The Preliminary Study About The Tiger Figure On Bronze Weapons Of Ba Shu Culture

Ba Shu culture is a culture created by the Ba and Shu. It's main bronze weapons Ge, spear and sword often appear tiger figures. The tiger figure bronze weapons are distributed over an expansive area. Tiger figures have different mold-makings and styles. According to the characters of tiger s body and posture, we divide tiger figures into five types. The style of tiger figures can find origin from early Ba and Shu culture.According to the appearing time of different type and the changes of the style, this treatise divide tiger figures into three periods: germination period, development and prosperity period, declining and falling period; and divide tiger figures into two regions: the East and the West . The region character's forming have bearing on the level of society and economy, environment, the interflow of culture, and so on. By the mold-makings , we can divide the different mold-makings into two groups: one is directly imitate other tiger mold-making from other culture ; the other one is developed and created by Ba and Shu. And the tiger figure on bronze weapons stem from the general animal plastic arts of Shang and Zhou.About the tiger figure s nature, the academic circles have many different points of view for a long time. These standpoints were reasonable at the early research. But in pace with increasing of materials and the development of research, the shortcoming of the views gradually appears. Considering all aspect such as the type, style, periods and regions of the tiger figure, this treatise tend to view that the ancient Ba and Shu have an extensive and special worship of. Tiger God. this worship make the tiger figure having two natures: Tiger God, and the Tu Yu.