How do horses and chickens become teachers in Xu Beihong's eyes?

Horses have a very high position in the culture of the Chinese nation and have a series of symbols and implications.

Dragon and Horse Spirit is the national spirit that the Chinese nation has been advocating since ancient times, and it is the spirit of continuous struggle, self-improvement and enterprising spirit. Ancestors thought the dragon horse was a kind horse. It is the Yellow River, the spirit spilled by our mother, the embodiment of the descendants of the Chinese people, and represents the subject spirit and the highest morality of the Chinese nation. It is eight feet five inches tall and has a long neck, which makes it look very huge. The skeleton has wings, and there is a circle of colored mane on the edge of the wings, which makes the neck scream and make a beautiful and harmonious nine tones. This is a heroic image and a heroic posture. In the world view, the ancestors have equated the dragon and horse with the work of pure yang. It is synonymous with vigorous, bright, warm, lofty, rising, full, prosperous and developed. In the Book of Changes, there is a simple saying "withered like a horse". It is a symbol of existence, representing kings, fathers, adults, ancestors, treasures, awe, majesty, health, kindness and greatness.

This is the origin of the famous saying "A gentleman strives for self-improvement" handed down from generation to generation in China by Confucius in the Book of Changes and the Divination. Yes, this dragon horse was born out of the soul of our nation, and it is magnificent, powerful and magnificent, chasing the moon every day, full of stars, and it is full of hardships, day and night. Isn't this a vivid portrayal of the struggle between the Chinese nation and nature? Isn't it a vivid metaphor that China people overcome difficulties and move forward forever? Doesn't it reflect the meaning of China people's fearless life?

Horses are also symbols of ability, sages, talents and achievements. The ancients often compared "a swift horse". Maxima is an excellent horse and walks thousands of miles every day. According to legend, Zhou Muwang has eight good horses, and they often drive them around the world. The name of eight horses: stunning land, no feet to practice soil, no feet to land, can fly in the air; One is called feathering, which can run faster than birds; One is Benjing, who travels in Wan Li at night; One is called super shadow, which can run after the sun; One is called Zhaohui, and the horse hair is bright and radiant. One is called shroud, with wings on his body, and he flies like Dapeng Nine Wan Li. Some ancient books imagined "Eight Horses" as eight beautiful young horses with different colors, each of which had a nice name: Red Horse, Stealing Plum, White Dress, Overwhelming Wheel, Huang Qu, Huali and Green Ear. In fact, the magical legends of horses are all about talents. Don't really believe that they are myths. His eight horses are actually a metaphor for his talent group. They are outstanding in talent and skills, and all of them use special abilities to assist Zhou's great cause in the world.

Show people's deeds more clearly with horses "One thousand dollars for bones" is a famous allusion. During the Warring States period, kings of various countries competed to recruit talents for the sake of long-term stability of their countries. Yan Zhaowang is no exception. It is willing to recruit outstanding talents with courteous attitude and generous remuneration. Guo Kun, a courtier of Yan State, told Zhao Haoqi a fable about a swift horse: Once upon a time, there was a king who wanted to spend thousands of dollars to buy a swift horse, but three years later, he still didn't buy it. The master took the initiative to fight well, saying that he could get a thousand miles of good horses. The monarch sent him to find the whereabouts of Maxima within three months, but the horse was dead, and his master took out 500 gold to buy the horse's bones and came back to look for a job. The monarch said angrily; I want a live horse. How can 500 gold buy a pile of dead bones? "Yes, today I bought the bones of a swift horse with 500 gold, so I don't know how expensive that live swift horse is. From this, the whole world knows that the king values Maxima so much, but why don't other Maxima come one after another? "Sure enough, in less than a year, maxima came again. When Guo Kun said this, the topic suddenly changed and connected with the present: If your majesty really wants talent today, then reuse me first! Even people who are not so outstanding like me are valued, let alone people who are really more talented than me? Once a swift horse intends to find someone, no matter how far it is, it will come automatically.

This story, from "The Warring States Policy", shows us the truth of being thirsty for talents. Because horses symbolize talents, people who are good at thinking about horses are also called people who are good at knowing talents and doing good deeds. For example, Wang Liang of Zhao State in Qin Dynasty, Bole of Qin State and Fang Jiukun are all experts in thinking about horses. The dull situation in which talents are buried or underperforming is called "all horses are dark". Gong Zizhen, a famous scholar in the Qing Dynasty, said in a poem: "Kyushu is furious and angry, and ten thousand horses are dark, which can decline;" I suggest that God stand up again and don't stick to a pattern. " (Ji Hai's Miscellaneous Poems). Crossing Zhenjiang ")

The most obvious symbolic meaning of chicken is trustworthiness and punctuality. The cock crows at dawn, which means it will be bright. Further extension symbolizes the liberation from darkness to light. For example, "the rooster crows, it's dawn, and it's liberated" is such a symbolic meaning of progress.

For the ancients, it was very important for chickens to watch the night to announce the dawn. The ancient timing tools were very simple, such as a leaky kettle. Although it could time, it was impossible to wake people up on time, and there was no later alarm clock. Sleepers don't know what time it is. At this time, the golden rooster announced the dawn and told people that it was almost dawn and they had to get up and get ready for work. People often say "work at sunrise and rest at sunset", but you can't wait until sunrise to get up. Besides, the sun doesn't come out every day, and rainy weather loses the basis for observing the sun to set the time. And chickens, whether it is hot or cold, whether it is sunny or snowy, keep their promises and never slack off. It can be said that it is precisely because of the difficulty of dawn crowing that a new day of fireworks and vitality began to appear on the earth.

The second symbolic meaning of chicken is ordinary and weak.

Chickens can be found almost everywhere in daily life. Strong reproductive ability, high survival rate, no special requirements for the environment, and can be raised anywhere. As the saying goes, things are rare. The same is true of animals, such as pandas, which are very rare and precious, and are regarded as national treasures because only China has them. Although some animals are not national treasures, they are too few to be extinct, so it is forbidden to kill and protect them as rare animals. It is impossible for chickens to enjoy such treatment. There are so many of them that they are despised. Moreover, as a kind of bird, the flying ability of chicken is greatly degraded. Compared with other birds, they can fly freely in the blue sky; Running on the ground is not as fast and agile as riding a dog, so chickens look ordinary. Therefore, it has the symbolic significance of being ordinary, popular and weak.

Chickens are common. They are busy all day, looking for food everywhere and pecking at the west. Hard as they are, they are far from comfortable. This ordinary characteristic of chicken is also used to describe the similar fate of human beings, which is called "the life of chicken chops". It means that this person is very busy, just like a chicken pecking at the west. In the end, we can only talk about food and clothing, not wealth. There is a story that once a rich man asked him to tell his fortune. As a result, the rich man's life is not easy, but a kind of "chicken chops life". But the fortune teller said that the rich people live in a good place, because they live in Gucheng (Gucheng County, Hubei Province), where there are chicken harrows everywhere. Naturally, only when they have enough to eat and wear warm clothes can the rich enjoy the treasure. The rich man said, isn't he poor if he doesn't live in the ancient city? The fortune teller said it was true. I don't want the rich not to believe the fortune teller and think: Is it necessary to be poor when moving out of the ancient city? So his family moved to another county, gradually declined in a few years, and finally lived in poverty. This is just a folk story, which may not be true, but it contains the symbolic meaning of ordinary chickens.

Compared with the weak and ordinary, the chicken also has the symbolic significance of courage and fighting.

This meaning comes from cockfighting. Chickens like fighting, especially cocks, which is also a common phenomenon in daily life. When two cocks meet, they often fight, and occasionally they fight between hens.

In order to watch the wonderful cockfighting, people raise special cockfighting. Usually ordinary weak chickens, once they fight, are also nervous, brave and tenacious, and fight fiercely. People are also encouraged and encouraged to learn the courage of cockfighting. This is an example of ancient Greece. The ancient Greeks had cockfighting competitions very early. In one year BC, a Greek general led his troops to the front to fight the Persian army. On the way to March, he saw two cocks fighting, and his heart could not help moving. He believes that if the soldiers' fighting spirit is as tenacious as this rooster, they will surely win the coming battle. So he ordered the team to stop and let the soldiers watch the brave struggle between the two cocks. Sure enough, the soldiers were greatly encouraged, very brave in the battle and defeated the country. Commemorate this glorious victory. The king of Greece decided to hold the annual cockfighting meeting in Athens from now on. Cockfighting activities soon spread throughout Greece, and soon spread to Mediterranean countries, ancient Rome and other countries. This victory of the Greek army proves that "when the two armies meet, the brave wins", but "courage" is inspired by cockfighting, which shows that chickens are not always weak.

The fourth symbolic meaning of chicken is to ward off evil spirits, eliminate disasters and respect God.

Divination with chickens is found all over the world, and the henhouse means god. The ancients also used chickens to exorcise evil spirits and sacrifice. Killing chickens to drive away evil spirits is a kind of witchcraft. As early as the pre-Qin period, chicken and chicken blood were used to exorcise evil spirits. The ancients believed that chicken and chicken blood had the functions of exorcising ghosts and evil spirits and eliminating disasters.

The ancients attached great importance to sacrifice. Among many sacrifices, chicken is one of them. Sacrificing ancestors with chickens is still popular in some areas.

Chickens are also used to judge cases. Jingpo people use cock crow as a way of divine judgment. Both parties to the dispute bring a live rooster to the agreed place. First, the wizard recited the scriptures. After watching the rooster, the two sides decided the outcome by crowing. The first caller loses, and the last caller or non-caller wins.

Divination with chicken means that chicken symbolizes God. In addition to chicken divination, there are different kinds of egg divination in different regions and nationalities. For example, in southern Yunnan, eggs are used to ask diseases. When a person is ill, he thinks that a ghost is possessed. He rubbed an egg on the patient, thinking that ghosts could attach themselves to the egg. After the eggs are cooked in a pot, they are examined by a wizard to break good luck or bad luck.

Yao people use eggs for divination in everything they do. If you choose a place to build a house, choose an egg before you break ground. After wearing a small hole, I wrote the words "people, wealth, livestock and ghosts" on the eggshell, and set it on fire until it exploded, relying on the outflow of protein. If the protein is stained with herringbone, it is thought that the basic education prisoners and their families in front of the house will get sick; If you cling to the word wealth, you think it will be difficult to make a living in the future; When you touch the word livestock, you think that if you commit livestock, the livestock will not flourish in the future; If you cling to the word ghost, you think that committing a ghost will make your ancestors and all kinds of blessed gods unhappy and lead to accidents. Encounter the above situation, as a bad omen, we should immediately stop choosing the foundation of the house.

Cockcrow can ward off evil spirits, and crows can also exorcise ghosts.

In folklore, ghosts are most afraid of hearing the crow of chickens, because ghosts can only move in the dark, and crow of chickens means that it is almost dawn. When it is dawn, all ghosts will be helpless. This superstition originated very early. During the Chinese New Year, Jiangnan people hang "paste pictures on chicken coops" on it, and put peach symbols beside it. All ghosts are afraid of it. A picture of a chicken is posted on the door, and hundreds of ghosts are afraid to come to the door. It's just that ghosts are afraid of hearing chickens crow. This superstition was still held by the elderly until the early days of liberation. Adults often tell children that if they meet a ghost at night, they can scare it away by imitating crows.

Chicken also has its unique symbolic meaning, and people interpret and associate its symbolic meaning from its animal characteristics. Like the symbolic meaning of other animals, there are praises and denials, depending on their different contexts and occasions.

Xu Beihong must learn the spirit of chicken and horse.