There is an old saying in China that "food is the most important thing for the people". Agriculture is the origin of human civilization, and mere hunting and gathering can no longer satisfy survival and reproduction. However, in the long history of thousands of years, the ancients have already tasted the taste of birds and animals through constant exploration. Generally speaking, it is necessary to raise livestock and poultry. Those animals can not only play their own housekeeping skills, but also be used by human beings. At worst, they can also be used as relief food in critical situations, and their uses are very extensive. Strangely, the ancients could eat dog meat, beef, chicken and even horse meat, but they didn't eat cats. Why?

As early as 3 years ago in the Zhou Dynasty, there were already records about cats. The Book of Songs recorded that there were bears, cats and tigers. However, the poem juxtaposes cats with tigers and black bears, which seems to refer not to domestic cats, but more to a beast. During the Warring States Period, Autumn Waters in Zhuangzi mentioned: It takes thousands of miles to catch rats, but it's not as good as catching raccoons. In ancient times, raccoon dogs mostly referred to wild cats. If cats are compared with good horses, they probably refer to domestic cats.

However, since the cat was introduced to China from the Arabian region, it has been regarded as an auspicious animal by the ancients, for no other reason than that it is a small expert in catching mice. There is a saying in the Book of Rites: The ancient gentleman must report it, and the cat will eat voles for it. Over time, wild cats that prey on mice were gradually domesticated by the ancients and introduced into human settlements. Later, with the passage of time, cats that were revered as auspicious animals also fell from the altar, and a generation of rat catchers became human pets.

However, the cat is lucky, because it has never been reduced to food. After all, human beings have hardly spared any small animals living around them, such as chickens, ducks, geese, dogs, sheep and rabbits, and they have all become human meals. In fact, it's not that the ancients showed great kindness, but that Li Shizhen recorded the nature of cats as food as early as in Compendium of Materia Medica. It is recorded in the book: however, raccoon dog meat is eaten, cat meat is not good, and it is not eaten, so it is rare to use it. It means that it is ok to let cats catch mice at ordinary times, but once it is used as food, neither the taste nor the taste of meat is very good, so it is not suitable for food.

besides the bad taste of cats, small quantity is also a key. In ancient times, the output of cats was very small. A cat could not give birth to a few cubs a year. Moreover, cats were carnivores, so it was not easy to feed them. Ordinary people could not eat meat themselves, let alone feed them. Not only that, but the meat on the cat is also pitiful. After the hair is removed, there is no meat left. After working hard for so long, it is completely a loss-making business to get such a little meat. Who would want to eat a cat?

However, the ancients did not eat cats, but seldom ate them. There is a famous dish in Cantonese cuisine called "Long Hudou", also known as "Braised Three Snakes with Leopard and Beaver", which is made from civet cats and snakes. In addition, China also has a famous dish about cats, which is called "boiled live cat". The chef knocks the cat unconscious with a sap first, and then puts it into boiling water to cook it alive, so that the cat is full of blood and gas and tastes better.

Although cats are rare as food, they are very popular as a special "medicinal material". "Compendium" records: the main labor abscess, rat fistula, poison. The ancients thought that cat meat had the miraculous effect of preventing poison. If people got rat sores, it would be better to eat a little cat meat. However, cats in modern society have become the "masters" of the family. Cat owners are the objects that cat lovers "serve", and they have long since got rid of the danger of being used as food.