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decided to do a separate thread for this so here we go: how Song dynasty poet Lu You poem-liveblogged his descent from cat owner to cat slave 800 years ago
The year is 1183. Down On His Luck scholar-official Lu You gets a cat because rats keep munching on his books. 1/?
The year is 1183. Down On His Luck scholar-official Lu You gets a cat because rats keep munching on his books. 1/?
the effects are GREAT!! Lu You is delighted!!
THIS IS LITERALLY THE TITLE HE GAVE THE POEM I AM NOT MAKING SHIT UP
(also feel free to correct my translations because my classical chinese is not that good LOOOL) 2/?
THIS IS LITERALLY THE TITLE HE GAVE THE POEM I AM NOT MAKING SHIT UP
(also feel free to correct my translations because my classical chinese is not that good LOOOL) 2/?
several years later, Lu You gets ANOTHER CAT!! he calls it Snowy!! (probably had white fur then)
he loves it so much he suspects it was a child of his reincarnated from a past life 3/?
he loves it so much he suspects it was a child of his reincarnated from a past life 3/?
and then cat #3, Pink-Nose!!!
it seems that Lu You& #39;s cats have fish to eat now, but Pink-Nose seems to be slacking on its mice-eradicating duties...? 4/?
it seems that Lu You& #39;s cats have fish to eat now, but Pink-Nose seems to be slacking on its mice-eradicating duties...? 4/?
the power dynamics in the Lu household now seem to be experiencing some shifts. who is the master and who is the servant now?? 5/?
it finally hits Lu You, what has happened. he has made a terrible mistake, spoiling his cats so much. they& #39;re not working anymore. there is no going back. this is his life now. a life full of rats and birds his cats refuse to kill. 6/?
does this mean Lu You hates his cats now? naaah, son, he has accepted his fate and cuddles with them on stormy nights like the full-fledged cat slave he is 7/? https://twitter.com/XiranJayZhao/status/1298727921201197056?s=20">https://twitter.com/XiranJayZ...
(RELATABLE STRUGGLES AS IM TRYING TO DO THIS THREAD)
anyway if you noticed there& #39;s no Poem For My Cat 2, it& #39;s because it& #39;s technically this one that I translated for my post yesterday, but I can& #39;t quite place its timing in relation to the others
and there& #39;s one final poem but i& #39;m so bad at translating it that I gave up loool. just know that Lu You was in a position where he& #39;d be sad and lonely but he wasn& #39;t because he had his FAT CAT with him
Filing this under How People Lived in Ancient China https://twitter.com/i/events/1291769858258919424
Hope">https://twitter.com/i/events/... you enjoyed these 800-year-old cat liveblogs
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More Chinese history tweets: http://linktr.ee/xiranjayzhao ">https://linktr.ee/xiranjayz...
Hope">https://twitter.com/i/events/... you enjoyed these 800-year-old cat liveblogs
More Chinese history tweets: http://linktr.ee/xiranjayzhao ">https://linktr.ee/xiranjayz...
OH and I gotta add that in modern China, cat owners really are called Cat Slaves ç«ć„Ž or Poop Shoveling Officers éČć±ćź (which implies that the cat is the emperor) https://abs.twimg.com/emoji/v2/... draggable="false" alt="đ„Ž" title="Woozy face" aria-label="Emoji: Woozy face">
