February 1, 2022 is the Chinese New Year, from the Year of the Ugly Cow to the Year of the Tiger. As we all know, the Elements of the Chinese Zodiac have been accepted by Japan and South Korea for a long time, but the tiger culture of China, Japan and South Korea has deep historical roots and cultural commonalities.
Chinese Tiger Culture: The Domineering and Divine Spirit of the King of Mountain Beasts
Chinese tiger culture was widely popular as early as the Shang Dynasty. The archaeology of Yin Ruins has unearthed a large number of tiger-shaped artifacts, of which the 8 jade tigers in the tomb of Women's Good are the most exquisite. Shang Zhou bronzes often appear in the "tiger cannibalism" pattern or relief, some scholars believe that this may represent the ancient Chinese worship of the tiger, the tiger as a medium or channel of communication between man and god. Not only that, but the tiger is seen as a symbol of power because of its bravery.
The Book of Poetry and Changwu says that "Wang Fenwu is like angry, entering the tiger, and Kan is like a tiger", comparing the sergeant to a fierce tiger and showing military might. The Eastern Han Dynasty's "Commentaries on the Interpretation of Texts" explains that "tiger" is "the king of mountains and beasts". Therefore, since the Spring and Autumn Warring States, the Chinese emperors have portrayed military seal letters as the shape of tigers, called "tiger symbols". The "Tiger Rune" is usually divided into two, which is kept in the hands of the emperor and the general respectively, and only when the soldier is used is used as a voucher to merge into one. In addition, the four gods culture was very popular in ancient China, and the white tiger was revered as a Western god and was known as the "god of war". Legend has it that King Wen of Zhou once dreamed of a tiger with wings, and then received the assistance of Jiang Shang to lay the foundation of the Zhou Dynasty, which can be described as "like a tiger adding wings".
△ Du Hu Fu.
In ancient China, in addition to its mighty image, the tiger was also regarded as a way to ward off evil spirits and auspicious rui, and its image was constantly deified. For example, there is a legend of a tiger eating evil spirits in the Classic of Mountains and Seas, and the mounts of Zhang Daoling, the founder of Taoism, and Zhao Gongming, the god of wealth, are both black tigers. In order to pray for the healthy growth of infants and young children, Chinese folk often equip them with tiger head hats and tiger head shoes, which are very cute.
△ Tiger head shoes.
Korean Tiger Culture: The Aura and Beautification of mountain gods
Korea's tiger culture originated earlier. The Book of the Later Han Dynasty records that many tribes on the Korean Peninsula "worship the tiger as gods", and like China, they have a primitive worship of the tiger, and the folk often regard the tiger as a mountain god. Tigers also appear in the Danjun myth, so some scholars speculate that the tiger may be one of the totems of the early Tribes of the Korean Peninsula.
The Korean Peninsula is mountainous and forested, and the environment is suitable for tiger growth, so the historical records have left a large number of records of tigers entering the city and hurting people in the court, so tigers were once regarded as beasts that threatened the production and life of the people, and were regarded as ominous signs. For example, the "History of Goryeo" says that "the tiger and the beast are ominous, and the main soldier is also" and "the tiger and the wolf enter the country, and the house will be empty", so the king had to sacrifice to the gods to pray for blessings. North Korea's Taejo was once an expert tiger hunter, and the government set up a special military position to deal with tigers - "catching tigers", and more than five tiger hunters could be promoted. As a result, tiger skins, tiger bones, etc. became native products of ancient Korea, and Goryeo cavalry mostly used tiger skins as bow bags, and the Japanese owners of Tsushima islands repeatedly requested Korea to donate tiger skins.
△ Paintings reflecting the myth of Tanjun.
Influenced by China, ancient Korea also recognized the tiger as a symbol of power. Both Goryeo and Korea used tiger charms to mobilize troops; the Goryeo army had the Dragon Tiger Army and the Shenhu Guard, and the Korean Army had the Tiger Guard. The kings of Goryeo and Joseon used white tiger flags for ceremonial battles, and stone tigers were placed on mountain tombs; Korean military attaches often wore tiger and leopard prints on their chests and backs. Interestingly, Joseon Sejo was once called the "Big Tiger" by the outside world because of his ambitions. As a result, the ferocious "tiger" in reality and the "tiger" in cultural intention are separated, and the image of the tiger is constantly beautified and respected. For example, Korean witchcraft customs have a tiger as the image of the evil spell, the old painting also often draws a tiger to pray to deter evil spirits, representing the auspicious magpie and symbolizing the evil tiger appear together with the "magpie tiger figure" can be a representative of Korean tiger culture. Joseon Dynasty painter Kim Hong-do's "Panasonic Tiger Diagram" and "Takeshita Tiger Diagram" also show a unique tiger image. In ancient Korea, there is a legend of "Kim Hyun Sense Tiger", which tells the story of the tigress who fell in love with the Silla man Kim Hyun and sacrificed herself for the true feelings, which made the image of the tiger have a touch of warmth.
Modern Koreans have a deeper love of tigers, with tigers in the mascots of the 1988 Seoul Olympics and Pyeongchang Winter Olympics, and some have even depicted the shape of a map of the Korean Peninsula as a tiger. Many Koreans believe that dreaming of a tiger heralds victory and success, which coincides with the view of China's "Zhou Gong's Dream Interpretation", and it can be said that the Chinese and Korean people have realized the "same bed and dream" in the tiger's dream intention.
△ Pyeongchang Winter Olympics mascot "Soohorang".
Japanese Tiger Culture: The Arrogance and Cuteness of Heroic Opponents
Japan's tiger culture is relatively late. Although archaeologists have found traces of tigers in the Japanese archipelago, the native tigers became extinct by the Jomon period. Since there was no written record at that time, posterity was unaware of the existence of tigers in Japan.
The earliest record of tigers in Japanese literature comes from the Nihon Shoki, in which the three records of tigers are related to the Korean Peninsula, which may mean that tiger culture from the East Asian continent was most likely introduced to Japan through the Korean Peninsula. One of the earliest accounts (545 AD) is the story of the local Japanese hao clan, Shanbati, who subdued a tiger on his way to Baekje. Although its authenticity is not yet known, it can at least prove that the Japanese at that time already had an understanding of the ferocious characteristics of tigers, and used this to subdue tigers and achieve martial arts. Since then, the Japanese have often been happy to attach the story of subduing the tiger to their favorite heroes, such as the story of the Japanese warlord Kiyomasa Kato and his courtiers fighting the tiger, and the Edo period based on Zheng Chenggong's famous humanoid jingru masterpiece "The Battle of the National Family Name" "Wakauchi" fighting the tiger.
△ Jakuchu Ito, a famous Japanese painter.
As the opponent of the hero, the tiger is naturally fierce and evil. One of the classic images of the traditional Japanese "evil ghost" is the head with two horns and wearing a tiger skin skirt, and the fierce image of the tiger is attached to the evil ghost through the tiger skin skirt, so the appearance of the evil ghost in traditional folk tales such as Momotaro is often depicted in this way. Similarly, the traditional image of the Chinese "Journey to the West" character "Sun Wukong" also wears a tiger skin skirt, with the appearance of the "hairy face lei gong mouth" in the original work to show the domineering "demon king". In addition, tiger culture also spread from China to the Korean Peninsula and Japan through Buddhism, and stories such as "sacrificing oneself to feed the tiger" were widely spread in the three countries. Interestingly, the Nihon Shoki records a Japanese monk named Kurasaku Tokushi, who is said to have made friends with the tiger, and the tiger taught him various magical spells.
Like China and Korea, the ancient Japanese believed that tigers could ward off evil. As a result, the tiger was worshipped by the emperor and nobles down to the people of Li. Tiger skin was once considered to have spiritual power and healing effects, so it often appeared in the list of foreign trade goods and gifts of diplomatic envoys. Because tiger skins are expensive and most civilians can't afford it, people will make and use toys that imitate tigers to pray for disease-free disasters.
However, unlike China and South Korea, ancient Japanese rarely saw the "true face of Lushan" of the tiger in reality. Most Japanese people can only recognize the appearance of a tiger through paintings from China and the Korean Peninsula, or simply imagine the image of a tiger from a cat. The popular folk encyclopedia of the Edo period, the Wahan SancaiTukai, records that "the tiger, the king of the mountain beasts, is like a cat, and as big as a cow." Therefore, under the pen of some ancient Japanese painters, the tiger is less domineering than the beast king, and a little more playful than the big cat, and the tiger becomes a cute tiger.
△ Japanese blue and white tiger bamboo pattern plate.
In short, tiger culture has been deeply infiltrated into the folk beliefs of China, Japan and South Korea. The fierce domineering spirit of the tiger and the cultural elements of warding off evil spirits and auspicious rui seem to be contradictory, but they are shared by the three countries, and after more than a thousand years of cultural exchanges, they have constantly intertwined and produced their own distinctive cultural phenomena.
Author: Yu Xianlong, Assistant Research Fellow, Institute of The History of Global Civilization, Shanghai University of Foreign Chinese
Source: People's China
Editor-in-charge: Yuan Yanan