Xu Beihong Qiutong Cat and Butterfly Picture Scroll
□ Chutian Metropolis Daily Jimu News Reporter Xia Yu
On November 4, 1192 AD, it rained heavily and the wind howled.
Lu You, who was 67 years old at the time, was bedridden and wrote "Late at night listening to the wind and rain, and the iron horse glaciers fell into sleep", hiding his full sadness in the miserable wind and rain.
Most people don't know that on this day, this great writer of the Southern Song Dynasty also wrote a masterpiece. There is a poem that goes: "The firewood in the stream is soft and the felt is warm, and I and the raccoon slave don't go out." The raccoon slave was the nickname of the cat in ancient times.
Last year at this time, "Ancient people had to prepare betrothal gifts when raising cats" was on the Weibo hot search. Netizens exclaimed, "The strange knowledge has increased again!"
And now, have you met a kind person who prepared cat food and cartons to help the cats on the street corner survive the winter?
Jimu News "Cultural Museum and Art Exhibition" "Fantastic Beasts Are Here" series follows "Look at the Mythical Beasts in Cultural Relics" and today we invite readers to take a look at cat cultural relics.
Do you know that in addition to "hiring a cat", what other cool facts are there that are full of literary style? This has to start with the historical literati, including Lu You, and the cultural relics hidden in museums that "sell very cutely" -
Go and look for the ladies' pet cats in ancient paintings
Prince Yong's inscription on the book hall dwells deep in the picture screen·Twist the bead to watch the cat Luo embroidered cat butterfly pomegranate picture surface red wood carved flower handle round fan Northern White Goose foot-shaped gold ornaments
You may not have thought that Lu You, a patriotic poet who was " a humble man who dared not forget his country ", was actually the "first cat slave in the Southern Song Dynasty". After all, he has more than 20 poems about cats that have survived in the world, so poetry fans jokingly pointed out: "He only wrote ten poems for his beloved sister Tang Wan!"
Lu You once wrote in the poem "Giving Cats": "Wrapped in salt to welcome the little raccoon slave, who will protect the mountain house with thousands of books." Wrapping in salt means exchanging salt for kittens. CCTV's " Classic Chanting and Spreading " program introduced that raising a cat in ancient times was not called "buying a cat", but "hiring a cat", and one had to prepare a betrothal gift before taking the cat home. Salt and small fish were relatively expensive foods in ancient times. People often used salt or fish as betrothal gifts. On the one hand, it can reflect the importance that "cat owners" (cat owners) attach to small animals. On the other hand, cat owners can also get some benefits.
Huang Tingjian also left "evidence" for future generations of begging cats in " Begging Cats ": "I heard that the raccoon slave was about to count his eggs, so I bought fish and put them on the willow branches to hire cicadas." . )
Huang Ju Mao Diewan Fan Page
Cat-raising expert Du Ting, who has served as a referee for the SCA Famous Cat Championship for many times, told Jimu News reporters that because cats catch mice, it is beneficial to agricultural production, so the ancients paid more attention to the mouse-catching function of cats. It is recorded in "Book of Rites: Suburban Characteristics": "The ancient gentlemen must repay their enemies. Cats are for them to eat field mice; tigers are for them to eat field hogs, and they are also to be sacrificed." However, in the Tang and Song Dynasties, cats gradually changed from "functional cats" that caught mice to "pet cats" that accompanied their owners.
We can see "pet cats" in many ancient paintings. Jimu News reporter learned that there are 12 pictures of "Prince Yong Yong of the Qing Dynasty living deep in the study hall" currently stored in the National Palace Museum. Among them, "Twisting Beads and Watching Cats" shows a lady leaning on a table and twisting rosary beads leisurely with one hand, while she is watching two playful and cute pet cats.
Duanshi Cat Butterfly Inkstone
The ancients also liked to use the combination of cats and butterflies in paintings and crafts. The word "cat butterfly" and "old man" are homophones, which is intended to wish people longevity. The Palace Museum also has a Duanshi Cat and Butterfly Inkstone from the Ming Dynasty. The surface of the inkstone is embossed with a pattern of a kitten flapping at a butterfly. The yellow-green natural stone eyes of the Duanshi are used as the cat's eyes and the spots on the butterfly wings, which are lifelike.
Who can resist the golden "cat claw" from 2,700 years ago?
Do you still remember the "cutest cultural relic cat JioJio" that was praised by netizens for the first time at the Shanxi Archaeological Museum?
In recent years, the Shanxi Archaeological Research Institute conducted rescue excavations at the Zhou Dynasty Beibai'e Cemetery and unearthed more than 500 cultural relics, including several foot-shaped gold ornaments that resembled cat claws.
This batch of gold ornaments is about 2,700 years old. It is shaped like a sole, with four "toes" and a "pad". There is a beam on the back of the gold ornaments, which is presumed to be where ropes are tied. As soon as the cultural relics appeared, netizens expressed that they were cute: "Cats are passed down forever" and "the cuteness that travels through time and space overflows"...
According to archaeologists, the owner of the tomb is a male, and the foot-shaped gold ornaments may be the accessories on the belt of the tomb owner.
Since there are no clear unearthed cultural relics of cat breeding in the early spring and autumn , this gold jewelry is not necessarily made according to cat feet. However, there is such a national treasure that provides the earliest visual image data of cats of the genus seen in our country so far, which is the civet cat pattern lacquer food plate unearthed in 1972 from the No. 1 Han Tomb in Mawangdui, Changsha City, Hunan Province.
Lacquer food plate with civet cat pattern
According to Hunan Provincial Museum educator Yu Ziyi, in 202 BC, when the Han Dynasty was established, the world was peaceful and the social atmosphere was positive, a plate with a unique pattern appeared in the home of the prime minister in Changsha. The lacquer food plate is entirely painted with lacquer, and the inside and outside of the plate are painted with cirrus patterns, civet cat patterns, tortoise patterns, etc. The most prominent of these patterns is the civet cat pattern.
The little civet cat on this food plate has round eyes, pointed ears, and its two ears stand up, indicating that it is on alert. The tail is raised high, indicating the wild nature that has not yet been tamed. There are also three Chinese characters on the civet-cat pattern lacquer plate, which translates into modern language as eating well and drinking well. Yu Ziyi said that the appearance of civet cat lines should be closely related to the eating habits at that time. Low-profile furniture was popular in the Han Dynasty, and food utensils such as plates, rice bowls, and ear cups were placed on very short tables. Food was easily stolen by rats, snakes and other animals. In order to prevent this from happening, the ancients drew cats on their food utensils as a warning. The images of cats on these lacquer plates are vivid, well-preserved and extremely precious.
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