The phoenix in Bird Score is the red-bellied pheasant?

Source: Yangzhou Daily - Yangzhou Network

Yesterday was the "4.23" International Book Day, in the Yangzhou Children's Library, children celebrated the festival in laughter. The famous writer Xiao Hai was invited to Yang to interpret the magical animals in the Forbidden City.

Xiao Hai said that the animals introduced this time were all in several atlases that the Qianlong Emperor of the Qing Dynasty had read, that is, the "Animal Genealogy", "Bird Genealogy", and "Sea Fault Map". Why did the Qianlong Emperor want to see these animal atlases? Because there was no zoo in ancient times, the rare beasts in the atlas actually represented the land of all sides, some animals can be seen now, and some animals themselves do not exist.

Unicorns are giraffes

There are many unicorns in the Chinese "Classic of Mountains and Seas", some are very fierce, specializing in eating tigers and leopards, of which there are also spirit beasts with long horns, such as the qilin, and there are four spirits in the sacred beasts: the unicorn, the dragon, the phoenix, and the turtle. Qilin is a kind of benevolent beast, and there is a folk story of "Qilin sending a son", and it is said that Confucius was sent by Qilin .

The Qilin has a deer body, and some people in the Ming Dynasty paid tribute to the "Yang Qilin", which is actually a giraffe. Giraffes had two horns, so the later unicorns had two horns, which were then called "Evil Naxijo".

An animal that looks very similar to the unicorn is called the badger, which symbolizes justice and can accompany the judge. At the entrance of the Imperial Garden of the Forbidden City, there is a statue of a badger.

There is also a horned beast called Luduan, and according to legend, when Genghis Khan was fighting, this sacred beast rushed out and said a word to Genghis Khan, persuading Genghis Khan to retreat. In the end, Genghis Khan listened to the persuasion of the minister Yelü Chucai and chose to retire in order to stop dying.

The phoenix is the red-bellied pheasant

"The legendary phoenix is actually a red-bellied golden pheasant, which has five colors on its body, symbolizing 'benevolence, righteousness, wisdom and faith'." Xiao Hai said that Chinese birds can be divided into six species, land birds, climbing birds, wading birds, raptors, songbirds, and game birds. There is a bird called "brocade back without thorns", now called Berau, this bird is more picky eater, like to eat small mice, small frogs, small birds, it will hang small animals on thorny branches. Berau is a songbird that hides in the branches of a tree, mimics the calls of other birds, lures other birds to come and become its meal on the plate, also known as the butcher bird.

There are very beautiful white birds in the "Bird Score", whose feathers can grow to more than 20 centimeters, and when they fly, they are like fairies in the forest. There is also a ferocious white sea blue, small in size, but very fierce, it is very fast, able to catch prey larger than it, such as swans. Bai Haiqing will catch the swan with his claws, and then the hunter can obtain the pearl in the swan's belly. Swans have pearls in their stomachs because they prey on mussels.

There are puffer fish in the "Sea Mistake Map", and Su Dongpo once wrote: "Three or two branches of peach blossoms outside the bamboo, the spring river plumbing duck prophet." Artemisia annua is full of short reed buds, which is when the puffer fish wants to go up. "Eating puffer fish is dangerous and must be rid of toxins. In ancient times, eating puffer fish also represented a kind of courage. Why did the puffer fish get its name? Because of anger, it will bulge, like a chubby piglet, the ancient pig is called a dolphin, and the one living in the river is called a pufferfish. Reporter Wang Xin

Editor-in-Charge: Yan Liu

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