I want to thank @realgavinlee for posting this pic of a very interesting, 1-3 C. AD Eastern Han Empire, bronze mirror.
The mirror is decorated with repeated scenes of "a tiger following a goat" and "a dragon facing a monkey". Except these are not ordinary decorations...
These are animal calendar markers for
winter - "a tiger following a goat"
and
summer - "a dragon facing a monkey"
Tiger (winter) and Dragon (summer) are found as two opposing symbols in China since Neolithic Yangshao culture. I talked about this in my post "Tiger and Dragon"..
The reason for this kind of symbolic division of the calendar year is because of the climate in the North Eastern china: The climatic year is divided into cold, dry winter (tiger) and hot, wet summer (dragon)...Xian climate. But the climate for the whole Han area is very similar.
Ibex is a winter symbol because Siberian ibex, which lives in North Eastern China starts mating in Oct/Nov and mates throughout the winter...I talked about this in my posts "Tasmola talisman", "Combs from Tuva", "Mythical beast from Xian"...
Tiger is a winter symbol because the mating season of the Siberian / Amur tiger, which once lived in the North Eastern China, is Dec/Jan...Midwinter...I talked about this in my posts "Crouching tiger", "Leopard and tiger"...
Which is why "tiger" (Dec/Jan) follows (comes after) goat (Oct/Nov)...
Snake is the only true solar animal. It is in our world when sun is in our world (day and hot part of the year) and it is in the underworld when sun is in the underworld (night and cold part of the year)...Hence snake as a symbol of the sun and more specifically of sun's heat...
Now summer (Apr/May - Jul/Aug), the domain of the sun, starts with the beginning of the mating season of Eurasian viper snakes and ends with the beginning of the mating season of Eurasian lions...
Dragon is also a symbol of sun, and sun's heat during the hottest time of the year, Jul/Aug...Which is why dragon is just "an old snake which looked at the sun for a long time". I talked about this in my posts "Letnitsa treasure", "Enemy of the sun", "The Chthonic animal", "Dragon who stole rain"...
Jul/Aug, Leo, is the time when Eurasian lions mating season starts...
In Western Asia, North Africa, Europe, Jul/Aug is also the driest part of the year...
The time of droughts...
Which is why in these parts of the world dragons breath fire, steal water and cause droughts and death...
And we have all the thunder gods chasing them away...
But in China, the hottest part of the year is also the wettest part of the year...Xian climate again...
Hence in China, the fire breathing dragons bring rain...I talked about this in my post "Chinese dragon"...
According to the Chinese mythology, dragon was helped in its water fetching duties by Kui, a "one-legged mountain demon or rain-god, variously said to resemble a Chinese dragon, a drum made of a skin of a water ox with no horns, or a monkey with a human face".
At first I wasn't sure what the dragon was facing on the Eastern Han mirror, but have a look at this:
Archaic oracle script symbol for "nao" (monkey)
Monkey from the Eastern Han mirror facing the dragon
The most common identification of this "monkey with the human face" is golden snub nosed monkey
Which is in China known as "Sichuan golden hair monkey" cause it lives in the mountains of Sichuan...Which was, I think, within the area of the core Han land...
Now I think it is interesting that the monkey is facing, stopping the rain bringing dragon...Why? Have a look at the climate in Sichuan...
The rain stops in October...And the mating season of the "Golden snub-nosed monkey" is...October...
Oh yeah. Why "one legged mountain monkey/dragon rain god"? Apparently no one knows..."The Confucianists, detested the idea that K'ui had only one leg..." Cause they couldn't explain it. Maybe because...
Or maybe because dragon, which is the symbol of the sun's heat during the hottest part of the year, late summer, is "just an old snake" which is the symbol of the sun's heat in general...And snakes only have "one leg", or none, depending how you look at it...
To see that I am not barking mad: Groot infers that the in "one-legged dragon" Kui, "which was amphibious, and caused wind and rain", "we immediately recognize the Dragon, China’s god of Water and Rain". Carr interprets this as "a crocodile-dragon with its tail seen as 'one leg'"
And, why was the thunder drum made from the hide of an "blue ox with no horns who comes out of the eastern sea"? Well, remember that the bull, ox, cow and calf, are animal calendar markers that mark the beginning of the calving season of the wild Eurasian cattle, Apr/May...I talked about this in my posts "Cow and calf ivory", "When Utu steps up into heaven", "Butt chewing", "Green Pastures", "Adda seal", "Elamite water bull", "Solar bull", "How grain came to Sumer"
Ox with no horns is a wild cattle calf...Which start being born in Apr/May...Which is when the summer monsoon winds arrive from the eastern sea carrying the clouds full of rain and thunder and lighting...Hence blue ox with no horns...
So...This is it...As I said, a very interesting mirror indeed...
To read more about ancient animal and plant calendar markers, start here…then check the rest of the blog posts related to animal calendar markers I still didn't add to this page, and finally check my twitter threads I still didn't convert to blog post...I am 9 months behind now...
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