Looking at the "Records of the Emperor and Ming Dynasty" compiled from the "Ming Shilu", I found an interesting thing: Jurong Tiger was afflicted, zhu Yuanzhang ordered it to be arrested and reared in the folk, the feed was dog meat, fed for a period of time, the staff of the Metropolitan Governor's Office protested - it could not be fed.
The protest letter was sent to Zhu Yuanzhang's Dragon Book case, and the emperor, who was born a commoner, came up with a solution: Let's kill and eat it, and also give some welfare to the officials of the imperial court, one tiger is not enough points, we will kill another tiger, two tigers are not enough points, we will slaughter another bear.
Judging from this record, Zhu Yuanzhang in the early years was quite good to his subordinates, and he was able to distribute the two tigers and one bear raised to the officials, which was called blessed to eat meat with everyone. Whether tiger meat is good or not, regardless of whether it is delicious or not, there are also four questions that need to be answered by us, the author has tried to conduct a study, whether the answer is correct or not, but also needs the reader's wisdom to discern.
The above story, we are in the modern vernacular translation, in fact, do not need to translate, readers can also understand, the "Huangming Allusions Chronicle" is like this: "Sentence Rong there are tigers for the people to harm, Taizu sent people to capture it, so that they are raised in the folk, raised with dogs, Song Siyan thought that it was useless to disturb the people, Taizu was pleased, that is, ordered to take two tigers and one bear to kill, and divide their flesh to give hundreds of officials." ”
Generally speaking, private history will have some moisture, during the Wanli dynasty, The Rebbe Shangshu Yu Jideng wrote the "Huangming Allusions Chronicle" when there was no artistic processing, the author is not sure, so he went to turn the "History of Ming", this translation only to know that Yu Jideng really did not lie, in the twenty-third of the column really found the relevant record: "Song Siyan, I don't know who to be." Taizuke Taiping, living in the shogunate with SiYan. and Ding Jiqing, Jiangnan Xing Zhongshu Province, Taizu General Province, with Li Shanchang and Si Yan as senators. ”
Although the time of Song Siyan's birth and death is unknown, and the place of origin is unknown, he once talked with Li Shanchang on the shoulders of the brothers, and later Li Shanchang rose step by step, and Song Siyan stopped moving forward in the position of staff officer of the Metropolitan Governor's Palace, and the reason for this may be because this old gentleman dared to speak too much.
The emperors and even the princes of the vast majority of dynasties did not wear washed clothes, no matter how expensive the clothing, it was a one-time gift— either rewarding the subordinates or simply throwing them away. As Emperor Gao of Taizu, the founding father of the Ming Dynasty, Zhu Yuanzhang was very frugal: "Taizu tasted things in the East Pavilion, the heat of the day, and the sweat stained clothes. Left and right are more clothed, and all are counted as those who have passed through raccoons. ”
If he were to change into a talking official, he would definitely sing praises to Zhu Yuanzhang in his washed clothes, and Song Siyan, like Wei Zheng's dedication to Li Shimin's "Ten Gradual and Final Unrequited Neglects", warned the emperor: "The lord and prince are thrifty, and they can really show the law to their descendants, but they wish to always be the same." ”
When Empress Ma and Crown Prince Zhu Biao were alive, Zhu Yuanzhang's temper was not too bad, and he was more able to listen to advice, so he gave Song Siyan a commendation and rewarded him with some money (Taizu Jiaqizhi, Zhizhi).
Song Siyan, who was commended, continued to work hard and put forward a new opinion: "If the Jurong tiger is harmful, it is appropriate to capture it and get rid of it. ”
Zhu Yuanzhang's reaction recorded in the "History of Ming" is the same as that of the "Ming Dynasty Chronicle": "Taizu was glad, that is, he ordered to kill the tiger." ”
Zhu Yuanzhang killed the tiger, and the Manchu Dynasty Wenwu feasted, and then the question came out: Where is Jurong? How can there be tigers in that place? Who captured the tiger on Zhu Yuanzhang's orders? What was the final outcome of this governor who persuaded Zhu Yuanzhang to kill the tiger and send welfare?
These four questions, the easiest question to answer is where Jurong is, a search will know: in the first year of the Western Han Wu Emperor Liu Che Yuanshuo, Jurong has officially become a county-level unit, has not changed its name for two thousand years, it is located in southern Jiangsu, east of Zhenjiang, west of Nanjing, it is also counted as the Ming Dynasty "land of Gyeonggi (under the jurisdiction of Tianfu)", so the tigers there will arouse Zhu Yuanzhang's interest.
The forest coverage rate of Jurong City is also very high, and it is not surprising that tigers appeared six or seven hundred years ago - Xuefeng Mountain, where the "Baihuwei Village" incident occurred sixty years ago, is not too far from Jurong: one is in Zhenjiang, Jiangsu Province, and the other is on the south bank of Dongting Lake in Hunan.
In the same climatic environment, the South China tiger will live well in Jurong and Xuefeng Mountain, but the tigers in Hunan are a bit dead, if there is no "Hundred Tigers Walled Village" and injured 2,000 people in ten years, there will be no tiger hero Chen Qifang - he shot one hundred and thirty-eight tigers in seven years.
Now many people are questioning the possibility of Wusong fighting tigers, which may be that some people do not know how strong the ancients are, nor do they know how small the South China tiger is - now the zoo is basically an average of three hundred pounds (female) to five hundred pounds (male) of the Siberian tiger, and in the Central Plains, it is two hundred pounds (mother) to three hundred pounds (male) of the South China tiger, such a tiger, in front of the ancients who eat raw food, that is, a bunch of meat that runs faster and has sharper claws.
If we look at the ancient historical materials, we will find that the tiger often becomes a stepping stone for the hero's fame: Cao Cao's yellow-bearded child Cao Zhang, rolled the tiger's tail on his arm, and the tiger bowed his head and did not dare to bite his teeth; when Xiahou Huan found Dianwei, the old man was "chasing the tiger across the stream".
There are many tiger fighting heroes in history, even Shi Nai'an, who wrote "Water Margin", also has a friend named Bian Yuanheng, who once kicked a tiger to death.
The person who captured the tiger for Zhu Yuanzhang did not leave a name in the historical data, which may be because it was not difficult to catch a tiger in that year, and the historians and literati did not think it was a big deal, as for many people who talked about the tiger discoloration later, we can also use a sentence from Luo Guanzhong to explain: "Huangkou Zizi, how to hear the sound of thunderbolts?" Sick woodcutter, ugly to hear the roar of the tiger and leopard. (See "Romance of the Three Kingdoms• Zhang Yide Makes a Big Fuss over Changsaka Bridge")
Who captured the tiger for Zhu Yuanzhangsheng could not find an answer to this question, but Song Siyan, who persuaded Zhu Yuanzhang to kill the tiger and eat meat, the ending is recorded in the "History of Ming": "Later, he went out to check the matter for Henan Province, and sat down to die." ”
Why Zhu Yuanzhang wanted to kill Song Siyan, there is also no answer in the historical data, but according to Song Siyan's character and consistent style, he was definitely not beaten up because he became a greedy tiger, and it is very likely that he was involved in the big case of Hu Weiyong, Lan Yu and others and was affected by Zhu Lian - Li Shanchang was wiped out, and as Li Shanchang's old colleague, Song Siyan was also difficult to escape.
Regarding the story of Zhu Yuanzhang's continuous killing of two tigers and one bear for welfare, this is the end of it, of which the four questions that appear, the author can only answer three, and finally there is a question to consult the well-informed readers: bear meat was edible in the previous decades, but it was not very tasty; eating tiger meat was not wrong in sixty or seventy years ago, but it is said that eating too much tiger meat will catch fire - is this true?