Fishing from the earliest times - Blog

CHINESE FISHINGCHAPTER XLIII"PLUS UN PAYS PRODUIT DES POISSONS,PRODUIT D'HOMMES "PLUS ILIf the above dictum ^and Williams's statement that "in nocountry, except Japan, is so much food derived from thewater," 2be accurate, modern China should lack not folk norfood. Every method of fishing obtains in one part of thecountry or other, and scarce a sea or stream exists unvexedby some piscatorial implement." Fish are killed by the spear, caught with the hook, scrapedup by the dredge, ensnared in traps, and captured by nets :they are decoyed to jump into boats by painted boards, andfrightened into nets by noisy ones, taken out of the water bylifting nets, and dived in for by birds, for the cormorant seizeswhat his owner can not easily reach." ^This description,minus the cormorant but plus leistering,applies fairly well to Ancient China. Mr. Werner's greatwork discloses no distinct mention of fishing previous to1 122 B.C., although the present to a Viceroy of " cuttle fishcondiment " apparently imphes it. From that date theSpear, the Net, the Line, the Rod, and divers strange devicesfigure frequently and historically.* In the earlier centuries^ See P. Dabrv de Thiersant, La Pisciculture el la Peche en Chine, Paris, 1872.- The Middle Kingdom (New York, 1900), vol. L, p. 27G. Cf. S. Wright,op. cit., p. 204, " In China there are more river-fishers than all the sea-fishersof Europe and America put together."* S. W. Williams, op. cit., I., p. 779 f.* E, T. C. Werner, Descriptive Sociology: Chinese, London, IQII. Thiswork, an abiding monument of twenty years of unabated toil and unceasingresearch into Chinese literature, ancient and modern, was published by theHerbert Spencer Trustees.449