"Tracing the Origin of Gansu" Han Dynasty: The animals of Liangzhou are the world's rao

【Tracing the origin of Gansu】Han Dynasty: The animals of Liangzhou are the world's sparing

Gansu Daily special writer Wang Shoukuan

In the early days of the Western Han Dynasty, in order to meet the needs of the war against the Xiongnu, establish a strong cavalry force, and ensure sufficient border defense supplies and transport animal power, the Western Han Court took various measures to promote the development of official horse courts and civil livestock breeding. By the beginning of the reign of Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty, animal husbandry had developed greatly, and there was a scene of "horses in the streets and alleys of the people, flocks of strangers and strangers, and those who rode on the horses and could not gather". With sufficient warhorses and cattle, camels and other animal power, with strong cavalry and sufficient material support, Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty won the victory against the Xiongnu. In the later period, due to successive years of conquest, the loss of warhorses was too great, Emperor Wu expanded the official horse garden, continued to implement the "horse fu order" and "horse crossbow pass" policy, and adopted measures such as raising horse prices, replacing horses with horses, rewarding people with horses on credit, and raising official horses by the people.

Generally based on present-day Gansu, including the Han Dynasty Liangzhou in the agricultural area of present-day Ningxia and the eastern part of Qinghai Province, the territory is vast, the climate is warm and cool, the water and grass are abundant, and it has the unique natural conditions for the development of animal husbandry, and animal husbandry has become the most advantageous industry in Liangzhou. As the Book of Han says: "Qindi, the land is vast and the people are scarce, and the water and grass are suitable for animal husbandry, so the livestock of Liangzhou is the world's rao." "During the Two Han Dynasties, the forms of animal husbandry management in Liangzhou generally included two major categories: folk animal husbandry and guanyuan animal husbandry.

Animal husbandry for ethnic minorities

Liangzhou is a place where ethnic minorities are relatively concentrated. As early as the pre-Qin period, the local area was already complete with horses, cattle, sheep, chickens, dogs, and pigs, and the Qiang, Rong, and Foxes were mainly engaged in animal husbandry. During the Qin and Han dynasties, the Xiongnu, Qiang, and other ethnic minorities in Liangzhou formed an economic structure based on animal husbandry and concurrently engaged in grain cultivation.

Before the Qin and Han Dynasties, the Yue and Wusun people who lived in the Hexi Corridor raised a large number of horses, cattle, sheep, camels, donkeys, mules, etc. When the two ethnic groups gradually moved westward, the Hexi area became the pasture of the Huns. Later, after the Hexi Corridor was occupied by the Han army, the Xiongnu sang sadly: "Losing me to Qilian Mountain has made my six animals restless." "The Xiongnu Prince Jin Ri of Xiutu, who was captured by Huo's sick army in the Hexi Corridor? He had rich experience in animal husbandry, and was later sent to the Yellow Gate to raise horses, all fat and strong, and was praised by Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty, and immediately worshiped as a horse supervisor, and eventually became a heavy subject of the imperial court.

East of the Qilian Mountains to the Qin and Longjian mountains, animal husbandry is mainly operated by the Qiang, Qi and other ethnic groups. Xu Shen explained: "Qiang, Xi rong shepherd people also, from people from sheep. Zhao Chongguo said: "The Qiang people 'live on livestock'. "All reflect that the Qiang people are good at animal husbandry. During the Two Han Dynasties, the Qiang people in Liangzhou and other places repeatedly clashed with the imperial court, in part to obtain good pasture land and fight for the right to subsistence. In the first year of the reign of Emperor Xuan of Han (61 BC), Zhao Chong's state department captured "more than 100,000 heads of horses, cattle and sheep" in a single battle with the Xianzhi Qiang, indicating the scale of the Qiang people's animal husbandry. At the time of the Shang Zhou Dynasty, the ancestors of the Hu people had many contacts with the Central Plains Dynasty. According to the Biography of Mu Tianzi, "King Mu of Zhou traveled west to Longshang, and the chief of the Cao Nu tribe of the Huan clan set up a banquet on the shore of Yangshui (present-day Bailongjiang) to receive the wind for King Mu, and offered 900 horses and 7,000 cattle and sheep to help him march west." In the Han Dynasty, the most powerful white horse of the Qi people, it was active in present-day Longnan and the border area of present-day Gansu, Sichuan and Shaanxi, and they were nomadic and agricultural, and they bred excellent horse breeds, and were called "good horses" and "famous horses". The Kryptonians made leather tanned cowhide, and the "rhinoceros leather clothing" made was extremely defensive, the enemy's bow and arrow could not penetrate, and even the spear was helpless against it.

The animal husbandry of ethnic minorities in the Liangzhou region of the Eastern Han Dynasty, mainly qiang, was also flourishing. The "Later Han Shu Xi Qiang Biography" records that in the battle between the Han army and the rebellious Qiang people, they captured 8 or 9 million horses, cattle, sheep, donkeys, and mules of various qiang species, such as Mitang, Zero Chang, Shen Yi, Dang Pan, Gong Tang, Burning He, and Xian Zero, which shows that even in turmoil and war, the Qiang compatriots still insisted on developing animal husbandry, and the number of horses, cattle and sheep they carried was very large.

The livestock of ethnic minorities in Liangzhou is mainly to meet their own production and living needs, and the number of livestock that can be provided for agricultural areas is limited. The central government of the Han Dynasty and the western nationalities were sometimes in a state of war, and the control and utilization of their animal husbandry production was limited.

Household animal husbandry

The animal husbandry of the Han chinese in Liangzhou was also relatively developed. This kind of animal husbandry includes large-scale private herders, as well as herders in general, as well as livestock managed by farmers.

In Helong and other places, private animal husbandry is developed, and there are tens of millions of horses and cattle on the initiative of large livestock husbandry. Sima Qian once said: "Land herding horses with two hundred hooves, cattle hooves with horns, thousands of feet of sheep, and a thousand feet of Zezhong ... All of them are related to the Marquis of Qianhu and so on. This means that whoever possesses fifty horses, two hundred cattle, two hundred and fifty sheep, and two hundred and fifty pigs can enjoy a life of equal prosperity as a thousand households. When Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty opened the border, Qiao Yao was engaged in agriculture and animal husbandry production in the western border of Liangzhou, and he had a thousand horses, two thousand cattle, and ten thousand sheep. During the Xinmang period, Ma Yuan led hundreds of guests to raise horses, cattle and sheep in Beidi (present-day Qingyang and Ningxia) and Yuanchuan (present-day Yuzhong), which was also very large. Zhai Shu, who served as Shangshu during the reign of Emperor An of the Eastern Han Dynasty, fled to Liangzhou to herd sheep and became an individual shepherd after avenging his uncle when he was young.

In ancient times, the country was founded on agriculture, and "the cattle were harvested", and the Han Dynasty explicitly ordered the protection of cultivated cattle and horses, and prohibited slaughter. The Han Jian excavated from the ruins of broken cities in Jinta County, Gansu Province, has an edict prohibiting the slaughter of cattle and horses. In the Han Dynasty, people's cattle were often requisitioned for military supplies, or transported, or fed by the army. For example, Li Guangli was ordered to expedition to Dawan, and when he left the pass, he rode with "100,000 cattle, more than 30,000 horses, tens of thousands of donkeys, mules, and horses", most of which relied on Liangzhou, especially in the Hexi region, which showed the prosperity of local animal husbandry. In the Han Dynasty, the management system for the registration of cattle and horses and other large animals was implemented, in addition to facilitating inspection and preventing theft, but also to ensure the level of breeding and promote reproduction. The general cattle register is registered and established according to the coat color, gender, marking, age, body size and other elements of each cow. The content of the horse book is roughly the same as that of the cattle, for example, the Hanging Spring Jane V1620 (2) No. 11-20 Jane is part of the base of the Hanging Spring Yi "Chuan Ma Famous Book" reported in March of the second year of the founding of the first year (31 BC). Raising sheep is the main business of folk animal husbandry, and there are many records of sheep raising in the Hexi Han Dynasty. Camels are also written in Han Dynasty texts and unearthed Jianmu as "橐佗", "橐 Camel", "橐它", etc., which are used for riding, cart pulling and carrying supplies, and are important livestock in Liangzhou in the Han Dynasty. At that time, ethnic minorities, officials, and privates all had camels, and there were also camels paid tribute to the countries in the western region and stayed in Liangzhou. Dunhuang Hanjian 1163B Jane, a camel trade reached 302 horses, which shows the large number of camels in Liangzhou at that time.

Liangzhou folk herd livestock and has accumulated rich experience. For example, Dunhuang Hanjian No. 41, 43, 164 Jian concluded that a thin and tired horse cannot only drink water and eat grass, but must be fed grain to restore physical strength. There were many animal husbandry experts in Liangzhou, and during the reign of Emperor Zhao of Han, he selected Fu Jiezi, a northerner, to serve as the horse supervisor of the imperial court to better manage the royal horse herding industry.

Official animal husbandry

The official animal husbandry industry of the Han Dynasty mainly included: the Bian County Priest's Garden, the Royal Court Stables, and the official stables of governments at all levels. The official animal husbandry in Liangzhou is mainly a priest's garden.

The Pastoral Garden is a large-scale state-run pasture set up in Bian County since the time of the Jing Emperor in the Han Dynasty, under the management of the priest, mainly raising horses, and also herding cattle, sheep, camels, etc., and its horses are called Yuan ma. According to records, the Han Dynasty had state-run horse ranching in the six counties of Longxi, Tianshui, Anding, Shangjun, Beidi and Xihe, and each county had one order, collectively known as the Six Priests Yuan Ling. Each Priest's Court Order has jurisdiction over an unequal number of Priests' Gardens in the county. Each court is usually "supervised by Lang" and manages the affairs of the ranch. Among the six counties, Xihe County was in the area of present-day Changzhi, Shanxi, Shangjun was in present-day northern Shaanxi, and the four counties of Longxi, Tianshui, Anding, and Beidi were generally in present-day Gansu Province. In addition, there is also a priest's court in the Hexi Corridor. According to the literature, Jian Mu and the present people's research, the recorded pastor gardens in Liangzhou in the Han Dynasty are: HeqiYuan and Houfeiyuan in Lingzhou County, Beidi County, Blocking Garden in Guide County, Baima Garden, yuzhi County Priest Garden; Yongyong County Priest Garden in Tianshui County, Liuma Garden; Huchi Garden in Anding County; li jingyuan and Jiannian Garden in Zhangye County.

The pastoralists in the pastoral court were mainly officials and slaves, as well as serving farmers and prisoners. The "HanGuan Old Yi Supplement" said: "Thirty-six houses of the Tai Servant Shuai Zhuyuan, distributed in the north. With Lang as the court overseer, 30,000 officials and slaves, 300,000 horses, and six stables, countless cattle and sheep, for sacrifice. "Each priest's court has an average of 833 shepherds, 8,333 horses, and a considerable number of cattle, sheep, camels, etc., on a very large scale. Horses and camels raised in the priest's court are used for military and post-transmission purposes, cattle are used for envoys, and cattle and sheep are also provided to the imperial court and states and counties as offerings for sacrifice on various sacrificial occasions.

During the Western Han Dynasty, the development of the Priest's Court provided a large number of livestock for the Han Dynasty and enhanced the military strength of the Dynasty, but it also inevitably increased the financial expenditure of the state and increased the burden on the people. In order to alleviate social contradictions, the Western Han Dynasty once reduced the yuan and horses, for example, during the ping emperor's time, "to strike and settle Huchiyuan, thinking that It was Anmin County", Huchiyuan should be located in Xiaolongshan Ranch, Andin County is in the area of present-day Huating.

In addition to the priest's court under the Taibu Temple, each of the Kyoshi governments has its own system in charge of animal husbandry, and each has a certain number of official pastures in the border counties. During the Western Han Dynasty, there was a pasture under Ting Wei in The Northern Territory County, and Ni Kuan was sent to the northern land of congshi for several years, and then returned to the palace and went to the livestock book. "During the Eastern Han Dynasty, Liangzhou was dismissed due to repeated rebellions by the Qiang people, resulting in the official camp Mumaduo, but hanyang Liumayuan and so on are still found in the records.

In the Han Dynasty, the liangzhou and other border counties priestage court system had an important role and far-reaching influence in history. The Pastoral Garden produced a large number of livestock such as horses, cattle and sheep, increased social wealth, enhanced military strength, and provided a material foundation for the strength and prosperity of the Han Empire; giving full play to Liangzhou's natural advantages, prompting it to maintain the economic characteristics of pastoralism as the mainstay and semi-farming and semi-pastoralism, and curbing the tendency of the national economy to emphasize agriculture over grazing; it was conducive to consolidating the central government's rule over border counties and promoting and strengthening the economic ties between the Central Plains and the northwest region.

The establishment and development of priests' gardens in Liangzhou and other places in the Han Dynasty was emulated by later dynasties. Until the early Qing Dynasty, the imperial court horse herding supervisor set up horse factories in Places such as Dacaotan in Ganzhou, Huangyangchuan in Liangzhou, and Huahaizi Pandai Lake in Suzhou to raise horses and other livestock.

Improvement of livestock technology

The improvement of animal husbandry technology in Liangzhou during the Two Han Dynasties was first reflected in the introduction of stallions and the improvement of horses. The imperial court attached importance to the introduction of wild horses or good horses mated with domestic horses to obtain excellent horse breeds, improve the combat effectiveness of cavalry, and was in a more favorable position in the battle against the Xiongnu. The earliest Liangzhou liangma in the Western Han Dynasty was a dragon horse produced by the Longyuan water in Shangyi, and a dragon horse stable was specially set up in the stables under the jurisdiction of the Imperial Court Taibu Temple.

The Notes on the Water Classics reads: "In present-day Mt. Tsuka in Western County, the Western Han Dynasty water guide also ... The west stream and the horse pond are hydrated, and the water comes out of the southwest of Shangyi for more than sixty miles, which is called the Longyuan Water, and the Yan ShenMa is out of the water, which is different from the Yuwu and Laiyuan, so it is because of the name. "In the autumn of the third year of the Yuan Hunt (120 BC), he was punished for his crime in Nanyang Xinye in Dunhuang Tuntian, and repeatedly saw a strange horse in a group of wild horses next to Wowashui (present-day Yangguan Town, Dunhuang), and came here from time to time to drink water. The profiteering chief designed to dress up as a clay man, and finally used the trap to trap the wild horse. He lied that the wild horse was a sacred horse that emerged from the water of Wowa and offered it to Emperor Wu. Emperor Wu of Han was extremely excited, called it Tianma, and sang "Song of Tianma" for it. After that, Emperor Wudi of the Han Dynasty was more eager for good horses in the western region. After Zhang Qian's second mission to the Western Regions, the Wusun envoys who came to Chang'an with him offered a lot of Wusun horses, and the history books say that they "got the Wusun horses well, and their name was 'Tianma'". In order to obtain the blood horses of Dawan Khan, Emperor Wudi of Han sent the general Li Guangli to the state of 6,000 horses and tens of thousands of evil teenagers in the county, and added 60,000 troops, out of Dunhuang, marched long distances to attack Dawan, "taking dozens of good horses, more than 3,000 mu below the middle horse", Emperor Wu of Han changed the name of Dawan horse to "Tianma", and renamed Wusun horse to Xiji Horse. Later, the Han Dynasty obtained more good horses from the Western Regions. In the Dunhuang Hanging Spring Jane, there is a record of the Han Zhao Emperor sending emissaries to Dunhuang to greet the "Heavenly Horse" of Dawan.

In the Han Dynasty, Liangzhou also made great achievements in improving the quality of other large livestock. The livestock raised by ethnic minorities have the advantages of being resistant to rough feeding, hard labor, strong disease resistance, strong pulling force and durable resistance. In the Han Dynasty, horses, cattle, sheep, dogs, pigs and other livestock in Liangzhou and other places have been castrated and castrated, and the water horse method has been invented to castrate horses, which is safer and safer than the fire horse method.

After Zhang Qian passed through the Western Regions, he introduced high-quality forage alfalfa from the Western Regions. Alfalfa was introduced from the western region, the first stop was the Hexi Corridor, Liangzhou, especially in hexi, there are alfalfa cultivation, and the Jingshi Changle stable also has a garden field specializing in the cultivation of alfalfa. Alfalfa is used to raise livestock, which is a major event in the history of animal husbandry in China, and has played an important role in breeding good stallions and enhancing the physique and strength of livestock.

In the Han Dynasty, the level of veterinary medicine in Liangzhou was further improved, and at that time, there were special horse doctors in many institutions such as Yiting, such as Hanjian II.0114(2):No. 206 Jian wrote the name of Wang Jing, a horse doctor in Qiaoting. There are many medical remedies for the treatment of cattle and horse diseases in Hanjian, such as the saddle sores formed after the horse is saddled, and the water prescription for horse injury. These materials show that the veterinary industry in Liangzhou and other places is becoming more and more mature, which effectively ensures the development of local animal husbandry.

The demand for breeding good horses has contributed to the development of the two Han Dynasties. Jane No. 2094 obtained by Stein's Second Expedition to Central Asia is a remnant of the Soma Act. Soma's ancestor Bo Le was a Qin man. The most famous soma master of the Han Dynasty was Xihe Ziyu, who passed on Xihe Yi Changru, Changru Chuan Maoling Jundu, Jundu Passed on To Ji Yang Zi'a, and Yang Zi'a was then passed on to Ma Yuan, who was herding horses in the north and other places. Ma Yuan was not bound to the teacher's method, continued to seek a teacher, integrated and penetrated, formed a comprehensive soma method, and used the copper drum captured by his southern conquest to cast a bronze horse style with the bones of various families, dedicated to the imperial court, placed in the Xuande Hall of Luoyang, and became the quasi-style of the world's famous horses. The bronze galloping horse found in the Eastern Han Tomb of Leitai in Wuwei in 1969 is a rare art masterpiece created on the basis of absorbing the good horse consciousness, the legend of the sacred horse and the famous horse style that were popular at that time.

The Wuwei copper galloping horse and the large number of horse figurines found in Hexi archaeology are witnesses to the animal husbandry of the two Han Dynasties in Liangzhou.