Why did ancient private schools go in to worship deer?

In the past, private schools had Confucius memorial tablets for students and teachers to worship. In that painting, sika deer crouches, representing "Fulu".

Sika deer:

"Deer" is homophonic with "Lu", and "Deer" also means "Lu". Those who have money, wages, rewards and high officials are generous. The original meaning of "deer" is "blessing", so "deer" also contains the meaning of "blessing".

"Sika Deer" has a certain connection with "Plum Blossom List": in the Qing Dynasty, in Shaoxing, Lu Xun's hometown, the list of candidates for the imperial examination was written as "Plum Blossom List" when it was published-each list had 50 people, 1 capital, and the second place was ranked at the lower right. If the rest are written clockwise, when they reach the 50th place, their ranking will be 65438. The reason for this pattern is also symbolic, just like the "sika deer" in Song Lu Tu.

The test score is plum blossom list, and the deer in Lusong picture is sika deer. It can be seen that plum blossom was also a beautiful symbol of Shaoxing scholars at that time.