Bats, also known as "fairy rats", also known as "flying squirrels", are commonly known as "night tigers" in the north.
Leaving aside viruses and bacteria,
Because of its biological characteristics of both birds and beasts, the habit of living between light and dark, and the relationship with humans, in the long history, bats have been given the image and connotation of harmony by the Chinese. Superstition calls it "zhuang", taking its "solemn and mysterious" meaning, such as age and chitose, can penetrate the two realms of heaven and earth, leading Zhong Kui to catch ghosts; those who call it "harmonious" mean their "humorous and funny" appearance, such as the metaphor of riding a wall of birds and beasts, which has a sinister and cunning meaning.
With the change of history, many allegories finally focus on the cultural orientation of bats, and people imitate their shapes, harmonize their sounds, and allude to their meanings, evolving the folk scene of bats everywhere. The bat has become the spokesman of Chinese Fu culture, and has also become the most important folk symbol of Yufu and Zhaofu in Chinese culture.
<h2 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" > Zhuang Yi bat</h2>
Bats have long entered the vision of the Chinese ancestors. According to archaeological findings, as early as the Neolithic Hongshan culture has unearthed a jade bat, this bat is 16.5 cm high, 32.3 cm wide, 4 cm thick, simple shape, exquisite carving, can be called an artistic treasure. The excavation of the Hongshan jade bat conveys the cultural information that the ancients knew and revered bats. Since then, people have also interpreted the habits of bats. "Bats, serve wings also. From insects, sounds"; "bats, a fairy rat, a flying squirrel"; "bats hide at night, do not dare to travel by day"; "shaped rats, flesh wings and feet are connected, night catch mosquitoes and gnats, as the saying goes, rats are also transformed".
The modern scholar Wen Yiduo made this explanation in the Classical Xinyi - (Erya > Xinyi): "Bat is pronounced as webbing, and the following is 'the goose is ugly, and its flippers', Note: 'The webs between the toes are compatible. 'The feet of bats also have the genus Membranous, so it is called bats. Bats are continuous words, and the analysis can be a daily bat, and it can also be a daily bat. ”
Passed down from generation to generation, bats have been superimposed with the following solemn and mysterious cultural connotations:
Longevity. The ancients believed that bats lived in stalactite caves because they drank the fairy water in the caves for many years to live forever and live for a thousand years; and because of the lack of daylight, the "millennium" bats were snow white. With the belief that bats live long, the concept that bats can also live a long life was derived.
"Baopuzi" once said: "Chitose bats, the color is like snow, the set is hanging upside down, and the brain is heavy." This thing is obtained and dried up, and it is a long life. Eating bat brains can make lifes reach long live, and the Water Classics are more called "the people who are served and obeyed", which is mysterious and mysterious, and it is a fictitious language. In addition to making people live longer, bats also have healing effects.
In this regard, ancient medical books have many records: such as taking bats after Lixia, which can cure the eyes ("Wu's Materia Medica"),taking the brain of bats in November and February, which can cure women's face blisters ("Li's Materia Medica"),bats are also a good recipe for curing golden sores ("Compendium of Materia Medica"),) and so on.
Connecting the two worlds of heaven and earth. In addition to longevity, bats also have the ability to pass through the two worlds of the underworld. Since the Tang Dynasty, folk myths and legends have Zhong Kui catching ghosts, and it is said that after Zhong Kui was named as the exorcism god, he led 300 Yin soldiers through the city of death, and encountered a small ghost on the NaiHe Bridge to block the way. The little devil said that it was originally a mole in the field, and after drinking the water, it gave birth to two wings and turned into a bat, which could know the hiding place of the ghost.
Zhong Kui collected the bats and led them to remove the ghosts. According to this, on the night of the Chinese New Year's Eve, many folk portraits of Zhong Kui are pasted on the door, and there are also portraits hanging in the middle hall of the Dragon Boat Festival. In the portrait, Zhong Kui has a vicious face, holding a sword in one hand and grabbing a monster with the other, and the bat is guided in front. This is the "Zhong Kui Ying Fu Tu", also known as the "Zhong Kui Ghost Catching Map".
Blessed things. Chinese since ancient times, there has been a saying of "five blessings", the so-called "five blessings", "one day of life, two days of wealth, three days of kangning, four days of cultivation of virtue, five days of examination and death".
"Han Feizi" once said: "The whole life is a blessing." "Fu is the ultimate expectation of the farming nation, and bat Zhaofu is the consensus of the old times, from the feudal emperor to the countryside. The dragon robe is embroidered with a red bat pattern, taking the meaning of "Hong Fu". Folk people from utensils to architectural decorations also have bats as images.
Harmonic is also bat
In addition to the solemn meaning of Zhaofu, longevity, and the two worlds of the underworld, bats also have funny, humorous or even sinister and cunning connotations. Ming novelist Feng Menglong
"Laughing House , Bat Riding the Wall" once recorded a joke: Phoenix Shou, a hundred birds asahi, but the bat does not arrive. Feng Zhizhi said: "Ru ju wuxia, why be proud?" Bat Yue: "I have enough feet and belong to the beast, what is the use of He Ru?" "One day, the unicorn was born, and the bat did not arrive." Blame it. Bat: "I have wings and belong to birds, so why should I be congratulated?" Lin Feng met, said and the matter of bats, and sighed at each other: "Now the world is evil and thin, and it is really helpless to be born such a non-bird and non-beast person!" "This joke is all about the bat's wall-riding personality.
Therefore, Lu Xun wrote in "And Jieting Essays and Talks Outside the Door"
Zhong once said: "Some people believe me because I have read a few ancient books, some because I have read a little foreign books, and some because I read ancient books and read foreign books; but some people do not believe me because of this, saying that I am a bat." The word "bat" in the text also means this.
In addition to the ride on the wall, there is also the meaning of self-knowledge. Tang Wuming's "Jade Springs"
There is such a small story in the Tang Dynasty: Pei Xun of the Tang Dynasty had an ugly appearance and a straightforward personality. He had been drinking with his father, Peitan, who proposed to take turns drinking, and whoever took his turn would say a paragraph. Pei Tan handed the wine glass to Pei Xun and said, "The dwarf has a lot of mouths, and there are many wedges in broken cars, and Pei Xun is very good." After Pei Xun finished drinking, he returned the wine glass to his father Pei Tan and said, "The bat can't see himself, but he laughs at the swallows on the beams of the house, Eleven Lang is very good." Pei Tan was eleventh, and after hearing this, he angrily beat his son.
There was a saying that "the bat does not see himself, laugh at him on the beam", which is a metaphor for people who have no self-knowledge, but laugh at others.
The Jingpo people in southwest China believe that bats are a symbol of insidious cunning. Legend has it that in ancient times, the sun was hot, and the animals on the ground were roasted and cursed the sun. The sun was very angry after hearing this, and turned around the heavenly court. The sun was lost, and the ground was pitch black. So the animals gathered together and discussed raising gold and silver to return to the sun. When the bird raises money from the bat, the bat folds its wings and says it is not a bird but a rodent: when the mouse looks for it, it flaps its wings and says that it is a bird and not a rodent. Bats have not yet come out of the deceitful strip. As a result, the Jingpo people call those who are duplicitous, eloquent, and inconsistent in words and deeds "Batman".
It is precisely because bats have many of the above evil deeds and viciousness, that there is a Three Kingdoms Cao Zhi's "Bat Endowment" that "call for treachery, give birth to bats." The shape is peculiar, and every variation is constant. Can't help but fly, fly without false wings" teasing.
Zhuang Harmonious is blessed
With the continuation of history, people have gradually "deposed" their wall-riding and comical meanings in bat beliefs, and "exclusively respected" the connotations of their blessings and blessings. People use bats as a medium, imitate their shape, harmonize their sounds, allude to their meanings, or solemn, or humorous, and express their expectations and pursuits of "blessings" to the fullest.
In the bat Zhaofu pointing, its shape, its sound, and its meaning often coexist, seeking both visual effects and more important allegorical expressions.
Among them, the creation of an auspicious pattern with bats as the theme is the most typical. A bat with two wings each hangs a copper coin, saying "blessings in front of the eyes": one person looks up at the sky and soars a bat in the air, called "praying for the gospel"; two bats face each other up and down, called "double blessings"; 5 bats fly to an open round box, called "five blessings and harmony"; 5 bats surround the middle of the "shou" word, then called "five blessings and longevity"; 5 bats flutter in the air, embellished with shou peach, called "many blessings and longevity"; a circle of red bat patterns inserted in the cloud pattern, meaning "Hong Fu Qi Tian"; 3 bats fly in the air, two have been caught in the box by children, called " The Five Blessings of Peace come during the day."
It goes on and on. There are only auspicious motifs that express "Fushou Shuangquan": a bat mouth bites a shou peach; a bat mouth bites an ancient coin, and each of its wings rolls a shou peach; two bats each hold a shou character; a birthday star carries a child, and a bat flies in the air. These motifs are either presented individually or in combination, expressing bluntness but meaning.
Specific to the application, these auspicious patterns are mostly used in furniture, porcelain, door knockers, kites, window flowers, embroidery and other objects, especially furniture. Bat pattern is the most popular pattern in furniture since the Ming and Qing dynasties, and there are many patterns decorated with bats on the tooth plates of bookcases, chair backs, and dining table panels. Decorated with bat patterns, or divided or connected, fluent and gentle, dense and dense, not only give people the enjoyment of beauty, but also give people spiritual and psychological pleasure and satisfaction.
Even in ancient buildings, there are also bat-shaped decorations. For example, in the best-preserved Gongwang Mansion in Beijing, the northernmost group of buildings consists of the Invitation Moon Pavilion, the Climbing Corridor, the West Side Room and the curved ear rooms on both sides, and the whole building is strangely shaped like a bat with open wings, hence the name "Fu Dian".
Objectively speaking, the bat in nature is an ugly thing, it cannot be ugly because it carries a large number of viruses, the bat is not wrong, the fault is only human desire for food, how can it become a mascot everywhere and blessed? The answer is actually very simple, because fu is the ultimate belief and expectation of the Chinese nation.
And this belief and expectation needs a marker to express, and the appearance of bats fills the people's desire to express their feelings and other things. This bat is not a bat, and the bat at this time has been born from the bat of nature to the bat of culture. From this point of view, the people's pursuit of happiness is an eternal theme, and the bat belief, which is believed in superstition and common belief, will also be evergreen in Chinese culture.