The Songhua River has always had the behavior of "releasing the row", which is a dangerous and challenging work, and when the row is released, the head is often kind to a bird called the "water old bird". This kind of behavior seems to be a superstition, but in fact it contains a very profound truth. What's going on here? If you want to know, let Xiaobian reveal the secret for you:
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At the end of the 19th century and the beginning of the 20th century, the Yalu River Basin in China was full of mountains and mountains, and the forests and seas were mangy, and there were more than 160 tree species that naturally grew. High-quality wood such as Korean pine, larch and oil pine account for 1/3 of the forest area, and its forest resources are extremely rich. After the Qing Dynasty entered the Central Plains, the rulers considered the northeast to be the "land of Longxing" and forbade the people of Guannei to go to Guanwai, so the forest vegetation in the Guanwai area was protected, and by the end of the Qing Dynasty, its forest area reached 3.586 million mu, and the amount of wood stored was as high as 1.2 billion cubic meters. Such rich wood resources have also spawned an industry - Northeast Wood Gang.
The Northeast Wooden Gang is divided into two types, one is a logger who specializes in logging in the old forest in the deep mountains, and the other is a transporter who is discharged on the river, and the two cooperate with each other to form a relatively mature timber mining and transportation industry chain. Readers are quite familiar with logging, nothing more than cutting down towering trees, but they do not know much about rowing. It is well known that after it is cut down, it needs to be transported all over the country in order to make a profit. However, the wood itself is heavy and there is no way in the mountain forest, so people can only use the impact of the Songhua River to transport wooden rows, and the discharger is the escort of the water transport timber.
The power of nature is enormous, but the natural environment is also full of many unknown dangers, wooden rows in the river water transport, often encounter rapids, once an accident occurs, not only the wooden row will be washed away, even the people who release the row will be killed. The treasurer of the row is called the head of the row, as well as the second and small poles, they are all important responsible persons for the whole row, as the saying goes, "the head is busy, the second is stable, and the help of the tail is accurate", which refers to the division of labor and the standardization of duties of the personnel on the row. The three of them must cooperate closely, grasp the direction of the wooden row traveling in the river, and try to avoid the rapids and shoals. Of course, years of experience in discharging has also allowed the rehearsalists to master a set of ways and methods of discharging, one of the most magical ways of discharging is to follow the water old bird.
The "Water Eagle" is a bird that resembles a water duck and can swim in the water or spread its wings. The "Water Eagle" was hailed as a "savior" by the rehearsers, and they all called the Water Eagle "the old head", and there is a touching legend behind it. Legend has it that the grandfather of the row is a person nicknamed "Xie Laohu", this person is a Shandong person, after breaking into the Kanto region to the northeast region, specially in the Changbai Mountain area for a living, but in a row release, in order to ensure that the wooden row smoothly through the shoal, he resolutely jumped into the water at the expense of his old body, and finally opened the wooden row smoothly, but he was exhausted and swept away by the river. Later, the people who let the platoon developed the rules of raising water eagles, believing that the water eagles were the embodiment of Xie Lao doves, and would take them to avoid the dangerous river area and successfully reach their destination.
Is it superstition or science that the drainagers lead the way with the water old dove? In fact, we can also get the answer by speculation. Before announcing the results, we can talk about the life habits of the water eagle. The water dove inhabits the rocks that flow from the streams of mountain streams and rivers, and often flies along the currents and close to the surface of the water. Water old bird is a fierce carnivorous bird, especially like to eat small fish in the river, the fish in the Songhua River like to live in the center of the river with a stable flow and many microorganisms, and near the reef, the water flow is in a vortex state, fish and microorganisms, will not live near the reef, so the place where the fish gather water old bird fishing paradise. It is precisely because the water old bird has such a nature that the drainers will be relieved to let it lead the way for themselves, avoid all the dark stones under the river, and let the wooden row pass smoothly through the turbulent waters.
Superstition and science are opposites, but in many seemingly superstitious phenomena, there are hidden scientific laws, so when studying folklore, we cannot deny some superstitious phenomena, but we must dig deep into them and find the essence of their science.
References: "Bandits in Northeast China" by Huang Bin published by Jilin Publishing House
Wen xiucai, editor-in-chief of Wenlan Hairun Studio, written by: Special history writer: Changshan Zhao Zi worm