In an increasingly lonely modern society, pets have become intimate companions for many people. In fact, not only people today, but also ancient people kept pets. In this article, we will talk about the more common pets in ancient times.
The first pet to accompany the ancients was the loyal "dog" - dog. The ancestor of the dog is the wolf, which is one of the earliest animals domesticated by humans. It has been tens of thousands of years ago. Research shows that southern China was the first place to domesticate dogs. Dogs came to the world from China. It can be said that China is the "hometown" of dogs. During the pre-Qin period, dogs, together with horses, cattle, sheep, chickens, and pigs, were collectively called the Six Animals. There were also officials responsible for raising dogs, called "dog people", which means "dog officials."
But the original purpose of Chinese people raising dogs was not as pets, but for hunting and eating meat. Fan Kuai, a famous general in the early Han Dynasty, was a dog butcher. It can be seen that until the early years of the Han Dynasty, the Chinese still retained the habit of eating dogs. During the Tang and Song Dynasties, keeping pet dogs became a fashion, and dogs even successfully stole the spotlight in the famous Tang Dynasty painting "Lady with Hairpins".
△Pet cat (from Zhou Wenju’s "Picture of Ladies")
△Pet dog (from "Picture of Ladies with Hairpins")
Cixi is a famous figure in history As a dog lover, she set up a dog breeding office in the palace, raised many Pekingese, and had four eunuchs to serve them. The dogs ate beef, venison, and drank chicken, duck, and fish soup. Cixi loved dogs more than people. As the saying goes, "Cixi's little Jingba, the eldest sister's little puppy, say people are not humans, and dogs are not dogs."
Cats were also kept as pets in ancient times, but their domestication history is much shorter than that of dogs. It is generally believed that the Egyptians began to domesticate cats three to four thousand years ago. Cats were originally regarded as gods in Egypt. In ancient China, cats also had a very high status and were even one of the protagonists during sacrifices. "Book of Rites" records: There is a "cat-welcoming" link in the emperor's ceremony of worshiping heaven in the twelfth lunar month every year. The reason why cats are so valued may be that their eyes are mysterious and blurry, and they are considered to be able to communicate with gods. In addition, cats can catch mice, and "welcoming cats" also means praying for the elimination of mice. In the solemn and solemn ceremony of worshiping the heaven, in full view of the public, the "cat" was carried out. The sight of that scene brings a sense of joy.
In the Song Dynasty, literati loved to keep cats, and Lu You called cats "raccoon slaves" in his poems. Today's literati seem to prefer cats, perhaps because cats are quieter than dogs. Cats in the Song Dynasty also appeared on the political stage and staged the "civet cat for prince" incident. Emperor Jiajing of the Ming Dynasty was a famous cat slave. When his beloved cat died, he asked his ministers to write a memorial to commemorate it. He buried it in the north of Jingshan Mountain, called the "Qiulong Tomb", and erected a monument to commemorate it. Although humans love cats very much, cats are always aloof towards humans. Some people say that cats are ruthless and ungrateful, so that humans are more like slaves in front of cats, so humans are "cat slaves". In fact, this is related to the semi-domesticated characteristics of cats. Dogs are completely domesticated, so they are closer to people. But by comparing the genomes of wild cats and domestic cats, researchers found that domestic cats are still only in a "semi-domesticated" state. Rather than saying that humans domesticated cats, it is better to say that cats chose to live with humans and domesticated humans.
In addition to cats and dogs, the ancients also domesticated other pets. For example, raising cranes. In "Lady with Hairpin Flowers", when the lady is teasing the puppy, there is a crane standing next to her. Cranes symbolize good luck and longevity in ancient times, so they were loved by the ancients and became pets.
There is another long-lived animal that ancient people also loved to raise, and that is the tortoise. The ancients have a long history of raising tortoises. "The Analects of Confucius: Gongye Chang" tells that when the nobles of the state of Lu saw that tortoises lived long lives, they regarded tortoises as spiritual beings and built very luxurious houses for them. Turtles have always symbolized good luck and good luck in ancient times, and even people named them with the word "turtle" in them. For example, the poet Du Fu of the Tang Dynasty had a good friend named Li Guinian. When we were in school, we all learned Du Fu's song "Meeting Li Guinian in the South of the Yangtze River". Today, the status of turtles has plummeted, and it has taken on a derogatory tone, with expressions such as turtles with shrunken heads and turtle males appearing.
Raising turtles also had a role in ancient times, which was to test water quality. It is said that after the ancients dug a well, they would put a turtle in the well. If the turtle is alive, it means the water quality is safe; if the turtle is dead, it means there is something wrong with the water, or it may even be poisoned. Therefore, turtles were not only pets in ancient times, but also water quality inspectors. Someone on Douyin broadcast a live broadcast of setting a net in an abandoned well in the wild, saying that turtles can be caught in the old well. When I saw it, I still questioned, where did the turtle come from in the well? Later, when I saw the reason why ancient people kept turtles, I suddenly understood.
Maybe the turtle that person caught was the "water quality inspector" released by his ancestors, or it was its descendant.