I don't know when it began, and the discussion about dogs became a hot topic on the Internet.
What impressed me was an old story that happened in the previous two years: it was said that a father in Nanjing, Jiangsu Province, saw his son bitten by the teddy of the store, angry from the heart, dared to be born on both sides, and directly teddy dog was thrown to death.
After the incident was exposed, the man's information was subjected to human flesh and harassment threats.
There is also the annual Guangxi Yulin Dog Meat Festival War, whether it is free to eat dog meat, and other issues, which can always cause people to argue.
In fact, the reason why dogs are controversial is simple, is because it is one of the longest livestock with people, and even used as a pet as a member of the family.
Because of this story, people have always had two views on how to treat dogs:
The first: Because dogs have a special relationship with people, dogs should enjoy the same courtesy as people, have the right to be protected from abuse, and enjoy the same freedom of movement as people.
The opposite view is that dogs are just ordinary biological creatures, and we only need to have the same attitude as other animals, without special treatment.
Both views are debated endlessly. The first view, in particular, has led to a very large-scale dog protection and welfare movement.
"Animal welfare movement" is not a new word, but has historical roots.
Throughout the ages, many countries and regions have had similar animal welfare and animal protection laws, especially when it comes to the protection and welfare of dogs.
However, many times the original intentions of the decree-makers are good, but the consequences, like some extreme dog lovers, are criticized.
The most famous example of this is the dog story of Tokugawa Tsunayoshi, the fifth shogun of the Edo shogunate in Japan.
Five generations of shogun Tokugawa Tsunayoshi
Tokugawa Tsunayoshi was the fifth-generation general of Japan's Edo period, and his reign can be said to be a mixed reputation.
In the first half of his reign, Tokugawa Tsuyoshi changed the excessive dependence of his predecessors on the samurai class and vigorously promoted Confucianism, especially the views of the Rigaku school, adding a bit of a sense of civil rule to the rule of the Tokugawa shogunate.
For example, Tokugawa Tsunayoshi invited the Confucian scholar Hayashi Fenggang to Edo and told his subordinates about Confucian classics such as the Four Books and Five Classics and the I Ching, hoping to educate the samurai through science.
Lin Fenggang
It also ordered the relocation of Confucian private schools, libraries, and Confucius temples on Edo-Yushima. Later, it became the shogunate's "Shoheizaka Gakuin Institute", and today the University of Tokyo and the University of Tsukuba are more or less related to this place.
In addition to vigorously promoting Confucianism, Tokugawa Tsunayoshi also formulated and improved a number of welfare policies.
For example, he issued a decree allowing officials to provide adequate food and clothing for orphans.
At that time, Japan's population grew rapidly because of the long period of peace, but there were not so many resources, and many families would kill their children. To avoid this, Tokugawa Tsunayoshi requires that all pregnant women and children under the age of seven must register.
For the prisoners in the prison, Tokugawa Tsunayoshi also ordered the improvement of their situation. He upgraded the prison's facilities, provided several bathing opportunities a month, and so on.
Under his series of policies, the development of Confucianism and intellectual culture in Japan during the Tokugawa Tsunayoshi era reached its peak, and the first half of his reign was known as the "rule of Tenwa".
However, in the second half of the period, Tokugawa Tsunayoshi became the "Genroku Emperor", and he was even given the reputation of "Inuyasha".
In his later years, Tokugawa Tsunayoshi issued a series of animal protection decrees, accounting for one-tenth of the decrees issued during his reign.
Although these decrees protect various animals, such as prohibiting the use of fish, birds, shellfish as food, and prohibiting the abandonment of sick cattle and horses, it is more about the protection of dogs.
The law stipulates that dogs cannot be abandoned casually, even noble samurai. Seeing a homeless dog cannot be slaughtered, violence cannot be inflicted on stray dogs, and food must be provided to it. Dog owners are asked to register their dogs. Every once in a while, the dogs are shown to make sure they are alive and well cared for.
If the law is violated, it is punished accordingly.
The reason why Tokugawa Tsunayoshi made such a strict decree was that his heirs were not prosperous. ：
When Tokugawa Tsunayoshi was 37 years old, his successor died prematurely and has been childless ever since, and a monk told him that a man had died because he had killed too many sins in his previous life. Therefore, if a person wants to have heirs, the best thing to do is to show great kindness to all beings and never to kill.
Therefore, Tokugawa Tsunayoshi, who was eager for a son, formulated a series of strict animal protection laws, hoping that the Buddha would bless him with the birth of a son.
Why does Tokugawa Tsunade attach the most importance to the protection of dogs among all animals? It's because he's a dog.
Animal protection is well-intentioned. However, these decrees ultimately brought great inconvenience to the noble samurai and the common people.
The reason is nothing else, but everything has gone to extremes. Farmers have been punished for cutting down trees with bird's nests. There is a banner (a high-ranking samurai who can directly meet the shogun), who was sentenced to think behind closed doors because he clashed with the dog and killed the dog.
There is a typical case that demonstrates Tokugawa Tsunayoshi's determination to protect dogs.
In 1702, a veterinarian (also a samurai class) from the general's house brought a dog to the house and bit one of his favorite ducks. The veterinarian nailed the dog to the fence. Because this person was a staff member of the shogun's family, the influence was relatively large, and it was tried by the highest judicial organ in Japan at that time, and the law finally determined that he should commit suicide by cutting his abdomen.
Tokugawa Tsunayoshi also took this case as a typical case, telling the Japanese at the time that both civilians and samurai must strictly abide by the law.
The net of law is getting bigger and bigger, and when others see that it is a good opportunity to plant a stolen enemy, they take a desperate risk and kill the dog to plant a stolen enemy. However, the matter was revealed and he was sentenced to death.
One academic was given a confiscated salary for beating a dog.
Anyway, in this period, as long as the case involving dogs is involved, it will be from the heavy to the fast. From the available information, in 1687 alone, more than 2,000 civilians were executed for violating animal protection laws.
In this way, people dare not keep dogs, and more and more dogs become stray dogs, and these stray dogs cannot be culled. Therefore, only kennels can be built to provide for them, which are also managed by special officials, and each dog has a food quota.
These burdens fall on ordinary people again.
In 1695, Japan suffered a froststorm, a great famine, soaring prices, and starvation on the road. The shogun Tokugawa Tsunayoshi was busy raising stray dogs, and as for dog food, he snatched it from the people.
This decree of only caring about the lives of dogs, regardless of whether the people are alive or dead, was naturally attacked by many people, and Tokugawa Tsunayoshi received a chic nickname: Inuyasha (Gongfang is another name for shogun).
Even if the implementation of Tokugawa Tsunayoshi's animal protection decree is strict, he did not ask for a son, and after more than ten years of tossing and turning, Tokugawa Tsunayoshi finally "drove the crane to the west", but before he died, he still remembered his own animal protection decree. Inuyasha left a last word to the next general:
Although the decree of mercy for livestock that I have introduced in recent years is not related to the details of the grand purpose, it is only this one thing, and after a hundred years, I hope that it will still be carried out as I am alive! This is filial piety to me, and all of you here must firmly remember!
This made his successor, the sixth generation of shoguns, very embarrassed: after all, it was the fifth generation of generals Tokugawa Tsunayoshi who allowed himself to take over the position of shogun, and he was kind to himself; but on the other hand, this decree did make the whole of Japan resentful.
The sixth generation of shogun Tokugawa Ieyasu
After thinking about it for a while, the successor decided to postpone Tokugawa Tsunayoshi's funeral and had the officials in charge of enforcing the decree stand in front of Tokugawa Tsunayoshi's coffin and force them to agree to the revocation. Because Tsunayoshi's funeral had not yet taken place, the revocation order looked like Tokugawa Tsunayoshi's last words.
Later, six generations of generals decided that tyrannical acts against dogs and other animals were only regarded as misconduct and did not constitute a major crime.
Since then, this "evil law of the world" has been forgotten, and the samurai and people of Edo Castle have also breathed a sigh of relief.
Some time ago in the B station brushed Professor Luo Xiang's video, there is such a title of the content caught my attention: If there is a panda to bite me, can I beat the panda to death?
This question was asked by a classmate to Professor Luo Xiang. Professor Luo Xiang first asked the student: What is your point of view?
The student's answer was: Of course not, pandas are national treasures.
Professor Luo Xiang's point is: of course you can beat the panda to death. Which is more expensive, pandas or people? Yes, pandas are national treasures, we are people, and people are priceless treasures. When students encounter this danger, the behavior they perform is called "emergency risk avoidance".
This explanation can also be used in evaluating Tokugawa Tsunayoshi's animal protection decrees.
There is nothing wrong with protecting animals and protecting nature, but human life is also life, and it can even be said to be a priceless treasure (in the theoretical sense), the primate of all things, and a part of nature. Man must also rely on the use of animals to survive, and the appropriate use of nature is in line with the laws of nature.
As a human being, Tokugawa Tsunayoshi can uphold vegetarianism and extreme dog protectionism, but when there is hunger on the road, he does not rescue him, which is why he should not.
In the end, he received the nickname of "Inuyasha", and his decree was called "The Evil Law of the World", which was also "seeking benevolence and benevolence".
Resources:
1. Chen Jie: The Edo Shogunate, Shaanxi People's Publishing House, 2013
2. [Canada] Stanley Coron, Dog Stories: The Paw Prints of Dogs in Human History, Life, Reading, and New Knowledge Triptych Bookstore, 2016