Record of toad pattern
The old fable pattern. From the Warring States, Qin and Han Dynasties to the Wei and Jin Dynasties, toads have always been regarded as sacred objects. The Taiping Heavenly Kingdom Review (Volume 929) quoted Wen Zi as saying, "Toads are out of the battle". In Bao Puzi, the meat-buttered man is called Viva Toad, with horns on his head and the words Dan Shu under his chin. Then take it at noon on May 5, dry it in the shade for a hundred days, draw the ground with your feet, that is, running water, take its left hand to your body, and set up five soldiers. If the enemy shoots at himself, the crossbow will fight back at him. "Taiping Yulan" quoted Xuan Zhongji as saying: "Toads can eat horns at first, live for thousands of years and eat mountain spirits." Ceng Yun quoted the story in Notes on the Water Classics in Jinzhong: "First of all, there is a prophecy:' Frogs are precious'". It can be seen that at that time, people thought that toad was an auspicious thing to subdue the five soldiers, suppress evil spirits, promote life and dominate wealth, so it was used everywhere for decoration. However, after the Wei and Jin Dynasties, it was rare in the Central Plains except that the bronze drums of the southern Vietnamese were often decorated with toads. Decorating with toads was a popular style in Qin and Han Dynasties. At M 15, Shangjiao Village, on the east side of Qin Shihuang Mausoleum, there is a silver toad accessory and two carved stones of toad in front of Haron's sickbed in Xingping. At the end of the Western Han Dynasty, several lacquerware unearthed from a tomb in Lianyungang were also decorated with toads. The gold-plated bronze inkstone unearthed from the tomb of relatives of King Pengcheng in the Eastern Han Dynasty in Xuzhou was made into a toad shape. Historically, there were statues of bronze toads on the seismograph made by Zhang Heng. There are many decorations with toad as the theme in Han Dynasty stone reliefs.