Why didn't the poor go to the mountains to catch wild boars to eat when they didn't have food or meat in ancient times?

Catching a domestic pig is difficult, let alone a wild boar, and in ancient times when tools were scarce.

While it is said that the price of meat is not low nowadays, but the mouth said that you can't afford to eat meat in reality is not so exaggerated, and even if it is true that you don't often eat meat, but at least the rice is still able to eat a full meal, however, in the ancient times it is completely different. In ancient times for a long time, eat a full meal to eat meat is quite a difficult thing.

China is the origin of rice and the first place in the world to grow rice, and wheat was introduced to the Central Plains very early, however, in fact, before the Tang and Song dynasties, due to the backwardness of the processing tools, white rice and white flour were quite precious and luxurious food, in addition to the aristocracy, most of the people's daily staple food is corn, soybeans, and wheat rice steamed with wheat.

Also, while the staple food was rather crude and scarce, eating meat was not an easy thing in ancient times. In the pre-Qin era, different groups of people were able to eat completely different meat, simply put, the son of heaven can eat any meat, the vassals and ministers can eat less meat, and civilians are simply not allowed to eat meat, can only eat vegetables, up to the New Year's festivals you can eat some fish and chickens, ducks and geese and other poultry only.

Because of the protection of farm cattle, most people in ancient times almost can not eat beef, mutton, although very common, but the ordinary people can not afford to eat, as for pork, in fact, to the two Song dynasty only began to rise to the Ming dynasty to really occupy the mainstream of the national table. Overall, the ancients in this aspect of eating is really very hard, can eat very few kinds of food, not to mention, even eat enough in many times is also a luxury thing, like the reign of Wenjing, Kaiyuan ShengShi kind of food to eat more than the time, it is really rare to see.

So in this case, some people began to whimsical, think that the ancient ecological environment is certainly much better than now, a variety of animals is also very much, such as the Tang and Song dynasties, Zhejiang and Jiangxi areas and even wild elephants living records. So why didn't the ancients go hunting wild animals to fill their bellies? For example, the wild boar that often proliferates everywhere.

Relatively speaking, wild boar is very abundant, even in modern times is not a rare animal, and wild boar is harmful to the development of agriculture, if the ancients hunted wild boar, not only can get very much meat, but also to protect agriculture. But this is only theoretical and ideal, because in reality, the ancient people to capture wild boar is really difficult.

First of all, wild boars are super fierce and not so easy to catch.

As the saying goes, "If you want to fight a tiger, you have to be bold; if you want to fight a boar, you have to bring a board", meaning that if you are bold enough to fight a tiger, but if you want to fight a wild boar, you better be prepared to bring a board; although it is an exaggeration, the ferocity of the wild boar is indeed true. The people around the forest all know "one pig, two bears, three tigers", compared to the wild boar, encounter bears and tigers may also be safer.

The wild boar is a herd animal, the adult wild boar big usually can grow to 200 kilograms, body length in 2 meters, a hard bristle and sharp tusks, so that the wild boar in the wild few natural enemies, even if it is the tiger and leopard such beasts, usually will not be easy to go to hunt the wild boar, especially the adult wild boar. Even for modern people, it is very dangerous to try to catch a wild boar without more powerful equipment, not to mention the ancients.

Secondly, wild boars did not have a low status in the hearts of the ancients.

While the domestic pig was originally domesticated from the wild boar, the situation of the wild boar and the domestic pig in ancient traditional culture was diametrically opposed. The ancients believed that the wild boar symbolized bravery, and Zi Lu, a disciple of Confucius, wore a decoration in the shape of a wild boar around his waist to signify bravery. A cult of the boar also developed among many nomadic groups in the north.

In ancient times, even ordinary pigs had a certain status, especially near the time of the Qin and Han Dynasties, because there was a "pig and dragon", pigs and dragons are the same noble animals. The wild boar, but also full of praise for the animal, and such an animal, usually there will not be anyone who wants to hurt, will be used as a dish.

Finally, wild boar meat is not good.

Wild boar is different from captive domestic pigs, wild boars live in the mountains and fields all year round, its meat is full of wild fishy flavor, and almost all of them are fine meat, meat is very hard, from the point of view of consumption is not what quality edible meat. If you want to deal with wild boar meat, you need a lot of spices, but in ancient times, not only salt is very precious, other spices are also very difficult to get, then the common cooking method is boiled and barbecue, it is difficult to deal with wild boar meat.

The real ancient times for a long time, for most people, eat enough food and eat meat are more difficult, even if the Ming and Qing dynasties pork began to popularize, the ordinary people still can not afford to eat. And wild boar, is too fierce, rather than trying to capture wild boar to quench their thirst, it is better to starve, at least to live longer, even if many people in ancient times to endure hunger, or will not go to catch wild boar.