"China in Symbols" - Reading Notes Guide Sharing

This text number is 4404 and the estimated reading time is 13 minutes.

The book shared today is China in Symbols.

The author, Zhao Yuntao, pen name Zhao Jiujiu, ph.D. in Classical Philology of Beijing Normal University, teacher and head of the Department of Literature, School of Chinese, University of International Business and Economics. Courses such as "Intensive Lectures on Pre-Qin Literature", "Chinese Literature and Culture", "Analects reading", and "Naturalism in Traditional Culture" were offered in the school. Among them, "Analects of The Analects" and "Naturalism in Traditional Culture" were rated as excellent courses in the school. He is the author of "China in symbols" and "Reading the Legend of Tang Dynasty".

Man is the "animal of symbols" and "all forms of culture are symbolic forms". The ancients left us countless symbols of symbolic and aesthetic value. This book selects more than 100 symbols that can best represent China in the handed down documents, archaeological excavations and folk beliefs, such as dragon, phoenix, Hongmeng, Zhu Rong, Taijitu, Baguatu, Hetuluoshu, Sanxingdui "Sun-Divine Bird-Divine Man-Divine Tree", etc., divided into four series: Xiangrui, Guardian, Sacred, and Humanistic, and makes a meticulous examination of the generation process, development flow, current influence, allegory and application of each symbol, supplemented by nearly 300 color maps, telling the history and core spirit of cultural China. Understanding the China in the symbol, whether it is cultural roots, cultural tourism, or daily aesthetics, will be a humanistic journey full of fun.

This book mentions that evolution is an important feature of symbols, and there are two ways of symbols evolving, one is "falsehood", people intentionally or unintentionally cause some errors; the other is "dislocation", the evolution of some symbols in the process of sacralization, secularization, and localization. There are four main types of use of symbols: seeking good fortune, warding off evil spirits, demonstrating status and power, and surviving and reproducing.

1

How symbols evolve

As we said earlier, there are two ways of symbols evolving, one is "falsehood", people intentionally or unintentionally cause some errors; the other is "dislocation", the evolution of some symbols in the process of sacralization, secularization, and localization.

1. Falsehood

So how does "falsehood" affect the generation and development of symbols? "Falsehood", as the name suggests, is that the symbol has made a mistake in the formation process, deviating from the original situation. Some "false accusations" are accumulated, that is, at first people do not know that something is wrong, and as a result, cultural symbols continue in the wrong form.

For example, the "Eight Immortals", in folklore, the "Eight Immortals" help the poor and the weak, are not afraid of power, and are deeply liked by the people. However, the author mentions in the book that at least two of the "Eight Immortals" have false names. One is Han Zhongli with a double bun, a big belly, and a hand-cranked banana fan.

The prototype of the Han Zhong Li character is Zhong Liquan during the Tang Dynasty or the Five Dynasties period. The "Xuanhe Annals" records that "the world is scattered Han Zhong Li Quan", which means "my Bell Li Quan is the biggest idle person in the world", because there was no punctuation mark in ancient times, people broke the sentence wrong, and connected "Han" with the "Zhong Li" behind, resulting in misreading the name of the person as Han Zhong Li. After that, people continued to make up for this wrong name, saying that Han Zhongli was a great general at the end of the Eastern Han Dynasty, who hid in Zhongnan Mountain due to the defeat of the army, and was turned into an immortal after being turned into an immortal by the iron abduction Li.

One of the "Eight Immortals" is "Zhang Guolao", who rides a donkey upside down, and his name is also wrong. The so-called "Zhang Guo Lao" is really named Zhang Guo. He was a real historical figure recorded in the history books and lived in the Tang Dynasty. Because Zhang Guo is very old, people add a "lao" word after his name to show respect, and some people mistakenly think that "Zhang Guolao" is his real name.

For another example, the author has concluded through research that "the dog bites Lü Dongbin" is not really a dog to bite Lü Dongbin, "Gou" is a personal name, "Gou" is a surname, and "Gou" is a name. According to legend, Gou Ji and Lü Dongbin are a pair of good friends, they both did a good thing for each other, but they did not say anything, and as a result, they misunderstood each other, thinking that the other party did something sorry for themselves, and then the truth came out and the two sides reconciled. Originally, it was a beautiful misunderstanding, but as a result, it became a "dog bites Lu Dongbin and does not know the good heart".

Most of the "mistakes" that appear in the formation and evolution of symbols are actually intentional. There are many animals and plants in Chinese culture that are regarded as auspicious symbols, and the auspicious meaning of these symbols is mostly the deliberate "wrong" effect formed by relying on associative thinking.

Bats, for example, in Western culture, bats are associated with darkness, mystery, and terror. In ancient China, because the bat 'bat' was homophonous with 'fu', the 'bat' became an auspicious symbol. Bats are often paired with other symbols to combine richer meanings, such as holding a "shou" word in the middle of the five bats, which is "five blessings and holding shou".

The author mentions that in addition to creating auspicious symbols through harmonic sounds, the ancients also shaped spiritual idols according to the characteristics of certain things. For example, pine, bamboo, and plum are regarded by Chinese as "three friends of the cold year", which is a symbol of noble integrity. In fact, at first, people only praised pine and bamboo, and plum blossoms were not only not listed, but even regarded as the opposite of pine and bamboo.

Because, the ancients felt that plum blossoms are only "a moment of brilliance", open for a period of time to thank, which is better than the long-lasting greenery of pine and bamboo in the cold winter. It was not until the Tang and Song dynasties that people gradually affirmed the plum blossom and saw its advantages. Compared with other flowers, plum blossoms are not only hardy, but also look very clean against the white snow. The cultural symbol of "Three Friends of the Cold Year" was formed in the Song Dynasty.

In the formation and evolution of symbols, the use of "false accusations" is not only to seek auspiciousness, or to find spiritual idols, but also sometimes to avoid trouble. For example, "Guanyin Bodhisattva", "Guanyin Bodhisattva" was originally named "Guanyin Bodhisattva", but in order to avoid the name of Tang Taizong Li Shimin, there was a name for "Guanyin Bodhisattva".

2. Misalignment

The author believes that "misalignment" can be seen as a high-level "mismatch". But on closer inspection, "misalignment" is very different from "misplacing". "Dislocation" is actually spoken of on a larger scale of space-time. Symbols are constantly changing, with the advancement of history, the expansion of the region, the original meaning of the symbol will not be able to meet the needs of the present, at this time, the symbol will change with the times, into the local customs. This is the background in which the symbol "misalignment" appears.

There are three main paths to "dislocation", the first is bottom-up "sacralization", the second is top-down "secularization", and the third is "localization" from the outside in.

For example, the history of confucius's deification. Confucius was a great educator and thinker. But in Chinese culture, the status of Confucius is not something that can be summed up by the words educator and thinker. Confucius was able to attain such a high status, both to the credit of his disciples' vigorous deification and to the constant admiration of the emperor for the sake of consolidating his rule.

The most intuitive embodiment of Confucius's all the way to the gods is his title. The author mentions that Confucius was posthumously known as the "Duke of Xuanni" in the Han Dynasty, and Confucius enjoyed the highest title of "Gong" of the nobility. In the Song Dynasty, Confucius was revered as "King Xuansheng Wenxuan", and Confucius actually received the honorific title of "King". The rulers of the Ming Dynasty continued to elevate Confucius by adding the highest qualifiers to Confucius's titles, such as calling Confucius the "Most Holy Ancestor", and the Qing Rulers added more embellishments to Confucius, and Confucius became the "Dacheng Most Holy Wenxuan Ancestor".

In addition to adding titles, another major means of deifying Confucius was to make up stories for him, such as the people of the Han Dynasty who believed that Confucius had already hidden all the mysteries of governing the country in the Spring and Autumn And the Book of Filial Piety five hundred years ago. During the Eastern Han Dynasty, some scholars directly proposed that Confucius could predict the future. Later, people made up a lot of strange and chaotic stories for him, such as the Wei and Jin Dynasties' Zhiwei novel "Search for God", which mentioned that Confucius had the ability to see through the disguise of monsters. The comic strip "Sacred Traces" of the Yuan and Ming dynasties says that Confucius was the son of the water spirit.

Later, people made a fuss about Confucius's appearance. The ancients added some elements of Taoism and Buddhism to Confucius, such as many statues of Confucius, whose posture was to sit cross-legged and sometimes pose as a flower picker. By the Song Dynasty, the folk had confucius "seven ugly" saying, people believe that Confucius's appearance has seven kinds of ugliness, such as nostrils facing the sky, two large teeth and so on. In the Ming Dynasty, in addition to the "Seven Ugly", the "Forty-Nine Tables" were added, and the strange appearance was detailed to reflect Confucius's otherworldly "saintly appearance".

Drawing or sculpting the appearance of the saint is to be used for worship and worship. Confucius has become the object of worship of the chinese ancients, and another manifestation is the multiple identities of Confucius, the royal Dacheng Hall has a statue of Confucius like an emperor, scholars have a statue of Confucius like a master, and there is a confucius statue of a god in the minds of scholars. In short, living in ancient times, there is always a Confucius for you.

In addition to the bottom-up creation of gods like Confucius, the "dislocation" of symbols also has a top-down path of secularization.

For example, the scandal between the Jade Emperor and the Queen Mother's mother. The author explains that the Jade Emperor and the Queen Mother come from two different systems, the Jade Emperor is related to Taoism, and the Queen Mother is from ancient mythology.

We Chinese ancients felt that although the Jade Emperor was the lord of the Three Realms, he should also have a wife. Therefore, people consulted various legends and chose to choose, and the Queen Mother of the West seemed to be the most outstanding goddess goddess. After the Song and Yuan dynasties, novels became popular, and fairy tales were important themes. Therefore, the Jade Emperor and the Queen Mother were pulled together and turned into two sons.

In traditional Chinese culture, the dislocation of the direction of the secularization of symbols has a distinctive feature, whether the symbol originally comes from a complex philosophy or an ancient classic, it needs to satisfy the basic imagination of ordinary people.

So how does the evolution of "from the outside in" become, that is, after the foreign culture enters China, how is it localized?

For example, "Dragon King". Dragons are native to China, and Dragon Kings are from India. The dragon is one of the most important auspicious things in Chinese culture. Archaeology has found that in the ancient period, from Fuxin in Liaoning province to Jiangsu and Zhejiang regions in the south, dragon worship appeared in many parts of China. Regarding how the "dragon" originated, there is a more mainstream theory in the academic community, and the symbol of the dragon is the result of the fusion of different tribal totems.

The "Dragon King" is the image brought about by the introduction of Buddhism to China, and in India it is called Naga, a human-headed and snake-like monster, Chinese translated as dragon or dragon king. In the Buddhist scriptures, the Dragon King often hinders the Buddha and Buddhists from spreading the Dharma, and the Buddhists either drive out the Dragon King or adopt them as protectors. There are eight dharma protectors, the first is the heavens, the second is the dragon king, and these eight parts are collectively called the "Eight Heavenly Dragons." The "Dragon King" in Buddhism is very different from the "Dragon King" in China, whether it is the appearance characteristics, the image of good and evil, and the social status. After the symbol "Dragon King" was introduced to China, it became popular.

For example, Goku Treasure Hunt. After learning a martial art, Sun Wukong went to the East Sea Dragon Palace to ask for weapons. The concept of dragon palace treasure comes from India, in Indian mythology, the dragon king Naga has a palace and guards many treasures. However, the dragon lives in the water, which is the Chinese concept.

2

Symbols are used in scenarios

In Chinese culture, symbols mainly have four major application scenarios: nafu seeking good fortune, warding off evil and disasters, highlighting status and power, and the survival and reproduction of ordinary people. Let's talk about the first three.

1. Nafu seeks good fortune

"FuLu Shou" three-star high photo chart is a common New Year painting during the New Year, "Fu" refers to having a blessing and everything goes smoothly; "Lu" refers to Feng Lu, official luck and prosperity; "Shou" refers to life expectancy, living long enough. But if you think about it, "Fu" actually includes "Lu" and "Shou", so why not use "Fu" to refer to all good things, or just mention "Lu" and "Shou"?

For example, the origins of Fuxing, Luxing, and Shouxing are different, and Chinese pay great attention to the number "three". But there is an explanation that is very interesting, the ancients in the many connotations of "blessed", may have attached great importance to promotion and wealth and health and longevity, so they deliberately took out Lu and Shou singles. Chinese has a characteristic when thinking about problems, that is, highlighting the main points and details, perhaps more important than proper classification and smooth logic.

2. Ward off evil spirits and disasters

In the past, people had a habit of turning the yellow calendar before going out to do things. The author mentions that the "yellow" of the "yellow calendar" should, strictly speaking, be the "emperor" of the emperor. In ancient times, the calendar was a symbol of the ruling order, and the power to study the astronomical calendar was monopolized. The official will arrange the year, month, and solar terms according to the calendar, and make a book for the people to consult, which is the almanac. At the end of the previous year, the imperial court would choose a date and promulgate the calendar for the following year. For example, the Qing Dynasty promulgated the calendar for the following year on the first day of October each year. Obviously, the original imperial calendar was to guide agricultural production, and it had nothing to do with the choice of date.

In ancient times, there were special books on the choice of days, such as the "Sacrifice Calendar" that specifically talked about the sacrifice of Ji Qi, the "Funeral Calendar" that talked about funeral Ji Ji, and even before taking a bath, you had to turn over the "Mu Book". As the imperial calendar became more and more popular, people gradually attached the text content of the selected date, which led to the later yellow calendar, which changed from the emperor's emperor to the yellow yellow.

On what basis does the Yellow Calendar judge the auspiciousness? The author mentions multiple methods. For example, the calculation method of the heavenly stem and earth branches, by arranging and combining the five elements and the heavenly stem and earth branches, a set of information about each other is obtained to judge the auspiciousness. For example, according to the stars to judge the auspicious, the ancients believed that half of the twenty-eight houses in the sky are auspicious stars, half are fierce stars, if you encounter the auspicious stars, then today will be auspicious.

3. Demonstrate status and power

The author spends a lot of time explaining the importance of the symbol Chinese dragon. Since the dragon is a synthetic symbol that collects the essence of all things, the ruler will bind the dragon to the kingship. As early as the Shang and Zhou Dynasties, aristocratic costumes were already decorated with dragon patterns. After the Han Dynasty, the imperial dress embroidered with dragon patterns became the exclusive use of the emperor.

The author mentions that not only do they enjoy dragon patterns on their costumes, but many rulers will also use dragons to deify their origins. Liu Bang was the first emperor to high-profile claim to be the illegitimate son of a dragon, that is, he was the first "True Dragon Heavenly Son". His practice was imitated by many later generations, and legend has it that when Emperor Xiao Daocheng of Qigao was born, black dragons appeared in the West; when Tang Taizong Li Shimin was born, two golden dragons appeared.