Huangshan area, with overlapping hillsides, deep valleys and dense forests, is very suitable for the hidden layer and breeding of tigers.
In ancient Huangshan, the place with the most tigers was Qimen. In the first year of Duanping in the Southern Song Dynasty (1234), "more than 20 people were injured by tigers", and Fu Bao, the county magistrate, recruited Orion to "use drugs to make bows and make traps" and captured eleven tigers in succession. Because he practiced "tiger politics", he benefited the people, was praised by the people and rewarded by the court.
In the early Ming Dynasty, the court stipulated that six counties in Huizhou (including Wuyuan) should pay 94 tiger skins every year, that is, one for each Orion, and Shexian county should pay at most 40. It can be seen that there are still many tigers in Huangshan area in Ming Dynasty.
In the eighth year of Yongle (14 10), the tiger disaster in Qimen was serious again. The magistrate of a county recruited people to catch him and set a 3 14 trap. Soon, 46 tigers and leopards were acquired.
In the thirty-sixth year of Wanli (1608), a tiger ran into the cross gate of Shexian Justice Bureau and bit nine people.
Two years later, at the entrance of Xiuning, the tiger broke into people's homes, and two brave "female Song Wu" strangled the tiger alive.
In the third year of the Apocalypse (1623), Jixi suffered from tigers again, injuring hundreds of people, and the magistrate of a county sent people to catch them, "killing five tigers in one month".
In the early Qing dynasty, the tiger disaster was still very serious. In the eleventh year of Shunzhi (1654), the tigers in Xixiang, Xiuning "walked in groups during the day".
In the fifth year of Kangxi (1666), the tiger in Guangde near Huangshan was injured, so it was known that hunters were ordered to "shoot dozens of tigers" and the people were asked to cut down a large bamboo forest within 20 miles of the original tiger, Fiona Fang, so as not to bury hidden dangers.
Due to human hunting, tigers gradually became scarce after Qianlong. After four years of Qianlong (1739), there were many tigers in the western suburbs of Taiping, and hunters killed two tigers in three days. This is the last record of the tiger disaster in Huangshan Mountain. Huangshan Tiger is a unique species of South China Tiger in China, with dark and brown fur and a weight of more than 300 kilograms.
According to Yi Xian Zhi, the tiger is the king of all the animals. It glows at night and starts to roar in summer and autumn. The roar is like thunder, and all the animals are surprised.
Tigers are fierce and feed on wild boar, followed by bears and musk deer.
The eighth volume of Fauna of China said: "It is only an accidental phenomenon that tigers eat people, and it is inappropriate for tigers to be harmful animals that hurt people." . But judging from the above serious situation, is this statement not contradictory? Not really.
Because "tigers hurt people", on the one hand, it is often related to the excessive reproduction of tigers themselves and the shortage of wild animals as tiger food; On the other hand, due to drought and flood, tigers lack food sources and turn to cannibalism. For example, during Chenghua, Jiajing and Qianlong years, Jixi was "injured by tigers" because of the long drought in summer and autumn; Another example is Xiuning, where there was a record of a "flood tiger". This shows that "tiger hurts people" generally because of the above reasons, leaving the habitat and fixed activity area to hunt livestock near the cottage. As for running around the city, this is a very accidental phenomenon.
Tigers generally do not hurt people, which is also recorded in historical records;
In the thirty-eighth year of Wanli (16 10), the monk in Huangshan often met the tiger at night. Instead of running away, he touched the tiger's head. As a result, the miracle of "harmony between man and tiger" appeared, which surprised the listeners.
In the 28th year of Kangxi (1689), a famous monk Xue Zhuang visited Huangshan Mountain, where there were always many tigers resting on the white sand. It happened that there was a tiger crouching under him. He shouted for the tiger to leave, but the tiger actually walked very slowly.
It can be seen that in the ecological balance, or in the normal climate and geographical environment, when the food source of tigers is sufficient, "tigers do not harm people."
In the long-term struggle with tigers, the people of Huangshan have accumulated rich experience in preventing and catching tigers. For example, residents in the western mountainous areas of Xiuning sing high-pitched folk songs together when they enter the deep mountains and forests to collect wild plants. They "sing ten together to drive the tiger and the wolf", which is very effective. It is said that tigers hide when they hear songs.
People also mentioned that you can't beat gongs and drums when you enter the mountain, otherwise the tiger will find the sound. Tigers are afraid of muskets and nets. If you net Zhang Hu, he won't dare to commit a crime. When a hunter met a tiger, he threw a ball made of brown hair at the tiger. When a tiger bites a brown ball, its teeth and claws are trapped in the brown hair, which is difficult to pull out for a while. The hunter can take the opportunity to attack with a tiger fork.
When tigers are in action, they often give off a strong smell of tigers, so people can be alert in time. For example, in the seventeenth year of Shunzhi (1660), Master Jianjiang, a monk and painter, visited Huangshan Mountain with friends, and his hair stood on end in Baishaling, where tigers and leopards abound.
Due to the rapid increase of population, the continuous expansion of agricultural reclamation area and the excessive deforestation, the area where tigers live in Huangshan is getting narrower and narrower, and people are tempted by "tigers are treasures" and blindly kill them, which makes the number of tigers in Huangshan drop sharply. In the seventh year of Daoguang (1827), when Huizhou Official Records was revised, it was published in Real Estate Animals.