Abstract
"Zhan" is a kind of the stable which is erected with crossbars. People confine the fowls or livestock inside the Zhan in order to limit their activities of consuming calories and best to feed them as well as take care of their stomachs with medicines. The purpose is to increase the weights of the fowls or livetook since people can supply the best quality of tender meats. During the era of North Song Dynasty, the royal court set up three Zhans to raise sheep in order to supply the royal demand of the mutton for three reasons: 1. The demand of the mutton as sacrifice in royal worship ceremony increases very fast; 2. People like to eat "mutton without fat"; 3. The technology of the animal husbandry has been innovated quite a lot. Therefore, in "Animal Husbandry Statue, Tiansheng Statutes", there proper term "Three-Zhan Sheep", was used. From the newly found "Animal Husbandry Statue, Tiansheng Statutes", we obsenve that the Song people use the Zhan method in sheep raising industry with great quantity. They also use specific medicines for taking care of the livestock's stomachs. Their purpose is to try to increase the livestock's weight as fast as possible and increase the production rate of the mutton. In this article, we can see the technological progress of the animal husbandry in the North Song Dynasty. This progress responses the transformation of animal husbandry and the dietary culture between the Tang and Song Dynasties.
Keywords
Zhan、Tiansheng Statutes、Three-Zhan Sheep
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