What color is the rabbit in The Turtle-Rabbit Race?

Some time ago, my nephew, who just started kindergarten, pestered me to tell him "The Race between the Turtle and the Rabbit". It is not too much to listen to it again and again. I can't help but sigh that this national fairy tale, which is familiar from the old man to the 00' s, still has infinite charm.

When I was reminiscing about my childhood, my little nephew suddenly asked, "What color is the bunny racing with the tortoise?" To tell you the truth, I really hadn't thought about it!

I can guess without looking at the results. Most people's answer is: white. Why do we all choose white? Is that rabbit really white? Let's talk seriously about this rabbit today.

Let's talk about the story itself first. The story of "The Race between the Tortoise and the Rabbit", which seems to be born and bred in China, is actually a western product. It is selected from the well-known Aesop's Fables, which was not introduced into China until the Ming and Qing Dynasties, but only a few hundred years ago.

In the popular English version of The Turtle and rabbit Race, the word "rabbit" is "hare" instead of "rabbit", which is well known to Chinese people. We are not native English speakers, so it is difficult to appreciate the subtle differences. What are the differences between them?

The next point of knowledge is a little bit round. please recite the Dafa of "families, genera and species of the World Gate Program" in advance.

The Chinese word for "rabbit" usually refers to "rabbit family". However, the English words "hare" and "rabbit" are not strict terms for species classification. In most cases, hare refers to the "genus Rabbit" in the Rabbit family. In a few cases, some similar but not rabbit-shaped ones are also called hare (such as rock hare and coarse-haired rabbit). In addition, other genera in the Rabbit family, such as the Genus, are collectively referred to as rabbit.

In short, hare represented by the genus Rabbit and rabbit represented by the genus Rabbit equals to all the animals of the family Rabbit.

The difference between rabbit and burrow rabbit is actually more distant than the relationship between horse and donkey. How to identify them quickly? There are three simple and practical methods:

The most direct way is to see if it can make holes. As the name implies, the "cave" rabbit likes to dig holes. Rabbits are not interested in burrowing. In Australia, the cave rabbits are the main ones that are flooding and destroying the ecological environment.
Second, see if it is a "rabbit". Rabbit is a kind of rabbit that human beings have successfully domesticated. At present, all rabbits in the world, without exception, belong to the genus burrowing rabbits. In contrast, because rabbits are usually only seen in the wilderness, hare is translated as "wild rabbit" or "hare".

The third is to see if it runs fast. In general, compared with the genus Rabbit, the hind legs of the genus Rabbit are relatively longer and more suitable for running. Some rabbit animals can even run at speeds of more than 70 kilometers per hour, so hare also means to run at a high speed in English.

To sum up, hare usually refers to the genus Rabbit. Rabbits do not make holes, run fast and are wild-all these correspond to the plot of the race between the tortoise and the hare. We have finally determined that this rabbit is likely to belong to the genus Rabbit, so what color is the rabbit racing with the tortoise?

Let's start with the conclusion: in the eyes of Westerners, the rabbit should be brown and gray.

This unexpected conclusion is in fact consistent with the characteristics of rabbits. Rabbits live in the wild for a long time, and their brown-gray coat is a camouflage suit to avoid predators. Some rabbits that live in snowfall zones change into white fur in winter and blend in with the snow. But in summer, they turn brown and gray again.

Brown gray has gradually become the first impression of hare in the West, and some linguists even think that the word hare itself comes from the "gray" of Old English. A large number of Western art reflects this preference, including the ancient illustrations of Aesop's Fables.

Just as you can't tell the difference between hare and rabbit before, the Chinese translation of the race between the tortoise and the hare is confused.

In 1840, the earliest existing Chinese text of the race between the tortoise and the hare translated hare directly into "rabbit". The subsequent translation basically follows the term "rabbit" or "rabbit". It can only be said that Chinese is broad and profound and has a strong generalization. the word "rabbit" covers all the creatures of the rabbit family, so we are not too entangled in the breed.

The ancestors had such a preference for white rabbits, in part because white rabbits were very rare at that time. Some scholars speculate that white rabbits were not introduced into China from Nanyang until the end of the Ming Dynasty. Rare things are precious, and the rare white rabbit becomes a symbol of longevity and auspiciousness.

In modern times, it is found that rabbits are covered with treasures, from fur to rabbit meat can be sold, and breeding requirements are relatively low, so more and more people raise rabbits. White rabbits once became the mainstream of breeding, even now, many people should have the childhood experience of feeding white rabbits with vegetables Bangzi in the countryside.

White rabbits, from auspiciousness to legend, and then to important commodities, have infiltrated into Chinese life step by step. So not only you, but also the former Chinese would subconsciously think that it was a white rabbit when they read the race between the tortoise and the hare.

As early as 1924, the Race between the Tortoise and the Hare was selected into the primary school Chinese textbook. In this nursery rhyme widely praised by children at that time, "White Rabbit" appears repeatedly, with a picture of a little white rabbit napping. Even if there is no clear expression of the "White Rabbit" story text, the pictures are often white rabbits.

In front of the cradle, in the classroom, in the memory of childhood-let us imagine the same goal again and again, is the common life experience and cultural memory of the Chinese people. The difference between Eastern and Western rabbits in the Race between the Tortoise and the Hare precisely reflects that cultural communication is often not one-way, but inclusive. Foreign fables are like mirrors, reflecting our own native culture.

It's hard to give a definitive answer to the rabbit-or the color of the hare--. The only thing that is certain is that the rabbit decorated our childhood dreams. At the moment of listening to the story, the happiness of the whole world is the same.