China has a long history and culture, in the thousands of years, there have been countless strange things, some things have been preserved through the migration of time, and passed down to the present, there are also some things that have disappeared in the long river of history and have never appeared again.
Because those things have not been handed down, people do not recognize them, do not know what they are used for, and may even be mistaken. For example, there is a cultural relic unearthed for many years, experts have always thought that it is a night pot, who knows the last to find out that it was wrong.
This cultural relic is the blue glazed tiger, which is produced in the Yue kiln, which is the most important kiln field in the early days of the mainland, mainly rich in celadon porcelain, and because it is in the south, it is called "Nanqing". And it is also famous for the Xing kiln in the north, the Xing kiln is rich in white porcelain, so it is called "North White", and the combination of the two is "South Qing North White".
These two kinds of porcelain have an important position in the history of the mainland, especially the celadon produced by the Yue kiln, and its kiln-making technology has reached the point of pure fire after being precipitated by several dynasties, and it has reached its peak during the Tang Dynasty.
The Yue kiln has produced many strange porcelains, some of which have been lost, some of which have been successfully excavated, including this "blue glazed tiger", which is a very special cultural relic, which is different from other exquisite porcelain in that it was not produced in the Tang Dynasty, but during the Three Kingdoms period. Another special thing is that its shape is very peculiar.
From the appearance, "blue glazed tiger" is very similar to the night pot commonly used by the ancients, so at first, domestic experts thought that it was the night pot used by ancient people, and called it "tiger", the name tiger originated in the Warring States period, in the Han Dynasty and the Six Dynasties period was the most popular, because its appearance shape is very similar to the creeping tiger and get this name.
However, the history books also record that the appearance of the "tiger" is related to the Western Han general Li Guang. It is said that once, Li Guang and his brother shot a Crouching Tiger while hunting, and later he cast a bronze statue in the shape of a tiger to make a night pot to show his disgust and fear for the tiger. So later the ancients used to use tiger-shaped porcelain as a night pot.
In modern times, because many of the "tigers" unearthed are placed on the male side of the male tomb or the husband and wife burial, and are placed at the feet of the male deceased, experts believe that the "tiger" is the night pot commonly used by the ancients. In 1955, Nanjing Zhao Tugang unearthed a cultural relics shaped like a "tiger", this cultural relics are 15.7 cm high, 20.9 cm long, the whole body is light blue glaze, the shape is like a tiger, the tiger's head is high, the mouth is open, the tongue is spit out, the eyes are looking directly into the distance, the limbs are contracted, very vivid, exquisite and simple.
Later, after identification, experts believed that this cultural relic was produced in the Eastern Wu period, and because it was too similar to the ancient night pot, experts named it "Green Glazed Tiger" and determined that it was an ancient night pot. In the years that followed, people always thought that it was a night pot, until once, people found 13 words in its abdomen, only to find that they recognized it wrong, it was not an ancient night pot, but another thing with other uses.
These 13 words are"
The Fourteenth Year of Chi Wu will be the inspector of Yu Shi Yuan Yizuo
We must know that in ancient times, craftsmen would only engrave their names and production time when making exquisite and valuable utensils, and if the blue-glazed tiger was just a night pot, even if it was a night pot used by the imperial family and nobles, it should obviously not be engraved with a name and time.
Therefore, after careful examination, experts have overturned the claim that the blue-glazed tiger is a night pot, believing that it should be a kind of vessel used by the ancients to hold water or wine, so that its historical value has become even greater.
Nowadays, the blue-glazed tiger is stored in the National Museum of China, and because many of the utensils used by the ancients have disappeared after thousands of years of migration, it is difficult for experts to fully restore and determine their use if only rely on the few remaining utensils and some words in the history books. Therefore, some cultural relics will inevitably be recognized by experts, such as this blue-glazed tiger.
However, I believe that with the development of science and technology, more and more cultural relics have been unearthed, and many historical truths will be restored, all of which will make us have a deeper understanding of the lives of the ancients.