The Implication of "God Cats" in Wuxi Catfish Head

The meaning of the gods is reunion and prosperity.

There are two kinds of sayings about the giant salamander, one is the giant salamander in nature, and the other is the giant salamander in myth and legend.

In nature, the giant salamander is an animal similar to the soft-shelled turtle, and some places call it "Big Soft-shelled turtle". In fact, there is a difference between the giant salamander and the turtle: the maximum weight of the turtle is only three or four kilograms, while the weight of the giant salamander can exceed 1 kilograms; The turtle's kiss is long and sharp, but the catfish has no sharp kiss and a round mouth; The Catfish is also called the Catfish, because the head of the Catfish is scattered with warty protrusions, but the head of the turtle is smooth; The shape of the turtle is oblate, but that of the salamander is perfectly round. Therefore, southerners are commonly known as "tuanyu", which is a reunion and a "surplus", which is very auspicious. It is a national second-class protected animal, and most of it grows in Guangxi.

In myths and legends, the giant salamander is the eldest son of a dragon and a turtle, with a dragon head, a chicken claw and an eagle tail, just like the giant salamander we saw before us. It is made of bronze, with a length of 1.7 meters, a height of 1.3 meters, a width of 1.1 meters and a weight of 7 kilograms. It was presented to Yuantouzhu Park by "China Bronze Culture Renaissance Company" at the first Taihu Spring Art Festival in Wuxi in May 1985. This "Zhen Ze Shen Fu" was created by the famous sculptor Qing Bao-chi, and inscribed with the title of Professor Zhu Fuji's seal cutting.

Extended information:

About the distribution area of Catfish

Abroad, it is distributed in Myanmar, Malay Peninsula, Bangladesh, Indo-China Peninsula, Sumatra, Borneo, Philippine Islands and New Guinea; China is produced in Yunnan, Guangxi, Guangdong, Fujian, Hainan, Zhejiang, Jiangsu and other provinces.

In history, Catfish were widely distributed, ranging from Hainan Island in the south to the vast areas along the Yellow River in the north, and they were distributed in sheets. However, since the 197s, the population of the giant salamander has been declining day by day, and only a few of them have been found in Oujiang, Zhejiang, Suijiang, Guangdong and Lancangjiang, Yunnan, while other areas are basically extinct. It is estimated that the total number of giant salamander in China is below 2.

Oujiang River is the second largest river in Zhejiang Province, which runs through the whole territory of qingtian county from northwest to southeast. It was once known as the "hometown of giant salamanders". However, according to the investigation of Qingtian water conservancy department, as early as 2, there were only about 8 giant salamanders here, which already belonged to a relatively concentrated giant salamander population in China.

reference source: Baidu Encyclopedia-Yun.