The tiger is the king of the mountain, is the absolute strongest in the jungle, because of its strong strength, every time there is a conflict with people, it will inflict heavy damage on humans, and humans call this kind of disaster tiger plague.
Scholars have studied tiger infestation from different perspectives, and have counted the distribution and frequency of tiger infestation across the country or in each province, so as to reveal the causes of tiger infestation and the ecological evolution and social culture behind it.
However, the human-tiger relationship is not limited to tense and intense conflicts such as tiger inflictions, the human-tiger relationship is dynamic and complex, and the two maintain a relatively peaceful relationship, but there will inevitably be violent confrontation.
However, it should be pointed out that because the provincial administrative divisions in ancient China followed the principle of interlacing dogs and teeth, and there were certain differences in the topography within a province, the existence of tigers as a species was actually more active in a certain natural geographical environment, rather than being confined to artificial administrative divisions.
Therefore, the existing research on the scope of provinces is inevitably somewhat limited. Therefore, this paper intends to focus on the dynamic changes of human-tiger relations between humans and tigers during the period from the Qing Dynasty to the Nanling Mountains, the largest mountain range in southern China and an important physical and geographical dividing line, in order to get a glimpse of the social conditions in the Nanling region.
In terms of causes, the tiger plague is not only an ecological barometer, but also a thermometer of the political situation. The tiger plagues in the early Qing Dynasty, the late Qing Dynasty and the first Qing Dynasty were closely related to the special political environment at that time.
When the political situation is turbulent, there are frequent wars, people are displaced, farmland is abandoned, and houses are dilapidated, which expands the range of activities for tigers. And when the war was at the beginning of the war and the people returned to their homes, conflicts broke out between people and tigers over territory.
In modern times, China has suffered many disasters, large and small wars one after another, even if the smoke of gunpowder dissipates, the tiger plague is still a sharp blade hanging over the heads of the people.
Lanshan County is located at the northern foot of the South Ridge, for Hunan and Guangdong to rush, Xian was plagued by mountain thieves and robbers at the same time, after the ravages of man-made disasters have not yet breathed, there are tiger plagues again, more than 200 people died tragically in the mouth of the tiger.
Another example, after the end of the Japanese war of aggression against China, which lasted the longest and most destructive in modern times, the area of Guilin, Guangxi Province suffered from tiger plagues for a long time and suffered unspeakably
The mountains near Guilin are undulating, and many mammals were originally hidden, especially after the war. Even the mountains on the outskirts of the city are also full of barren grass and paths, and they are inaccessible to people, and they have become the domain of beasts. "In the long-term struggle with tigers, there has been a change in the official approach to relations with tigers.
There are two cultural images represented by the tiger in the discourse system of traditional Chinese society: one is a violent beast, and the other is the embodiment of justice.
The strength of the tiger is fierce, and it is very human to match, so those who fight with the tiger are brave;At the same time, the tiger is also a spirit animal, and it is good at distinguishing people, so the tiger does not hurt the righteous.
Human beings interpret the behavior of the tiger, which is the image of the tiger on the surface, but in essence, the image of the tiger reflects human morality.
The most common is "filial piety", such as Chen Xingzhen, a filial son in Guiyang County, who guarded the system for three years and walked around his father's tomb several times, but he was unscathed. Asked the reason: "Only reading "Tate" and reciting "The Book of Filial Piety", the tiger does not dare to approach."
Reciting "Tate" and "The Book of Filial Piety" to remember the nurturing grace of parents and drive away the tiger is really absurd in terms of contemporary science, but the connotation of the times it conveys "to subdue the tiger with filial piety" is also reasonable in terms of the situation at the time, so Chen Xingzhen is a typical example and calls on the people of the time to learn from him Xi.
Chen Xingzhen's case is accidental, which should be attributed to the fact that the contradiction between man and tiger was not deep at that time, and when the relationship between man and tiger was tense or even intensified, the standard of filial piety was relatively raised.
The Nanling area is located in the mountains, and the tigers are frequent, and although the people vigorously eliminate the tigers, it is difficult to do so. In traditional societies, humans tend to entrust the unattainable to mysterious forces, so a series of Fuhu beliefs have been derived from the Nanling area.
When the government deals with tiger problems, it often prays to the gods in the form of tiger exorcism texts, and the most common objects of help are the city gods in various places.
For example, in Nanxiong Prefecture, "there are many tigers in Jieshan, in order to pray for the city god", Yongxing County has always had many tigers, so the county order "prepare to drive away the tiger and pray to God", and the Renhua county order also prayed to the city god in the Guangxu period to drive the tiger, and this kind of official-led prayer to drive away the tiger is more common in Nanling.
As a guardian deity in Taoism, the Chenghuang is the most common object of people's help after the occurrence of the tiger disaster, and the literature prays to the Chenghuang to eliminate the tiger trouble, thus further deepening the people's trust in the Chenghuang.
In addition, there are also regions that use the power of Buddhism to drive away tigers. For example, in the early Qing Dynasty, there were many tigers in Guiyang, and a monk came here to say the precepts, and the tigers dragged their tails away;There was also a wandering monk in Shixing County who was alone in the tiger.
In addition to religious beliefs, there are also folk gods in some areas, because they are entrusted with the responsibility of protecting the place, and the people will also place their hopes on the local gods after the occurrence of tiger disasters.
For example, there is a Zhan Gong Temple in Wengyuan County, every time there is a flood and drought epidemic, the local people will always pray to the God of Zhan, and the tiger disaster is no exception: "In the sixth year of Tongzhi, the Weng Yuan Tiger violently devoured dozens of men and women, and the villagers prayed to the God of Zhan, and the tiger was slightly hidden. ”
It is reported that the Zhan family was doing business in Wengyuan during the Yuan Dynasty, and after his death, he was promoted to a god, and because of his response to his needs, the number of believers gradually increased, and by the Qing Dynasty it had become a well-known local god.
Similar to Zhan Gong Temple, there are Luo Niang Temple in Yongming County, Wanggong Temple in Chenzhou, etc., such gods are local folk gods, ** unique historical memory in various places, in the face of special disasters to intensify the sense of regional identity of the place, become the spiritual sustenance of the people in the disaster.
Luo Niang Temple in Yongming County, according to legend, Luo Niang can bless the travelers on the river, so "there are tigers in the past and present, and its spirit will be able to drive away evil."
It can be seen from combing the beliefs of Fuhu in various places that the people do not have a unified concept of the god of Fuhu, and have not formed a full-time god of Fuhu, but there are both Buddhist orthodox religions and local folk gods, which shows that the folk beliefs in the Nanling area are complex and practical.
The relationship between man and tiger is tense or soothing, it can be determined that the distance between man and tiger has been shortened after the Qing Dynasty, so there will be such frequent encounters between man and tiger, it is conceivable that with the gradual deepening of development, human hoes have swung to the mountains and forests. After Kangqian, the population grew rapidly.
In the Jiaqing Dynasty, except for Renhua County, the population decreased slightly, and all counties in Shaozhou Prefecture increased, among which Qujiang increased the most. As the population grew, people had to develop new land in order to survive, so that smoke rose from the once uninhabited mountainous areas.
The traditional society is based on agriculture, up to the Son of Heaven, down to the county order, all urge the people to do agriculture and keep the basics, such as Yongzheng once said in the edict that "the teeth are flourishing, the index fingers are numerous, then the plan to make a living must be talked about, and the people should pay attention to agriculture and mulberry to Shuntian, diligent reclamation to make the best use of the land and the industry", so the development of mountainous areas is not only the people's spontaneous, but also the official acquiescence.
It should be pointed out that due to the restrictions of the times, the development of Nanling was chaotic among the people at that time, and the Nan'an Prefecture Chronicle once pointed out that "the people are ignorant and ignorant, and the mountains by the river have been reclaimed without leaving no stone in size, and the mountains have no grass and trees."
Nanling is originally a mountainous area, where tigers and leopards often live, and with the arrival of humans, the encounter between humans and tigers is inevitable. Initially, humans and tigers were able to live in peace with the limited resources of the mountains and forests, but this peace is fragile, and when the resources are depleted or in extreme cases, the tigers will extend their poisonous claws to humans.
For example, in the Yongming area, "the land is narrow and the people are dense, and the party is worried about the difficulty of food and clothing", in order to make a living, the local people frequently go in and out of the mountains and forests, and even live here for a long time. In addition to farming, there are also logging industries, and even indiscriminate logging.
For example, in the Daoguang period, "the four villages of Baiyun and Shangshui under the Lei Cave Pond lived in the mountains, and there were Baoqing guests who reclaimed the mountains and cut down the forests", so that the living space of the tigers was squeezed, and the contradictions between humans and tigers intensified.
Yongming County in the middle and late Qing Dynasty tiger storms were frequent, most of them occurred in the mountains and wilderness, "the guest people are two miles away from the city after the Qilin Rock Mountain, the tiger devours it, eats half of it", "the mountain bamboo of the Qilin Rock is dense, the tiger or the dwelling hurts people", "the farmers of the mountain of the list of rice in the field, the tiger is a mile away, and eats it".
The large-scale development of mountainous areas by humans has shortened the distance between humans and tigers, coupled with disorderly development, destroying the ecology, and the imbalance between humans and tigers.
In August of the twelfth year of Shunzhi, Lechang caused tiger plague due to a major drought. In the eighth year of Kangxi, there was a rare cold in Xingning, frost fell in April, and there was a sudden snowfall in the mountains in June, and the tiger repeatedly went down the mountain due to lack of food, resulting in several months of tiger trouble, and the people were not able to make a living. In March of the 21st year of Qianlong, Wengyuan was hit by a strong hailstorm, which was a tiger plague in the following year.
In the 57th year of Qianlong, the Renhua flood brought a chain reaction: "Tigers devoured dozens of men and women". In Tongzhi, the weather in Lianzhou was abnormal, with too much rain and cold weather, so that the tiger disaster was repeated, Fang Zhizai said: "In the sixth year of Tongzhi, Zhugang and Luoyang Erbao were devoured by tigers, and the tigers were as big as cattle, and dozens of people died.
In the past seven years, the western group of tigers devoured people during the day, and there were tigers as big as cattle in Dongpi, Yangjiaguan, Luoyang and other places, and more than 100 men and women were devoured." The overdevelopment of Nanling has made the local ecology extremely fragile, and occasional natural disasters are just a speck of ash in nature, but a mountain for tigers.
As a result, tigers had to go down the mountain to forage for food, and even feed on people. As far as human beings are concerned, the consequences of disorderly exploitation of mountains and forests act on themselves in the other extreme form.
The Qing Dynasty attached great importance to the power of feudal theocracy when dealing with tiger problems, whether it was the tiger rune or the sacrifice to the city god, it was shaped by the legitimacy of the tiger drive, and the first in dealing with the tiger problem tended to focus on the overall situation, relying on the grassroots forces of the province to fight the tiger, and paying more attention to the rule of man.
Unlike political changes and ecological deterioration, tiger culture is relatively stable. The interpretation of tiger culture in the long-term relationship between human beings has made the tiger a symbol of strong power on the one hand, and a divinity of moral judgment on the other hand, and this cultural cognition of the tiger has continued to modern times.
It can be seen that the traditional culture is relatively independent, and even in the turbulent social changes of the late Qing Dynasty and the early Republic of China, the cultural image of the tiger has not changed greatly.
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