以鲥为瘟:古代长江鲥鱼的污名化

Taking Treasure as Pestilence:Stigmatization of Ancient Tenualosa Reevesii in Yangtze River

鲥鱼在明清一些著作中被称为瘟鱼。历来关于瘟鱼的解释主要围绕鲥鱼本身来阐发,但这些观点不能很好地解释鲥鱼为何会在江西、两湖以及四川一带被称作瘟鱼,而在盛产鲥鱼的江东却没有这种指称。明人的“瘟鱼”观点源自唐人孟诜“发疳、痼”的说法,李时珍所说的蜀地瘟鱼并不是鲥鱼。一些清人认为瘟鱼并非来自鲥鱼本身。《见闻录》中记载了一个鲥鱼被虚构成瘟鱼的故事,揭示出瘟鱼是后人将瘟疫附会到鲥鱼身上的结果。显然,鲥鱼在特定地点被称为瘟鱼,是鲥鱼与地方文化结合的产物。

Tenualosa reevesii were called pestilential fish in some works of Ming and Qing dynasties.The explanations of pestilential fish mainly focus on the fish themselves,failing to probe into reasons of the fish as pestilential in Jiangxi,Hunan,Hubei and Sichuan,and no reference in the east of the Yangtze River,where tenualosa reevesii were abundant.The view of"pestilential fish"of the Ming dynasty originated from Meng Shen’s quote of infantile and chronic disease in Tang Dynasty,and the pestilential fish mentioned by Li Shizhen in Sichuan area were not tenualosa reevesii.Some people in Qing dynasty believed that the pestilence did not come from the fish themselves.The book of Jian Wen Lu recorded a story that a tenualosa reevesii was made up as a pestilential fish,which revealed that pestilential fish resulted from later generations by attaching pestilence to tenualosa reevesii.Obviously,it is the product of the combination with local culture that tenualosa reevesii are called pestilential fish in some places.