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As we all know, in ancient times, the mainland was a natural economy dominated by a small-scale peasant economy, and its most important characteristics were the family unit and the self-sufficiency of men and women.
In an agrarian society that depends on the weather for food, natural disasters are inevitably followed by displacement and starvation.
Eating Guanyin soil, gnawing tree bark, eating "two-legged sheep", and eating Yizi, the description of the major famine disasters that occurred in the past dynasties in the history books is terrifying.
But it also makes many so-called "smart people" wonder, that is, the ancient ecological environment is good, and the animal and plant resources are abundant, why are the victims reluctant to go down to the river to catch fish and shrimp to eat?
In fact, if you bring it into the situation of ancient people, this question is ultimately a question of "why not eat minced meat".
A lasting and unexpected calamity
Famine did not happen overnight, but was a gradual process.
Natural and man-made disasters such as droughts and floods, locust plagues, wars, and the like, which lead to reduced grain production and even no harvest, affect the lives of the next few years.
For example, in the Ming Dynasty, there was a famine that lasted for four years, and during the Chongzhen period, Shaanxi, Shanxi, Henan and other places were drought.
At first, people thought it was a simple drought, and after eating a small amount of food, they harvested the unripe crops in the fields in order to survive, hoping that next year would be a good year.
Unexpectedly, the next year was another year of great drought.
When the grain is finished, they go up the mountain to dig wild vegetables, and when the wild vegetables are dug up all over the mountains, they peel off some bark.
If the taste is unpalatable, put it aside first, and it has become people's first need to save their lives.
Staying up until spring is a new year, but no one could have imagined that the drought would last for four years.
At the beginning, the imperial court was able to transfer relief grain from other regions for disaster relief, although it was better than nothing, but it was also a lifesaver.
Until this drought crossed the Yangtze River and spread to Zhejiang.
The whole country was in chaos, peasant uprisings emerged one after another, and wars broke out in all directions.
In this situation, the old, weak, sick and disabled who have no power to bind chickens have no other way, and the only thing they can eat is Guanyin soil.
The so-called Guanyin soil is actually soil, and in the Yuan Dynasty, this kind of soil was mainly used to fire pottery.
It's just that this kind of soil is more delicate, and in the famine years, it is easier to eat.
But this kind of thing is soil to put it bluntly, and the human stomach and intestines cannot digest it at all, let alone absorb nutrients from it.
After eating this soil, the stomach will become very large because it cannot be discharged, and the stomach will become distended and die in a few days.
You can't catch fish anywhere
At the time of famine, not every region had the conditions to fish.
The prerequisite for fishing is that the place where you live has plenty of water, such as a river or sea.
China, on the other hand, has a vast land area, most of which is inland, and relatively few coastal areas.
What's more, most of the areas where famine broke out were in the Central Plains, and the big rivers themselves were relatively scarce.
Even if you are lucky enough to live in an area where large rivers flow, it is difficult for fish and shrimp and other aquatic creatures to support the victims through the year of the disaster.
On the one hand, there is a shortage of fish, how can a single river fish feed thousands of victims?
On the other hand, fish and shrimp also have their own growth cycle.
Eating fish in floods is undoubtedly self-defeating
As we mentioned earlier, most of the famines in ancient times were caused by natural disasters such as droughts and floods, locust plagues, etc.
If there is a great drought year, I am afraid that the river will have dried up long ago, and how can there be fish in the exhaustion of the river?
In times of flooding, fishing and eating is even more of a fantasy.
The flood was so powerful that it was only a matter of time before the farmland and villages were washed away.
In the face of a monstrous flood, people who are powerless to resist are fish on the board, let alone fish.
After the flood waters receded, the fish and shrimp were even more inedible.
There is an old saying that after a great plague there will be a great plague.
Fish and shrimp carried by floodwaters are the best carriers of the virus.
Therefore, it is simply absurd to let the famine farmers live on the fish and shrimp in the river.
From ancient times to the present, no matter which dynasty, wise kings have always put their minds to increasing their grain reserves.
After all, the people take food as the sky, and their stomachs are not full, let alone benevolence, righteousness, courtesy, wisdom and faith.
And a prolonged famine would not only cause a sharp reduction in the number of people, but also lead to peasant uprisings everywhere.
The most serious consequence was the collapse of dynasties, and the Ming Dynasty was a prime example.
Today, global food security is also facing serious problems.
According to the United Nations, 690 million people are still hungry.
Therefore, it is particularly important to guard the red line of cultivated land and safeguard food security, and the country now puts food security in an important position of national security.