The dragon is a sacred beast in ancient legends, but also the totem of the Chinese nation, whether the dragon really exists, most people hold a negative attitude, but according to the history books, and is the "Zuo Zhuan" and "Shi Ji" such as the canonical record, the ancient era of the dragon not only existed, but also by our old ancestors as livestock to raise.
The Twenty-Ninth Year of zuo chuan and summoning the duke records that there were in the past
Sloppy
Shu An, who has a descendant of Dong Father, is really a good dragon, and can ask his elders to eat and drink, and the dragon returns to him, but disturbs the animal dragon to serve the emperor. The surname of the emperor is Dong, and the clan is known as the dragon... Therefore, the Emperor Shun clan has animal dragons. And there are Xia Kongjia, disturbed by the emperor, the emperor gives the dragon, the river, the Han two, each male and female. Kong Jia can not eat,...... After that, there was Liu Lei, who learned to disturb the dragon in the Dragon Clan, and was able to eat and drink. Xia Hou Jiazhi, Shi Shi Yu Dragon... The dragon dies and the submerged to eat the summer queen. After the summer, even if you ask for it. Fear moved to Lu County, Fan Shi also followed.
Royal Dragon Clan Liu Lei
The gist is that in the past there was a man named Father Dong, yes
The Country of Sorrow
Shu An's descendants, who liked dragons very much, knew that dragons had a hobby to feed them, and many dragons ran to him themselves, so they began to raise dragons specially, and because of this matter, they were appointed by Emperor Shun, so there were dragon keepers in the Shun era. When he arrived at Kong Jia, the king of the Xia Dynasty, the Heavenly Emperor gave him the dragon to ride because of Kong Jia's piety and respect for the gods, there were females and males, Kong Jia did not know how to feed, there was a person named Liu Lei who learned to raise dragons from the Feng Long Clan, and introduced himself to the Xia King Kong Jia to feed these dragons, and the Xia King named Liu Lei the Royal Dragon Clan. Later, a female dragon died, and Liu Lei made a meat sauce and offered it to the King of Xia to eat, and the King of Xia was very satisfied. Later, when the King of Xia wanted to travel by dragon, Liu Lei was frightened and fled to Lu County, and his descendants changed their surname to Fan.
There is a similar record in the "History of Xia Benji": When Di Kongjia was... Heaven descended on the dragon two, there are males and females, Kong Jia can not eat, did not get the dragon clan. Tao Tang declined, followed by Liu Lei, who learned to disturb the dragon from the Dragon Clan and to do things to Kong Jia. Kong Jia's surname was Yulong (御龙氏), after Feng Wei. The dragon dies one female to eat after the summer. After the summer, the angels begged, fearful and moved away.
If according to these records, then in ancient times, there were not only dragons, but also dragons were used by kings to ride, dragon meat can be eaten, and the taste is delicious, some people speculate that it may be a python or a crocodile, the dragon in ancient times had no legs, indeed more like a snake.
Red Mountain Jade Dragon
But from ancient times to the present, there is no riding snake, taking the snake as a means of transportation, so this is not in line with the "dragon ride" in the record, there are also crocodiles, and no one rides, and ancient China did not have a bay crocodile, only the Yangtze crocodile, known as "shrew", and there is no dragon name. Although snake meat and crocodile meat can be eaten, it can only be ruled out that it cannot be ridden.
So what exactly are the "Dragon Clan" and "Royal Dragon Clan" raised? Obviously, this is an animal that can be ridden and eaten with meat, in fact, you can open the ancient books to find this animal, maybe just like you think.
It is recorded in the Erya: "Horses, eight feet above, are dragons." "Etiquette Justice: The Sixth Order of the Moon"
sparse
It says that "a horse above eight feet is a dragon", and in the Li Xia Guan Yu Ren, it is also said that "a horse above eight feet is a dragon". "Sayings" Xu Xuan's note: "Elephant ... Horses eight feet above are dragons.
steed
The statements in the "Erya", "Book of Rites", and "Sayings" are very unified, that is, the horse is more than eight feet long, and it can be called a dragon. That is to say, the Dragon Clan and the Royal Dragon Clan are actually families that help the king raise horses, and at that time, the horses were not domesticated on a large scale, and the people of these families also had to go to the wild to catch those wild horses that were more than eight feet long and unusually divine, and after taming, they were used as the king's mounts. These families were naturally very favored and had a high status, but if the horse was raised to death and the emperor traveled without a horse, it was a felony and could only flee secretly.