The weather in Hepu county last year

The collection of Hepu pearls began in the Han Dynasty. Private mining has been banned by the people for a long time, which has supported and promoted the abnormal development of pearl mining industry and formed a unique culture. According to "Hepu County Records", "The south of Hepu is barren and does not grow food. We breed the sea, collect pearls and exchange them for rice. " Hepu, an ancient county town belonging to barbarians, is the settlement of Zhuang ancestors. The coastal land is barren and there are no farmers. Under the double pressure of the king's life and livelihood, the people only take pearl picking as their profession, while Zhuer, Zhuhu and Zhu Min, who are in their teens, are professionals who take pearl picking regardless of their safety. First, they give them to the government as a tribute or supervision. One is to live on pearls and rice. In the Han Dynasty, there were thousands of people in Hepu who collected pearls for a living.

labor condition

Picking pearls in the vast sea of people is by no means easy. Picking pearls is hard and dangerous. In ancient times, the working conditions of pure unarmed operation were very bad, and the life safety of pearl pickers was also seriously threatened. People have no protective equipment at the bottom of the sea. If their stay is short, they can't pick pearls. If they stay long, they will suffocate or freeze to death. Unfortunately, if sharks or other marine animals have no time to escape, what people on board see is a stream of blood floating on the water, that is, people underwater have been buried in the belly of the fish. Pearl picking will also be shipwrecked in bad weather such as typhoons.

Lack of oxygen, fear of cold, fierce attacks by fish and animals, so that people who are injured, disabled and buried in the belly of fish abound. In the Ming Dynasty, Lianzhou Zhifulin said in "Pearl Picking Tour": "If I don't smell it every day, 100,000 able-bodied men will die. Dead people are often buried in the belly of fish. " It can be seen that in ancient Hepu, pearl pickers died in the pearl pond because of pearl picking, and the world evaluated it as "exchanging people for pearls".

history

Li Shizhen's Compendium of Materia Medica "Zhu Zhen" once described the difficulties and obstacles in pearl picking: "There are three pools of plum, green and baby in Hepu County. Divers always tie their waist with a long rope, carry a basket into the water, pick up a clam and put it into the tendon, then shake the rope and let the boatman take it urgently. If there is a trace of blood, the fish belly will be buried. " The History of Ming Dynasty also recorded many events in which pearl people were disabled or even buried in the belly of fish in order to complete the task of "sending pearls".

Ming Ming Road's "Talking about the Sea in Ancient and Modern Times" records: "The water on the sea is wild. Take the boat as your home, collect marine products for a living, and eat them raw, which can be seen in the water. Hepuzhu, a clam in a pond, can only be fished out without water, and others tie it to their waist with a rope. When the rope shakes, it will be pulled up. First, it will be extremely hot, and then it will be repeated urgently, otherwise it will freeze to death, or it will often collapse when it comes to big fish, turtles and sea monsters, and it will be touched by bristles.

In Lu Rong's Miscellaneous Notes on Ming Garden, it was described that pearl pickers tied their waists with long ropes, took bamboo baskets deep into the sea floor, and collected pearls into the baskets. As soon as the underwater people shook the rope, the people on board quickly took it back and dragged the people and baskets on the bottom of the sea to the surface. When picking pearls, there are often "big fish catching sea monsters", but when people on board see the blood floating in the sea, "they know that (underwater people) have buried the fish belly". Even those who are lucky enough to save their lives will definitely be disabled people with broken limbs ... However, in order to prevent Zhu Min from "being lazy", some evil officials even tied big stones to Zhu Min's feet and prohibited them from floating at will, resulting in the situation that "the drowning people return to their owners".

In the process of pearl-picking, with the plump pearls floating out of the sea, pearl-pickers gradually became familiar with the habits of the sea from fear and panic, which led to many Hepu people still practicing deep diving skills.

Zhu Min's life is not only threatened, but also has no political status. From the period of Liuyong in the Southern Han Dynasty, the Pearl Pond became a forbidden place for the imperial court, and the Pearl people became untouchables who could not change jobs for life. Miao people became slaves to pearl picking, and it was not until the Yongzheng period of the Qing Dynasty that Zhu Min in Hepu was given political treatment and got rid of his lost membership forever.

Due to the insatiable exploitation of dynasties, the pearl resources in Hepu were seriously damaged. Since the Ming Dynasty set up an official in Zhengde to collect pearls in Lianzhou, the official has been rampant in the coastal areas, extorting money, "driving away the innocent and jumping into the abyss of accidents, which is welcome" (see Minister Begging for the Interior). Although "a thousand villages are half disabled", "the harem has not been graced." In the Qing Dynasty, there were 100 pearl-picking boats and 1000 pearl households in Hepu. By the early years of the Republic of China, there were still dozens of pearl pickers and hundreds of pearl pickers. There were only twenty or thirty pearl-picking boats in front of War of Resistance against Japanese Aggression, which were also burned by the Japanese invaders during the Anti-Japanese War.

The tyranny of the government and the ruthlessness of the sea have made Zhuhai people miserable. Therefore, every page of the history of pearl picking in Hepu is full of blood and tears of pearl pickers. Under the cruel oppression of feudal autocracy, Zhuhai people began to rise up and resist.

In the Yuan Dynasty, the feudal dynasty strengthened its control over Hepu pearls and set up special institutions to plunder pearls and pay tribute to the imperial court. In A.D. 13 17, the Pearl Picking Department of Hepu Lianzhou was established, and the pearl resources were severely damaged, making it difficult for pearl pickers to pick pearls. "It's rare to collect thousands of snails." Due to the decrease in pearl harvest, the imperial court was seriously dissatisfied, frequently changed local officials, and constantly strengthened the persecution of pearl people. In A.D. 1324, the pearl pickers in Hepu United against persecuting officials for the first time and went on a pearl picket strike. Over the past 40 years, pearl pickers have been fighting against pearl picking one after another.

By the Ming Dynasty, the struggle between Zhuhai people was surging. In A.D. 1459, the imperial court ordered local officials to strengthen the plunder of pearl people on the one hand, and strengthen the protection of coastal pearl sources on the other hand, and set up patrol posts to prevent thieves. 1463, sent personnel to guard the pearl pond, and the pearls produced in the pearl pond were exclusively used by the imperial court. In the winter of Jiajing five years, it snowed heavily in Hepu, and the water in the pearl pond froze, causing a large number of poor people to freeze to death. However, officials forced pearl pickers to go out to sea to collect pearls, and the number was countless. The resistance of the vast number of pearl people is more intense. In Wanli 10, officials sent troops to kill Su et al. 128 Pearl people and threw their bodies to the people. Pearls can not bring happiness to people, but bring disaster to people. The situation of the people is exactly: "I once drove thousands of lives to the bottom of the sea, but it seems that I didn't return them in those years."

In order to prevent the loss of Dazhu, Zhu Min has not only eunuchs to supervise the Pearl Pool, but also officers and soldiers to guard it. In order to make a living, Zhu Min had to adopt the wonderful method of "swallowing". That is, learn "the official forbids the people to collect pearls, and the clever thief squats at the bottom of the water to scrape the mussels and swallow them well" (Collection of Arts and Literature). After leaving the scene, it is discharged from the stool, so that nothing can be done.