18th century "cat contract" (納貓兒契式; based on a Yuan-dynasty original), laying out the cat's duties and responsibilities: tirelessly guarding the grain, repelling the "mousey bandits" (鼠賊), not messing with the livestock, not stealing numnums "of any kind whatsoever" (不得偷盜食諸般).
Brendan O’Kane
It’s honestly brilliant if not for how evil and mindfucky it is, sidestepping performance of virtue and vice entirely to hand wave those things while the juicy drama distracts us center stage.
It’s yet another way we are amusing ourselves — our democratic institutions— to death.
