Is the jade rabbit on the moon the rabbit from Spicy Rabbit Head?

Legend has it that there is a jade rabbit living on the moon. It accompanies Chang'e in the moon palace and is responsible for making the elixir of immortality. But what kind of rabbit is the jade rabbit? Is it the same kind as the rabbit in Spicy Rabbit Head?

There are a bunch of little rabbits, how can I tell which one I am? | hui / 123rf.com.cn genuine picture

Jade rabbit, is it the kind of rabbit that can be eaten?

When we were young, we were influenced by the legends of Chang'e flying to the moon and Wu Gang cutting down the cassia tree. We all became interested in the Jade Rabbit on the moon. There are different legends about the Jade Rabbit in different places. The Chinese version says that the Jade Rabbit accompanies Chang'e in pounding medicine in the heavenly palace, while in the Japanese and Korean versions, the Jade Rabbit turns into mochi (saliva).

In fact, when people looked at the shadow on the moon , they formed the so-called " illusion ", sometimes thinking it looked like a rabbit, sometimes like a toad (so the Moon Palace is also called Chan Palace). But in any case, Tiangong, Chang'e and Yutu have become the names of China's space program, especially the moon landing, and are also common memories created by myths.

Japanese folding screen from the Edo period, with cute rabbits on it | British Museum

If you look closely, the Jade Rabbit may not be the round, furry image we are familiar with now. The white rabbit with two erect ears, this docile and plump (huh?) rabbit is actually the European rabbit (Oryctolagus cuniculus) native to the Iberian Peninsula, and was later domesticated by humans.

However, this kind of rabbit was introduced from the West after the Silk Road, and the so-called "rabbit on the moon" has existed as early as the pre-Qin period : Qu Yuan wrote in "Heavenly Questions" "What is the virtue of the night light, that it dies and gives birth again? What is its benefit, while the toad is in the belly?" The images of toads and jade rabbits also appear in the unearthed cultural relics from Mawangdui in the early Western Han Dynasty.

The European rabbit spends most of its life eating | Diliff / wikipedia

So, what was the rabbit that first existed in China? Most likely it was a wild rabbit . In English, the domestic rabbit evolved from the burrowing rabbit is called Rabbit (the small rabbit is called Bunny), which belongs to the genus Oryctolagus of the family Leporidae; while the wild rabbit is called Hare, which belongs to the genus Lepus of the family Leporidae.

Compared to the small and round domestic rabbit, the wild rabbit is larger , has a pair of strong long legs , longer ears, and has never been domesticated. In Western art paintings, the images of the two are very different: one is a docile rabbit/rabbit that exists as a plaything (or food), while the other is a wild rabbit that exists as a wild animal and prey.

The jackrabbit looks very different from the burrowing rabbit | BBC News

In the Netherlands in the 17th century, still life and daily life sketching were very popular during the so-called "Golden Age", and each painter had different subjects. One painter named Jan Weenix was very good at painting a hare hanging by its feet (probably caught in a trap set by a hunter) and other scenes related to the return from hunting.

Hares are good at running , with the fastest speed reaching 50km/h; and burrowing rabbits, as the name suggests, are good at digging holes . After all, "a cunning rabbit has three burrows."

They have many natural enemies, including birds of prey flying in the sky and various small to large carnivores and reptiles running on the ground. Of course, they need to be careful to avoid them.

They come out at dusk and dawn to look for fresh grass. They dig holes to avoid being hunted and to raise their young. Newly born rabbits have no fur and cannot open their eyes, so they need to be cared for in a stable environment.

Newborn rabbit | Emancipation Acres

Is the rabbit in myth a real rabbit?

Like many species written into human history in the early years, the cute rabbit's origin story also has many hilarious misunderstandings. The Phoenicians on the Mediterranean coast discovered this grayish animal running around and digging holes everywhere in the present-day Iberian Peninsula (that is, Spain and Portugal) around 1000 BC. However, the Phoenicians, who were not very good at seeing, mistook the burrowing rabbit for another animal called a hyrax (generally referring to the Procaviidae family).

This is not what a rabbit looks like. This is a hyrax | Siegmund KM / wikipedia

Hyrax is called shafan in Hebrew (the closest language to Phoenician in reality is Hebrew), so the Phoenicians named this place full of "hyraxes" "i-shaphan-ím", which was then romanized into Hispania, and later evolved into the current name of Spain, España (Spain in English). So, if you must trace it back, the etymology of the country of Spain is actually " the land of hyraxes ", even though there is not a single hyrax there...

It should have been called "Rabbit Land" | JJ Harrison / wikipedia

There is also an interesting misunderstanding or myth about the Easter Bunny , which is loved by people. Why is Easter, a very serious religious festival, related to a cute bunny with colorful chocolate eggs and jumping around? In fact, the Easter Bunny should also be a hare , not a rabbit or a domestic rabbit, just as the German word Osterhase means (Hase=Hare in German, and Kanin/Kaninchen = Rabbit/Bunny).

This comes from the pantheistic tradition of the ancient Germanic people. The name of the Easter festival comes from a goddess named Eostre, and is often associated with the image of a hare, representing reproduction and fertility. It is inferred that at that time, domestic rabbits from burrowing rabbits had not yet spread to the Germanic area, but hares in forests and bushes were more common. The goddess Eostre was responsible for taking care of the children. She turned one of her birds into a hare, and then laid many colorful eggs as gifts for the children. (However, this legend is not necessarily reliable and is quite controversial among scholars.)

The Easter bunny should actually be a wild rabbit, not a domestic rabbit like the one in the picture | happy-easter.info

However, it was not until the 17th century that German immigrants came to the United States and connected this pantheistic legend with the Christian tradition. They told their children the story of Easter and the rabbit, telling them that rabbits would bring gifts to them. Naturally, the image of the rabbit also became a docile and cute domestic rabbit that was more popular with children, and also represented reproduction and life.

Bunny and Easter eggs | PETER PILT / peterpilt

The Romans had experience in breeding rabbits, but it was not until the Middle Ages that people began to domesticate rabbits on a large scale , raising them as food and fur, and even breeding various breeds as pets. After that, most rabbits that entered culture were domestic rabbits . Especially after the 19th century, it became popular in the United States to raise rabbits as pets. Just like pet dogs, people also carried out artificial selection breeding among domestic rabbits.

The current Angora rabbits and lop-eared rabbits are actually from the same species, and the white rabbit was originally very rare among wild rabbits . This is due to the gene mutation of albino. The red eyes are the result of the blood vessels in the fundus reflected by the eyeballs without pigment. People like white, round rabbits and rabbit fur, so this kind of rabbit is selected and bred in large numbers. The image of the "little white rabbit" is more deeply rooted in people's hearts than the original rabbit with mostly gray-brown fur .

The red eyes of the little white rabbit are not a disease | Tomi Tapio / flickr

(So, everyone has an idea of ​​what kind of rabbit Spicy Rabbit Head is...)

Rabbits are not only cute, but also very fertile.

The relationship between humans and rabbits can be said to be very delicate. The burrowing rabbit, and later the domestic rabbit, is the only one in a culture that can be both food and pet, and even a "pest" that must be eliminated. It is not uncommon to see people chewing spicy rabbit heads while shouting "Why should we eat rabbits when they are so cute?" (The young and ignorant author was also shocked when he first saw the braised rabbit, but was soon conquered by the deliciousness...)

Because rabbits have outstanding reproductive ability , it is very scary to accidentally become "pests". The most well-known incident is that in 1859, a plantation owner named Thomas Austin brought 24 rabbits for hunting to Australia. In just one century, 24 rabbits became 600 million.

Rabbits reproduce in the Fibonacci sequence. Female rabbits ovulate immediately after mating. It only takes 30 days for pregnancy and 40 days for lactation. They can produce 6 babies a year, and the rabbits are sexually mature at 6 months old. In the case of sufficient vegetation and no natural enemies, the reproduction speed of rabbits is quite amazing.

The damage to vegetation caused by so many rabbits is alarming. They eat up the grass that should be used for grazing and drive the kangaroos in the same ecological niche to extinction. This can be called a "rabbit disaster." The Australian government has tried various methods, including building fences, spreading poison, and introducing other hunting animals to control the number of rabbits, but the trouble and losses are always greater than the results.

Rabbits everywhere | M.Waston / ardea.com

However, the strange thing is that in the Iberian Peninsula, the "homeland" of rabbits, the number of wild rabbits has decreased a lot. On the one hand, the reason is the reduction of habitat and the destruction of vegetation , and on the other hand, it is the spread of a virus called myxoma virus . This virus originally originated from American rabbits and is not very harmful to American rabbits (as well as other people and livestock), but it is deadly to European rabbits. The virus that is rampant in Iberia is a huge blow to the local population. Now, Portugal has listed wild rabbits as near-threatened species, and in Spain it is vulnerable. It is really a drought that kills drought, and floods that kill floods.

However, the Australian government had an idea: Why not introduce this myxoma virus to Australia to control the number of rabbits? In 1950, Australian scientists released this virus to rabbits through mosquitoes, and the effect was outstanding. The mortality rate of infected rabbits reached more than 99%. In just two years, the number of rabbits dropped by 90%. However, rabbits have gradually developed resistance to this virus, and now the mortality rate is only about 40%. Now another rabbit calicivirus is widely used in Australia. More than a hundred years later, Australia has finally controlled the number of rabbits to an acceptable level with biological weapons.

A rabbit infected with myxoma virus | ChrisJB / wikipedia

Of course, the Chinese foodies who eat spicy rabbit heads may not accept it. Why don't Australians eat rabbits? In fact, in times of war and famine, these rampant rabbits are also beneficial to the locals. They can be eaten and their fur can be sold for a little money. However, Australia is so vast and sparsely populated that how can human appetite compete with the fertility of rabbits...

As we enjoy the moon and eat mooncakes, we have long been accustomed to the silly and cute image of rabbits. However, the history of misunderstandings, love and hate between humans and rabbits has also made this cute creature not so simple.

Author: Li Zi

The title image comes from Journey to the West

This article comes from the Species Calendar, welcome to forward

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