Why do cats eat mice? Did this seemingly simple question stop you all at once? Today, we will discuss it together.
There are many folklore that explain this. The following three folklore are the most typical and interesting, all related to the ordering of the zodiac.
Legend one
Legend two
The Jade Emperor was going to rank the twelve animals first, sending cats to inform the other eleven animals, and there were no mice in the middle. The mouse overheard the cat's message to the cow, so he took the lead and secretly reported to the Heavenly Palace first. The confused Jade Emperor, seeing the rat should be killed, did not distinguish between true and false, and was currently ranked first. The first to be notified became the second. The cat finished speaking to the other animals one by one, and rushed to the heavenly court, where the twelve seats were lined up and there was no longer a seat for it. Therefore, the zodiac mouse became the boss, but there was no cat. Since then, cats and mice have formed a great vendetta, and when they see mice, they will chase and bite.
Legend three
One day, the Jade Emperor felt that although it was good to use the Heavenly Dry Earth Branch Chronicle in the mortal world, where did the average person remember what meridian was? Wouldn't it be popular and convenient to use animals instead? So it was decided to convene a zodiac selection conference and issue a holy decree to inform all kinds of animals. At that time, Cat and Mouse were good friends, eating and living together, loving brothers, and they were very happy to receive the holy will, saying that they would go to the conference together. Because cats like to sleep, often asleep on the day of three poles, so the night before the conference to discuss with the mouse: "Rat brother, tomorrow conference, I am afraid of oversleeping, please morning call okay?" The mouse said, "Brother Cat! No problem! You can sleep well! I'll call you then. The cat listened, said thank you, and really put his mind to sleep. The next day, when it was still dark, the rat got up and crept up to freshen up, but did not wake up the sleeping cat and left alone.
At dawn, all kinds of animals came to the assembly hall one after another, and the grandeur was unprecedented. The Jade Emperor carefully examined and deliberated, and selected twelve kinds of animals, rats, cows, tigers, rabbits, dragons, snakes, horses, sheep, monkeys, chickens, dogs, and pigs, as the zodiac signs of man. After the twelve animals were selected, the next question was the order, and then there was a commotion and a dispute, each of which wanted to take the lead. The Jade Emperor also seemed to have a bit of a headache, and he didn't know how to arrange it fairly. Watching everyone quarrel and shout, only the thick and honest cow sat quietly on the side, and was not excited at all. When he had an idea, he said, "Don't argue, the order is up to me." The cow among you is big and has a stable temperament, so let the cow be the first sign. "The words of the Jade Emperor, who dares not follow?" Even the tiger, who has always been fierce and self-respecting as the king of the hundred beasts, although unhappy, did not raise any objections. Unexpectedly, the little mouse jumped out, squeaked twice, and said, "It should be my biggest, the first in line!" "Everyone is curious, of the twelve animals, it is obviously the smallest, how can it claim to be the largest?" There's something wrong with the mind. The mouse said, "Every time I appear, the person I see will always cry: Ah! Such a big rat, I have never heard anyone say: such a big cow, it can be seen that I am bigger than the cow in people's minds. The rat's words were not believed by everyone, and the Jade Emperor was also suspicious, how could people think that rats were bigger than cows? The mouse proposed: "If you don't believe me, you can go to a place with many people, and if people say that I am big, let me make the first portrait, how about it?" Don't regret it! The beasts were full of doubts, and the Jade Emperor agreed to try it, so he accompanied them to the human market. When the cattle entered the market, everyone ignored them and continued their business, when the cunning rat suddenly climbed onto the back of the cow, and the people who rushed to the market saw the rat on the back of the cow and exclaimed: "Ah! What a big rat! The Jade Emperor personally heard everyone say this, and had no choice but to let the rat do the first sign, and the cow relegated to the second place.
The mouse became the first sign, full of spirits, triumphantly returned, when the cat just woke up, opened his eyes, stretched out a lazy waist, and said: "Brother Mouse, let's get ready for a meeting!" The mouse brushed his lips and said, "You're still dreaming!" The conference ended early, and I was still in first place. The cat was startled, drowsy, and asked with wide eyes, "Really?" Then why didn't you call me? Didn't you say it was good to go together? The mouse cloud replied lightly, "Oh! I forgot. The cat was so angry that his beard was cocked and shouted, "Rat! You don't talk about credit, promised to wake me up, I only slept with confidence, but I missed a big thing, see how you compensate? The rat not only did not admit his mistake, but also looked like he did not care, and sharp-tongued: "And I don't owe you, why do you want me to call you?" It was deliberately not called, so what? This time the cat was angry and said, "Usually you are timid, look at how I protect you, today there is no love and righteousness, hateful!" Only to see it arch, pounce on it and bite the throat of the rat hard, swinging left and right, the rat's hind legs trembled, and it squeaked and lost its breath. Since then, when the cat saw the mouse, he provoked hatred in his heart, wanted to put it to death, and became a generational vendetta.
Legend four
In ancient times, after Cangjie created the script, the Yellow Emperor invented the Tiangandi Branch Calendar. At the beginning of the world, the Yellow Emperor rode the Chaos Beast around and encountered the goddess snail. There are two meat bags next to the female snail, ten men in the big meat bag, and twelve women in the small meat bag. The Yellow Emperor said, "This is the god of heaven and earth to govern Qiankun." So, they were named separately, with husband and wife, and became yin and yang. The males are collectively called tiangan, and the female ones are the earth branches. Tiangan is: A, B, C, D, E, Heptane, Xin, Nong, Deca. The earth branches are: Zi, Ugly, Yin, 卯, 辰, 巳, 午, 未, 申, 酉, 戌, 海. The large dry land branch is paired with a rotation of sixty years. This calendar was very scientific at the time, so it is still used today.
However, this method of calculating the year, month and hour is too complicated and too difficult to remember. Even some of the civilian officials who followed Cangjie to learn to write were difficult to remember, let alone the vast masses who could not read. People complained that so many things were too complicated, and they all suggested that the Yellow Emperor create a new calendar to record and chronicle.
In order to make all the people of the tribes, including the elderly and children, understand and remember, the Yellow Emperor decided to choose twelve animal images to match. In this way, as soon as people see the images of animals, they know what year it is.
At the end of this year, the Yellow Emperor ordered Cangjie to pass on a holy decree, inviting the animals of the world to wait at the palace gate early in the morning of the first month of the first month to wait for selection, and whoever came early chose whom, only the top twelve were selected.
Chinese New Year's Eve night, the old cow thought about it, his nature was slow, his legs and feet were not good, so he did not rest, and rushed to the palace gate in the middle of the night, ranking first. The nocturnal tiger arrived in the hazy light and grabbed a second. Immediately afterward, the jade rabbit, the barn dragon, the green snake, the white horse, the goat, the fairy monkey, the rooster, the black dog, the lai pig, the yellow cat and other animals also arrived one after another.
The rat overturned the wine jar because he stole the oil at night, took the opportunity to drink the wine, and ended up drunk, the last to come, behind the other animals. It thought: I can't choose anyway! Anyway, since you came, you can't go back empty-stomached, and your teeth should be grinded. So, taking advantage of his small stature and ease of movement, he went into the warehouse to find something to eat. Suddenly, it found a pair of large candles and bit down on several large holes. When the stomach was full, it was also tired, so it curled up in the corner and slept.
At this time, the sky was already dawn, and the Yellow Emperor ordered the wax to be incense and prepare to open the palace gate to select animals. Who knew that the person who went to the warehouse to get the red candle came back empty-handed, and replied, "The pair of big red candles sent by Xuanyu were bitten by rats, and the candles were filled with gunpowder!" ”
It turned out that Xuan You could not defeat the Yellow Emperor, so he pretended to submit and sent this pair of big red candles as a gift, in an attempt to blow up the Yellow Emperor when he was incense, so that he could rule the world's subjects. Fortunately, the big red candle was bitten by the rat in advance, exposing Xuan you's evil plot. The Yellow Emperor thought that the rat had made a great contribution, not only saving the lives of me and the courtiers, but also enabling the important matter of selecting animal genera to proceed smoothly. Therefore, it was proposed to seal rats as the twelve genera of xiangzi, and Cangjie and other courtiers agreed, and other animals unanimously supported it.
The sun rises in the east, the palace door opens widely", the drum music is in unison, the selection begins, Cangjie even shouted a few "rats", but there was no response, the Yellow Emperor hurriedly sent people to look around, in the corner of the warehouse to bring it to, it woke up, also thought that the Yellow Emperor sent people to arrest it, is to ask it about the sin of destroying the candle, frightened to run around, until people explain the original reason, it happily entered the palace to be elected.
Therefore, according to the time of animal infestation and the characteristics of life, the Yellow Emperor regarded twelve animals as the twelve zodiac signs, that is, each animal was an hour. Rats are number one. Because the rats have the strongest courage and are most active; the ugly old cow "ruminates" the thinnest, slowest, and most comfortable; the tiger is the most active, fierce, and hurts the most; the moon's brilliance has not yet faded; the dragons are raining at the time; the snakes are hidden in the grass; at noon, the animals are generally lying and resting, and only the horses are still accustomed to standing; the urine spilled by the sheep can cure the panic; the monkeys like to cry the most; the chickens begin to enter the cage and stay overnight; the vigilance of the dogs at night is the highest; and the pigs sleep the most when they are dead. The snoring is the loudest.
Cangjie then sang the names of the twelve genera in the order of ugly cow, Yinhu, 卯 rabbit, Chenlong, 巳 snake, noon horse, wei sheep, Shen monkey, unitary chicken, 戌狗, and Hai pig, and happened to squeeze out the yellow cat that was originally ranked twelfth. Since then, the cat hates the rat to death, as long as he sees the mouse, he will chase after it, and after catching it, he will try to scare it until he is half dead before eating it. At the same time, the cat also uses its claws to grope on the face from time to time, we generally call it "washing face", paying great attention to dressing itself, and it wants to catch the rat after catching it, so that it can make up for itself into the list of the twelve genera.
Legends are legends after all, but they are only for people to talk about after dinner, and the truth studied through scientific perspectives is king.
(Source: Legal Evening News, China Net)