Origin:
The proverb comes from "forgetting eight tails"
There is a common swearing word in modern Chinese called "bastard", from which "bastard" and "son of a bitch" are derived.
This is a folk curse. In fact, the true face of this sentence is "forgetting eight tails". "Eight tails" in ancient times refers to "filial piety, loyalty, faith, courtesy, righteousness, honesty and shame", and refers to the foundation of being a man. Forgetting "Eight tails" means forgetting the foundation of being a man, but later it was turned into an "asshole".
This explanation is obviously the view of ancient literati. In fact, people often call people "turtles", which are synonyms, and "turtles" are turtles. Therefore, in order to find out why "tortoise" or "bastard" swears, we must first find out why the tortoise is also called "tortoise". In the past, the tortoise was called "turtle", which came from historical records (see below for details). However, there are eight kinds of turtles recorded in history books, and the eighth kind is "jade turtle", not "king turtle". Obviously, calling a turtle "turtle" has nothing to do with historical records. "Turtle" also writes "forgetting eight", so it is speculated in Qing Dynasty that "turtle" is a homonym of "forgetting eight", which refers to people who have forgotten eight virtues of "courtesy, righteousness, shame, filial piety and faithfulness". But in fact, "Forgetting Eight" and "Turtle" are both common names of turtles, which have nothing to do with forgetting eight moral norms. Xie Ming Zhao Zhe's "Five Miscellaneous Men and Four" said: "Today people regard their husbands as turtles because they are called turtles." It can be seen that calling people names "Forget Eight" and "Turtle" is actually calling people names "Turtle". It can be seen that "Forgetting Eight" and "Turtle" are common names of turtles, and the word "Turtle" is the correct writing. So, why do people call turtles "turtles"? Just look at the picture of the tortoise with its belly up. The ancients called the turtle "turtle" because the texture of the tortoise's abdominal shell was "turtle" whether viewed from the front or from the back, so the ancients nicknamed the turtle "turtle". In addition, the ancients believed that turtles had no mating ability, and the mother turtles could only lay eggs after mating with snakes (see "turtles and snakes are in the same group" below), so the ancients called a man whose wife committed adultery with other men a "hybrid" and called him a "hybrid" and a "son of a bitch", meaning that he was born of his mother's adultery. This is a vicious swear word, but due to the lack of experience in observing the texture of the tortoise's abdomen and the misunderstanding of the ancients, I forgot why the tortoise was called "turtle" and why it was called "turtle", and just regarded it as an ordinary swear word.