Fighting Cock: Once the God of War, Now the Pickled Chicken Feet

Animal fighting seems to have accompanied every stage of human society and never faded. From slave owners and nobles watching fierce beasts such as lions, tigers, bears and leopards fight each other, to various fights between domestic and wild animals today, humans seem to be addicted to it.

Unlike animal fighting, fighting between birds, insects and fish is relatively small-scale and more popular, so it is often more popular. The fighting of stone partridges in Central Asia, the fighting of gray-breasted bamboo partridges popular in southern my country, the fighting of Chinese partridges (Calendar Girl's friendly reminder: please do not capture or play with wild animals), and the national fighting of quails and cocks all take advantage of the brave and aggressive habits of Galliformes birds when courting.

Cockfighting in India | Rison Thumboor / Wikimedia Commons

Often when two strangers meet, their first reaction is to fight to the death. It is said that if you can fight, try not to quarrel, and when the two sides are evenly matched, the fight often ends only when one side pays the price of its life. As the feathers fly and the red light appears, the hormones of the host and the spectators are stimulated. Add to that the excitement of the gambling chips, and it is no wonder that cockfighting was so popular in ancient times when there were not many entertainment options.

Tianbao Sanlang loves cockfighting

It is unknown when cockfighting began. The red junglefowl (or some of its bloodline) has been domesticated for a long time, and its aggressive nature has been preserved during this period. The real sport of cockfighting should be traced back to when humans consciously bred breeds specifically for fighting and the professional development of cockfighting activities.

In Zuo Zhuan and The Strategies of the Warring States, there are records of using cockfighting specifically for gambling, and giving cockfighting daily combat training and strengthening combat equipment. This shows that at least 2,000 years ago, cockfighting activities in China had already been carried out in a lively manner. Ji Henzi of Qi State trained cockfighting for King Xuan of Zhou, and tamed the cocks to be unresponsive before the battle, and extremely cold. When the opponents saw them, they fled, leaving behind the idiom "dumbfounded like a wooden chicken". Although the main theme of the story has nothing to do with cockfighting, it also shows the professionalism of cockfighting activities at that time.

Cockfighting in Java, recorded by the Dutch | Look and Learn

It is said that Emperor Minghuang of Tang, Li Longji, loved cockfighting so much that he appointed the 13-year-old "chicken boy" Jia Chang as the leader of 500 children in the chicken farm. "The King of Chu likes thin waists, and many people in the palace starve to death." If the emperor likes something, the people below will like it even more. A folk song says: "It is not necessary to have children who know how to read and write. Cockfighting and horse racing are better than studying." This shows that the prosperity of cockfighting gambling at that time also laid the groundwork for the decline of the prosperous Tang Dynasty.

The golden spur flower crown is full of energy

As the most numerous poultry in the world, there are countless breeds of domestic chickens. Among them, the individuals bred for fighting have great similarities. For example, in order to be able to suppress the opponent with the neck, flap with powerful wings, and hit with strong legs, most of the fighting cock breeds in the world have basically formed the body characteristics of long neck, high legs, chest muscles and well-developed wings. In order to avoid being pecked by the opponent and to facilitate heat dissipation during intense exercise, relatively sparse feathers and small combs and wattles are very necessary.

Under such directional breeding, the appearance of several common fighting cock breeds in my country and Indochina is naturally similar. It is indeed difficult for laymen to distinguish between the Central Plains fighting cock, Qilu fighting cock, Xishuangbanna fighting cock, Zhangzhou fighting cock, Turpan fighting cock, and Vietnamese fighting cock. The Aseel fighting cock, a popular Indian fighting cock breed, is similar in size to the Chinese fighting cock, but it has been specially bred in terms of beak shape, which makes them have a thick and powerful beak and look like a tail feather dragon. This visual effect is really full of time travel.

The strange-looking Asser chicken | Parameswaran Pollachi / Wikimedia Commons

Fighting cocks in the Philippines and the Malay Archipelago are slightly different in that they are "lightweight" and have more developed feathers, especially fleshy combs and wattles, which are not much different from ordinary domestic chickens. Therefore, before the first fight, the owner needs to give them some "care and grooming" and cut off their tall combs, which sounds bloody, but as the saying goes, "chicken skin and dog bones", they recover quickly.

Dark start bad

Even though fighting cocks have their own combat equipment, some people still think that cockfighting scenes are commonplace, or they are willing to resort to dirty tricks in order to win gambling rewards.

Thousands of years ago, cockfighting activities were no longer so clean and pure. First, the so-called "Jieyu Jinspur" appeared. "Jieyu" is said to be a protective gear for the chicken's head and face, and a more general saying is that "Jie" is the same as "Jie". It is said that mustard seeds are pounded into fine powder, which is probably the "mustard" in our seasoning today. It is applied on the chicken's wings, and the chicken flaps its wings in the fight, causing the opponent to lose due to the spicy taste.

Mosaic depicting cockfighting, Naples National Archaeological Museum | Carole Raddato / Wikimedia Commons

"Golden Spur" is to tie a small dagger to the long spur of the chicken's tarsus to increase the lethality of the kick. In the Northern and Southern Dynasties, Chu Jie's "Poem on the Road of Cockfighting in the Eastern Suburbs" said: "The brocade feathers are scattered on the spurs, and the mustard feathers are mixed with dust." This is probably what it means. There is also a "raccoon paste" technique, which was used together with foxes in ancient times, mostly referring to common small beasts such as red foxes and leopard cats. "Raccoon paste" is probably their oil. When it is applied to the chicken's head, the opponent will smell the scent of the natural enemy and dare not fight. In the Three Kingdoms period, Cao Zhi wrote in a poem: "I wish to be helped by the raccoon paste, so that I can always be good at this game."

Fighting cocks with puffed feathers | Adam Cohn / Flickr

However, the effectiveness of this method is still questionable. Galliformes generally have an underdeveloped sense of smell and rely on keen vision and hearing to detect enemies. The oils of red foxes and leopard cats may not work for them. However, applying animal oil on the head and face may also increase lubrication, making it less likely to be caught by the enemy, or reduce damage. Later generations deliberately made it mysterious, and the rumor has been passed down.

Of course, this kind of pre-war equipment is just a small episode in the cockfighting activities. The daily training of fighting cocks in flying, kicking, pecking and biting, the owners' timely stopping of the game, cleaning wounds, replenishing physical strength, spraying water to cool down, massaging to relax and other skills, it is more like people fighting rather than chickens fighting.

National or global

Cockfighting in the West started very early, and was already very popular in ancient Greece and Rome. Given that domestic chickens were successfully domesticated in Southeast Asia, South Asia, and East Asia, it is likely that early cockfighting in the West was also introduced from the East. The West not only inherited it, but also innovated on it.

In the UK, there was a kind of free-for-all called the "Welsh Game", where multiple fighting cocks were put into the arena and allowed to fight each other. The scene was definitely a mess. Although cockfighting, especially cockfighting gambling, has been banned in many places in modern Europe, the underground black cockfighting arenas are still thriving.

Cockfighting in 19th Century Britain | British Library

In recent years, many countries have tried to ban cockfighting activities from the perspective of animal welfare, but the profit chain that has been formed and the people involved in this hobby may not be so easy to ban. In the origin of cockfighting, especially in India and Southeast Asia, although cockfighting has been banned in many places, the gambling industry based on it is still in full swing. In the past few years, there have been incidents of Indian fighting cocks escaping on the spot. The blades tied to the legs of the fighting cocks stabbed the owner, causing the owner to bleed to death. It was amazing and speechless.

Swords into Plowshares

Since cockfighting activities are restricted, how should these "demobilized" soldiers be placed? Human wisdom will naturally not be stumped by such small problems.

In fact, a long time ago, Western breeders discovered some excellent "qualities" of fighting chickens, such as large size, good meat quality, well-developed breasts and legs, and being docile to breeders, unlike egg-laying chickens that are as nervous as egg-laying chickens. If their growth rate can be accelerated, they will be excellent meat-making machines.

Thus, the famous modern broiler breed "Cornish" with fighting cock bloodline appeared. Many of our current fast-growing white-feathered broilers are related to this breed, which is the main force in providing fried chicken nuggets and chicken legs on the table. Vietnam used local fighting cocks to breed the famous "Dong Tao chicken", whose huge tarsus (fū) and metatarsus (zhí) are no worse than a strong man's arms, and it is really suitable for processing "pickled pepper chicken feet".

Cockfighting in India | Rison Thumboor / Wikimedia Commons

Based on the Philippine fighting cocks and Malay fighting cocks, the British also bred a series of modern game cocks (Modern Game Chickens). They are petite, with tall heads and long legs, and slender bodies. They look unique and are famous ornamental pet poultry.

This struggle between chickens and humans that has lasted for thousands of years may not come to an end for a while, but it has slowly entered a new stage. It may be more intense or more desolate, no one can tell, but what is certain is that there will not be so much "bloody storm" anymore.

Author: Hidden Honeysuckle

Editor: pee pee shrimp

This article comes from the Species Calendar, welcome to forward

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