Xinhuanet Beijing, September 6 th According to the client report of Xinhua News Agency, it has become a national carnival to choose animals that symbolize the country. People like to take some good qualities of animals as a kind of self-motivation. For example, Australians regard kangaroos as a national symbol, which is the pioneering spirit of never jumping forward and never retreating.
Recently, the animated short film "The Rabbit Things that Year" circulated on the Internet is quite popular. In the film, China’s image is portrayed as a cute rabbit-peaceful, harmless and intelligent.
It is not difficult to find that many animals have become national cultural elements. In human history, these animals have been endowed with cultural connotations with the changes of the country, and some even become symbols of the country.
And if you use an animal to represent a country or a nation, what else do you think? Is it an elephant in the South Asian subcontinent, a cheetah in the African prairie, or a bald eagle flying high over America?
The battle between lions and unicorns
When it comes to the British Isles, some people say that the symbol of Britain is a noble lion, while others regard Britain as a grumpy bull by borrowing the satirical novel The Life of John Bull. It is really a headache to choose which animal to represent the country.
In fact, people familiar with European heraldry can easily see the clue about the "mascot" of the British Isles: isn’t the most obvious animal symbol on the royal emblem?
The British royal emblem has two shield animals, one unicorn representing Scotland and the other lion representing England. Depending on the place of use, the two shield beasts will alternate positions from time to time and stare at each other.
Unicorn is a mythical animal from the Old Testament. In Celtic mythology, this kind of animal with high "face value" symbolizes kindness, purity, pleasure, pride, freedom and courage. In medieval European stories, unicorns yearn for beautiful things, and even though they are often caught in the trap woven by girls, they are still persistent. And that spiral horn, which is half a meter long and right in the center of the forehead, is said to be able to treat all kinds of intractable diseases.
For Scots, it is best to represent the independent character of their own nation with the noble, free and beautiful personality of unicorns. Therefore, before King James IV of Scotland succeeded to the throne of King Elizabeth I of England in 1603, the shield beasts on the Scottish emblem were always two pure white unicorns.
Arabian folktales collection "Arabian Nights" records that unicorns are powerful creatures, but this vegetarian animal still has a huge natural enemy, that is, lions. In the legendary duel, the unicorn’s horn was stuck in a tree and was killed by a lion. This story seems ridiculous to the British today, because the official symbol of England is the lion, and there is more than one lion on the coat of arms.
Speaking of it, lions are not native animals in continental Europe. The extinct North African lions should be the first lions seen by Europeans, and they are often trapped animals in the Colosseum in ancient Rome. Because of the lion’s domineering and bravery as the "king of beasts", many medieval European kings like to boast of lions. Except "Lionheart" Richard I, Scottish King William and French King Louis VIII were also called "lions".
The symbol of England is the three golden lions that are inseparable from the red lion. After the Norman Conquest, England began to use Normandy’s double lion coat of arms, and "Lionheart" Richard I added the last golden lion to the badge, which became what it is today.
In fact, for Britain, it is hard to tell whether the national symbol is a unicorn or a lion. As a result, Britain had that nursery rhyme that recorded unicorn and lion fighting for the crown. Looking at modern and contemporary British literary works and artistic intentions, lions and unicorns are also symbols that are difficult to bypass in British culture.