The Cultural Interest of Chicken

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For the ancients, the meaning of the chicken's night watch is too great. Ancient timekeeping tools were very simple, such as clepsydra, and although it could time, it was impossible to wake people up on time. There was no later alarm clock. People in their dreams don't know what time it is. At this time, the golden rooster announced the dawn and told people that it was almost dawn and that they should get up and get ready for work. People often say "work at sunrise, and rest at sunset", but you can't wait until sunrise to wake up. Moreover, the sun does not come out every day, and the rainy weather loses the basis for observing the sun to determine the time. Regardless of whether it is hot, cold, winter or sunny, the chicken keeps its promise and never lazy. It can be said that it is precisely because of the hard cries at dawn to announce the dawn that the world has begun to have a new day of fireworks and vitality.

When people in ancient times heard the rooster, they knew that it was dawn and it was time to get up; while modern people used the alarm clock to wake them up from their sleep. Although the alarm clock is very punctual, it is always inferior to the chicken. Ming is kind and emotional. Chicken, we are never unfamiliar with it. It can be said to be one of the most beneficial animals among all poultry.

Many animals, in the eyes of people, are no longer mere animals, but have their own rich and profound symbolic meanings. As an animal in the Chinese zodiac , this is even more so. For example, the mighty and majestic of the tiger, the hard work of the cow, the agility of the monkey, the loyalty and courage of the dog, and so on. Similarly, the chicken in the Chinese zodiac also has its unique and profound symbolic meaning.

The most significant symbolic meaning of the chicken is trustworthiness and punctuality. The rooster reports the dawn, which means that the sky will be bright. A further extension symbolizes the liberation from darkness to light. For example, "the rooster crowed, dawned, liberated" is such a progressive symbolic meaning.

The second symbolic meaning of the chicken is ordinary and tender. Chickens can be seen almost everywhere in daily life. It has strong reproductive ability, high survival rate, no special requirements on the environment, and it can be raised no matter where it is. As the saying goes, things are precious. The same is true for animals, such as pandas and other things, because they are so rare, they are very precious, and because they are only found in China, they are regarded as national treasures. There are some other animals that are not national treasures, but because too few are endangered, hunting is strictly prohibited and protected as rare animals. It is impossible for chickens to enjoy this kind of treatment. It's too much, so it's despised. Moreover, as a bird, chickens have greatly degraded their flying ability. It is not comparable to other birds that can fly freely in the blue sky; it is not comparable to the swiftness and dexterity of horse dogs to move and run on the ground. It has the symbolic meaning of ordinaryness, popularization and weakness.

Chickens are ordinary, busy all day long, looking for food everywhere, eating everything, although they are very hardworking, they can't talk about living comfortably. This ordinary characteristic of chicken is also used to compare people's similar fate, which is called "chicken chop fate". This means that this person is busy, like a chicken pecking at each other, in the end he can only talk about food and clothing, and it is impossible to enjoy the precious glory. There is a story that once a rich man asked someone to tell a fortune for him. As a result, the rich man’s fate was not good, just a "chicken chop fate". But the fortune teller said that the rich live in a good place, because they live in Gucheng (there is Gucheng County in Hubei Province), and the chickens are chopped around in Gucheng, so they don't have to worry about food and clothing, so the rich can enjoy their preciousness. The rich man said, if he doesn’t live in Gucheng, wouldn’t he be poor? The fortune teller said it was true. I don't want the rich man to believe the fortune teller's words, thinking: Does it mean that you will be poor if you move out of Gucheng? So he moved his family to another county, but within a few years, he gradually declined, and finally lived a life of poverty. This is just a folk tale, not necessarily true, but it contains the symbolic meaning of the ordinary chicken.

Compared with weak and ordinary, the chicken also has the symbolic meaning of bravery and good fighting. This meaning comes from cockfighting. Chickens like to fight and fight , especially roosters, which is a common phenomenon in daily life. When two roosters meet, there is often a fight, and occasionally hens fight on the ground.

In order to watch the wonderful cockfighting fight, people have raised special cockfighting. Ordinary and weak chickens, once they fight, the atmosphere is tense, brave and tenacious, and the fight is fierce. People are also inspired and inspired by it, and learn how to fight cock-fighting bravely and well. There is an example of this in ancient Greece. The ancient Greeks had cockfighting competitions for a long time. In a year BC, a Greek general led his troops to the front line to fight the Persian army. During the march, he saw two roosters fighting each other, and he couldn't help feeling. He thought that if the fighting spirit of the soldiers were as tenacious as this rooster, he would surely win the battle that was about to be fought. So he ordered the team to stop and let the soldiers watch the brave fight of the two roosters. Sure enough, the soldiers were encouraged, and they were very brave in the battle and defeated Poland. To commemorate this glorious victory. The king of Greece decided to hold a cockfighting conference in Athens every year from then on. The cockfighting activity spread quickly throughout Greece, and soon spread to the Mediterranean countries, ancient Rome and other countries. This victory of the Greek army confirmed that "two armies will win if they meet with courage." However, the "brave" is inspired by cockfighting. It can be seen that chickens are not always weak.

The fourth symbolic meaning of the chicken is to ward off evil spirits, ward off disasters, and gods. Divination with chickens can be found all over the world, and the chicken coop has the meaning of gods. The ancients also used chickens to drive away evil spirits and sacrifices. Killing chickens is a kind of witchcraft, which is also a kind of superstition. As early as the pre-Qin period, there were activities of using chicken and chicken blood to drive away evil spirits. The ancients believed that chicken and chicken blood had the effect of driving away evil spirits and disasters. The ancients attached great importance to sacrifices. Among the many sacrificial sacrifices, the chicken is one of them. The use of chickens to worship ancestors is still popular in some areas. Divination by chicken means that the chicken symbolizes the gods. In addition to chicken divination, there are also different egg divinations in different regions. For example, in southern Yunnan, the disease is asked by eggs. When someone is sick, it is thought that the ghost is possessed, and one egg is rubbed on the patient's body, thinking that the ghost can be attached to the egg, and the egg is boiled in a pot and then inspected by the wizard to determine whether it is good or bad.

Regarding chickens can drive away evil spirits and disasters, chickens can also drive away ghosts. In folk legends, ghosts are most afraid of hearing the sound of chickens, because ghosts can only move in the dark, and the crowing of chickens means that the day is about to dawn. At dawn, all ghosts will be impossible to do. This superstition originated very early. On the New Year's Day, people from Jiangnan "post a picture of the chicken house" hanging on it, and peach charms are inserted next to it, and a hundred ghosts are afraid of it. A picture of a chicken is posted on the door, and a hundred ghosts dare not come to the door. It is purely the implication that ghosts are afraid to hear the crows of chickens. Until the early days of liberation, adults often tell children: You can scare away. (Chinese Zodiac http:///shengxiao/)

In short, the chicken also has its unique symbolic meaning, and people deduce and associate its symbolic meaning from the animal characteristics of the chicken. Like the symbolic meaning of other animals, there are compliments and derogations, depending on their different contexts and occasions.