There are many fol k legends and folk culture about the tiger.According to these legends and folk c ulture,tiger was symbolized
as women's reproduction.In matriarchal society,peopl e
worship the pregnant female human being or animals.In many Chinese myths about the beginning of the world,they described that human being was from a bottle go urd,which shapes like woman's uterus.And the tiger was believed to bring wind.It was the king of the earth,and belongs to Yin according to Taoist.And,the tiger' s body looks like a bottle gourd,which is like pregnant woman.In ancient myth,We stern Queen was a powerful female tiger and was in charge of life and death.It l ived in the Kunlun Mountain.While Kunlun Mountain means "round or gourd-shaped" in China.In Yi's language (a Chinese minority),the pronunciation of tiger sound s the same as gourd.Therefore, the tiger is naturally considered as the women or a female who has strong ability of reproduction.That's why people worship the t iger.From the ancient shell-shaped tiger picture that was made 6500 years ago,th e bronze bottle from Shang Density shaped like a
twin-body tiger,and the huge st eamed bread shaped like a tiger used in ceremony of worshiping family ancestors, we can see the intention of tiger worship,as well as the fact that in wedding ce remony the bride is usually called "tender tiger".