What does it mean when pigs come to be poor, dogs come to get rich, and cats come to open a pawn shop?
The origin of this proverb can be traced back to more than 1,600 years ago. According to this, in June 2014, in the Northern Wei Dynasty cave niches in Caijiapo Town, Qishan County, it was discovered that there were flues next to the Buddha statues in the cave niches, cat-shaped stone sculptures similar to the "Lucky Cat" shape, and statues such as "Donors" with exaggerated faces. A "lucky cat" actually appeared in a group of cave niches in the Northern Wei Dynasty more than 1,600 years ago. This is enough to prove that a long time ago, "pig" represented the evil star in Feng Shui, and the evil star belonged to the door. Everyone knows that evil stars are bad luck. Pig refers to "rice bucket", which means eating well and being lazy. If there is such a person in the family, does it mean that the family is beginning to decline and become poor? Nowadays, there are very few families raising pigs in rural areas. They are basically professional cooperatives, and pigs running around are rarely seen.
"Dog" represents the patron saint, which can remove disasters, especially so-called unclean things. Dogs are synonymous with loyalty, intelligence, and faithfulness, and people like them more. In addition, the barking of dogs symbolizes the name "wangwang", so "dogs will make you rich" has become a kind of hope and an object of sustenance. When you get rich, you become a dog that is prosperous, and when a dog comes to prosper, you become prosperous.” It is said in our village that dogs can see things that humans cannot see. When these things come looking for you, the dogs will scare away all these unclean things. So it is called the patron saint.
"Cat" represents the god of night, and some people say that they are very familiar with the god of death, because cats like to go out for a walk at night, and may go to chat with the god of death. This is the Feng Shui saying of "Pigs come to make people poor, dogs come to make people rich, and cats come to open pawn shops." There is an old saying in the countryside, "Eat cat food and live to be ninety-nine." What it means is that cats are very picky and have high demands on what they eat. They are very picky about both fish and meat. If they eat well, they will certainly live to be ninety-nine. Compared with pigs and dogs, cats are nobles. You have heard that pigs and dogs are inferior, but you have never heard of cats, so rich people keep more cats. As for pawn shops, in the past, farmers who were in need of money always wanted to pawn something. In everyone's mind, those who could afford a pawn shop were wealthy people. There is also a saying that "cats come to open pawn shops".
The common sayings spread in rural areas are concise in language, but they are not logically presented according to the essence of things. People often invert some causes and effects in life to metaphor some things. "Pigs come to poverty", "dogs come to wealth", and "cats come to pawn shops". After the inversion of cause and effect, it means "pig comes to be poor, dogs come to get rich, and cats come to open pawn shops".