Have a harem beauty but a cat? It turned out that Zhu Yuanzhang was worried that the prince would not have sex.

In the early Ming Dynasty, Zhu Yuanzhang, the first emperor of Ming Dynasty, issued an imperial edict to buy cats in large quantities and keep them in the harem. These cats are called "imperial cats". Strangely, Zhu Yuanzhang had Ma Huanghou and other concubines with titles, a total of 22 people. In addition, there are countless beautiful women in the harem. It can be seen that Zhu Yuanzhang's harem life will not be lonely, so why does he want to keep a cat? It turned out to be related to the family line.

According to the Imperial Secrets, Zhu Yuanzhang believed that his children and grandchildren grew up in the deep palace and had little contact with the people. They are worried that the prince and grandson don't know how to "have children" between men and women, which will affect the family blood, so they specially wrote a letter and raised a large number of cats in the harem. When cats * * *, men and women will chase each other. This scene is equivalent to giving the prince and grandson a sexual enlightenment lesson. In addition, Zhu Yuanzhang also set up a pigeon house in the palace for auxiliary education.

Zhu Yuanzhang's move is still very useful. Later generations followed the rules of the first emperor, and each generation maintained the tradition of "keeping cats in court". For example, when Zhu Zhanji, the "cricket emperor", was in power, he was addicted to cricket fighting and had a soft spot for cats. He has created a number of paintings about cats, such as "A slave under a flower" and "A picture of a cat imitating the peace in a pen palace". I have to say that Zhu Yuanzhang's move is very effective. The Ming dynasty royal family developed into a huge ethnic group. Although hundreds of thousands of people were later killed by the rogue Li Zicheng and the Manchu regime, there are still hundreds of thousands of people scattered around.

However, owning cats also brings huge expenses. When Zhu Youtang was in the reign of Emperor Xiaozong in the Ming Dynasty, he was diligent in political affairs and appointed talented people, thus forming a situation of "Hongzhi rejuvenating the country". Although he is famous for his frugality, the cost of keeping a cat is very high. According to Ming Xiaozong's records, he kept his cat in the dry gate between Xiyuan and Long Live Mountain, and spent 2.68 Jin of pork and a pair of pig livers every day.

However, Zhu Youtang is not the most exaggerated. When his son Zhu Houzhao was in office, he not only inherited the hobby of keeping pets, but also expanded the range of keeping to big cats such as tigers and leopards. According to Zhuang Yong's Essays, Zhu Houzhao keeps 53 dogs in Xihuamen and 2 12 dogs in Yuma, which costs 54 kilograms of pork every day. In addition, he also raised three tigers and fed 18 Jin of mutton every day; Raised 3 foxes and fed 6 kg of mutton every day; 1 wenbao, feed 3 kg of mutton every day; Seven leopards are fed 14 kg of mutton every day.

All these add up to 54 Jin of pork and 30 Jin of mutton every day. Apart from these expenses, Zhu Houzhao still spends 10 stone to feed pigeons in the "Mung Bean Valley" every day, and all the personnel expenses of 240 guards and guards are spent. The cost of food in just one year is more than 2800 stone. These expenses are really amazing.

In addition to keeping cats in court, many nobles followed suit, making cats the favorite pets of the upper class at that time. However, rich and powerful people play with things and waste their lives in order to raise cats, which runs counter to Zhu Yuanzhang's original intention.