In China, the eagle is the symbol of the invincible god of war, the symbol of the hero. What is "English"? What is "male"? Liu Shao's "Character History" of the thinker and statesman Liu Shao during the Three Kingdoms period at the end of the Han Dynasty said: "The essence of the grass is The Hero, the Special Group of the Beast is the Xiong, and the Wen wu of the deceased is different, and it is named here." It is the reason why the smart show is called heroic, and the courage is called heroic. "Eagles are naturally intelligent and brave, and it is fitting that eagles symbolize heroes. With the development of history, people have injected more and more cultural connotations and auspicious meanings into the eagle, forming a unique falconry culture in the mainland.
Falconry culture is a very distinctive folk custom, historically, not only to provide people with food sources, but also to entertain activities.
The history of falconry can be traced back to the prehistoric period, the eagle as a bird of prey, can help people hunt through short time and relatively low cost domestication, and the use of this bird of prey for hunting, in the low productivity of the cold weapon era, not only greatly improved the hunting efficiency, but also effectively expanded the scope of hunting, so the ancestors of the eagle has a heartfelt love and worship.
Archaeology has found that in the 6,000-year-old Hongshan Cultural Site, a large number of jade eagles, jade owls and jade birds have been excavated, and the number of jade eagles far exceeds that of jade owls and jade birds. The Khitans, Jurchens and Mongols, three ethnic minorities in the same region as the Hongshan culture, have always retained a tradition of falconry. To this day, Mongolian herders living in the northern steppes still regard the eagle as a mythical creature. The Manchus, Hezhes, Evenks, and Kazakhs in the northeast all worship the condor, and almost all the shamans have their own eagle myths and legends, as well as various taboos and rituals for eagles. In the shaman's concept, the eagle is regarded as a bird of light or a fire bird, and light and fire symbolize the life of the universe and represent the source of life, and the eagle is the messenger who transmits light and fire, and the eagle has the ability to penetrate the heavens and the earth and know all the affairs of the world and the universe, so shamanic shamans have worshiped the eagle since ancient times. In the special ceremony of sacrificing the eagle, not only is a specific blessing chanted to the eagle god, but the clothes and hats have the pattern of the condor on them. Shaman hats are usually decorated with several small eagles. In the shaman's traditional star festival, the eagle god is also one of the main worship star gods, and its image is a giant eagle with wings spread composed of constellations such as Taurus, Sirius, and Gemini. The combination of imagining the ability to fly and the concept of eagle worship also produced a series of shamanic religious myths. In Buryat mythology, the condor and the child of a human princess are the first shamans in the world, and even in Korean shaman mythology there are similar legends about the ancestors originating from the eagle god. On May 31, 2007, the "Ula Manchu Falconry Customs" submitted by the Jilin Intangible Cultural Heritage Protection and Research Center was announced by the People's Government of Jilin Province as the first batch of intangible cultural heritage list (Ji Zhengfa [2007] No. 20).
"Liezi Huangdi Chapter: Eagle Osprey (Osprey) Controversy": "The Yellow Emperor and the Yan Emperor fought in the wilderness of Hanquan, with handsome bears, horses, wolves, leopards, and tigers as the precursors, and eagles, ospreys, eagles, and kites as banners. "It was China's earliest use of the eagle as a symbol of victory in battle. "Poetry Sutra Daya Daming": "Makino Yangyang, Tanche Huanghuang, Donkey Pengpeng." Wei Shi Shang Father, Shi Wei Ying Yang. Liang Pi Wu Wang, a wanton merchant, will go to Qingming! "Meaning, the vast makin field, the sandalwood chariots are bright, and the four horses are mighty and majestic. The commander of the three armies, Shang Father, seemed to be flying an eagle. Assist King Wu to lead the army, command the three armies to attack Yin Shang, and create a new atmosphere in one day! In the poem, "Eagle Yang" symbolizes the majesty of the military appearance and the victory of the war. The "Chronicle of History" records that Before Li Si's death, Jusi: "Lead the yellow dog, arm the eagle, and go out to Cai Dongmen to chase the cunning rabbit, how can it be?" "It shows that during the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period, falconry was already mastered by Chinese, and falconry has become an important form of entertainment for the ruling class." The "Later Han Shu Yuan Shu Biography" says: "(Yuan Shu) was less chivalrous, counted with the princes flying eagles and lackeys, and later broke the knot, held up filial piety, and moved to Henan Yin and Hu Hao Zhonglang General." Wu Zetian's grandson Li Chongrun's tomb mural "Arm Eagle Diagram" confirms that the Tang and Song dynasties were extremely popular in the scholar class, such as the wind of falcon taming, and so on. Li Ji Yue Ling Yun: "On the day of the sting, the eagle becomes a dove." On the day of the summer, the eagle is learning. On the day of the summer, the eagle is a sacrificial bird. "By observing the breeding time and hunting instincts of eagles, the ancient Han ancestors not only summarized them as phenological characteristics that guided agricultural production, but also gave them intrinsic spiritual significance at the level of Heavenly Dao. On December 21, 2012, the "Falconry" declared by the Xinxiang Wildlife Conservation Association was announced by the Xinxiang Municipal People's Government as the third batch of Xinxiang Municipal Intangible Cultural Heritage Protection Project List (New Deal Wen [2012] No. 203) (Project No. VIII.-017) On September 6, 2013, the "Falconry Skills" declared by the Chezhuang Village Committee of Donghai County was announced by the Lianyungang Municipal People's Government as the fifth batch of municipal intangible cultural heritage list (Lian Zhengfa [2013] No. 84).
The Kyrgyz domesticated falcons in Sumutash Township, Aheqi County, Xinjiang have a long history of domestication of falcons, but the folk have been preserved for thousands of years of oral falconry, almost every family will train eagles to hunt, and still retain the original domestication method intact, named "Falcon Town" by the Chinese Ministry of Culture and Tourism, and the local Kyrgyz ethnic group is also known as the "Eagle King". The Kyrgyz have a close relationship with the eagle. For thousands of years, in years without guns, the Kyrgyz people have fed their families by taming ferocious eagles to hunt for food for themselves. On May 23, 2011, the "Kyrgyz Eagle Taming Customs" declared by the Manas Research Center of Aheqi County, Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region, was announced by the State Council as the third batch of national intangible cultural heritage items (Guo Fa [2011] No. 14) (serial number: 1218, project number: X.-143).
The falconry activities of the Naxi people in Yunnan Province began in 1253 AD, and the Ming Dynasty geographer Xu Xiake's "Xu Xiake Travels" supplemented by the "Lijiang Chronicle" records that when Kublai Khan led a large army to conquer the Southern Song Dynasty, a tribe of eagle dogs that came with the army landed in the surrounding area of Lijiang. As a descendant of the ancient Qiang people, the Naxi people have successively absorbed the multi-ethnic falconry skills in the long history, combined with the natural environmental conditions of the region, and created a more systematic and complete falconry culture of the ethnic group, which has been extended to this day. In the Dongba Scriptures of the Naxi Nation, the Naxi Dongba Sect refers to the status of the Bird of Prey of the Great Peng, referring to the status of the supreme divine bird, which is called the Dapeng Xiuqu, indicating that the eagle eagle in nature was worshipped by the ancestors of the Naxi people as a god totem. On June 2, 2017, the "Naxi Eagle Taming Customs" (serial number: 140, category: folklore) declared by the Intangible Cultural Heritage Protection Center of Yulong Naxi Autonomous County was announced by the People's Government of Yunnan Province as the fourth batch of provincial intangible cultural heritage representative projects.
Generations of literati and inkers have placed their affection on eagles, borrowed eagles to express their nostalgia, and used eagles to speak with their aspirations, giving them rich and profound ideological connotations to falconry culture. as:
Release the eagle
[Tang] Bai Juyi
In October, the eagle came out of the cage, and the grass withered and the rabbit was fat. The next whip is followed by fingers, and there is no end to it.
The eagle's wings are as fast as the wind, and the eagle's claws are as sharp as cones. Originally designed for birds, it is now owned by people.
What can make it so, there are techniques that are easy to know. Take its back and control it when hungry.
Do not make a full, not a long hunger. Hungry is insufficient, full is flying on people's backs.
Fighting with hunger, not full of beards. So the claws and wings work, and the man sits and reaps them.
The saint is a hero, and his skills are the same. Contempt is not to be abandoned, I have heard of the hunters.
Falconry is a way of survival for the people of the Central Plains to adapt to the environment and use nature, a manifestation of the great creativity of the Chinese nation, and has practical and far-reaching cultural significance for maintaining the diversity of human culture, promoting the construction of the "Belt and Road", and achieving common prosperity.
Falconry culture originated from the Central Plains, and later spread to all parts of the country and overseas, is the ancestors of the Central Plains for generations, in adapting to the surrounding environment and interaction with nature and history, is constantly recreated a traditional handicraft, is an important part of the Central Plains culture, the Yellow River culture, very national characteristics. Historically, falconry has provided not only a source of food for people, but also spiritual recreation. Judging from the tomb murals, documents and grotto murals excavated from archaeological excavations in Chang'an, Dunhuang, Jiuquan, Xinjiang and other places where the Silk Road passed, there are many materials about falconry, which is also a good medium for cultural exchanges between the East and the West. On 16 November 2010, the 5th meeting of unesco's Intergovernmental Committee for the Safeguarding of the Intangible Cultural Heritage was held in Nairobi, Kenya. The Conference deliberated and adopted the project "Falconry Culture" submitted by 11 countries, including Belgium, the Czech Republic, France, the Republic of Korea, Spain, Mongolia, Morocco, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Syria and the United Arab Emirates, and inscribed it on the Representative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity, which is the largest nomination in the history of UNESCO Conventions. At its annual meeting held online from 13 to 18 December 2021, the Intergovernmental Committee for the Safeguarding of the Intangible Cultural Heritage inscribed 39 elements on the Representative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity. Among them, "Falconry" as a living heritage of mankind was included in the new project, including the United Arab Emirates, Austria, Belgium, Croatia, France, Germany, South Korea and more than 20 countries were selected.
With the development of modern society, the change of production and lifestyle, more and more factors restricting the inheritance and development of falconry culture, and its living space is gradually reduced, only by integrating this very distinctive folk custom with tourism, so that it can be creatively transformed and innovatively developed, its vitality can be truly continued, and the project can be truly effectively protected.
Author: Wang Yunxiao (This article is the author's original, authorized to be published by "Bieliang City")