Recently, "How cute are the small animals in the Forbidden City" on the hot search, reading tens of millions of people in one day, in fact, in the Forbidden City, the most famous small animals are the cats of the Forbidden City. From the Ming and Qing dynasties when they were the pets of the emperor's concubines to the cultural and creative IP of the Forbidden City today, what stages did the cats in the Forbidden City go through?
Ancient times: There was silver every month
Names are recorded in special archives
The First Archive of Chinese History exhibits an archive about cats and dogs in the Qing Palace, "The Qing Palace is popular for raising cats, dogs and other pets, which is one of the leisure and entertainment methods of the harem." Palace dogs and palace cats have a monthly 'silver', and special personnel are responsible for eating and tuning. This two-fold book is set in yellow satin and details the names and dates of birth of cats and dogs raised in the Daoguang Dynasty Palace. "Qing Palace kittens have names called flower and fruit plants: Ganoderma lucidum, okra, kumquat. There are other animals named after them: golden tiger, jade lion, and leopard. There are also anthropomorphic nomenclatures: Junjie, Jin Ge, Jin You'er.
The history of cat breeding in the Forbidden City can be traced back to the Ming Dynasty. At first, the main reason for raising cats was that they were afraid that the documents and objects stored in the court would be bitten by rats, so they kept cats to prevent rat infestation. After that, the concubines took pleasure in raising cats to relieve loneliness. Later, even the emperor and princess also liked to keep cats.
Like today's "shovelers", there were also people who were fascinated by cats in ancient times. Emperor Xuanzong Zhu Zhanji was one of them. He not only owns cats, but also likes to draw cats.
In order to bring his love cat to life, he ordered people to collect hundreds of cats from the people, figured out the nature of cats, and then painted cats with great interest.
Emperor Ming's Zhu Houxi was considered a "cat fool". He did not come to the dynasty for twenty years, in order to entertain, often play with the cat, for this reason also set up a special cat raising agency - cat room, not only has a special person to serve, but also gives the cat official title.
The Qianlong Emperor also loved cats, and it is rumored that he had more than a dozen imperial cats. One of them was a serval cat in the ninth year of Qianlong (1744) when an Italian emissary paid tribute. This cat's eating utensils are of great value, and they are Song Dynasty Ru kiln celadon lotus-style warm bowls. In order to facilitate its feeding, it was also equipped with a rosewood seat. Since then, the cats in the Forbidden City have been bred from generation to generation, and the dynasties have changed, and they still live in the palace. After the establishment of the Palace Museum, the staff observed that many of these cats were the descendants of the cats raised by the concubines of the empress, so they decided to leave them behind, and registered them one by one, and gave them names.
Modern: It is the top stream of cultural creation in the Forbidden City
People often send cat food "feeding"
The descendants of the ancient "imperial guard with claws" have assumed the function of security in modern times. Shan Jixiang, former director of the Palace Museum, said in an interview in 2019 that there is not a single mouse in the entire Forbidden City, and cats are indispensable. Since 2018, netizens in Zhejiang, Fujian and other places have sent cat food to the Forbidden City. He also specially instructed which cat food was given to the cat in the Cining Palace and which cats were given to the cats in the Yanxi Palace.
Tourists from other places may walk on the snow to find plums, but tourists in the Forbidden City can also "walk on the snow to find cats". Incomplete statistics, there are nearly 200 cats living in the Forbidden City, and the popularity of cats in the Forbidden City is high, and even the official Bo has deliberately launched the "cat sucking route". The palace cat naturally also gave birth to Internet celebrities. "Aobai" is one of them, it is known as the forbidden city's first net red cat. In 2018, the palace cat "Little Cub" who "guarded" the Forbidden City Treasure Museum for nearly ten years confirmed his death, and tens of thousands of netizens posted on Weibo to remember it.
Pet photographer Kecha entered the palace more than 50 times in four years to photograph cats in the Forbidden City, and finally published "Meet Meow in the Forbidden City". The Forbidden City cat has become a well-deserved top stream, and its ability to generate income is also very powerful. In 2019, the palace museum designer team took the "Forbidden City Cat" as the prototype to design the "Forbidden City Cat" series of cultural and creative products, 12 product lines of creative ideas, more than 600 products.
The image of the Forbidden City cat has also been a hit in the Taobao store of the Palace Museum. In this 5 golden crown shop with 8.26 million fans, water cups, stickers, handmade, ornaments, hanging ornaments, almost all have the shadow of the Forbidden City cat.
A group of reports in 2019 shows that the annual income of the Forbidden City's cultural creation exceeds 1.5 billion, of which the Forbidden City cat has played its own part.
Synthesized from China Daily, People's Daily, The Paper, Beijing Evening News, Palace Museum Official Micro, picture source Palace Museum Official Micro