Spatio-temporal Evolution Of Chinese Cattle Function In Historical Period

According to archaeological evidence,modern domestic cattle originated from bison,existing domestic cattle can be divided into three kinds,namely cattle,yak and buffalo."Cow" has long occupied an important position in the material life and spiritual world of human beings,which is mainly due to the multiple functions of "cow".For humans,cattle are not only a source of food,but also an important tool.Cattle can provide animal power to help people engage in agricultural production and transportation,and their skins and wool can also be used to make river rafts and warm clothing.Generally speaking,in the historical period,Chinese cattle mainly had three functions: "edible","sacrificial" and "draught",which were mainly manifested as "beef and milk","strong cattle" and "cattle tilling cart".This study mainly focuses on the historical changes of the function of Chinese cattle,the geographical distribution of the "three functions" of Chinese cattle in the historical period,and the historical impact of the transformation of the function of Chinese cattle,and tries to think about the root causes of the transformation and spatial differences of the function of Chinese cattle.The first chapter combs the historical change of Chinese cattle function.Since the late period of primitive society,the cattle function in China has experienced four different development stages: " give priority to with edible function "," give priority to with sacrificial function "," give priority to with draft function " and " regression of edible function ".In the late primitive society,with the initial completion of the domestication of bison,the ancestors mainly used cattle as a food source,but also developed some other functions of cattle.During the Xia,Shang and Western Zhou dynasties,after the establishment of the early slave countries,the royal power consolidated its position by holding grand sacrificial activities.During this period,cattle,as the highest sacrificial offering,played an important role in large-scale sacrificial activities.In the Spring and Autumn period and the Warring States Period,with the invention of iron and the promotion of cattle farming,"cattle ploughing" became an important agricultural production tool,and the working function of cattle gradually became the dominant function.For more than two thousand years,people used the power of cattle for agriculture,transportation,irrigation and salt production.Since modern times,under the influence of western industrial civilization,western-style machinery was introduced into China,steam and electricity gradually became the main power source of industrial and agricultural production,cattle service function gradually declined,and its food function became the dominant function again.The second chapter discusses the geographical distribution of the edible function,sacrificial function and draft function of Chinese cattle in historical period.The "eating function" of cattle has been clearly recorded in pre-Qin literature.However,due to the long-standing idea of " forbidden to eat beef " in ancient China,there are few records about beef dishes in cookbook literature.It was not until the Ming and Qing Dynasties that records of people in The South of the Yangtze River,North China,Jianghan Plain and Sichuan Basin eating beef and milk gradually increased,and some beef dishes and milk products with local characteristics were formed.In the historical period,the sacrificial function of cattle was mainly distributed near the capital,which usually changed with the political center’s transfer.From the pre-Qin dynasty to the Tang and Song dynasties,it was mainly distributed in the middle reaches of the Yellow River basin.During the Eastern Jin and Southern Dynasties,the sacrificial function of oxen was also distributed in Nanjing and its surrounding areas.After the Yuan Dynasty,the sacrificial function of the ox was not only distributed in the north of the North China Plain,where the political center was located,but also extended to most of the regions where Confucian temples were built.In addition,due to special historical factors,some areas held many sacrificial activities,such as the hometown of Confucius,Mount Tai,and the tombs of successive emperors.In the historical period,the geographic distribution of the "draft function" of cattle was complex,and presented different features in different regions.For example,the service function of cattle in southwest China was mainly embodied in farming,and extracting brine,and relatively little in transportation,while the draft function of cattle in northwest China was embodied in transportation for a long time.The different performance of cattle draft function in southwest China and northwest China is related to the difference of natural and social environment.As a whole,the draft function of cattle has a strong connection with the economic development process around the country.In addition,the service function of cattle is closely related to local social stability,and the draft function of cattle is relatively weak in areas affected by war.The third chapter analyzes the influence of the change of cattle function in China in the historical period,and selects three aspects of the change of cattle function on the cognition of cattle breed in the historical period,the way of interference and the naming of small place names.It was found that in the cognition of cattle breeds,the external morphological characteristics of cattle breeds were paid attention to when the sacrificial function was dominant.Pay attention to the physical endurance of cattle when the draft function was dominant;Pay attention to the quality of beef and milk when the edible function was dominant.The long-term draft function of cattle in the historical period is the main reason for the transition from complex to simple in the records of cattle breeds in the past dynasties.In the late stage of primitive society,cattle were mainly interfered by domesticating bison as domestic cattle.During the Xia,Shang and Western Zhou dynasties,the way to interfere with cattle was mainly to complete the sacrificial activities.After the Spring and Autumn period and the Warring States period,ensuring the supply of cattle power became the main purpose of the agricultural society to impose interference on cattle.Since the 20 th century,the main purpose of human intervention in cattle is to improve meat quality and milk production.The characteristic of " named after cattle function of place names " were the combination of "function" and "geographical elements".The small place names of draft function are represented by "oxcart type",which are mainly distributed in rice farming areas with abundant surface runoff and obvious topography in south China.The small place names of edible function are represented by "eating beef",which has a strong connection with the settlement of local Hui people.The third chapter also discusses the influence of the service function of cattle on the sacrificial function and the edible function.The reform of sacrificial system in northern Wei regime and Xiaoliang regime reflects the influence of service function on sacrificial function.The variety of beef dishes in Zigong area since Ming and Qing Dynasties is the result of the influence of draft function on edible function,which reflects "Zigong mode of using cattle function".The conclusion is divided into two aspects.The first aspect is to understand the transformation and geographical distribution of cattle function in China during the historical period from the perspective of productivity reform.Based on the "diachronic" and "synchronic" perspectives,the temporal and spatial evolution of the transformation of cattle function in China during the historical period is summarized.From a diachronic perspective,this paper analyzes the "four times and three changes" of cattle function in historical period and the specific stages of productivity development.From the perspective of synchrony,it is believed that the development of cattle function in historical period and the spatial difference of cattle function in different regions have a very important relationship with the development level of productivity.The higher the regional development level is,the earlier the function transformation will be.In explaining the temporal and spatial evolution of service function,the author summarizes and thinks about its relationship with "the eastward and southward migration of economic center of gravity in ancient China","the separation of political center and economic center in ancient China" and "the formation of modern frontier pattern in northern China",so as to further deepen the understanding of this study.The second aspect,combined with the history of animal geography research present situation,the domestic animal research should be from the perspective of environmental history,explore domestic animals as biological resources,its function changes and the relationship between the human social productivity development level,and further thinking about domestic animals use change for economic development,social progress and human civilization evolution brings far-reaching influence.