"The country is based on the people, and the people take food as the sky"
This is a well-known phrase in the Chronicle of History, and it will be borrowed by us on some occasions today. But in fact, this sentence is a good reflection of the state of ancient Chinese agricultural society. To support the country, we must raise people, and to support people, we must start with grain, and people cannot fail to eat, and food is the foundation of man.
This sentence seems simple, but in fact, it contains a lot of truth. In ancient times, the social economy was not developed, and the economic basis of most dynasties was agriculture, and agriculture was not only closely related to a large amount of grain, but also often affected by force majeure factors, such as various natural disasters, such as droughts, such as floods, locust plagues, and so on.
Therefore, agriculture is both indestructible and very fragile. We often hear stories about times in ancient times when famine occurred and the feudal ruling class did not provide relief or was unable to do so at all. Civilians who had no food to eat would dig up the weeds on the ground and eat the bark on the trees so that they would not starve to death.
But the question is, why are civilians reluctant to eat fish and shrimp in the river, even if they eat those unpalatable weeds and bark?
Why not fish and shrimp? Let's start by taking a look at where the areas that have historically been plagued by famine are
To ask this question, we must first clarify the point, that is, in ancient times, where was famine more prone to famine?
The answer is that the north is the majority. It is true that famine may occur in different dynasties and at different times. In ancient times, the main causes of famine were as follows: the first was drought, the second was war, and the third was locust plague, floods, and so on.
Floods are naturally frequent in the south, but the south, as the main grain producing area in China, even if a large-scale flood occurs, the relatively large losses caused may only flood a few streets and wash away a few houses. As for grain, in fact, for the rich South, the famine caused by the floods was not so severe, and the people basically had rations in their homes.
But in the far north, the problem is more pronounced. First of all, the climate in the north of Our country is relatively arid, coupled with frequent droughts, it is easy to cause famine.
The most important thing to pay attention to in this problem is that in the north, in fact, the number of rivers and lakes is far less than in the south. If there were as many rivers and lakes in the north as in the south, drought would not be so easy.
In times of drought and famine, even if some areas of the north have rivers and lakes, they will do almost the same. Fish and shrimp can't survive without water, so where do the fish come from? At such a time, the victims of the north had to pick wild vegetables and tree bark to eat.
Living habits and eating habits are different, and there are no conditions for fishing shrimp
As mentioned earlier, the famine caused by drought is mostly in the north, so I believe that everyone has heard of the main diet structure of "south rice and north side", in the north, people mostly use pasta as the main ration, and the south direction is called "the land of fish and rice". From the perspective of diet structure, southerners are more accustomed to fishing and eating fish, while northerners do not have such eating habits as southerners.
As a result, if in the same famine situation, southerners are more likely to fish and eat fish, and northern victims do not have that condition. One is because I am not used to eating fish, and the other is because I do not have the skills and utensils to catch fish. Because the rivers and lakes in the north are originally less than in the south, the people living in the north have rarely developed fishing and cooking skills, and they are naturally unfamiliar with fish and shrimp.
Let's talk about the situation of famine, everyone is hungry and difficult to eat, in the case of insufficient food and lack of strength, coupled with unskilled, unskilled, no technology, which refugee is willing to spend energy to catch fish that they do not know if they can catch? Instead of emptying the basket, it is more realistic to collect some food that is not difficult to collect.
In ancient times, people living in the mountains usually hunted and collected meat from their prey to eat as a living. But fishing is still relatively unfamiliar to people in ancient times, even if you want to fish, it is generally a more difficult thing.
So, what should the victims do if the bark and grass are eaten? "Eating soil" is actually a real thing that has happened in history, and in some periods of history, refugees in some areas really have nothing to eat, so they have to eat Guanyin soil to fill their hunger.
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