Why is the chicken a bird of five virtues?

Do you know why chickens are birds of five virtues? I believe there are still people who don't know why chickens are birds of five virtues. Let's talk about why chickens are birds of five virtues.

In ancient China, chickens were particularly valued and were called "birds with five virtues". The biography of Korean poetry says that it has a crown on its head and is a virtue. There is a distance behind the foot to play, which is martial arts; It is brave to dare to fight in front of the enemy; It is benevolence to have food to welcome the same kind; Vigilance and dawn are beliefs. People even regard the chicken as a mascot, saying that it can ward off evil spirits, eat all kinds of poisonous insects and kill pests for human beings. Therefore, on the first day of the New Year, people cut chickens with red paper as window grilles and designated this day as "Chicken Day".

This custom evolved from ancient myths. It is said that there is a mountain in the East China Sea called Dushuo Mountain, also called Du Taoshan. There is a huge peach tree on the mountain, and its roots stretch for 3,000 miles in Fiona Fang. There is a golden rooster at the top of the tree, which is made at sunrise. When it crows, chickens all over the world crow, so the chicken cut on New Year's Day is actually a symbol of chicken. On New Year's Day, the ancients carved mahogany into statues, stood in front of the gate, and inserted a few rooster feathers to symbolize pheasants. Later, after the peach characters evolved into Spring Festival couplets, the custom of inserting chicken feathers became the custom of cutting chicken and sticking it on the window for decoration. Nowadays, the most common way to cut window grilles in rural areas is rooster. The Chronicle of Jingchu records the custom of cutting chicken on New Year's Day. This custom seems to have started in the Southern and Northern Dynasties and has been circulating for at least 1500 years.

In ancient times, before the seventh day of the first month of each year, it was called "Livestock Day", and the first day was Chicken Day; The next day is dog day; The third day is the year of the pig; The fourth day is sheep day; The fifth day is the Year of the Ox; The sixth day is horse day. After the six animals were discharged from the hospital, it was the seventh day of the seventh day.

Why is this arrangement? The source is not found in ancient books. However, in the old folk book "Farm Handyman", it is said that there are three ways to arrange it: one way is to arrange it according to the order of human taming six livestock, and chickens are domesticated as livestock first, followed by dogs, and so on. Second, according to the size of the six animals, chickens and dogs are relatively small, ranking first, while cows and horses are relatively large, ranking behind. The third is arranged according to the distance between six animals and people. As the saying goes, there is no family without chickens and dogs. Old people think that chickens and dogs can pick up scattered food at home, so they are kept indoors, close to people, followed by pigs and sheep, cows and horses and other fences and stables, which are farthest from the room, so they rank last. The latter seems to have some truth. According to ancient fairy tales, Liu An, the king of Huainan in the Han Dynasty, became a fairy (in fact, he was forced to commit suicide because of rebellion) and soared. Even the chickens and dogs at home were taken to the cloud together. As the saying goes, "When one person gets the word, chickens and dogs ascend to heaven", and the story of pigs, sheep, cows and horses ascending to heaven with their masters has never been told.

Why do livestock rank first, while people rank behind six livestock? This problem has not been mentioned in ancient books. China's creation myth has long been lost. Words like Pangu's creation and Nu Wa's kneading clay balls to create human beings came into being later, which is very simple. However, human beings who can create tools and think about higher animals appear later than lower animals, which is in line with the principle of biological evolution. If there are no plants and animals in the world, how can human beings live? So these animals and plants must have been produced before people were born, probably because people's day is after six animal days.

Six Livestock Festival is not a festival, but in the old society, farmers paid attention to six livestock. On the sixth day of the first month, the custom of putting red notes and burning incense on pigsty, sheepfold and cowshed is still popular everywhere. Others use sunny weather to predict the rise and fall of livestock, thinking that sunny weather for chickens is a prosperous year and cloudy weather is a disaster for chickens; It's sunny in the dog days, which means that the dog is in good health and ill. And so on. Of course, this kind of divination is not necessarily scientific, but a statement made by farmers in those days.

Through the above introduction of why chicken is a bird of five virtues, I believe you have a deeper understanding of why chicken is a bird of five virtues!