Fishing from the earliest times - Blog

EMPERORS PREVENTED FISHING 465close time, and to permit no cutting of weeds in the waters duringthe spawning season. 1The Emperors, especially the earlierEmperors, were keenall-round sportsmen, 2 but especially zealous disciples of thecraft of Angling. Like all good fishermen, they rejoiced inhaving themselves or sharing with their friends a good day.Sometimes their keen hospitahty made them entirely forget,or turn a blind eye on their own ordinances. Even fear ofthe wardens attached to the Imperial Court, to whom wasentrusted (according tothe Chou Li) " the fishing appropriateto each season," served not at times to stay their ardour.Fortunately they were saved from themselves and frombreaches of the law, as Mr. Werner shows in a sentence, whichin manner and "superior man" strangely recalls Sandfordand Merton, and Mr. Barlow. " It appears from edifyinganecdotes that the pleasures of the chase, etc., were a snare tothe Chinese monarchs, but they were seldom left without somesuperior man to keep before them the moral ideas of earlierdays."That such was the case some 3000 years ago the story ofone of the Chou Dynasty demonstrates. He was anxious inthe extreme to go a-fishing with the Empress. None of hiscourtiers and none of his laws could deter him, although itwas the fourth moon, when fish are spawning.At last his great minister, Tchang-sy-pe, flung himself atthe Imperial feet, implored him not to violate one of themost essential laws of the realm, and so set an example which,if followed generally, would destroy one of ' ' the commonestand amplest staples of food." The " superior man " succeeded.The Emperor, struck by Tchang's reasoning, and perhaps bythe enormity of his wrong-doing, immediately called theparty off.Another "superior man" later on saves the situation,and his monarch, also one of the Chou Dynasty.^ De Thiersant, op. cit.. .2 Though they and their subjects rejoiced greatly in cock and quail fighting,nature denied to them the " fighting fish," which in Siam are the occasion ofweekly contests, heavy wagering, and a fruitful source of revenue to thegovernment from the sale of special licenses (cf. Wright, op. cit., 187-8).