Doubts as to the Earliest Historical Record of Piscicultureand the Author of the Guidebook to Pisciculture

The author argues against two statements in the Chapter of Chinese History of Ichithyology of Chinese Ancient History of Animals: one is that China is the earliest country to engage in pisciculture in fishponds, and the other is that Fan Li is the author of the Guidebook to Pisciculture, the earliest special book on pisciculture in the world, which dates back 2 400. The first statement is presumably based on the phrase “在圃渔”, which was allegedly cited from the oracle inscriptions of the Shang Dynasty (1600-1046 BC) on tortoise shells. The Chinese character “圃” is presumed to refer to the pond in a garden. According to studies on the oracle bone inscriptions, “圃” should be “甫” that stands for “a swamp with thriving water grasses”, which was later drained to become a piece of land planted with fruit and vegetables. That is why a square was added around “甫” just like a fence enclosing the garden, thus taking the form of “圃”. In addition, fishes living in swamps with shallow water were wild ones different from those bred in ponds. Therefore, the phrase in the said inscriptions should be “在甫渔” instead of “在圃渔” in regular Chinese script, which came into being much later than the oracle bone inscriptions. “甫”and “圃”had different meanings and could not become interchangeable until afterwards. The second statement cannot be accepted because of, at least, the following four reasons: (1) The Guidebook mentioned a dialogue between King Wei of Qi and Fan Li, which was impossible at all. According to historical records, however, Fan Li was some 100 years older than the king. (2) The guidebook mentioned “鳖”(bie), a kind of soft shelled turtle bred in a fishpond by the name of “神守” (shen shou) . It is true that there were quite a few one character or monosyllabic words meaning “鳖” in pre Qin writings. But there were no two character or disyllabic words like shen shou in any case, which probably appeared during the Han Dynasty in which sorcery prevailed. Shen shou (meaning “guarded by God”) was kept in ponds to protect fish. Interestingly, more names for bie could be found in post Han writings, but shen shou disappeared with the decline of sorcery. Therefore, it can be inferred that the Guidebook must have been completed in the Han Dynasty and under the name of Fan Li. (3) The complete name of the book is the Revered Tao Zhu' s Guidebook to Psiciculture, in which “Revered Tao Zhu” is a respectful term for Fan Li. Should he write the book, it would be least possible or illogical for Fan Li to address himself as “Revered Tao Zhu” at that time from the viewpoint of the traditional Chinese custom. (4) Given this, it is still difficult to verify that the book was completed in the Han Dynasty in which the writing was started. Definitely, however, it was completed between the Han Dynasty and the Northern Wei Dynasty (206BC 534AD). The reason is that when Jia Sixie quoted some passages from Revered Tao Zhu's Guidebook to Psiciculture in compiling Qi Min Yao Shu (or Important Arts for the People's Welfare, agricultural encyclopaedia of the 6 th century), he mentioned the complete name of the book quoted. In addition, some minor errors are available in the use of measures. For instance, in some parts about fishpond projects, the present unit of mu (667 square meters) was substituted with the ancient one. Nevertheless, Chinese Ancient History of Animals remains a monumental work even to date.