Catch 30,000 fish at one time, more than 3,000 years ago the Shang Dynasty fishing technology beyond your imagination

In the ancient primitive society period, the ancient people to collect and hunt for a living, due to the limited hunting tools, especially the collection of the main, so the early primitive society for the matriarchal clan. To the late ancients mastered the hunting and breeding technology, food began to enrich. And fisheries are gradually developed in the late, the early Chinese land is mainly inland rivers and lakes fisheries, to the period of the Shang Dynasty, in a divination in the divination can catch 30,000 fish, although it is divination, but also enough to prove that the fishing technology of the time, because the Shang Dynasty, small to go out to do business, large to the wedding and funeral, etc. will be divination, so divination in the Shang Dynasty has been an important part of life. And there are many other divination words such as "Dingmao divination, the king of the great catch of fish", "the king of the chaste extends the fish", and so on, "extends the fish" means to catch fish continuously. The oracle bone inscriptions show one person and one "fish." So why did the Shang people catch a lot of fish? So why did the Shang people catch so many fish? And how many fishing techniques did they have? The following is a brief introduction: First, the net fish, in fact, the net fishing method in the ancient Yangshao culture period has been mastered by the ancients, in the oracle bone "collection" in a "fish" horizontal carving, like a fish by the net to stop the same, and often appear in the oracle bone, and from this inference when it is the common way of fishing in the Shang dynasty people. From the other hand, can confirm the Shang Dynasty people a lot of use of cast nets to catch fish is, net fish with the net pendant, in Henan Erligang site, unearthed pottery, stoneware type of net pendant generally have a flat round, cylindrical and so on. Such a fishing method, today are the main human fishing method. Second, forked fish, is also an ancient technology, in the primitive society period the ancients should have mastered, because the forked fish tool is relatively simple, a wooden bar or bamboo, to the late utilization of bronze more durable. Nowadays, the Miao area in Guizhou still utilizes the technique of fish-forking, and there is even a fish-forking festival. In the Tang Dynasty, Han Yu's "Forking Fish to Recruit Zhang Gongcao" depicts the scene of forked fish. Thirdly, fishing, in the Shang Dynasty ruins found in the bone, bronze and other types of fish hooks, and in Henan unearthed bronze fish hooks on the barbs, which has been very close to today's fish hooks. At the end of the Shang Dynasty, there is also the famous legend of Jiang Taigong's straight hook fishing, although it is a legend, but it also proves that the Shang Dynasty had already mastered the technology of fishing. The earliest record of fishing with bamboo poles in China is found in the Book of Songs, "Long bamboo poles are used to fish in Qi". In the Song Dynasty, it was written in the "Fisherman and Woodcutter Q & A" that "there are six things in fishing: the rod, the line, the float, the situation, the fish, and the bait. One does not have, then the fish can not be obtained", and these six things, in today's fishing is still a must. Fourth, the pocket fish, the use of wood or bamboo compiled, there is a large opening, the bottom of the pocket is sealed, and the opening of the neck and barbs, prevention and control of fish escape, known as the chyuan. And the chyphon in kind in zhejiang province in the neolithic period site has been found. The tool was placed underwater to lure fish through the large opening into the bottom of the pocket, which is similar to the way of fishing in today's Guizhou region with a kind of agricultural tools called skips and rattan, but the upper part of the skips and rattan was open. This is similar to the way of fishing in Guizhou today, but the upper part of the bamboo basket is open. The way of fishing in the Shang Dynasty was supposed to be used in shallow water. And such a way of fishing is still used in areas such as Guizhou today. In addition to these four relatively common fishing methods, the Shang Dynasty people also had very special fishing methods, such as shooting fish and cormorant fishing. Shooting fish is a common fishing method used by the Gaoshan people in Taiwan today, while in the oracle bones of the Shang Dynasty, fishing is sometimes referred to as ""狩鱼", and in the oracle bones "合集"", "王狩膏鱼"""东狩于海 ", and the word ""狩 "in ancient times should mean to shoot the prey and then chase it by dogs, so the hunting fish here means shooting fish. Cormorant Fishing, Cormorant is a large fish-eating swimming bird, very good at diving, also known as Uggi. In today's Guangxi, Anhui and other places there are still fishermen in domesticated cormorant fishing. Bones of cormorants have been found in the Hemudu ruins. In a poem by the Tang Dynasty poet Du Fu, he depicted the scene of "families raising ghost birds and eating yellow fish at all times". And in the ruins of the Shang Dynasty, some carvings and paintings in the image of cormorants were found. In the Yangshao culture sites, stone axes and paintings of cormorants with fish were found on pottery. This fully confirms that cormorant fishing was already practiced during the Shang Dynasty. Cormorant Birds The reason why the Shang people were able to master a wide variety of fishing techniques was that they lived in an area with favorable natural conditions. The center of the Shang Dynasty was around today's Henan, Hubei and Shandong, while the outer services also included Shanxi, Sichuan and Jiangxi. The Shang Dynasty's kingdoms, or central areas, were, at the time, warmer and rainier than they are now, and were large plains dotted with lakes and rivers, which favored cultivation and fishing. So how many types of fish were there in the Shang Dynasty? After identifying fish bones unearthed in Yinxu, Henan Province, Wu Xianwen, a famous zoologist, concluded that there were yellow catfish, carp, cyprinids, grass carp, red-eye trout and mullet in the Shang Dynasty at that time. The first five types of fish are freshwater fish, while the mullet is a saltwater fish and should not have appeared in Henan Province. However, since it is not possible to authenticate the fish bone of mullet, no comment will be made on its origin, for the time being. The oracle bone has the description of "obtaining tuna", the tuna here does not refer to the tuna that survives in the ocean today, but should be the sturgeon. At present, China's sturgeon is mainly distributed in the Yangtze River, Jinsha River, Xiangjiang River, Pearl River, etc., they have 8 varieties, mainly: the Chinese sturgeon, Shi Shi sturgeon, Dashi sturgeon, Dashi koji, Kuye sturgeon, white sturgeon, bare-bellied sturgeon, Siberian sturgeon, etc., and the Shang Dynasty was able to catch sturgeon this big fish, and from the side of the Shang Dynasty's fishing technology should be relatively high. In the ruins of the Shang Dynasty and the books of the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period, carp, pomfrets, mackerel, catfish, Mandarin fish and so on are also shown, and the actual varieties should be more. For the protection of fishery resources, the Shang people also took great pains to do so. The specific methods: First, according to the oracle bone inscriptions, the Shang people mainly fished in October, November, and December, and this kind of concentrated fishing was mainly for the protection of fish during the spawning period, and waiting for the roe fish to grow up in the coming year before they were fished. Secondly, otter sacrifices were performed, and such sacrifices were mainly performed at the beginning and the end of the fish ban. The otter sacrifices at the beginning of the fish ban were to pray for the prosperity of fish resources; the otter sacrifices at the end of the fish ban were mainly to hope for the capture of a large number of fish. Fishing was an important part of the production and life of the Shang Dynasty, and the catching of fish not only showed the high fishing skill of the Shang Dynasty people, but also enriched the food of the Shang Dynasty people, and promoted the absorption of nutrients in the body of the Shang Dynasty people. And the fishing technology of the Shang Dynasty people also continues to this day, leaving a valuable intangible cultural heritage for modern fishing.