When we talk about mythological birdmen, we generally think of the gods in Egyptian mythology, such as the eagle god - Horus or the sun god Ra, who is the patron god of the pharaohs in ancient Egyptian mythology, a symbol of kingship, and a god of revenge. He is the son of Osiris and Isis, the kings of Hades, and is represented as a human figure with the head of an eagle (falcon), an Egyptian crown, a linen skirt around the waist, and a god holding a vos (energy) staff and an ankh (life) symbol. The god of wisdom and the moon – Thoth, the inventor of writing, is often depicted as a heron-headed human body, whose name meaning and curved mouth are reminiscent of the crescent moon.
Ra, the Egyptian sun god.
Horus, the Egyptian eagle god.
Thoth, the Egyptian god of the moon and wisdom.
However, what is surprising is that the "true form" of Taishang Laojun in the Wei and Jin dynasties of the Han Dynasty is actually a "birdman" face with a bird's head and a human body, which is carved in the same mold as the main god of Egyptian mythology, the sun god Ra or the eagle god Horus. The earliest known record of the "Laojun True Form" (i.e., the statue of Laojun in the Han Dynasty) of the bird's beak image deformed in the fairy world after the deification of Lao Tzu can be found in "Hug Puzi Inner Chapter Miscellaneous Response":
Nanhua Town, Gaotai County, Gansu Province M1 Taishang Laojun on the wall.
Laojun's true form, Sizhi, surnamed Li Dan, the word Boyang, nine feet long, yellow,Beak, rhinoplasty, the eyebrows are five inches long, the ears are seven inches long, the forehead has three principles up and down, there are enough gossip, with the turtle as the bed, the golden building and the jade hall, ** as the order, the five-colored cloud as the clothes, the overlapping crown, the sword of the collar ......This matter comes from the "Book of Immortals" also. Seeing that Lao Jun has extended his life, his heart is like the sun and the moon, and he doesn't know anything.
Shaanxi Shenmu Dabaodang Eastern Han Dynasty Tomb M18 six frieze portrait stone facsimile (right one Laojun).
According to the records of Taoist scriptures such as "Lao Tzu Xiang'er Note" and "True Message" in the late Eastern Han Dynasty, Lao Tzu's image of "bird man" had a special name in the Han DynastyPartridge", refers to the Taishang Laojun who is above the Kunlun Xuanpu and has wings. Why did Lao Tzu become such a strange appearance and have such a "strange appearance"?
Yuan and three years of portrait stone on the "spirit partridge", the title of the list read.
The so-called "strange appearance" is a strange appearance, which is a unique deification technique of the two Han Dynasty ghost and god beliefs. In its critique of this tradition, the book preserves an account of this technique: "The ancient immortals may be born with wings, change and fly, lose the essence of people, and suffer from alien shapes. The so-called "true form" refers to the fact that the enlightened person is "more alienated" and becomes an immortal "immortal truth", just like the so-called "ancient true person" in the "Zhuangzi", rather than the true and false meaning. "Metamorphosis" was an important idea in the religious theology of the Han Dynasty, and a large number of unearthed cultural relics from all over the world also show that it was a form of belief that prevailed during the Han and Jin dynasties. As Lao Tzu said in the "Lao Tzu Sutra of Changes": "I change my body shape, and I support the death to be reborn", and Lao Tzu Ming records that "Lao Tzu is separated from the chaotic qi and ends with the three lights." Watching the sky as a prophecy,Descend and ascend the star, and change with the sun……The Tao is incarnated, and the cicada transforms into the world. ”
Left: Portraits of the sun and moon, the Queen Mother of the West, the head of the cow, and the beak of a bird in the Xiao County Museum of Anhui ProvinceRight: The pillar stone on the north wall of the front room of the M1 front room of the Han Tomb of Shengcun in Xiao County.
Han paintings unearthed in Huaibei, Anhui Province.
In the minds of the Han people, Laojun is the embodiment of "Tao", so it is expressed as the god of "feathering" bird body that only those who dream of becoming immortals. Lao Jun's image of a bird's beak is also a manifestation of divine power that can fly up and down, just as Wang Fu said in "Lao Tzu's Monument to Our Lady".Floating in the six voids, in and out of the netherworldThe old gentleman with the body of a bird is the image of a god who can transcend all limitations, enter and exit between heaven and earth, and save people from becoming immortals with the Tao. In the old religious beliefs of the Han Dynasty, feathering was one of the main forms of expression of becoming immortals. Later, Taoism used the metaphor of driving a crane to ascend to immortals, or it evolved from the early belief in "spirit partridges".
Jiang Sheng,"Examination of the Gods of the Han Dynasty",Jiangxi Social Sciences,No.1,2015.
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