虎的称名与文化学考察

The Naming of Tiger and Its Culturological Study

《说文》■从人足,或指为“几”而虎踞其上,实则象尾,其字整体象形,为虎站立行走的侧面展示。虎属“毛虫”,盖虫为动物总类,再分禽、兽,虎为兽类,反映中国古人对于万物分类的层级观念。“虎”以吼声得名,音近“虓”“唬”“哮”“虖”“吼”“嚎”。《诗》“进厥虎臣,阚如虓虎”,马瑞辰指“虓虎”为“虓唬”,其实不然。楚以“於菟”名虎,盖析“虎”音为称,义为虎文。黄班虎皮乃是虎类最为重要的形貌特征,虎变故事多有关涉。虎为“山兽之君”,亦称“山王”“白额侯”。《尔雅·释兽》“熊虎丑,其子狗”,实为“其子羔”。又称“李耳”“李父”“李公”,实则“狸儿”转写,以狸猫似虎,猫虎同宗,并属浅毛,其文相似,捕食亦近。而虎视眈眈,斜视如眄若盲,深邃幽冷,暗藏杀机。虎行以爪坼地卜食,盖亦物性使然。他如“?”训虎声,“?”训两虎争声,“虤”训虎怒,“贙”训虎对争贝,“甝”为白虎,“虪”为黑虎,可见汉字指物的精致丰富。

The lower part of the Character ■ in Shuo Wen Jie Zi(Annotations on the Chinese Characters)imitates man's legs,or refers to the character几(table)which means a squatting tiger,actually is a tiger's tail indeed.This character is a hieroglyphic writing,and it exhibits a side shape of a standing walking tiger.Tiger belongs to furry worm,in Chinese culture,worm is a generic term for animals,and then it is divided birds and beasts,tiger belongs to beast.This reflects the ancient Chinese's hierarchy idea of classifying creatures.hu(虎)-Tiger gets the name from its roar,the similar pronunciations of the Chinese characters like xiao(虓),hu(唬),xiao(哮),yan(虤),hu(虖),hou(吼),hao(嚎).In the Book of Songs,there are two sentences-Our tigerlike generals and soldiers,fighting and shouting like tigers in the battlefield.Ma Ruichen thinks that the two Chinese characters-虤虎(roaring tiger)are虤唬(tiger's roars),that's not so.In ancient Chu regions,tiger was named as yu tu(於菟),it both contains the pronunciation of hu(tiger)and describing tiger's fur stripes.Tiger's yellow and blackstriped fur skin is its most important appearance feature,most of the legendries about tiger's transforming are connected with such feature.Tiger is called the monarch of mountainous animals,and also called the king in the mountains and white forehead marques.In Er Ya(Literary Expositor)-Annotating Beasts,there is a sentence that animals such as bears and tigers,their cubs are called gou,actually,they should be called gao.People also name tiger as Li Er,Li Fu,Li Gong,all of them are the converted pronunciation of Lier.Both cat and tiger belong to cat family,there are similarities between the two,such as the similar appearances(both of them have similar short-striped-fur skin.),similar way of preying,etc.Tiger always hides the intention to kill in its deep and cold eyes.Whenever it glares at something,it always looks like squinting at preys and preparing for pouncing on them.While walking,it always retracts its sharp claws to make no sound on the ground.Generally to say,its nature makes them to do so.Other Chinese characters like yin(䖐)-its phonetic notation is tiger's roars,yin(䖜)-tiger's roars when two tigers are fighting for something,xuan(贙)-two tigers'fighting,han(甝)-white tiger,shu(虪)-black tiger.This shows refined and abundant naming of Chinese characters.