A Study Of Cat And Tiger Pedigrees In Ancient China

The catalogue of flora and fauna is a kind of book which records the morphology,habits and rearing techniques of animals and plants.According to the four-part classification of ancient books,it is divided into‘Sub-section Genealogical category'.In the history of the development of Chinese flora and fauna,after two peaks,one was in the Song Dynasty and the other in the Ming Dynasty.Compared with the plant genealogy,the animal genealogy is relatively rare in the total quantity and species.There are Crab Spectrum,Silkworm Spectrum,Chicken Spectrum,Quail Spectrum,Cricket Spectrum,Goldfish Spectrum,Pigeon Spectrum,Cat Spectrum,Tiger Spectrum and so on.Most of the records is pet content,based on breed and maintenance techniques,plus allusions and customs.Among them,cat and tiger scores are feline.This kind of works appeared in the Ming and Qing Dynasties and all the documents were preserved.There are four Cat Spectrums in China,all from the literati who own cats and love cats.In the genealogy,there are the criteria of cat breed,domestic cat breed,the methods of domestication and medical treatment,poetry about cat,allusion to cat,etc.Especially,the criteria,varieties,domestication and medical methods of cat breed have scientific and practical value.The plant medicine recorded in the book is harmless to human beings and animals and can be used for reference in the animal husbandry industry.The cat poetry and cat allusions provide some historical data for the study of Chinese cat culture and folklore.There are three sections of the Tiger Tree,in which the tigers form and habit are recorded.The techniques of tiger hunting,catching and taming tiger are also recorded.There are many phenomena of tiger infestations in the Tigers Genealogy,with all kinds of humanized tiger,tiger and man-tiger mutual allusions.Besides,also included in the Qin and Han Dynasties to the Qing Dynasty various ancient books such as Shiguai,legend,wild history notes novel various tigers.The tigers form and habit,as well as the method of catching tiger and taming tiger have the value of history of science and technology,and the appearance of tigers plague shows the ecological condition at that time,which is also worth studying.