There is a small bug that has lived on Earth for 140 million years and has appeared in the history of the continent since thousands of years ago, and that is the cricket.
The lifespan of crickets is only a few months, but the status of this small insect in mainland folk culture is not low. Some people say that it is a "plaything", and some people say that it is "literati and elegant", so is the custom about crickets good or bad?
The emperor's beloved little bug
The cricket family is also a large family of insects, and there are currently more than 4,600 known crickets in the world, distributed all over the world. This kind of little bug that has existed for hundreds of millions of years has only been given a lot of cultural significance in China, which has a deep cultural heritage.
In the mainland, crickets have many aliases, clams, weaving, autumn insects, night songworms, general insects, ground trumpets and other common names are all said crickets, and there are some different names in various local dialects.
As early as in the "Book of Poetry", the sentence "October crickets, into my bed" was written, indicating that crickets are a kind of insects that represent autumn, and the word "autumn" in the mainland oracle bone has the image of crickets.
Since the Tang Dynasty, the ancients would catch crickets and raise them to play, and in the Song Dynasty, fighting crickets became a pastime for all ages. During the Ming and Qing dynasties, the trend of fighting crickets reached its peak, and a lot of folklore appeared, as well as the famous "cricket emperor" and "cricket prime minister".
Ming Dynasty's Ming Xuanzong Zhu Zhanjian was very fond of fighting crickets and was jokingly called the "Cricket Emperor" by the people.
In the "Liaozhai Zhi Yi" written by Pu Songling in the Qing Dynasty, there is an article called "Promoting Weaving", which is a folk tale that occurred during the reign of the cricket emperor.
During the Xuande period of the Ming Dynasty, a county in Huayin County, Shaanxi Province paid tribute to a cricket with good combat effectiveness, and the emperor liked it very much, so he ordered that Huayin County pay tribute to good crickets every year, so the official sent the people in the county to arrange the task of catching crickets, and if he did not achieve it, he had to pay a high fine.
A folk comic strip of the article "Promoting Weaving"
There is a famous scholar in the county, because he can't catch crickets, almost all of his meager family property is lost, and when he sees that it's time to hand over crickets again, he can only sigh at home.
The famous wife saw that her husband was so sad, so she went to ask God for divination and got a small painting. After returning home, Cheng Ming looked for it according to the location on the painting, and sure enough, he found a cricket with a very good appearance, so he kept it at home and waited until the day to go on errands.
A few days later, the famous nine-year-old son opened the cricket cage out of curiosity, and the big cricket escaped from prison, and by the time his son caught it, the cricket was no longer alive.
Old photo of fighting crickets from the Qing Dynasty
After returning home from fame, he was angry and wanted to teach his son a lesson, but he looked around, but found that his son jumped into the well for fear of being scolded, and he only had one breath left and was unconscious.
The couple was overwhelmed with grief, when a small cricket jumped in front of their house. In order to complete the task of catching crickets, Chengming had to hand over this little cricket to the county office. However, no one expected that this little cricket was so brave that it could even jump on the head of the rooster and bite the crown.
This brave little cricket was sent all the way to Ming Xuanzong, and the emperor loved it very much and sent down many rewards. Fame because this little cricket became famous and became a famous rich household.
After more than a year, his son, who had been in a coma, finally woke up and said that he had a long dream, in which he turned into a small cricket and could win every fight.
Another folk tale "Jigong Fighting Crickets"
The traitor Jia Xidao of the late Southern Song Dynasty wrote a book called the "Book of Promoting Weaving", so it was called the "Prime Minister of Crickets" by later generations, and the book described very carefully how to select crickets with strong fighting power.
"Cricket Prime Minister" according to "eight grids" and "twelve phases" to classify crickets, from the head, teeth to the back of the small feet have strict rules, is still a classic among cricket lovers.
Although crickets are small, there are many rules
The folk activity of fighting crickets has developed in the mainland for thousands of years, and there are still many enthusiasts today, and it can even be said that the scale is larger and more standardized.
Now professional cricket fighting competition
There are a set of strict rules on how to pick crickets and raise crickets, to how to prepare for the game and the post-match verdict.
First of all, the selection of crickets is very particular. As the saying goes, "three tails do not fight, two tails fight", where three tails refer to the female cricket has three needles on her butt, the left and right two are tail wires, and the middle one is an oviparous lobe used to lay eggs. Males do not have this oviparous flap.
This saying is actually talking about the nature of crickets. Female crickets can coexist peacefully, and male crickets, because they want to protect their territory, food and mating rights, will fight each other to the death as long as they meet.
Female crickets have needle-like ovipositive flaps
There are a total of 273 species of crickets recorded in the mainland, and in folk customs, there are those raised to listen to the sound, such as oil gourds produced in Beijing and Tianjin. Most of the varieties specially raised to fight crickets are Chinese fighting crickets, and according to the folk differentiation method, many different varieties are subdivided.
To pick a good fighting cricket from so many kinds of crickets, there are many of them.
First of all, the cricket must be complete, the two whiskers on the head, the two tail filaments on the back of the butt, and the six legs must be complete, then focus on the head of the cricket, then look at the teeth, and finally look at the claws.
Bug fans who pick crickets at the morning market
The fight between crickets mainly relies on head bumping and big teeth gnawing, so the appearance mainly looks at the head and teeth. The head should be large and full, the teeth should be hard and sharp, and even the position of the eyes should be particular.
The head shape is tall and round, and it bulges forward like a birthday; The carapace is bright, and the eye position is relatively high; The front teeth are shiny dark gold with sharp serrations. In addition, the color of the head is cyan-gold, purple cherry, brass, plus the advantages of good texture and loud call, it can be regarded as a high-grade cricket.
There are also unique rules when choosing crickets, to gently tease the cricket with cricket grass, observe its vitality, courage and so on. And this cricket grass is also special, the scientific name is cow tendon grass, according to the rules of smoking or fragrant hands can not touch the cricket grass, otherwise crickets smell these smells will be dizzy and lose fighting spirit.
Use cricket grass to pick cricket fans
Shandong's crickets are recognized as the best in China, because of the climate, soil and other reasons, most of the crickets here are strong and good at fighting. So every year in August and September, insect fans across the country will go to Shandong to find their favorite crickets.
Eat crab meat and live in antique "villas" to raise good crickets
In the circle of fighting crickets, there is such a saying, called "three worms and seven nutrients". This means that if you want to have a "Changsheng General", the most important thing is to rely on support.
Raising crickets is a meticulous job, and there is a lot of attention paid to starting from the cricket pot.
Cricket pots, cricket pots, clamshell pots, are the same thing, the material is pottery, porcelain, jade, stone, etc., the best is pottery and porcelain, and then spread a layer of wet soil inside, so that crickets can be "grounded" and grow better.
An antique cricket basin from the Qing Dynasty, next to a bell room and a sink
Originally, cricket pots were fired in the official kiln dedicated to the royal family, and the finished products were only paid to the royal family, and by the Ming and Qing dynasties, cricket fighting became popular among the people, and there were more and more cricket pots.
Cricket pots are divided into "Northern School" with single shape, thick wall and few patterns according to the process, and "Southern School" with complex shapes and exquisite patterns, and many cricket pots in ancient times have now become precious antiques.
There are also rules for selecting cricket pots in the elderly, depending on the color, sound, strength, breathability and so on of the firing. Newly fired pots require complex processes to raise crickets.
First of all, the pot should be buried in the soil for a year of "annealing", "annealing" after washing and soaking in water for half a day. Put pomegranate skin and black tea wrapped in a new cloth in the soaked pot, boil for an hour on high heat, turn to low heat and simmer for two hours, and finally carefully clean it to raise good crickets.
A cricket basin for raising crickets with a bell room, sink and rice board
Crickets in nature are omnivores and eat almost everything. Common crickets are pests that harm crops, but these carefully selected crickets cannot be treated arbitrarily.
In early autumn, crickets are mainly vegetarian, and when the body is mature, you can feed some meat, shrimp meat, crab meat is oily, and it is better for crickets. But after eating meat, crickets are no longer willing to be vegetarian, eating too much meat will make the cricket's body oily, which is not good for crickets.
Every year at the end of September and the beginning of October, the crickets are at their most ripe, and it is also the time when the cricket fighting competition begins.
Before the match, crickets also have to follow some rules like professional boxers, such as feeding and drinking before the match, weighing groups, and so on. In order to be able to have high morale during the cricket competition, the owner must also pair the crickets before the game and "cave room" in a special bell room.
Very formal cricket fighting competition
Nowadays, the traditional activity of fighting crickets has developed a very formal scale, Beijing, Hangzhou and other big cities hold cricket fighting competitions every autumn, and insect fans from all over the world gather to compete for the title of "insect king", driving the economic development of some small cities, and even appearing in foreign media such as the New York Times.
Thanks to the development of modern technology, fans can use the Internet to pick crickets, watch games, participate in events, etc., but this has also spawned some illegal gambling events. According to the China Judgment Document Network, the amount involved in illegal gambling and cricket fighting cases reached millions.
After the death of the "Cricket Emperor" Zhu Zhanji, the Empress Dowager ordered to smash all the cricket basins in the palace in order to prevent the eight-year-old little emperor from being addicted to fighting crickets like his father. The ancients are like this, and we modern people can not "lose their minds with playthings", and regard fighting crickets as an elegant hobby.