How did pigs train humans and become meat on their tables?

Archaeological research has found that the world's earliest domestic pig remains have been found in southeastern Anatolia, Turkey, dating back to about 9,000 years ago. The earliest site of edible pork found in China is the "Cishan Site" in Wu'an, Hebei Province, which is about 8,000 years ago. The pig bones excavated at the Cishan site came from 8 adult pigs and 3 young pigs, indicating that the breeding has reached a certain scale.

In addition, traces of pig breeding have also been found in the same period sites in Xinglongwa in Inner Mongolia, Xiaoshan Cross-Lake Bridge in Zhejiang and Wuyang in Henan. It can be seen that in the early stage of human social development, pigs began to enter people's lives.

Compared with other parts of the world, the Chinese's feelings for pigs have been deeper and more special since ancient times. Ancient books often mention "horses, cows, sheep, chickens, dogs, pigs" and "six animals", among which pigs refer to pigs. In ancient times, the emperors used the Taigao ritual when they sacrificed to the sheji, requiring "cattle, sheep, and pigs" to be prepared, and pigs were indispensable.

There is a "豕" in the oracle bone glyph of the Chinese character "home", which means that only when you raise pigs can you call it "home". This all reflects that pigs have occupied an important position in people's lives during that period.

During the Shang Dynasty in ancient China, pig breeding was already common. By the Zhou Dynasty, the pig industry had reached a certain scale. "Gong Liu" in "The Book of Songs: Daya" records:

Stick to the prison and use it as you please. The food and drink, the king's ancestor", tells the story of eating pork and drinking wine during the celebration ceremony.

During the Wei, Jin, Southern and Northern Dynasties, the nomadic tribes of the northern steppes entered the Central Plains and established a series of political regimes, which also brought the nomadic people's habit of eating mutton. The upward momentum of pork began to shrink, and mutton gradually replaced pork, opening the road to hegemony for thousands of years.

In the Song Dynasty, mutton was still popular among the upper classes. During the reign of Emperor Shenzong of the Song Dynasty, the imperial kitchen stipulated that the royal family should only use mutton and no pork.

The palace consumes 400,000 catties of mutton annually, while only 4,000 catties of pork is consumed, and the huge gap between the two types of meat fully reflects the dietary attitude of the royal family at that time. But during this period, pork took a turn for the better in civil society. At that time, although mutton was the nobility of meat, which made dignitaries and nobles rush to it, the disadvantage was that the amount was limited, and because of this, pork that was easier to obtain was quietly rising among the people.

The Southern Song Dynasty's "Menglianglu" describes the bustling pork market in Lin'an that year: "The two streets in the alley are all slaughtering houses, and no less than hundreds of mouthfuls are slaughtered every day", "every day each shop is hung into side pigs, no less than ten sides", "densely populated, and many people eat it". According to records, at that time, pork was worth six yuan per catty, mutton was eight yuan per catty, and beef and horse meat were thirty yuan per catty.

The obvious advantage has driven pork consumption.

Pork really turned over and ascended to the throne of hegemony again until the Ming and Qing dynasties. At the beginning of the Ming Dynasty, a royal diet recipe during the Yongle period showed that a meal consumed five catties of mutton and six catties of pork, and mutton began to decline at this time. In the late Ming Dynasty, the court consumed 18,900 pigs and 10,750 sheep every year, and pork had a great advantage.

During the Qing Dynasty, the position of pork was further consolidated. According to statistics, every Spring Festival alone, nearly 100,000 pigs will be killed in Beijing. After a thousand years, pork finally counterattacked.

Keep the wild pig in the yard and feed him every day when he is hungry, it will eat and drink without worry, it can only sleep, and slowly lose its wildness.

Pigs are easier to tame. They are kept in a pigsty and fed at regular intervals every day. Then kill at a specific time. Naturally, it became the meat of humans.

Early humans caught wild boars and did not kill them, but kept them in captivity, and later wild boars slowly evolved into today's domestic pigs.

During the Shang Dynasty in China, there were records of raising pigs. In Turkey 9,000 years ago, pigs also appeared, and pigs became meat on the human table because they were easy to raise and their meat quality was also very popular with humans.