It is about to be the Year of the Tiger, and when it comes to tigers, the story of "Wusong fighting tigers" is almost a household name in China, and even children with weeping hair can say a few words. In classical Chinese literature, fighting tigers is often seen as a symbol of heroes, which shows that fighting tigers is not something that ordinary people can do. However, in history, some people have hunted and killed more than 130 tigers in their lifetime, which can be called a super enhanced version of Wu Song plus Li Kui, and Wu Song and Li Kui are estimated to shed tears after seeing it. But don't be in a hurry to worship first, compared to Wu Song killing a tiger with his bare hands, this person beat the tiger to a certain extent by opening the plug-in.
First, three generations of grandchildren love to fight tigers
Qing Shengzu Kangxi Grandpa once said proudly: "Since childhood, anyone who uses a shotgun bow and arrow to get tiger 135, bear 20, leopard 25, lynx lynx 10, elk 14, wolf 95, wild boar 132, sentinel deer every hundred, the rest of the paddock casually shoot all the beasts, it is too hard to remember." Kangxi Ye is famous in history because of his Wenzhi martial arts, but what people did not expect is that Kangxi Ye himself was actually a martial arts master, although his words were not without self-aggrandizement, but he recalled in his later years: "The things that were lost in riding and shooting whistle deer hunting were all learned from childhood. ”
Kangxi once learned to ride a horse and shoot archery with a bodyguard named Murgen, and a large part of his tiger fighting skills may have been learned from Murgen.
So, is Kangxi Ye's such a proud record true or boastful?
Looking at the "Draft History of the Qing Dynasty" and the "Record of the Qing Dynasty", there are indeed many descriptions of Kangxi's hunting tigers. For example, in the "Draft History of the Qing Dynasty, Benji VI", it is recorded that in November of the twentieth year of the Kangxi Dynasty, "he hunted in Nanshan and sent three tigers to attack". In the winter and October of the 37th year of the Kangxi Dynasty, Kangxi Ye "shot two tigers, one of which was shot through the stream, and pierced through its threats."
During the hunting in the twentieth year of Kangxi, Kangxi shot three tigers with an arrow in one hunt, and shot two tigers in thirty-seven years, one of which was still Kangxi who shot the tiger's armpit from afar, which shows the superb archery method of Kangxi. However, this is not the most exaggerated, Kangxi twenty-one years, Kangxi Eastern tour of the ancestors, came to Guanwai, by the way to hunt.
Kangxi in film and television dramas
Gao Shiqi, the minister accompanying him on this eastern tour, wrote a "Record of the Eastern Tour of Hu Cong", which detailed the process of Kangxi's fight against the tiger: "On the day, the emperor personally shot the three tigers. The crown prince nian fu nine paper, lead the bow prancing horse, gallop between the valleys, arrow should not be sent, see a tiger, shoot immediately. Ten thousand people look up to the darkness, do not rejoice, since then, every time they suck, shoot tigers, can not remember. ”
Kangxi Grandpa did not forget to shoot tigers wherever he went, and this time his record was still impressive, shooting 3 tigers at a time. The tiger father had no dogs, and the prince at that time was only 9 years old, so he bent his bow and shot a tiger, which aroused the admiration of everyone. Before Kangxi came to Shengjing, that is, the team had just left the capital and was still near the capital, Kangxi could not hold back and went to hunt tigers. In one month, Kangxi shot 8 tigers near the capital, and during the entire eastern tour, Kangxi shot about 39 tigers.
Judging from the above records, the Kangxi Emperor loved to fight tigers all his life, and his own statement that he hunted 135 tigers in his lifetime may not be an exaggeration.
The Qianlong Emperor has always regarded his grandfather, the Kangxi Emperor, as his idol, and in terms of shooting tigers, the Qianlong Emperor can be said to have followed the pace of the Kangxi Emperor. There are also many records in the "Draft History of the Qing Dynasty" about the Qianlong Emperor fighting tigers, qianlong eight years, "upward circled Bayan, personally shooting the tiger", in September of the same year, Qianlong also "surrounded Wushihang'a, personally shooting the tiger". In March of the twentieth year of Qianlong, "fortunately hanging eagle platform line, bear one tiger two" and so on.
Although the Qianlong Emperor's record of fighting tigers is not as proud as that of the Kangxi Emperor, he has beaten 57 tigers in his lifetime, but it can also be called a horror, and Kangxi and Qianlong are not only the emperors in Chinese history who have been waiting for a long time, but also two "tiger fighting labor models". Although the Yongzheng Emperor was inferior to his father and son, he still insisted on fighting tigers, and the Qing Dynasty's "Yongzheng Xingle Tu" depicted the Yongzheng Emperor assassinating tigers with a tiger gun in his hand. The sum of these three generations of grandchildren can be called "tiger busters".
"Yongzheng XingLetu"
Second, how to play?
We know that Wu Song beat the tiger, at that time, except for the whistle stick, the other guys did not bring it, so he killed the tiger with his bare hands, so he was highly admired. But No matter how god Kangxi And Qianlongye are, they can't really imitate Wu Song to fight the tiger with his bare hands, compared to Wu Song, Kangxi Grandpa is more like a kind of open hanging tiger.
Let's first take a look at the scene when Kangxi Ye fought the tiger, Gao Shiqi's "Records of the Eastern Patrol" has a detailed record: "The method of encircling is to set the yellow flag and take the center as the head." Before the Holy Driving was in front of the Great Suo, according to xu xing, the two menzi met, and then stood still, and the houhou team gradually approached, which was called a siege. Slowly surround the mountain, pull the flame annihilation, and the lone rabbit Kang Lu scatters around the middle."
At the beginning of the hunt, the Eight Banner Soldiers stood around the mountain in a certain order to drive away, and then drove the birds, snakes, bears, and tigers in the mountain into a circle of encirclement, which was convenient for the emperor to shoot. This encirclement was not chosen arbitrarily, but in a depression with few trees, so that these beasts had nowhere to escape. Nan Huairen also recorded in his "Records of the Tartar Execution" that during the Kangxi siege, 3,000 archers of the Imperial Forest Army formed a circle and drove the beasts together. Generally speaking, there are only two rounds a day, that is, two wild beasts, and one intermission at noon.
Qing Lang Shining's "Qianlong Emperor Shooting Hunting Map"
Gao Shiqi specifically explained that the prey in the circle must be the emperor or the emperor to hunt, and if there is no emperor's order, the prince and the minister cannot shoot at will, unless there is a beast that breaks through the encirclement of the Eight Banner Soldiers.
Gao Shiqi also said that once he encountered a tiger, Kangxi would lead more than 20 guards to occupy the commanding heights and shoot the tiger from a commanding height, a method that was tried and tested. If the tiger that was shot was not shot, the hounds were released, the hounds would circle with the tigers, and people would release the arrows again while the tigers were circling with the hounds. If the tiger escapes, the hounds can also track the tiger's location, and the guards will follow close behind with guns, find the tiger and kill it. Gao Shiqi explained that hunting tigers in this way was "invincible". He also sighed: "In the past, people said that the tiger and leopard were in the mountains, and their strength was invincible, but now it is very easy to fight." "The tigers who used to be called kings in the mountains could only obediently catch them in front of the well-equipped and numerous Eight Banner Soldiers.
Southern Song Dynasty Chen Juzhong "Tatar Hunting Atlas"
Combined with the records we saw earlier in the "Qing History Draft", Kangxi Ye's fight against tigers is basically "shooting", that is, long-range attacks, and generally does not engage in close hand-to-hand combat with tigers. Qianlong also recalled that his grandfather was "the Holy Ancestor God is brave and gifted, powerful and strong, and uses 12 long arrows, which are rarely useful to his subjects." I have seen that Saint Zu's arrows have no false hair, shooting deer in the middle of the siege, and the rate is more than one through the chest of the cave. That is, fierce as a tiger, as strong as a bear, as fast as a rabbit, and often a shot of death."
In addition to the long-range weapon of shooting tigers, in addition to bows and arrows, in the Qianlong period, Qianlong also particularly liked to shoot tigers with shotguns. Of course, this does not mean that the Emperor of the Qing Dynasty would not engage in close combat with tigers when hunting, and Kangxi Ye once set up a special imperial forest army called the Tiger Gun Battalion, that is, "twenty-three years, with the Heilongjiang Advanced Elite Riding and Shooting, Good At Killing Tigers To Compile Tiger Gun Battalion".
The weapon used by the Tiger Gun Battalion is different from other general Royal Forest Troops, the Tiger Gun is a slender and bloody weapon with two sides, and using this weapon to fight the tiger can effectively assassinate the tiger and maintain a certain safe distance from the tiger.
That is to say, the Qing Emperor's method of fighting tigers was essentially a matter of taking advantage of the large number of people and well-equipped facilities, which was more appropriate than fighting tigers as it was more appropriate to sweep them.
A hand-held weapon is a tiger gun
Third, why fight the tiger?
It is an indisputable fact that the emperor of the Qing Dynasty loved to fight tigers. Especially the emperors of the early Qing Dynasty, Nurhaci and Huang Taiji also shot tigers many times in their lives, and the Qing Shilu once recorded that Huang Taiji was "ugly and ugly, and returned to the palace." Yes, the five tigers were killed, and the subordinates were surprised and obeyed."
When jiaqing arrived, the emperor still insisted on fighting tigers, and there is a record of the Jiaqing Emperor in the QingshiLu: "This year, the sentry will be temporarily stopped... Its Chahar officers and soldiers, Mongolian upper siege soldiers, and shotgun tiger guns and good hunters do not have to come." The Chahar officers and soldiers, Mongol soldiers, and tiger gun hunters in this record must be officers and soldiers involved in hunting and shooting tigers. Because the best time for hunting had passed that year, the Jiaqing Emperor declared that they did not have to come again, which showed that at least until the Jiaqing Emperor's time, the Qing Emperor still insisted on fighting tigers. Later, due to the gradual change of the times, the Emperor of the Qing Dynasty was also interested in hunting and shooting tigers.
The qing emperors loved to fight tigers, which was related to the habits of the people to which they belonged. Before entering the customs, the Manchurians lived among the grassland mountains and forests, and they were a nomadic people, and in the process of production and life, they were often invaded by wild beasts such as tigers. Therefore, hunting such as fighting tigers is not only a national gene engraved in their bones, a national habit, but also a helpless choice forced by the pressure of survival.
Secondly, the Hunt of the Son of Heaven has been a long-standing practice. The "Five Years of Zuo Chuan And Hidden Gong" records: "The spring and summer seedlings, the autumn and winter hunting, are all in the gap between the farms to talk about things." This means that the princes took advantage of the idle time of the peasants to actively hunt and practice martial arts, train the army, and prevent the decline of combat effectiveness, and the hunting carried out by subsequent dynasties was basically for this purpose. During the Qin and Han dynasties, the emperor would also build a special palace garden for hunting, and the Shanglin Garden expanded by Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty was originally built during the Qin Dynasty. Of course, it is not excluded that some emperors themselves like to hunt, such as Ming Wuzong, who likes to hunt such exciting things. In some dynasties founded by ethnic minorities, hunting was commonplace.
Hunting in ancient times
The hunting of the Qing Dynasty was even more customized, Kangxi twenty-one years, Kangxi "Dingtian hunting three times a year, eight banners each Jane forward military school to follow". According to the Jiaqing Emperor's proclamation to the army that we saw earlier, it can be seen that going out hunting is basically a project that the emperor has to carry out every year, and the famous paddocks include the Nanyuan paddock in the south of Beijing, the Mulan paddock, the Shengjing paddock, the Jilin paddock and the Heilongjiang paddock.
In addition to the national habits and the hunting habits of Tianzi, the threat of tiger plague was also one of the important factors for the Qing emperor to fight tigers. Tiger infestations, or tiger infestations, threaten the survival of humanity. Tiger plagues have existed in China since ancient times. The Huayang Guozhi BaZhi says: "When King Qin Zhao was king, the white tiger was harmed, and qin, ba, and Han suffered. The King of Qin was a man who could kill tigers in the country, yi wanjia, and jin bao called it. The tiger plague in Sichuan did not improve at all in the early Qing Dynasty, Peng Zunsi's "Shubi" volume 4: "During the day (tiger) entered the city, the ten daily newspapers of the remnants were killed by the tiger, and there were those who ate up in the past few days and the people of the county. ”
Tigers in Sichuan in the early Qing Dynasty dared to break into residential areas and mutilate living beings even during the day. Sichuan is like this, and other regions are not much better. As long as the mountains are high and densely forested, there will be tiger activities, and the tiger infestations in Guangxi, Guizhou, Jiangxi, Northeast China and other places during the Qing Dynasty were very serious. In this case, the Qing Emperor hunted tigers, reflecting the emperor's love for the people, and also alleviated the danger of tiger disease to a certain extent.
Kangxi shot tigers many times in his life, not entirely out of interest, but also to alleviate tiger infestation. The Qing Shilu records that on november 20, Kangxi "heard that the residents were wounded by tigers." It's a day to hunt The South Mountain. The upper relatives kill two big tigers, and one small tiger, and the people are absolutely infested with tigers." This hunting activity of Kangxi in the past twenty years was that Kangxi had heard of a tiger infestation before deciding to go to fight tigers, and this time fighting tigers killed a total of 2 large tigers and 1 small tiger, and since then, there has been no tiger infestation in the area.
Wen Shijun said
Kangxi's record of fighting tigers is unique among Chinese emperors, and we can also see that the reason why Kangxi and other Qing emperors were so keen on fighting tigers was the inheritance of Manchu nomadic blood and habits, and also the embodiment of loving the people. By the end of the Qing Dynasty, the Manchus had gradually worn away the nomadic atmosphere and further Sinicized, and the gradual subsidence of the tiger plague in the later period also showed that the Emperor of the Qing Dynasty was about to "have no tiger to fight", so it is difficult for us to see in the life history of the emperor in the late Qing Dynasty that he has a proud record of fighting tigers. From another point of view, tiger infestation and fighting tigers as a manifestation of the conflict between man and nature, inspires us to think about what kind of posture human beings should take with nature.
bibliography
Qing Shilu, Zhonghua Bookstore, 2008.
Zhao Erxun: Draft History of the Qing Dynasty, Zhonghua Bookstore, 1998.
Lan Yong, "Tiger Plague and Environmental Restoration in Sichuan in the Early Qing Dynasty", Chinese Historical Geography Theory Series, No. 3, 1994.
Woodcutter: "The Year of the Tiger Says the Tiger", Forbidden City, No. 1, 2010.
Wenger: "The Kangxi Emperor Fights the Tiger," Unity Daily, August 1, 2016.
(Author: Haoran Wenshi Jingsu)
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