Bronze Owl You of the Shang Dynasty: Eternal God of War 笔记
In 1956, an owl you of the Shang Dynasty was unearthed in Erlangpo Village, Shilou County, Shanxi Province. Two small owls stand opposite each other, with their heads and bodies covered, pointed beaks covered, and protruding line shaped eyes. They also have four A-style roof shaped buttons and two symmetrical pairs of lightning patterns centered around the buttons. In a certain sense, Lei Wen refers to the horn of a small owl. The belly of the owl is decorated with raised vortex patterns, symbolizing a pair of wings. The powerful beast shaped feet firmly grasp and tread in all four directions, with a proud and majestic demeanor.
You are a type of wine vessel. In ancient inscriptions, the words "秬 Chang Yi You" are commonly seen, and "秬 Chang" is a fragrant wine made of black millet, used for worship.
You He Zun and Gong are three types of bronze realistic animal shaped containers. Archaeological discoveries are mainly concentrated in the late Shang Dynasty. At present, the earliest realistic owl ware found is the owl Zun unearthed from Tomb of Fu Hao in Yin Ruins. During this period, owl themed bronze vessels were quite popular, with the main types being You and Zun. Among them, the distribution of Owl You was relatively wide, and the differences in their shapes were not significant.
The owl shaped objects have appeared in the prehistoric Hongshan culture and Yangshao culture. The pottery age of Owl You Owl Zun also has physical evidence. For example, the pottery owl was unearthed at the Neolithic site in Xiyin Village, Xiaxian County, Shanxi Province, and the pottery Owl Zun was unearthed in the Miaodigou type tombs of Yangshao culture in Huaxian County, Shaanxi Province.
From the perspective of decorative art, this owl you unearthed in Erlangpo Village, Shilou County seems to retain some ancient simplicity. This seems very special. The bronze ware of the Shang Dynasty favored strange and magnificent designs, with intricate patterns that almost all the mysterious images imaginable at that time were included. Taking owl shaped vessels from the same period as an example, complex patterns such as Kui dragon patterns, gluttonous patterns, and cicada patterns are always added to the body of the vessel, and even a combination of owl and tiger patterns is presented to demonstrate its grandeur and majesty.
Shilou County was once considered by Guo Moruo as the location of the Ghost Tribe in the Xia and Shang Dynasties. Some scholars hold different opinions and put forward the judgment of the Earthwork Tribe. According to historical records, the Ghost Party was a powerful force at that time, challenging the Shang Dynasty multiple times, and merchants also launched several large-scale expeditions. The war of King Wu Ding of the Shang Dynasty against the Ghost Fang lasted for three years, and his wife, a female general named Fu Hao, defeated the Ghost Fang greatly. She brought a large number of prisoners back to the capital and used them as human sacrifices. The owl is obviously not the object of worship for the Ghost tribe, and the owl you discovered here may be a kind of attitude after being conquered, still maintaining the inner freedom and unruly spirit of the Ghost tribe.
You can imagine the psychology of the creator of this owl you - he removed all symbols from the commercial context and highlighted the owl's large eyes and folded wings, making this artifact more in line with the owl itself and appearing to be under age. Perhaps from this moment on, some people in the Ghost tribe will carefully examine owls, which are lower than eagles and falcons, learn their sense of timing as quiet as a virgin and dynamic as a rabbit, learn their secrecy and low-key, and like them, they will stay dormant for a long time in the long night. Such insights may have guided the Ghost Nation to struggle to survive alongside the great powers, until it later became the dominant Dingling people
The owl was regarded as the god of war in the Shang Dynasty, which can be seen from the burial of the owl statue in Tomb of Fu Hao. In the Book of Songs, Lu Song, Pan Shui, it is described that "flying owls gather in the forest, feeding on my mulberries, and carrying my good voice." The eerie sound of owls is interpreted as a prophecy of victory in war, which is a very good sound. This extends the claim that owls can prevent people from being harmed by weapons.
The academic community holds several explanations for the phenomenon of owl shaped vessels in the Shang Dynasty: owls are associated with military punishment, symbolizing victory in war; The owl is the embodiment of the Holy Goddess; Owl is a warrior god with the function of avoiding troops; Owl is a totemic worship of the Shang ethnic group. In addition, other studies suggest that the character "Shang" appearing in oracle bone inscriptions is composed of a pair of owl eyes.
The great event of the country lies in sacrificial offerings and military service, which is particularly important for merchants. Therefore, one can understand that the owl not only serves as a symbol of auspiciousness on artifacts as a god of war, but also transforms into a ancestral spirit in the process of worship in the form of a divine object.
After the extermination of the Shang Dynasty by Zhou, the image of owls on artifacts gradually disappeared, replaced by the phoenix worshipped by the Zhou people.
It is difficult to know the existence of owls in the natural environment during the Shang Dynasty today. According to the records of "owls" in the Classic of Mountains and Seas, they are mainly distributed in the regions of Shaanxi, Shanxi, Henan, Inner Mongolia and Ningxia where the Xishan, Zhongshan and Beishan scriptures belong today. The source of the image of the owl you found in the stone tower may be the Short-eared owl.
In April 2011, this picture of Owl You sparked a frenzy online, with some people thinking that it resembled the "angry birds" in online games. In retaliation for the act of stealing bird eggs, the birds spared no effort in using their bodies as shells to attack the fortress of the fat pigs. Indeed, this is also the temperament of owls, the temperament of war gods.
However, modern people who have lived on earth for a long time are rarely able to witness the coldness, calmness, speed, and fearlessness of owls, and the era of communication between humans and animals is deeply enveloped in copper rust, and there will be no more soul shaking cries.
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