A story about the ancient people’s love for birds
The waterfowl flew away in fright, causing waves to fly. The birds are singing and the mountains are singing. Birds are mankind's "good friends" and nature's "good helpers". Since ancient times, our people have loved birds very much. To this day, there are still many beautiful bird-loving stories circulating among the people.
The net is open on three sides
When Tang was a prince, he once went on a patrol in the wild and saw a man setting up a net on all sides of the woods to catch birds. He also prayed: "The birds in all directions will be Come and fly into my net!" Tang immediately stepped forward to stop him and said, "You are trying to catch all the birds!" He ordered the man to remove the nets on three sides and prayed in person: "Hurry up, birds. Fly away quickly, those who want to go left go left, those who want to go right go right, and those who don't want to fly away stay in the net." Tang's approach soon spread to other princes, and they said with admiration: " Tang's virtue is so noble that even animals can benefit from it."
Sacrifice doves to release animals
During the Spring and Autumn Period, the State of Jin established Handan as its capital. There was a powerful minister in the Jin State, Zhao Jianzi, who liked to ask people to catch turtledoves for him during the Chinese New Year and send them to his mansion for him to release.
On the first day of the Lunar New Year, people from Handan came to Zhao Jianzi's mansion one after another. They all came to offer turtle doves to Zhao Jianzi so that Zhao Jianzi could be released. Zhao Jianzi was very happy and gave them generous rewards. On the first day of the Lunar New Year, there is an endless stream of people offering turtle doves from morning to night.
Zhao Jianzi’s retainer stood aside for a long time and asked him why he did this. Zhao Jianzi replied: “Releasing the wild animals on the first day of the lunar new year shows my love for living creatures and my kindness!” said the retainer. : "It is rare for you to have such a kind heart for living beings. I wonder, my lord, have you ever thought about it? If the people in the country knew that you were going to release the turtle doves, they would rush to chase the turtle doves, and they would be beaten to death. There must be a lot of injured turtle doves! If you really want to release the turtle doves and save their lives, why not issue an order and prohibit the capture of turtle doves like now? You reward the people to capture these many turtle doves and give them to you. Then your kindness to the turtle doves cannot compensate for the human-made disasters you have caused to them!" Zhao Jianzi felt that what he said was very reasonable, so he not only released the turtle doves sent by the people back into the forest, but also adopted his opinions and issued a Relevant laws strictly prohibit bird hunting.
Planting trees for birds
Tao Yuanming, a famous poet in the Jin Dynasty, not only loved chrysanthemums, but also loved birds. This pastoral poet who did not give up for five buckets of rice and went back to live in seclusion in Nanshan, realized that birds should also have a safe place to live, considering that he needed a house. So Tao Yuanming took matters into his own hands and planted trees in front of and behind his house so that birds could become his "neighbors." Tao Yuanming also wrote a five-character poem: "The grass and trees of Mengxia are long, and the trees are sparse around the house. The birds are happy to support me, and I also love my house." This shows that as long as people are friends with birds, they can have a "flower shadow that never leaves their side. The beautiful environment where the sound of birds is always in your ears.
Love birds and have a motherly heart
Su Dongpo, a scholar in the Imperial Academy of the Northern Song Dynasty, loved flowers and trees and cherished birds throughout his life.
One year, the Su family, father and son, traveled south from Sichuan back to Beijing and sailed along the Sichuan River. An old friend from Fuzhou gave Su Dongpo a famous mountain and lake bird. The rare bird had red jaws and blue breasts, and its eyes were shining. It was so beautiful that Dongpo couldn't put it down. If you want to keep it, you are afraid that it will stray away from the flock and cry sadly; if you want to let it go, you are afraid that it will fall into the mouth of an evil bird. So he sighed and wrote: "Lock the cage all day long, and look back to cherish the green velvet. Who knows that the noise is loud, and I am also full of self-consciousness. I stay at the pool where the smoke grows at night, and go up to the peak in the morning when the sun shines. How can the eagles and falcons tolerate the nest in my nest?" "My love for birds comes to life on the page." Finally, he released the cute little bird into the forest.
Su Dongpo’s love for birds stems from his mother’s teachings since childhood. Su's mother, Mrs. Cheng, was virtuous by nature, kind and kind-hearted. She often said to her children: "Flowers live in trees, but die when separated from branches; birds are happy in forests, but sad when separated from others." It was precisely because he did not forget his mother's teachings that Su Dongpo knew that "if you want to see beautiful flowers, you will be happy." "Don't break branches, don't imprison rare birds in cages if you want to play with them." He became a bird lover.
Plum Wife and Hezi
Lin Bu, a scholar in the Northern Song Dynasty, was born when the imperial court was unstable and wars were frequent. The Zhao brothers first released their military power over a glass of wine, and then killed their brothers and nephews, setting off a bloody crusade from top to bottom to consolidate the royal power. When the country is unjust, the people suffer. During the chaos, his parents died early, and young Lin Bu was displaced. He prematurely experienced the hardships of life and the chaos of the world.
When he was a boy, Lin Bu wandered around the river beach all year round, reading poetry and books, traveling thousands of miles, and had profound attainments in calligraphy.
Lin Bu, who grew up in a special situation, gradually developed a humanistic temperament of elegance and alienation, and he also saw through this chaotic and suffering world. He did not join the world and was not an official. After the age of forty, he lived in seclusion in Gushan, Hangzhou. After twenty years of living as a scholar and a commoner, I completely ended my mortal relationship among the green mountains and green waters.
According to the "Old Records of Gushan": "Lin Bu planted more than 360 plum trees. The flowers are both beautiful and the fruits can be sold. One plum tree can be sold for one day. "At that time, there was a little boy with a bun in the Gushan Plum Grove. When someone comes, the well-behaved child will let the crane fly into the clouds, and the crane's chirping can be heard for dozens of miles. Lin Bu, who was enjoying the scenery among the mountains and rivers, raised his head and saw the flying white crane. He knew that a visitor was coming and returned by boat. Because Lin Bu enjoyed growing plums and raising cranes all year round, and because it was said that he never married, there is a legend about "the plum wife and the crane son".
Recruiting birds to settle
Song Huizong opened a lake and built a garden around a mountain in the northeast corner of Bianjing, called Wanshou Mountain. Wanshou Mountain is full of exotic flowers and plants, and the scenery is extremely beautiful. The only pity is that rare and beautiful birds refuse to settle in the garden. No birds can be heard in the quiet mountains and forests, and no matter how beautiful the scenery is, it is boring. How can you bring life to a dead scene? Song Huizong was very troubled by this. At that time, there happened to be an old man named Xue in the capital who had great skills in taming birds. He often performed bird taming performances in the acrobatic arena and was famous far and wide. As soon as he heard that the emperor was looking for someone to attract birds, he recommended himself and came to Wanshou Mountain. I saw him scattering the birds' favorite food on the ground, and then he calmly imitated various bird calls with his hands clasped toward the sky. His calls were imitated so perfectly. When a bird heard the cry, it thought it was a companion calling, so it flapped its wings and flew over... Group after group of birds were invited by the old man to have a "banquet". Song Huizong did not let his men catch them, but Watch from a distance. The birds chirped and sang happily while eating. After a hearty meal, they came and went freely, and they stayed like this for many days. Slowly, Song Huizong was pleasantly surprised to discover that there was no need for Mr. Xue to recruit the birds himself, because the birds all knew about Wanshou Mountain, a good place with mountains, water, forests and grass, and they would be able to attract friends by themselves. Birds from all over are attracted to the garden to make their home.
Love Birds Issued an Edict
In April 1323 AD, Yuan Yingzong issued an imperial edict. The content of the imperial edict was very strange. It was neither a pardon for criminals nor a conscription, but an order for all Every household “releases the caged bird.” As soon as the imperial edict came out, the people were surprised, and for a while, there was a lot of discussion in the streets. Later, people learned that the emperor decided to release the captured birds in order to protect the birds and speed up their reproduction. You must know that this is the turn of spring and summer, which is the best breeding period for birds. In order to encourage people to let birds go, Yuan Yingzong also ordered that the government should compensate the owners of the birds according to the value of each bird. So on the day of the bird release, 100,000 birds of various colors were released from their cages. They flapped their wings and flew into the blue sky, flying back to nature. Hundreds of birds sang in unison, and the scene was spectacular. This may be the earliest and largest release event in the world.
A message to encourage my younger brother
Zheng Banqiao, a famous calligrapher and painter in the Qing Dynasty, once served as a county magistrate in Weixian County, Shandong Province. One spring, Zheng Banqiao was very uneasy when he heard that his younger brother was raising blackbirds in bamboo cages at home. So I wrote him a letter saying, it is so unreasonable for you to imprison the poor little thrush in a cage for your own pleasure! Since ancient times, literati have cherished rare birds and exotic birds. They knew how to raise birds - to plant hundreds of trees around the house, making them dense and sparse, making it a home for birds. At dawn, I hear a chirp, rise up in my clothes, attract hundreds of birds, come and go quickly, and my eyes are dizzying. How can this be compared to the "joy" of your cage and one feather? Zheng Banqiao also copied a poem titled "Thrush" by Ouyang Xiu at the end of the letter. The poem goes: "Hundreds of chirps move at will, and the mountains are red and purple, and the trees are high and low. I just realized that listening to the golden cage is not as good as singing freely in the forest."
——Please see "Planting Trees for Birds"