With the advent of the Spring Festival, the lunar calendar has entered the Year of the Tiger. In traditional Chinese culture, the tiger is the king of mountain beasts and the length of a hundred beasts, which means auspiciousness and peace, and is a symbol of vitality and glory. "Like a tiger adding wings", "tiger tiger is mighty", "a tiger lying in the middle of the hall, ruyi and auspicious", from these words and folk sayings can be seen that people love tigers. So what are the elements of the tiger in the Forbidden City? At the same time, there are many cultural relics in the Forbidden City, not all of which are decent, which ones have their own "national tide" style? Let's take a look.
Ren Meimei, A reporter from CCTV: What tigers are there in the Forbidden City? In my hand is this year's "tiger" themed Forbidden City calendar, the cover of the calendar is a winged flying tiger image, this image is from the Forbidden City from a Qing Dynasty cultural relics - the cloud pattern flying tiger flag.
Xu Hai, director of the Intangible Cultural Heritage Editorial Office of the Palace Publishing House: The flying tiger flag in the cloud pattern, it is a prop used in the performance time of the Qing Dynasty acting institution Shengping Bureau, in the Qing Palace, a very important entertainment activity during the Spring Festival every year is to listen to the play, and the flying tiger flag is a prop used by the martial generals when they appear. In addition to acting, it is also used as a military flag in the march of the army, including the eight flags army quilt is embroidered with flying tiger stripes, which is a symbol of strength.
The image of the flying tiger in the flag is strangely conceived, the tiger with two wings is fierce and wanton, and the tiger and tiger fly in the sky with anger, which looks both majestic and interesting. This year's Forbidden City calendar contains a total of 151 cultural relics with tiger elements, why choose this one as the cover?
Xu Hai, director of the Intangible Cultural Heritage Editorial Office of the Palace Publishing House: Its color contrast is very clear, the yellow tiger body, as well as this red wings and foot stepping on the auspicious clouds, is an auspicious meaning. Now that we are popular with the concept of "national tide", we have chosen this tiger with a special national tide style, which represents our expectation for a tiger and tiger in the new year.
"White Tiger": it represents both orientation and auspiciousness
In the cultural relics of the Forbidden City, the image of flying tigers is not uncommon, but did you know that their "take-off" posture is different? In addition to the "Flying Tiger", what other strangely shaped tigers are there in the Forbidden City? Take a peek.
The tiger symbolizes might and strength, and for thousands of years, the ancients used various materials to portray a variety of tigers. The image of the flying tiger not only appears on the ancient military flags and military quilts, if you come to the sculpture hall of the Forbidden City, you can see the "White Tiger" portrait tiles flying in the royal wind.
Liang Yong, Artifact Department of the Palace Museum: It borrowed the image of the tiger, and then created it as a myth, basically it can be said that the tiger's head is still very similar to the tiger, but the body may borrow the slender body of the dragon, and the bricks are covered with clouds, indicating that the tiger is flying in the royal wind, and there is a feather man in front of it to lead it to heaven.
These four groups of portrait bricks depict the images of green dragon, white tiger, suzaku and Xuanwu, which the ancients regarded as the "four divine beasts", representing the four directions of east, west, south and north respectively. In the Han Dynasty, Sui and Tang Dynasties, the four gods are more common on the portrait stones and portrait tiles, which not only indicate the season and direction, but also the mascot for warding off evil spirits and seeking blessings.
Qingyu Zodiac Tiger: The head of the tiger is a man with a cute attitude
The jade zodiac tiger placed on the kang table in the sleeping hall behind the Yangxin Hall of the Forbidden City is another look, it is only 5.9 centimeters high, the tiger head is human, wearing a collared robe, a jacquard basket, and its eleven small partners are sitting in a rosewood box, which is very interesting. According to historical records, this set of jade zodiac signs was designed by the Qianlong Emperor himself.
Shoushan stone carving "Little Meng Tiger": showcasing superb carving craftsmanship
This piece is a Qing Dynasty Fuhu Luohan carved from the continent's unique precious colored stone - Shoushan Stone, the height is only 12 centimeters, the Luohan sits on the back of the tiger with a smile, and the tiger crawls on the side of the Luohan with its head held high, a docile and lovely appearance. Although the physique is not large, the character carving is extremely fine, the roots of the whiskers and hair roots are fleshy, and the clothing patterns and tiger body markings are also expressed in fine yin carved lines, showing a superb level of craftsmanship.
Tiger-shaped porcelain pillows were popular during the Song and Jin dynasties
The ancients not only made tigers into ornaments, but also combined them with utensils in life to give them practical value. What kind of "tiger" was popular during the Song and Jin dynasties? Let's take a look.
The brown-glazed painted tiger-shaped pillows on display in the Palace Museum of Ceramics were popular with the public during the Song and Jin dynasties, and can now be seen in many museums. With the tiger's back as the pillow surface, only the head, tail and claws are shaped to form a rough concave and convex contour, and then the tiger's mouth, eyes, nose and ears are outlined with ink color, and the brushwork is concise and bold, lively and natural. The tiger's head is huge and integrated with the body, and the proportion of the limbs is significantly shortened, making the tiger look like a clump, giving people a cute and cute feeling.
Dong Yanqing, Artifacts Department of the Palace Museum: Tiger-shaped pillows are mostly produced in folk kiln factories, and its popularity is closely related to folk life and people's expectations for life, and has been given the significance of being able to ward off evil spirits and eliminate disasters.
See cultural relics online Enjoy the "best" cultural feast of the Forbidden City in the Year of the Tiger
There are many tiger cultural relics in the Forbidden City, just look at how these are enough. The 2022 Forbidden City Calendar selects 151 artifacts, paintings, accessories, costumes and other cultural relics about tigers, such as tiger charms, tiger festivals, tiger pendants, tiger hats, tiger boots... In addition, during the Spring Festival, the Forbidden City Digital Cultural Relics Library will release 15,000 cultural relics images, and will also launch the Year of the Tiger Cultural Relics Zone to bring everyone a "good" feast of New Year culture.
Source: CCTV news client