Today's cat slaves always hope that happy kittens can bring more happiness to themselves, and they covet the spiritual comfort that raising cats brings to themselves, so did ancient people also raise cats in this way? What kind of kittens are they chasing?
Cats are the natural enemies of mice, which may be the original intention of the ancients to raise cats. Before the Wei and Jin Dynasties, people rarely raised cats, but raised dogs to prevent theft and rats. In the Northern Wei Dynasty, raising cats and preventing rats has become a common practice, and Jia Sixun's "Qi Min Zhi Shu" records: "His house, a few days before the cat, stuffed the rat cave, mud wall, so that the net sweeping floor ..." It is about people starting to raise cats to catch rats.
After the time, by the time of the Sui and Tang Dynasties, people were more and more inseparable from kittens in their lives. In the court, there was a professional position such as "Tanuki", and Tanuki was the kitten, who was specially responsible for the anti-rat work of the palace. At the same time, because of their gentleness, understanding, and well-behaved love of cleanliness, kittens began to gradually become people's pets, and even in the tribute to the emperor, docile kittens have appeared.
In the Song Dynasty, kittens finally ushered in their own prosperous era, although catching rats is still an important duty, but they also began to "sell cute" as their responsibility. The capital of the Southern Song Dynasty, Hangzhou, has a series of cat service industries such as cat beds, cat fish, selling cats, changing cats and dogs, according to the "Xianchun Lin'an Zhi": "Du (Hangzhou) human and animal cats, long-haired white people, famous lion cats, cover no mouse hunting, cat disciples to see the beauty." And most of the famous "cat slave" poets in ancient times also began in this period.
The Song Dynasty poet Chen Yu got a kitten who was very good at catching mice, so he wrote a poem "Dehunu" to express his "excited" mood:
Wearing fish newly hired a cicada, people say that tanuki spends a lot of money.
In the old days, many animals came and did not catch, but now they have begun to settle their eyes here.
Peony shadow into a painting in the morning, drunken in the mint fragrance.
But it is possible to know that it is breathing, and there is a voice that hates and pities.
And Huang Tingjian, a famous poet who is one of the four bachelors of Sumen, is in a high position but is also willing to be a "cat slave", and it is also very formal to ask for a kitten from a friend, like hiring someone else's daughter, specially buying a small dried fish to go to the door to beg for a cat. To this end, he also left behind the poem "Beggar Cat", which says:
Autumn rats bully the cat to death, peeping urns to stir up night sleep.
Smell the Tanuki slave will count, buy fish and wear willow to hire cicadas.
Not only that, when the little cat who was invited made a rat catching feat, Huang Tingjian also wrote a special poem "Xie Zhouwen Only Sends Cats" to express his gratitude to the kittens:
He has made great achievements in battle, and the general XiaoLiu has a family style.
The fish is thin, and the four walls often make the rat empty.
And the "hardcore cat slave" of the Song Dynasty is the famous patriotic poet Lu You! Lu You wrote countless poems in his lifetime, and wrote twelve poems for kittens, but only three poems in the name of "Giving Cats":
One song tells about his own life, but "tired" the kittens; it is both self-deprecating and expresses the cat's preciousness to himself:
Wrapped in salt to welcome the little tanuki slaves, to protect the mountain house ten thousand books.
Shame on the poor family, cold and feltless sitting and eating no fish.
The other is directly to praise his own kitten, praise it for its cuteness, praise its cleverness, and affectionately call it a little tiger:
Salt wrapped in tanuki slaves, often watching the theater corner.
Always drunk mint, night and night occupied.
The rat's nest is listed, and the fish meal is rewarded.
Still be called a name, called less than a tree.
There is also a song "Give Cat", which is like a "circle of friends" of Lao Lu complaining about his cat, he can tolerate that kittens do not like to catch mice, and they know how to eat and sleep all day, even so, as long as this kitten is around him, he is very happy... Until the mischievous kitten bites his beloved book:
The rat has no merit and is not impeached, and a piece of fish rice comes from time to time.
Seeing that the king is lying down every day, what is going to go and go back?
When Lu You got a kitten that would catch mice, he was even more excited than Huang Tingjian, and wrote the famous "Rat Repeatedly Defeated WuShu Even Get Tanuki Slaves To Hunt and Kill The Void Day Group of Rats for a Few Empty Gifts", just look at this long poem title, you know that he loves cats but is serious; and this poem is also another praise for Lu You to kittens, praising it is great, hugging it softly, and warming the bed, not greedily playing for catching rats:
No one in the service burned incense, and the tanuki slave was ken to accompany the Zen room.
Books sleep together through the bed to warm up, sitting at night with the smell of leaky drums.
Jia Yong was able to empty the rat's den, and Ce Xun did not stop walking the intestines.
Although the fish is thin, it is really worthy of not being busy catching butterflies among the flowers.
Lu You also has a song "November 4th Wind and Rain Masterpiece", which is written about the wind and rain masterpiece outside the house, and he and the kitten stay in the warm home, showing his "otaku" attributes that are the same as many modern cat slaves:
The wind swept the rivers and lakes and rained the dark village, and the sound of the four mountains was overturned by the waves.
The creek firewood was soft and warm, and I did not go out with the tanuki.
And Jin Dai also has another "otaku" cat slave, he is Liu Zhongyin. Although he was the deputy envoy of Luzhou Festival, he also lowered his stature and sat on an equal footing with his cat, and wrote a poem called "Not Out": "The weather is slightly cold and I can't get out, and the yin is sitting separately with the tanuki slave." "A warm picture of people and cats clinging to each other in the home.
After that, the kittens in the eyes of the ancient big men, have not been much mouse hunting, specializing in selling cute, fluttering flowers and playing butterflies, such as the Qing Dynasty Chen Chongguang wrote in the "Title Cat Butterfly Diagram":
Hired a tanuki slave nickname, and when he sneaked in, he asked the golden eye.
The corners of the sleeves of the skirt are only probing each other, and the evening sun is playing to the flowers.
You see, from ancient times to the present, many poets and bigwigs have not been able to live the "gentle town" of kittens, leaving many interesting poems for them: a friend sent a cat and wrote a poem; the cat ate fish and wrote a poem; the cat caught a mouse, wrote a poem; the cat was naughty, and wrote a poem... These verses can be described as a very eye-catching ancient cat "circle of friends".
The kittens are not very powerful, they have been enslaved for more than 1,Chinese 1,000 years, and now there are countless Chinese people who are willing to fall under their flesh claws