From:
1, Zhou Li tianguan renji: "palm * * * six animals and six birds, and identify their names." Zheng Xuan said: "Six animals have six natures. The livestock originally raised will be used as sacrifices. " Later, livestock or animals were used together, generally referring to livestock.
2. "Twenty-five Years of Zuo Zhao Zhuan Gong": "Six animals, five sacrifices, three sacrifices and five flavors." Du pre-note: "horses, cows, sheep, chickens, dogs, tapirs."
3. Wang Song Yinglin's Amethyst: "Horses, cows, sheep, chickens and dogs. These six animals are all fed by people. " Since then, six kinds of animals have become household names.
Animal archaeologists and agricultural historians have made a preliminary study on the origin of six kinds of animals. Zhou Benxiong studied the animal bones of some important sites and thought that dogs, pigs and chickens had been domesticated in magnetic mountain culture's time. It is doubtful that the bones of cattle, sheep and horses unearthed from Yangshao cultural site are incomplete. Horses, cattle and sheep are all domestic animals that appeared in the Longshan culture era, and horses may be later.
Chen Wenhua systematically collected the data of six kinds of animals in archaeological relics, and thought that pigs occupied the most important position in the Neolithic Age in China, ranking first among the six kinds of animals. Animal husbandry was particularly developed in Shang and Zhou dynasties, and horses have become the first of the six livestock. 《
China Agricultural Encyclopedia and Agricultural History Volume clearly points out that China is the first country in the world to domesticate wild boar as domestic pig. It is also the earliest known country to raise chickens in the world; Dogs, also called dogs, are the earliest domesticated domestic animals in China. Horse is one of the most important draught animals in the history of China, and is known as the first of the six animals. China is one of the earliest countries to raise horses in the world. Cattle is one of the earliest domesticated animals in China, including yellow cattle, buffalo and yak. Sheep is also one of the earliest domesticated animals in China, including sheep and goats. China is one of the origins of raising sheep at home.
This represents the basic view of China agricultural historians on the origin of six kinds of animals in the 1990s: pigs, dogs and chickens were first domesticated in China, while horses, cows and sheep were not foreign.