The Viothrike is in the beam, not its wings. The son of Peter is not called obedient. The Viothrike is in the beam, not in the middle of it. The son of Peter, he did not succeed in his wife. (The Book of Verses. Waiting")
Many people are familiar with the pelican, but few people think of it as a Chinese bird. Because it's so weird.
Li Shizhen told a story in the "Compendium of Materia Medica": In ancient times, a person stole a piece of meat from someone else's home, crossed his heart when he was chased, bit the meat and jumped into the river to drown, and then became a pelican. The piece of flesh he stole grew on his body forever, that is, the big pocket under the pelican's mouth.
Pelicans in the Compendium of Materia Medica
There can be multiple interpretations of this story, and the more convenient way to explain it is to say that the deceased was a greedy guy who would rather die than give up biting the flesh in his mouth. This statement is actually not bad. Because pelicans are indeed a more greedy bird. It seemed to want to swallow everything with that big mouth. If its purpose is fish and shrimp, it is normal, and sometimes its food is other birds, which is a bit surprising. There are also times when it actually uses cats, dogs and dogs as objects that can be swallowed, which is really mysterious. But the most contrarian thing is that it sometimes wants to swallow people! So there are many times when we can see it greet people in vain with that big mouth. No wonder sometimes the ancients suspected that it was the legendary bird of greed, the harrier.
But pelicans are not pelicans, although they live in very similar areas, spanning the four continents of Asia, Europe, Africa and Australia. But pelicans are much prettier than pelicans. It is also a little bigger, and it can be said that it is one of the largest birds that can fly. But the Pelicans' reputation is really not very good.
There are some little stories about pelicans on the Internet, such as "Pelicans and Cranes", "Pelicans and Eagles", which either describe pelicans as rude, self-conscious rough guys, or say that they are lazy people who are willing to be the status quo and do not want to challenge fate.
White Pelican
In fact, success is also Xiao He, and defeat is also Xiao He. The piece of meat that the pelican desperately spelled out in his previous life, scientifically known as the "throat sac", is the most conspicuous symbol of its life, and it is also its most advantageous tool, but it is still the source of its bad reputation. For pelicans, it's a storage box where food for the week can be kept and eaten as much as you want. But whoever carries the week's worth of food, especially on the head, will definitely be affected. Because take-off is difficult, it is top-heavy. That's where the Pelicans' reputation for clumsiness comes from.
Humans have long discovered the use of larynge sacs by pelicans. Ancients said that when fish gather in small ponds, pelicans will scoop the water out of the pond with their mouths. In this way, the fish have no way to escape.
In fact, this is just a misunderstanding, or it can be said that the Pelicans are stupid? It was replaced by human beings themselves. Will the woods be cut down to catch a hare? In fact, the pelican's fishing technique is similar to that of other birds, or chase and intercept, when the fish have no way to escape, swallow them in one bite.
There is also a Buddhist story about a pelican that one day in a large lake that was about to dry up, a pelican flew in and said to the fish trapped in the water, "I will take you to a good place, will you?" Instinctively, the fish did not believe it, but could not resist the temptation, so they sent a representative. So the pelican took it in its mouth and flew to a beautiful lake. The fish was comfortable inside, and when it remembered its companion in the pond, the pelican brought it back again. So the fish told its kind about the beauty of the outside world, so everyone believed in the pelican. Since then, this pelican has had endless fish.
Curly-winged pelican
This is not the most magical brain hole of human beings, there is a more interesting saying, that is, the pelican that has successfully cultivated, its whole body will turn into a foam-like existence. No attack would cause substantial harm to it. But there were still two pieces of solid flesh, right on the front chest, the only place where the pelican's sperm could be injured. Isn't there a two-piece mouth here? This shows that people really see pelicans as having only one mouth left.
These statements give the Pelicans a little more demonic. In fact, the pelican's demon nature is not only this, Li Shizhen said, using the fat of the pelican to boil oil, with other utensils will leak, just use its big mouth to install but will not leak. This oil has a miraculous effect on muscle-relieving and active networking, and can treat deafness.
Interestingly, in the Indian story, pelicans are mentioned with similar magical abilities. It's about having a big pelican that feeds its own children hard. But one day, a poisonous snake took advantage of the big pelican's departure from home to forage, sneaked into its nest in a tree, and bit several small pelicans. When the big pelican came back, it was a heartbreaking cry. The viper was very happy, but he did not expect that the big pelican had a trick. It cut open its chest and dripped blood on the little pelican, and the children actually came back to life.
This is not a simple legend, and there may be some content of ancient witchcraft and medicinal knowledge in it. Some ingredients are real, pelicans in India called "Garland Bird", has the meaning of protection, it is a very family-oriented bird, generally a pair of pelicans accompany a lifetime, their care for children is indeed meticulous, sometimes even for the children to do some disgraceful work.
Spot-billed pelican
Cameras recorded the behavior of the Pelicans. In everyone's impression, pelicans are water birds that fish, and fish and shrimp are their most normal food. Zhuangzi said: Fish are not afraid of nets, but pelicans. But once, what happened on the beach refreshed people's three views, that is, a group of white pelicans sneaking into the home of horned gannets.
It is worth noting that the pelican has a nickname called "gannet". This shows that the two are somewhat related. On that day, many horned gannets went out to hunt for fish, and many of the nests were unattended chicks. The Pelican Squad just walked in with a big wave. Are they here to be guests?
Yes, pelicans don't even need their hosts to buy groceries to cook, because the owners are the meals. With a big gulp, an innocent horned gannet baby entered the throat sac under the pelican's mouth. Through the skin membrane, we can also see the baby struggling.
In this way, the pelicans swallowed the owners. Then spread his wings and flew high, back to his home. There, their own pelican babies are still hungry. So the pelican spit out the horned gannets that had not yet been digested clean. These poor little ones, covered in mucus and occasionally twitching, doesn't change their fate as a pelican baby lunch.
It's not that these pelicans can't fish on their own, it's just that they've found the latest way to grow their race. That is to put a knife in the back of one's own people. Sometimes it's really much better than working hard. Think of the parents of the horned gannets, who are still hunting for their children at sea and don't know they will never be seen again. Judging from these few things, pelicans are not all fools, and some are very cunning.
Pelicans on "Hehan SancaiTuhui"
Chinese did not like pelicans very much since ancient times, and finally raised his dissatisfaction with it to a cultural height, written three thousand years ago in China's first famous book "Book of Poetry", in which the section "Waiting" mentions pelicans, and the pelicans borrowed on fish beams (a kind of fishing facility) do not even want to get their wings and mouth wet, and they want to eat fish to satirize the officials who do not do real things in their positions.
In 223 AD, the Wei Emperor Cao Pi issued the "Pelican Collection Lingzhi Pond Edict" announcing: In May, pelicans flew into the Lingzhi Pond in the Royal Garden, which is a symbol of the incompetent in important positions, and asked the people of the world to recommend talents to solve this problem.
In fact, Cao Pi's recruitment of xian is very strange. You know, he inherited the team of his father Cao Cao. Cao Cao, on the other hand, is the main signboard of "selecting talents and appointing talents". At this moment, these officials have gone through the war at the end of the Han Dynasty and the division of the Three Kingdoms. Each one can be described as "tried and tested". It is by no means comparable to those aristocrats of the Spring and Autumn Period who were "shiguan shilu", or those mediocre officials at the end of the later dynasties who only knew how to sing high tunes and would not solve problems. So what kind of "pelicans" are coming?
In fact, this is a political purge campaign initiated by Cao Pi. Because in this year, that is, in April of the fifth year of the Huang Dynasty of the Wei State, Cao Wei's old rival Liu Bei fell ill and died in Yong'an. Almost at the same time, Cao Ren, the Grand Sima of Cao Wei, also died.
The death of two strongmen at home and abroad in Wei left Cao Pi with no scruples and could free up his hands to rectify his own internal affairs. The Pelican is really just a head. Because after all, these capable officials were actually mainly loyal to his deceased father Cao Cao, but not necessarily to him as the new emperor.
So soon after, Cao Pi's third brother, Cao Zhang, the rencheng king of Wu Yong, died of a violent illness overnight. Another of his younger brothers, Cao Zhi, who was known for his literary talents, was created the Prince of Yongqiu, the fourth time in four years since Cao Cao's death. For Cao Zhi, the historical evaluation is too much literary talent and lack of practical materials, perhaps in Cao Pi's eyes, this is a "incompetent" performance like a pelican.
Pelicans on the Three Talents Picture Society
Although there is no shortage of historical records. However, it is strange that Chinese still feel strange to pelicans, and the pelican image on the late Ming Dynasty naturalist masterpiece "Three Talents Picture Society" is very strange. It doesn't have the iconic big mouth. A pair of feet also looks a little odd. In fact, the origin of this honorable appearance comes from the description in the "Classic of Mountains and Seas": the mountain of Xiansi, the sand and water come out. Many of them are pelicans, such as Mandarin ducks and human feet, whose song is self-calling. See, the state has soil work.
The so-called "soil work" also refers to large projects. Pelicans will bring big work? What is the rationale for this? Is it superstition?
In fact, another historical record can explain the mystery here: the side of the Tailiu pool is carved with purple gourds, green knots and the like... There is more flat sand by the pool, and pelicans on the sand. Boom, flocks at every turn. (Xijing Miscellaneous)
This refers to the scene of the Forbidden Garden of the Imperial Palace of the Tang Dynasty. It can be seen that the pelican was considered a rare bird at the time, fed by the royal family. Creatures at the top of the food chain like it are difficult to live without a better environment as a basis. At the same time, such an area with water and fish is easy to be seized by dignitaries and nobles as private gardens for construction. It is conceivable that the origin of "soil work" is actually this.
But there is still a question, that is, is this strange bird of "Mandarin duck and human foot" really the pelican we see today?
Pelicans are also famous in China for their three brothers, namely the white pelican in white robes, the curly-winged pelican in gray and white robes, and the spot-billed pelican in gray robes. If "human foot" can also be understood as thick web foot. But in terms of appearance and feather color, these three people, no matter from which angle, will not think that they look like the brightly colored Mandarin duck.
So could it be that this didn't mean pelicans in the first place? It is possible, but since the ancients all wrote it down, it naturally has its own reason. Then there is also a possibility that there was a fourth species of pelican with bright feathers in China, but unfortunately all of them became extinct.
Pelican-type crafts
It is entirely possible that the chinese history has carried out exterminations of animals more than once or twice, and if nothing else, the famous "four unlikes" - elk, if it were not for the protection of a few curious Western missionaries, people may not know of this species at all. There are also many birds that have been tragically extinct in history, which will be explained later.
Even today, pelicans are in danger of extinction in China. The spot-billed pelican disappeared after leaving its last specimen in Fujian in the 1960s. Curly-billed pelicans are also hard to find. It is worth noting that at the end of the last century, the capuchin pelican is still a relatively common water bird, it is the largest of the three pelican brothers, footprints once spread throughout China's twenty provinces, in 1988 even one flew down to Tiananmen Square. However, since 2000, the number has declined sharply, and by 2006 the estimated number was only a quarter of what it was in 2001. A large part of the reason for this is that its main breeding ground is Mongolia, which is located outside our country. Herders were superstitious about cleaning horses with pelican beaks to make them stronger and faster, so in 2007 a pelican's mouth could even be replaced with 10 horses and 30 sheep. Driven by economic interests, it directly led to the escalation of hunting. In addition, the invasion of alien species and the competition for human survival have also played a role in fueling the waves. At present, it is really on the verge of survival.
Hopefully, the pelicans don't have the day when they truly become absolute foreign birds. Although it is a little greedy, but what does it mean compared to human greed?