Nian - SpeedyLook encyclopedia

In the folklore Chinese, Nianshou (Chinese traditional: 年獸; Chinese simplified: 年兽; Pinyin: nián shòu) or Nian is an animal malefic with head of lion and body of bull which according to the tradition would have given its name to the year ( nián : year; shòu : animal). Its legend is related to the habits of the Chinese New year. It is represented like a lion of the dances of lions, although the latter are auspicieux animals.

Caption

In old times, there was a wild animal which, once per winter, went down from the mountains or left wood to approach the villages, devouring animals and people on his passage. It came only at the fallen night and disappeared at daybreak. The years passing, the population ends up knowing its weak points and knowing to predict the evening of its arrival. The animal feared the light, the noise and the red color. Resistance was soon at the point. Each winter, to the approach of the fateful evening, the villagers hung red rags with the doors, barricaded animals and people inside and, not daring to fall asleep, ate by chattering the many dishes which they had prepared in preparation for the night of day before. When they intended Nian to grind meadows of their house, they typed on pans to make it flee. They spent this night without damage thus. Thereafter, the stellar god Ziwei (紫微) decided to go down on ground to connect Nian, which definitively ceased disturbing the human ones. These habits are repeated the night of the midnight supper through the detonators, the Bengal lights and other fireworks, as well as the auspicieux characters traced on paper red and stuck on the doors.

Origin

As popular as is the myth of Nian in the Chinese Monde, its date of appearance and its exact geographic origin remains unknown. There exists in Chinese two characters meaning “year”. Sùi (歲) indicates in the beginning the astronomic year, measured by the Jupiter revolution of which it accounts for 1/12; Taisui (太歲) is the Jupiter god. In modern Chinese, sùi indicates the years of age, which traditionally change the first or the seventh day of the Chinese New year, and not with the birth date.

As for nián (年), it means “year” in all the other directions. According to the Shuowen jiezi (說文解字) of Xu shen (許慎) (58-147), dictionary dating from the Han, nián mean “maturity of the cultures”; its direction extended to “harvest”, event typically annual in China of North, then at “year”. Nian would thus not be in the beginning the name of an animal.

Two topics of its legend however seem to have been very early related to the period of the New year: the night of day before and the fight against the malefic forces tackling the human ones in this period hinge which one calls also niángūan (年關), “hopper” or “test” of the year. To pass the midnight supper, gùonián (過年) says also aónián (熬年), of aó , “to undergo” or “to support by corroding its brake”, implying the idea of a test.

The habit of the meal of midnight supper, which must be taken very slowly until late in the night, called shǒusùi (守歲), “to take care the year”, existed already under the Dynasties of North and the South, since it is mentioned in first half of the 6th century by Song Lin (宋懍) in Coutumes of Jing and Chu (荊楚歲時記); it seems to express a wish of longevity.

As for the fight against the malefic forces, one finds of it the first mention in the Livre of Han (Ier century) which describes a ritual called núo (儺) practiced at the court around the New year: very young dressed up people mimaient a combat with wild animals which they drove out of the palate.

See too

External bonds

a version of the legend of Nian

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