Legends, historical stories and myths about cats in China.
Lu You's reason for keeping cats was originally to clean up rats. He likes to collect books, and his study is at home, but the mouse has been making trouble and biting his books at sixes and sevens. He specially wrote a book "The Mouse Failed" to accuse the mouse of "crime". As a result, Lu You raised a kitten, and because the kitten is good at catching mice, he gave it a domineering name-smaller than Tu, which means little tiger.
2. Kittens are spiritual and naturally like to be clean and tidy. Therefore, in addition to catching rats, the ancients also kept cats as pets. In the Tang Dynasty, more people raised cats and began to pay attention to coat color and variety. By the Song Dynasty, the urban economy was prosperous, the number of citizens expanded, people's interest in daily life became higher and higher, and cats became popular.
During the Song Dynasty, Hangzhou and Kaifeng had markets specializing in selling cat food and cat nests. These are all recorded in Tokyo Dream of China Record and Dream of Liang Record. In the Southern Song Dynasty, lionesses and cats with long white and yellow hair were particularly favored by dignitaries.
Modern scholar Feng Zikai is also fascinated by cats. He loved, wrote and painted cats all his life, and formed an indissoluble bond with cats, leaving many interesting stories related to cats. After the victory of the Anti-Japanese War, Feng Zikai lived in Hangzhou. Once, his cat was lost and he was in a hurry. He immediately put out a notice for finding a cat, which said that the person who found the cat would be rewarded. Seeing that he was so sad, his friends were moved by his love for cats, and all of them sent more than 10 cats in black and white.
Although losing a cat and getting a group of cats is a silver lining for every dark cloud, all kinds of troubles also follow. A group of cats stayed together and turned the house upside down, eating and drinking, and it was very difficult to fight. Feng Zikai had to organize an emergency family meeting to discuss the food standard for cats. The standard is set low, abusing cats; When the height is certain, cats compete with people for food, which once gave him a headache.
4. Miscellanies of Wanbu, written by Shen Bang in Wanping County, records the story of Emperor Jiajing and his cat Frost Eyebrow. The cat was very popular with the emperor and always followed him like a servant. When the emperor was resting, he didn't go. He didn't leave until his master woke up. He didn't eat or go to the toilet. Ming Shizong named his pet "One Dragon".
One day, a kind dragon staggered forward, cried, and soon walked away. It was soon discovered that a dragon died quietly and was still thinking about saying goodbye to his master before he died. Zhu Houzong regretted it, ordered his beloved cat to be buried in Long Live Mountain, and set up a monument which read "Tomb of the Dragon Breeder".
As we all know, Qi Baishi's shrimp painting is a must in painting. Cats are often found in his works. Qi Baishi likes to draw cats and mice together. The picture has a story and is very interesting. Among the many ink paintings of "painting cats", the oil lamp cat and mouse is the one with the strongest plot and the most sense of humor.
In the picture, the mouse steals oil and the cat sits on the ground and watches. The most interesting thing is his inscription: "I lit a lamp in front of my bed early last night and waited for me to undress and fall asleep." You can't feed mice with only one dollar of oil. It's worth the cat coming quietly. The oil has run out and the lights are dry. "Later, this work was auctioned at a sky-high price of 4.48 million yuan.
China News Network-Lu You, an ancient poet addicted to cat slaves: drinking while licking cats.
China News Network-There is another reason to keep cats: cats should have the same kind, so there are young artists.
China News Network-Cats and the ancients: Wu Zetian was forbidden to keep cats in the palace because of being cursed.