In the impression, the ancient literati have elegant tastes, although there are also Su Dongpo who like to study cooking, Tao Yuanming yearns for the countryside, but most poets still maintain the unique interest in life of the literati, full of poetry, poetry, and dedication only to complete the lofty ideal of self-cultivation and family governance, and less concerned about others. However, you may not have understood that in fact, the literati also have their own unique preferences, like the famous poets Lu You and Huang Tingjian, who are very fond of raising cats, in today's terms, they are proper cat slaves.
First, the ancient understanding of cats in the mainland
The earliest Chinese record of cats is found in the Book of Poetry, Daya Han Yi: "There are bears and bears (罴, a kind of bear, that is, brown bears), and there are cats and tigers. "As we all know, the Book of Poetry is my earliest collection of poems, which is composed of three parts: wind (local folk songs), ya (court music songs), and odes (odes to the temple), a total of 305 pieces, of which 6 are sheng poems (that is, only titles, no content). "Han Yi" was written in the era of King Xuan of Zhou (827-782 BC), according to which it can be seen that as early as the early days of feudal society, the mainland had a clear name for "cat", and at that time it already had a certain animal classification thinking, which coincided with today's classification method.
Later, in the process of labor production, people gradually found that cats have a strong ability to catch mice, which can help humans reduce the intrusion of rats into life and help store more grain. Therefore, the ancients began to domesticate the cat and turn it into a powerful leader in the family. By the Spring and Autumn Period, such domestication had achieved remarkable results. In the Book of Rites, it is written: "The gentleman of the ancients will repay him, and welcome the cat to eat his voles." "The gist is that the ancients must have had a plan to use anything, and accepted cats because they could help prey on voles."
At the end of the Warring States period (3rd century BC), the work of cats was arranged clearly in the "Han Feizi Yang quan" - "make the chicken Si Chen, let the tanuki hold the mouse, all use their ability", that is, let the rooster report, let the fox catch the mouse, and make their functions fully used. The "tanuki" here is actually the common name of the ancients for wild cats, but there are also domestic cats called tanuki cats or tanuki. However, the tanuki and the cat are undoubtedly two different species, and the ancients may have called it this because their coat color characteristics and behaviors are more similar. In short, by this time, cats and human life were completely inseparable, and in the Tang Dynasty, they even raised cats in the palace.
However, the use of cats as beavers has also caused some foreign scholars problems, so that their research on Chinese cats has a gap period, believing that China only began to raise cats in the late years of the Western Han Dynasty, after all, in the era of Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty, cats were still called beavers, and there was no "cat" in books such as "Huainanzi".
Second, the theory of the cat
After the wind of cat ownership spreads, naturally people have a higher level of demand, that is, my cat not only has to catch rats, but also looks good, if it is a pet cat, the requirements for appearance are not to mention. Therefore, people have requirements for the appearance of cats, so there is a link to pick cats, and a professional method - the method of matching cats is probably a little similar to the face of the person. According to historical evidence, the mainland's record of the xiang cat method was first found in the Northern Song Dynasty Hui Ji Lu Tong's "Pi Ya", in which the taste of cats is as follows: cats have yellow, black, white, variegated, tanuki-like body, tiger-like face, fine fur, sharp teeth, long tail, short waist, eyes like golden eyes, and multiple angles on the palate are the best. Although there are only a few short sentences, it also portrays the essence of the cat.
Later generations also extended on this basis, the Yuan Dynasty Wu County Yu Benzong", "Household Essentials" compilation has "Xiang Cat Er'er Method", which reads: "The three kans in the mouth (meaning the horizontal strip in the mouth of the cat) catch one season, the five kan catch two seasons, the seven kan catch three seasons, and the nine kan catch the four seasons; the flowers bite the head of the animal, the ears are thin and not afraid of the cold; pure white, pure black, pure yellow, if there is such a cat's coat color, there is no need to pick; look at the flower cat method, there are flowers on the body, and you have to get through the four legs and tail flowers, it is good." "The gist is that the more bumps in the cat's mouth, the better, the three kans in the mouth catch one season of mice a year, the five kans catch two seasons, the seven kans grab three seasons, the nine kans can be amazing, all year round can catch mice, is the king of cats, can meet but can not be sought. The mouth is like a flower blooming shape, and it is very powerful to catch mice; the ears are thin and not afraid of the cold; if the coat color is pure white, pure black, and pure yellow, there is no need to pick; if it is a flower cat, it needs the pattern on the limbs and tail. Among all the cat-related records, Wang Chutong's "Cat Ride" of the Qing Dynasty and Huang Han's "Cat Garden" are the best, both of which are famous works on the history of cats in the mainland, but the latter is more informative.
Guan Fu Cat: Roselle Endowment
III. The "Cat Poem" of Cat Slave Lu You and Huang Tingjian
Among the many cats, the great poet Lu You "loves" the Haizhou cat the most, and he once unabashedly praised in the note of "Mocking Animal Cat" that "the cat is said to be the uncle of the tiger, teach the tiger to be a hundred, but do not teach the tree, and also call the Haizhou cat the first in the world.". The story of "tigers on trees" that I did not think about existed 800 years ago. Among them, the Haizhou cat is the Lianyungang cat, so why is the Lianyungang cat the first in the world? This has to go back to the original text of "Mocking The Cat" to find the reason, which says, "Even if you turn over the pot, you can sleep well." But the fish is full of food, regardless of the rats. If you want to get the cicada fast, first pity the tree lightly. Where is the mountain, the most famous of this clan", is to laugh at the cat animals are too lazy, just eat fish, jump up and down, make a box in the home, forget their own work, but learn to catch it, but the owner does not care, whirring and sleeping, such cats are very common in the mountain. Shushan is in today's Lianyungang, historically a famous cat-producing place, are the cats of Shushan really more powerful than cats in other places? It has not been heard of in history, so "Haizhou cat is the first in the world" should be a joke. Combined with the fact that "Mocking Animal Cat" was written in the fourth year of the Qingyuan Dynasty (1198), when Lu You was impeached by the counselor He Yuan in the sixteenth year of Chunxi (1189), the opinion that the main war was impeached, coupled with the agreement of the lord and the faction, the imperial court finally dismissed him on the grounds of "mocking the wind and moon", Lu You was idle at home for several years, and his friends also died one after another, so according to speculation, the whole poem should be a mockery of reality for Lu You. He uses the metaphor of cats to hint at the darkness of the court, but still longs for the court to be able to find a good cat among the miscellaneous cats.
Lu You loves cats, which is vividly displayed in his poems. For example, in the "November 4th Wind and Rain Masterpiece No. 1", it is written: "The wind swept the rivers and lakes and rained the dark village, and the sound of the four mountains turned over by the sea." The creek wood is soft and warm, and I don't go out with the tanuki. "Let the wind and rain outside, anyway, I and the kitten do not go out, which shows Lu You's ridicule of the weather." Who would have thought that this was the same period of work as "lying down at night listening to the wind and rain, and the iron horse glacier into the dream", which shows that the cat still spent many boring times with Lu You.
Another "Gift to the Cat" wrote: "Wrapping salt to win the little tanuki cat, do your best to protect the ten thousand books of the mountain house." Shame on the poor family, cold and feltless sitting and eating no fish. In this poem, Lu You is very grateful to the cat for his protection of his ten thousand books, and he is glad that he exchanged a bag of salt money for it, but unfortunately, in the face of such a hero, he can't even give dried fish and blankets. From the poem, it can be seen that although the cat can comfort him, he still can't get rid of the shackles of reality.
After talking about Lu You, let's talk about Huang Tingjian. One of his poems is titled "Begging The Cat": "In the autumn, the rats deceive the cat to death, and the peeping urn overturns and stirs up the night sleep." Smell the Tanuki slave will count, buy fish and wear willow to hire cicadas. From this, we can learn that in order to get a small tanuki cat, huang Da poet even specially bought fish to hire, and his love for cats is enough to see it.
Wen Shijun said
The history of cat breeding in the mainland has a long history, as to why the trend of cat breeding has arisen, in addition to cats can prey on mice for people, there are naturally various factors, the most important thing should be that people are eager to get comfort from cats. Human emotions are rich, and animals are sometimes the best listeners and companions, which is probably why some literati are also happy to suck cats.
Resources
Zhang Chunlin, ed., The Complete Works of Lu You (Part 2), China Literature and History Publishing House, 1999.
Xie Chengxia: "A Brief History of Cat Breeding in China", Agricultural Archaeology, No. 3, 1993.
Liang Shuang: "It turns out that Huang Tingjian and Lu You are both "cat slaves"," East, West, South, North, And South, No. 19, 2019.
Xu Weicheng: "Lu You Talks About Raising Cats", in Xu Weicheng's Collected Works, Vol. 11, The Commercial Press, 2015.
(Author: Haoran Wenshi Shuwu)
This article is the original work of Wenshi Science Popularization Self-media Haoran Wenshi, and unauthorized reprinting is prohibited!
The pictures used in this article, unless otherwise noted, are from the network search, if there is infringement, please contact the author to delete, thank you!
We will provide you with wonderful historical articles every day, and we kindly ask all readers and friends to pay attention to our account! Your likes, retweets, comments, this is the best support for us!