Wen | Yan Xiao'er to write a philosophical text
Cats, like dogs, are good friends with our humans, and butterflies are also the more common and beautiful insects in our lives. When cats meet butterflies and appear in front of our ancestors at the same time, our ancestors gave them a romantic and unique meaning, that is, "longevity".
Why is "cat and butterfly" meant "longevity" and is often used to celebrate the birthday of the elderly? Simply put, the consonant of the cat is "耄", and the harmonic of the butterfly is "耋". Since ancient times, "old age" has been used as the name of an elderly person with eighty or ninety years of age, so when "cat and butterfly" are together, it means "longevity".
Speaking of "cats and butterflies" separately, and talking about their meanings separately, in fact, the longevity meaning of "old age" behind this "cat butterfly" can also be understood by one or two.
1. The meaning of the longevity of the cat butterfly", and the beautiful meaning of "cat"
Above, we simply said that the ancients took the harmonic sound of "cat butterfly", put the cat and the butterfly together, derived the meaning of "longevity", and "longevity", since ancient times, is a symbol of blessing in our hearts.
In ancient society, under the lack of materials, even if people escaped natural and man-made disasters, it was difficult to escape the invasion of diseases. In this regard, longevity is very rare for our ancestors, and behind this "rare", it also symbolizes the accumulation of a kind of material wealth, after all, "longevity" means that it is well maintained in daily life, and at the same time, when it is old, the descendants provide sufficient support, which in ancient times, it is also a symbol of "wealth".
And cats in our ancient times, and even now, there is a saying of "fortune cat", in this regard, combined with the beautiful meaning of "fortune" behind the cat, when the cat and the butterfly are derived together as "longevity", it is not incomprehensible.
At the same time, for cats, the mainland was quite respectful in ancient times, and there was such a sentence in the "Etiquette Suburb Characteristics":
"The gentleman of the ancients, make it retribution." Welcome the cat, for its field mouse also; meet the tiger, for its eating field to be also, meet and sacrifice also. ”
Because cats are good at catching mice, they can help us to be good at farming the ancestors to guard the hard-won "grain", so "gentlemen welcome the cat", but also implies that the cat has the meaning of "keeping money", expressing our ancestors' love for cats. In this regard, the cat as a symbol of auspiciousness and wealth in the ancient folk of the mainland is also foreseeable.
2. The meaning of the longevity of the cat butterfly and the beautiful meaning of "butterfly"
Regarding "butterfly", What Yan Xiao'er learned about has three more obvious meanings. The "beautiful connotation" in these three meanings is similar to the longevity meaning of "the old age".
First of all, the first meaning of the butterfly is more or less symbolic of "beautiful love", such as the story of "Liang Zhuhua Butterfly" that has been passed down for a long time in our folklore. Although the story of Liang Zhuhua Butterfly is poignant, it also expresses the praise and yearning of our ancestors for the beautiful and innocent free love.
Secondly, the second meaning of the butterfly has the meaning of "metamorphosis". From caterpillars to butterflies, butterflies have achieved the sublimation from ugly to beautiful, and life is the same, just like winemaking, wine needs time to precipitate, and the wisdom of life also needs time to accumulate. In a sense, the long-lived and wise old man has completed the transformation of thinking, so such an old man is not a precious wealth.
Finally, the third kind of meaning, which is more or less related to the "Zhuang Zhou Dream Butterfly", Zhuangzi in the dream, dreaming that he has become a butterfly, free and free, soaring freely, and finally I don't know whether I have become a butterfly, or a butterfly has become myself, this "selfless" realm, also needs time to precipitate, connotation of the freedom and beauty of life. Here, the butterfly also symbolizes the "freedom" of the spiritual realm.
From this, we synthesize several meanings of the butterflies collected by Yan Xiao'er above, we can see that the butterfly symbolizes beauty, has the meaning of "transformation" and "freedom", and knows how to cherish beautiful love, can obtain the wisdom of transformation, can achieve spiritual understanding, and does not need the precipitation of time, so that butterflies can be with cats, with the harmonic sound "elderly" to symbolize longevity, it is also understandable.
3. Write at the end
Finally, let's make a brief summary: cats in the ancient and even modern folk of the mainland have always had the meaning of "attracting wealth", which is related to its rat-catching characteristics and helping our ancestors to guard the hard-won grain; and the butterfly, since ancient times, symbolizes "beautiful love", "wisdom under the transformation" and "free spirit". We can know that whether it is a cat or a butterfly, it is related to the "beauty" under the "accumulation of time", so our ancestors took the harmonic sound of cats and butterflies, with "the old year", as a blessing for the longevity, symbolizing the eighty or ninety-year-old man, it is understandable, behind this, there is probably respect for the longevity of the elderly, respect for the wisdom accumulated by the elderly over the years, and there is also praise for the wealth accumulated by the elderly in their lives and the beautiful transformation of life.
Of course, the above is only an explanation made by Yan Xiao'er based on the information he collected, the explanation can be diverse and multifaceted, and you are welcome to put forward different opinions.
[This article is Yan Xiao'er's original and exclusive release of zhewen, any infringement such as porting, plagiarism, etc., which must be investigated if found]