What is the symbolism of the sheep?

Moral: Sheep is a "good luck" on behalf of the beast, but also a symbol of family wealth.

1, according to the Eastern Han Dynasty Xu Shen's "Shuowen": "sheep, auspicious." Because "sheep" "Xiang" is synonymous with "auspicious sheep" that is "auspicious", so then people are accustomed to the The auspicious words of "Daji Sheep" were engraved and cast on the artifacts with the image of sheep, in order to live an auspicious life and have everything go as planned.

At that time, people not only live for good luck, will be in daily use of bronze casting "auspicious sheep" inscription and sheep-shaped pattern, after death for peace, will also be in the construction of graves, the image of the sheep's head will be placed in the center of the door, such as Henan Luoyang burned ditch Han mural tomb tomb on the door is molded with a square sheep's head, a pair of horns left and right down, the composition is neat; under the sheep's head, a pair of horns, and a pair of horns, and a pair of horns, and a pair of horns, and the door of the door is molded with a sheep's head. The composition is neat; the lower side of the sheep's head is painted on the side of the god tiger eating drought demoness mural, in order to seek peace and drive away evil spirits.

2, ancient families the more affluent, natural livestock and poultry will be more. Han Dynasty, such as the death of the matter of life, in order to simulate the birth of the family livestock sheep, in the burial of ceramic molded sheep model. This kind of pottery sheep, in the Western Han Dynasty and the Eastern Han Dynasty graves have been unearthed, the average person's tomb placed in a small number.

But in the emperor's tomb from the burial pit, placed in groups of ceramic sheep, such as the mausoleum of Emperor Jingdi of the Western Han Dynasty - Yangling some of the from the burial pit has been excavated, you can see groups of ceramic sheep, from the shape can be divided into sheep and goats, and each has a male and female, modeling is real and vivid. Some of the Han and Wei period tombs, not placed in the pottery sheep but in the mural paintings of shepherds, the same is to show that the owner of the tomb has a symbol of wealth.

Gansu region of the Wei and Jin dynasties in brick tombs, often painted with images of shepherds, because they are painted on a brick brick surface, the painting is very small, so the lines are concise, interesting, rich in regional characteristics.

Extended information:

Sheep has always been one of the subjects of folk art, paper-cutting, clay sculpture are no shortage of successful masterpieces, but also with the combination of the folk idiom of "three suns to open up the sea". The most widely circulated three-goat modeling is the combination of the auspicious folk saying "three suns to open up the sea", which is a common artwork used by people to decorate their homes during the Spring Festival.

By the Han Dynasty at the latest, the twelve hours (the twelve eons) were already represented by the shapes of the world's beasts and animals (only the eons were in the form of imaginary dragons). In the Eastern Han Dynasty, Wang Chong, in his book "On the balance of things", clearly described the beasts that corresponded to the twelve hours, specifying that "the goat is not yet a goat". On the back of the popular bronze mirrors of the Han Dynasty, the images of the twelve hours are also common, and all of them are realistic beasts.

To the North and South Dynasties period, such as Shanxi Taiyuan, Northern Qi Lou Rui tomb mural painting of the twelve hours is still realistic beast. But to the Sui dynasty, the twelve hours of the image began to change, sui tomb buried with the twelve hours of the figurines, was molded into the shape of the human animal head, often dressed in robes and clothing in a seated position, only the head molded into the head of the animal. Tang Dynasty tomb in the twelve hours figurines, following the tradition of the Sui tomb, is also a robe and animal head shape, but from the sitting position into an upright posture.

Additionally, the traditional Chinese lunar calendar, which uses the stem and branch to chronicle the year, this year is the year of BWI, "not sheep also," which is the year of the sheep, so it should also signal that it will be an auspicious year.

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