What is the significance of Siyang Square?

First of all, sheep's position in sacrifice is second only to that of cattle. A large number of sacrificial pits were found in Xiaotun, Anyang, Henan Province, where the capital of Shang Dynasty was located. Most of them are cows, sheep and dogs. In one material about the Shang royal family's sacrifice to Wuding in the Wuding period of Shang Dynasty, it was mentioned that "100 dogs and 100 sheep were used", and in another material, "15 sheep" and "50 sheep" were mentioned. It can be seen that the sacrificial amount of sheep as a sacrifice is very large. Sheep's character also makes it a favorite object of people. In the pre-Qin period, there were two kinds of generalizations about sheep's character: kindness and politeness; Soft outside and rigid inside. Sheep's habit of "kneeling and sucking milk" is regarded as kindness and courtesy, and even interpreted by later generations as a model of filial piety; Many sacred natures are also derived from softness on the outside and rigidity on the inside. The legendary ancestor Hao Tao worshipped sheep. There is also a saying in The Book of Songs, Zhao Nan, that "King Wen is in charge, honest and clean, as good as a lamb". An ancient one-horned monster in China is also considered to be related to sheep, which can tell whether a person is guilty or not, and distinguish right from wrong. So later generations used unicorns to represent law and justice. The most popular or folk symbolic meaning of respecting sheep in Siyangfang is "auspiciousness". Sheep have been associated with auspiciousness since at least the Han Dynasty. The words "Houyi Wang Daji sheep (auspicious)" can often be seen in inscriptions such as tiles and bronze mirrors in the Han Dynasty. Auspicious is sometimes written directly as "auspicious sheep". Here, sheep and auspiciousness are not just words, but the above qualities given to sheep. Sheep are animals with horns. Horn is worshipped by many ethnic groups, especially primitive ethnic groups. Many gods created by human beings are horned, such as the famous horned god and ancestor Chiyou in ancient China. The word "Qiang" in Oracle Bone Inscriptions looks like wearing a horn on his head. Primitive people in the world used to use horns, horns and antlers as decorations. Its meaning is as follows: 1, wearing horns on the head at the earliest time, and wearing animal skins to lure wild animals when hunting; 2. On clan festivals, dancers wear masks with double horns or angular edges on their heads; 3. After class division, tribal chiefs and dignitaries wear horns to show their power and honor; 4. The wizard wears a horn hat when he worships God; 5. The gods worshipped by clans also have horns. There are about forty glyphs of Oracle Bone Inscriptions Zhongyang, and the most similar glyph is the prominent double horns. The ancients said that "the essence of water is jade, and the essence of earth is sheep", and sheep is the object of expression of various art forms. There are pottery sheep in the Neolithic age, jade sheep unearthed from the tomb of a good woman in Shang Dynasty in Yinxu, Anyang, and the tomb from the late Zhao Xizhou to the early Spring and Autumn Period in Quwo, Shanxi; There are hundreds of auspicious portraits in the Eastern Han Dynasty. Moreover, there are sheep's head pots in the porcelain of the Eastern Jin Dynasty. In the Qing dynasty, I like to use three sheep to make handicrafts, which means "three sheep (Yang) open Thailand". There are three hexagrams in the Book of Changes: "Right" is a sheep, "Lead the sheep to regret death" in the ninth grade, and "Return to the sister" in the sixth grade is "Cut the sheep without bleeding." In the research of Yi scholars, sheep is borrowed as a symbol of "Yang". The first month of the summer calendar is the hexagram of Thailand. Among the sixty-four hexagrams, "Tai" belongs to Sanyang. "In the first month, Thai hexagrams, the next month gives birth to three suns, winter goes to spring, and the yin disappears and the yang grows, which seems auspicious"; In addition, Sanyang is the ninth day, the second day and the third day in Yi Gua, all of which belong to "Yang". Therefore, the auspicious words that have always started with "Three Yang Kai Tai" have the symbolic significance of the renewal of everything. Sheep is also a symbol of "harmony" culture. In ancient times, there was a legend that "Lv Zhong met Yu Yang". Because sheep and Yang are homophones in ancient times, and the image of sheep is lovely, gentle and firm, people use "sheep" as the code and concrete symbol of "Yang", and in folk painting, they also use sheep to express the themes of "three" and "nine". The famous Wuyang legend in Guangzhou is very beautiful. It is worth noting that Wuyang is related to the five grains in the story. Jin Peiyuan's "Guangzhou Ji" and "Five Sheep Holding Grain in Chuting" may contain some ancient cultural codes that we can't study exhaustively today. Interestingly, sheep play a special role in many cultural backgrounds. In different cultures, the symbolic meaning of sheep is different and there are similarities. In western tradition, goat horn is "the sun" and ox horn is "the moon". The theory of the sun is similar to the connection between sheep and the sun explained by China in ancient times. In Mediterranean civilization, the first born lamb (or the lamb of St. John) is regarded as a symbol of victory in spring. On various occasions of Judaism, Christianity and Islam, the lamb is a sacrifice, especially the "Lamb of God" including the blood of the lamb, which is of symbolic significance to save the world and drive away evil spirits. The original Christian doctrine even mentioned that Christ was a lamb, and John told Jesus that "the lamb of God removed the sin of the world". In Judaism, using two male goats as "atonement sacrifices" is what people often call "scapegoats". Bronzes unearthed in Hunan, represented by Four Sheep Fang Zun, focus on sheep. On the one hand, they retain the primitive totem worship, but they also have the significance of replacing sheep as sacrifices to gods. At the same time, it also contains the expectation of the prosperity of livestock breeding such as sheep, and may sprout various ideas about sheep in later generations. For the master of Yang Zun in those days, he was not a dumb object, but the hope of himself and his home country. Bronze statue prevailed in Shang Dynasty and Western Zhou Dynasty, and it was a drinking utensil. This square statue of Four Sheep is the largest existing bronze square statue of Shang Dynasty in China, weighing 34kg. With its unique shape, it should be included in the treasure house of cultural relics. Fang Zun of Siyang is a bronze ware in the late Shang Dynasty and early Shang Dynasty. Belonging to ritual vessels and sacrificial articles. It is the largest Fang Zun among the existing Shang bronzes in China, with a height of 58.3 cm and a weight of nearly 34.5 kg. 1938 Unearthed at Zhuanlun mountainside, Yueshanpu, Huangcun, Ningxiang County, Hunan Province. It is now in the National Museum of China. Siyangfang respects the square body, with a square mouth and a large side. The neck decoration is slightly outside, each side is 52.4 cm long, and its side length is almost 58.3 cm high. Long neck, high circle feet. The neck is towering, and all sides are decorated with banana leaf patterns, triangle-shaped and animal-faced patterns. In the middle of the statue is the center of gravity of the container. Carve a sheep on each corner. On the four corners of the shoulder, there are four sheep's head horns. The sheep's head and neck extend out of the device, and the sheep's body and legs are attached to the stomach and feet. The belly is the front chest of the sheep, and the leg of the sheep is attached to the feet and bears the weight of the body. The back of the sheep's chest, neck and back are decorated with scales, and the two sides are decorated with exquisite long-crowned phoenix patterns, and there are real inscriptions on the circle. Fang Zun's shoulders are decorated with dragons with claws and high-relief snake bodies. The center of the four sides of the statue is where two sheep are next to each other. A pair of ceratosaurus poked their heads out of the watch and snaked out from the right shoulders on both sides of the square statue in the middle of the former residence. Are decorated with exquisite thunder patterns. A long ridge is designed at the intersection of the four corners and the center line of the utensils to cover up the dislocation patterns that may occur when the utensils are combined. According to the analysis of archaeologists, the square statue of Siyang was cast by secondary casting process, that is, the horn and faucet were first cast separately, then put into the outer mold separately, and then cast as a whole. The whole utensil was cast in blocks in one go, showing a superb casting level. The four sheep square statue integrates line carving, relief carving and round carving, plane decoration and three-dimensional sculpture, and the combination of utensils and animal modeling is just right, which is made by extremely exquisite casting technology. Among the bronze statues of the Shang Dynasty, the dignified and elegant shape of this vessel is unparalleled. This statue is simple, beautiful, magnificent, moving and quiet. Known as the "ultimate bronze model", look for Asian respect for wine containers. Castings in the late Shang Dynasty. The old things of the Qing Palace are now in the Palace Museum. The original instrument is 45.5 cm high and 38 cm wide. Big opening, wide overlapping shoulders, high round feet. There are four three-dimensional elephant heads at the four corners of the shoulder, and four double-angle elephant heads in the middle of the shoulder. The neck is decorated with banana leaf patterns, and the shoulders and circles are decorated with bird patterns. The face of a large animal with serrated horns on its abdomen and feet. The serrated horns of the feet are carved in the shape of a dragon. The four corners of the vessel and the center line of each wall are ribbed, and the upper end is slightly out of the vessel mouth, which is the solemn image of Dragon and Tiger respecting commercial vessels. The original work was unearthed in Funan County, Anhui Province on 1957. It is 50.5 cm high, 44.9 cm in diameter and weighs about 20 kg. This is a tall wine container with a trumpet-shaped mouth, wide shoulders, deep abdomen and a complete circle. The dragon and tiger are decorated with three dragons winding forward, and the bibcock protrudes from the shoulder. The belly is decorated with a tiger head and two tiger bodies, and there is a human figure under the tiger's mouth. The title of a person is in the tiger's mouth. The lower part of the tiger's body is bounded by leaves, and it is decorated with animal faces composed of two opposite dragons. The upper part of the circle foot has strings and cross holes. The theme of dragon and tiger decoration is "tiger mouth holding people" On this theme, some people think that the "people" here should be those slaves, and "grabbing food from the tiger's mouth" reflects the cruelty and terror of slave society. Other archaeologists question this traditional explanation. They think it should be a witchcraft theme. Bronze ware was a very important ritual vessel at that time, and such ornamentation should be a scene documentary of wizard's practice. In ancient times, an open tiger's mouth was a symbol of dividing the world into life and death, and the people under the tiger's mouth were probably wizards. With the help of the tiger, the wizards showed an ability to connect heaven and earth and feel ghosts and gods in sacrifice. We can't explain exactly what the meaning of this pattern is, but it must be related to some myth and religious belief at that time, which is of great significance in sacrificial activities. This statue is a treasure in the bronze wares of Shang Dynasty, and it is as famous as the Four Sheep Square statue.