In the history of China, locusts broke out so frequently, so how did the ancients deal with it?

There are many kinds of insect disasters in ancient times, among which locust disasters are the main ones. As early as Shang Dynasty, there was a plague of locusts, which did harm to agricultural production. In order to control the plague of locusts, people initially used divination and sacrifice. However, with the great disaster caused by locust plague, the methods and countermeasures to control locust plague have also been deeply explored. In 1930s, Chen Jiaxiang published the article "Records of Locusts in China Literature" in English. According to the statistics in this paper, from 707 BC to 2642 1935, there was a plague of locusts in China in 796. After every plague of locusts, the people were miserable. Locust is a gluttonous pest, and Ouyang Xiu described it as "sharp wind and rain in the mouth, poisonous intestines are often hungry." There is also a folk song: "There are locusts in the neighborhood, flying in the air like dark clouds. Eat the highland barley on the ground and bite the living people on the roof of the bungalow. " The locust plague is so harmful that it will inevitably bring great influence to the development and progress of the whole society. First, a large number of crops were damaged. 11in August of 63, "locusts crossed the capital and covered the sun. Counties in Huizhou, Hu Xuan and eastern Zhejiang are harmful to crops. Locusts and locusts, especially the people, lack food. " A.D. 1436 "In April, there were locusts everywhere in Jinghai County, Hejian Prefecture, Zhili, and Tian He was injured, so the people gathered grass for food". The second is to destroy the local ecological environment. The plague of locusts harms crops, causing trees to die, barren land and a sharp drop in population. In the Ming Dynasty, Xu Guangqi thought that the plague of locusts was more harmful than the flood and drought: "There are three reasons for hunger, namely, water, drought and locusts. The land is high and low, there is more rain, floods and droughts, and there are still many places to avoid. However, the drought is extremely extreme and the locusts are exhausted for thousands of miles, or the horses and chariots are exhausted, which is particularly disastrous and too dry. " The third is to trigger social unrest. When Wang Mang was in power, "drought, frost, locust, famine, people's hardship and displacement" finally triggered a peasant uprising. There are three main reasons for the formation of locust plague. One is related to temperature. It takes a certain temperature and humidity for locust eggs to hatch into larvae. The second is related to the geographical environment. From the history of China, the formation of locust plague is related to the soft loess in the middle and lower reaches of the Yellow River. These loess are soft, breathable and straight, which are more suitable for locust spawning and hatching and larva excavation. Third, it is related to floods and droughts. Flood and drought disasters have caused large areas of wasteland and wasteland along the Yangtze River, coastal areas and waterlogged areas, providing suitable natural conditions for the occurrence of locust disasters. On the basis of observation and analysis, investigation and study, and summing up experience, the ancients accumulated many effective methods, such as digging eggs and eliminating locust plagues, before they were completed. In April of A.D. 1443, "Zheng Guanzou, Governor of Shandong Province, made an inspection tour: locusts sprouted in Jinan, Changqing and Licheng counties of Shandong Province, and officials were ordered to supervise and catch them, and the number of insects dug ranged from 100 to 200 stones." Some people control the locust plague by digging ditches and trapping. Xu Guangqi recorded in "The Encyclopedia of Agricultural Administration": "A bug jumps, so we should dig a ditch to catch it. The way is to see that bugs will be everywhere. Dig a long ditch in advance, two feet deep and two feet wide, and dig a pit in the ditch for burial. Many people, old and weak, know to line up along the ditch, with brooms and equipment or shovels. When every fifty people use a gong, they will smell the golden sound, try to jump, or make it stand or stand, and gradually make it into the ditch, that is, they will blow endlessly. The bug jumped into the ditch like water. Everyone worked hard. The sweeper swept, the robot jumped, and the buried people buried themselves until the ditch was full. The former village is like this, the latter village is like this, and there is another town like this. He is like this, so it should be clean. " Zhang, a Qing Dynasty man, pointed out in Notes on Guanhai in Daoxian County: "The method of catching locusts is like marching, with ten people as a team, and two people dig a long ditch with shovels, which is as deep as three or four feet. On the opposite side, there are four people behind and two people beside, all of whom use long brooms to fry in the ditch. After six people, with a long-handled leather palm, there will be no end. An official member, leading 200 people, as 20 teams, can get dozens of bags every day. As soon as the locusts enter the ditch, they will lift the pile of floating soil into the pound. Why worry about not dying? " What Zhang recorded in his book is to eliminate locusts by digging ditches and trapping. Others use the sound and phototaxis of locusts to kill them. In the Five Dynasties, "the value of the world's migratory locusts was harmful, and the people in the ceremony made the flag drum, and the locusts crossed the border, and people also served their wisdom." According to the Book of the Tang Dynasty, Yao Chong, a famous official in the Tang Dynasty, effectively caught migratory locusts by taking advantage of this characteristic of locusts chasing light: "When locusts come, they must make a fire at night, set fire at night, dig a pit by the fire and boil, so they can be eliminated." In A.D. 1763, a locust plague occurred in Dezhou and Jinan. At that time, Altay, the governor of Shandong Province, organized the people to "arrest at the same time so that no one escaped." Digging a ditch in the gap and burning a fire at night, grasshoppers rush into the ditch when they see the fire, add grass to burn and bury it with soil. And at dawn, when the heavy object is exposed, tighten and catch it. "Others use species to control locusts. There is a record in the Tang Dynasty that birds eat locusts: "In the 25th year of Kaiyuan, tens of millions of locusts were eaten by flocks of birds in Bai Niao, and they were exhausted overnight, and the crops were not harmed. "In March 1982 in the Song Dynasty," there were tens of thousands of locust birds in Beiyang County "; In May of A.D. 1076, "Black worms in Jinzhou eat seedlings, and yellowbirds come to eat them all". Chen Shiyuan in Ming Dynasty wrote a biography of locust control, introducing the successful experience of raising ducks and releasing them to control locusts. In the face of the great disaster caused by the locust plague, rulers of past dynasties paid attention to promoting the people with officials and even gave appropriate rewards. In the second year of Emperor Yuan of Han Ping (2), there was a drought in Qingzhou and other places, and locusts were rampant. The imperial court "sent envoys to catch locusts, and the people caught locusts with stones and barrels as rewards." "In the Yuan Dynasty, there was a saying that there was a disaster and the locust drought was the heaviest. Once a locust plague occurs in a certain place, local officials should earnestly take responsibility, or they will be punished. There is a record in Sendai Tongzhi that "locusts grow, and those who apply for fake disaster inspection will be picketed if the lawsuit is not arrested". Zhang also emphasized in "Advice on Politics": "Locust was born in China, and it is well-known in the world. If it is flooded in an instant, you should not sit lightly. "Pay attention to the mechanism of catching locusts and killing locusts, forcing officials to pay attention to insect prevention. It is recorded in Zishan Daquan Catching Locusts that in A.D. 1269, a locust plague occurred in a certain place, and officials mobilized people to control the locust plague: "The old peasants frowned and told each other that they were not afraid of catching locusts. But I am afraid that insects will enter this field, and Lv Yun and Chou He will be swept away. "Emperor Kangxi of the Qing Dynasty attached great importance to the control of locust plague. He wrote several letters to kill locusts and went to the locust area to investigate and study. On the basis of summing up the experience of predecessors in catching locusts, he wrote a book "On Catching Locusts", and discussed in detail the growth law and methods of catching locusts. In order to control the plague of locusts, Emperor Kangxi established the emperor-governor responsibility system. If there is a locust plague in the local area, the governor and the governor should report it to the emperor at the first time. According to the report, Emperor Kangxi issued a "imperial decree" in time to guide the locust catching work. At the same time, in order to promote the work of catching locusts, Emperor Kangxi designed a responsibility system. Once the locust plague was found to be ineffective, officials at all levels who found that the locust plague was hidden, the declaration was unclear, the report was untrue, and the arrest was not timely were all treated as felonies. Taking the Qing Dynasty as an example, it was recorded in the forty-eighth year of Kangxi (1709) that: "Officials of states, counties and health centers did not try to catch locusts in person, but flew in from neighboring countries in an attempt to get away with it; If the pipeline and the government do not arrest the captors quickly, they will be demoted to three levels and remain in office; If the envoy can't visit, those who are arrested rashly will be demoted to the second level and remain in office; The governor and the governor did not visit, and the arresters were demoted to stay; If the auxiliary arresting personnel are not strong enough to assist in the arrest, so that they form wings and hurt crops, they will be dismissed. Source: Bookstore, September 2020.