Approaching the Spring Festival, located in the Xinye County Han Portrait Brick Museum, people have come to the first relief Dragon Han portrait brick to feel the unique charm of the Han Dynasty civilization.
Founded in October 1988, the Xinye Han Portrait Brick Museum is the only museum in China that mainly displays Han portrait bricks, with a collection of more than 5,200 cultural relics, including more than 60 dragon-shaped relief Han portrait bricks. 2024 is the year of the dragon in Jiachen, the dragon, a traditional Chinese mythical beast, is the most important category of China's mythical animal culture, and is also a symbol of Chinese Taoism. Today, let's walk into the Xinye County Museum and take a look at the dragon in the Han Dynasty portrait bricks!
As the origin of Chinese culture, Han culture has attracted more and more attention, and the importance of Han portrait bricks as an important carrier of Han Dynasty culture is self-evident. The people of the Han Dynasty had a strong sense of prophecy and the idea of seeking good fortune and avoiding evil, so the dragon in the brick of the Han portrait is a symbol of auspiciousness.
The dragons in the Han portrait bricks unearthed in Xinye County appear together with other auspicious objects, thus conveying the meaning of peace and auspiciousness of the ancients. For example, the unearthed Han "two dragons wear bi, feather people, cattle and tigers" portrait bricks, the right end of the picture is a feather man holding a sesame grass, the lower is a tiggo, the middle is a two dragons wearing jade, and the right side is a bear and a cow. Tiger, ox and vermilion bird are all rui beasts in the minds of the people of the Han Dynasty, and the tiger and the vermilion bird are the gods of the four spirits, and they have good luck when they see it, and they can ascend to immortals. The people of the Han Dynasty endowed animals with a variety of divine powers as gods to worship, and the dragon and these beasts were fused together, which can explain people's expectations for flying and immortality at that time.
"Two dragons piercing the bi" is also a common theme in Han paintings everywhere, which can reflect a relatively popular and universal belief concept of people in the Han Dynasty. The image of "Two Dragons Piercing Bi" is composed of two major thematic elements: jade bi and double dragons. The conventional concept is that according to the ancient view of "the sky is round and the place is round", the "jade" naturally symbolizes the heavens and is also the best ritual weapon; And the dragon is considered by the ancients to be one of the most sacred objects "qiāo", "Hug Puzi Zaying" said:"If you can kick the person, you can go around the world, regardless of the mountains and rivers, there are three ways to ride the road: one day dragon kick, two tiger kicks, three deer lu kick. "
The image of the "dragon" in the portrait brick of the Xinye Han Dynasty can be described as "vivid and lively, colorful", it is a microcosm of the Han culture in the Central Plains, and its creative style and artistic expression techniques have extremely high artistic value, this style fully reflects the romanticism of the people in the Han Dynasty who are eclectic, heroic and free, and bold and creative. In addition, the auspicious meaning of the dragon and the auspicious idea expressed in the brick pattern of the Han portrait have been integrated into people's daily life, and gradually formed a folk culture and become a part of Chinese civilization.
Correspondent: Ding Jianzhong.
Ding Jianzhong: male, soldier, served in the Lanzhou Air Force for 18 years, transferred officer. He is a member of the Chinese Calligraphers Association, a member of the Nanyang Writers Association, and a reporter of Xinye TV, and has published more than 1,000 articles in newspapers and magazines such as "Xinhua News Agency", "People**", "Science and Technology", "Farmers", "Henan**", "Cultivation Magazine", "Rushing Literature", "Prose Network" and other newspapers and magazines. His hobbies include literature, photography, calligraphy, sports, etc. I often "move bricks" on documents and "swim" in the sea of books.