Chinese dragon and phoenix totem
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2006-4-10 11:57:00 Source: "Phoenix Totem"
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Dragon and Phoenix have the same origin for thousands of years
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As long-standing and rich cultural phenomena, both the phoenix and the dragon are symbols of the Chinese nation. Emblems, signs and symbols.
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Dragon is the ancient people’s diversified fusion of snakes, fish, crocodiles, pigs, horses, cows, deer and other animals, and natural celestial phenomena such as clouds, thunder and lightning, hauni and tornadoes. The resulting divine object has divinities such as water-loving, heaven-reaching, fickle, manifesting, demonstrating, and comparing to the emperor. Reptiles and mammals are the main fusion targets of dragons. Therefore, dragons are often called "the leader of the scale clan" and "the king of beasts".
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The phoenix is ??a mythical creature created by the ancients’ fusion of various birds, some wandering animals, and natural phenomena such as the sun and wind. It has the characteristics of facing the sun, It has divine qualities such as reaching heaven, renewing oneself, upholding virtue, auspicious, noble, fond of purity, showing beauty, expressing emotions, and becoming a king. Birds with wings are the main fusion objects of the Phoenix. Therefore, the Phoenix has ascended the throne of "the leader of the feather clan" and is known as the "King of Birds".
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The earliest "dragon pattern" discovered so far was unearthed at the Hongshan Cultural Site in Chahaiqian, Liaoning, about 8,000 years ago; the earliest "phoenix pattern" was unearthed It was found at the Hemudu Cultural Site in Yuyao, Zhejiang, about 7,000 years ago; the earliest "dragon and phoenix pattern" was unearthed at the Yangshao Cultural Site in Beishouling, Baoji, Shaanxi, about 7,000 years ago. These few precious cultural relics are enough to show that dragons and phoenixes originated in the early New Jade Age seven or eight thousand years ago, and they were almost at the same time.
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By the Shang Dynasty (about 1600 to 1100 BC), it seems that the situation of dragon and phoenix cohabiting the same acupoint has become fashionable. The tomb of Fuhao in Yinxu, Anyang, Henan Province, unearthed not only a particularly beautiful yellow-brown "jade phoenix", but also a dark green "jade dragon" with a unique shape. The green-yellow "Dragon and Phoenix Crown Humanoid Jade Pendant" from the Shang Dynasty collected in the Tai'an City Museum in Shandong Province allows us to see the "dragon and phoenix in one body" pattern for the first time: the dragon and phoenix crown is worn on a figure wearing a waist dress. On the head, the dragon's head on the crown curves down and is on the right; the phoenix head on the crown is upturned and is on the left; the dragon's body and the phoenix's body merge into one. This kind of shape gives people the feeling that it is not only correspondence, cooperation, and complementation, but also intersection and integration. It is a "unity" or "identity" in which you are in me and I am in you.
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The dragon and phoenix correspond, cooperate and complement each other
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The situation of dragon and phoenix cooperation and blending developed to the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period. A peak.
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The "dragon and phoenix figure silk painting" unearthed from the Chu tomb in Chenjiadashan, Changsha, Hunan, is a "dragon and phoenix picture". The dragon on the screen stands upright with its tail curled up, its head and face turned to the sky, its limbs and claws moving, and it is about to leap forward. Next to it is the corresponding phoenix - head held high, wings spread, flying in the air. Under the dragon and phoenix, stands a woman in skirt with her hands clasped together, praying for heaven. Obviously, the dragon and phoenix are in a cooperative relationship here, and both bear the important task of guiding people to escape from the world and ascend to heaven.
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The fusion of dragon and phoenix is ??often achieved through entanglement, entanglement, and integration. A "four dragons and four phoenixes plan vessel base" was unearthed from a tomb of the Zhongshan Kingdom in Pingshan County, Hebei Province. The wooden case surface has decayed and is no longer preserved. The case base is entangled with four dragons and four phoenixes, and four lying deer are the base of the case, arranged around the bottom edge of the chassis. The dragon has a double body and three tails, with dragon horns hanging on the tail tips; two wings sprout from the dragon's shoulders, and the dragon wings are connected to each other. The phoenix's head and claws poke out from the chain of the dragon's tail. The scales of the dragon and the feathers of the phoenix are clearly visible. A batch of silk fabrics were unearthed from Chu Tomb No. 1 in Mashan, Jiangling, Hubei Province. The embroidery patterns on them were all gorgeous and beautiful dragons and phoenixes.
There are "dragon and flying phoenix pattern", "dancing phoenix chasing dragon pattern", "dancing phoenix and flying dragon pattern", "dragon and phoenix combined pattern", etc. The dragons and phoenixes on these patterns may dance gracefully, play in a playful manner, be intertwined, or join together to form a perfect body.
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So, why do dragons and phoenixes correspond, cooperate, complement, and even merge with each other?
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This must be analyzed from the different sources of dragon and phoenix. Dragons are mainly drawn from snakes, fish, crocodiles, lizards and other animals, as well as celestial phenomena such as clouds, thunder and lightning, hauni, and tornadoes. Most of the animals are "water creatures" and "water beasts" that like coolness and moisture and are good at hiding. "; Its celestial phenomena are also related to rain and gloom, which leads to the fact that dragons are basically "yin" in the early stages of their formation. The main objects of phoenix are chickens, swallows, crows, peacocks and other birds. Most of the birds like warmth and sunshine. There are sayings of "Yang Bird Crow", "Yang Bird" and "Fire Spirit". . In this way, from the Neolithic Age to the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period when the theory of Yin and Yang and the Five Elements prevailed, the dragon mainly appeared as a "yin object" and the phoenix mainly appeared as a "yang object".
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The Transformation of the Phoenix
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Speaking of yin and yang, the phoenix has two systems, one is its own system, One is the system corresponding to the dragon. The system itself has yang and yin, so-called phoenix is ??yang and phoenix is ??yin; the system corresponding to the dragon has undergone a transformation, that is, it has been transformed from yang as a whole to yin as a whole. This transformation probably began in the Qin and Han Dynasties.
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Since the Qin and Han dynasties, dragons have begun to possess the divinity that symbolizes monarchs and emperors. The reason is that after thousands of years of absorption, synthesis, and evolution, they have become At that time, the fusion process of the dragon has been initially completed, and the dragon's divinity such as reaching the sky, changing, manifesting, conquering auspiciousness, and demonstrating has been powerful and manifested. These divinities are often consistent with the "imperial nature" (such as the dragon It can "reach the sky", and the emperors also believed that they were "ordered by heaven"), so the dragon was favored by the emperors and used it as an object of comparison and symbolization. As a result, Qin Shihuang was called the "Ancestral Dragon". Anyone who wanted to be an emperor would imitate this "original dragon".
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As the emperors used dragons, compared to dragons, and called dragons, as a response, the emperors and concubines began to use phoenixes, compared to phoenixes, and called phoenixes. Its initial symbol is that Emperor Qin Shihuang (259 BC - 210 BC) asked his concubines to wear phoenix hairpins and phoenix-head shoes.
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As a result, the Phoenix has undergone a major transformation: from yang to yin, and overall it has become more feminine. This transformation process lasted about more than a thousand years.
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What is interesting is that before the transformation, the phoenix had a masculine status, so its status in people's minds was no lower than that of the dragon. After the transformation started, the situation was not as good as before. Coinciding with the time when emperors began to compete with dragons, the dragon also began to absorb and absorb the phoenix in its image. The purpose was probably to take the masculine nature and beauty of the phoenix as its own. As a yang bird, the important image features of the phoenix are its wings and claws, so the dragon also developed strong wings and sharp eagle claws. ), known as "Flying Dragon". When we look at the patterns on cultural relics after the Han Dynasty, as long as dragons and phoenixes are in the same picture, most of them have the dragon in the middle or at the top, and the phoenix at the side or at the bottom, and the dragon is usually larger than the phoenix.
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After the emperor competed with the dragon, the status of the dragon became increasingly prominent. After the Song Dynasty, the royal family had a monopoly on the dragon. The dragon pattern then became the main pattern used in imperial palace flowers. Compared with the dragon's glory, the phoenix's brilliance is somewhat inferior. The number of uses, opportunities to appear, and the degree of monopoly and mystification are much less than that of the dragon. , much smaller. This situation began in the Qin and Han Dynasties, flourished in the Ming and Qing Dynasties, and continued even after the Revolution of 1911.
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There are also special circumstances. If women dominate the government, Feng's status will be raised to a higher level. For example, when Emperor Gaozong of the Tang Dynasty was ill and unable to attend the court, Wu Zetian governed as a queen. At that time, Chenzhou reported that "a phoenix bird was seen in Wanqiu", so Wu Zetian changed her reign name to "Yifeng".
After the death of Emperor Gaozong of the Tang Dynasty, Wu Zetian, who became the Empress Dowager, ordered the Zhongshu Province to be renamed "Fengge" and the Menxia Province to be renamed "Luantai". On a certain day in September of the second year of Zai Chu, "the ministers reported that a Phoenix Emperor flew into Shangyang Palace from Mingtang and gathered on the left and right parasol trees." ("Zi Zhi Tong Jian·Tang Ji") Soon, Wu Zetian The Tang Dynasty was changed to the Zhou Dynasty, he was called the Holy Emperor, and the Yuan Dynasty was changed to "Tianshi".
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In the late Qing Dynasty, there was an emperor in name, but the actual power was in the hands of the Empress Dowager Cixi. In the comparison between dragon and phoenix, highlighting the phoenix can be said to be Cixi's lifelong pursuit. The seat where she watched a play in the Dehe Garden was called the "gold lacquer and enamel seat with hundreds of birds facing the phoenix." The Dingdong Tomb of the Eastern Tombs of the Qing Dynasty is the tomb of Cixi and Ci'an. The three palaces of the Cixi Mausoleum, with their huge expenditure of money and exquisite craftsmanship, outshine the palaces of the twenty-four emperors of the Ming and Qing Dynasties. In particular, the Danbi stone sculpture in the middle of Long'en Hall is even more unique. It is carved using high relief and perspective techniques. It is 1.6 meters wide and 3.1 meters long. The pattern is "Phoenix on top, dragon on bottom". There are sixty-nine white marble railings around the Long'en Hall. Each railing is carved with a "phoenix leading the dragon" pattern: a high phoenix spreading its wings in the sky, piercing the clouds and bowing its head; a small dragon emerging from the water, bending its body and raising its head. , looking up at Dafeng. The seventy-four pillar capitals break the historical pattern of one dragon and one phoenix. They are all "one phoenix suppressing two dragons", implying that she listened to politics twice behind the curtain.
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Cixi’s practice of elevating the phoenix above the dragon is truly a special case in the long history of the development of dragon and phoenix culture.
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The folk dragon and phoenix are auspicious
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The combination, correspondence and complementarity of the dragon and the phoenix are widely used It is popular among the people and reflected in the customs of different regions and different ethnic groups. Its meaning is mostly harmony of yin and yang, happy marriage and love, and praying for good luck. For example, in the traditional Chinese auspicious pattern "dragon and phoenix present auspiciousness": dragon and phoenix occupy half of each. The dragon is a flying dragon, it opens its mouth and spins around, looking back at the phoenix; the phoenix is ??a flying phoenix, it spreads its wings and raises its tail, and looks up at the dragon. There are auspicious clouds all around, and there is a peaceful atmosphere. There are also many folk legends about the cooperation and union of dragons and phoenixes, such as the Northeastern "Dragon and Phoenix Match": Dragon Zi first transformed into a snake boy and then a handsome young man to woo the third girl. After marriage, he went to take the exam, and the third girl's sister secretly burned her. He took away the snake skin left by Long Zi, so that She Lang, who won the first prize in the exam, could only fly back in the body of a dragon. The third girl committed suicide upon seeing this and turned into a fiery red phoenix. Then the dragon and the phoenix sang in harmony, and both flew to heaven.
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The reason why this situation occurs can be analyzed from two aspects: on the one hand, dragons and phoenixes are originally gods created by the working people, embodying the people's Naturally, emperors and empresses cannot monopolize all the good wishes of the masses. For example, the She people's custom of wearing "phoenix costumes" has nothing to do with the emperor and queen competing with phoenixes. Legend has it that in ancient times, a mother and her son rescued an injured phoenix. After the phoenix recovered, he gave the mane and tail of his head to the phoenix. The newly married girl at home. From then on, girls from the She ethnic group wore phoenix costumes. On the other hand, it is undeniable that the emphasis on emperors comparing themselves to dragons and concubines comparing themselves to phoenixes has also had a great impact on the secular life of the people. As the saying goes, "What is good at the top will surely be worse at the bottom" ("Southern History·The Scholars") (quoted in "Biography"). For example, Zhejiang people pay attention to brides wearing phoenix crowns and harems when they get married. It is said that the origin of this is that in the Southern Song Dynasty, a village girl saved Kang Wang Zhao Gou from a disaster. After Zhao Gou returned to the throne, he gave the village girl the title of "empress". When you get married, you will enjoy the honor of sitting in a sedan chair, wearing a phoenix crown and a Xiapei. Later, rural girls also followed suit when they got married, and this custom became established. As for those romantic novels, such as "The Flower Dragon Plays with the Phoenix", "The Dragon Plays with the Phoenix", "The Heroic Dragon Plays with the Phoenix", "The Proud Dragon Plays with the Phoenix", etc., it can be seen from the names that they are subject to the emperor's comparison with the dragon and the concubine's comparison. The influence of Phoenix.
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In modern times, the era when dragons and phoenixes were symbols of emperors and empresses has become a thing of the past. People regard them more as "mascots" or "mascots". "auspicious symbol". As a result, a series of new folklore phenomena emerged. For example, on June 20, 1999, Zhu Chaohui, a young man from Shanxi, successfully flew across the Yellow River on a motorcycle and held a particularly memorable wedding in Hukou. The bride holding flowers greeted him on the other side, and behind him was A specially made large and eye-catching "Dragon and Phoenix Double Happiness".
As for which couples are blessed with male and female twins, people refer to them as "dragon and phoenix", which is often seen in the media.
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On December 18, 2004, the theme song of the Chinese wedding celebration was announced in Beijing. "Dragon and Phoenix Presenting Auspiciousness" composed by the famous composer Zhao Jiping was selected and became China's first The first wedding celebration theme song produced through an organized solicitation from the society. After that, newlyweds can use it free of charge when holding weddings. This song is about three minutes long, and its lyrics are: "You are the bride, I am the groom, our love sets sail in the morning glow; you hold a pole, I paddle an oar, and sing a Chinese song "Dragon and Phoenix present auspiciousness"; Dragon and Phoenix present auspiciousness; , the dragon and the phoenix present auspiciousness, harmony and beauty, and joy; the dragon and phoenix present auspiciousness, the dragon and phoenix present auspiciousness, love and affection, forever and ever..."