With the continuous improvement of China's economic level, the demand of Chinese people in entertainment is growing, in order to enrich their lives, many people choose to keep pets as companionship, which also makes many people find solace in their busy lives.
Some people say that China's pet culture is now drawing on the development experience of the West, in fact, ancient China has thousands of years of pet history, of which in the Qing Dynasty Chinese pet culture reached its peak, so what pets did people have at that time?
In the Qing Dynasty, the most popular pets were cats and dogs, which are no different from today, compared to other pets, cats and dogs are not dangerous, but can interact with people, obviously the best pet choice.
In more ancient times, due to the lack of productivity, people raised cats and dogs mostly to let them catch mice or watch over nursing homes, and there was not much attention to the way they were raised.
▲ The cat in the Forbidden City
But during the Qing Dynasty, the economic productivity of China's smallholder farmers peaked, and those who lived in cities had no worries about food and clothing, so they could focus more on caring for their pets.
In the Qing Dynasty, expensive cats and dogs were expensive, and people did not hesitate to spend a lot of money to take care of them, for example, at that time, Macao had a puppy imported from the West, whose coat color was similar to that of a lion, and the specific breed was no longer available.
▲Dogs in ancient paintings
At that time, the price of a Macao fan dog was as high as more than ten gold, and after purchase, it had to be fed with good food, and there was even a saying in Macao that "it is better to be a fan dog than a ghost slave".
At that time, people also summarized many ways to take care of pets in the process of raising pets, such as people washing pets on fixed dates to prevent parasites from breeding on them.
▲ A palace maid holding a pet dog
Among them, the sixth day of the sixth month of the lunar calendar is the day when people bathe cats and dogs together, mainly because since the Ming Dynasty, this day has been chosen as the day of elephant washing in the imperial palace, and the people have followed their example to wash their pets on this day.
As people invested more energy in caring for pets, the relationship between Qing people and pets was closer than in previous dynasties, when some princes and nobles even accompanied their pets all day.
▲ Ancients and pets
For example, Aisin Juelo Baoting, a descendant of the Qing royal family, raised many cats at home, and he observed their movements from the side, even if the kittens made trouble, he felt cute and abnormal, and wrote "Slave Song" to express his love for cats:
"I have more cats than people, stealing and losing their animals, attacking dogs in a party, and dogs intimidating the crowd and avoiding them. Rudang fears dogs and fears Ru, dogs fear Ru and fear Ru lords, knowing that livestock dogs are better than cats, loving Ru soft and plump. ”
▲Portrait of Aisin Kyoro Baoting
The atmosphere of the Qing Dynasty people liking to raise cats and dogs also made them have higher requirements for the quality of cats and dogs, and some cat and dog breeds began to be sought after.
For example, the famous cat with black hair and only white paws "Dark Cloud Cover Snow" was the most popular cat at that time, and some people thought that this would bring good luck to the owner.
▲ A kitten covered with dark clouds
From the previous "Slave Song", we can see that in the Qing Dynasty, people were more inclined to raise dogs as pets, but for some elderly people, cats were their first choice, mainly because cats and "elderly" have homophony, these old people hope that raising cats can extend their life.
In addition to cats and dogs, which provide emotional value by accompanying their owners, ornamental pets in the Qing Dynasty have also achieved great development, especially goldfish and birds are the most popular.
Before the Qing Dynasty, the ancients still raised goldfish in the pond as the mainstream, which made most people have no chance with goldfish, but in the Qing Dynasty, with the popularity of glassware, fish tanks gradually replaced goldfish ponds and became the first choice for feeding goldfish, which made goldfish, an ornamental fish, out of the wealthy and into the lives of the people.
▲Today's goldfish pond
Before the Qing Dynasty, people mainly raised wild-caught beautiful goldfish, but this method could not meet the growing demand, so some merchants began to breed special ornamental varieties through crossbreeding.
By the time of Daoguang, it had become a hot industry, and the publication of books such as "Goldfish Atlas" also marked the maturity of goldfish cultivation in China.
▲Glassware from the Qing Dynasty
Because the production process of glass fish tanks in the Qing Dynasty was not as sophisticated as it is today, the goldfish kept in the fish tank were often very short-lived, and the fish farmers at that time accumulated a lot of experience in life, and summarized methods such as changing the water every day, and the goldfish in the same tank should not exceed five, which significantly improved the survival rate of goldfish.
In addition to goldfish, in big cities such as Beijing, people also love to watch beautiful birds for ten minutes, and at that time, a large number of caged birds could be seen on the streets of Beijing every day, which also became a unique scenery in Beijing in the late Qing Dynasty.
▲ Late Qing Bird Walker
At that time, people fed three kinds of birds, namely the wencai bird used to watch its form, the good song bird that listened to its name, and the trick bird that could perform acrobatics, the first two of which were mainly loved by the nobility, while the people raised more birds that could be trained, such as plane trees, swallows, and cross-mouths.
Bird raising flourished in the Qianlong Dynasty and gradually became the greatest hobby of the Manchu aristocracy, and in order to meet their needs, bird markets were scattered throughout Beijing.
▲ Birds
Among them, the Xuanwumen market was the most prosperous, and in the words of the people of the time, all other birds could be bought there except for phoenixes.
After buying precious birds, they also need to be carefully cared for, especially the songbird, which is the most complex, because birds naturally yearn for freedom.
If you keep it at home, its mood is not good, and its call will become hoarse, so the bird keeper must walk the bird every day to ensure the bird's song state.
▲ Bird's handle style
But the noble princes of the Qing Dynasty were naturally reluctant to take on this annoying job, so the "bird handle style" began to appear, which was a group of craftsmen who specialized in helping Gongzi brother raise birds.
They have secret tricks that can make the bird's song more crisp, such as walking the bird in the early hours of the morning, because there are few pedestrians and the bird will not be frightened.
▲Beautiful thrush
Compared with the princes and aristocrats, ordinary people prefer to interact with their own birds, the most common of which is to train birds to pick up the food they throw.
This training not only strengthens the relationship between pets and owners, but also allows them to show off their achievements while walking birds, killing two birds with one stone.
▲ Bird Market
In addition to Beijing, people also have a hobby of walking birds in the affluent Jiangnan area, and the locals' favorite birds are white finches, thrushes and so on.
However, in the Qing Dynasty, this hobby was only popular among wealthy families in Jiangnan, and the people did not have a hobby of raising birds, so the local bird culture was far less developed than Beijing.
In addition to the pets mentioned above, crickets, quail and chickens were common pets in the Qing Dynasty, but these pets were not used to watch or tease, but were specially bred to participate in fighting competitions and win money for their owners.
In the Qing Dynasty, cricket fighting was very popular in the north and south of the country, especially in Jiangsu and Zhejiang, when cricket fighting competitions were held regularly in Jiangsu and Zhejiang.
▲ The crowd watching the fighting crickets
After the contestants bring the crickets, there will be a special person to evaluate their size and level, and then find a suitable opponent for these crickets, and then it is time to catch and kill the competition, in order to ensure the fairness and impartiality of the competition, there will be staff to find a way to provoke the crickets before the battle.
The reason why Jiangsu and Zhejiang attach so much importance to fighting crickets is mainly because people there at that time regarded fighting crickets as a gambling tool, and the amount of bets placed on each game was very large, in order to avoid controversy, it was natural to make the event more formal.
▲ Fighting cricket comic drawing
At that time, Beijing and other northern towns would also hold cricket fighting competitions, and onlookers would also place bets, but because the Qing Dynasty banned gambling with crickets, the northern people could only bet on some pastries, which made the cricket fighting competitions in the north seem more casual.
In order to cultivate more fighting crickets, people will use the drying method to improve the combat effectiveness of crickets, the so-called drying method, is to put the crickets into a cage and put them in the sun to the sun, after the crickets are motionless, then put them in a cool place to rest, it is said that after repeating this several times, the crickets will become more aggressive.
▲Art work "Fighting Cricket"
Although the children of Beijing in the Qing Dynasty could not bet on crickets, they soon found an alternative, that is, quail fighting, which at that time was often crowded with spectators, and their bets could sometimes exceed 1,000 taels of silver per time.
Therefore, those who raise quail attach great importance to these quails, and usually put them in a pocket made of damask to carry with them, and the food eaten by quails is more expensive than that eaten by people.
▲ Preparations are underway for fighting quail
Unlike fighting crickets, the scene of fighting quail is quiet, because the quail is timid, once it sees the shadow, it thinks that the eagle is coming, and then it is busy running for its life, and is not in the mood to fight with its kind.
Therefore, when fighting quail, onlookers have to stay far away until the winner is divided before approaching the quail, in this way, compared to fighting crickets, the possibility of cheating in the quail fighting process is smaller, so the stakes per game are larger.
▲Today's quail fighting competition
It can be seen that a very prosperous pet culture has emerged in the Qing Dynasty continent, and a lot of experience has been accumulated in raising pets, which has indeed brought a lot of fun to the ancients.
But at the same time, some of the Eight Banners and dignitaries of the Qing Dynasty over-respected pets, which led some nobles to delay pleasure, which had a negative effect on the development of the late Qing Dynasty.
And later, some pets were used for gambling, which had a bad impact on the social atmosphere, and some of the people at the bottom were idle all day, only staring at the crickets in their hands and dreaming of making a fortune, this kind of plaything lost their morale disintegrated the enterprising spirit of the people, and it was also one of the factors of the repeated degeneration of the late Qing Dynasty.
Resources:
Part of the content of this article is referred to from "Barnyard Banknotes", written by Xu Ke, 1986 edition of Zhonghua Bookstore;
Qing Dynasty Customs, by Lin Yongkuang, Shanghai Literature and Art Publishing House, 2018
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