The 13.5 cm high Hetian jade carving in the picture above was sold for seven million yuan last year, can you recognize what the carving is? That's right, rhinos.
When it comes to rhinos, people always think of the distant African grasslands, in fact, rhinos are not far from us, even in ancient times, there were rhinos in Mainland China, and those excavated cultural relics are the best proof, but later they disappeared...
Vanishing rhinoceros
Warring States White Jade Rhinoceros
Thousands of years ago, China's bronzes and jade have rhinoceros shapes, and the oracle bones often appear in the records of the yin merchant nobles hunting "兕" (ancient rhinoceros), because in ancient times, rhinos played a particularly large role.
In the Nine Songs of national martyrdom, it is written that Wu Ge Xi was picked up by the rhinoceros armor, and the car was wrongly hubed and short soldiers. ”
Before the rise of iron armor, leather armor made of rhinoceros was a relatively high-grade instrument of the samurai, which belonged to sophisticated equipment.
Moreover, the rhinoceros can be used as armor to defend when fighting, and the horns of the rhinoceros can also be used in medicine, so in ancient times, the status of the rhinoceros in people's hearts was relatively sacred, and it belonged to a kind of spirit beast.
But the glory and disappearance of rhinos are related to wars, because for a long time to hunt rhinos to make armor, by the late Western Han Dynasty, rhinos were basically extinct in the Central Plains.
Since the Beginning of the Song Dynasty, rhinos have become legendary animals, but since then there have been rhinoceros carvings in successive generations, which can also reflect people's love and respect.
A resurgence of the rhinoceros
Rhinoceros as a sacred beast that brings people defensive power, its spirit has never disappeared in people's hearts, there were bronzes in ancient times, and now there are Hetian jade, and the unique texture of jade is more in line with the calm and tenacious of rhinoceros.
Jade rhinoceros has high requirements for jade carvers, because carved animals need to observe and understand, and they must be clear enough to orient the animal muscles and spirit, so that the carved rhinos will have a sense of vigor and invincibility.
A good jade rhinoceros must have eyes, realistic shapes, and powerful holes.
The carving is exquisite and the lines are appropriate, which is to invite the rhino into the jade, borrow the delicacy of hetian jade, and lead to the fortitude of the rhinoceros.
Psychic and spiritual
Rhinoceros is also called Lingxian, because according to legend, the horn of the rhinoceros has white lines, which run through both ends, can sense the spirit, and if it burns, it can illuminate the ghost.
Therefore, the rhinoceros carved by Hetian Jade is a metaphor for people who can see into adultery and avoid evil.
In addition to the individually carved rhinoceros handle pieces, antique rhinoceros-shaped jade pendants are also common in Hetian jade, because Li Shangyin wrote "no color phoenix double flying wings, the heart has a spirit rhinoceros a little bit of communication".
If it is given to the sweetheart jade carved rhinoceros, it represents the long-term love between each other.
Rhinoceros is harmonized with "joy", and the jade carved rhinoceros is a symbol of festive and auspicious.
Moreover, the rhinoceros is heavy and powerful, and once existed as a warrior's armor, so the rhinoceros in HetianYu also has the meaning of keeping the peace of the family home and protecting the peace and health of the town.
Many people think that the prototype of the Qilin in Wada Yuzhong is the rhinoceros, what do you think of this statement?