Why do goldfish have special significance in Chinese culture?
The main purpose of raising goldfish in ancient times was that goldfish could nourish one’s emotions and beautify the environment. Secondly, goldfish had the psychological role of seeking good fortune and seeking good luck in Chinese auspicious culture. In addition, using goldfish to pursue "water" in traditional Feng Shui is also a very important reason. Buddhist culture also played a very important role in the birth of goldfish.
1. Mouth color is auspicious
The older generation has the custom of keeping pets, and they are more particular about asking for mouth color. The homophone of goldfish is "gold and jade", and "gold" also represents wealth. Therefore, after wealthy families take their palace goldfish home, they hire special fish handlers to take care of them. Ordinary families raise ordinary species of goldfish for the sake of "abundance", hoping to have "abundance in auspicious occasions" and "abundance every year." Children buy a few small pieces of straw gold and go home to play with them, hoping for a sign of "more than enough in the coming year."
2. Pray for Nari
Goldfish is homophonic for auspiciousness, and it also has the reproductive characteristics of giving birth to many children. Therefore, the ancients used it to convey feelings and express their good wishes of having many children and good fortune. It is often reflected in folk art such as New Year pictures, paper-cuts, and lanterns. It is a common folk blessing culture.
For example, before the Spring Festival, people have always had the habit of posting New Year pictures to decorate the environment, enhance the atmosphere, and express happy New Year blessings. The handed down work "A Hall Full of Gold and Jade" among the paintings of Tianjin Yangliuqing was first painted during the Kangxi period of the Qing Dynasty. In the picture, the women are elegant, the children are innocent and lively, and the goldfish is cute and innocent. On the surface, it depicts their happy family life, but in fact it has a profound meaning and contains two levels of prayer. One: Taking the homophone of the goldfish in the tank to seek the word "gold and jade", hoping for abundant wealth and a prosperous life in the coming year. Second: Gold is the "golden boy" and jade is the "jade girl".
Goldfish is still a symbol of dignity in our country. A special sign of honor among officials in the Tang Dynasty was the hanging of a goldfish bag, which was called a "three-grade goldfish bag with purple ornaments." There is also a line in Tang poetry about "a rhinoceros with a gold fish and a purple robe".
3 Water storage to kill mosquitoes
Most of the buildings in ancient my country were made of wooden structures. Once a fire breaks out, the consequences will be disastrous. Therefore, raising goldfish is not only convenient for viewing, but also has the functions of storing water, extinguishing fire, and swallowing mosquitoes.
Outdoors, trees, grass, etc. can easily breed mosquitoes. And they prefer to lay and hatch their eggs in water. If fish are not kept in a water tank used for water storage and fire prevention, the water quality will quickly deteriorate. Moreover, mosquitoes breed in large numbers and residents will be unbearable. If you use other methods to kill mosquitoes, it will not only be time-consuming and labor-intensive, but the results are often unsatisfactory.
If you keep a few goldfish in the water tank, it will not only increase the ornamental value, but also improve the water environment, clean the water quality, kill mosquitoes, and play a positive role in eliminating pests and diseases. The ancients usually kept goldfish of about two inches in pottery tanks with a water capacity of 100 to 400 kilograms. They could eat all the eggs and larvae without feeding them any food.