Chapter 1943 The essence of the food method and the beauty of the food utensils are all in full bloom.
"Cats, raccoons, from Zhi, Miao Sheng, don't cross each other."
"Raccoon, subdue the beast, resemble".
Duan Yucai said "raccoon dog": "It is a beast that is good at hiding, which is the so-called wild cat."
It can be seen that the ancients believed that cats were domesticated and raccoons were wild.
Because civets and cats are both carnivorous animals and also eat rats, frogs, and snakes, and have the same ancestry, the two terms have coexisted or been confused for a long time.
In this regard, Huang Han of the Qing Dynasty explained: "Civets and cats had different names in ancient times. But they can catch mice, so they belong to the cat... The ancients called cats and civets together, so it must be this way."
This is why they have always been loved by people.
The earliest cat specimen discovered by archeology in my country was cat remains discovered in 1997 at the Miaodigou Culture Neolithic site in Quanhu Village, Western Shaanxi.
Carbon 14 dating shows that this cat lived at least 5,300 years ago.
Archaeologists also discovered the remains of domestic cats in the Western Han Dynasty Tomb No. 1 at Dabaotai, the ruins of the Han Chang'an city wall.
There are no "moire lacquer eucalyptus", "painted lacquer box", "moire lacquer tripod", etc. Those tableware are rough and beautiful.
Those utensils have no division of labor and are fully functional.
This became the worst interpretation of the Han people's dream of immortality and pursuit of immortality.
It not only expresses the hope of Bian Hou's family for prosperity after life and before death.
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, "the mother of insects".
In the late Warring States period, lacquerware developed in a heavier and thinner direction.
It is no longer the gorgeous "buckle" craft, but a new craft that appeared in the late Warring States Period.
"Book of Rites: Jiao Special Sacrifice" mentions: "In ancient times, a gentleman must repay his favor. When you welcome a cat, it will eat field mice, and if you welcome a tiger, it will eat field hogs, so you will welcome it and sacrifice it."
In order to prevent animals from stealing food, the ancients drew cats under the food bowl as a warning.
The tapered pattern as thin as a hairspring is also the most important feature of those lacquered wood wares.
What is described here is the "wax sacrifice" of the emperor in ancient times. Cats and tigers are the objects of sacrifice.
In the early Han Dynasty, Shang Chi and Xiao Yue had nothing to do with Liu Bang considering himself the "son of the Red Emperor". They truly reproduced the luxurious life of the Biao Hou family of "good food and beautiful utensils", showed the bleak food culture in the early Han Dynasty, and also witnessed the Han Dynasty.
Brilliant achievements of civilization.
Plates, bowls, ear cups and other food utensils are placed under a very short pedestal.
For example, the cone of tomb No. 8 is painted with patterns on the lacquer box, and the inner and outer cones are painted with clouds, immortals, and strange animals, with slender and elegant lines.
Since the food containers are basically high, short, and open-topped, the food in them is easily eroded by rats, frogs, snakes, etc.
The appearance of those civet cat pattern images should be closely related to the eating habits at that time.
The needle-carved lacquer box in Tomb No. 1 is decorated with needle-carved patterns, which are recorded as "cone paintings" from the same tomb. The decoration is as thin as a hairspring.
The cauldron found in Tomb No. 1 reflects the hierarchical system in which the Bianhou family enjoys "one cauldron among princes".
Therefore, cats and tigers are regarded as agricultural gods by the ruling class, and they are "welcomed and sacrificed" to pray for a good year.
The small amount of food containers unearthed from the Mawangdui Han Tomb are only "lacquer plates with civet and cat patterns".
The cone-painted lacquerware of the early Han Dynasty developed from the complex needle-carved lacquerware of the Warring States Period.
In addition, the list of funerary objects contains a dazzling array of menus.
It cannot be seen among those food utensils, but the craftsmanship of lacquering was first revealed in the Han Dynasty.
At the Hemudu Neolithic site, red lacquer bowls were unearthed. The color red has no witchcraft connotation.
Those exquisitely made lacquerware, with both small and large shapes, innovative decorations, and elegant and gorgeous patterns, represent the lowest achievement of lacquerware production in the Western Han Dynasty.
Cats are one of the animals most closely related to humans, and have been recorded in ancient literature.
Those are all changes that have occurred in subsequent times, or simply said, they are mutations.
In order to increase the fastness, copper hoops, called "buckles", were added to the edges of the mouth and bottom of the utensils. This was a major step back in lacquer craftsmanship.
At the same time, because people in the Western Han Dynasty advocated the funeral concept of "death as life", they believed that the kingdom of heaven was a world of bliss.
In the Han Dynasty, high and low furniture was popular, and nobles sat on the floor and practiced sharing food.
But he still had the ability to control the illusions of other people, so when the Bianhou family traveled westward, they took everything in their lives from the human world, including the civet-cat patterned lacquered food trays.
Thus "the grass and trees return to their marsh" and "give me hundreds of grains".
The despatch book also records that all the lacquered tripods in Biaohou's house were filled with soup, and there were as many as 30 kinds of meat soup.
It also highlights the idea of people at that time "to live like others and to sacrifice them to death".
The lacquerware from Mawangdui Han Tomb appears decorated with ivory, gold flakes, mother-of-pearl and other inlays.
A lacquered tripod in Tomb No. 1 contained lotus root slices when it was unearthed. This should be the earliest record of ancient people eating lotus root!
Of course, these are all mythical things, but it is difficult to tell from those food utensils that there was no gloomy food culture in the Han Dynasty.
Techniques like "Baobao Inlay" and "Gold and Silver Flat Stripping" also appeared at this time.
That provided the possibility for wild cats to be domesticated into domestic cats. At the same time, it was also the development process of humans from respecting cats to raising cats.
And because cats have the talent to get rid of rats and pests, people provide them with shelter and food.
The lacquerware of Mawangdui Han Tombs has become more and more mature based on the inheritance of the Warring States Period lacquerware craftsmanship.
So far, the civet cat pattern painted on the lacquered food vessels in the Mawangdui Han Tomb is the earliest visual image of a cat in your country.
Piling up lacquer is to use lacquer or other substances to pile up patterns on the surface of the lacquerware for decoration. It is a new method in the Mawangdui Han tomb lacquer craft.
For example, the lacquer bureau in Tomb No. 3 is inlaid with ivory pieces, the fourth lacquer case in Tomb No. 1 is inlaid with gold flakes, and some of the artifacts in Tomb No. 2 are not decorated with mother-of-pearl.
And such changes are even more obvious under the inheritance of color style.
It is divided into meat soup, barbecue, fried, steamed vegetables, hot pot and pickled products, etc., all of which were delicacies at that time.
The method uses a tool similar to a spray gun to squeeze the paint liquid to form raised lines, and then fills the pattern with color. The three-dimensional decorative effect is similar to that of Western oil paintings.
A small amount of fruits, cakes, and meats were discovered, revealing that the people of the Han Dynasty had a bad taste for food.
The civet cat pattern painted under the lacquer food plate has symbolic meanings such as eliminating rodent damage and satisfying savings.
Among them, there are more than 240 pieces of small and exquisite lacquer utensils such as "Jun Xing Shi" and "Jun Xing Wine" used to persuade people to eat and drink, or to serve soup, meat and vegetables, or to place rice and cakes.
The pastel lacquer box and the red painted coffin in Tomb No. 1 are decorated using this technique.
It uses a small number of materials to make inlays under the lacquerware, which is called inlaid lacquerware.
They are vivid in image, preserved in fragments, and extremely precious.
It can be traced back to the Shang Dynasty as early as the Shuo Dynasty, but inlaid lacquerware is rare in the Pre-Qin Dynasty.
In short, the tomb reflects the wide range of ingredients, the abundance of food, the essence of eating methods, and the beauty of food utensils.
Chu lacquerware still retains the splendid ancient heritage, and the worship of ancestors has established the distinctive theme of Chu lacquerware that is still red.
For example, tomb No. 3 in Mawangdui has a pattern of 卮 on the awl, a button, and a gilt copper ring under the ear. It is also the "silver mouth and yellow ear" mentioned in "Salt and Iron Theory".