There is an old Saying in China: "The people take food as the sky", and the Chinese people have attached great importance to eating from ancient times to the present. Stir-fry, fry, steam, and stew, almost to the extreme of fire and food techniques.
Especially in the era of famine and lack of food, because of the variety of cooking methods, flying in the sky, running on the ground, planting in the soil, swimming in the water, as long as it can replenish energy, it can be put into the pot.
So the question comes, the Ancient Chinese dared to eat anything, and they could cook everything into food, why did they not leave the habit of eating cat meat? To solve this mystery, let's first talk about cats.
In fact, the real sense of the domestic cat is not "domestic", but an imported product, probably from northern Africa and West Asia. Before the Han Dynasty, there were almost no records of domestic cats, until the Western Han Dynasty, there were some texts, pictures, and carvings similar to domestic cats catching mice, indicating that China's domestication of domestic cats should not be earlier than the Western Han Dynasty.
This also explains why there are even rats in the zodiac that "everyone shouts and fights", but there are no cats. According to historical records, the Zodiac roughly originated in the Western Han Dynasty, and at that time China either did not have cats, or people had not yet reached a general understanding of cats.
However, the question is, since there are no cats in the Zodiac because there were no cats in China at that time, then why was the "Journey to the West" created in the Ming Dynasty period, which contains pig spirits, rat spirits, bear spirits, tiger spirits and other goblins, but there are no cat spirits?
This brings us to the background of the author Wu Cheng'en's writing, "Journey to the West" was created in the Jiajing period, and this Jiajing Emperor Zhu Houxi was an out-and-out "cat slave" in history, belonging to the lord who did not hold a cat in his arms and did not even want to go to the dynasty.
And he also promulgated regulations: no one in the folk may abuse or insult cats, even words and words, if it is blatantly violated, it will be exiled at worst, and the head will be killed. Therefore, to give Lao Wu 100 guts, he did not dare to write anything "cat essence".
So back to the main topic, why Chinese have not had the habit of eating cat meat since ancient times? In fact, combing along the history of cats in China, the reason is also very simple.
First of all, the functionality of cats. In the agricultural era, people are most afraid that the hard-earned grain will be spoiled by rats, and cats just happen to have the ability to catch mice, which can reduce a lot of losses for the people. From some early historical materials and images, there is almost always a connection between cats and mouse catching, so the ancients' recognition of cats and mice is no less than that of the janitor dogs.
Second, appearance and character. The cat is furry, delicate and cute in appearance, and tender and soft to bark. Moreover, it is humane and has a sense of closeness to people.
Therefore, not only the people like it, but also the big figures who "willingly degenerated" as "cat slaves" in history abounded, such as the Jiaqing Emperor mentioned above. There is also empress Wu Zetian, who is also a proper cat lover, and even set up an official position for cats, called cat history. In addition, there are lu you, Cixi, Zhang Zhidong and other celebrities, who are also out-and-out "cat slaves".
Therefore, the cat itself is cute, and there are so many big people "escorting", who dares to eat ah.
Moreover, cat meat is not delicious. Li Shizhen has a cloud in his great work "Compendium of Materia Medica": "If the tanuki meat is eaten, the cat meat is not good, and it is not included in the food, so it is rare to use it." "Cat meat has a sour taste, extremely difficult to swallow, and the cat's body often has tapeworms, trichomoniasis, roundworms, nematodes and other parasites, human food is easy to get sick."
Therefore, the above is the reason why Chinese does not have the habit of eating cat meat. In today's society, pet cats and dogs have become quite common, although we do not necessarily need their functionality, but with them as companionship, humans will not seem so lonely. Not harming them and loving them has become a necessary criterion for a civilized person.