How to explain that people regard food as their heaven?

It is an idiom and a common saying. The meaning is very simple. If you are interested, let’s take a look at the explanation and related information of “food is the most important thing for the people”. How to explain the saying that food is the most important thing for the people 1

"Food is the most important thing for the people" comes from "Han Shu. "The Biography of Li Shiqi" says: "The king regards the people as his heaven, and the people regard food as their heaven." China entered the farming era very early. In the long agricultural society, due to the low level of productivity, the social population was relatively small. Historically, Frequent natural and man-made disasters force people to pay more attention to the issue of food and clothing.

Nowadays, people say that "food is the first priority for the people", and "food" mostly refers to various types of food such as directly edible meals. The original meaning of this statement is that people regard food as the foundation of life.

Sima Qian of the Western Han Dynasty wrote in "Historical Records: Biography of Li Sheng and Lu Jia": "The king regards the people as his heaven, and the people regard food as their heaven." Sima Zhen of the Tang Dynasty wrote in "Historical Records" When "suo yin" is used, indicate that it is from Guan Zi's words. Guan Zhong once said: "The king regards the people as his heaven, and the people regard food as his heaven. He who can understand the heaven and earth is great." The thousand-year history of civilization and agriculture are closely related, and food is of vital importance. People's understanding of the importance of eating has always existed throughout the history of the development of Chinese civilization.

The concept that food is the most important thing for the people can be said to be the most basic and important core of the concept of Chinese food culture.

"Food is the first priority for the people" was said by Sima Qian.

Explanation of "Food is the first priority for the people": It means that the people regard food as their livelihood.

Source: Sima Qian of the Western Han Dynasty, "Historical Records: Biography of Li Sheng and Lu Jia": "The king regards the people as his heaven, and the people regard food as their heaven."

Translation: Those who achieved the king's career People regard the people as their "heaven", and the people regard food as their "heaven".

Usage: complex sentence pattern; used as object and attributive.

Example: If the problem of food is not solved, society will not be stable. Food is the most important thing for the people, so we must attach great importance to the development of agricultural production. How to explain "Food is the first necessity of the people" 2

"Food is the first necessity of the people", where does this sentence come from and what is the story behind it?

Source

It is said that at the end of Qin and the beginning of Han, there were three people, Li Shi (yì) Qi (jī), Lu Jia, and Zhu Jian. All three were Liu Bang's people, *** The same characteristic is that he is invincible with his words and can talk the living to death and the dead to life. By the way, this Zhu Jian is called Pingyuanjun. Don't confuse him with Pingyuanjun Zhao Sheng, the fourth son of the Warring States Period.

Due to the same attributes of the three people, Sima Qian combined the three of them into one biography when he was writing "Historical Records". In "Historical Records: Biography of Li Sheng and Lu Jia", he wrote: When telling the story of Li Shiqi, he said this:

"The king regards the people as his heaven, and the people regard food as their heaven."

It is very simple to understand, the king The common people are the foundation of the country, and the common people regard food as the foundation of their lives.

These two sentences are very short, but they have a very profound meaning. They explain the essence of a country and its people on which they live. The king is people-oriented, and the people are food-oriented. You must know that in ancient China, it was a slave society and a feudal society for a long time. In such an experience environment, to be able to realize this requires very profound insights and thoughts.

Many wise men in ancient times have repeatedly emphasized the importance of the common people to the fundamental foundation of the country. Confucius talked about benevolence, which means that rulers should be kind to the common people; "Mencius" said: "The people are the most important, and the country is second." , the king is light.”

Looking at the rise and fall of ancient dynasties, no dynasty fell because the people were forced to revolt and overthrow the unscrupulous kings because they were in dire straits.

Li Shiqi

Li Shiqi was Liu Bang’s lobbyist. His family was very poor when he was a child. He studied hard for ten years and ended up working as a janitor. However, He was very crazy, and the local people called him Kuang Sheng, so despite his low status, no one dared to do anything to him.

Later Chen Sheng and Wu Guang rebelled. Li Shiqi knew that the opportunity had come, but he did not immediately jump out to follow Chen Wu, but waited and watched. Knowing that Liu Bang led his troops to Chenliu, Li Shiqi came out of the mountains and followed Liu Bang. As soon as he appeared on the scene, he helped Liu Bang conquer Chenliu and obtain the city and food. However, Liu Bang was so happy that he named him Lord Guangye.

The Qin State has four most important fortresses, namely Hanguguan Pass, Xiaoguan Pass, Dashan Pass, and Wuguan Pass. They are called the "Four Fortresses of Qin", which shows their importance. When Liu Bang attacked Qin, he brought a large army to Wuguan. Li Shiqi stepped forward and persuaded the Qin army to surrender. Liu Bang's army won without a fight, successfully invaded Xianyang, and destroyed the Qin Dynasty.

In the subsequent Chu-Han struggle for hegemony, Li Shiqi lobbied the six countries and made a great contribution to Liu Bang's final victory. When Liu Bang and Xiang Yu were at their most inseparable, Liu Bang was ready to retreat. Under such circumstances, it was Li Shiqi who gave important advice and finally won the victory over Ao Cang, the largest granary in the Kanto region at the time.

This is the famous Battle of Chenggao, and it is also a famous battle in which the weak defeated the strong.

The Battle of Chenggao

At that time, Liu Bang was guarding Xingyang and Chenggao. There was a mountain in Xingyang called Aoshan, and there was a mountain on the mountain. The small city was built by Qin Shihuang specifically to store food for ready battles. This place is very important, not only as a granary, but also as an important transfer station during ancient water transportation.

Chenggao is a pass. You may not be familiar with it, but when it comes to its other names, you must be very familiar with it: Bishui Pass, Hulao Pass, and Guqiao Pass, which are the famous Tiger Pass. Laoguan, where Liu Guan and Zhang Sanying fought against Lu Bu, is the gateway to the east of Luoyang.

The Liu and Xiang families set up their battle formations here. For them, the Battle of Chenggao can be said to be the most important battle. Before that, Xiang Yu had always ignored Liu Bang. , because Liu Bang is too weak, how could the Overlord take him seriously? Liu Bang was pressed to the ground and rubbed by Xiang Yu every day, then hung up and beaten. There was nothing he could do.

Liu Bang has no intention of continuing the fight. If the fight continues like this, he may burp at any time. Let's just give Cheng Gao to Lu Bu. I will go home and have a rest, and regroup and fight again tomorrow. , so he went to ask Li Shiqi what he meant.

Li Shiqi shook his head when he heard this and said: "Boss, the king regards the people as his heaven, and the people regard food as their heaven. Aocang is the granary of the world. If you give up Cheng Gao, it does not mean that you will give up the world. Will the people surrender to Xiang Yu? If we lose Cheng Gao, we may never be able to fight Xiang Yu again!" After hearing this, Liu Bang felt that what Li Shiqi said was reasonable, so he quickly mobilized his troops. Strengthening the defense, they looked like they were fighting to the end. Seeing that their commander was so confident, the soldiers under his command could not help but feel boosted in morale. When they later went to war with Xiang Yu, although they did not have as many soldiers and horses as Xiang Yu, nor were they as elite as Xiang Yu, they still won the final victory. victory.

Chopsticks - Food is the first necessity of the people

In addition to the story of Li Shiqi, the saying that food is the first necessity of the people is also inseparable from chopsticks.

Chopsticks are a eating tool that has not changed for Chinese people since ancient times. Two bamboo sticks are a pair of chopsticks. In the Yi hexagram, the second number of the Xiantian hexagram is the Dui hexagram, and Dui means eating. "Shuowen Jiezi" explains it this way:

The word "Dui" comes from the person and the mouth.

In addition, the shape of chopsticks is straight and long, with a square tail and a round head. The circle in the Yi hexagram is the Qian hexagram, and the stem is the sky.

Chopsticks are used for eating, and the mouth of the chopsticks is the heaven. Isn't this what "food is the heaven" means? How to explain the saying that food is the first priority for the people 3

More than 2,600 years ago, Guan Zhong, the great statesman who assisted Duke Huan of Qi to become the first overlord in the Spring and Autumn Period, said this: "The king regards the people as his first priority, and the people are the first priority." Those who regard food as the heaven and can understand the heaven are great. "It means: For the rulers, the common people are the most important, and for the common people, food is the most important. If you can understand and grasp what the common people value most." of food, then the kingly way can be realized.

Food was very important in a feudal society dominated by agriculture. It was related to the rise and fall of a country. In fact, in today's industrial modernization, for a country with a large population like China, food is even more important. Our national leaders have always regarded food as the first priority.

It is very hard to grow crops with your face to the loess and your back to the sky. When chemical fertilizers, pesticides, agricultural machinery, and water conservancy were not very developed, the yield of one acre of land in the north was only one to two hundred catties. In times of disaster, sometimes only a few dozen kilograms can be harvested

Or even nothing can be harvested. This has been the case for farming for thousands of years. "Fields have less leisure months, but people are twice as busy in May." Although farmers work hard all year round, they are still full of hope. Tao Yuanming's poem expresses this emotion: "At the foot of the southern mountain where beans are planted, the grass is thick and the bean sprouts are sparse. I wake up in the morning to sort out the wasteland and filth, and I return home with a lotus shovel in the moonlight. The road is narrow and the grass and trees are long, and the evening dew touches my clothes. I don't regret the stains on my clothes. But do not disobey your wishes. "Farmers work tirelessly for a good harvest, but often "the water harms my bean sprouts, and the locusts eat my millet." (Song Poetry)

Experience. The generation that lived through the great famine of the 1960s should have the deepest understanding of the importance of food. At that time, not only food, but also other foods, including meat, eggs, and vegetables, were in very short supply. Even tofu had to be bought with a ticket. supply. When I was a child, I couldn't eat toffee, and I couldn't afford it. I occasionally got a few pieces of hard fruit candy. There were many brothers and sisters, and one piece for each of us was not enough. My mother would crush it with her teeth and give us a fair division. In fact, at that time, Hard fruit candies are only one cent a piece, and milk candies are two cents a piece. However, in an era of scarcity and low income, the fruit candies that children love to eat are also rare

. The eldest brother’s biggest wish is to eat popcorn at some time; the second brother is most willing to eat brown sugar. His wish is to eat brown sugar in big gulps. In fact, how can the taste of this brown sugar be better than that of fruit candy? Many years later we laughed when we talked about it. Today's younger generation probably can't imagine what it was like at that time. I remember that my aunt came to visit my mother.

She always brought two cornmeal pancakes for lunch. At that time, the supply of flour and rice was also limited, and the staple food was cornmeal, which was not enough. Just "Melon and Vegetable Substitution". When I was a teenager, there was a national famine. I remember one time I was very hungry and had nothing to eat, so I had to dip rapeseed in noodle sauce to satisfy my hunger. If it was too salty, I drank water. Drinking water can also relieve hunger. At that time, many people were The whole body is swollen. At that time, there were many farmers' markets in the city, which were called "free markets" at that time. I often salivated in front of the stalls selling food in the market. The prices at that time were very high (relatively speaking) and there was no money!

A man who seemed to be a little disabled suddenly rushed to the food, grabbed it and put it in his mouth. The stall owner quickly came over to snatch it, and the man spit on the food, so the stall owner had to give it up. A few punches were inevitable, so the man ate slowly on the side; if he wasn't hungry, probably no one would do such a thing. At that time, the food supply of every household was very tight, and begging for food was impossible.

For such a disabled person, if he relied on this method to satisfy his hunger, his body would only become weaker and weaker. Once he got sick, he would starve to death sooner or later. thing. Nearly fifty years have passed since the incident. Since I witnessed it with my own eyes, the scene at that time has been in my mind for many years and left a deep impression.

Sima Qian quoted another passage from Guan Zhong in "Historical Records·Biographies of Huozhi": "If the warehouse is solid, you will know the etiquette; if you have enough food and clothing, you will know the honor and disgrace."

There is also a record in "Historical Records", which tells that King Chuzhuang besieged the Song Dynasty. The city of Song Dynasty was besieged by Chu for half a year. There was no food or fire in the city, and finally it came to the point of cannibalism. The original text is: "Analysis Bones are used for cooking, and children are exchanged for food." That is to say, they chop human bones to cook and exchange children for food.

Probably because he couldn’t bear to eat his own children. What a tragic thing it was. The article did not say whether the children exchanged were live children or children who starved to death; whether they were dead or alive, I was very shocked when I read this. The West attacks China's human rights, and China responds that "human rights are first and foremost the right to survival." Looking at this record in "Historical Records", I am convinced that people's right to survival is not guaranteed, so how to talk about "etiquette" and "honor and disgrace"!

I don’t think the people in Songcheng are inhumane either. People have probably reached this point where survival is the first priority. There is also a record in "Zi Zhi Tong Jian" that a man named Yuantong was imprisoned. The people who imprisoned him did not give him food and wanted to starve him to death. Yuantong was so hungry that he ate the flesh of his own arm. This shows how terrible things a person who is about to starve to death can do. Our history has repeatedly recorded the occurrence of cannibalism due to wars and famines

There are more than one record of "changing children to eat", and some mediocre rulers sat in high temples and experienced Not feeling the suffering of the people. Emperor Hui of the Jin Dynasty said something that made the world laugh. "Zizhi Tongjian" records: "There was a famine in the world and the people starved to death. When the emperor heard about it, he said: Why not eat minced meat?" Minced meat is meat porridge, and the people all starved to death. However, Emperor Hui of Jin Dynasty wondered why the people did not eat "meat porridge". Historical data says that Emperor Hui of Jin Dynasty: "The emperor was a dull man." Being stupid means being reckless and stupid. How can such a king lead his subjects to achieve "a solid storehouse and sufficient food and clothing"? How can his subjects "know etiquette and honor and disgrace"?

"Food is the first priority for the people" is a famous saying that has been passed down through the ages. Especially in the era of famine, this famous saying has strong practical significance. After decades of reform and opening up, hunger and poverty have gradually left us, and the practical significance of "food is the first necessity for the people" has also weakened. No one is hungry now. Even a beggar will probably roll his eyes at you to express his dissatisfaction if you give him a steamed bun. In today's market economy, if he only begs for one steamed bun every time, he will not be able to survive. , would probably kill him, but in times of famine, a steamed bun could save a life.

People nowadays think more about how to lose weight and how to reduce high blood fat and high blood sugar. This is really "Thirty years in Hedong, thirty years in Hexi". While swimming in the summer, I met a boss from Sichuan who came to Qingdao with his chubby teenage son for vacation. He said that his son ate a roast duck in one meal. Not only is this way of eating a waste of natural resources, but it is also unscientific and unhealthful. But now people are no longer surprised. This is very different from when we were children, biting open a piece of hard fruit candy and eating it separately, no! It's even bigger than a world of difference, but I can't find a more suitable adjective.

"Zhu Bolu's Motto on Family Governance" puts it well: "One porridge and one meal, when you think about the difficult place where you came from. Half a thread of constant thoughts and material resources are difficult." Our ancients fought against nature in order to have food and clothing. For thousands of years, even in the early Qing Dynasty of Zhu Bolu, it was not easy to get this kind of porridge, rice, and half silk and half thread, and raising pigs, sheep, and poultry was not easy either. Therefore, Zhu Bolu warned future generations: "Don't be greedy for food and drink and kill live poultry." Nowadays, a teenage child will eat a roast duck in one meal. Zhu Bolu knows this, but I don't know what he thinks? Although times have changed and materials have become richer, we should not forget about the tradition of hard work and thrift.

When I traveled to South Korea in 2009, all toilets in South Korea were equipped with large rolls of toilet paper and soap. Many people experienced the embarrassment and embarrassment of not bringing toilet paper in case of emergency. At that time, I was thinking that our city toilets would eventually be equipped with toilet paper and soap. In some toilets equipped with toilet paper such as those at airports, there have been cases of people pulling out a lot of toilet paper and taking them away. Our toilets have just been It will take a while to achieve the goal of no charge

It will take a while to be like South Korea.

In South Korea, I also met a fellow Qingdao fellow who married in South Korea, and I felt very cordial. I asked her how much an average worker in South Korea could earn per month, and she said it was about more than 10,000 yuan, and as long as she was willing to work hard, she would earn Much more; unlike in China, wages for manual labor are not high. If the person who took away the toilet paper could earn a salary of 10,000 yuan, he probably wouldn't be embarrassed and conspicuously took away some toilet paper. Is this the difference between poverty and wealth? Is this in line with the saying, "A person with a solid warehouse knows etiquette; a person with enough food and clothing knows honor and disgrace"?

The economic achievements China has made through reform and opening up have attracted worldwide attention, and the speed at which it has eradicated poverty and become rich is unique in the history of world economic development. But we cannot just be satisfied with the rapid development of a unipolar economy. If the rise of the economy cannot bring about the rise of culture, it cannot be regarded as a rise in the true sense. The great rejuvenation of our Chinese nation is indispensable for the rejuvenation and rise of Chinese culture. A strong country must first enrich its people

The people of a strong country must have sufficient food and clothing and live and work in peace and contentment. In fact, "a solid warehouse and sufficient food and clothing" is not an inevitable condition for "knowing etiquette and honor and disgrace". It is at most an important condition. In other words, "a solid warehouse and sufficient food and clothing" is only a premise. On this basis, to demonstrate "knowing etiquette and knowing honor and disgrace", "Knowing honor and disgrace" is actually a reflection of the national cultural quality. Our people still need to work hard to "have enough food and clothing; know etiquette and know honor and disgrace".

Having said so much, let’s return to the topic and let a Tang poem serve as the conclusion. "It's noon on the day of hoeing, and the sweat is dripping on the soil. Who knows that every grain of food on the plate is hard work."