As far as the ontological incarnation is concerned, Phoenix is a totem symbol after the beautification of birds and animals. Like the dragon, it is a magical bird imagined by the ancients in combination with various animal images. Therefore, to study the early jade phoenix, it is inseparable from the study of the theme utility or artistic works of birds in primitive society. In a real sense, the images of birds on jade, pottery and rock paintings before the emergence of Yufeng will be the embryonic form of the original image of Phoenix.
Jade bird in Shang and Zhou dynasties
With regard to birds, the varieties seen by the ancients must far exceed those seen by modern people, and these rich bird varieties provided a lot of creative materials for the imaginative ancients, so various bird devices appeared. Such as bird-shaped pottery pots, bird-shaped Yu Pei, and the first stick of a bird in prehistoric culture.
Qijia culture bird-shaped pot
As early as 5,000 years ago, Jade Phoenix appeared in Hongshan Culture period, and jade articles in Hongshan Culture period were famous for their exquisite animal images. Judging from the existing unearthed cultural relics, there are a lot of animal images such as dragons, tigers, turtles, fish and birds. Jade articles in Hongshan Culture period. There are many birds such as owls and swans.
Jade phoenix bird
Shuanglongpei
Of course, due to the limitation of carving skills, the carving method of animal jade in Hongshan Culture period was relatively simple. When Hongshan Culture ancestors carved jade articles from birds, they usually only highlighted the wings and eyes of birds, among which the eyes were mostly replaced by perforations, which were generally bull-nose-shaped, so they were also called "bull-nose perforations", which were usually used as both the eyes of birds and the wearing of ropes.
Hongshan Culture jade owl "pierces the hole with its nose"
Hongshan Culture jade owl "pierces the hole with its nose"
Hongshan Culture Jade Bird's wings mainly express the hierarchical distribution of feathers by polishing and carving tile grooves or convex chords. The jade birds in Hongshan are mostly flaky jade carvings, and the ring carving skills are rare. Moreover, the ancestors of Hongshan Culture period polished the edge of the bluebird into a thin blade shape (is this jade carving practical? In my opinion, there are still some practical factors, because in the Neolithic age, thin-edged objects were generally used as scrapers.
Hongshan Culture jade owl
Hongshan Culture Yufeng
Hongshan Culture Yufeng's eyes enlarge
At the same time in Hongshan Culture, Liangzhu culture in southern China also has a large number of decorative images about birds. Jade phoenix in Liangzhu culture mainly appears in jade cong's carved figures of gods and men. In Liangzhu culture, jade cong not only has a close composite image of god, man and beast, but also often carves a bird pattern on both sides of the animal face pattern. The bird's head, wings and body are twisted and exaggerated, engraved with cirrus clouds and arcs. In addition to carving a bas-relief emblem beside the blades on both sides, the jade pheasant also has a bas-relief bird pattern on the lower corner. The high altar is also engraved with simplified bird patterns and single negative lines.
Jade cong with bird pattern and god emblem in Liangzhu culture
Liangzhu culture carved the bird's pattern and emblem on an object for offering sacrifices and communicating with ghosts and gods, which fully demonstrated the status and significance of birds in the society at that time. Of course, as in Hongshan Culture, in Liangzhu culture, besides bird patterns, there are also single round carved jade phoenix birds.
The deity pattern on the jade cong of Liangzhu culture
If the jade birds in the above two cultural periods are not like phoenix birds, then the jade phoenix in this period definitely conforms to all the characteristics of the phoenix. Therefore, strictly speaking, the image of Yufeng should first appear in the late Shijiahe culture. The jade phoenix unearthed in Shijiahe River provides a good foundation for studying the image of phoenix birds in past dynasties. This phoenix-shaped Yuhuan is a ring with round eyes and a hooked beak. The crown is curled, the wings are slightly spread, and the tail is divided into two branches. The eyes, crests, wings and feathers of the phoenix bird are all carved with yang lines, and the overall image is vivid, which also shows the superb jade carving skills of Shijiahe culture from the side.
Shijiahe Culture Yufenghuan
But there is such a strange phenomenon in archaeology that jade phoenix was hardly found in Shang Dynasty. There is no doubt that the mysterious bird is the totem of business. However, among the cultural relics of Shang Dynasty, not only are there not many kinds of bird images (jade birds in Shang Dynasty are mostly jade articles with bird images), but also there are few unearthed jade birds and other artifacts. Among these few unearthed jade articles, the bluebird owl is the largest. Moreover, there is a strictly Shang Yufeng that has not been discovered so far.
Jade bird of Shang dynasty
In the Western Zhou Dynasty, the phoenix image on jade began to appear again, but there was no new breakthrough in the modeling of phoenix birds. The only change is that it changed from a phoenix-shaped Yu Pei to a Feng Niaowen pattern. As for the production style, Yu Pei's rough style decoration began to become numerous and beautiful. It is precisely because of the decorative beauty of Feng Niaowen's patterns that Feng Niaowen became a popular theme in the Western Zhou Dynasty, appearing in jade, bronze, silk and gold and silver wares in large numbers.
Jade bird of Shang dynasty
The image of phoenix birds in the Western Zhou Dynasty and the changes of birds in the Shang Dynasty are as follows:
1. Compared with the beak of Jade Birds in Shang Dynasty, the beak of Phoenix Birds in Western Zhou Dynasty became long and sharp, with obvious downward hook, and the beak was mostly closed.
Second, the phoenix-bird's eye of the Zhou Dynasty no longer uses the word "minister" of the Shang Dynasty, but is mostly a big round eye carved with an oblique knife.
Third, the crown of the head also evolved from the gorgeous multi-tooth crown of Shang Dynasty to the long-shaped phoenix crown hooked forward and downward.
Jade Carving Phoenix in Western Zhou Dynasty
Fourthly, in terms of carving techniques, the phoenix pattern in the Western Zhou Dynasty is good at depicting the theme with the combination of thin yinxian, retreating knife and thick yinxian, which is expressive, fluent and vivid. Decorative patterns are distributed according to the shape characteristics of the vessel, and the patterns are harmonious.
Jade Carving Phoenix in Western Zhou Dynasty
The phoenix pattern in the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period changed the mystery and rigor of the Shang and Zhou Dynasties. Phoenix, which appears as a bird of prey, is rare. Instead, it is an image of neck ornaments, long legs, docile and beautiful, graceful and exquisite, and dynamic and light. Throughout this period, the image of phoenix bird on jade articles has the following five forms: first, the shape is single.
Yu Feng in Spring and Autumn Period and Warring States Period
Second, there are many phoenixes and many bodies. It is rare for many phoenixes to resemble dragon patterns, and they usually appear as dragon and phoenix patterns.
Shuangfeng hollowed out Yu Pei.
Third, the dragon and phoenix are perfectly shaped. Yu Pei, a combination of dragons and phoenixes, is mostly the image of dragons above phoenixes. The dragon heads are opposite, and * * * uses one body. This image belongs to the creation of Long Fengpei during the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period, and was used by later generations to express the relationship between the emperor and the queen.
Longfeng Harmonious Yu Pei
Fourth, the phoenix head is jade (xi). Jade belt is a form of jade, and its head is usually carved with the image of Jackie Chan. The jade belt with crested crests is rare, and its tail is pointed and curved, which belongs to the ritual vessels for offering sacrifices and praying. After the Eastern Han Dynasty, the jade belt gradually disappeared.
Fifthly, phoenix carving is an auxiliary decoration. The image of the phoenix in this period is horizontal and horizontal. The phoenix bird on the side shows a dignified and arrogant attitude, dignified and solemn.
Jade beast during the Spring and Autumn Period and Warring States Period
During the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period, in addition to following the circular intaglio lines or circular positive lines in Shang and Zhou Dynasties, a kind of water-drop intaglio lines appeared in the middle of the Warring States Period. If the mouth is hooked, slightly open or closed, the beak is not as long as the tip of the western periphery. In the early Warring States period, it was a semi-lobed crown (like a cat's ear), and in the late Warring States period, a banded crown appeared, floating to the back of the head, curled and short. In addition, during the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period, the ornamentation of the phoenix bird's body surface includes geometric patterns such as scale cover and valley cover, as well as cirrus-like patterns or bamboo-like patterns carved by a single yinxian line. Of course, most of the phoenix birds with patterns belong to high-grade jade, which belongs to princes, so the output is small, but many of the phoenix birds with lower specifications are mostly plain.
Sabrina
In short, the image of Yu Feng was basically determined in the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period, and later Yu Feng will also change, but the overall image is not much different!