Research On Dogs In Tang Dynasty

Dogs are one of the important livestock in ancient China.Judging from handed down documents and unearthed cultural relics,dogs were indispensable of the people in the life in Tang Dynasty.Dogs were closely related and interacted with the politics,economy,social life and culture of the Tang Dynasty,and were one of the most active animals in the society of the Tang Dynasty.Dogs in the Tang Dynasty had the characteristics of diverse types.The people in Tang Dynasty classified dogs into 28 types according to the standards of coat color,body shape,and posture.Among them,some new breeds appeared,such as the small dog breed "Wo’er" imported from the extraterritorial country,which significant love for the foreign small-breed dogs.Dogs in the Tang Dynasty formed a pattern of diversified areas.Not only did the Tang Dynasty produce many excellent dog breeds,but also excellent dog breeds from surrounding ethnic areas and foreign countries were continuously imported into the Tang Dynasty.Dogs in the Tang Dynasty formed the characteristics of diversified functions,they were used in a variety of applications and played a positive role such as guarding homes,assisting hunting,providing meat,offering sacrifices to auspicious omens,watching and entertaining,playing games,guarding,testing medicines and poisons,and providing animal medicinal materials.The Tang Dynasty strengthened the management of dogs.In the Tang Dynasty,the officially bred dogs were under the management of Goufang,and the Wufang envoys were in charge.For the dogs raised by the ordinary people,the Tang government legally stipulated that the main responsibility of the dog owners for the management and domestication of the dog,and took economic punishment and criminal punishment as safeguard measures to strengthen the management of dogs.There are extensive and in-depth interactions between dogs and the society of the Tang Dynasty.In the political field,the Wufang envoy,the official in charge of the Goufang,was appointed by eunuchs in the late Tang Dynasty.With the power to manage the royal dogs,the Wufang envoy was able to get closer to the emperor during hunting and gain more political power.Wufang Xiaoer,Wufang Xiaoshi and other low-level officials in Wufang wantonly interfered with the lives of the people in the process of hunting and using dogs,and plundered for people’s money,which became an important manifestation of the eunuch’s monopoly in the late Tang Dynasty.Secondly,the emperor established a positive image that he was not indulging in sensuality,but caring about the country and the people by prohibiting officials from donating dogs and releasing some dogs from Goufang.In addition,dogs are also a tool for emperors and officials to express political emotions.In the hostile ethnic relationship and the relationship between the emperor and his ministers,dog is used as a derogatory term to express the emperor’s anger towards the enemy;ministers often call themselves dogs to express their loyalty and love for the emperor.In addition,in Mingtang sacrificial ceremonies and emperor field hunting ceremonies,the auspicious and hunting functions of dogs were recognized by the emperors and played an important role in ritual activities.In military activities,dogs play guard and alert functions,what’s more the dogs also participated in military predictions and predictions of war trend predictions.In the economic field,dogs play an important role.In the official tribute trade,dogs flowed into the Tang Dynasty in the form of tribute.In fact,it was a dog trade between the Tang government and foreign regimes and neighboring ethnic regimes.Most of the tribute dogs were small dogs that were loved by the upper class of the Tang Dynasty.The dog "Wo’er".Secondly,live dogs also entered the dog workshop,an official dog breeding institution established by the Tang Dynasty,through local tributes and officials’ offerings.In addition,live dogs were also traded in the non-government mutual market trade and the horses and horses in the markets at all levels in the Tang Dynasty.In addition,there were professional dog butchers in markets at all levels in the Tang Dynasty,who were engaged in the slaughter of dogs in slaughterhouses and slaughterhouses;after the dogs were slaughtered,dog meat flowed into the meat shops in the markets at all levels in the Tang Dynasty for sale;dog hearts,dog gallbladders,etc.Animal medicinal materials derived from dogs are circulated in medicine stores;medicinal materials for treating rabies and common dog bites are also circulated in drug stores at all levels of the market.Dogs are closely related to the social life of Tang people,and Tang people expanded many social functions of dogs from the perspective of practicality.Dogs not only plays an important role in material life such as eating and guarding the house;they are also integrated into the entertainment life of the Tang people through dog games and companionship of pet dogs;the concept and the custom of "cutting the dog’s ears" on people’s day has become important manifestations of dogs’ participation in funeral etiquette and festival etiquette in the Tang Dynasty.In the field of culture,all kinds of cultural phenomena related to dogs emerged one after another,which promoted the prosperity and development of the Tang Dynasty culture.In philosophical culture,Confucianism,Buddhism and Taoism have created different cultural image of dog based on observations.Confucianism uses dogs to promote loyalty and morality,and depreciates unfaithful people;Taoism regards dogs as disgusting,but it particularly prefers white dogs and respects them.Its supernatural nature;Buddhism believes that dogs are unclean,so monks are restricted from contacting dogs,but they affirm the guard function of dogs and allow temples to raise dogs.In literary works,realistic and unrealistic dog images have become tools for poets in the Tang Dynasty to express their emotions;in prose and notebook novels,there are also rich and diverse dog literary images such as righteous dogs,dog monsters,and dog demons,showing the Tang Dynasty literature prosperity.Among the works of art,dog paintings and dog utensils based on real life in the Tang Dynasty have become powerful evidence of the integration of dogs and Tang people’s lives.Divination systems related to dogs,such as dog astrology and dog dream divination,were widely used in the prediction of good and bad fortune in the Tang Dynasty.The place names related to dogs are the embodiment of dog totem worship and the extensive geographical distribution of dogs.In the ethnic areas,clothing,food,funerals,sacrifices and other aspects also formed unique customs around dogs,which became an important supplement to the customs and culture of the Tang Dynasty.To sum up,the people of the Tang Dynasty developed and utilized the value of dogs from all aspects of politics,economy,social life and culture participants.