Who would have thought that the devotee would build a tomb in heaven? In the arms of the high priest of the previous red coffin, the fat man found two items, one was a golden mask, the other was the Dragon and Tiger Short Staff, it was thanks to the latter, the trio of Lieutenant Touching Gold was finally able to open the dragon and tiger tomb door of the tomb of the king, so was the frequent dragon and tiger shape really so important?
01 Dragon and Tiger
The Yi Qian Wen Yan reads: "The cloud is from the dragon, and the wind is from the tiger." "The ancients believed that dragons and tigers could change their bodies and swim between heaven and earth, and the combination of dragons and tigers obviously had a special meaning, and whether it was wind or clouds, it was the dragon and tiger that they used to ascend to the heavens.
In china's classics, the dragon has all kinds of incredible powers, and the "Sayings" says: "The dragon, the long scales of the insects, can be quiet, can be short and long, the spring wind ascends to the sky, and the autumn equinox and dives into the abyss." ”
As for the tiger, compared to the dragon's pure imagination, although it is a living creature in reality, it is also fierce and majestic, making it difficult to approach. In the Han Dynasty, the white tiger was also considered to be similar to the dragon.
So, when the dragon and the tiger appear in the tomb together, what is the meaning? The answer is simple, with only two words: Ascending Immortals!
Speaking of the classic tomb of the dragon and tiger combination, we have to mention the Puyang Xishuipo M45. In this sub-glyph-shaped quadrangular tomb, the south is the place where the body of the tomb owner is placed, in the form of a straight limb on the back and a south foot on the north of the head. On the left side of the tomb owner, there are dragon-shaped remains of mussel shells, and on the right side are tiger-shaped remains of mussel shells.
This is completely consistent with the symbolic pattern of the green dragon and white tiger used by future generations to mark the direction, representing the sunrise direction of the clam dragon and the sunset of the clam tiger, in addition to time, but also represents the upward and downward movement of space, that is, riding the dragon across the tiger, heaven into the earth!
That is to say, the dragon and the tiger are equivalent to the divine beasts that lead the tomb master to ascend to heaven, which is consistent with the meaning of the dragon and tiger's short staff opening the gate of heaven in the tomb of the king.
02 Rod with door
So, since the dragon and the tiger play the function of helping the tomb owner ascend to immortality, why is it designed in the play to be a special style with two ends as the head and the tail connecting, and why does it assume the key role of opening the tomb door?
On this point, we may be able to find the answer from the portrait stones of Han Dynasty tombs. The Han people believe in the Queen Mother of the West, and believe that the Queen Mother is the key deity that controls the immortal medicine and ascends to the heavens, while the dragon and the tiger are equivalent to the exclusive car of mortals to the Immortal Realm, so there is such a saying in the Jiao's Yilin:
Perhaps it is precisely for this reason that on many portrait stone bricks unearthed in Sichuan, the picture of the coexistence of the Queen Mother of the West and the dragon and tiger can often be seen. Look closely, is the posture of the dragon and tiger here like the shape of the dragon and tiger's short staff?
In fact, there are many kinds of cross-tail diagrams in Chinese paintings, such as Fuxi Nuwa's cross-tail, Erlong's cross-tail, and the dragon-tiger cross-tail diagram we see, which actually have the meaning of metaphorical reproduction. The dragon and tiger short staff that appears in the ghost blowing lamp is actually a transplant of the dragon and tiger cross tail pattern.
The Eastern Han Dynasty man Wei Boyang said in his "Zhou Yi Shen Tongqi": "The dragon hu hu
Therefore, the key in the shape of the dragon and tiger short staff in the ghost blowing lamp to open the door of the tomb of the immortal king who pursues immortality is really the finishing touch!