There is a passage in the Journey to the West that reads: "See: Fox skin shoulder top, brocade wrapped around the waist and chest. The bag is inserted with wolf's tooth arrows, and the crotch is hung with a treasure carving bow. People are like searching for mountain tigers, and horses are like jumping dragons. Herds lead dogs, full of their eagles. Jing Basket raised the artillery and took Dinghai Dongqing with him. ''
What is this Hai Dongqing? It has always been a mystery in my heart.
According to historical records, emperor Tianzuo of the Liao state was the result of the fall of the country because of Hai Dongqing. Because a bird died a country? Naturally, we cannot think about the ancients in terms of the ideas of today's people, and to understand the situation at that time, we also need to restore the background of the times at that time.
Haiqing Striking Crane Figure Ming Dynasty Yin Kai Painting
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As early as the Tang Dynasty, the emperors were keen on hunting, and the hunting at that time was different from the play of the children of the poor, but to commemorate the ancestors who laid the world on horseback, and encouraged the descendants not to forget their roots. During the Tang Dynasty, eagles were an important assistant to hunting, and the Tang Dynasty specially set up the ''Wufang'' in charge of helping falcon dogs, which were managed by idle stables, and were divided into five sub-workshops: carving fang, harrier fang, eagle fang, and dog fang, of which the eagle fang was responsible for managing and taming the falcons needed for royal hunting.
Compared with the Tang Dynasty, the later Liao emperors were more enthusiastic about falconry. Among the many falcons, the Emperor of the Liao Dynasty loved a bird of prey called "Hai Dong Qing".
The Jurchens regarded Hai Dongqing as a totem, calling it "Xiongkuru", which means the highest and fastest bird in the world, and has the meaning of "god of ten thousand eagles".
In order to obtain enough Haidongqing, the Emperor of the Liao State often sent people to the Jurchen tribe to capture them and forced them to pay tribute every year. In the end, the oppression of the Emperor of the Liao State aroused the resentment of the Jurchens, and under the leadership of the leader Ah Kuanta, the Jurchen troops gathered to capture the Liao barrier eagle officials and destroy the Liao. Haidongqing was a factor that could not be ignored in the process of liao's destruction of Jinxing, and the struggle around the tribute to Haidongqing provided an opportunity for the rise of the Jurchen Jurchens and the unification of the Jurchen tribes.
Manchu Totem Hai Dongqing, Network Picture (Invasion and Deletion)
So what kind of bird is Haidongqing in reality?
From a geographical point of view, Xu Xueliang and Gu Feng recorded in "The Distribution and Origin of Haidongqing": the distribution of Haidongqing stretches from Sakhalin Island east of the Yahotsk Sea in the east, Japan east of the Sea of Japan and Korea in the southwest, west to Gansu, Ningxia and the west of the north of Qinghai, north to Lake Baikal, the Yenisei River Basin to the Arctic Ocean coast, and south to the coastal areas of Changli in Hebei and Dengzhou in Shandong. Birds of prey distributed in this area include spear falcons, swallow falcons, grey-backed falcons (migratory birds), hunting falcons, peregrine falcons, Amur falcons, kestrels, yellow-clawed falcons, ospreys, and goshawks. There are many kinds of information support, which require further information support.
According to the "Court Eagle Harrier", Hai Dongqing is small and handsome, with strong and powerful hooks, sharp eyes, and extremely high flight, so the god is handsome and fierce. It hovers in the air and can take care of itself; it inhabits the ground and can see things in the clouds. And because he can whirlwind straight up to the clouds when flying, and is good at making small and large, he is especially good at catching swans''.
According to this description, it is not difficult for us to find that Haidongqing is characterized by its small size, relatively fierce, good at making small and large, and good at catching swans. This habit is not only mentioned here. In the Area of Jilin Dunhua, there is a song called "Amma Has a Little Beetle": "'Ratha, big eagle, Amma has a small horned eagle.'" White-winged, flying fast, red eyes, clearly visible. The rabbit will not run when it sees it, and the swan will be confused when it sees it. Zuo Ling saw his eyes wide open and called it Hai Dongqing. Tie the silk and tie the bell, blow and beat it to send it to Beijing. The emperor offers a yellow coat, and Amma asks for a large iron bow. The iron bow and iron arrow shoot far away, and then catch the swan without the eagle. In this ballad, there is also a description of Hai Dongqing's small size and good at catching swans.
According to the "Manchurian Origin Examination", quoting the "Northern League Record", "The Liaodong Haifeng is rich in Eastern Pearls, as large as marbles and as small as sycamores. Every August, if you look at the moon like a picture, the pearls will be ripe. Every year in October, the pearl mussels are harvested, and if the swans can swallow the pearl mussels, the pearls must hide their sacs. Therefore, people catch swans with Haidongqing and obtain pearls in the swan sacs. ''
It can be seen from the text that people pay special attention to the characteristics of Haidongqing's good catching of swans because people can obtain precious dongzhu from the sacs of swans caught by Haidongqing. This also gives us a clear clue. There are many birds of prey that can catch swans, but they are good at catching and are also widely known, indicating that this bird lives near swamps and waters. Birds of prey with such habits, China has spear falcons, goshawks, ospreys, white-headed harriers, white-tailed harriers, magpie harriers, which further narrows the scope.
Combining the above factors, the remaining ones are spear falcons, goshawks, and ospreys, and it is necessary to continue to argue.
Cave Mouth Hunting - Spear Falcon (Blue Gray) Xing Rui photographed
As early as the Tang Dynasty, Haidongqing was already a valuable tribute to the Central Plains Dynasty by the Manchu ancestors. In the Jin Yuan period, there was such a rule: Any criminal who violated the criminal law and was exiled to Liaodong, who could catch Hai Dongqing and present it, could atone for his sins and be released. At that time, the Khan Belle, the princes and nobles, did not hesitate to buy the famous sculpture at great expense, which became a fashion at that time. At that time, the price of an ordinary Haidongqing was more than 30 taels of silver. The fact that Haidongqing is so precious indicates that the number is very small. Goshawks and ospreys do not meet the condition of scarcity, so only spear falcons remain.
So, is Hai Dongqing a spear falcon? Let's verify it.
Spear falcons breed from May to July and nest in trees along the Arctic coast, river valley cliffs and tundra. In China, the spear falcon is merely a migratory winter bird. Due to the small number and the fact that it does not breed in the country, it is naturally difficult to catch spear falcons, the so-called "rarity is precious", and the rarity of the number shows its value, which is in line with the above-mentioned precious and rare characteristics.
Qing Dynasty Yang Bin's "Liubian Jiluo" Volume III: "'Haidong Qing, the most valuable of the eagle products, pure white is the top product, white and miscellaneous hair is secondary, gray is second. It is also recorded in the Book of Exotic Lands that Hai Dongqing "has snow white, there are reed flowers, and there are natural colors", and the natural color is cyan or blue-gray. Su Yi recorded in his "Praise of the Double White Eagle" that "In the year of the Kaiyuan Yi, the Eastern Yi Junchang paid tribute to the White Eagle in a pair of years. Its one weighs three pounds and has four two, and its one weight and three pounds have two or two, all of which are as bright as practicing color, like colorful chapters, full of snow, and flying flowers. These literatures indicate that the plumage of Haidongqing has a pure white color, white mixed with other variegated colors and gray.
Let's look at the feather color of the spear falcon: the feather color of the spear falcon varies greatly, and there are dark, white, and gray types.
The head of the dark type is white, the upper body is grayish brown to dark slate brown, with white transverse spots and spots, the tail feathers are white, with brown or slate color transverse spots, the flying feathers are brown, with broken white transverse spots, the underbody is white, with dark transverse spots; the white body feathers are mainly white, with brown spots on the back and wings; the gray type feathers are between the above two types of color types.
In a few icy and snowy alpine regions of Iceland, the spear falcon will appear in order to adapt to the environment and appear white individuals, also known as white falcons. It can be seen that the plumage of the spear falcon is completely consistent with the plumage of Hai Dongqing described in the literature.
At this point, modern wildlife scientists have deduced that Hai Dongqing is most likely a spear falcon.
Text: by Zhao Xumao
Image source "One Bird, One World" illustration, network image (invasion and deletion)
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