Bronze Owl
The Shang Dynasty left many bronze 卣[yǒu wine vessels], many of which are "鸮[xiāo]卣".
The "owl" is the owl, which is commonly referred to as the owl.
"卣" is a wine vessel that originated in the Shang Dynasty.
The "Owl" is a bronze wine vessel cast in the image of an owl.
The Zhou Li records: "The temple is repaired. The Eastern Han scholar Zheng Xuan explained: "'Xiu' reads '卣', '卣', Zhongzun, which is said to be the genus of the offering of elephants. ”
"Nakazuru", also known as "Nakatsuki", is an ancient medium-capacity wine vessel.
Bronze Owl (Collection of Shanxi Museum)
The Shanxi Museum treasures an owl from the Shang Dynasty period, which is one of the treasures of the courtyard.
It was excavated in the late 1950s in Erlangpo Village, Shilou County, Lüliang, Shanxi.
The utensils are 14 centimeters high and exquisitely crafted, with owl as the shape, decorated with patterns, the owl head as the lid, and a handle on it; the owl body is the body of the instrument, and the four legs stand tall.
Two little owls stand back to back, cute and cute.
In 2011, some netizens uploaded a photo of this owl to the Internet, resembling the image of "Angry Birds" in online games, which was loved and sought after by many netizens and was rated as the "most cute cultural relic" in 2011.
Cast in the late Shang Dynasty, it has high artistic value and archaeological academic value.
In fact, in the eyes of the ancients, the owl was an ominous bird.
As the saying goes: "Don't be afraid of the night owls barking, you are afraid of the night owls laughing." The Chronicle of the States of the Eastern Zhou Dynasty records: "This bird is named Owl, does not see Mount Tai during the day, can detect autumn at night, is bright and thin, and is dark in Daye." When the hour is fed by its mother, it is long, and it pecks at its mother, and this is the bird of filial piety, so it catches and eats it. ”
It is said that the owl cannot see Mount Tai during the day, but has excellent eyesight at night, and the Ming Dynasty is autumn; when it was young, its mother fed it to grow up, and when it grew up, it pecked at its mother, this bird is also called "unfilial bird" and "unknown bird".
Therefore, people will not hesitate to prey on this animal.
During the Han Dynasty, people also hunted owl on the day of the Fifth Dragon Boat Festival in early May and made soup to eat, the purpose of which was to hunt and kill this ominous bird, the bird of filial piety, and the bird of mother-eater.
Since the ancients thought that the owl was unknown, why did they still use "owl" as "卣"?
This is because many owl-shaped artifacts have been unearthed at the Hongshan Cultural Site, reflecting traces of a totem worship in ancient times.
Ancestors from 5,000 to 6,000 years ago found that owls could kill prey at night, so they worshipped them extremely, hoping that this magical bird would give humans magical powers, so they began to use owl as a totem.
Erlangpo Village, Shilou County, is located in the area of Hongshan Cultural Site.
The influence of the Hongshan culture of owl worship continued into the Shang and Zhou dynasties.
During the Shang Dynasty, people were still quite fond of owls, and there were a large number of owls in Shang Dynasty bronzes, which is the physical evidence that the ancestors worshiped owls.