented by the tiger, maintain the operation of the universe, and ensure that the wind and rain are smooth. Such religious concepts are directly inherited from the Lingjiatan and Hongshan cultures.
Far away in the depths of the Loess Plateau, the Shi'a culture has the image of a stone-carved tiger. At this time, the tiger should still be a symbol of the god of the heavenly pole. In some areas, jade also depicts an image of a human head in front of a tiger. The human head has haircuts, which are typical of bird-shaped people. It shows the theme of the Liangzhu culture that has people and birds communicating with each other and assisting the god of the Heavenly Pole.
After the Western Zhou Dynasty, Chinese civilization underwent a transformation of "human culture", and the religious meaning of the tiger may have changed, but the tiger has always been a symbol of divine might, and the image of the tiger has always been popular in the works of art of various eras.
Jin Dynasty Yellow Glaze Black Color Inscribed Poem Tiger Pillow
Han Ding: Tiger culture has four main roles in understanding the Chinese civilization with a long history and profound depth. First, through the study of the distribution of tiger remains and the sorting out of tiger cultural relics, we can promote the understanding of the ecological environment and social life patterns of the region in history. Second, from the perspective of diachronicity, the changes in the relationship between man and tiger represented by the ornamentation of utensils can be seen, and the change in the understanding of tigers can be seen, which more deeply reflects the changes in the religious views of the ancestors. Third, from the perspective of synchronicity, the interaction between regional cultures in the Shang Dynasty can be seen through the distribution of the special ornament of the "human tiger" theme (Henan, Anhui, Hunan, Sichuan), while the "human tiger" theme reflects the situation of the wuyi wearing tiger skin, and the spread of this "wuyi" reflects the regional culture's identification with the beliefs and rituals of the Shang Dynasty to a certain extent, which can be seen in the formation process of the pluralistic integration pattern of Chinese civilization in the ideological field in the early days of Chinese civilization. Fourth, through the "tiger" and related characters in the oracle bone, the struggle and resistance of the farming nation in the face of the beast are depicted, reflecting the national spirit of the Chinese nation of indomitable and self-improvement.
Lü Peng: Humans and animals share the blue planet of the earth, the relationship between the two is intricate and changes with time, and human beings have a profound cultural connotation for the psychological changes and behavioral changes of tigers. Before domestication, humans and wild animals had their own territories, humans could obtain wildlife resources through hunting and fishing, and humans could not avoid being injured by wild animals or becoming their mouth food, and there was a delicate coexistence and balance between humans and animals. With the advent of domestication and even animal husbandry, humans first broke the "agreement" with wild animals to coexist, treating "non-my race" as conquerors at every turn. A small number of wild animals have completed the transformation into domestic animals, and a new "covenant" has been "concluded" between humans and domestic animals: mutually beneficial symbiosis, with the result that both the population of domestic animals and the number of human populations have increased, and humans have controlled the resources of domestic animals. Wild animals that obey the laws of nature and are unwilling to follow the social order constructed by human beings and stay in the wilderness, even if they are as fierce as tigers, will inevitably face the situation of population reduction and even extinction. With the expansion of humans, humans may be able to establish protected areas in the wilderness to protect wildlife populations; within the scope of human territory, humans shelter them by establishing zoos and other means, and some individuals in wild animals also "try" (forced) to integrate themselves through self-domestication. The vicissitudes of the sea, the wilderness is difficult to find, the beasts are hidden, mankind is also facing the severe environmental problems and challenges that endanger survival, protecting biodiversity and jointly building a community of life in which man and nature coexist in harmony is the solemn commitment and action guide that mankind should have for the future!
Photo and text from: China Social Science Network