Cattle industry is a strategic material of ancient agriculture. How did the ancients "guard" cattle?

There was no mechanized production in ancient China. At that time, the farming economy mainly relied on energy storage. Cattle is the earliest mode of production. Cattle, as the most common agricultural animal at that time, also became the "foundation of farming". The number of cattle directly affected the agricultural economy in ancient China.

Cattle is the most important strategic material in agriculture. The ancient rulers should ensure the development of agriculture and set up a series of protective measures for cattle to ensure the demand of agricultural productivity in China under difficult circumstances.

First, food is the most important thing for the people.

China has always had a large population and little arable land. In ancient times, before advanced production technology and high-quality crops, almost every household had its own acre of land. For most farmers, land is all their property, and they can hardly be self-sufficient. In ancient times, agriculture relied entirely on manual farming.

However, people's production efficiency is definitely not as high as the sales of tools, so the emergence of Niu Geng has ensured the stability of the agricultural economy to a certain extent and provided people with food.

1. The sharp weapon of farming "plowing cattle"

The ancient feudal society in China was generally a "self-sufficient small-scale peasant economy", and a cow was almost all the property of a rural family. Because the efficiency of cattle is higher than that of people, the status of cattle in society is raised by people, and sometimes the value of cattle is enough for the happiness of a family.

Because of the climate difference between the north and the south, the yellow cattle cultivated in the south are different. The general crops are rice, so the yellow cattle raised in the south are called "buffalo". In the north, the land is mostly dry land, so yellow cattle are called "dry cattle".

"One cow can replace seven manpower, on the other side, seven manpower" plays a huge role in the survival of the people. Due to the important role of cattle in agriculture, the protection of cattle will increase.

Especially after years of disasters, food cannot make ends meet. If the cattle are hacked to death again, when agriculture resumes, it will be impossible to restore the previous production capacity, so the local government will introduce certain protective measures for the cattle.

2. Ancient legal system of competitive cattle slaughter

In order to maintain the number of cattle, the legal slaughter standard for protecting farm cattle was promulgated, and the behavior of slaughtering cattle privately was reduced through strict regulations. Cattle must abide by the relevant legal standards when killing cattle or eating their own food, and can only be slaughtered with the permission of specialized agencies, otherwise it is a crime.

"Han Law" stipulates: "Only old and weak cows can be slaughtered, and it is forbidden to slaughter all young cows." This method was used in Han, Tang, Song and Five Dynasties. Whether the cattle meet the slaughter standards is not the owner's decision, but it must be tested by relevant institutions.

In the Qing dynasty, people who slaughtered cattle and horses without permission were severely punished. According to the precepts of the Qing Dynasty, anyone who slaughters a vendor privately shall be sentenced to two months' imprisonment for the first time, and sent into exile for the second time.

This rule applies whether it is your own cow or not, and it will be even more serious. According to the crime of stealing cattle to avoid stabbing, it will still hit 100. If you kill their cows and horses, you will be punished by 70 and imprisoned for one and a half years.

3. The disaster year is even worse.

Strict laws cannot completely eliminate illegal cases. There will always be some cases of privately plowing cattle, which is inevitable when natural disasters such as floods, droughts and locusts occur.

There is no way to protect the cattle. Who will take care of a cow when a person doesn't even have enough to eat? In this case, farmers will eat cattle or sell them cheaply for their own survival.

In the year of famine, the Qing government banned the private slaughter system more severely, mainly because people who knew the inside story would be punished the same. In the Qing dynasty, there were many such cases, and the government also encouraged the report of private slaughter and indiscriminate slaughter. If they know about it, they will be punished together.

This situation was very common during the Kangxi period, when famine was severe. Many refugees began to go to Hubei to look for food. At that time, many people starved to death on the road, and a large number of victims also plunged the Hubei generation into a food crisis. At this time, Hubei issued an order.

In an emergency, it is forbidden to slaughter cattle. If the bull market is sold, anyone can be taken away by the public at will, which is not a crime, so as to suppress those who slaughter cattle privately.

Second, strengthen grass-roots management and protect yellow cattle.

Although the cattle raising law has been promulgated, it must be strictly observed, and most of the cattle also appear at the grassroots level. To do a good job in legal projects, we must start from the grassroots. To this end, the superior has also increased the management of the grassroots, and will also implement some specific measures to ensure the number of cattle at the grassroots level.

1. Count the number of cows from time to time.

In order to prevent people from killing cattle privately, the government will check the number of cattle from time to time and patrol every night to prevent butchers from killing cattle at night. In order to strengthen management and reduce the difficulty of investigation, it is stipulated that butchers not only slaughter that animal at night, but also punish it according to the law of stealing cattle.

In order to ensure that farmers raise cattle at home, farmers need to use cattle tools as vouchers when purchasing crop seeds. If farmers only have land and don't raise cattle.

They can also find the seeds of crops, and naturally there will be no fruits of farming. These subtle measures require farmers to protect their cattle and not to hunt and eat them without permission.

After the disaster, the Hu and Qing governments even banned civilians from buying and selling cattle. If the number of cattle is found or checked, it will be punished according to the law, but people are not enough to eat. How can there be extra food for cattle to eat and drink?

In order to solve this problem, during the Daoguang period, Lin Zexu also set up a new organization "Dangniu Bureau", which was mainly responsible for receiving cattle that could not be raised by the victims.

Through state intervention, the victims can exchange cattle for some life-saving food or rations, and the number of cattle is guaranteed. These methods are enough to show how much attention was paid to cattle raising in various dynasties.

2. Strengthen the responsibility of grass-roots officials

In times of disasters, the government will raise the requirements for grass-roots officials, require officials to do their due diligence, do their own jobs well, and introduce severe punishment measures. During the Yongzheng period of the Qing Dynasty, the government stipulated that those who investigated and dealt with the fraud of slaughtering cattle privately at all levels were regarded as accomplices, hell to pay.

During the Qianlong period, if local officials killed cattle privately because of dereliction of duty, they would be punished according to the number of cattle slaughtered by themselves. One or two cows are fined for three months, three or four for six months, five or more for nine months, and ten or more for one year.

If the quantity is too large, it will be downgraded. Many local officials have worked hard all their lives and will naturally take them seriously.

Under normal circumstances, ordinary people don't kill cows, because cows are good for themselves after all, so no one will take the initiative to sell them unless they have to. However, in famine years, this situation may be more serious. In case of famine, their own rations are difficult to meet, and they are unable to feed cattle, so they are sold to butchers.

When the famine is severe, let alone beef, even human flesh is eaten. It is recorded in the "Wild Ballad" that "those who abstain from eating cattle are angry, and people in the former village do not eat each other". In this case, it is useless to ban it again.

Third, no business is harmful.

The importance of cattle farming to agriculture is self-evident. Cattle farming is bound to play a more prominent role in post-disaster reconstruction in the affected areas, and farmers naturally understand this truth. But when people eat people, can people who are tortured by hunger care about the life and death of a cow?

1. Reduce beef sales.

When the famine was particularly severe, the Qing government also distributed cattle directly to the victims. For example, in the thirty-sixth year of Qianlong, Shandong was flooded. In order to improve the efficiency of disaster relief, Emperor Qianlong rewarded 400 cows and the government distributed drinks to the victims.

Used to raise cattle or buy cattle. For the poor, the government borrows money to buy crop seeds and pays them back after the autumn harvest.

Another reason for selling beef is profiteering. At that time, the government could do nothing but work hard on beef. As the saying goes, "there is legislation under Fuvant, and the dead beef per catty should not exceed 20 cents." Through government intervention, the price of beef has been greatly reduced, making those butchers unprofitable.

It is the profiteering that drives the cattle to be slaughtered constantly, and the problem of indiscriminate slaughter and killing has been solved.

2. Block the market from the source

As the saying goes, "Doing nothing is harmless", many people like to eat beef, but in order to protect cattle, the government has made great efforts on people who eat beef. At that time, Xie Chen, an official in Nanliang, was denounced for stealing beef at home, and was finally relieved of his official position and became a civilian. It's like killing a chicken to show a monkey.

During the famine years, all kinds of beef shops were ordered to close and the list of beef was banned. People who eat beef privately will be punished by law. It is said that even Empress Dowager Cixi has eaten all the delicious food in the world, but never beef, because China has been a big agricultural country since ancient times, and cattle have played a vital role.

Niu manbao Besides contributing to agriculture, even its fur will be recorded by the government. Every part of the cow will be handed over to the court by farmers to make bows, arrows, armor and other objects. If someone keeps it privately, no matter how much it is, it will be punished.

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In ancient famine years, it was really hard. If forced, no one would take the initiative to kill cattle. Although the government has implemented a series of measures, a small number of cattle have been slaughtered.

But the government has tried its best to protect cattle, which shows the importance the government attaches to cattle. Now that society and machinery are widely used, the role of cattle has been replaced. Even if you encounter famine, you can face it calmly. The previous yellow cattle protection system has also become history.

refer to

Encyclopedia of famine in China

Record of Sejong in Qing Dynasty