My system is not decent

Chapter 1944 The beauty of the fine food utensils of the food method is all greater than before

"Cats, raccoons, Cong Zhi, Miao Sheng, don't cut each other."

"Beaver, crouching beast, like".

Duan Yucai "raccoon": "It is called a beast that is good at subduing, that is, the so-called wild cat."

It can be seen that the ancients believed that cats were domesticated and raccoons were wild.

Because raccoons and cats are both carnivorous animals, they also eat rats, frogs, and snakes. Therefore, the two names have coexisted for a long time or have been confused.

Regarding this, Huang Han from the Qing Dynasty explained: "The raccoon and the cat have different names in ancient times. But if they can catch mice, they belong to the cat... The ancients called cat and raccoon together, and it must be based on this."

This is why they have always been loved by people.

The earliest cat specimen discovered by archeology in my country is the remains of a cat found in the Neolithic site of the Miaodigou Culture in Quanhu Village, Xishan in 1997.

Carbon fourteen dating shows that this cat lived at least 5300 years ago.

Archaeologists also found the remains of a domestic cat in the site at the southwest corner of the city wall of Chang'an City in the Han Dynasty, and in the Western Han Tomb No. [-], Dabaotai, Shendu.

Cats are one of the animals most closely related to humans, which has been recorded in ancient documents.

It is mentioned in "Book of Rites? Suburb Special Animals": "A gentleman in ancient times must repay him. To welcome a cat, he eats voles, and when he welcomes a tiger, he eats field hogs. He welcomes and sacrifices to him."

What is described here is the "wax sacrifice" of the ancient emperor, and cats and tigers are the objects of the sacrifice.

The reason is that cats can "eat field mice" and tigers can "eat field hogs".

People expect cats and tigers to come out and suppress all kinds of poisons, and "insects should not be killed".

Thus, "vegetation returns to its lake" and "gives me a hundred grains".

Therefore, cats and tigers are regarded as the gods of agriculture by the ruling class, and they are "welcome and sacrificed" to pray for a prosperous year.

And because cats have the talent of expelling rats and pests, people provide them with shelter and food.

This makes it possible for wild cats to be domesticated into domestic cats, and this is also the development process of humans from respecting cats to raising cats.

So far, the civet cat pattern painted on the lacquer food utensils of the Mawangdui Han Tomb is the earliest visual image data of cats in my country.

They are vivid, well-preserved and precious.

The appearance of these civet cat pattern images should be closely related to the eating habits at that time.

Low-slung furniture was popular in the Han Dynasty. The nobles sat on the ground and shared food.

Plates, goblets, ear cups and other food utensils are all placed on a very low case.

Since the food utensils are basically low and open, the food therein is easily eroded by rats, frogs, snakes, etc.

In order to prevent animals from stealing food, the ancients drew cats on the food utensils as a warning.

At the same time, because people in the Western Han Dynasty advocated the funeral concept of "death is like life", they believed that the kingdom of heaven was a world of happiness and bliss.

But they couldn’t let go of the illusion of the world, so when the Hou family traveled west, they took away everything in life from the world, and of course the civet cat-patterned lacquer food plate was among them.

The civet cat pattern painted on the lacquer food plate has symbolic meanings such as exterminating rats and harm, and satisfying savings.

It not only expresses the hope of the family of the Marquis, living and after death, to be rich and prosperous.

It also highlights the people's ideology at that time of "like life to send death".

This has become the best commentary for the Han people's dream of longevity and pursuit of immortality.

Of course, these are all imaginary things, but it is not difficult to see from these food utensils that the Han Dynasty had a splendid food culture.

A large number of food containers unearthed from Mawangdui Han tombs include not only "civet cat pattern lacquer plates".

There are also "moiré lacquer table", "painted lacquer dowry", "moiré lacquer tripod", etc. These food utensils are all exquisite and beautiful.

Among them, there are more than 240 exquisite lacquer food utensils such as "Jun Xing Shi" and "Jun Xing Wine" used in persuading food and drinking, either holding soup, meat and vegetables, or serving meals and cakes.

These food utensils have their own division of labor and are fully functional.

These beautifully crafted lacquer ware come in both shapes and sizes, with new decorations and delicate and gorgeous patterns, representing the highest achievement of Western Han lacquer ware.

In addition, the list of funeral objects contains a wide variety of menus.

It is divided into meat soup, barbecue, frying, steamed vegetables, hot pot and pickled products, etc., all of which were delicacies at that time.

The discovery of a large number of fruits, cakes, and meat revealed that people in the Han Dynasty were fond of fresh food.

The repatriation book also records that the lacquer tripods of Ji Hou's family were all filled with soup, and there were as many as 30 kinds of meat soup.

The seven tripods excavated from Tomb No. [-] reflect the hierarchical system of "seven tripods of princes" enjoyed by the Jihou family.

A lacquer tripod in Tomb No. [-] was unearthed and contained lotus root slices. This should be the earliest record of ancient people eating lotus root!

In short, the breadth of ingredients, the abundance of food, the essence of eating methods, and the beauty of food utensils reflected in the tomb are all greater than before.

They truly reproduce the luxurious life of the Chihou family with "food paired with beautiful utensils", show the splendid food culture in the early Han Dynasty, and also witness the brilliant achievements of the Han Dynasty civilization.

From these food utensils, it can be seen that the lacquer painting process in the Han Dynasty began to emerge.

Pile lacquer is prepared with lacquer or other substances to pile up patterns on the surface of lacquerware for decoration. This is a new method in the lacquer process of Mawangdui Han Tomb.

The pastel lacquer dowry and Zhudi painted coffins of Tomb No. 1 were decorated in this way.

The method uses a tool similar to a spray gun to squeeze the paint liquid to form raised lines, and then fills the decoration with color. The three-dimensional decorative effect is similar to that of Western oil paintings.

The cone-painted decoration as thin as a gossamer is also the most important feature on these lacquered woodware.

Cone-painted lacquerware in the early Han Dynasty developed from simple needle-cut lacquerware in the Warring States Period.

Needle-carved lacquer dome in tomb No. 1 is carved with needle-carved patterns, which is recorded as "cone painting" in the same tomb, and the patterns are as fine as gossamer.

For example, tomb No. [-] has lacquer dowry paintings on the cones, and clouds, immortals, and strange animals are painted on the cones on the outside, with slender and elegant lines.

Techniques like "hundred treasure inlay" and "gold and silver flat off" also appeared at this time.

This is to use a variety of materials for the inlay on the lacquerware, which is called inlaid lacquerware.

It can be traced back to the Shang Dynasty at the earliest, but inlaid lacquerware in the pre-Qin period is rare.

Lacquerware from the Mawangdui Han Tomb has inlays such as ivory, gold flakes, and mother-of-pearl.

For example, ivory pieces are inlaid on the lacquer board of Tomb No. 3, gold flakes are inlaid on the lacquer dowry of the Nine Sons of Tomb No. 1, and mother-of-pearl is adorned on some utensils of Tomb No. 2.

Then there is the extremely gorgeous "button" craft, which is a new craft that appeared in the late Warring States period.

In the late Warring States period, the fetal bones of lacquer ware developed in the direction of lightness and thinness.

In order to strengthen the fastness, copper hoops are added to the mouth and bottom edges of the utensils, which are called "buckles", which is a major advancement in lacquer technology.

Mawangdui Han tomb lacquerware, on the basis of inheriting the craftsmanship of the Warring States buckleware, the technology is becoming more and more mature.

For example, the cones of Tomb No. 3 in Mawangdui are painted with goblets, and the buttons and ears are inlaid with gilt copper rings, which is also the "silver mouth and yellow ears" mentioned in "Yalt and Iron".

These are all changes from previous eras, or simply mutations.

And such changes are more obvious in the inheritance of color style.

In the Hemudu Neolithic site, a red lacquer bowl was unearthed, and the red color has the meaning of witchcraft.

Chu lacquerware still retains the gorgeous ancient heritage, and the worship of ancestors has established the distinctive theme of Chu lacquerware's redness.

The promotion of red in the early Han Dynasty was probably related to Liu Bang's self-identification as "the son of the red emperor".

(End of this chapter)