Deer were also regarded as sacred objects in ancient times. They believed that deer could bring good luck, happiness and longevity to people. Those longevity gods were riding sika deer. In Shang dynasty, deer bones were used for divination, and antler inscriptions were also found in Yin deficiency. During the Eastern Zhou Dynasty, birds, beasts and monsters carved in this tomb were popular in Chu tombs, and real antlers were installed on their heads, which formed the characteristics of Chu culture.

1. It looks beautiful

The ancients explained the deer as follows: "Deer are good at gathering and dispersing, and they are all physically strong, but they are particularly timid, and they rush when drinking water immediately." It can be seen that the ancients paid close attention to and observed deer. This is the basis of the emergence and development of deer culture. Beautiful traditional writing is beautiful, while beautiful words are from deer, which shows that people think deer is beautiful from ancient times to the present. Whether it's the unique horn, the glossy spotted fur, and the slender and robust limbs, especially the deer's natural kindness, femininity and introverted temperament, it is worthy of praise.

2, meaning love

Oracle Bone Inscriptions deer character highlights a pair of antlers. "Shuowen" mentioned: "Deer, travel is also. If the deer is hungry, it will travel. " It is derived from the outing of male deer and female deer in pairs and has the meaning of marriage. The word Li is originally an pictographic character related to deer, like the shape of two deerskins. The ancients married the man and gave the woman two deerskins as a dowry.

it means to marry a beautiful girl! The beautiful meaning of the word Li is later extended. As a mirror and an external discipline says: "In ancient times, there was no difference between men and women, and Tai Hao began to set up a wedding ceremony, taking the couple's skin as a gift." Later people called husband and wife a couple. And a couple's skin is deerskin. Beauty is also used to describe women's modesty and introversion as kindness and femininity.

there used to be two idioms. One is the "deer cart * * * arm", which was used in the old days to praise the husband and wife for being United and happy. And the deer cart is our common unicycle in the past.

There's another one called "A Deer Car in a Red Case", which is also a metaphor for mutual respect and consideration between husband and wife, sharing weal and woe.

3, on behalf of health

Since ancient times, deer's promotion of human health has developed from eating its meat, sleeping its skin and using its bones to a deeper understanding in the later period. It took quite a long time.

"Kunya" says:' Lu Nai-hsien is a fairy beast. He can enjoy himself, but when he walks, he drools, so he won't leave in a hurry. "It can be seen that the ancients thought that eating preserved deer had the function of prolonging life, and called the long-lived deer" fairy deer ".

4. Metaphorical right

Deer and war can be traced back to ancient times. Deer were often hunted by people in ancient times, so when people witnessed the ruling class's pursuit of power, they naturally associated with the situation of hunting deer in daily life, and used it as a metaphor to make deer have symbolic significance.

Historian Sima Qian said in Records of the Historian. Biography of Hou Huaiyin: "Qin lost his deer, and the world * * * chased him away."

And Wei Zhi, the prime minister of the Tang Dynasty, also mentioned in the poem "Shu Huai": "At the beginning of the Central Plains, the two sides competed for each other and devoted themselves to Rong Xuan." The deer here is a metaphor for the throne and political power. Why is the deer comparable to the throne and political power? It shows that deer plays an important role in history.

Cervidae is a family of mammals under the order Artiodactyla. They are horned ruminants of different sizes, distributed in Eurasia, Japan, Philippines, Indonesia, North America, South America and southwest Africa. There are about 34 species in the world, and about 52 species belong to 16 genera.

Animals called deer may be different species in different areas, which are easily distinguished from other artiodactyls (such as pigs and cattle) in people's minds. In the taxonomy of deer, it includes Muscidae and Cervidae of Cervidae of Ruminanta, and sometimes it also includes animals of Cervidae and Giraffeidae of Cervidae, which are closely related to Cervidae. Extended data

1. Appearance features < P > The eye socket is sunken with facial glands; There are foot glands; No gallbladder. The body length is .75 ~ 2.9 meters and the weight is 9 ~ 8 kilograms. Stomach 4, ruminating. 32 ~ 34 teeth. Slender legs and good at running. Most species have horns, while hornless species have tusk-shaped upper canines.

2. Living habits

Typical herbivores eat grass, bark, twigs and young saplings. Good at swimming.

3. Habitat environment

Habitats in tundra, forest, desert, scrub and swamp.

4. Distribution range

It is distributed in Europe and Asia, North America and South America, north of 4 south latitude and southwest Africa.

5. The horn of growth and reproduction

is the second characteristic of the stag (only the reindeer Rangifer tarandus has horns for both sexes), and it is also a weapon for courtship. Its growth and shedding are influenced by pituitary gland and testosterone.

After the breeding season, the deer horns in the north will fall off from the Mao Kou below, and the next year they will be born from the Mao Kou above a pair of peduncle joints above the frontal bone. The newly grown horns are called velvet, which are covered with skin and hairy, and have a large amount of blood supply from blood vessels. As the horn grows up, the blood supply gradually decreases, and the skin dries up and falls off. The first horn born at the age of 1 ~ 2 is almost straight, and the bifurcation of the back horn increases year by year, until it is finalized in adulthood. Female deer of horned species do not have fangs if they have no horns.

the male deer is bigger than the female deer. The coat color is deep in winter and shallow in summer, and most young deer have white spots, and some species (such as Cervus nippon and Axis porcinus) also have spots on adults. Foot has four toes, the third and fourth toes are developed, supporting the body weight, and the second and fifth toes degenerate and become smaller. The female deer has two pairs of nipples. Tropical deer have no fixed breeding season, and they estrus many times a year, and their horns don't fall off; Temperate deer mate from late autumn to winter, and most of them have one male and many females, giving birth to 1 ~ 2 offspring per fetus, as many as 3 ~ 4 offspring.

Reference: Deer-Baidu Encyclopedia.