Chapter 32 Section 2 Huabiao

There is a Jinshui River in front of Tiananmen Square in Beijing, and several Jinshui bridges are built on the river. In front of the bridge, there are two stone lions and two tall stone pillars called Huabiao on the left and right (Fig. 33). Tiananmen acts as a foil, greatly enhancing the majesty of the gate of the imperial city. How did this watch come about?Legend has it that in order to hear the opinions of the common people, the ancient emperors specially hung "remonstrance drums" outside the palace city, and set up "slander trees" on the avenue where carriages, horses and people walked. It is recorded in "Huainanzi Zhushu Xun": "Yao set up the drum of respect and remonstrance, and Shun set up the tree of slander."The so-called remonstrance drums are hanging drums outside the palace, so that the subjects can beat the drums when they have opinions. write on it.The ancient "slander" originally had no derogatory meaning, but the meaning of discussing right and wrong and accusing negligence.It is difficult to verify whether the admonition drum and slander wood are true.History has always referred to the era of Yao and Shun as a prosperous age, and Tang Yao and Yu Shun were regarded as models of emperors. In fact, they were still in the primitive society of China when they were in power. There were no classes and no countries. They were all chiefs of a tribe. They are used to discussing with everyone, and even the successor of the chief is elected by everyone. This is the famous saying of "abdication" in history.But at that time, the level of productivity was still very low. The tools of production were only stone tools and bows and arrows. They ate half-cooked meat, wore coarse clothes, and lived in caves and earthen huts. It is very difficult. People of later generations did not pay attention to these facts. They only saw a little political equality in that era, and they regarded the system of Yao and Shun as the highest political ideal.After China entered the society of slavery and feudalism, the written language was developed, and opinions could be written on slander, but this kind of action of accepting advice to promote democracy did not work. Don't come in." Even if the county yamen is like this, the emperor's palace will naturally be impossible to enter.As a result, the slander trees standing on the avenue no longer had the function of listening to public opinion, but gradually became a sign of the main intersection of traffic, so later "slander trees" were also called "table trees". It is the origin of Huabiao.

So, what did this table wood look like in the first place?According to records in ancient books, the early slander wood, that is, the later Huabiao, was shaped like a tangerine 槔 [gao gao] with cross-bars intersecting the stigma.Orange is a tool for absorbing water in ancient times. It looks like a long pole with a bucket of water tied to its head. Therefore, the original form of Huabiao is a column with a horizontal bar or other decorations on its head.In Song Dynasty Zhang Zeduan's "A Picture of Rising the River during the Qingming Festival", you can see that there are two wooden pillars on the two roadsides of Hongqiao. Logo of Huabiao wood.Standing in the open air, this kind of gorgeous watch cannot withstand the wind and rain all year round, and is easily damaged. So the wooden pillars were gradually replaced by stone pillars, but its shape still maintained the style of wooden pillars, with slender shafts and capitals. There is a horizontal board on it, which has become the earliest and most basic form of Huabiao.

Naturally, it took a long time to develop from the early stone pillars to the Chinese watches seen in front of Tiananmen Square today. Unfortunately, there are very few Chinese watches left in various periods in history. Most of the Chinese watches seen today are from the Ming and Qing Dynasties, so we only Can analyze the image of these Huabiao. A Huabiao can be divided into three parts, namely the column cap, column body and base of the Huabiao.There is a flat circular stone slab on the stigma of Huabiao, which is called "Chenglupan".The dew plate originated in the Han Dynasty. Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty erected a bronze immortal on the altar of the gods. The immortal raised his hands and put them on his head, clasping his palms to receive the nectar from the sky. The emperor could live forever after drinking the dew that fell from the sky.Later, it was called the dew plate by the immortal holding the dew on the tray. There is such a statue of the immortal holding the dew plate on Qionghua Island in Beihai, Beijing.Afterwards, all discs on the heads of pillars, no matter whether they are held by immortals or not, and whether they can receive dew or not, are called dew-bearing discs.The dew disc on the Huabiao is composed of upper and lower layers of upturned lotus petals, and there are small beasts standing on the dew disc. This kind of squatting small beast is called "roaring towards the sky" on the Huabiao in Ming and Qing Dynasties. In "A Picture of Shanghe during the Qingming Festival", there is a crane standing on the Huabiao wood on the head of the Hongqiao. There is also a legend in it.Ding Lingwei, a native of Liaodong in the Han Dynasty, learned Taoism in Lingxu Mountain. After becoming a fairy for thousands of years, he turned into a crane and returned to Bianliang, the capital of Song Dynasty. He said: "There are birds and there are birds Ding Lingwei. After going home for thousands of years, they have returned. The city is the same as before and the people are wrong. Why don't you learn from the immortals?"There are a pair of Huabiao on the front and back of Tiananmen Square. The stone beasts on the top of the pair of Huabiao in front of the gate face south, and the stone beasts on the top of the pair of Huabiao on the back face north. Looking at the Forbidden City, I hope that the emperor will not stay in the palace for a long time, ignoring the sufferings of the world and the world, and should often go out of the palace to observe the situation, so it is called "Wang Junchu".The pair of beasts facing south on the front are hoping that the king will not go out for a long time and ignore government affairs, so it is also called "hoping for the king to return".These naturally reflect the wishes of the world, but the reason why such legends are attached to Huabiao also shows that architectural sketches such as Huabiao occupy a prominent position in the entire group of buildings.

The pillars of Huabiao in the Ming and Qing Dynasties are mostly octagonal. Coiling dragons are often used as decorations on the Huabiao pillars in front of palaces and mausoleums. A huge dragon coils around the column body, with its head upwards and its tail downwards. Clouds are also carved around the dragon body. When people stand in front of the 9.57-meter-high stone surface in front of Tiananmen Square and 12 meters in front of the Xiaoling Mausoleum of the Qing Dynasty, they look up. Against the blue sky, the giant dragon on the pillar seems to be swimming in the clouds of space, looking very imposing. .

The base of Huabiao is generally made in the form of Xumizuo, and the column body is also octagonal. The seat is carved with dragon and lotus patterns. Under Tiananmen Huabiao, a circle of stone railings is added outside the base. There is also a small stone lion standing on each of the pillars at the four corners of the railing. The lion's head and the stone beast on the top face in the same direction. It looks more solemn and stable. As a small iconic building, Huabiao not only stands outside the gate of the building complex, but also sometimes stands at the bridgehead of the main traffic road and around the building.There are a pair of Huabiao at both ends of the Lugou Bridge in Wanping, Hebei (now in Fengtai District, Beijing); there are also a Huabiao on the four corners of the stele pavilion of the Ming Tombs; they all play a very good role in setting off the main building. The shape, height and size are all coordinated with their environment and become an organic part of the whole building group.