Fishing from the earliest times - Blog

466 CHINESE FISHINGThis time we have no excuse of hospitaUty, no fair Empressbefore whose eyes our angler, as Antony with Cleopatra, wantedto display his prowess, or a new cast. !— No ! he was " merelyamusing himself " —think of the crime " by fishing in oneof the Palace lakes,"But alas ! 'twas the fifth moon, when fishes were still busybreeding the nation's common and ample staple of food.Theline raised for a fresh throw was suddenly cut by the Viceroy,Ly-Ke. " What the deuce are you doing ? " thundered theEmperor, aghast at the audacity of the act. " My duty,'*quietly answered Ly-Ke. " All must obey the laws whichyou have bidden me enforce."The voice is the voice of Ly-Ke, but the sentence andsentiment smack of Mr. Barlow ! Such, however, is the powerof the " superior man," that the contrite autocrat not onlybestowed a present on the intrepid Atropos who shore hisline, but commanded that its severed bits should hang for allto see in the ante-chamber of the Palace, as a warning to futureages. 1Whether in ancient China a fish-god, such as Ebisu inJapan, 2 or fish-gods existed, I have not ascertained, but inour day the fishermen on the southern coasts celebrate in springor autumn a festival to propitiate the gods of the waters.immense display of lanterns lights the path for a huge dragon,made out of slender bamboo frames covered with strips ofcoloured cotton or silk : the extremities represent his gapinghead and frisking tail. The monster, symbolising the ruler ofthe watery deep, is preceded by huge models of fish gorgeouslyilluminated. 3But whether the SiniticAnPantheon lacked or held a deityof fishermen, it was reserved for Hsii, the hero of one of thestories in Liao Chai Chih I, to summon from the vasty^ For these two stories, see de Thiersant, op. cit., VII. H.* The earliest drawings represent Ebisu holding a red tai (Chrysophiscardinalis) in one hand, and a fishing-rod in the other. In popular sketcheshe is usually shown with a laughing countenance, watching the struggles ofthe tai at the end of his line, or else banqueting with his companion gods onthe same fish. In placing a fisherman god among the Seven Deities ofHappiness the Japanese display shrewdness of observation and skill inselection.» WilUams, op. cit., I. p. 8i8.