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Post by Montezuma on Jul 27, 2024 14:11:37 GMT -5
The Yellow Emperor 'Huangdi' (帝): The Bear Emperor Youxiong (有熊)I could have defined Yellow emperor in the first line in the first post but i didn't for some good reason since this figure is so important in Chinese culture, religion, ancestry and history, I thought it deserves a separate mention in order to express that how much its connection to the Bear intensifies this beast's cultural importance.
Yellow Emperor was more than a single being since he was one of the fundamental five deities, a creator and benevolent, ruler an ancestor and protector of heritage. Even to this day, his legendary name as a mythological benevolent and ingenious God and as a great earthly divine ruler and forefather of great dynasties still live on. Anybody familiar with Chinese culture can see see indispensable and protagonist role in myth and history. Its noteworthy that no other animal, not even the Dragon, tiger, tortoise, bird or owl etc are associated with him except the Bear. Yes, the bear is the sole symbol of the Emperor which shows that what a sublime place the bear held not only in current and ancient china, but even in Prehistoric chinese landscape. To know more about the Yellow Emperor, see through down here a bit details. Internet is full of information in regard to him; and here is just a glimpse on his great works and personality. "The Yellow Emperor, also known as the Yellow Thearch or by his Chinese name Huangdi (/ˈhwɑːŋ ˈdiː/), is either an individual deity (shen) in Chinese religion, one of the legendary Chinese sovereigns and cultural heroes included among the mytho-historical Three Sovereigns and Five Emperors, or a part of the Five Regions' Highest Deities (Chinese: 五方上帝; pinyin: Wǔfāng Shàngdì). Calculated by Jesuit missionaries, who based their work on various Chinese chronicles, and later accepted by the twentieth-century promoters of a universal calendar starting with the Yellow Emperor, Huangdi's traditional reign dates are 2697–2597 or 2698–2598 BC."
"Huangdi's cult became prominent in the late Warring States and early Han dynasty, when he was portrayed as the originator of the centralized state, as a cosmic ruler, and as a patron of esoteric arts. A large number of texts – such as the Huangdi Neijing, a medical classic, and the Huangdi Sijing, a group of political treatises – were thus attributed to him. Having waned in influence during most of the imperial period, in the early twentieth century Huangdi became a rallying figure for Han Chinese attempts to overthrow the rule of the Qing dynasty, which they considered foreign because its emperors were Manchu people. To this day the Yellow Emperor remains a powerful symbol within Chinese nationalism. Traditionally credited with numerous inventions and innovations – ranging from the lunar calendar (Chinese calendar), Taoism,wooden houses, boats, carts, "the compass needle","the earliest forms of writing", civilization and its benefits, and/or an early form of football – the Yellow Emperor is now regarded as the initiator of Han culture (later Chinese culture)."Huangdi Shrine, Xinzheng City, Henan Province en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yellow_EmperorFor more read from Page 268 - 277: books.google.com.pk/books?id=ogPyDwAAQBAJ&pg=PA277&dq=yellow%20emperor%20bear&hl=en&newbks=1&newbks_redir=0&source=gb_mobile_search&authuser=2&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwjpm6fMq4CBAxUvnf0HHZg8BL4Q6AF6BAgLEAM#v=onepage&q=Bear&f=false
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Post by Montezuma on Jul 28, 2024 8:13:11 GMT -5
As we have seen earlier and will see later, that, the Yellow Emperor's sole real animal symbol is the bear. Here is some highlighted evidence of it. "Ye Shuxian has also associated the Yellow Emperor with bear legends common across northeast Asia people as well as the Dangun legend."
en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yellow_Emperor
"Near Dengzhou and Yuzhou is Xinzheng, said to be the hometown of the Yellow Emperor. He was also referred to as Youxiong and he founded the Youxiong state. The ancient peoples did not know why. Now, by applying modern cultural anthropology, one can see this as further evidence of the Yellow Emperor's tribes worshiping the bear totem. There is a village called Xiongzhuang (EE, Bear Village) in the Yellow Emperor's hometown. Later, the name was changed to Nengzhuang (EEE) for aesthetic reasons. The locals erected a bear paw-shaped ding in the memorial square, illustrating the lingering memory of the bear totem's popularity in the Central Plain."
"The dancing Youxiong is situated above the centre in the sky, and thus, this humanoid deity bear is a heavenly bear."
"The Yellow Emperor and nearly 30 kings of Chu named themselves 熊(xiong, bear)".
"The deity bear in the top centre embodies the totemic memory of the ancestors Zhuanxu and the Yellow Emperor".
books.google.com.pk/books?id=IoCFEAAAQBAJ&pg=PA311&dq=yellow%20emperor%20bear&hl=en&newbks=1&newbks_redir=0&source=gb_
"The seminal Xiong (family name but also literally "bear") clan of the Yellow Emperor not only brought about bear totem mythologies in the epoch of Yushun, as well as those in Xia Dynasty under the reigns of Gun, Yu the Great and Qi, but also used Zhuanxu as conduit to relay the belief of bear ancestry over a vast area including the states of Qin, Zhao, and Chu, among others, and even took advantage of the transmission capacity between clans and generations of the Tungusic people, resulting in the implantation of the bear totem mythology in the prehistoric memory of the Korean people, which is crystallized in the best-preserved "bear mother, human offspring" mythology in the East Asia region today."
"It can be seen that "the Yellow Emperor," a extremely symbolic mythological character, is not only a sun god that embodies the godly power of rebirth after death and determination of time and space, but could also have been the central figure in beliefs of the bear god and prehistoric Chinese religions among people of Hongshan culture, which dates to more than 8,000 years ago. The bear flag of Yu the Great, the "bear" indicators in archaeological culture, and bear mythological narratives became links that helped Hongshan culture of the northeast, Qijia culture of the northwest, Yangshao culture of Shaanxi, culture of the Central Plain, and even culture of the Koreans relay and connect with each other, a phenomenon that indicates: the grand unification narrative featuring the Yellow Emperor positioned as the head of the Five Deities might have appeared much earlier than the Warring States period as imagined by people today."
books.google.com.pk/books?id=ogPyDwAAQBAJ&pg=PA277&dq=yellow%20emperor%20bear&hl=en&newbks=1&newbks_redir=0&source=gb_mobile_search&authuser=2&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwjpm6fMq4CBAxUvnf0HHZg8BL4Q6AF6BAgLEAM#v=onepage&q=yellow%20emperor%20bear&f=false
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Post by Montezuma on Jul 28, 2024 8:31:38 GMT -5
Stone relief of Han Dynasty with the images the dancing bear, Fuxi and Nuwa, From Complete Works of Chinese Stone Paintings, Henan Volume, pp. 103"The Chu Bamboo Slips II of the Warring States Period- the Chapter of Rong Chengshi, now stored in Shanghai Museum records: "Yu the Great then began to appoint the flags to distinguish the directions, so that the people would not get confused. The flag for the east had the emblem of the sun; the flag for the west, the moon; the flag for the south, the snake; the flag for the middle, the bear; and the flag for the north, of the bird. In the past, we could not understand why the bear flag was put in the center. However, thanks to the mythological imagination of the big cultural tradition, we now understand the mythology of the bear's central position is derived from the mythology of the Beidou as center of the sky. It can be concluded that in the Warring States period with the very prosperous writing of the small cultural tradition, the texts and characters of the small cultural tradition still carried the myth of "divine bear in the center" of the early big cultural tradition."
"Many stone reliefs of the Han Dynasty also showcase the mythical illusion of the bear. In the portrait of the dancing bear, Fuxi and Nuwa (Fig. 43), the figures of Fuxi and Nuwa were under the bear. Later, in pictures about Fuxi and Nuwa, the bear image gradually disappeared and eventually was forgotten (Fig. 44). The jade accessory with the bear and the dragon and tiger pattern (Fig. 45) of the Han Dynasty now kept Tianjin Museum of Art clearly shows the spatial relationship among the three animals, with the dragon and the tiger on the sides and the bear in the middle. It is the same with the jade Bi with picture of the dragon, the tiger, and the bear (Fig. 46) found in No.2 stone coffin in Pixian County, Sichuan Province: the bear holding the Jade Bi is flanked by the dragon and the tiger on the sides. The stone carving (Fig. 47) on top of the Han Dynasty tomb from Shenmu site, Shaanxi Province depicts the sun.."Fig. 46 Picture of Dragon-Tiger-Bear Jade Bi, found in No. 2 stone coffin, Pixian County, Han Dynasty Sarcophagus Art Collection in Sichuan Province (No. 87)Fig. 47 Stone carving on the Han Dynasty tomb in Shenmu, with the sun the rooster-headed Eastern King on the right, the ox-headed Queen Mother of the West on the left, and the divine bear in the center.
"..of the invisible divine rulers. The mythical illusions B (1-N) produced by mythical illusions are magically correlated due to the invisible dominant divine force A. Since Beidou is imagined as center of the celestial sphere which produces awe on four directions, this also gives the divine bear the mythical spatial position in the center. In the four-emblem culture, there has long been a lack of gods in the middle. Only by rediscovering the bear image of the big cultural tradition and its mythological space can we rectify the cultural oversight for the divine bear's position as center of the four-emblem culture."
books.google.ru/books?id=Xr_2DwAAQBAJ&pg=PA150&dq=bear%20in%20han%20culture&hl=en&newbks=1&newbks_redir=0&source=gb_mobile_search&authuser=2&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwjizJLA2P2AAxVCh_0HHfJZBbMQ6AF6BAgIEAM#v=onepage&q=bear%20in%20han%20culture&f=false
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Post by Montezuma on Jul 28, 2024 8:43:16 GMT -5
This picture is a typical example (Fig. 3.3)"
"In the Han dynasty, if the dead were nobler than the aristocrats, people would dedicate a stone relief to him. On one side is a circle with a three-legged crow in the middle. That is the sun. The Chinese people believe that a three-legged bird is in the middle of the sun, or the sun is on the back of this bird. On the other side is the moon. The circle is the moon with a rabbit and a toad in the middle. People who are familiar with the cultural motifs know that it is the moon. People from other countries or ethnic groups might not understand it if they are not familiar with the Han Chinese culture. The sun and the moon on each side define the sky, the universe, the transformation between yin and yang, light and darkness, and life and death. That points out the direction for the soul of the dead. Often, we can find such image on the lintel of the Han stone relief. If you are familiar with Daoism, you can recognize that on the left is the Azure Dragon (Qinglong), and the right, the White Tiger (Baihu). The dragon symbolizes the East, and the tiger, the West. Though absent with two other animals, the dragon and the tiger have already outlined the typical square universe in the Chinese mind. The other two are the Black Tortoise (Xuanwu) and the Vermilion Bird (Zhuque). There is a Xuanwu Gate in Nanjing, and a Zhuque Gate in Xi'an. Both are from the Chinese people's imagination and mythology. The four directions are represented by the four animals. Anywhere they appear, you will know there is a universe. We haven't talked about the most important thing: what stands in the middle of the Azure Dragon and the White Tiger? We know that in Chinese, China literally means the middle kingdom. The most powerful country in the whole universe must be in the middle."
"So, the central position is for the holiest of all, which is the king of gods in the universe. What is that? It looks like a qilin, a two-footed animal dancing, which has a little tail too. You might be able to tell, that it is a holy bear standing in the central position in the sky. Don't equate it as the bears in the zoo. I once watched the TV show Chinese Martial Arts. One of the moves is called "the bear sway," which is from the legendary physician Hua Tuo's Wuqinxi (the Exercise of Five Animals). Many moves in Chinese martial art are copied from animals, as people think those animals are strong and energetic, and hope that they can be as strong through imitating their moves. Though we don't know exactly how it works, the moves are kept till today. That shows the power of the third layer of evidence. In Hua Tuo's time, the bear was god. Imitating its moves is a way of exercising our spirit. This picture is from the fourth source of evidence, which is more effective than any text. When an ancient image is unearthed, as long as it is not a forgery, it represents that era's views of the world and the universe. Both the Azure Dragon and the White Tiger are strong animals. Why are they just sidekicks of the bear? We need to look for the reason from the transformation of the owl and the bear into phoenix and dragon.
books.google.com.pk/books?id=fSbsDwAAQBAJ&pg=PA55&dq=bear%20totem%20in%20chu&hl=en&newbks=1&newbks_redir=0&source=gb_mobile_search&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwj8zoPfnqeGAxXjRPEDHWbrBn4Q6AF6BAgOEAM#v=onepage&q=bear%20totem%20in%20chu&f=false
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Post by Montezuma on Jul 28, 2024 9:35:21 GMT -5
"Currently the (bear) skull is preserved in the Arthur M. Sackler Museum of Art and Archeology at Peking University. While it is a small museum, its collections are of great importance. 280,000 years ago, people's food was mainly animals. People ate bears too. Some peoples roaming in the Stanovoy Range region still keeps their hunting traditions. They didn't develop the written language. We translated their oral accounts, which were all about the bear totem. They call bears "grandpa and grandma," and believe that the origin of life lies in animals, which is the same as Korean culture. In Korea, the most popular stage play nowadays is about the worship of the bear mother. They think that their first king, Dangun, was the son of a bear. We thought we were descendants of the dragon, but we forgot that the bear had been active in the Chinese history for over 10,000 years. Why is the Goddess Temple in Niuheliang so valuable? Because it is the only complete religious structure of five thousand years old found in China. It has an idol inside, and its history dates back thousands of years earlier than the oracle bone script."
"Along with the goddess statue were two kinds of animals: birds of prey and beast of prey. Both the real bear skull and the clay bear head and paw were found in the Goddess Temple. The teeth were colored with white lime. The paw is undoubtedly a bear paw as it is so wide and fat (see Fig. 3.6)"
books.google.com.pk/books?id=fSbsDwAAQBAJ&pg=PA55&dq=bear%20totem%20in%20chu&hl=en&newbks=1&newbks_redir=0&source=gb_mobile_search&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwj8zoPfnqeGAxXjRPEDHWbrBn4Q6AF6BAgOEAM#v=onepage&q=bear%20totem%20in%20chu&f=false
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Post by Montezuma on Jul 28, 2024 9:41:47 GMT -5
"In the Han stone relief discussed before, the central position of the universe is occupied by a bear. You might wonder, why not a tiger? Yes, tigers are fierce, but back in prehistoric era, bears were the most powerful. Rites of Zhou 周礼 recorded that "on the flag is a bear and a tiger." In the prehistoric age, the bear came before the tiger. There are stories behind the holy bear. What is the other name of the Yellow Emperor? Youxiong (Bear Present). You know about the TV show The Legend of......"
".....Mi Yue. Mi was a major family name in Chu, but after the Chu king became emperor, his families changed their last name to Xiong (bear). The great historian Sima Qian recorded 25 Chu kings named after Xiong. Nobody asked why. Is there anything to doubt about bears appearing in a 5,000-year-old temple? This temple alone canprove that the early people in East Asia worshiped bears in the temple. That is indeed a groundbreaking discovery. We have the quadruple evidence method: the real bear and the bear sculpture. Why were bears worshiped? It is very simple. Write down the character "bear (熊).” Just using one second to make a connection, you will understand. Delete the four dots (paws) underneath, we have the original form of the character: 能 (able). The four dots (paws) were added to differentiate a physical being from an abstract concept that is related to ability (能力) and energy (能源). Then we knew: bears are able. Why? Bears' hibernation lasts for five or six months, during which they seem dead, but they come out alive in summer. That is the life energy of rejuvenation. Without external force, one comes back to life. No creature is more able than that. People want to have this ability, so they added bear-like movements in martial arts practice. Before going into hibernation, bears eat whatever it can find and double their weight. They survive on the energy stored in their body for the next five winter months. In North China, a practice is to "put on autumn fat." That is bionics. In 2005, the National Museum of China held an exhibition of the intangible heritage of all peoples in China. All ethnic groups brought their treasures, which were held secret within the clan.
Nanai people from Northern China took out their bear totem sowed on fish skin, which had been treasured for generations (see Fig. 3.7). The bear totem is not far from us at all. Briar and Bramble from the animation Boonie Bears didn't contain any cultural connotation. If the director could learn more about the source of Chinese totem, things will be different.
Bear Totem: An Exploration of the Ancestor Myths of the Han Chinese 熊图 腾:中华祖先神话探源, was inspired by a 2004 best-seller novel, The Wolf Totem 狼图腾, which was adapted into a film by a French director and shown during the Spring Festival holiday in 2015. But the film wasn't as well-received as the novel. We cannot but face the reality when studying Chinese totem. The first half of The Wolf Totem are stories, and the second half are dialogues and discussions on whether the Chinese people are descendants of the dragon or the wolf. The author thinks that the dragon was transformed from the wolf. After The Wolf Totem, many people followed suits and published wolf-related books. Some business leaders advocated that only through teamwork, like the wolf pack, could strong competitiveness be generated. The dragon is outdated. Time to change it to the wolf. We researchers must figure out if the wolf is the Chinese totem. The discussion in the second half of Wolf Totem thinks that the dragon was transformed form the wolf. As stated previously, two conditions must be met before something becomes the totem: one is a worshiped idol, and the other is blood relation. Historically, some nations indeed worshipped the wolf. Ancient Rome was one of them. Because the founders of the Roman Empire, twin brothers Romulus and Remus, were raised by a wolf, the Romans worshiped wolves. Is there any evidence to prove that the wolf is the totem in China?"
"wolf: lang zi ye xin (wolf child's ambition, a derogatory expression for one's evil ambitions) and lang xin gou fei (wolf heart and dog lung, a derogatory expression for an ungrateful person), which had nothing to do with totem. Therefore, the notion of wolf totem is basically groundless. If we apply the quadruple evidence method, the conclusion would be that instead of the wolf, the totem is the bear. We need evidence to win a case. If you were a judge, how would you judge? You would need to apply the quadruple evidence method. The sacred objects related to the bear, as unearthed in China, are the bear skulls and bear sculptures of thousands of years ago. Internationally, the earliest object dates back to 30,000 years ago."
books.google.com.pk/books?id=fSbsDwAAQBAJ&pg=PA55&dq=bear%20totem%20in%20chu&hl=en&newbks=1&newbks_redir=0&source=gb_mobile_search&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwj8zoPfnqeGAxXjRPEDHWbrBn4Q6AF6BAgOEAM#v=onepage&q=bear%20totem%20in%20chu&f=false
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Post by Montezuma on Jul 28, 2024 19:22:10 GMT -5
Xia dynasty (see first post) is the earliest recorded dynasty of Chinese civilization and its startling to see its founding fathers (Kings), as mentioned earlier, Gun, Yu and Qi or Yi transformed into Bears! And this further strengthens the bear's cultural symbolism in China's history. Here is some details about two transformations: "Legend has it that Gun (the father of Yu) was also known as Count of Chong. It is generally believed that Chong can be used interchangeably with Song, as Gun was once the tribal leader near the Song Mountain. According to field research in 2007, tales concerning Gun and Yu spread over the Central Plain from Dengfeng to Yuzhou in Henan Province. The memorial stone dedicated to Qimu (Qi's mother and Yu's wife), to which Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty paid homage, still exists on the Song Mountain in Dengfeng, along with the Qimu tower, Yu's caves and a host of accompanying folk narratives. The ethnic memory manifested through folk culture centres around the core myths of Gun and his son Yu taming the flood.""The graphic story of Yu transforming into a bear is vividly illustrated in Yu's temple in Yuzhou. The carved stones of the Han Dynasty in the Qimu tower in Dengfeng also bear Yu's stone relief from 2000 years ago. The combination of ancient and modern folk myths fully reveals the antiquity of stories about Gun and Yu changing into a bear, which complement the written documents. Some detailed oral myths also relate the birth of Yu. For example, "Yu the Great was born in the Bear Cave Mountain, 75 kms to the east of Yu Mountain (Song Mountain), now the west of Juci Mountain, north of Jishui River" (Zhao 1998; Guo 2005, 277-278). This fully integrates the myths of "bear mountain and caves" with Yu's birth in the inherited literature, demonstrating the relationship between rulers of the Xia Dynasty and the bear deity."A picture of Yu transforming into a bear. Photographed at the Yu Temple in Yuzhou in 2007
books.google.com.pk/books?id=IoCFEAAAQBAJ&pg=PA311&dq=yellow%20emperor%20bear&hl=en&newbks=1&newbks_redir=0&source=gb_mobile_search&authuser=2&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwjpm6fMq4CBAxUvnf0HHZg8BL4Q6AF6BAgKEAM#v=onepage&q=yellow%20emperor%20bear&f=false
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Post by Montezuma on Jul 28, 2024 19:27:44 GMT -5
"The ancient Chinese attached a mythical nature to the understanding of the cyclical changes of animals exemplified in The Classic of Mountains and Seas:
"further east is a mountain called Xiongshan. There is a cave where bears live. A god-human constantly comes out of it. In summer the cave is open; in winter it is closed. If it opens in winter, there will be war. (Wang and Zhao 2010, 185)."
"Worthy of note is that the opening and closing of the bear cave is consistent with the seasonal shifts of summer and winter, which is in accordance with the hibernation of bears. The phenomenon of the bear entering and leaving the cave was recorded as "a god-human constantly comes out of it" in the above text, which suggests that the bear was considered as a divine being that can resurrect itself. Under the general rule of religious myths of the Neolithic Age, almost all deities with regenerative characteristics were regarded as goddesses or mother goddesses. It was the primitive empirical observation that it was the maternal body rather than the paternal body that alone reproduced the offspring."
"The opening of the bear's cave in early summer suggests the birth of a new life. The name of Qi (, open), the son of Yu, implies his deified birth out of a bear, or someone strongly associated with the bear spirit. Qi of the Xia Dynasty was also named as "Kai (FF, open)" in The Classic of Mountains and Seas and Mozi. "Kai" and "Qi" are synonymous, with the implication of the myth of the opening and closing of the bear cave in summer and winter, respectively, being shared by both. Ms. Tu Shan, the mother of Qi, played a direct role in the bear cave's opening and the birth of new life. When she turned into a stone, she was pregnant. When Yu demanded his son, the stone split asunder and delivered Qi."
"The birth mythology of the son, the father, and the grandfather (Qi, Yu and Gun), represents a chain of interconnecting narrative plots. Yu was born out of the bosom of his stone mother; Qi, the son of Yu, was also born out of his stone mother; Gun, the father of Yu. had the power to change into a bear and so did Yu. The mother of Yu changed into a stone and so did the mother of Qi. Over three generations, four characters played a part in the transformation of humans into bears, or in the strong spiritual association of humans with bears by means of their birth, in these mythological narratives."
"From the above discussion, it can be seen that the mythology of human beings born of stone is a symbolic expression of the periodic changes of hibernating animals. Primitive people observed bears entering stone caves to hibernate and imagined humans transforming into bears and stones, which suggested metaphorically the ending or closing of a life cycle. Bears emerging from caves after the hibernation signify the beginning of a new life cycle, which is understood mythologically as regeneration after death and resurrection."
books.google.com.pk/books?id=IoCFEAAAQBAJ&pg=PA311&dq=yellow%20emperor%20bear&hl=en&newbks=1&newbks_redir=0&source=gb_mobile_search&authuser=2&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwjpm6fMq4CBAxUvnf0HHZg8BL4Q6AF6BAgKEAM#v=onepage&q=yellow%20emperor%20bear&f=false
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Post by Montezuma on Jul 28, 2024 19:34:57 GMT -5
"Compiled by the Archaeological Institute of the Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region, the book Baiyin Changhan (2004, 308) also highlights an unearthed bear-shaped stone carving from the same period: "It is round, having short ears and an erect body posture, two small round pits representing two eyes, and a mouth protruding forward. It has a height of 2.7 cm and a diameter of 1.5 cm." From bear-shaped stones in the Xinglongwa culture to clay bear-god carvings in the Goddess Temple of the Hongshan culture, all the way through to bear-shaped carved idols of shell in the lower Xiajiadian culture, the making of bear totem idols was a tradition that stretched and developed into the artistic modelling of the Shang and Zhou Dynasties, in which the image of jade bear production became separated from the original totem worship and survived until the jade industry of Emperor Qianlong of the Qing Dynasty (1736-1795). Though certainly smaller, jade production is still handed down over generations to this day.""The excavators of the Niulianghe relics, Sun Shoudao and Guo Dashun, wrote that the Hongshan culture, dating back at least 5000 years, worshiped bears and that the dragon images on jade carvings unearthed in the Niuheliang stone tomb are actually bear-dragons. Research into the legendary Five Emperors era should be linked to the cult objects discovered from the Hongshan culture (Guo 2005, 207). By connecting jade sculpture to jade dragons unearthed from the Fu Hao ruins in Anyang, this author has already found how the bear-dragon entered Chinese history from the Xinglongwa and Hongshan cultures, and identified its relationship with Shang and Zhou bronze beast face patterns and taotie (a mythical beast) patterns (Ye 2006b)."A jade carving of bear-dragon unearthed from the Fu Hao Tomb. Photographed at the Capital Museum in Beijing (Shang Dynasty 1600 - 1200 BC)"As for the key issue of how the bear became the dragon, one can offer new explanations for this by referring to folk beliefs that say that the bear is the snake spirit in The Tales of the Marvellous by Ren Fang. The bear's head and snake's body are the two archetypes that collectively construct the dragon symbol. The hibernating bear and the snake are integrated into a sacred animal capable of transformation and metamorphosis. It could fly in the sky, swim under water and walk on the land, traversing the three realms and thus shaping later imaginations of the dragon.""The widespread Eurasian prehistoric deity bear image can be understood as an animal incarnation, or symbol, of the regenerating goddess. The bear caves that. according to The Classic of Mountains and Seas, "close in winter and open in summer" and from which "a god-human comes out of it" strongly indicate that hibernating bears were considered by ancient peoples as deities who could return to life after death. This belief in resurrection is a core concept of all important religions and myths around the world."A deity bear holding two sheep depicted on a gold ornament of the Warring States Period, unearthed from Yi County. Photographed at the Hebei Museum
books.google.com.pk/books?id=IoCFEAAAQBAJ&pg=PA311&dq=yellow%20emperor%20bear&hl=en&newbks=1&newbks_redir=0&source=gb_mobile_search&authuser=2&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwjpm6fMq4CBAxUvnf0HHZg8BL4Q6AF6BAgKEAM#v=onepage&q=yellow%20emperor%20bear&f=false
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Post by Montezuma on Jul 28, 2024 21:25:23 GMT -5
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Post by Montezuma on Jul 28, 2024 21:29:21 GMT -5
"Some beautiful carved jade figures of bears dating back to the Han Dynasty have been excavated, one near the tomb of the Han Emperor Yuándi (, r. 48- 31 b.c.)"A stone bear from the tomb environs of one of the Han Emperor Wudi's (, r. 141-87 BCE) favorites, Huò Qubing (E), constructed to honor his many military successes against the Hun. Photographed while visiting the Maoling () Museum, summer 2006."The depiction of an eagle (ying) and a bear (xióng) represents a hero (yingxióng), Raymond Li tells us that "Two bears watching each other [is said to represent] an intellectual competition between two heros" (shuangxióng douzhi ). Li has a very interesting agate snuff bottle in his collection with this motif.""Throughout the Ming and Qing Dynasties, an embroidered rank badge of a bear denoted a fifth-rank military officer. It is sometimes difficult to discern a bear from a lion on rank badges as they were highly stylized, but one helpful clue on Qing Dynasty badges is to look at the mane and tail - it is curly on the lion and straight on the bear; unfortunately, this test does not hold true on Ming badges."This bear can be easily confused with a lion but its straight as opposed to curly mane and tail allow us to identify it as a bear. Insignia badge for the wife of a fifth-rank military official. Qing Dynasty, Yongzheng Period (1723-35). Embroidery on silk, 37 x 38 cm. Courtesy of Judith Rutherford, gifted to the Art Gallery of New South Wales, 2001.
books.google.com.pk/books?id=dAPQAgAAQBAJ&pg=PA231-IA4&dq=bear%20in%20qing%20dynasty&hl=en&newbks=1&newbks_redir=0&source=gb_mobile_search&authuser=2&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwi555TnjYiBAxUC7rsIHaCQC3YQ6AF6BAgOEAM#v=onepage&q=bear&f=false
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Post by Montezuma on Jul 28, 2024 21:33:56 GMT -5
"Lions and bears resembled one another in Chinese art".
"Some, such as the lion and the bear, attained such importance that they were eventually selected to serve as the means of identifying the rank of the emperor's military officers."
"During the periods when China was ruled by minority tribes that had a basis in hunting (such as during the Jin, CE 1115–1234), deer, bear, birds, and other animals together with “mountains and forests” were popular textile designs."books.google.com.pk/books?id=dAPQAgAAQBAJ&pg=PA231-IA4&dq=bear%20in%20qing%20dynasty&hl=en&newbks=1&newbks_redir=0&source=gb_mobile_search&authuser=2&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwi555TnjYiBAxUC7rsIHaCQC3YQ6AF6BAgOEAM#v=onepage&q=bear&f=false"Some bear bones were also unearthed in the archaeological excavations of the Yin Ruins. There are also records of hunting bears in the Oracle bones. In the Yinxu Women's Tomb, three round carvings and one embossed jade bear were found. The bear's postures were all sitting on the knees. They were not in the wild. From the morphological characteristics of the scoring, these also seemed to be young bear sculptures. Therefore, it is speculated that in addition to breeding wild animals such as deer, elephants, and monkeys, the Yin royal family in the late Shang Dynasty may have the custom of playing young bears."books.google.com.pk/books?id=lOiJDwAAQBAJ&pg=PT53&dq=Bear%20in%20shang%20culture&hl=en&newbks=1&newbks_redir=0&source=gb_mobile_search&authuser=2&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwjQt__Ju4qBAxXknf0HHZVNASgQ6AF6BAgJEAM#v=onepage&q=Bear%20in%20shang%20culture&f=falseEarly tribal societies in China had animal names (due to totem) such as bear (husing).
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Post by Montezuma on Jul 28, 2024 21:40:48 GMT -5
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Post by Montezuma on Jul 28, 2024 21:50:19 GMT -5
"This gilded bronze bear with an expressive face is distinguished by its size, exceptional for a piece of ancient Chinese goldsmithery. If it is certainly a usual part, its function remains difficult to determine. However, the presence of a horizontal tenon on the back of the piece suggests that the bear served as a support for a relatively large object, such as a screen.
Associated with immortality, the figure of the bear is a characteristic element of the decorative vocabulary used in the funerary furniture of the Han period. The appearance of this motif corresponds to the reign of Emperor Han Wudi (140-87 BC). From that time, this animal motif was attached to the function of support, as evidenced by the famous tripod cauldron with bear-shaped feet found in the tomb of Prince Liu Sheng discovered in Mancheng in 1968."amis-musee-cernuschi.org/en/ours__trashed/Han Dynasty – Bear Shape Hetian Yellow Jade Ornament An exceedingly rare and important white and russet jade carving of a bear Western Han Dynasty Powerfully carved in movement, with the right foreleg extended forward, the head slightly tilted to the left, the round eyes gazing forward flanking the nose with small indentations for nostrils, the wide head with incised lines along the edges delineating the fur, the forehead with a central line below the raised ears, the rounded body and spine extending to the short tail with very fine incised lines on either side, the haunches well rounded and extending to the muscular legs and clawed feet, with one tucked underneath, the paws marked by circles, the fur along the belly denoted by two crescent incised lines, the stone of even white tone with russet along the nose and further minor inclusions. Figure of a bear, red earthenware with iridescent green lead glaze; China, Eastern Han dynasty, 760-220 AD antiquevintagebears.com/han-dynasty-bears/
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Post by Montezuma on Jul 28, 2024 21:55:34 GMT -5
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Post by Montezuma on Jul 28, 2024 22:08:39 GMT -5
"There are textual and epigraphical evidence that the female shamans (wu) in ancient china performed Bear cults by wearing bear-skins."
"The fact that the bear had an important role in chinese mythology as it is frequently seen in chinese art and material culture. Since the Han times (200 bc -200 ad), it is common to depict the bear on small bronze statues, which meaning remains obscure that the bear had mythological connections."
"Obviously, the ancient china is characterised with highly developed institutionalized Bear cult."
www.academia.edu/44351187/Tracing_the_Bear_Myth_in_Northeast_Asia
"In China the Bear is known as Hsung. It is found represented on the stone slabs of ancient tombs, where it appears in mythological hunting scenes usually associated with the emperor. Several excellent bear forms are to be found in the glyptic art of the Chou, Han and Tang Dynasties. Although it is said by some writers that the bear never played an important part in the life and thought of the early Chinese, this statement is not supported by evidence. Indeed, among the existing legends there are several about the bear."
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Post by Montezuma on Jul 28, 2024 22:12:08 GMT -5
Source: Big Tradition and Chinese Mythological Studies
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Post by Montezuma on Jul 28, 2024 22:18:17 GMT -5
Note: The Ewenki, Oroqen and Hezhe people are inhabitants of North western China. "It is said that a long time ago, Ewenki, Oroqen, Hezhe and other ethnic groups living in the Heilongjiang River Basin and the large and small Xing'an Mountains also had a peculiar worship phenomenon for bears. When they hunt bears, they held a series of worship rituals. Also buried. In the virgin forests in the northwestern part of the Greater Xing'an Mountains, the method of burying bears is often to use the birch bark to wrap the bear's bones and five internal organs, hanging between the two trees, and to give the bear a cigarette, a hoe, and a prayer. When the hunter finds the bear hole, no one tells, so as not to be detected or retaliated by the bear. In fact, this kind of psychology reflects to a large extent the fear of beasts." books.google.com.pk/books?id=huiJDwAAQBAJ&pg=PT27&dq=bear%20god%20in%20han&hl=en&newbks=1&newbks_redir=0&source=gb_mobile_search&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwiuhOavvaeGAxVCBtsEHY9MByU4ChDoAXoECAMQAw#v=onepage&q=bear%20god%20in%20han&f=falseMore about the Bear cult in Oroqen and Ewenki in North China. Source: Myth and Legends of Ancient China
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Post by Montezuma on Jul 28, 2024 22:21:51 GMT -5
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Post by Montezuma on Jul 28, 2024 22:40:38 GMT -5
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