What does Tianma stand for

Dictionary definition ① Names of exotic animals. Shan Hai Jing Bei San Ji Jing: "Macheng Mountain, ... there is a wild animal, which looks like a black-headed white dog and flies when it sees people. It is called Tianma, and its song calls itself. " (2) the name of the war horse. Historical Records Biography of Dawan: "(Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty) got a good horse from Wusun, which is called" Tianma ". The Dawan Blood Horse, strong and healthy, was renamed Wusun Horse as' Xiji' and Dawan Horse as' Tianma' Cloud. " -This explanation is taken from the Dictionary of Myths and Legends in China. Cultural image: God of War, one of the 12 zodiac animals, has many gods. Among the 28 homestays, Ma Shen is the majority, which shows the martial spirit of the Han nationality. Among them, the most important horse god is popular, which is the embodiment of Liu Che, the emperor of the Han Dynasty. Tianma has the infinite courage to be fearless and aggressive. It is an idol worshipped by soldiers and one of the most important totems of the Han nationality.

Tianma is a personified and deified horse, so the expressions of horse figurines are particularly vivid, some close their eyes, some whisper, some laugh and some are extremely angry. The shape of Tianma is obviously different from that of real horses, and it needs Anping's great joy to show a very happy appearance, so it can also be called "great joy horse".

A large number of Anping happy horse figurines have been unearthed in Wuwei area, indicating that there were frequent wars and numerous garrisons in Hexi area during the Eastern Han Dynasty. Taoism prevailed in the Eastern Han Dynasty. Except Hexi area, Da Le horses have been unearthed in Sichuan, Shaanxi, Henan, Hebei and other places. The lifelike horse figurines show that the ancient people of China lived not only in reality, but also in myth. 1969 The bronze galloping horse of the Eastern Han Dynasty unearthed in the cemetery of General Zhang in Wuwei, Gansu Province in June is a tourist symbol of China. It is 34.5 cm high and has a flying bird attached to its right hind hoof, which not only shows its highly romantic artistic conception, but also stabilizes the center of gravity of bronze horse figurines. It is an unparalleled treasure in ancient bronze art in China. However, its name has long been controversial. According to the cloud, it was called "Horse Treading and Swallowing" at that time, and some scholars quoted the classics and named it "Malone Chaoque". In the end, it may be named "Copper Horse Racing" because of different opinions. Although the name "Copper Horse Racing" is concise and to the point, a horse without swallows is not satisfactory.

For a long time, there are mainly the following statements about the name of "swallow on the horse":

First, the saying of "Copper Running Horse". The bronze horse figurines are very handsome in shape. It held its head high and screamed, and its horseshoes flew like lightning. Therefore, after being identified by Mr. Guo Moruo, it was named "Copper Running Horse". Because it is made of bronze, it is also called "bronze galloping horse", which is the earliest name of this bronze horse figurine.

The second is the theory of "riding on a swallow". Although the title of "bronze galloping horse" is intuitive and clear, the subtlety of this bronze horse figurine is that a bird stepped on the back of its hoof, and the name of "galloping horse" is obviously not enough to express its romantic artistic conception, so some people call it "galloping horse flying over the back of a swallow" to show that galloping horse is flying in the air. It is said that 197 1 in September, Guo Moruo accompanied Cambodian Prince Baleno to visit Lanzhou and saw this rare treasure in Gansu Provincial Museum, and named it "Flying Swallow on horseback".

Third, it is known as the "horse stepping on the dragon sparrow". Some people have put forward different views on the view that the birds attached to the bronze horse figurines are not like swallows, but dragons, so they should be "Ma Talong" or "Ma Chaolong".

The fourth is the "flying swallow" theory-correcting the name of the bronze galloping horse. The previous names seem reasonable, but it is not difficult for discerning people to find them after careful taste-they all have obvious word-formation characteristics of modern Chinese. Recently, a senior scholar put forward the name "Feiyan", which is by far the most suitable name for the famous bronze sculpture "Flying Swallow on the Horse", regardless of the rigor of word formation or the accuracy of meaning. There is a bird at the foot of Wuwei bronze horse, and its symbolic significance is concerned by people. When it comes to horses, people will soon think of galloping, and the flying speed of swallows is beyond doubt. Many poems in past dynasties used swallows to describe good horses. For example, there is a sentence in Shen Yue's poem in the Southern Dynasties, and it is noted: "Yanzi is a good horse." The poem of Emperor Wendi in the bamboo slips of Liang Dynasty says, "The more martial arts a purple swallow is, the more red rabbits fly into the sky." In the second sentence, the red rabbit refers to a good horse, and the purple swallow also refers to a good horse. Shan Li noticed Xie Lingyun's poem: "Emperor Wen returned from generation to generation with nine good horses and a swallow." In ancient times, the swallow at the foot of Wuwei bronze horse was undoubtedly used to describe the speed of a good horse, which made people know its meaning at a glance. Therefore, the bronze horse should be directly named "Yan Ziai" or "Yan Feiai", which is the ancient meaning and the most elegant and appropriate.

Fifth, "Tianma" said. People who hold this view think that the dragon finch is Shen Feng, that is, Fei Lian, a kind of divine bird. Could it be something that a galloping horse stepped on? In the Eastern Han Dynasty, Zhang Heng's Ode to Tokyo contains the phrase "The Bronze Quetai tunes in harmony, and it is called the corresponding two bronze exhibits in the palace". Therefore, this bronze horse figurine is "Tianma". It is recorded in The History of Rites and Music: The Tianma is the image of the Tianma roaming in the air, stepping on floating clouds, flying in the air and riding a horse and stepping on a swallow.

Sixth, "Ma Shen-Yi Tian" said. Like the previous statement, the "Tianma" theory has also been questioned. It has been suggested that "Tianma" refers specifically to the blood horse in Dawan and related palace exhibits in Han Dynasty. Emperor Han Ming of the East set up Fei Lian (Bronze Dragonfinch) and Bronze Horse (Bronze Tianma) in Luoyang. He personally went to Xi 'an to see him, even at the expense of marrying an imperial clan girl or fighting a war. Only then did he get a bloody horse, which was called "Tianma". Therefore, he wrote "Song of the Heavenly Horse in the West Pole", which was one of the ceremonies of the emperor's offering sacrifices to heaven to praise the achievements of the son of the Han family. Therefore, whether "Tianma" refers to a real horse or a bronze horse, it is only a symbol of royal dignity, and subjects can't enjoy it. How can the Eastern Han Tomb in Wuwei make an exception and advocate the surname General? Therefore, some people think that this bronze horse figurine is "Ma Shen-Yi Tian". "Apocalypse" refers to the fourth star among the seven nights in black dragon, east of the twenty-eight stars in the sky, named "Fang", namely "Apocalypse", also known as "Mazu God". Before Qin and Han Dynasties, people worshipped "Heaven" as "Horse God". Since Shang and Zhou Dynasties, horses have been indispensable in battle, which led to the worship and sacrifice of Mazu. General Zhang, the owner of the Han tomb in Wuwei, rode to the frontier to worship the horse god before his death. It is natural to bury the bronze horse god after his death. Judging from the official position and professional characteristics of the tomb owner, this explanation is reasonable. Those "heavenly" people still say that they are flying in the air. They use flying swallows to explain "heavenly" and symbolize their spatial position.

It should be said that the above five statements are reasonable and can be explained to a certain extent, but so far there is no recognized conclusion. However, no matter which name is adopted in the end, this bronze horse figurine will eventually be "the pinnacle of China's ancient works of art", and I believe there is no objection to this. "Flying Swallow on horseback" was designated as "the tourist symbol of China" by the National Tourism Administration.