Cultural Symbol of Zodiac Dog

Dogs are friends of human beings in adversity and are considered as human animals. They are particularly loyal to human beings, so they mean loyalty. Examples such as "a shepherd dog seeks its master for three thousand miles" and "a dog rescuer" illustrate this point well, and "one dog with one horse's strength" is also used to describe loyalty. But dogs love to use people's power, and "running dogs" have derogatory meanings. The "lackeys of lost capitalists" written by Mr. Lu Xun symbolizes the * * * literati who has no national backbone. However, from the perspective of folklore, dog has some other meanings.

Generally speaking, people in China think dogs are auspicious animals. If a dog suddenly comes to someone else's house, the owner will be happy to adopt it, because it indicates the arrival of wealth, as the saying goes, "cats come poor and dogs come rich." Dogs and their owners share joys and sorrows. If there is any disaster coming, it will also indicate a bad omen. For example, when a dog comes home, it means a thief is coming. Dogs like to bark, but there must be a reason for barking, so the ancients used the time when dogs barked as a sign of good or bad luck. If the dog barks at the right time, the housewife will make noise; Dogs bark when they are ugly, and they are upset and sleepless; As soon as you bark, the god of wealth will come to the door; When the dog barks, the future is bright; As soon as the dog barks, relatives come; Dogs bark at noon and someone treats them; The dog barks at the wrong time, and if the wife has ulterior motives, she will meet a villain; Woe to the child when the dog barks at the application; When the dog barks, it will increase the official Jin Lu; When the dog barks, watch out for trouble; Dogs bark at sea, be careful of being sued.

The coat color of dogs is often yellow, red, white, black, brown, brown and so on. Or more than two or three colors. The ancients said that dogs with different coat colors have different qualities. The book Six Livestock Facies holds that black dogs with yellow eyebrows should be guarded against, and dogs with black eyebrows are the bane of wasting money; Poodles are auspicious things, especially black poodles can make people rich; If the black dog's chest and buttocks are white, it will bring disaster; Yellow dog's eyebrows should be light, and it is unlucky if they are too dark. According to Miscellaneous Five Elements Book, the quality of yellow dog is the best, and that of white dog is the worst. But the symbolic meaning of the white dog will vary according to the specific situation. The book says: a black white dog will make its owner rich; A white dog with a black tail will make the owner have a car all his life; A black dog with white ears will make its owner precious; The black dog has two feet before it is white, and the master's children are prosperous; A yellow dog has a white tail, and its owner has nothing to worry about.

The ancients in China believed that dogs not only had the symbolic function of omen and good or bad luck, but also had the function of eliminating disasters. Why? According to the theory of Book of Rites, dogs belong to "animals with the highest yang". Cooking dog meat in the east can make the yang strong, so that everything can survive. Ying Shao of the Eastern Han Dynasty has another explanation in Custom Yi Tong. He said: there are twelve gates in the city where the son of heaven lives, and the three gates in the east are angry gates. In order to prevent the dead from appearing at the birth gate, he killed the dog to get into trouble before another September 6. In the theory of Yin-Yang and Five Elements, dogs cooperate with the gold in the five elements, which corresponds to the west in orientation and cooperates with the wood in the east. Killing dogs can stop the spring tide epidemic and revive everything. It is not a strange theory that dogs can ward off evil spirits and avoid disasters. Even Li Shizhen, a famous doctor in Ming Dynasty, realized this special function of dogs. He recorded in Compendium of Materia Medica that surgeons believe that dogs can eliminate all evil spirits and witchcraft. "Historical Records" said: Qin dismembered dogs in front of the east, south, west and north gates to resist disasters. At the same time, the door has been painted with the blood of white dogs since ancient times to drive away ominous customs. According to Hua Tuo's biography, there was a woman with a big sore on her * * * *, which was itchy but not painful. It's relapsed and there's no cure. After the exam, Hua Tuo took a rice bran dog and tied it to the back of the horse. The horse walked fifty miles, twisted the dog's neck and buckled the woman's sore for a while. Li Shizhen thought this case was strange, but it was really the blood dog that drew the worm out.

Dogs have such a close relationship with humans and have such magical functions. Therefore, dogs became one of the most commonly used livestock in ancient sacrifices. There was a special post of "Dog Man" in the Zhou Dynasty, which was responsible for the "dogs and beasts" learned by the ancients, and made grass into dogs, which were called "grass dogs". The clothes are embroidered with words, and they are sacrificed when they are old. As soon as the sacrifice was over, they were left on the avenue and trampled by any horses and chariots. Laozi said: "Heaven and earth are heartless, and everything is a grass dog;" The saints are ruthless and regard the people as grass dogs. " There have been many differences in understanding this sentence, but the meaning of the word "straw dogs" is certain.

Dogs are people's good companions, but "Tiangou" is a frightening evil spirit. Before the wedding, the fortune teller chooses an auspicious day. After choosing it, he must write down the wedding details and taboos on a piece of red paper. The most important thing is not to offend Tengu. I violated the "Tiangou", and some taboos at the wedding were related to the "Tiangou".

Once upon a time, many infertile women offered "Zhang Xian" to pray for their children, which was called "sending Zhang Xian away". There are no statues. The "Zhang Xian" in the painting is a beautiful man in a horn scarf and robe. He looked up at the sky with a slingshot in his hand. It is said that he is shooting "Tiangou" with a slingshot. So in Beiguan, in addition to fragrant flowers, wine and dishes, there is also a plate of five balls made of raw noodles for him to shoot "Tiangou".

The evil deeds of "Tiangou" are not limited to infertile women. It is said that the "eclipse" is because the "Tiangou" swallowed the moon. So during the eclipse, people will ring instruments to save the moon. It is said that the loud sound of the instrument will frighten the "Tiangou" to spit out the moon. In ancient times, not only a few "ignorant people" rang the bell to save the moon, but even the small officials in charge of heaven in the imperial court had to knock bronze wares to save the moon until the moon recovered.

Not only humans keep dogs, but also the gods in the sky keep dogs as pets. According to folklore, Yang Jian, the Erlang God, has a "roaring dog" that has been with Erlang God to help him fight demons and catch monsters. (Zodiac/Xiao Sheng/)

It is not advisable to completely deny or believe all kinds of symbolic meanings and legends about dogs, which are both natural factors and man-made mysterious factors. The correct attitude should be to grasp people's views and psychological tendencies towards dogs through mysterious appearances.