In modern society, hunger is getting farther and farther away from everyone. Except when you wait for takeaways and lose weight, you are unlikely to be hungry. However, in ancient times, science and technology were far less advanced than today, and the standard of living was not as high as today. Starvation was a common occurrence. In ancient times, the industrial level was backward, and rulers generally suppressed commercial development and pursued agriculture. Agricultural farming did not have the science and technology as today's as the basis. It could only rely on the heavens for food. At that time, when the heavens were not beautiful, famine was prone to occur.
Once the famine breaks out, the people will face starvation, even starving to death, which is very miserable. In order to fill their stomachs, they would dig wild vegetables, even gnaw bark and grass roots, and some people would eat Guanyin soil. In the end, their abdomen swelled so high that they could not digest and defecate, and finally they were suffocated to death.
Faced with such a situation, some people raised the question, since they all tried to eat the grass-root bark, why not eat the fish and shrimp in the river?
For this kind of problem, an emperor of the Western Jin Dynasty also raised similar questions. At that time, the country was experiencing a famine, and the ministers came up to the table, asking the emperor to open a warehouse to release grain, and to discuss how to deal with it. After the emperor heard about the tragedy of the people, he asked everyone with a look of confusion, since the people can't drink porridge, why don't they eat meat? This sentence of
is no different from Lu Yu. On one occasion, Lu Yu visited a child in a poor mountainous area. Lu Yu asked the children why they only ate vegetables and not meat? Is the meat not tasty? To such a question, it is really speechless, and I don't know how to answer it.
In fact, in ancient times, when common people encountered famines, there were additional problems such as taxes. Even if it is a good harvest, they just barely eat enough if they remove taxes. In catching up with the disaster year, I can't eat enough food, how can I still pay taxes? And after the famine, there will be a plague. At that time, the medical level was not up to today's standards. Not to mention that the people could not eat anymore. If there was any money to go to the doctor, they would only die one by one. The tragedy of the folks really makes people sigh.
At that time, in order to fill their stomachs, not only fish and shrimps, but even when the locust plague occurred, the people had eaten locusts. In the end, it was also because the locusts weren’t enough to eat. One can imagine how bad they hurt the people. In ancient times, the environmental conditions were better than they are now, and there are indeed more fish and shrimps than they are now. However, if there is a drought, there will be no water in the river at all. Where will there be fish and shrimp?
In ancient times, most famines occurred in the Central Plains. Because the nomads mainly hunt, they have rich hunting experience and perfect hunting tools. They do not rely on planting for their livelihoods, so there is no famine. Even if cattle and sheep are trapped by heavy snow, they will make up for it with their rich hunting experience and will not be greatly affected.
is different in the Central Plains. Farming is their only basis for survival. Once affected, it means that the people have no food. If the imperial court opens the warehouse and releases grain, it can be relieved. If you encounter the uncle, the people will have to wait to die. In addition, the warehousing can only go to the state and counties, and the people in the countryside still have to suffer and starve.
In addition, there are some people in coastal areas who can escape famine by virtue of their geographical advantages, because the cultivated grain is not their only source of food. But when they fished, the methods they used were still very primitive. People in ancient times couldn't even think of the fishing methods we use today.
Can you catch fish? How many fish can you catch? None of these can be controlled by themselves. Nevertheless, they are much better than the people of the Central Plains during the famine period. For the people of the Central Plains, famine is a disaster from heaven and a race against death. Now we are far away from that backward era. At that time, we can hardly feel the suffering of the people.
The country is now prosperous and strong, the agricultural development has been greatly improved, the grain reserves are also very sufficient, and our level of control of the weather is much better than in ancient times. Thanks to these high-tech today, we no longer have to worry about that kind of tragic things happen to us.
