The cultural symbolism of the rat

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The governor was even more dissatisfied: "As far as I know, anyone who asks gods to perform rituals must first take a bath and fast, and stay away from women to show piety. But you and What’s different is that the first thing that comes to mind is women! No matter what, as long as you can pray for rain to relieve the drought, I can satisfy you. If you just want to play with women, why do you have to have a wife? There are so many prostitutes in this provincial city. You can choose Yanshou! "Although rats have a bad reputation and their appearance is not pleasing to the eye, and they have been notorious as "when a rat crosses the street, everyone shouts to beat it", from the perspective of society, folklore and culture, it He has long been reborn, from a harmful person who did all kinds of evil, to a little creature with incomparable spirituality, intelligence and mystery.

Over the years, the Cause and Effect Temple has become the most popular temple in the area, and Monk Zhigui has become a well-known eminent monk. People generally believe that these animals have extraordinary spirituality and represent the will of God and ghosts and gods. Rats are on the list again, which shows that rats are inextricably intertwined with human life. Rat culture is naturally shown unabashedly in all aspects of human daily life. Rat culture makes rats become more and more cute. More and more mysterious.

The first symbolic meaning of the rat is spirituality, and time flies by. In the evening, Lin Qing is preparing to close the shop. Suddenly, he saw Yu Nu holding the child and walking towards him with a smile, and saluted him. Lin Qing suspected that she was dazzled and hurriedly rubbed her eyes, only to see that Yu Nu had already led the child towards the street. On this day, Gaozu held a banquet in Peigong to entertain the villagers. The villagers were all happy that a prince was born in their hometown. Just when they were enjoying themselves, there was a sudden noise outside the door. Gaozu was so surprised that he put down his wine glass and asked. "Why is there so much noise outside the door?" After Gaozu finished speaking, the county magistrate stood up beside him, stretched his head to listen to the outside, and then slowly calmed down, turned around, knelt on the ground and kowtowed to Gaozu: "Your Majesty, Forgive me. I came early to pay my respects to the Emperor. I met some villagers who blocked the road and complained about their injustice. Because I was under the imperial edict, I didn’t dare to delay. I didn’t want them to cause trouble and frighten the Emperor. I deserve to be punished. You deserve to die!" Qing quickly chased after him and followed him to the door of the local squire Chen, and saw the Yunu mother and son walking in through the door. Including its cleverness and performance.

Rats have a sensitive sense of smell, are timid and suspicious, and are highly vigilant. In addition, their bodies are very dexterous, they can cross walls and run as fast as flying. Moreover, they also have two other sudden abilities: From an altitude of tens of meters or even hundreds of meters, the roof of the building fell to the ground, turned around, took a breath, and then did whatever it was necessary to do as if nothing happened. There was absolutely no fan "Moo——", a voice came from not far away. Call. Wangdan immediately ran there, and dimly saw a calf about half a man tall with its legs propped up on the ground, its head lowered and eyes wide open, its horns pointed straight ahead, in a back-and-forth posture. Wang Dan was stunned: Who is this kid going to fight to the death? Looking closely, there was a dark thing in front of me, about half a man tall, staring at the calf and him with two eyes like blue flames, breathing "haha, haha" from there. From the sound, Wang Dan recognized that it was a mature "cat monkey" (local dialect: wolf). The "cat monkey" looked like a half-grown child. He immediately let go of the calf and rushed towards the prince. Wang Dan hurriedly took off the bullwhip, worked hard, shook his wrist, and heard a "snap" sound. The whip hit the old wolf's left eye, and the two blue flames suddenly disappeared. The old wolf was in pain. "Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa". Seeing this, Wang Dan rounded his whip again, pointed it at the old wolf's right eye, and there was another "pop" sound, and the other blue flame disappeared. The old wolf was so painful that he held his head with both front paws and rolled on the ground "ouch". Wangdan didn't think much and immediately took the calf by its horns and walked towards the village. Even though it is not an aquatic animal and does not have super swimming ability, narrow ditches and shallow ponds cannot stop it. In order to survive, it can drill several meters under the water in one go (beyond itself). A distance more than 10 times the body length) will remain unscathed. So throwing or drowning a rat is a waste of effort.

People often use "smarter than a mouse" to describe someone's shrewdness. The cleverness of a mouse has become a standard of analogy. It can be seen that its cleverness has reached a certain level, just like people describe the quality of a car. Excellence will definitely say "better than Mercedes-Benz", not "better than Volga". Similarly, to describe a person's actions, "Ah! Golden Rooster Girl, then call out the Golden Rooster Girl, I will ask her personally." Quick and adaptable to changes, we also often say that he is "as fickle as a mouse."

< p> Folks also believe that rats are psychic and can predict good and bad fortunes. In fact, rats are born in nature and grow up in nature. It is normal for rats to make certain reactions to unexpected events that are about to happen in nature, such as earthquakes, floods, droughts, locust plagues, etc. This is a special instinct possessed by earthly creatures, but some are limited to it. Humanity's own knowledge has not yet been able to reveal its mysteries and laws. On the eve of the Tangshan earthquake, people were surprised to find rats scurrying out into the suburbs, or huddled in groups on roads, streets and other relatively open places. They didn't know what these signs meant. Similar things must have happened many times in ancient times, so rats have become psychic gods in the minds of humans. We can get a glimpse of this through Zhou Gong’s interpretation of the rat in his dream.

In life, everyone dreams. All kinds of things will appear in dreams. If you dreamed about a rat, would you be happy or worried, a blessing or a curse? As the saying goes: "It is a blessing, not a curse, but a curse cannot be avoided." Or listen to what King Wen of the ancient Zhou Dynasty said:

If Dreaming about muskrat indicates success in career. Dreaming about many muskrats indicates that difficulties and misfortunes are coming.

Dreaming about mice means you will have too many enemies. A married woman dreams of holding a domestic mouse in her hand, indicating that she is about to give birth to a child. Dreaming about catching mice indicates that you will make dishonest friends. Dreaming about catching mice indicates that you will be plotted by the enemy. Dreaming about a cat catching a mouse is a blessing. The enemies will kill each other and both will perish. Dreaming about a dead mouse indicates good luck. Dreaming about a lot of mice indicates that failure will continue to occur. Dreaming about mice digging holes in your home indicates that your home may be stolen. If a man dreams that a mouse is biting him, disaster will be avoided. A doctor dreams of rats, indicating that infectious diseases will appear in the place where he lives.

Dreaming of a squirrel indicates that you will be rewarded through hard work. If a woman dreams of squirrels, she will be separated from her husband. A deported person dreams of squirrels, indicating that he will achieve his goal and eventually return to his homeland. Travel will be comfortable and career will be successful. Dreaming about killing a squirrel is an ominous sign and may lead to disaster. Dreaming about catching a squirrel or holding a squirrel in your hand is a good sign that you will find hidden treasure. If you dreamed that a squirrel bit you, you will have disagreements with friends on major issues. If a farmer dreams of squirrels, he will have a good harvest.

In short, "When rats fight with each other, there is official business, but when rats bite people, they do not ask for gain." The second symbolic meaning is strong vitality. One is its strong reproductive capacity and high survival rate. For example, a female rat can give birth to 5-10 pups per litter in a natural state, and the maximum can reach 24. The gestation period is only 21 days. You can get pregnant again on the day of delivery. The pups mature in 30-40 days, and the female among them joins the ranks of breeding offspring. In this way, a female rat can give birth to about 5,000 children a year, and the number of grandchildren, granddaughters, great-grandchildren, and great-grandchildren are too many to count. According to research, the body of a mother rat contains a unique chemical substance that can force male rats to prostrate themselves under her "pomegranate skirt" forever. This is probably one of the reasons why the rat world can give birth and raise children. Therefore, people live in groups with their children. Shansheng's mother is jokingly called "rat fetus" or "rat belly", which is a metaphor for her extremely strong fertility.

Rats have a high survival rate and a long lifespan. Unless they are attacked by their natural enemy cats or a large-scale extermination operation by humans, most of them can enjoy their old age, die in peace, and have many offspring. This is something that other animals can do You can't reach it if you look forward to it but "Don't be upset! Don't be upset! Wait until I come to take the concubine!"

In the past, there was a kind of non-governmental organization among the Chinese, but now it is jokingly called the "Rat Club" and has been banned. It was originally a mutual exchange between common people. In the late Ming Dynasty, there was a snake doctor named Zhang Qi in the Bodhi Mountain area of ??Chongqing. Not only did this man have superb medical skills and warm ancient ways, but what was even more strange was his family's ancestral book "Snake Expelling Curse" bound in wool and thread. , this ancient book is written in Sanskrit and soaked in herbal water. It is old and yellowish. Every month on dark and stormy nights, Zhang Qi would bathe his whole body with a specially formulated potion, put on a black robe, and put on a strange mask sewn from snake skin with only two eyes exposed, and then carry the "Snake Exorcist" Curse", with a blood-red wine gourd tied around his waist and a jet-black flute in his hand, he quietly walked towards the back mountain, sat cross-legged on a clean and smooth boulder, facing the west, spread out the "Snake Expelling Curse" and muttered something in his mouth . A form of sponsorship, members pay a certain membership fee and then introduce new members to join. Due to the large number of members, the membership fee is considerable, and this fee is used for individual members. Every member has the opportunity to receive this kind of funding, but who comes first and who comes last needs to be decided according to certain procedures or drawing lots. The principle is to pool idle social funds in a short period of time to make a few lucky members rich first. When the wolves appeared in the wolf pile with a crisp sound and a flash of fire

The wolves who were busy eating grass were frightened

They didn’t know what this thing was

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Howling and fleeing. The old man with short front legs and long hind legs was thrown near the haystack

No one cared about it. Wang Jincheng hated it with all his heart

If it hadn't been for the appearance of this old guy

How would the wolf have come up with such a harmful idea! He originally wanted to jump down and kill it

but was worried that he would not be able to return to the haystack

The only way was to light another firecracker

and throw it down to scare it into spitting out bad breath. . What a coincidence

The firecracker exploded on Lao Nong's head

It was so frightened that it trembled all over

It fell on its head on the snow

Keep whining. Wang Jincheng took out another firecracker

and was about to light it and throw it to scare it

At this moment

a wolf rushed towards him like an arrow

Falled beside him. Lao Nong hurriedly put his two front legs on the wolf's legs

The wolf turned over again and stood up Nong's belt

Fleeing away. Wang Jincheng, who was sitting on the haystack, was stunned

Where had he seen such a scene before? The firecrackers in hand were also forgotten to light. If members are in urgent need of money due to emergencies, they can also make a request and the association will discuss and determine special funding.

This originally had some security benefits for the people, but due to the specific operation process, because the leader has a large amount of funds and a lot of power, he often seeks personal gain from it, so it gradually evolved into a kind of financial exploitation, with obvious underworld elements. Colorful gangs were banned by the Communist Party, and the way they benefited was actually through the bank's small deposits and loan installments. If they really didn't exist, the next morning, the soldiers in the city looked in the distance. Without the smoke and dust kicked up by the enemy, they immediately left the city happily to collect firewood and graze their cattle. It was approaching noon, and the sun was becoming more and more poisonous. Liu Lancheng led his men and rushed directly to the city gate. The guards on the city were shocked and immediately beat drums to report. The mobile soldier arranged by Liu Lancheng heard the sound of drums and quickly went out to rob livestock. He captured some enemy soldiers who were gathering firewood and grazing alive and left immediately. want. This kind of gang develops based on the introduction of members. The more referrals they make, the more they will profit. Therefore, many people make a fortune by lobbying others to join the gang to earn "introduction fees."

Whenever there is such a "hui" or "social" day, several ministers quarrel over whose knowledge, someone proposes to make a bet to determine the knowledge. Whoever gets the most silver reward from the emperor has the greatest knowledge. For the sake of fairness, everyone can only use the emperor's favorite osmanthus wine. The boatman who drew the lot thought that the matter was perfect, but he didn't want to make a mistake and let Huang Yuerong catch Liu Hua and take him inside. He first said hello to Ma Dayan, secretly looked at Ma Dayan, and thought that he deserved to be called Ma Dayan. , The eyes are indeed big enough. Just as he was thinking about it, he heard Ma Dayan ask: "What can you do?" The case was solved within a day. Feng Yuanbiao admired Yuerong very much and loved her even more. When he got home, he hid in Yuerong's room and refused to come out. As a result, the Minister of Military Affairs is the first, the Minister of Civil Affairs is the first, and the Minister of State is the first. Wherever they exist, members go out everywhere at night, either to mobilize others to join the club or to participate in organizational gatherings. This pattern of activity and the habit of rats that lie dormant during the day and come out at night are almost impossible to do, so people have no choice but to leave Changbai Mountain and hide far away. But if the fire demon does evil again, the scope of people's activities will become smaller and smaller. In order to survive, in the spring of this year, the leader called the whole clan together and said to them: "We have to find a way to deal with the fire demon, otherwise we will all starve to death if we are not killed by it." "As soon as he finished speaking, a pretty girl stood up from the crowd and said, "I am willing to ask the gods for help to get rid of the fire demon and take back our treasure mountain." This girl's name is Rijina, and she is only ten years old. There is no difference; and one member becomes two, two becomes four, four becomes eight...it is a geometric doubling situation, which is very similar to the extraordinary fecundity of mice, so people vividly call it "rat" "Yes." In recent years, illegal pyramid schemes, friendship letters, chain letters, etc. have become popular in mainland China, and most of them are replicas of the old "rat societies."

The third symbolic meaning of the rat is delicate, tiny, and microscopic. Rats are born with a small and exquisite body and like to jump up and down, so they cannot be associated with the word "big". There is a chapter called "Shuo Mouse" in my country's first collection of poems, "The Book of Songs", which compares corrupt officials to huge mice. It does not mean that there are really such big mice; the ancient book "Hanshi Gaiden" has the chapter "She Mouse" , is also a metaphor of a mouse holding a child:

Qi Jinggong asked Yanzi: "What are you most afraid of as a man?"

Yanzi smiled and said seriously: "The rat is hiding in the Earth Temple. People want to catch it, but they are afraid of destroying the utensils in the Tutu Temple and offending the Tutu God, so there is nothing they can do about it. Now there is such a social rat around the king. May the king bid farewell. Protect them again."

This is Yanzi using the mouse to tell Qi Jinggong how to govern the country. As far as the metaphorical meaning of rat is concerned. In general, they are insignificant and need not be mentioned together. They are like "little thieves" who steal the fingers of dogs. "Old Tang Book? Biography of Xiao Xian" describes the social chaos in the late Sui Dynasty: "Since the Sui Dynasty, Yuxian County has been extinct. Carving up a small country can lead to rats and dogs stealing, but if it works big, it can lead to whales and tigers devouring each other." (Since the end of the Sui Dynasty, the world has been in chaos, with heroes standing side by side, thieves and robbers taking second place, and those who cede territory and claim to be kings suffer the most harm.)

Another example. Rat skills refer to trivial skills. "Xunzi Encouraging Learning Chapter" said: "The flying snake has no legs and can fly, and the wu rat has five skills." The literal meaning is that although the flying snake has no legs, it can run as fast as flying, and the wu rat has many skills but cannot The implication is that mastering a skill is enough for you to use it. If you are greedy for more than master, just "I have two more candles here. Let's light them when it gets dark." The old man handed A Bao two red candles. candles. I have just learned some basic skills, but no matter how much I know, it will not be of much use.

Other words such as "rat" and "rat" have the same meaning, and also imply contempt and derogatory meaning. During the Three Kingdoms period, Wang Yun hated Hu Wencai from Liangzhou, and Yang Xiu and Yang Xiu deliberately said in public: "What do the rats from Guandong want to do?" (What do these two villains from Guandong want to do?) to express their dissatisfaction.

In addition, because rat teeth grow fiercely and require constant grinding to maintain their length, people often use the term "rat tooth sparrow debate" as a metaphor for those who like to show off their rhetoric and gossip.

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