Chinese name: culture of the rat mbth: culture of the rat, also known as: The Legend of the Year of the Rat: the cultural situation thousands of years ago, the history of the rat, the characteristics of zoology, the contribution and characteristics of the rat, the species of the rat, the stamp of the rat, the symbolic significance of the rat, culture of the rat, the rat play, the rat custom, the rat proverb, the rat poem, the rat two-part allegorical saying, the rat puzzle, the rat painting, the first of the 12 zodiac animals, the rat. Mice and humans, mouse research, mouse image and cultural status Although mice have a bad reputation and ugly appearance, they have long been cursed. However, from the perspective of society, folklore and culturology, it has long been reborn, from an unscrupulous pest to a small creature with incomparable spirituality, intelligence and mystery. As early as thousands of years ago, the so-called "four masters" and "five doors" of primitive animal worship were circulated among the people in China, which reflected the awe of foxes, weasels, stingers, mice and snakes. It is generally believed that these animals have extraordinary spirituality and represent the will of heavenly ghosts. Rats are on the list again, which shows that rats are inextricably linked with human life. Mouse culture naturally appears in every aspect of human daily life, which makes mice more and more lovely and mysterious. The history of mice The word "mouse" is like a little mouse Zhang Zhu biting something in Oracle Bone Inscriptions; In the process of evolution and development from Shang Dynasty to Qin Dynasty 1000 years, the pictographic mouse character has undergone great changes and has become linear in Xiao Zhuan in Qin Dynasty. The mouse character in official script evolved on the basis of official script. The mouse's head became square, and the mouse's feet and tail were still pictographic, but the image of the mouse was not obvious. The mouse character in regular script absorbs the characteristics of the mouse character in official script, which is the word "mouse" used today, and cursive script is more common in artistic calligraphy and painting works. Archaeological discoveries near Anhui province show that rats have lived on the earth for more than 47 million years before human beings appeared, which can be said to be living fossils. Rats with zoological characteristics can be divided into generalized rats and narrow rats. Rats in a broad sense All rodents can be called rats. They are widely distributed all over the world, adapt to a variety of lifestyles, including terrestrial, arboreal, semi-aquatic and underground life, and are good at jumping, running, climbing, gliding, swimming and digging. Nevertheless, their basic characteristics are the same, that is, they all have four front teeth with teeth, two upper teeth and two lower teeth, and no canine teeth. The pulp cavity is not closed, so the incisors can keep growing (in order to inhibit the growth of incisors, rats often chew hard objects, which does great harm to human beings. ) In a narrow sense, Ratatouille and Ratatouille have more than 100 genera respectively. Their common characteristics are small size, gray fur, light kiss, small eyes and naked scaly tail. The contribution of mice, but everything has duality, and the contribution of mice to human beings is enormous. Rodents are albinos of Rattus norvegicus and Mus musculus, which are used as experimental animals in science and medicine, and their number is as high as tens of millions every year. Because of the large dosage, it is said that there is a factory in the United States that specializes in producing a hairless mouse for experiments. In addition, the hair of domestic mice is also one of the hard proteins. After hydrolysis, it can be used to make drugs such as hydrolyzed protein, cystine and cysteine. Rat meat is a good feed for mink, and it can also be fed to carnivores in the zoo. There are not only many kinds of characteristic rats, but also an amazing number. It is estimated that the total number of rats in the world is several times more than the population. Besides Rattus norvegicus, Rattus flavipectus, Rattus norvegicus and Rattus norvegicus, there are also nest rats, voles, gerbils, hamsters, jerboa, musk deer, zokor and so on. The largest mouse in the world is the American opossum, with a cat-like body. The smallest mouse jumps in Lake Balkhash, Russia. The largest number of rats in the world is Rattus norvegicus, accounting for about 1/3 of the world's rodents, and the smallest number is Judija Jamaica, and only one pair is kept in the nursery garden. Rats eat hundreds of billions of kilograms of grain every year, but also destroy grasslands and spread diseases, so rats are one of the "four pests". Rats are notorious for eating bad things, and they are very annoying. So, "Don't shout at mice crossing the street." Most of the words composed of mouse characters also contain derogatory meanings, such as "short-sighted mouse", "mouse running in the wolf", "mouse's liver and worm's arm", "mouse's tooth and sparrow's horn" and "rat thief and dog thief". Rat species (1) Rattus norvegicus likes to live beside ditches, so it is also called ditch rat. (2) Rattus norvegicus is good at climbing and likes to live in pavilions and other high places, so it is also called roof rat. (3) Rattus flavipectus is widely distributed in southern China, and its habits are similar to those of Rattus norvegicus. (4) Mus musculus, which is widely distributed in China, is small in size and often lives in debris piles and various gaps in houses. Mouse Stamps In China, there are many folk stories about mice. The most famous ones are "Rat Marry" and "Rat Marry Woman", which have become the themes of artists' New Year pictures and are deeply loved by the general public. And spread to neighboring countries such as Vietnam. Therefore, 1996, a set of 2 stamps and a sheetlet issued by Vietnam, adopts the story of "a mouse marries a woman" (Figure 2 shows a sedan chair). The mini-pane of Zodiac stamps issued by Ghana 1996 (Figure 3) adopts the story of "the mouse marries", which consists of four stamps, respectively depicting the lively scene of the mouse marrying the bride: in the first picture, the groom is riding a horse, and the mouse gongs and screams to clear the way; In the second picture, the mouse carrying the wedding ceremony is "a hundred years". Rats are annoying, harmful and intelligent animals, and their images often appear in literary works, with love and hate. The earliest is Feng Wei in The Book of Songs. The eighth1~ 83 of Journey to the West wrote that the bottomless rat essence forced Tang Priest to get married, which was the development of the rat marriage story. "A Xian" in Strange Tales from a Lonely Studio is about of mice and men's love, which is vivid and vivid! Lou Rat in Fifteen Levels is a rat thief and a murderer. Bai Sheng, a day mouse in Water Margin, is a character in 108. The "five rats" who made a scene in Tokyo in "Three Heroes and Five Righteousness" are chivalrous men, which are very popular among readers. Wait, wait. China has a long-standing folk song: "Little mouse, on the lampstand, stealing oil and drinking, can't get off the stage." It is said that the mouse smells the fragrance in the oil pan and wants to eat it, but it can't get in. What should I do? After repeated several times, I finally dipped my long tail into the pot mouth and ate the oil. This story is very interesting, so the stamp designer put it on the Zodiac stamp, which is a bit like the first picture of the Zodiac stamp (1960- 1) issued by China in 1996: the mouse is holding a lampstand, with an oil gourd stamp on the left, and its tail is almost in the oil gourd. The composition of the zodiac rat stamps is relatively straightforward, such as the zodiac stamps issued by Grenada, the Grenadines and Gambia in Africa (Figure 4 ~ 5). Legend has it that the mouse rode on the back of a cow to register and won the first place in the ranking competition of the zodiac. It can be seen that the mouse is a flexible animal with a high IQ. Therefore, the legend that rats are heavenly rats (god rats) has been circulated among the ancient people: the second picture of the Zodiac stamp (1996-1) issued in China1996 and the first picture of the New Year postage postcard (with prizes) in 2007 adopted the folklore of "rats biting the sky": the ancient world. In the creation myths of some ethnic minorities in China, there are also legends similar to "mice bite the sky", such as Mupa Papa, a creation epic of Lahu nationality, which describes that Ersa God cultivated a gourd for educating people, but people grew up in the gourd but could not get out. Only the mouse bit a hole in the gourd and welcomed Zadi and Nadi, who became the ancestors of the Lahu people. Some Asian countries are influenced by China culture, and there are also legends about rats, which can be seen on stamps issued by Korean, Mongolian, Thai, Bhutan and other countries. The main picture (Figure 6) of the Jiazi Zodiac stamp issued in Korea 1984 is a stone sculpture of a mouse standing with a weapon in his hand. The prototype is taken from the stone statue of the zodiac in the cemetery of General Jin Yuxin, the founding hero of Silla Dynasty. Mongolian Zodiac Stamp (Figure 7) issued in 1972 consists of a god mouse racing against a spaceship. On the left of the design is a fat mouse running forward, and on the right is Apollo 15 driven by two American astronauts chasing after it. Vivid image, humorous and romantic composition. On June 1 99665438+1October1day, the stamps of the Zodiac Mouse (both of them) are based on the design concept of the mythical mouse, depicting flying squirrels with rich colors. 1996 The Zodiac Rat Stamp issued in Thailand is based on the Thai mythical Buddha wheel X "Jipeng Nana", depicting the grace of the gods riding mice (as shown in Figure 8). The mice controlled by immortals should be "heavenly mice" (divine mice). The Kingdom of Bhutan is adjacent to China. Influenced by Tibetan culture, Tibetan calendar was adopted, and 1996 was the year of "Fire Rat". Therefore, the "Year of the Bingzi" Zodiac stamp issued by Bhutan is designed with the legendary "Fire Rat" (Figure 9). There is also a record of "fire rat" in China's miraculous classics: there is a volcano in the south, which is forty miles long and has inexhaustible firewood. It burns day and night, and there is a mouse in the fire. It weighs 100 kg, and its hair is more than two feet long ... 1997, a small stamp on the China Zodiac issued by the Kingdom of Bhutan, including the main picture of a mouse running between the moon and the earth. (Figure 65433 Symbolic meaning of the mouse) The first symbolic meaning of the mouse is spirituality, including its intelligence and psychic performance. Rats have a keen sense of smell, are timid and suspicious, and are highly vigilant. In addition, their bodies are very dexterous and they run like flies. Moreover, they have two other sudden abilities: from a height of tens of meters or even hundreds of meters, they fall from the roof to the ground, turn around and breathe as if nothing had happened, and they have no worries about life at all; Although it is not an aquatic animal and has no super swimming ability, a narrow ditch and shallow pond can't stop it. In order to survive, it can drill several meters at the bottom of the water in one breath, but it is unscathed. So it's useless to fall to death or drown a mouse. People often use "more powerful than a mouse" to describe someone's shrewdness. The shrewdness of mice has become the standard of category comparison, which shows that it has reached a considerable level, just as people will say "better than a Mercedes-Benz" instead of "better than a Volga" when describing the excellent quality of a car. Similarly, to describe a person who is quick and responsive, we often say that he is "as fickle as a mouse." People also believe that mice have special functions and can predict good luck or bad luck. In fact, rats are born in nature and grow longer than nature. It is normal for them to respond to unexpected events that will happen in nature, such as earthquakes, floods, droughts and locust plagues. This is a special instinct of life on earth, but there is also some knowledge limited to human beings, which does not reveal its mystery and law. On the eve of the Tangshan earthquake, people were surprised to find that rats were running around in the suburbs or curled up in relatively empty places such as roads and streets. It is not clear what this sign means. Similar things must have been repeated many times in ancient times, so the mouse became a psychic in human mind. We can get a glimpse of the mouse through the explanation of Duke Zhou. The second symbolic meaning of the mouse is its strong vitality. One is strong reproductive ability and high survival rate. For example, a female rat can give birth to 5 ~ 10 rats per fetus in natural state, with a maximum of 24 rats, and the gestation period is only 2 1 day. The female rats can be pregnant again on the day of delivery, and the young rats will mature after 30-40 days, and the female rats among them will join the breeding ranks. In this way, mother mouse can give birth to about 5,000 children a year, but there are too many grandchildren, Ceng Zi and great-grandchildren. According to research, the female mouse contains a unique chemical substance, which can make the male mouse bow to its pomegranate skirt forever, which is probably one of the reasons why the mouse community can have children. Therefore, the folk call the good mother of the children group "mouse fetus" or "mouse belly", which means that her fertility is particularly strong. Rats have high survival rate and long life. Most of them can enjoy their old age, die of old age, and have a large number of children, which is beyond the reach of other animals unless they are attacked by natural enemy cats or put out on a large scale by human beings. On the stage of China's drama, the mouse plays performed by the actors are also varied and interesting. For example, the story drama Five Rats in Tokyo in the Song Dynasty left a deep impression on people. There is also a mouse show performed by folk artists, which is even more amazing. For example, in the Eastern Jin Dynasty, there was a folk performance of "the mouse pushes the mill" and "the mouse swings". In the Qing Dynasty, rat play became more popular. At that time, artists carried wooden boxes and walked the streets. There is a mouse box in the box, and a small stage made of painted wood is tied to it. Artists sing folk songs, beat gongs and drums and perform. What programs such as "San Niang Pumping" and "Liu Gua" make people laugh their heads off and linger? Some folk customs related to mice are quite interesting. For example, in southern Zhejiang, the custom of "beating mice's eyes" was popular in ancient times, that is, during the Lantern Festival, people cooked black beans and scattered them indoors. The bean scatterer stood under the beam and threw black beans at it, chanting: "On the west beam, under the east beam, the mice were killed." "Common beliefs can destroy mice. Another example is that the Maonan people in Guizhou regard the first day of the twelfth lunar month as the "rat-sending Festival". These folk customs reflect people's hatred of rats. There are many proverbs related to mice among the people, such as "If a cat makes a noise, it will catch the mouse", "A big cat will catch the tail of the mouse", "A mouse will spoil a pot of soup", "A mouse can't keep overnight food", "A cat bites a cat, a mouse laughs" and "A small mouse catches all the food, and a big mouse panics". Although these proverbs are simple in language, they have profound meanings and are quite attractive to read. Among the numerous rat poems, there are some poems about rats, such as Du Fu's "Birds sing, wild rats arch holes" in the Tang Dynasty, Liu Zongyuan's "Beaver rats are full of grass, and they are frightened and injured every night", Liu Yuxi's "Suddenly smelling hungry birds gather, peeping at the clouds is rotten rats" in the Tang Dynasty, and Lu You's "MOON PHASE's family can empty the rat hole, so" has also made a book to rummage through the jar. Raccoons boast of cicadas, but they know that they sleep all night after eating. Fools are all thumbs. It's ridiculous that a piece of cloth covers their eyes and imitates the cat's meowing. In the Qing Dynasty, the "frost moon crows, the night is proud and hungry" and so on. China's allegorical sayings about mice are numerous, such as "The mouse crosses the street-everyone shouts", "The mouse looks up to the sky-a little knowledge", "The mouse falls into the rice jar-every cloud has a ray of light", "The mouse bites the trunk-I don't know the meaning" and "The mouse gets into the book box-tells something". These two-part allegorical sayings are humorous and unforgettable. The mouse riddle is in the couplet garden, and some riddles contain the word "mouse"; If the riddle is "Lou's mouse asks divination", make an idiom (A: Have a guilty conscience); The riddle is "Fly like a bird, sit like a cat, catch mice at night and count their martial arts", and name a bird (answer: owl). Some answers are related to the word "mouse", such as "seeking children" and acting a Kunqu opera (answer: visiting mice). Ancient and modern painters seldom like to draw mice, but the mice written by Qi Baishi, a master of Chinese painting, are lifelike and have both form and spirit. His Mouse and the Oil Lamp is simple in composition and vivid in image. The oil lamp is painted on the left, and the flame on the oil core seems to be blown by the breeze. At the bottom right of the picture is a mouse, which is concise and full of agility. Legend has it that one day the Jade Emperor will arrange the zodiac, and he designated cows, tigers, rabbits, dragons, snakes, horses, sheep, monkeys, chickens, dogs, pigs and cats. The next day, the Jade Emperor ranked them. At that time, cats and mice were good friends. The cat said to the mouse, "You should wake me up early tomorrow. I am one of the 12 Zodiacs, and I will be ranked second in heaven tomorrow. " The mouse readily agreed. The next day, the mouse woke up early. He didn't wake the cat, but went to heaven by himself. At that time, it happened to be the second time. The Jade Emperor arranged the twelve zodiac animals in the order of ox, tiger, rabbit, dragon, snake, horse, sheep, monkey, chicken, dog, pig and cat. The jade emperor asked the animals if they had any opinions. The mouse objected: "I don't think cats should be chosen. He has no respect for you at all. " You see, he is still sleeping, and he doesn't care about your arrangement of the zodiac at all. "The jade emperor saw the cat really asleep! He broke out in a rage. In a rage, he decided never to allow cats to go to heaven again. At the same time, he replaced the cat with a mouse. The mouse spoke again: "I must be the first!" """why? Is your contribution greater than that of an ox? ""People think I'm much bigger than an ox. " The Jade Emperor had no choice but to let people judge him. Cattle from the world to the clouds all say, "Oh! What a big cow! " Then, they saw the mouse standing on the cow's head and said, "What a big mouse! It is even bigger than a cow! " The jade emperor had to put the mouse first. Happy Year of the Rat newsletter 1, He Xinchun, celebrate the festival, congratulations on making a fortune! Happy new year, all the best, all the best! Prosperity, prosperity, three mice open Thailand to welcome the prosperous times! 2, I wish you can't finish eating mountain rat cotton mouse, travel abroad everywhere, and all foreign money is in the bucket ... In short, the mouse is blessed and the mouse is at home! ! ! 3. I quietly put my blessing and hope on the melted snow cover, let them grow along the seedlings in spring, and give you richness and fragrance all the year round! Happy new year! I wish you good health in the new year! You did a good job. Promote to a higher position and make a fortune, rat is proud! -5. In the Year of the Rat, I wish you a comfortable job, a happy salary, a warm bed, a close friend and a United lover. All goes well, always happy and all goes well! 6. My wish for the Year of the Rat: the cement road grows grass, the hot pot falls off, the leather clothing shop closes, and everyone is a mouse. 7. I wish you a happy Year of the Rat, full of sunshine, proud of love, proud of your career, and bad luck. 8. The days are getting longer and longer, and people live longer and longer, full of spring. Three mice bring good luck to Thailand, and Five Blessingg is rich in financial resources. I wish you a happy new year, happiness and health! ! 9. Happy New Year, be safe all the year round, live and work in peace and contentment, prosper and prosper, strive for the best, stay young forever, and wish you happiness! 10, in this beautiful winter warm mouse, I look at you who are proud of the mouse, and you are a bully. I really want to say to you: don't pretend, my mouse lamb, I know you love me very much. 1 1, I wish: progress in the new year! Three mice drive Thai! Get what you want step by step! 12, the celebration of the Spring Festival, everyone's joy. Celebrate the year of fat together. I wish you all the best in the Year of the Rat and always smile. -13, Year of the Rat: famous for a while, thriving, big red, big red, blockbuster, Malaysia first! 14, the dark horse is ahead of the mouse, and the mouse is lucky. Good luck, good luck, good luck, good luck. Wealth flows into the river and into the sea, and officials ascend Buddha and cross the wall. Great joy must be sober, Xiangyang is not Luoyang. 15, Year of the Rat, Year of the Rat, achievements, don't be proud, fail, don't die, work together, fire, be lucky, fall from the sky, share with you, and laugh heartily! 16, the role of ponytail is the surprise of Golden Mouse Kaitai. The blessing of an old friend is eternal love. If the blessing has been said by thousands of people, I will be lucky to keep it. 17, the Spring Festival of the Year of the Rat is coming, send a message to say hello; Have a good day and a good night's sleep; Gold falls from the sky and hits your feet; To ask who I am, please look at my mobile phone number. 18, I wish Golden Mouse a happy life! Happy mouse! Rat hoof forge ahead! Proud mouse! 19, I wish you all the best in the Year of the Rat, rich in financial resources, and congratulations on making a fortune! 20, happy new year, three mice open Thailand, triumphant, good things, smooth sailing, perfect, rich, rich. Studies on mice and humans have found that 99% of the skeletal structure of mice is the same as that of humans. It is reported that researchers at the University of Jerusalem recently published a tomographic image of mouse bones for the first time, which clearly shows the detailed features of mouse bone structure, including tiny bones, with an accuracy of millimeters. If the mouse is enlarged and stretched in proportion, the bones of the mouse are almost the same as those of humans except for the face, feet and tail. In addition, in pathology, mouse and human bone cells also have a lot in common. British and American scientists have concluded through research that the length of mouse gene coding chain is almost the same as that of human beings, with 2.5 billion pairs of nucleotides in mice, slightly less than 2.9 billion pairs of nucleotides in humans. 80% of human genes are exactly the same as mice, and 99% of human genes are very similar to mice. All these indicators are beyond the reach of monkeys who are closer to humans in appearance. Mouse research is based on the above reasons, and scientists generally engage in research work to treat human diseases with the help of mice. They think it is easier to study the function of genes through mice than through humans. It is reported that scientists transplanted human genes into mice in experiments, and as a result, a kind of mouse was cultivated. Its brain volume is much larger than that of ordinary mice, so that it can hardly accommodate the brain in the cranial cavity, thus forming a folded gyrus, similar to humans. Geneticists in Pennsylvania, USA are conducting a new study, trying to make mice produce human beings. In addition, the biochemist of Ohio University recently developed a super-large mouse with strong vitality. It is reported that this kind of mouse was very active at birth. It can run for 5-6 hours without stopping even if it doesn't eat or drink, and it runs very fast. It turns out that scientists injected a highly active gene into mouse embryos, which is responsible for producing a kind of protein, which makes the content of protein in muscles hundreds of times higher than that of ordinary mice. According to reports, this kind of mouse eats several times as much as ordinary mice, but it will not lead to obesity, and its life span is much longer, and it can live to 150 years old equivalent to human beings. Even in old age, this kind of mouse can still maintain extremely vigorous fertility. Scientists say that humans have similar genes. If human beings can have such high physical strength and endurance, they will certainly cultivate super-high-intensity athletes. But for moral reasons, we can't do the same experiment on people. A few years ago, in a church in Austria, people found a picture of an animal resembling a mouse on a mural, and its image was strikingly similar to Mickey Mouse. It is said that this mural has a history of more than 700 years. This shows that humans not only humanized mice very early, but also deified them. Does the Mickey Mouse image of Disneyland in America come from here? For a time, it became a question for people. An artist even joked that in the murals of Austrian churches, Mickey Mouse, the protagonist portrayed in American cartoons, was next to the icon.