Historical origin
Myths and legends
According to Shan Hai Jing and other ancient books, the tenth day in the ancient Chinese sun myth and legend is the son of Di Jun and He. They are both human and divine, the embodiment of the sun, the three-legged bird of the sun, and the flying god. For example, in Shan Hai Jing Huang Da Nan Jing, there is "xi He, the wife of the emperor, was born for ten days"; "Shan Hai Jing Overseas East longitude" said, "There are hibiscus on the Tang Valley, bathing on the 10th, north of Blackpool. Living in water, there are big trees, the lower branches live for nine days, and the upper branches live for one day. " "Shan Hai Jing" Dong Jing also said that "there are supporting trees in the Tang Valley, and they are all in Wu every day", which is the account of decameron's myths and legends. In the Spirit of Huainanzi, it is said that there are three feet of Wu in Japan and China, and in Guo Pu's annotation, there are three feet of Wu in China, which is the explanation and explanation of the sun as the embodiment of the sun. On the tenth day of ancient myths and legends, it rises from the oriental hibiscus tree in turn every morning, turns into the sun or the sun bird flying from east to west in the universe, and falls on the western Ruomu tree at night, expressing the ancient observation and feeling of sunrise and sunset.
New explanation of myth
Historical legends
In the article "The Scientific Connotation of Birds, Kitchen Gods and Suiren's Family in Fang Bi" written by Mr. Wang Hongqi, it is introduced: "The Wuzang Mountain Classic/Xishan Classic records:' There are birds on Zhan Ge Mountain, which are like cranes, full of feet, deep blue and white beaks, and their names are square pens, claiming themselves. A fire broke out in his city. There is a bird on Zhang 'e Mountain, which looks like a crane and has only one foot. Its body is blue with a red pattern and its mouth is white. This bird is called Fang Bi, and its song is its own name. Strange fires will happen where it appears. Mr. Yuan Ke pointedly pointed out that Bifang bird's cry "Fang Bi" is the crackling sound when bamboo and wood are burning, and that Bifang bird is an old crow, which is good and reasonable. ..... In addition, the Bifang bird here may be the iconic costume of ancient firefighters. In case of fire, they should act in time and loudly imitate the crackling of bamboo and wood to warn them. ..... In addition, there is a barefoot bird in the Ugly Yangshan Mountain in the No.1 1 1 mountain range of the Five Zang Mountain Classic, which looks like a crow and can' resist fire'. Obviously, this is also the costume of local firefighters. "It is reported that in ancient myths and legends of China, crows have a certain connection with fire. Birds generally represent airplanes, tripods, which are our common airplanes. Tripods are three landing gears, and tripods are ancient, not creatures.
Crow and fire
The TV introduced that crows would stay in the smoke on purpose, and explained that the smoke had a certain bactericidal effect. Crows can resist the choking of smoke and stop in the smoke, probably by using the bactericidal effect of smoke to prevent and treat diseases. The ancients may have noticed that crows like to stay in smoke, while other birds are far away from fireworks, so they think crows are sacred objects related to fire. In addition, crows are as black as charcoal, as if they were melted from a fire. The ancients were more likely to simply think that crows were the embodiment of fire and another manifestation of lively "fire". The sun is the biggest fire in the world, at least the ancients knew it, so the crow got in touch with the sun and became a bird flying with the sun. Shan Hai Jing Ye Dongjing: "There is a tree on the Tang Valley, which is in Wu every day." There is a hibiscus tree in Tangshan Valley, and ten suns live in it. One sun has just returned, and the other sun has already got up and gone out. All ten suns are loaded with crows. In this way, the crow jumped from an ordinary bird to a god crow flying with the sun behind its back.
Clever crow
Crows are very clever. According to Science and Technology Daily, Canadian Luo Fu Wei thought crows ranked first in intelligence after studying the behaviors of various birds. Others think that the intelligence of crows is roughly similar to that of chimpanzees, which is equivalent to the level of three or four-year-old children. There used to be a science and education film on TV. In the picture, a crow throws a walnut into the driveway, then flies to the telephone pole to stop, waiting for the passing car to crush the peach shell, and then flies down to pick up the peach kernel when the traffic is sparse. The cleverness of crows is unbelievable. Crow is one of the few birds that are not afraid of people, and likes to live around people. Crowds of crows often fly around the town. The idiom "love me, love my dog" vividly illustrates this phenomenon.
Crows are smart and like to live around humans. It can be inferred from these two habits that people in ancient China probably observed and noticed that crows liked to rest in smoke. Therefore, it makes sense to associate crows with fire and the sun. This should be the true face and formation process of the three-legged sun myth. Although this explanation is far less wonderful than that of sunspots, we should also admire the wisdom of our ancestors.
Crow and ancient prose
In Oracle Bone Inscriptions, the word "Xi" looks like a feather shape, but why it changed from a feather shape to the word "Xi", some people think that "Ling" is an archaic word for "Xi", while others think that it is transformed from a simple bird wing shape, but it is not clear. Xu Shen said in "Shuo Wen Jie Zi": "Birds are on the nest, pictographic; The sun sets in the west, and birds enter the nest to rest, thus indicating the word "west (or writing habitat)" in the east-west direction. Xu Shen's statement is also accepted by many people. If we analyze from the myth of the sun, because the sun itself is carried by birds like the sun, that is to say, the sun itself is related to birds, there is no need to trace the relationship between the sun and birds around such a big circle. When the sun goes down, it should perch. When birds land or touch branches, they often shake their whole bodies and their feathers will be shaken off. Where birds live, there are often fallen feathers, that is to say, if you see birds' feathers on the ground, it is enough to show that birds have lived. Although the sun is a divine bird, it seems inevitable to the ancients that it will shed its feathers, and the place where it falls is also the place where it shakes off its feathers, so the shape of its feathers is used to indicate this place or this direction.
history
Xuanzhongji: "To the east of Penglai, on the mountain of Daiyu, there are hibiscus trees, towering into the sky. There is a chicken at the top of the tree, which is a nest on the ground. Every night until midnight, the rooster announces the dawn and the sunny bird answers it at noon; When birds sing in the sun, all the chickens in the world will sing. " According to China folklore, this bird is the essence of the sun and lives in Japan. There are often three-legged birds on the brick of Han Dynasty, who live next to the Queen Mother of the West and feed on it, or three bluebirds.
"The Story of the Cave" Volume 4: "(Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty) said,' What I like is not being old, but what can I get?' The new moon says,' There is grass in the northeast and grass in the southwest.' The emperor said,' How do you know?' Xinyue said:' Wu, who has three legs, ate this grass several times and tried to control it, covering his eyes with his hands, but he wouldn't listen. Herbivores never get old, but other birds and animals will get bored when they eat this grass. "Yiwenhui" is quoted from the Yellow Emperor stretching a hundred sentences: "If you see it in Japan and China, it will be a great drought." Pointing to the grandson.
"River Map with Map": "Kunlun is in the water, less than Lapras, less than." A bird with three legs feeds on the queen mother. "
Wang Chong's On the Sun in the Han Dynasty: "Three feet in the middle of the day, a rabbit in the middle of the month."
"Huainanzi Spiritual Practice" "Japan has a dark day." Henkel lured the note: "I'm still squatting." It's called "three feet five feet"
"Chunqiu Yuanming Bao": "Three feet in the middle of the day." Therefore, the sun is also called three feet five or sunshine. In addition, the Queen Mother of the West is three feet black, which is the black that feeds the Queen Mother of the West.
Biography of Sima Xiangru in Historical Records: "[Queen Mother of the West] Dai Sheng is in the cave. Fortunately, she has three ancestors and five ambassadors."
Zhang Shoujie confidently led Zhang Yi to say, "The three-legged blackbird is also a bluebird, and the Lord feeds for the Queen Mother of the West." Later it was also used to refer to the sun.
In the Tang Dynasty, Du Fu wrote in the poem "A Trip to the Second Temple of Daolin in Yuelu Mountain": "The lotus flowers sing * * *, and the gold medal returns three feet." Qiu quoted as saying: "Three feet black, one day."
Song Luyou's Moonlight Short Song: "Although the stars are high, there is no need to be happy, they were born at the bottom of the sea."
The influence of later generations
wall painting
Koguryo Murals and Sanzu House
introduce
Koguryo people worship the Three Ancestors and Five Ancestors, a sacred animal that originated in the Central Plains. Regard it as a symbol of supreme power.
source
"Chunqiu Yuanming Bao" says: Japan and China have three feet. Wu is the essence of Yang. Textual research on the origin of three-legged birds: there are three birds circling the sun on the bronze mirror of the Qin Dynasty in the Warring States Period, three birds flying around the sun on the tile in the Han Dynasty, and three-legged golden sun perching on the hibiscus tree depicted in the Han Dynasty stone portrait Shooting Nine Days, which shows that these are all three-legged Wu in the eyes of the ancients. This worship of the three ancestral houses by Koguryo people is reflected in the murals of Koguryo tombs.
content
The murals in Koguryo's ancient tomb are rich in content, among which the worship of the four gods, the picture of Fuxi Nuwa, the picture of Shennong, and the picture of Taoist immortals in feather clothes all reflect the comprehensive influence of the Central Plains on Koguryo culture. At the same time, Goguryeo's hunting and war murals also reflect its martial and bellicose characteristics as a frontier nation. It should be pointed out that there is no obvious difference in composition between these pictures and the tomb murals in the Central Plains since the Wei and Jin Dynasties. Koguryo murals are the ironclad proof that Koguryo belongs to the Chinese civilization system in culture.
The spread of three-legged birds
Koguryo people serve their ancestral houses like dragons and phoenixes. Besides being the sun god, it also means power. Koguryo's Sanzuwu culture was introduced from the Central Plains of China, which reflected the worship of birds and the sun in ancient China. This Koguryo people's worship of the Three Ancestors and Five Ancestors is described in the murals of Koguryo tombs.
Koguryo's mural tomb is painted with statues of the sun and the moon, which means to worship the sun, the moon and the stars. Tomb No.4 of Goguryeo's Five Helmets Tomb "The corner stone on the second floor of North Point is painted with the sun and the moon, and there is a snake head." The sun god is on the left, a male figure, with his hair covered and his hands holding sun gear on his head. Both Japan and China have three-legged birds. The moon god is on the right, with long hair and a female figure. There are toads in the middle of the moon. "At the top of the algae well in the back room of Changchuan No.1 tomb, there are three-legged birds (sun god), toad rabbits (moon god) and the Big Dipper.
Xizhou xingzun
biographical notes
From 1974 to 1975, two adjacent tombs were excavated in Rujiazhuang, Baoji. According to the inscription on the funerary bronzes, the noble (bow fish) Bo and his wife Jing Ji were buried in these two tombs respectively. Buried bronzes include Ding, Gui, Gui, Dou, Jue, Gui, Zun, Gui, chimes, weapons, chariots and horses. Among them, two three-legged black statues with the same shape unearthed in Room B of Tomb Rujiazhuang 1 are very distinctive. The bigger one is 23.5 cm high, 3 1.2 cm long and weighs 3 kg. The smaller one is 18 cm high. The bird is plump, with its head held high and its beak hooked. It looks far and wide, with three upright legs, a rectangular tail and stepped sides. The bird is hollow, with a rectangular hole in its back and a lid on it. The whole body is covered with scaly feathers, the tail is decorated with chain feathers, and the feet are decorated with scales.
Origin parameter
The bird statue is ingenious and scientific. As a vessel for holding wine, if there are only two feet, the stability is poor and it is easy to fall. For stability, it has a triangular support behind its two feet. From the mechanical point of view, it is a stable support, and the bird statue stands very steadily. But whether this shape is just for stability is not necessarily the case. Some experts believe that the shape of this bird image may be related to the existence of tripods in ancient myths and legends. There are many records about Sanzu House in China ancient literature. For example, Wang Chong's "On the Balance and the Sun" said: "There are three ancestral houses in Japan and three ancestral houses in China." "Huai Nan Zi Ling Xun" said: "There is a dark day in Japan and China." Gao: "I stumbled and squatted, which is three feet black." Wang Yi recorded in the Songs of the South: "Yao ordered Yi to shoot back for ten days, and on the ninth day, they all died and lost their wings." Then three feet are the essence of the sun. In the Eastern Han Dynasty, there were often some animal images on the brick paintings of Han Dynasty, such as tigers, deer, cows, pigs, fish, turtles, cranes, birds, tripods, nine-tailed foxes and so on.