The "tiger" in China's bronze civilization

Author: Tao Yixi; BI Jingwei (School of History and Culture, Shaanxi Normal University)

When discussing the origin and formation of Chinese civilization, General Secretary Xi Jinping stressed that it is necessary to "broaden the scope and coverage of time and space research, and further answer major questions such as the basic picture of the origin, formation and development of Chinese civilization, the internal mechanism, and the evolution path of regional civilizations." The investigation of the development and evolution of Chinese civilization should not be limited to the Central Plains, but should also pay attention to the civilization process in the surrounding areas. During the Shang and Zhou dynasties, the bronze civilization of the Central Plains and surrounding areas was an important part of Chinese civilization. Among them, bronze ornaments, with their rich and diverse forms, distinctive artistic characteristics and profound spiritual meaning, embody the brilliant achievements of Chinese bronze civilization. Examining the image of the tiger on the bronzes of the Central Plains and surrounding areas is of great significance for understanding the pluralistic and integrated pattern of Chinese bronze civilization.

Tiger in the bronze civilization of the Central Plains

Central Plains bronzes decorated with tiger images are mainly found in most of Henan, south-central Shanxi, Guanzhong of Shaanxi and most of Shandong, and can be divided into three categories: tiger-shaped tools, tiger-shaped objects, and tiger-shaped accessories. Among them, the tiger shape is a whole instrument in the shape of a tiger, which can be divided into two types: one is an abstract type, including squatting and creeping; One is a realistic type, including a standing tiger and a tiger mouth animal. The tiger shaped ware uses the circular carving technique, popular from the late Shang Dynasty to the middle of the Warring States period, with a total of 16 pieces. Tiger stripes can be divided into three types: "tiger cannibal" tattoos, standing tiger stripes and tiger head stripes. The tiger pattern uses relief and line engraving techniques, popular from the late Shang Dynasty to the late Western Zhou Dynasty, with a total of 18 pieces. In addition, the tiger-shaped attachment can be divided into seven forms: crouching tiger, standing tiger, tiger head, climbing tiger, tiger phagosaur, Gushou tiger, and group tiger image. The tiger-shaped attachment adopts the circular carving technique and is decorated with bronze covers, feet, grippers, etc., popular from the late Shang Dynasty to the Warring States period, a total of 63 pieces.

The development of the bronze tiger image in the Central Plains is divided into three phases. The first period is the late Shang Dynasty, mainly with abstract tiger-shaped tools, "tiger cannibal" patterns, and crouching tiger-shaped attachments. In this period, the number of tiger shapers is large, the number of tiger stripes and tiger attachments is small, the tiger shape and tiger pattern style are more abstract, and the decorative ware mainly includes touching, yun, bow shaper, etc. The second phase covers the early Western Zhou Dynasty to the late Spring and Autumn period, mainly including realistic tiger-shaped objects, tiger head pattern and crouching tiger-shaped attachments, vertical tiger-shaped attachments, tiger-shaped attachments, etc. In this period, the image of the tiger tends to mature, there are many types, the style is more realistic, and the decorative utensils mainly include ding, gui, pot, zun, xi, basin, plate, saving, chariot, ge, etc. The third period is the Warring States period, mainly including standing realistic tiger shapers, tiger-phagophage-shaped attachments, and regimental tiger-shaped attachments. During this period, the tiger stripe basically disappeared, and the number of tiger-shaped objects and tiger-shaped accessories also decreased sharply, and the main types of decorative ware were dun, ge, plutonium, etc.

According to the differences in decorative techniques, the bronze tiger image of the Shang and Zhou Dynasties in the Central Plains is divided into three-dimensional tiger ornament and flat tiger pattern. Three-dimensional tiger ornaments, on the one hand, present dynamic scenes such as tigers crawling, climbing, caring for their heads or fighting with animals in a dynamic way, highlighting the speed and strength of tigers; On the other hand, the basic form of the tiger is exaggerated, such as the tiger's ears are upturned, the eyes are round, the mouth is wide open, and the tail is relatively thick. It basically follows the law of "creation" in animal pattern decorative art, and when transforming the tiger in nature into bronze tiger-shaped decoration, the main characteristics and attributes of the tiger are strengthened, and the tiger image is not only mighty and powerful, but also loses the vivid condensation of its shape.

Flat tiger patterns are mostly presented in the form of separate patterns, such as single standing tiger patterns and tiger head patterns, making the theme clearer, and a few are presented in a suitable pattern, such as the "tiger eating man" pattern to a certain degree of abstract deformation of the tiger, and the technique of "expressing three-dimensional with planes" is used. This technique seems to split along the tiger's head to the tail, and its overall spread is placed on the left and right sides, so that the various parts of the tiger's body can be displayed as flat as possible. In addition, when decorating patterns on bronzes, the characteristics of the shape of the utensils should be taken into account, so that the ornaments and shapes can be harmoniously unified. For example, the tiger-shaped attachment is decorated at the bottom of the pot, mostly using the image of a crouching tiger, and decorated on the edge of the bean belly, the image of a climbing tiger is mostly used.

Tiger in the Northern Bronze Civilization

Bronzes decorated with tiger images in northern China are mainly found in Hebei and northern Beijing, south-central Inner Mongolia, eastern Gansu and southern Ningxia. The bronze tiger image in the northern region is mainly popular from the late Western Zhou to the early Spring and Autumn period, and the number of early and middle Western Zhou is small, and the round carving decoration method is mostly used, among which the single tiger squats, stands and walks more forms, and in the group animal combination, tiger phagophages or other animals have more fighting forms. The decoration and theme of its tiger image have the atmosphere of the northern grassland, such as the tiger eating sheep pattern plaque excavated from the tomb of the Fan family kiln in Linger County.

The bronze tiger image in the northern region is partially similar to the tiger head pattern, vertical tiger-shaped attachment, tiger-phagophage-shaped attachment, etc. in the Central Plains, but the squat tiger-shaped apparatus, creeping tiger-shaped device, "tiger cannibal" pattern, etc. popular in the Central Plains are basically not found in the northern region. It can be seen that the image of bronze tigers in the northern region is similar to that of the Central Plains, but the diversity of numbers and types is not as good as that of the Central Plains, and the epidemic period is late. For example, the tiger head pattern decorated on the copper gee excavated from the Zhukaigou cemetery, as well as the tiger phagophage ornaments popular in the northern region. Therefore, the emergence and popularity of the bronze tiger image in the northern region may have been influenced by the Central Plains. At the same time, there are a large number of tiger phagophage images in the northern region, with a fixed pattern and a complete development sequence, and the tiger phagophage appendages in the central plains are similar, but the number is small, and the epidemic age is slightly later than that in the northern region. Therefore, some tiger images in the bronzes of the Central Plains may have also been influenced by the northern region.

In summary, while the northern bronze tiger image was influenced by the Central Plains, it also had its own characteristic decorative style, and developed a preference for the tiger ornament, which also influenced the Central Plains to a certain extent. It can be said that on the one hand, northern bronzes are influenced by Central Plains bronzes, and on the other hand, they also have their own choices, creations and developments.

Tiger in Southern Bronze Civilization

Southern tiger-like bronzes are mainly distributed in Jiangxi, Hubei, Anhui, Hunan and Sichuan.

There are a large number of tiger images on the bronzes excavated from the late Shang Dynasty tombs in Jiangxi, including tiger-shaped tools, tiger-shaped accessories and tiger patterns, and various decorative techniques of round carving, relief carving, open-carving and line carving are used, which are similar to the expression techniques of tiger images in the Central Plains. Its tiger image mostly uses cirrus cloud patterns, thunder patterns, and scale patterns to express the markings of the body, and the overall pattern style is more complex and gorgeous, which is consistent with the overall style of Yin Hui bronze ornaments. However, the images of the two-tailed tiger excavated from the Shinkan Tomb, as well as the three-dimensional crouching tiger attachment and tiger-shaped flat feet decorated on the ding, are not seen in the Central Plains. It can be seen that the image of the new gan tiger is not only influenced by the bronze civilization of the Central Plains, but also has distinct local characteristics.

Anhui, Hunan and other regions have found bronzes with the motif of "tiger eating man", which are basically no later than the second phase of Yin Hu. The "people" in the southern "tiger cannibal" motif ornament mostly express the whole body, the movements of the human limbs are clearly visible, and the "tiger" opens its mouth and shows its teeth, the markings on the body are meticulously depicted, and the sense of realism is strong, and it is mostly decorated in the main parts of the utensils, such as the dragon and tiger Zun unearthed in Funan, Anhui, and the tiger cannibal collected by the Japanese Izumi House Bokokan. The motif ornament of the "tiger cannibal" in the Central Plains is mainly unearthed in the Anyang area, and there are no "tiger cannibal" artifacts or accessories, only the "tiger cannibal" pattern. The "person" in the "tiger cannibal" pattern only represents the head, while the "tiger" is abstracted to a certain extent, and is mostly decorated in the secondary parts of the utensils, such as the "tiger cannibal" pattern on the back mother pentoxing decorated on the outside of the standing ear of the ding.

In short, the "tiger cannibal" motif ornament on the bronzes of the Central Plains and the south is quite different, and the age of the "tiger cannibal" bronzes in the southern region is earlier than that in the Central Plains. According to this speculation, in the early "tiger cannibal" pattern, the images of tigers and people are complex and realistic, and are used as main decorations. After being introduced to the Central Plains, the overall ornament was relatively simple and mostly used as a secondary ornament. In addition, the bell body of the animal face pattern hammer clock excavated in Yejiashan M111, Suizhou, Hubei Province is decorated with 4 tiger-shaped attachments on both sides, and the tiger is standing and walking, dating from the early Western Zhou Dynasty, which is different from the number, shape and decorative position of the Gushou tiger-shaped accessories decorated on the button in the Central Plains, which has regional characteristics and is earlier than that in the Central Plains. It can be seen that motifs such as "tiger cannibal" in the southern region have had an impact on the bronzes of the Central Plains.

The image of the Bashu bronze tiger unearthed in Sichuan is mostly found in bronze weapons, including ge, swords, spears and other weapons. The tiger pattern on the copper gee excavated from Emei Fuxi in Sichuan has similarities with the tiger image in the "tiger eating man" pattern on the late Shang Dynasty in the Central Plains, and both are used as the theme decoration on the weapon, and at the same time are consistent with the tiger pattern on the copper ge excavated from M2 in Baicaopo M2 in Lingtai, Gansu, and the decorative position is also the same. Baicaopo M2 Tongge dates from the early Western Zhou Dynasty, earlier than Fuxi Tongge. In addition, the image of the tiger decorated with bronze weapons in the Central Plains is more diverse than that of the tiger in the Bashu region. Therefore, the image of the tiger decorated with bronze weapons in the Central Plains and its neighboring areas may have a certain influence on the tiger image on the bronze weapons of Bashu.

To sum up, the bronze tiger image in the Central Plains and the surrounding areas has its own characteristics, among which the surrounding areas are keen to express natural scenes with ornaments, while the Chinese principles mostly express ideological concepts, which gives rise to different artistic paths. However, the image of the bronze tiger in the Central Plains is diverse, rich in decorative vessels, superb casting skills, and most of the years are earlier than the surrounding areas, which has played an important role in the emergence and popularity of the bronze tiger image in the surrounding areas. At the same time, the bronze civilization in the surrounding areas also had a certain impact on the Central Plains, such as the image of tiger phagophage on the northern bronzes appeared on the bronzes of the Central Plains, and the "tiger cannibal" pattern in the southern region was decorated on the bronzes of the Central Plains. However, the bronze civilization of the Central Plains is in the core position, and the surrounding areas have a shallow level of influence on it, such as the "tiger eating man" pattern into the Central Plains, mostly decorated in secondary positions such as ding'er, basically not used as the main decoration on the ceremonial vessel, and the image of the northern tiger phagocytosis has not become a popular decorative style in the Central Plains. In short, the Central Plains and the surrounding bronze civilizations are closely related, and together form a diversified and integrated bronze civilization pattern with the Central Plains as the core.

(This paper is a phased achievement of the 2019 National Social Science Foundation Western Project "Research on the Genesis of Ancient Chinese Bronzes" (19XKG009))

Source: China Social Sciences Network - China Social Science News