The scene when citizens visit the zoo in the late Qing Dynasty.
The qilin on the scroll of this "Ming Ren Painting Qilin Shen Du Song" is actually a giraffe.
Part of the Western Han Dynasty's "ShanglinYuan Taming Of Animals"
Traditional Chinese image of the unicorn
The five treasures of animal and human history
Text, photo/Guangzhou Daily reporter Bu Songzhu
The "zoo" that people are familiar with today actually appeared very early, which is the "confinement" in ancient times. It is said that the Yellow Emperor has a hanging garden, the King of Lu has a lutai, and the King of Wen has a lingyuan. By the time of the Qin and Han Dynasties, the most famous garden masterpiece was Shanglin Garden. After that, Sui had Xiyuan; Tang had Forbidden Garden; Song Huizong built Shoushan Gengyue; and during the Yuan, Ming, and Qing dynasties, there was Banzai Mountain. A large number of animals are raised in the garden to create a landscape, many of which are rare animals even from today's point of view. In the private gardens of folk, aristocratic and wealthy families, many animals were often raised. And the more affluent the period, the stronger the demand for rare animals. This constitutes China's magnificent culture of rare beasts.
Private zoos arose in the Song Dynasty
Due to the large area, the environment is similar to wild, and the specifications are very high, the demand for rare birds and animals in ancient China's "zoos" is amazing. For example, the agricultural historians Guo Fengping and Fang Jianbin described: "When the Han Dynasty became emperor, the edict ordered the people of The Right Fufeng County to enter Nanshan, west to Hongnong, south to Hanzhong, spreading nets everywhere, catching bears, porcupines, tigers and leopards, gouges, foxes, rabbits, elk, etc., and carried them into the Changyang Shooting Bear Pavilion with sills. The Shooting Bear Hall is one of the animal viewing areas of the Upper Forest Garden, in addition to the fish and bird view, the walking horse view, the Inudai view, the elephant view, the Swallow Sheng view, the white deer view and other animal viewing areas. It can be seen that the breeding of rare animals at that time was not only huge in scale, but also had a certain regional division. This has something in common with today's safaris. The Sui Dynasty Emperor built the Luoyang Xiyuan and ordered tianxia Prefecture to contribute rare birds and beasts, "so there was the prosperity of the grass, wood, birds and beasts in the Xiyuan, the peach and plum paths, the green yin and yin, and the golden ape green deer flocked at every turn." The Tang Chang'an Forbidden Garden is rich in forests, ponds and ponds, and migratory birds in all seasons, including special places for fishing turtles, stocking eagles and ducks, domesticating mules and horses, and tigers and leopards for the nobles to hunt.
Water Margin said that the reason why the good Han Yang Zhi was convicted was because he lost the "Huashi Class". Emperor Huizong of Song chiseled Shoushan Gongyue and searched around for flowers, trees, birds and beasts, which is the so-called "Flower stone class". The birds and beasts in the garden have all been specially domesticated, and when Emperor Huizong travels, the white crane and golden deer can line up to pick up the birds. Guo Fengping and Fang Jianbin pointed out: "When the Jin soldiers besieged Bieliang, Emperor Qinzong ordered more than 100,000 mountain birds and water birds to be thrown into the Bian River, and slaughtered thousands of deer to reward the soldiers. It is enough to show that Ganyue is the garden with the largest number of animals in China's ancient gardens, which is unprecedented in the history of garden animals. ”
Demand from private households is just as strong. Guo Fengping and Fang Jianbin pointed out that in the Western Han Dynasty Liang Xiaowang Garden, there are records of rabbit gardens, falling ape rocks, Qilongxiu, Yanchi, Hezhou and other special animal domestication areas, "the rich merchant Yuan Guanghan also loves garden animals, and buys more strange birds and monsters in the garden, including white parrots, purple mandarin ducks, yaks, green sheep and so on. Yuan's family wealth was confiscated due to his wealth, and his garden and his animals were also transferred to the royal Shanglin Garden. "Even in the places of Buddhist practice, it is customary to raise rare animals and animals. For example, the "Luoyang Jialan Ji" and other sources record that around the Seven Mountains Temple, "the forest is dense, the apes are armed, the birds are flying, the white birds are singing; the tigers and leopards come and go peacefully, the bears and hidden woods are fat, the giant elephants are counted, the male pythons are surrounded, the elk is easy to attach, and the foxes are attached; there are also autumn cicadas, cold birds, crickets, fox apes, geese, and pheasants playing in them", which can be imagined as spectacular.
During the Yuan, Ming and Qing dynasties, Beijing Nanyuan (Yuan Dynasty's Fangfei Berth, Ming Dynasty's Nanhaizi) was full of blue waves, rich grass and lush forests, stocked with yellow sheep, roe deer, pheasants, rabbits, as well as rare elk and ferocious tigers. The population preservation of the "four unlikes" (elk), which once faced a crisis of extinction and later became a model for population recovery, has benefited from the benefits of summer resorts.
The Han Royal Garden contains indian rhinos and Iranian maxima
The endless desire to raise animals has made royal and private concerns increasingly curious. The main animals of the Central Plains have been in the garden since a long time, and the production of the frontier areas has gradually been discovered, and in the end, it can only rely on overseas trade to win surprises. Guo Fengping and Fang Jianbin quoted historical data to point out that during the time of Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty, the Xiongnu once sacrificed a beast, shaped like a yellow dog, "It is said that forty miles away from Chang'an, the chickens and dogs in the city were too frightened to bark, and when they arrived at Shanglin Garden, they rode on the tiger's head, and the tiger was frightened and motionless." According to the Book of Han and the Biography of the Western Regions, during the reign of Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty, the treasures of the South China Sea in the Western Regions were "pearls, wenjia, tongxi, and cuiyu in the harem, the horses of puzhi, longwen, fish eyes, and sweat and blood filled the yellow gate, and the flocks of giant elephants, lions, fierce dogs, and large finches ate outside." Strange objects, coming from all sides. The two scholars pointed out: "According to Mr. Lin Meicun's research, rare animals such as lions and ostriches native to Africa and West Asia, white tapirs from Malaysia, rhinos from India, and maxima from Iran entered the Han royal gardens as tributes."
The Ming Dynasty was a special period for the development of China's overseas trade. Despite strict restrictions such as sea bans, a large number of overseas animals were imported into the country through tributary missions and official activities. It is said that the predecessor of today's Beijing Zoo, the WanjiaoYuan, already had hundreds of lions at that time. The funding has deeply worried many officials, and they continue to write about it. However, according to scholars such as Yang Yongkang, this preference for rare animals is not only due to the psychology of ornamentation, but also because it contains rich political implications. The offering of auspicious birds and beasts can preach the divine right of kings and whitewash the peace. Under the influence of the concept of celestial induction, some animals are regarded as auspicious, symbolizing the recognition and recognition of the reigning kings and their rulers by the heavens.
Yang Yongkang pointed out that the rare beasts that entered the palace gardens in the Ming Dynasty mainly had several sources: "First, the tributes offered during the tribute of the Zhuyi Dynasty of the Fan Kingdom. The second is the earth tribute to the imperial court, including the Liaodong, Mongolia, Tibet, Xinjiang, Yungui and other regions set up in the detention guard house, as well as the toast, tuguan, tribute and tribute time, type, number of tribute, the imperial court has customized. The third is the temporary offerings at home and abroad, such as the occasional appearance of auspicious birds and beasts such as white elephants, white tigers, white deer, and white magpies. The fourth is the temporary requisition and procurement of the imperial court." From the records of the time, it can be found that the animal species involved are extremely diverse, such as sea blue, leopard, elephant, rhinoceros, black bear, white otter, peacock, black ape, camel, lion, yak, musk ox, etc., which were rarely seen in the Central Plains at that time.
Historical records record: "During the years of Yongle, Xuande, and Zhengtong, there were a large number of insects, ants, and livestock (that is, animals), and by the time of Tianshun, there were more than 230,000 animals, 29,400 in the year of Hongzhi, and more than 29,300 in the year of Zhengde." This scale is probably far beyond most of today's well-known zoos.
When Zheng He went to the West
Has operated "Qilin Gong" many times
Among the various rare beasts raised in ancient China, the most mysterious one is the "Qilin". As one of the traditional "Four Spirits" of China, the unicorn is more of a legendary animal. However, in ancient Chinese historical books, it can be seen many times that the tribute "Qilin" or "Qilin" input records. What kind of animal is the "unicorn"?
The more common theory is that the unicorn is actually a giraffe native to Africa. Scholar Zhang Zhijie believes that it is difficult to examine what the qilin originally referred to, and in the Ming Dynasty, it referred to the giraffe. The Ming Dynasty referred to the giraffe as the Qilin or Zulafa, "Zurafa, which is an Arabic transliteration; as for the Qilin, it is attached to the Somali language giri". As early as the Song Dynasty, the Chinese people knew that there was such an animal as a giraffe, and as for attaching the giraffe to the unicorn, it may have also begun in the Song Dynasty. He pointed out: "In the autumn of the twelfth year of Yongle (1414) of the Ming Dynasty, the envoys of Pangela (around present-day Bengal) came to Beijing with a unicorn and offered it to the Yongle Emperor at a later date, which was the first time a giraffe came to China. On the seventh day of September, the envoys of Pange Rak offered the unicorn and famous horses. Peng Yin (8th), the ceremonial department on the table to ask for congratulations, Cheng zu said that 'its exemption from congratulations', but the Hanlin Academy xiu Shen Du wrote a "Ruiying Qilin Tu Ode", the court painter drew the image of the Qilin and copied the "Ruiying Qilin Tu Ode" on the map. This scroll of "Ming Ren Painting Qilin Shen Du Song" is now in the National Palace Museum in Taipei, leaving the most authentic record of the unicorn that is, the giraffe, that is, the giraffe. "This giraffe was originally a gift from Mamluk Sultan Bass to King Sephirodin of Bangladesh. Yang Min, one of the commanders of Zheng He's Western fleet, somehow changed hands and sent it back to China to present it to the Yongle Emperor.
During Zheng He's voyage to the West, according to various historical records, the "Qilin Gong" was operated many times, three of which were recorded in the official history of China. Some scholars believe that the search for rare products such as the Qilin is also one of the purposes of Zheng He's fleet as far as East Africa.
It is worth mentioning that in addition to giraffes, African specialties such as zebras, orthops, and ostriches have also been imported into China. Scholar Zhang Jian pointed out: "The Exotic Atlas, which was written around 1430, realistically painted zebras, becoming the first zebra picture in China and even East Asia (the name of the painting is abbreviated as Fulu). The level of its subtlety is close to today's level. The "ostrich" we know today was also changed by Li Shizhen, a ming dynasty medicine master, according to what people called "hump-hoofed chicken". He also believed that ostrich droppings had the effect of eliminating foreign bodies in the gastrointestinal tract, and drew the first ostrich map in East Asia in the "Compendium of Materia Medica".
However, it is also believed that the unicorn was not a giraffe in the early days, but a rhinoceros native to China. Some scholars have pointed out that the distribution range of today's so-called Indian rhinoceros once penetrated deep into China in ancient times, and then gradually retreated south with environmental changes and human activities. However, it may be that there are occasional relict rhinos in the Central Plains, which is regarded as an exotic beast. Other scholars believe that the unicorn is not an Indian rhinoceros, but an ancient rhinoceros that lived earlier and is extinct today.
From the description of "unicorn" in ancient books, we can indeed see the shadow of rhinoceros. In any case, as an animal that symbolizes auspiciousness, the status of the unicorn in traditional Chinese culture has long gone beyond words. Today's debate about its archetypal animals may not really restore its original appearance, but it can greatly expand people's understanding and imagination of nature and the environment.