Mirror with deities

Mirror with Deities, Chariot, and the White Tiger, China, Eastern Han dynasty, 100-200 AD...

The deities are The Queen Mother of the West - who is an embodiment of Yin (cold, dark, west) and The King Father of the East - who is an embodiment of Yang (hot, light, east)

These two are said to have created the humanity...

The Queen Mother of the West, representation of Yin (cold, dark, west) is associated with the tiger, the symbol of winter...Which is why the tiger is depicted on the mirror...

But no one knows why we have a chariot pulled by 4 horses supposedly associated with The King Father of the East, representation of Yang (hot, light, east)...According to the Cleveland museum of art...

So let me see if I can solve this mystery...

Apart from The King Father of the East, the Chinese also have The Dragon King of the East, also known as the Dragon God, who is a Chinese water and weather god...

Now if we look at the climate in the North Eastern China, where all these legends originate, the climatic year id divided into hot wet summer, and cold, dry winter...

Hot summer which is symbolised by a dragon (Yang) and cold winter which is symbolised by a tiger (Yin)...I explained why in my post about another "Eastern Han mirror"...

Ok, what does this have to do with horses on the original mirror? Remember my post about the "Three legged sun crows"? 

And the post about sun chariot pulled by "Longma", dragon horse?

Why dragon horse? Cause in China, the hot, wet season, when "dragon brings rain", coincides with the natural mating season of horses...Hence dragon-horse...

I talked about this dragons (and horses) in Chinese mythology in my posts "Chinese dragon", "Tiger and dragon", "Mythical beast from Xian"... 

So I think that knowing this, the chariot drawn by 4 horses is a perfect animal symbol for The King Father of the East, representation of Yang, hot, light...

BTW, doesn't all this reminds anyone of Helios... And this guy:

Depictions of the sun god in a horse drawn chariot. Silk paintings found in the funerary complexes at Dulan, Qinghai province, and Astana, Xinjiang province, China, dated to Tang dynasty (8th-9th century AD) 

So, nothing new and interesting here, right? 🙂 Well, until today, I could not understand why Yin was associated with the west and Yang was associated with the east...

Until I saw this thing: East asian monsoon blows hot from the south east during the summer, the time of (horse) dragon, Yang time, and blows cold from the north west during the winter, the time of tiger, Yin time...

Hence The Queen Mother of the West - who is an embodiment of Yin (cold, dark, west) and The King Father of the East - who is an embodiment of Yang (hot, light, east)...And tiger and horse drawn chariot...

That's it...

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...

Monkey man mirror

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...

And why dragon was depicted as lion with snakes heads...Or snake with lion's head...I talked about this in my posts "Seven headed dragon", "Bactrian snakes and dragons", "Winged superhuman hero", "Lion killing snake", "You will trample the great lion and the serpent", "Pegasus and Chimera"...

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...

Oh BTW, I talked about the link between bull and dragon symbols in my posts "Water bull", "Bactrian snakes and dragons"...

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...

Three legged crow

Today I want to talk about sanzuwu (三足烏)  or three legged crow a creature from the Chinese mythology, believed to inhabit and represent the Sun...

Apparently, the earliest known depiction of a three-legged crow appears in Neolithic pottery of the Yangshao culture that existed along the Yellow River between 5000BC and 3000BC...But I couldn't find that depiction...So if anyone has a pic of it...

The most famous Chinese legend about the three-legged crows is The legend about 10 suns. I have come across several slightly different versions (here is one), but in general the story goes like this:

Once there existed 10 Suns (3 legged crows) one for each day of the Chinese ten-day week. They were the sons of Supreme Deity 帝俊 Di Jun and his wife Xihe 羲和 (the sun goddess)...

The 10 Sun crows lived in a mulberry tree named Fusang (扶桑) which was located somewhere near the East China Sea...

Each day one of the ten sun crows would travel with their mother, the sun goddess Xihe, on her sun chariot, pulled by a dragon-horse. Together they would bring light to the mortal world...

But one day the sun crows became restless and mischievous, and all left the Fusang tree at once. With disastrous consequences...

With all 10 Suns in the sky, the temperature on earth became unbearably hot. Mass chaos ensued. Crops shrivelled up and people fainted in the streets as the earth began to burn. Wild monsters emerged from the shadows and began to prey on humanity...

To prevent the destruction of the Earth, the emperor Yao asked Di Jun, the father of the ten suns, to persuade his children to go back to the mulberry tree and go back to appearing in the sky one at a time...

But the sun crows would not listen. They were having too much fun...So an archer, named Hou Yi (后羿), considered to be the greatest archer of all time, was called to frighten the disobedient suns...

Hou Yi was armed with a massive magic bow. In some versions of the story, the bow was made of dragon tendon and arrows were made of tiger bones. In some other versions the bow was made of tiger bones and arrows were made of dragon tendons...

Anyhow, Hou Yi, armed with a magic bow and arrows, told the sun crows to go back to their mulberry tree, but they jeered and refused to obey him...

And so Hou Yi raised his great magic bow and shot down 9 out of 10 sun crows...

The last sun that remained got so frightened that it hid in a cave and refused to come out...

The earth was now plunged into unbearable darkness and cold. Every living thing on the planet begged the last sun to come out, but it was all in vain...

Finally the rooster shouted: “Brother!”. Hearing the rooster’s loud, shrill voice, the last remaining sun finally emerged from his cave. Now, whenever roosters call in the morning, the sun rises to greet them...

The end. 

So, what is all this about?

Well this is actually very interesting story full of animal and plant calendar markers describing a very important moment in the climatic and agricultural year in Eastern China...

But I believe that this is also a story that talks about one specific event, a catastrophic weather event, which happened 4200 years ago...

So first let's have a look at the climate in China. Here are climate charts from 4 places along Yellow River (Zhengzhou, Xian, Ordos, Jinan)...

We can see that the climatic year in Eastern China is divided into two halves: hot and wet summer, and cold and dry winter...

The hot and wet half of the year starts in Apr/May and is the time of the dragon...The cold and dry half of the year starts in Oct/Nov and is the time of the tiger...

And it has been like that since Neolithic Yangshao culture...Neolithic Yangshao culture  burial, discovered in Puyang, Henan Province, Northwestern China and dated to 4000BC...Depicting tiger and dragon as opposing symbols...

I talked about it in my post "Tiger and dragon"...

It is after Apr/May that the sowing of the most important Neolithic Yangshao culture grain, millet, started...And it was before Oct/Nov, when the harvesting of millet, finished...I talked about it in my post about the "Mythical beast from Xian", actually a complex animal calendar marker for the period Apr/May-Oct/Nov, the fertile half of the year...

One other thing that starts in Apr is the natural horse mating season which lasts until Oct...It is governed by the sunlight and peaks on Summer solstice. Which is why horse is one of the most ubiquitous solar symbols in Eurasia...

I talked about the solar horse in my post "Hayagriva"...This is also why in China we find Dragon-Horse, the symbol of the hot and wet and fertile half of the year...And a solar symbol...I talked about it in my post "Longma"...

By the way that's the same dragon horse that pulls the chariots of the Sun Goddess Xihe. The chariot which she uses to transport one of her sun crows sons across the sky...

Here is the gist of the story about the 10 sun crows, depicted on a relief from the Wu family shrine, dated to 151AD. 

The Fusang tree, Sun Goddess Xihe who is going to hitch her Dragon Horse into the Sun Chariot, and Archer Yi who takes aim at the Sun Crows...

Sun chariot that we see parked under the giant Fusang mulberry tree, the home of the sun crows...Why mulberry tree? Well, because the mulberry trees break into leaf in mid April...Which signals the beginning of the annual silkworm growing season...

Silkworms, which according to the legend, descended from a union between a girl who was promised to marry a horse, and the said horse...The girl who became known as the girl with a horse head...I talked about it in my post "Silkworm goddess"...

So we have mulberry tree, where sun crows lived, and the Dragon-Horse, which pulled the chariot of the Sun Goddess, and which transported the sun crow across the sky, both calendar markers pointing to Apr...What about crows? Why a sun crow?

Well, crows in China nest in late Mar early Apr. Hatch after 20 days, in Apr. Fledge by May. So baby crows (remember, sun crows were kids), are around in Apr/May, right at the beginning of summer, the time ruled by the sun...Why three legged? Weeell...Cause SUPERNATURAL 🙂...

So we have mulberry tree, which gets first leaves in Apr, being home to sun crows, which hatch in Apr, which are driven across the sky in a chariot pulled by a Horse which starts mating in Apr, by their mother Sun goddess, who presides over summer, which starts in Apr/May...

Phew, glad that animal and plant calendar marker part is over...But what about the other bit...The 10 suns bit? The 4200 years old bit...Ever heard of The 4.2-kiloyear BP event?

This was one of the most severe climatic events of the last 10000 years. Starting around 2200 BC, it probably lasted the entire 22nd century BC. And probably caused the collapse of the Old Kingdom in Egypt, the Akkadian Empire in Mesopotamia, the Indus Valley Civilisation...

What about China? Have a look at this. This is the map of the world showing the effects of this global weather event. The dotted areas by drought or dust storms. The hatched areas were affected by wet conditions or flooding...

Now if you look at China, you can see that the border between the area affected by aridity (Yellow River) and the area affected by flooding (Yangze river) goes right between Yellow river and Yangtze river...

In my post about Dragon-Horse I said that having such opposing forces so close together for so long can mean only one thing: the whole area was most likely thrown into a complete chaos of droughts followed by floods followed by droughts followed by floods followed by...

What happened in the story about 10 sun crows? They all flew into the sky together and then: "it got really hot, crops shrivelled up and people fainted in the streets as the earth began to burn"...Sounds awful lot like an aridification event to me...

The story then continues: "Seeing an opportunity, wild monsters emerged from the shadows and began to prey on humanity"...

I love the fact that on the picture from the story book, the wild monsters are a snake, symbol of sun's heat and lion, symbol of maximum sun't heat, in Leo (Jul/Aug)...The time of fire breading dragons...I talked about the link between snakes, lions and dragons in my post "Seven headed dragon"...

Dragons which bring drought everywhere else in Eurasia, except in China, where they bring water...

Because in China, the hottest part of the year is also the wettest part of the year. I talked about it in my post "Chinese dragon"...

Anyway, I guess, during the time the 10 sun crows were up in the sky, the Chinese dragons also turned into destructive monsters they are everywhere else in Eurasia...The monsters that steel water instead of bringing water...I talked about them in my post "Letnitsa treasure"...

But then The Archer arrived...The Archer is one of the euphemisms for the Thunder, Rain God...Like Ninurta of the Mesopotamians. Like Indra of the Hindus. Like Perun of the Slavs...

This Chinese Archer is armed with the massive magic bow and arrows. As I said, in some versions of the story, bow made of dragon tendon and arrows made of tiger bones...In some versions of the story bow made of tiger bones and arrows made of dragon tendons...

Regardless, the magic bow and arrow were made from parts of a dragon, the symbol of hot summer, a tiger, symbol of winter...Tiger (Yin) and Dragon (Yang)...

The two opposing but complementing forces of nature...Which together keep the world in balance...

And so, after killing 9 out of 10 suns (and after the last sun decided to come out of hiding and shine again), The Archer, Hou Yi, restored the balance of nature with his Yin/Yang bow...

Panic over, The Great Imperial Age of China begins...

The End...

What do you think?

PS: 12/12/2022. Today I discovered that crows sunbathe...Like this...Hmmmmm....

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...