Whale: The mysterious big fish in the ancient ocean cognition

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Whales are giant creatures living in the ocean. Although they are named "fish", the whales do not belong to fish, but mammals. Whale is a creature. Young whale grows like breast milk like humans. It is divided into two categories in general. One is a beard whale with no teeth; the other is tooth whale, with sharp teeth.

People have been unable to determine the earliest time to find whales. Whale bones were unearthed in Yinxu, Anyang, Henan. The whale recorded in "Erya" may be the earliest record, "Whale, big fish in the sea. Its big horizontal sea swallows the boat, the bottom of the acupoint. On the top, the tide is under the tide; the whale tide is sometimes there are festivals. The whale's body is huge, and it is also known as the large fish in the sea. It is in the deep sea, and the entry and exit are accompanied by the tide and tide. Therefore, this phenomenon is called whale tide.

There are a lot of whales from ancient times to the present. "Erya" is called "鰕". The "whale" in the Three Kingdoms was more common. Come here is called "Mo Yan", which is used to describe "the biggest of sea fish".

The ancients only knew that the whales were large, but how big they were, but they were rare to clearly record, so Zhuangzi wrote in "Xiaoyaoyou": "There is fish in the north, and its name is 鲲. . "Cui Tao, who is famous for his comment" Zhuangzi ", believes that" 鲲 鲲。。。 "here. People know that the whale is the largest fish in the sea, because rare people have seen its size, they have to describe it with blurred numbers. People from ancient times to the present are more exaggerated about it. Some say that the big fish is 4,000 miles in length, and some say 28,000 miles.

"Taiping Guang Ji" describes the giant fish in the oriental sea. It is said that a person who goes out to the sea sees the head of this fish on the first day of going to the sea. Essence Some people have witnessed all the process of whale production, and come back to tell the fellow villagers that the sea has become blood red at that time. In fact, the feces of whales contain a large amount of phosphorus and iron. Dye red.

Over time, people's understanding of whales has become clearer. People in the Tang Dynasty have already understood the characteristics of the whale; in the Northern Song Dynasty, the pro -seekers also lamented that the whales had more than a hundred feet, and in the Ming and Qing dynasties, whales recorded in ancient books had appeared dozens of feet and 36 feet. Wait for numbers similar to whale physical fitness. The further understanding of the characteristics of the whale body is related to the occasional whale's suicide, and the close contact of human beings after stranding the beach.

In ancient times, the whale's suicide incident had many written records in ancient times. As early as the Three Kingdoms period, there were examples of whale stranded. Later, Liu Ax in the Northern Song Dynasty described his personal experience in detail after the "Gallow of Green Trouble".

During the Jiayou period, Liu Axu, that is, Jiangsu Nantong, was now a prison official. On August 17, the weather suddenly became gloomy. He also heard thousands of people crying in the sea. When he was on the day, the curious Liu Ax ran to the shore to find out, and I saw a giant fish trapped in front of him. When Liu Axian saw the big fish, he was still breathing, and he did not die until three days later.

When the whale committed suicide, it was usually one or a group of swimming to the sea. He desperately patted the water surface with his tail and emitted despair. Finally, he died after the ebb. Liu Ax's description should be real. We can't know why the whale committed suicide. The ancients explained the death of the whale too romantic. In "Spring and Autumn Examinations", there was a saying that "whales died and comet". People believe that there is a mysterious connection between the whale and the starry sky.

(two)

Because of its huge figure and rare, whales were once regarded as marine gods.

The coastal area of ​​Shandong believes in a kind of sea god, commonly known as "old man" and "catching Yulang". In fact, this fish god is a whale. If the fishermen see the whale passing by, they determine that they are auspicious, and they will immediately burn incense and pray for blessings. If you see a whale on the way to sail, you will sprinkle a few meters into the sea, which means to give the fish god a little benefit and pray for his elderly to give good luck.

The imagination of whales is synchronized with people's enthusiasm for the ocean. For thousands of years, people have been full of romantic and free imagination of the ocean, so Lu You wrote in the poem that "life does not do a safe life, drunk into the East China Sea to ride a whale." In addition to representing romance, the ocean also carries people's curiosity about the unknown world. The emperor of the Qin and Han dynasties of China has a mentality of development and conquest for the ocean.

The direction of the Qixiong of the Warring States Period was gathered towards the Central Plains, consolidating the core position of the Central Plains land in history, but after the unified six kingdoms, Qin Shihuang showed unprecedented enthusiasm for the ocean. The Qin Dynasty operated the South China Sea and the Beihe. Qin Shihuang also toured the sea many times, trying to extend to the end of the ocean. Of course, this has a certain relationship with his wanting to obtain longevity and old medicine.

The "Historical Records" records that Fang Shixu explained to Qin Shihuang that he had not found long -lived medicine at sea for many years. Not to be available. " So Qin Shihuang had a dream at night and dreamed that he had a battle with the Haixian. After waking up, he found a doctor to divide the dreams. The doctor said: "The god of water generally can't see it. Only by removing these evil gods can the good god come. "

Qin Shihuang was a tool for buying and killing giant fish. When he was ready to appear, he was killed with a crossbow. From Langya to the north to Rongcheng Mountain, I didn't see any so -called big fish along the way. Until the time passed, a large black fish was suddenly found on the sea not far away. After it, the descendants believed that this big fish was a whale. (three)

In the world, some areas are full of whales. Especially in some primitive society, such as the American Indian tribes, whales are their totems. For them, we can swim in the sea to become whales, and they can become whales. People can even combine with whales. People and fish are not creatures that cannot be across the two worlds, but can be transformed into each other.

But in general, whales are not a favorite role in the Western world. For example, in Northern Europe, they often tell such a story: a group of sailors take the whale's back as a small island, so they stop the boat by "island" to land on the island to burn rice. After a while, the whale baked by a bonfire woke up, sank into the bottom of the sea, and even drowned with sailors. Westerners believe that the bottom of the unknown creature is hell, and whales are the devil in hell.

In Latin, the scientific name of the whale is "sea monster", which is very different from that of China as the concept of marine gods. China has also recorded the function of this big fish very early. Its fat can be fried, and fish bones can be made of building materials. Before the 19th century oil was mining and used, whale oil was an important fuel for Western countries, so Westerners also started the crazy conquest of "sea monsters".

Since the beginning of the 17th century, whaling ships in the Netherlands and Britain have launched fierce competition in the Arctic Ocean. In the 18th century, Europe needed a large amount of whale oil because of lighting. The coats of women wearing women in high society in Europe also needed whale bones, and whaling quickly developed into a pillar industry. With the development of ship technology and trade, driven by economic interests, whale hunting once became the main economic activity of some Western countries, so that whales were endangered in the middle of the 19th century.

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The article is published in the "Learning Times" August 26, 2022 Edition 8 edition

Editor in this issue: Zhai Yueying

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