Crows in Chinese culture
History
In modern Chinese society, crows are often mentioned as a bad omen. People will frown when they say this word, there is a strong disgust and disgust, and people's dislike of crows can be seen from many words: crow mouth , Wu Ting ominous, rabble crowd and so on. Although the "wuti omen" has always affected the impression of modern people. But looking back on the long history of China, crows do not always have negative connotations, from the divine bird of the primitive ancestors, "the sun in the sun", to the "filial bird" during the Qin and Han Dynasties, and then to the "vulgar bird" after the Song Dynasty ”, reflecting the changes of the times and social culture.
Sacred Bird
In ancient times, people had limited scientific ability and insufficient cognition, and could not understand the natural phenomenon of the sun rising and setting, and emitting light and heat. They believed that the sun was like a god with joys, sorrows and sorrows, and their rewards seemed to depend on their moods. So the primitive ancestors began to pay respects and sacrifices to ensure that the sun appeared on time. In the oracle bone inscriptions unearthed from Yin Ruins in my country, it is recorded that worship at sunrise and sunset was required at that time. When there was a solar eclipse in the Zhou Dynasty, only the emperor of Zhou could "beat the drums in the court and kill and sacrifice in the society"（“于朝击鼓，于社杀牺牲以祭”）.
It is precisely because people are very concerned about the sun that when people see a black spot in the sun, they will think that it is a black bird flying into the sun, thus conveying people's devout belief in the sun. Crows are black all over, as if they had undergone severe training. Like the sun, they fly freely in the sky, making the ancestors think that black birds are crows.
In the Shang Dynasty, there was a saying that "the crow announced the good news, and Zhou Xing was born";（“天命玄鸟，降而生商”） "the mysterious bird descended from the destiny, and was born into Shang", it is said that the ancestor deed of the Yin Shang was transformed from the mysterious bird. "Xuan"（玄） here means black, and it also means north, because the nomads in the Altai region use four different colors to describe the orientation, among which black is the north, and the mysterious bird may be the crow.
From sacred bird to ominous sign
In the Song Dynasty, the crow officially became the symbol of the ominous bird. With the southward shift of the economic center of gravity in the Song Dynasty, especially in the Southern Song Dynasty, the southern culture gradually became the mainstream culture, and the attitude towards the crow can be best reflected in the poems and works of the literati.
Fan Jun, a famous poet in the Southern Song Dynasty, wrote "Zaxing Poems": "Magpies are so happy, and crows are so disgusted." Zhu Xi, a famous scholar in the Southern Song Dynasty, commented on the sentence "Mo Chi bandits fox, Mo Hei bandit Wu" in "Book of Songs": "Fox, the name of a beast, resembles a dog, yellow and red. Black, red, black. All ominous things, people Those who see evil are also. All they see is this thing, and the country will be in danger and chaos." Obviously, in Zhu Xi's view, crows are ominous things.
Luo Yuan of Song Dynasty clearly pointed out in the book "Erya Wing": "The Taigong said: those who love people love the Wushangwu on their houses, those who hate people hate their Chuken... Wuji is ominous, and people hate it, but those who love people And love it." The "crow" on the house here is also a disgusting ominous bird, just because he likes the owner of this house and does not shy away from it. The meaning of "wu" has changed, and the emotional color has changed from love to disgust, and auspiciousness to ominous.
References
Zhang, B. (2019, October). A Comprehensive Review on the Evolution of the Image of Crows. In 2nd International Conference on Contemporary Education, Social Sciences and Ecological Studies (CESSES 2019) (pp. 678-682). Atlantis Press.
Paine, L. (2005). Martin Stuart-Fox, A Short History of China and Southeast Asia: Tribute, Trade and Influence. Short History of Asia Series. Crows Nest, NSW: Allen and Unwin, 2003. x 278 pp. ISBN: 1-86448-954-5 (pbk.). Itinerario, 29(2), 124-126. doi:10.1017/S0165115300023792
齐鸽. (2018). 乌鸦象征意义的流变 (Master's thesis, 山东大学).