The Year of the Tiger Tiger is mighty
This year is the Year of the Tiger of the Zodiac, about the tiger, everyone should have read a lot of articles recently, all fields are trying to explore the story of the tiger, you must have learned a lot, today I want to share with you some knowledge about the lukewarm tiger.
1. "Tiger tiger is alive" or "tiger tiger is mighty"?
In the New Year of the Tiger, everyone will send a blessing "I wish you tiger and tiger vitality" when you visit the New Year, when you finish or listen to this sentence, do you flash back a word in your mind, "tiger and tiger is full of wind", then which of these two words is more accurate?
△ Qing ren painting Meng tiger figure Fierce tiger figure
In fact, there is no problem with these two words, but as an idiom, the historical origin of "tiger and tiger shengfeng" may be more distant, which comes from the idiom "tiger howling wind sheng", from the "Northern History Zhang Dinghe Liechuan" on the "tiger roaring wind life, dragon soaring clouds, heroic and virtuous, but also because of the time". Zhang Dinghe was a famous general of the Sui Dynasty, and when he was young, his family was poor, but he was very ambitious and actively enlisted in the army. In the ninth year of the Reign of The Sui Kai Emperor (589), Zhang Dinghe participated in the Sui Campaign to destroy Chen, and paid tribute to Yi Tong for his merits. After that, Zhang Dinghe repeatedly made military merits and was promoted to the general of ShangkaiFu and Hussar. Later, li chong marched on the Turks with the shangzhu state, and was stabbed in the neck by the enemy when he charged the battle, and the blood flowed like a flood, but Zhang Dinghe was not afraid of danger, and continued to fight with grass to cover the wounds, so he entered the pillar state and was enfeoffed as the Marquis of Wu'an County. After the Sui Emperor succeeded to the throne, Zhang Dinghe successively served as the general of Yizhou Assassin History, Hanoi Taishou, and Zuotun Wei. Later, he accompanied the Sui Emperor to conquer Tuguhun, but because of Zhang Ding and the light enemy, he was shot and killed by Tuguhun's ambush troops. The Sui Emperor wept bitterly over Zhang Dinghe's martyrdom, posthumously honored him as Guanglu Dafu, and restored him to the title of Duke of Guanglu, giving him the title of Zhuangwu.
△ Ming Zhao Ruyin,"Wind Forest Tiger Map" (partial)
"Tiger tiger is mighty" is actually a phrase that means to have an awe-inspiring momentum like a tiger.
2. Why are tigers called "big bugs"?
In the "Water Margin", the story of Wu Song fighting the tiger is familiar to everyone, in the book this tiger is called "hanging eye white-fronted insect", liangshan heroes also have female insects, sick insects and other character nicknames, then the question is, how is the majestic tiger associated with insects?
△ Liu Jijian WuSong fighting tiger comic strip
In fact, "worm" in ancient times can refer to all animals, including people, there is a "five worms", the "Great Dai Li Yi Ben Ming" recorded: "There are three hundred and sixty feather worms, and the phoenix is long; there are three hundred and sixty hairy worms, and the unicorn is long; there are three hundred and sixty beetle worms, and the turtle is long; there are scale worms three hundred and sixty, and the dragon is long; the worms are three hundred and sixty, and the saints are long", and it is also recorded in the Erya Shi Worm: "Or walk or fly, or hair or worms, or jie or scales, with insects as elephants", according to these records, Man is nothing but a bug.
Tigers are called "big worms", and the earliest written records are in the Jin Dynasty Ganbao "Search for Gods" in "Funan Wang Fan hunted for tigers in the mountains, there are criminals, thrown at the tiger, not eaten, but Yuzhi; hence the name of the tiger big worm". It is also believed that Li Yuan of the Tang Dynasty avoided the secret of his grandfather Li Hu and renamed the tiger "Big Worm".
3. Tigers in ancient texts
Tigers are big cats, and the earliest tiger fossils were found in Lantian Gongzhuling, Shaanxi Province, about 1.1 million years ago. In 1987, a group of dragon and tiger patterns made of mussel shells were found in the Yangshao Culture Tomb at the Xishuipo site in Puyang, Henan, and the dragon and the tiger were opposite, which should be the earliest tiger image created by the ancients.
△ The third group of mussel shells at the Xishuipo site poses the dragon and tiger pattern (painted by the archaeological team of the Puyang Xishuipo site)
There are two written accounts of tigers in the oracle bone sayings about tiger hunting. In the pre-Qin classics "I Ching", "Shang Shu", and "Classic of Mountains and Seas", there are also many records of tigers, such as "Zhou Yi Yi": "The tiger looks at it, and its desire is to chase away"; the Book of Pastoral Oath: "Like a tiger like a cat, like a bear like a bear", there are tigers in many places in the Classic of Mountains and Seas, and many immortal images are also related to tigers, such as "Four hundred miles in the southwest, known as the hill of Kunlun, is the capital under the Emperor, the god Lu Wusizhi." Its god-like tiger body and nine tails, human face and tiger claws", even the original image of the queen mother Niangniang (West Queen Mother) that we are familiar with is "tiger teeth, with leopard tail, cave, known as the West Queen Mother".
△ The image of the Queen Mother of the West in the Han Dynasty portrait tiles
The familiar idiom "fox fake tiger wei" is from the "Warring States Policy Chu Ce", and King Jingxuan asked the group of ministers: "I have heard of the fear of the north, zhao xi yiya, what is the fruit?" "The crowd is not right. Jiang Yi said, "The tiger asks for a hundred beasts and eats it, and the fox gets it." The fox said, "The son does not dare to eat me." Heaven and earth have made me grow a hundred beasts, and this son eats me, and it is against the emperor's destiny. The Son thinks that I do not believe, I am the Son first, the Son follows me, and the beast sees me and dares not go away? The tiger thought so, so he went with it. The beast sees everything and goes. The tiger did not know that the beast was afraid of itself and walked away, thinking that it was afraid of the fox. The place of the present king is five thousand miles, with a million armor, and the exclusive Zhao Xi Shirt; therefore, the fear of the North is also the fear of the King's armor soldiers, and the fear of the tiger of the hundred beasts. ”
There are many poems about tigers in ancient poetry, and the "Daya Han Yi" in the earliest poetry collection in the mainland, the Book of Poetry, has the verse "There are bears and cats, there are cats and tigers", and tigers have long been in poetry. In addition, many poets of different dynasties have written poems entitled "The Tiger's Journey", such as:
Tiger Row
North and South Dynasty Xie Huilian
The tiger dives deep into the mountains and roars in its own wind.
People say that guests are happy, and guests are sad.
Tang Zhang
The trees of the north mountain of the South Mountain are silent, and the tigers walk around the forest in the daytime.
Xiang Wan's body was a Taoist food, and the elk in the mountains were silent.
Every year the adopted son is in the deep valley, and the male and female are not separated.
There is a mountain village near the cave in the valley, and the chief takes the yellow calf from the village.
The five young people did not dare to shoot, and came to the forest to see the traces.
4. Tigers in ancient gardens
In the earliest prototype of chinese gardens, there are all kinds of beasts and birds, which is equivalent to a large natural zoo, hunting is one of the main functions of the garden, and the wild beasts in the confinement have tigers. In the Shanglin Garden of the Han Dynasty, wild beasts were herded in the mountain forest for hunting, but the beasts were circled to prevent injury, and there were many animal pens in the garden, and the tiger circle was one of them. The imperial garden "Tongque Garden" in Cao Wei's city, also known as the "Tongjue Garden", has three platforms, the southern one is the "Golden Tiger Platform", which was later renamed "Golden Fengtai" to avoid Zhao Shihu. The Forbidden Garden of the Tang Dynasty is the Daxing Garden of the Sui Dynasty, which also set up a local "tiger circle" for the elderly tiger. Rare birds and exotic animals were also raised in the Royal Garden of the Song Dynasty, and the "Donkey Yu" was believed to be a suspected tiger. The "Ten Thousand Animals Garden", the predecessor of the Beijing Zoo, the Qing Agricultural Experimental Ground, was opened in 1907, and the first animals on display were lions, tigers, elephants and other animals purchased by Duanfang from Germany.
△ Yuan Ren painted Lin Yu hunting map
△ Liaojin Relief Tiger Brick (Collection of China Garden Museum)
△ Jindai Cizhou kiln tiger shaped pillow
△ Yuan Ren painting tiger axis (collection of the National Palace Museum, Taipei)
△ Old photo of the gate of the Qing Agricultural Experimental Field (picture from the Internet)
Whether ancient or modern, due to the restrictions of breeding conditions, there are very few elderly tigers in private gardens. Zhang Daqian and Zhang Shanxiao brothers lived in the garden for several years because they were friendly with Zhang Shihuang, the owner of suzhou Master of Nets Garden, Zhang Shanxiao was good at painting tigers and raised two real tigers in the courtyard, and later a milk tiger was raised in the Dian Chun Courtyard, known as "Tiger", which left celebrity anecdotes and legends, and also made the ancient garden of the Master of Nets Garden more interesting topics, because it is indeed rare to raise tigers in private gardens. Later, after the death of the tiger, it was buried under the rockery in the park, and there was an epitaph on the wall of the park that read "The Tomb of the Tiger Raised by Brother Xianzhong".
△ Suzhou Master of Nets Garden
△ Zhang Shanxiao's "Tiger" (From the Long Museum of Art, Shanghai)
△ Tiger in the Master of Nets Garden (Picture from the Internet)
Some place names in ancient gardens are also related to tigers, such as Suzhou Tiger Hill, is a famous scenic spot in history, according to the "History" record, Wu Wang Lu was buried here, legend has three days after the burial there is "white tiger squatting on it", so the name tiger hill, also said to be "hill like crouching tiger", named after the shape. Tiger Hill has the reputation of "the first scenic spot in Wuzhong" and "the first mountain in Wuzhong", and Su Shi of the Song Dynasty wrote the famous saying that "after tasting Gu Su, not swimming in Tiger Hill, not in Lu Qiu, it is two things that are owed".
△ Ming Qiuying Tiger Qiutu
In addition, in the construction of ancient capitals and palaces, four animal images were commonly used to indicate orientation, of which the white tiger represented the West, and the overall image was a white tiger, symbolizing the seven stars in the western sky. The white tiger is also a commonly used image in the military, and the five elements of the West are gold, which is related to the sword soldiers, such as the tiger symbol for the transfer of troops.
△ White Tiger Wadang of the Han Dynasty (Collection of China Three Gorges Museum, Chongqing)
△ Han Dynasty White Tiger Wadang (Temporary Exhibition Hall No. 3 of China Garden Museum)
"Only masonry and stone remember the garden" - exhibition of han dynasty cultural relics in the museum collection
△ Ancient Tiger Rune (Image from the Internet)
In the living environment, there are also some customs related to tigers, which are generally related to warding off evil spirits and warding off evil spirits. The Eastern Han Dynasty Ying Shao's "Customs and Customs" contains: often with the Chinese New Year's Eve, as a peach person, weeping reeds, painting a tiger in the door, all of which follow the previous events, and hope to resist the fierceness. To this day, the custom of "Chinese New Year's Eve painting a tiger at the gate to ward off evil" is still preserved in some areas.
△ Qing Dynasty martial general Tiger Fang Supplement (Picture from the Internet)
The tiger is a very important animal in traditional Chinese animal culture, with the meaning of might, bravery, strength and vitality. I wish you all the momentum of the Tiger year, like a fierce tiger descending the mountain, acting like a tiger!