There is indeed a saying in China that “dogs don’t keep for ten years, chickens don’t keep for seven years” (some say: dogs don’t keep for eight years, chickens don’t keep for six years).
The reason for this statement is mainly because the concept of the ancients is different from that of modern people.
Domestic animals such as dogs, chickens, horses and cows are animals with strong learning ability. When they stay with humans for a long time, they can learn a lot of skills in dealing with people, and some savvy livestock even imitate human behavior.
For example, when the owner talks to the dog, the dog will bark gently in response, as if he could understand the owner’s words;
The owner told the dog to get something, and the dog could accurately distinguish various things at home.
The owner calls the dog to the market, and the dog can find a vendor to pay for shopping;
When the owner is sick, the dog will show concern, when the owner dies, the dog will show sadness and so on.
These things, in the eyes of modern people, are that dogs are smart and sensible, and dogs attach importance to feelings. Modern people will not only praise dogs, but even shed tears.
But in the eyes of the ancients, these things are another scene.
In ancient times, when science and technology were underdeveloped and full of feudal superstitions, people had an instinctive fear of all kinds of unusual “paranormal”.
Dogs don’t live according to the dog’s way, and suddenly learn human behavior, which is rare in the eyes of the ancients. In particular, most of the ancients did not intend to train livestock as people do now. If dogs accidentally learn some skills of “understanding human nature”, it will give the ancients a very sudden and strange feeling. (Unfortunately, most China garden dogs happen to be very smart breeds.)
For example, in China’s ancient literati’s notes, legends and novels, there are a large number of horror stories, such as, the rooster suddenly speaks human words, the old dog suddenly walks upright and cooks like a human, and the livestock suddenly becomes a monster, and most of these stories end in injuries to the owner or others.
For example, the legend of the Tang Dynasty records:
A young official went to Sichuan to take up his post, passing through a post station in the mountains.
There is a room in the post station that has been haunted by goblins for many years, and no one dares to live in it.
Officials have always been courageous, and they have been practicing martial arts since childhood, so they volunteered to live in this house to kill pests for the people.
At night, people heard the shrill screams and fierce fighting in the house, and it didn’t stop for nearly an hour. People are too scared to watch.
The next day, the official came out in a formal suit, made three obeisances to the house, and told the people at the post station that the monster had been removed by me, but you must never open the door.
The people in the post station were very scared and kept the door locked as instructed by the officials.
A few years later, the official returned to Chang ‘an and came to the post station again. After seeing the locked room, I burst into tears, touched the door lock and said, “You can open the door”. Then people disappear.
When people opened the door, they saw that the house was a mess. There was a dead dog on the ground, and the body of the official had been dead for a long time.
The old dog was raised by the post station many years ago. People thought it was lost, but they didn’t think it was a monster.
It can be said that “strange behavior of domestic animals such as dogs and chickens will harm people” is the consensus of many ancient people (not all ancient people, but most of them are).
Therefore, whether it is the reference books written by ancient literati to prevent evil spirits or the folk witchcraft and the tradition of jumping to the gods, domestic animals such as chickens and dogs are regarded as ominous things. Once there is a disaster at home, they often kill chickens and dogs at home for reasons such as “the old dog is at work” and “the rooster is fine”.
This kind of thing still happens even in modern times, for example, the black dog demon incident in Chiayi, Taiwan Province in 1911.
After the start of a sugar factory in Chiayi County, machines often broke down inexplicably and employees had accidents, which caused panic among local people.
Many people think that the local legendary black dog demon is at work, so they invite a statue of Mazu as a town demon from a nearby temple.
Coincidentally, as soon as Mazu entered the factory, someone dug up a black dog’s body with hair and flesh from the small pond next to the factory. According to modern people, there is a high probability that such a fresh dog corpse is newly buried, but the local people don’t think so. They are all frightened to disgrace, and they quickly burn the dog corpse with the method of killing demons, so as to solve the scourge.
In order to thank Mazu, people offered sacrifices to her old man in a sugar factory with a heavenly palace, and this statue of Mazu was also called “club mother”.
Later, someone who was good also made up the story of Mazu’s demon reduction. According to legend, Mazu had intended to subdue the black dog demon, but his finger was bitten off by the black dog demon, and he had to sacrifice a magic weapon to kill it.
Because of these beliefs and legends (or superstitions), the folk have produced the saying that “dogs don’t keep for ten years, chickens don’t keep for seven years”, in case the old dogs and chickens become mischief.
Moreover, not only in China, Japan, South Korea, Southeast Asia, Africa, North America and other places, there are legends that dogs, cattle and other domestic animals are old and refined, which harms their owners.
Killing or banishing old livestock was once a tradition in some parts of the world.
For example, one of my Vietnamese classmates told me a story about an old dog who became a sperm in their hometown.
A few children in a village suddenly had a high fever, convulsed all over, unable to speak, and the villagers sought medical advice from all directions, but they did not get better. Finally, they had to invite a blind old witch.
The old wizard set up an altar, and after passing through the village 857, he pointed to the east of the village with branches. The villagers searched according to the instructions, and sure enough, they found an old dog in a deserted grave, all his hair was white, and only his hind legs and tail were still black.
The villagers quickly killed the old dog. After a few days, all the sick children will be all right.
According to these children, a month ago, they went out to play naughty at night and saw the dogs in the village running to the deserted grave in the east of the village with food in their mouths, offering food to an old white-haired dog and bowing down to the old dog.
At that time, these children were all frightened. One child gave a cry of surprise. When the old dog found out, the children turned and ran. The old dog didn’t chase them, but just blew a sigh at them. The children immediately got a chill and fell ill when they got home.
Many old people say that their village is very lucky. The old dog’s hair is not completely white, indicating that witchcraft has not been achieved. If it is completely white, the whole village will be doomed.
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