When the ancients watched the celestial phenomena at night, they imagined the image of the seven stars located in the east, such as Jiao, Kang, Di, Fang, Heart, Tail, and Kei, which were called "Oriental Canglong". Xu Shen of the Eastern Han Dynasty described the dragon in "Shuowen Jie Zi": "The length of the scale insect. It can be quiet, bright, thin, huge, short, and long; The spring equinox ascends to the sky, and the autumn equinox dives into the abyss. "For thousands of years, with the development of the Chinese nation's cultural inclusiveness, the evolution of the dragon has also appeared an inclusive integration. As an important element in traditional Chinese culture, the dragon has rich symbolic meaning and profound cultural connotation, and the dragon culture runs through and influences the long development process of Chinese civilization, and can also provide a strong spiritual power for the development of the nation. The Chinese dragons in the cultural relics are colorful, and the cultural connotation is worth digging into. The Year of the Dragon is approaching, let us listen to the deep echoes of ancient civilizations, carry forward the spirit of dragons and horses and the enthusiasm of dragons and tigers, and create new glories in the new era and new journey.
In 1955, Chinese archaeologists named the ancient Neolithic cultural sites in the north and south of Yanshan and the Great Wall along the border of Liaoning, Inner Mongolia and Hebei as Hongshan Culture. The Hongshan culture dates back to about 6,500 to 5,000 years ago and is one of the important sources of Chinese civilization. A number of animal-themed jade, including dragons, have been excavated in the Hongshan Cultural Site, and the world-famous Hongshan Cultural Jade Dragon was unearthed here in 1971 and is now in the collection of the National Museum of China.
The jade dragon of Hongshan culture is carved from dark green Xiuyan jade, 26 cm high, smooth and warm, intact, unique in shape and exquisite in craftsmanship. The body is curled like a hook, in the shape of a "C", as if it is about to rise into the air in an instant. The head is vividly depicted, concise and rounded, the snout is protruding forward, slightly curved upward, the mouth is tightly closed, there are symmetrical double nostrils, and the eyes are protruding in a prismatic shape. From the head to the back of the neck, the long mane is elegant, and it is curled upward, so that the body shape of the jade dragon has changed, the spirit is vivid, and the edge is blade-like. Most of the dragon's body is light and plain, no limbs and no claws, no horns and no scales, the body is like a snake, strong and powerful, only carved with fine checkered grid patterns on the forehead and forehead, and the grid protrusions make a regular small diamond shape. This artifact covers the methods and processes of cutting, grinding, grinding, rolling, punching, and outlining the jade round carving process, and has the basic technical performance of the round carving technique. The jade dragon of the Hongshan culture has a high artistic value, and its use is still inconclusive, and the dragon's back has symmetrical holes to hang, but it is clearly not an accessory, and experts speculate that it was a ritual vessel used for sacrifice or as a religious totem symbol.
Red Mountain Culture Jade Dragon.
The jade dragon of Hongshan culture is rich in ancient Chinese cultural elements, which is a well-deserved and well-deserved national treasure-level heavy weapon, and it is also an important material for the study of the origin of Chinese dragons. The origin of the dragon is closely related to the formation of the history and culture of the Chinese nation and the beginning of the civilization era. Wen Yiduo pointed out that the Chinese are called "descendants of the dragon" in the legend of the Yellow Emperor era. In the "Supplementary Historical Records: The Three Emperors' Benji", it is recorded that Fuxi "has a snake head and a human body, and has holy virtues". "The Memoirs" describes the appearance of Fu Xi when he was born, which is the image of the dragon in later legends. According to the "Historical Records", the legend of the Yellow Emperor grass to create the Chinese civilization, mining the copper of the first mountain, cast into a big tripod, the day of the tripod, there is a dragon in the world, under the Yellow Emperor, the Yellow Emperor then took the dragon ** and left, more than 70 people. The first to take the dragon as a totem is the first dynasty of our country Xia, legend has it that when the first king of the Xia Dynasty Yu Shouchan ascended the throne, the dragon quickly flew out of its hiding place. In addition, the Xiongnu in the north of ancient China, the Chu, Yue, and Cantonese people in the south, and the Ailao and Miao people in the southwest are all ethnic groups with dragons as totems.
In 1975, the Tang Dynasty gilt iron-core copper dragon unearthed in the southern suburbs of Xi'an, Shaanxi Province, is now in the Shaanxi History Museum. This artifact is 34 centimeters high, 28 centimeters long and weighs 28 kg, gilded throughout, slender body, smooth shape, quite charming. The high dragon head and upper body are in an "S" shape, the dragon's mouth is wide open, revealing sharp teeth, and the long tongue curls up in the mouth. His eyes were wide open, looking straight ahead, and he was blazing. The forelimbs are straight, the two front paws are bent, and the ground is tightly gripped, and the claw joints of the limbs are particularly clear, hiding the beauty of strength. The lower abdomen, hind limbs and slender tail still float in the air, and the tail of the dragon is folded back above the dragon's head from its high hind limbs. There are two auspicious clouds on the back, as if falling from the sky, which is very dynamic, reflecting the vivid beauty and momentum of the dragon in the Tang Dynasty. Gilding is one of the most exquisite crafts in ancient China, and the process is very complicated. This gilt iron core copper dragon is composed of three metals: gold, iron and copper, with an iron core, bronze casting dragon body, and finally gold foil, its gilt layer is extremely thin, and the original fetal utensils are tightly fitted, almost exactly the same as gold.
Tang gilt iron core copper dragon.
Experts speculate that the gilded iron-core copper dragon has three functions. The first is the use of the town house to ward off evil spirits. The area around Caochangpo is the location of Yongle Fang in Chang'an City in the Tang Dynasty, and the people who live here are all prominent dignitaries. During the period of Xuanzong of the Tang Dynasty, this was the mansion of the Prime Minister Yan Guogong Zhang. According to the literature, the master once told Zhang that there was a royal spirit in the northwest of his house, and it was not suitable to take soil, and a month later, the master told Zhang that his land had been taken from the earth, and he was afraid that something would happen. Burying the dragon in the ground may be to restore the king's spirit, achieve the purpose of eliminating disasters and avoiding disasters, and praying for blessings. The second is the use of religious sacrifices. In the early years of the Tang Dynasty, Taoism was regarded as the state religion, and there was a ritual of "dipping and sacrificing the dragon" in Taoist culture, and the emperors of the Tang Dynasty paid special attention to this kind of fasting and dipping sacrifice activities. The third is the decoration of chariots and horses. The dragon is a symbol of royalty, and this gilded iron-core bronze dragon may also have been a decorative item on the court chariots.
Historically, various dynasties have created dragon shapes and forms according to the aesthetics of the time. The dragon in the early Tang Dynasty appeared to be very active, generally with its mouth and tongue open, pitching and tumbling, its scales were mostly oblique checkered, and the shape was gradually fixed, which was basically the common "three stops and nine likes" dragon that we later had. "Three stops" are the upper stop, middle stop, and lower stop, which are respectively from the head to the arm, from the arm to the waist, and from the waist to the tail; "Nine likes" means that the horns are like a deer, the head is like a camel, the eyes are like a rabbit, the neck is like a snake, the belly is like a mirage, the scales are like a fish, the claws are like an eagle, the palm is like a tiger, and the ears are like a cow. In the eyes of the Tang people, the dragon is the "god of the East" in the "four spirits of the sky", and it is the auspicious beast that suppresses evil and upright, guards wealth and protects the land, guards the river and protects the sea, and calls for wind and rain. ”
By carving the dragon's posture on a bronze mirror and weaving the dragon's pattern on silk, the dragon's face and sleeves turned into a soaring sky. In 1998, the sunflower-shaped dragon pattern mirror unearthed in Chang'an County, Xi'an, Shaanxi Province (now Chang'an District) is now in the Xi'an Museum. It has a diameter of 21 cm and weighs 121 kg, eight sunflower-shaped, round buttons. The dragon's head is close to the button, and the body is coiled upwards in a "C" shape around the button. The structure of the faucet is clear, the double horns are fine, the mouth is open and the tongue is out, and the pillow is towards the mirror button. The forelimbs stand and stretch, the hind limbs bend and stretch, the straightened hindlimbs are entangled with the tail, and the limbs are exposed with sharp three claws. There are three auspicious clouds around the dragon, and in the eight-petal area formed by the convex string pattern and the mirror edge, the flowers and leaves, the flowing clouds, and the three kinds of Fang Sheng are intertwined with each other, and there are two words "thousand" and "autumn" in the square of Fang Sheng.
Thousand Autumn Dragon Pattern Mirror.
This thing is related to the birthday of Xuanzong of the Tang Dynasty. In the seventeenth year of Kaiyuan, Tang Xuanzong set his birthday as the "Thousand Autumn Festival", and as a national festival, the whole country celebrated. At the celebration, Xuanzong wanted to give bronze mirrors to more than four grades, and the ministers also wanted to offer treasure mirrors to celebrate their birthdays, these mirrors were called "Qianqiu Mirrors", and the dragon pattern mirror was a kind of Qianqiu Mirror. The dragon is the symbol of the Son of Heaven's mandate, the cloud dragon is the most distinctive pattern of the Qianqiu mirror, the dragon mirror has the meaning of warding off evil spirits and appreciating all things, and is believed to be able to protect the emperor and the people. Tang Xuanzong has a poem "Thousand Autumn Festival Gives the Ministers Mirror": "Cast a thousand autumn mirrors, light gives birth to a hundred alchemy." After dividing the group and giving the group, the image meets the pure heart. According to Bai Juyi's official position at that time, it should be common for him to be given a thousand autumn mirrors, so he wrote a lot of "mirror poems", such as "Zhao is heavy and melancholy, with a double-disc dragon on his back" in the poem "Feeling Mirror", and "There is a ninety-five flying dragon on his back, and everyone calls it the mirror of the son of heaven" in the poem "Hundred Refining Mirror".