The mainland is rich in land and has a long history, many excavated cultural relics can be called "the most in the world", and elements related to tigers abound.
The Shuowen Jiezi said: "Tiger, the king of the mountain beast." As early as 2 million years ago, the modern tiger ancestors, known as the "Ancestral Tiger of China", lived on the land of China and had countless "intimate" contacts with the ancient ancestors for the living space, so when the Chinese nation had culture, tiger culture also appeared.
The earliest tiger image found in mainland archaeology is a dragon and tiger pattern made of mussel shells excavated in 1987 on the west slope of Puyang, Henan. Since then, a large number of tiger-related cultural relics have emerged. Today we will take stock of the authentic cultural relics related to tigers.
Tiger Rune
During the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period, a bronze tiger charm dedicated to the dispatch of troops appeared. The back of the tiger charm is inscribed with an inscription, divided into two halves, the right half is stored in the imperial court, the left half is issued to the commander or local governor, and when the troops are dispatched, two halves are required to investigate and verify the truth before they can take effect.
The Du Hu Charm in the Shaanxi History Museum.
There are very few surviving pre-Qin tiger charms, the most famous of which is the Du Hu charms in the Shaanxi History Museum. Since then, except for the Sui and Tang dynasties, which did not use tiger charms, all the dynasties have used tiger-shaped symbols as a souvenir for troop mobilization. The pattern of the four military attaches in the Ming and Qing dynasties is also the image of the tiger. It can be seen that in the traditional Chinese tiger culture, the tiger has always been a symbol of military power and force.
The "Chronicle of the Princes of Wei" records that the Wei state's XinlingJun's unscrupulous stealing of the charm to save Zhao also became a wonderful story of the Warring States period, embodying wisdom, condensing righteousness, and also including loyalty.
Tiger Festival
The Wrong Gold Inscription Tiger Festival was excavated in 1983 in the tomb of the King of Han Nanyue in Xianggang, Guangzhou, Guangdong Province. When it was found, it was wrapped in silk and placed under the root of the central wall of the West Ear Chamber, which has the largest number of burial artifacts and the largest variety of burial relics in the tomb.
The Museum of the King of Nanyue holds a cultural relic" "Wrong Gold Inscription Tiger Festival". Image source: Courtesy of the Museum of the King of South Vietnam
The tiger section is 19 cm long, the highest is 11.6 cm, and the thickest is 1.2 cm. It's not big, but it's very beautiful. It is cast in bronze in the shape of a flat tiger, squatting, opening its mouth and teeth, curling its tail with a bowed waist, and bending its tail into a "figure 8" shape. Tiger's eye and tiger ear are outlined by fine gold sheets, and the markings on the tiger's body are pasted with gold leaf-shaped shallow grooves cast, and 60 pieces are shared on both sides, showing a colorful tiger skin shape, gorgeous and vivid.
This tiger festival is mainly used for post-transmission, mission, and small-scale troop transfer, which is different from the nature of the tiger symbol in the military. On the front of the Tiger Festival, there is a wrong gold inscription "Wang Feng = Che Lu", "=" is a commonly used stacked character number in ancient times, the inscription can be read as "Wang Feng Feng Che Biao", but the last "驲" character has plagued scholars for many years.
Scholar Li Jiahao wrote in the article "Interpretation of the Inscription of the Chelu Tiger Festival in the Tomb of the King of Nanyue" that there are four words on the inscription, the first few are not difficult to recognize, but in the end, everyone is not small, one view is that it should be "(horse + earth)", that is, the variant of the word "Mu", "Che Mu" is also "Che Ma". Another opinion also believes that the word "(horse + earth)" should be borrowed as "disciple", that is, the meaning of pawn. But Mr. Lee argues that both accounts are problematic. Through complex glyphs and pronunciation, he believed that it should be the word "驲".
In "Lü's Spring and Autumn", there is "Qi Jun... Riding a donkey and chasing after oneself" is recorded, high temptation: "Donkey, pass the car also." Then "King's Command= (Fate) Chariot" is also the messenger who carries out the transmission according to the king's order. The Zuo Chuan records that "Chu Zi took the Horse", and Kong Shu quoted the Sheren "Erya" note: "驲, the legend of His Holiness also". It can be seen that the Chelu Tiger Festival is a voucher used by high-status people to pass on the transmission, which can be seen from the large size and exquisite decoration of the Chelu Tiger Festival.
Western Zhou HuGui (guǐ)
For the New Year's family reunion, Chinese New Year's Eve meal is indispensable, and on the Chinese New Year's Eve meal in the Western Zhou Dynasty, there will probably be such an instrument, the tiger gui.
The Tiger Gui is a vessel used in ancient China to hold cooked rice, and is one of the iconic bronze utensils of the Chinese Bronze Age. During the Western Zhou Dynasty, the gui, one of the main bronze ceremonial vessels, was combined with an even number during sacrifices or banquets, and used in conjunction with the odd combination of dings.
Western Zhou Tiger Gui
Its lid is topped with a lotus petal-shaped gripper, with an open mouth that spreads outwards, and a rounded belly that forms a smooth curve and a square base connected underneath the circle foot. The two sides of the abdomen are decorated with dragon head ears, and the shape is majestic. The cover, abdomen and square seat are decorated with flowing curved ripples, and the mouth edge and circle foot are decorated with intertwined animal eye interlocking patterns, which are imposing and majestic, and the whole tiger has a sense of rhythm.
Western Zhou Tiger (yǒu)
The Western Zhou Tiger Is said to have been unearthed at the junction of Anhua and Ningxiang in Hunan Province, and is a bronze treasure from the late Shang Dynasty in China, with a total of two pieces with a height of 35.7 centimeters, both of which later flowed abroad, one in the Oriental Museum of Art in Paris, France, and one in the Izumiya Museum in Japan.
Western Zhou Tiger
Regarding the shape of the Western Zhou Tiger, the posture of holding the tiger and the person is strange. The tiger's hind feet and tail support the body and at the same time form the three legs of the trojan. The tiger's front paws hold a person, and the person crouches down toward the tiger's chest. A pair of bare feet stepped on the tiger's claws, and his hands reached out to the tiger's shoulders, and the tiger wanted to open its mouth to eat the human head. The shoulder end of the tiger is attached to the beam, and the beam has an animal head at both ends, and the beam is decorated with a long pattern and a thunder pattern background.
The upper part of the tiger's back is an oval mouth, with a lid, a deer on the lid, and the lid is decorated with a curly tail, and also has a thunder pattern substrate, which is consistent with the body. The tiger's ears are erect and its teeth are sharp. The surface of the vessel is mostly black, with a very thin green rust left in the part, and like many bronzes excavated in the late Shang Dynasty in Hunan, it is richly decorated with human and animal themes, showing strange ideas.
What exactly is the Western Zhou Tiger Blade used for? It is a kind of utensil that was popular in the Shang and Zhou Dynasties and was commonly used to hold wine. The rarity of this artifact lies in the shape of the "tiger cannibal". Regarding this shape, from the academic community to the people, it can be said that there are different opinions and opinions. But in any case, preserved to this day, its relatively complete technical process is still admired by future generations.
Bronze Tiger Ying (yíng)
Mainland folk have a tradition of sacrifice and offering every New Year's Festival, and of course, there are also utensils for sacrifice and offering.
The "Tiggo You'an - 2022 Chinese New Year Exhibition" held by the National Museum was opened to the public from January 19, and hundreds of sets of classic "tiger cultural relics" were collectively unveiled in the exhibition hall like the courtyard, including many national treasures such as bronze tiger ying, Yanghou Tiger Charm of the Western Han Dynasty.
Bronze "Tiger Chain"
The bronze "Tiger Hammer" is a cultural relic of the late Western Zhou Dynasty, and the inscription "Self-made Offering" is cast in the top cover, which has important historical, artistic and cultural value due to its exquisite and unique shape and rare tiger-shaped decoration.
According to the relevant information of the State Administration of Cultural Heritage, the tiger hammer is shaped as a luxury mouth, square lips, short bundle neck, wide folded shoulders, abdomen, round bottom, and three-hoofed foot. On one side of the shoulder there is a tubular stream, modeled after the tiger, and on the other side there is a dragon head, the lid is folded, there is a round carved tiger-shaped decoration, and there are small ring buttons on the lid and the chain, which should have been chained, but it is now lost. The shoulders are decorated with a curly moiré, the upper part of the abdomen is decorated with a horizontal S-shaped oblique cloud pattern, the lower part of the abdomen is decorated with tile patterns, and the foot roots are decorated with gluttonous patterns.
The inscription on the inside of the cover reads four characters: "Zi Cha (作) (供) (鎣)." The word "cha" is anti-book. It may be a co-word, and the co-word is usually made and the shape is more different. The self-title of the device is "鎣", which is another name for 盉. "Gong" as a modifier for the name of the instrument is still the first sight. The first text of the common offering, Guangya ShiYi II: "Offering, Entering also." "Jade Chapters and Humanities": "Offerings, offerings." "Guangyun Zhongyun": "Offering, Bongye." The "offering" specifies the purpose of this vessel, that is, it is used as a sacrifice.
The origin of the name "Tiger Lock" is mainly based on the Crouching Tiger shape on the flow pipe, which is the key part of the Bronze Cup of the Shang Zhou Dynasty, and is named after it by the ornamentation on this position.
There are countless artifacts related to tigers, and their symbolic meanings vary. After five thousand years of development of Chinese civilization, the image of the tiger has gradually evolved from the original beast to a spiritual connotation with political, religious, cultural and other aspects.
It's the Year of the Tiger
Take advantage of holidays
Step inside the museum
Go and admire those mysterious tiger relics
Source: Science and Technology Daily
Editor-in-Charge: Hao Duo
Editor: Chen Weiping Chen Jingchao