Why does China have the longest history of keeping cats?

The ancestor of a cat is a carnivore called a "fine-toothed beast".

It lived about 50 million years ago, and then slowly evolved into a "primitive panda" called the ancestor of cats (of course, it is not the panda we see now), and the primitive panda is also called the first cat. After 20 million years of evolution, the fine-toothed beast has become a cat, and it has the shadow of a cat.

According to the analysis of mitochondrial DNA, the direct ancestor of domestic cats was Libyan cats who lived in arid areas of the Middle East about 6.5438+0.3 million years ago. Libyan cats evolved from the original red pandas and have lived in some parts of Africa and Southeast Asia.

At that time, the ancient Egyptians fed many Libyan cats to protect the barn from rats, which is considered to be the origin of domestic cats.

The history of Chinese cats;

It originated very early. The Book of Songs Daya Hanyi wrote: "There are bears and pigs, and there are cats and tigers", which compares cats with tigers, bears and other wild animals. At this time, the cat should be a wild animal that has not been domesticated.

The Book of Rites records: "Eight Waxes to Sacrifice the Four Sides". The fifth of the eight waxes in The Book of Rites is the cat and the tiger. The cat was sacrificed to catch mice. The Book of Rites also records that ancient cats are a valuable thing. As a noble gentleman, it is often used to express gratitude in return.

"The ancient gentleman must report it, said the cat, for his vole's sake."? "Han Feizi" also records: "Let the chicken stay up all night, and let the raccoon dog catch the mouse, depending on their abilities." The raccoon here is a cat.

The earliest cat specimen found in China is 1997, the remains of a cat found in the Neolithic site of Miaodigou culture in Huquan village, Shaanxi province, indicating that there were cats to help people catch mice that stole food. Carbon 14 test shows that this cat lived at least 5300 years ago.

It shows that the history of keeping cats in China is at least 5300 years, which is the earliest evidence of the relationship between cats and people.

1972, among the dazzling funerary objects unearthed from Mawangdui Han Tomb in Changsha, the most exquisite one is the painted food plate of the stone civet. There are moire patterns outside the plate, and cirrus, civet cat and turtle patterns are painted inside the plate.

Basically, there is a civet in the center of the bottom of the inner wall of each painting tray, and only the painting of 1 belongs to the tortoise. Civet cats are outlined with single lines of vermilion pigment, painted with gray-green pigment, and painted with vermilion with patterns of eyes, ears, beard, claws and tail.

The cat has round eyes, long ears and a long tail, and its decoration is a little tattooed. Dong Fangshuo, a famous minister in the period of Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty, wrote in Answering a title of generals in ancient times: "It is better to save a lame cat than a mouse in the palace." Although it satirizes General Huo Qubing, it also reflects the domestication of domestic cats in the Western Han Dynasty.