In recent days, the news of the 400 billion locust infestations in India and Pakistan has been on the hot search of the media. The news that 400 billion locusts in India and Pakistan are about to reach China has also become a hot topic of media discussion. The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations is also worried about the locust plague.
Chinese netizens have asked online: "Will the 400 billion locusts that are flooded in India and Pakistan fly to China?" ”
Whether locusts will come to China, I am not an expert on agriculture and insects, I can not answer. But I know that as early as more than a thousand years ago, Li Shimin, emperor of the Tang Dynasty, had the experience of successfully eradicating locust plagues.
Li Shimin stills, pictures from the network, thanks to the original author.
This incident is recorded in the Zhenguan Politicians and the Zizhi Tongjian. Volume 192. Tang Ji VIII. Today, I will tell you the story of Li Shimin leading the tang subjects to defeat the locust plague.
In the second year of Zhenguan, after the Tang Dynasty left the chaos, the society was erected on the ruins hill. The Tang Dynasty, which was in ruins and waiting to be revived, could be said to be very poor. Li Shimin wanted to build the Qianyuan Hall in Luoyang, but he stopped work because he had no money.
The Tang Dynasty was so difficult that locusts came to stir up trouble. A great locust plague broke out in the Guanzhong area, and the watch for help was continuously sent to Li Shimin. Local officials and people of the Tang Dynasty were waiting for Li Shimin's will to control the locusts.
In ancient times, science was not developed, and people did not know the origin of locusts. It is believed that locusts have the protection of the "locust god", and the locust plague is the plague of the locust god. The ancients believed that to kill locusts was to disobey Providence, and the locust gods would send down greater disasters. Because of this thinking, when there was a locust plague in ancient times, the imperial court and the common people generally did not dare to extinguish the locusts.
Magistrates and people did not dare to extinguish the locusts, but the locusts ate the crops of the common people. When the crops were damaged, the common people asked the court for help. After receiving the people's recital, Li Shimin attached great importance to it and immediately convened a royal meeting to discuss strategies for dealing with the locust plague.
On the 16th day of May of the second year of Zhenguan, In order to encourage everyone to kill locusts, Li Shimin led hundreds of officials of wen and military affairs to the palace garden next to xuanwu gate to work on the spot. Li Shimin found several locusts and arrested them. Li Shimin squeezed the locusts and said to them, "The people take the valley as their destiny, and ru eats it, and prefers to eat my lungs and intestines." ”
Translating Li Shimin's words is to say: "Grain is the foundation of the people's survival, you eat the crops, how do the people live?" I'm going to eat you now. If you really have the protection of the locust god, you would rather eat the intestines of the locust gods than let you harm the crops of the people. ”
Li Shimin wanted to send locusts into his mouth, and the ministers were frightened. Manchu Wenwu said, "Eating such an impure thing, I'm afraid I'll get sick!" (Evil or disease)"
Li Shimin said: "The transformation is to suffer for the common people, and they are not afraid of getting sick." If there is any disaster, it is all counted on the head of the decay! (If the people are affected by the disaster, what a disease to avoid!) ）”
After Li Shimin finished speaking, he ate a few locusts raw. Li Shimin performed raw locusts in public, mainly to convey two wills to his subjects. One is to let the subjects boldly extinguish the locusts, and the other is to tell the subjects that the locusts can be eaten.
The common people are superstitious about the god of locusts and dare not extinguish locusts. Li Shimin's will let the subjects know: "We have the protection of the Son of Heaven and are not afraid of the locust god." The emperor is not afraid of the plague of the locust god, what are we afraid of. ”
Under the leadership of Li Shimin, the tang subjects did not care about any locust gods. Under the leadership of the imperial court officials, the common people established the idea that man will triumph over heaven and launched a vigorous locust eradication campaign.
Li Shimin's will made the Tang dynasty subjects realize: "Locusts can be eaten, locusts can be eaten, locusts can be eaten, and important things are said three times." ”
As a result, the Tang Dynasty subjects set up oil pots and set up barbecue racks. The Tang dynasty subjects took advantage of Chinese good at cooking, and used cooking skills such as stir-frying and frying to make locusts into delicious dishes.
The locusts, which were originally a scourge, became food for the people of the Tang Dynasty. It didn't take long for the locusts to be wiped out. Use the Zizhi Tongjian. Volume 192. The original words recorded in the Eighth Book of the Tang Dynasty are: "It is the age, and the locusts are not plagued." ”
Chinese people found that locusts could be eaten, they included locusts in their recipes. Wild locusts are not enough to eat, and Chinese they are farmed. The China Agricultural Publishing House also published the book "Locust Farming" by Liu Yusheng, which teaches people the techniques of locust farming.
Reading this, some people may ask: "Eat locusts, will there be bacteria or viruses?" Will there be parasites? ”
There are two sides to everything, and eating locusts certainly has disease concerns, which is an unavoidable thing. Not only locusts, but also livestock and poultry meat products such as pork and beef and chicken that we eat every day, river fresh seafood meat products such as fish, shrimp, frogs and crabs, and there are also concerns about diseases caused by parasites and bacterial viruses.
Can we stop eating meat products and change to vegetarian food because of the anxiety of diseases in livestock and poultry meat products and river fresh seafood meat products? Even if you are vegetarian, there are also bacteria and viruses and bacterial parasites that bring diseases? Are we going to choke on food and not eat food?
In my opinion, whether you eat meat or eat vegetarian, there are hidden worries about bringing diseases. We can't stop eating because of this concern. What we can do is to try to avoid the disease from the mouth, and the best way to avoid the disease from the mouth is to cook it and eat it.
Cook and eat, cook and eat, cook and eat again, and say important things three times.
There is a saying: "The two interests take the weight of each other, and the two evils take the lighter." If the locusts do not annoy us, we will not eat the wild locusts. I really want to eat, so we buy farmed locusts to eat. If 400 billion locusts dare to fly to China, we will set up a frying pan and fry it and eat it. We set up a barbecue grill and grill it and eat it. If locusts dare to fly to China, the fate of crayfish is their example.
As for the locust plague in India and Pakistan, I suggest that they first read the Zizhi Tongjian and learn Li Shimin's strategy for controlling locusts, and then learn from Chinese chefs a set of cooking techniques for fried locusts and grilling locusts. As long as they learn these two sets of Chinese kung fu, the locust plague problem will naturally be solved.
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The historical sources of this article are: "Zizhi Tongjian" and "Zhenguan Politicians".
This article was originally written by Wang Fuxing. Code words are not easy, please respect the original, unauthorized, reproduction is strictly prohibited. I have signed a contract with a rights protection company to entrust a rights protection company to protect my rights. Unauthorized reprinters, the rights protection company will defend the rights on behalf of the person.