中华豪门—古建排水口的神奇创意—滴水神兽

本期编辑/开鸿顺

KaiHongShun Studio

————————

古代建筑的排水孔，常做成动物的形象，有时象征威严与庄重，有时从特定的排水口流出，寓意着“细水长流”，有很好的聚气效果，这种装饰闽南叫滴水神兽，也称作雨漏。

The drainage holes in ancient buildings are often made into the image of animals, sometimes symbolizing majesty and solemnity, and sometimes flowing out of specific drainage openings, implying "small water flowing long", which has a good effect of gathering gas.

最早的滴水神兽见于燕下都遗址，战国的先民把平淡无奇的板瓦瓦口做成伸出的鸟形，使屋顶的雨水可流至鸟腹，再通过高昂的鸟嘴飞溅而出，一场大雨就可让整座建筑出现“千鸟吐水”的奇观，非常有想象力;其次，鸟嘴延长了雨水下落的距离，可以让雨水飘得更远，起到保护台基的作用。

The earliest water dripping beast was seen in the Yanxiadu site. The ancestors of the Warring States Period made the flat shingle mouth into a protruding bird shape, so that the rain on the roof could flow to the bird's belly, and then splash out through the high beak...

《易经》习坎：“有孚，维心亨，行有尚”。意思为上善若水，水善于滋润万物而不与万物相争，停留于最低下的地方，所以最接近于道。君子像水一样“居善地，心善渊，与善仁，言善信，政善治，事善能，动善时”的“水德”才是高尚有德的行为。

In the Book of Changes, Xi Kan said, "You have faith, you have faith, and you have faith". It means that water is as good as water. Water is good at nourishing all things and does not compete with all things. It stays at the lowest place, so it is closest to the Tao...

等到人们开始起宫殿，通过工程、机械能够控制水的流动的时候，水在道德之外又有了另外一种表征，水作为一种自然与人类的联系物，甚至与人的运势，命运有关，这就是风水，所以越到后来，对房子与水的关系越重视。

When people start to build palaces and control the flow of water through engineering and machinery, water has another representation besides morality. As a link between nature and human beings, water is even related to human fate and fate.

最早的滴水神兽见于燕下都遗址，战国的先民把平淡无奇的板瓦瓦口做成伸出的鸟形，使屋顶的雨水可流至鸟腹，再通过高昂的鸟嘴飞溅而出，一场大雨就可以让整座建筑出现“千鸟吐水”的奇观，非常富有想象力，其次，鸟嘴延长了雨水下落的距离，可以让雨水飘的更远，起到保护台基的作用。

The earliest water dripping beast was seen at Yanxiadu site. The ancestors of the Warring States Period made the plain shingle mouth into a protruding bird shape, so that the rain on the roof could flow to the bird's belly, and then splash out through the high beak...

北京颐和园转轮藏屋顶的排水口也做成兽面的形式，名曰过水兽，安放在两只垂兽之下，兽口大张，像极了神话传说中的螭，龙之九子之一，生性好吞，专吞水，在宫殿的排水设施中，经常可以看到它的身影。

The drain on the roof of the wheel shelter of the Summer Palace in Beijing is also made into a form of animal face, which is called the water beast. It is placed under two hanging beasts. The mouth of the beast is very large, like the dragon in the legend, one of the nine sons of the dragon.

清代及近代，潮汕、闽南新建祠堂和番仔楼越发喜欢装饰这种滴水兽，已然成为新兴的地方特色，祠堂喜华美，滴水兽也越来越精美。

In the Qing Dynasty and modern times, the newly-built ancestral halls and the Fanzai Building in Chaoshan and southern Fujian were more and more fond of decorating this dripping beast, which has become a new local feature.

除了其放在风水要紧处的本来意义，其装饰感，设计感成为更多的考虑因素，和西方不同，按照维基的说法，西方教堂造型各异的滴水嘴兽代表着被驯服的邪灵，有着警醒世人，说服人们皈依教的作用，而潮汕、闽南的这种滴水兽，在维护家族风水格局，炫耀财富的路上越走越远。

In addition to its original significance in the key place of geomantic omen, its sense of decoration and design have become more factors to consider. Unlike the West, according to Wikipedia...which have the function of alerting the world and persuading people to convert to Christian religion.

滴水兽的诞生是一种偶然的美好，它见证了中西方文化神奇的相遇，见证了下南洋那段艰辛的奋斗史，更是中国传统文化的延续传承。但在今天看来，或许滴水兽不会有下一个一百年来述说它的故事和它的美丽了，因此，我们才显得格外幸运，能邂逅这样的巧合。

The birth of the dripping beast is a kind of accidental beauty. It has witnessed the miraculous meeting of Chinese and Western cultures, the hard struggle history of the Southern Ocean, and the continuation and inheritance of Chinese traditional culture.