Abstract,
Animals have always been part of human history and are just now becoming a major academic focus in the fields of human-animal studies, animal history and environmental history. Chinese historical animals usually include the horse, the bird, the carp or mythical animals such as the dragon, the phoenix or hybrid creatures in-between human and animal. This paper, however, introduces the mundane, the everyday human-animal contact during the Republican period in the form of a case study of sheep.
The paper takes a look at veterinary and husbandry handbooks from the period and connects the suggested handling techniques and approaches to sheep in the context of the 21st century concept of One Health to show how comprehensive husbandry considerations re-created a new lifeworld for livestock and the involved caregivers. Biomedicine and nutrition played a major role in this process and subjected the unwitting animals to rigorous considerations over protein- and vitamin-content in their feed. While feeding can be seen as a way to prevent later ill-health, veterinary chapters in husbandry handbooks introduced methods to quench already occurring disease. The paper introduces different medical approaches and curiosities at a time when biomedicine was newly imported and used in a time of modernization and national rejuvenation to show how modern veterinary structures started in China.
