Chinese culture has long been associ-ated with seafood. The I Ching includes the story of Fu Xishi making fishnets, showing that Chinese were already fishing as well as farming then. But what did the ancients think about conserving marine resources?

In a story in the Shi Ji (Records of the Historian), people living along the Yellow River were vying with one another to use the parts of the river where one could catch fish just by casting a net. But Shun (then a farmer, but later to become emperor) led the way in giving his spot to one more deserving than he. Within a year, people no longer vied with each other, but willingly left the most productive parts of the river to their elders.

The first "no fishing" sign

The great sage Yu, founder of the Xia dynasty, tamed the waters with water conservancy. Under the Xia, the territory of China was divided into nine regions, economic life developed, and the population began to grow. However, expanded production led to over-exploitation of fish stocks and forestry resources. The book Yi Zhou Shu says that Yu ordered that no fishing be allowed in the rivers and lakes for the three months of summer to allow the fish to grow. "This was probably the first law in history to protect fisheries resources," says A History of the Fishing Industry in China, a book published in mainland China.

In the early Zhou dynasty, King Wen at first allowed people to fish in the waters without limit or regulation. But as production expanded he turned to the example of his predecessor Yu. A new edict declared: "No nets are allowed in the waters out of season in order to allow the fish to grow." Late in life King Wen particularly cautioned his son not to allow rampant catching of fish.

At the very beginning of the writings of Mencius, in a chapter on King Hui of Liang, it says that King Wen had a lake dug where the fish could swim about freely and the king and people could enjoy the natural setting. Obviously the fishing policy of King Wen "took into account both catching fish and raising them," says A History of the Fishing Industry in China.

Besides preventing overfishing, the main goal of edicts governing fishing in all three early dynasties-Xia, Shang, and Zhou-was to ban the common people from poisoning fish. For a time people took to killing fish with poisonous plants, as evidenced by the warning in the chapter "Wang Zhi" in the book Shunzi not to poison fish during the reproductive season.

Confucianists were very adamant about protecting fisheries. Confucius set the example himself by fishing only with a line, not with a net. When Bu Buqi, a follower of Confucius, became premier of Shanfu, the Sage sent Wu Mashi to observe him and report back to Confucius on how his pupil was doing in governing the land. After Wu entered the territory of Shanfu, he saw that the people there returned young or pregnant fish that they had caught to the water without being compelled to. Obviously, Confucius had been a successful teacher.

China was strong under the Han dynasty. The Emperor Wu Di built fishing vessels "more than 10 zhang [100 feet] long." These ships, called gu boats after the type of net they used for catching large fish, constituted the first high seas fishing fleet. Under Wu Di, says the Han Shu, fishing boats and equipment were improved, and the country's revenues from fishing tripled.

But such improvements came at a price: In Laizhou in Shandong, the local government and common people fished with such abandon that they exhausted the local waters. Liu An, king of Huainan, thereupon issued edicts declaring: "Do not fish until the supply is exhausted" and "No taking of fish less than one foot in length." Was this then China's earliest law to protect marine resources?

For a few clams

While the kings, ministers, and thinkers of the Spring and Autumn and Warring States periods advocated protecting fishing resources as state policy, literati of the Tang and Song dynasties took a different tack: Much verse was written expressing sympathy for the poor sea creatures and for the fishermen, both of whom made sacrifices to satisfy the appetites of consumers.

Though they celebrated the "close-to-nature" lives of fishermen and woodcutters, renowned writers of the Wei, Jin, Tang and Song dynasties also felt aggrieved when watching people catch fish. When passing a fishing pond, Bai Juyi once said: "We all love fish, but for different reasons; I am here to feed them, you are here to catch them." When Du Fu saw fishermen catching silver fish in Jizhou, he declared: "Catching them when they are pregnant, what righteousness is there in eradicating them?"

On the other hand, the sympathies of the Song poet Mei Yaochen lay with the fishermen and their grueling lives. One of his poems (called "Shi Fish," after a species now known as the Reeve's shad) reads: "In April the shi fish ride the waves in; the fishing boats rise and fall in the troughs and crests. The plump fish will not end up in the mouths

of the fishermen, but will be squeezed for a copper coin for their families." Even when the most tasty fish was right in front of them, fishermen had to resist the temptation to eat it themselves, and save it to be traded for a bit of cash to meet their families' needs.

Many people know that Su Dongpo was a gourmand. But few other epicures note that Su also had the greatest sympathy for caught fish. A poem of his reads: "I feel for the clam in the basket, closing its mouth to protect its juices; I feel for the fish in the net, opening its mouth to gasp for breath." After Su went to Huangzhou, he renounced eating meat. When someone sent him some crabs and clams he threw them into the river. Though he knew there was no hope they would regain life, this was still better than frying them in a pan.

In the Yuan, Ming, and Qing dynasties, because of harassment from pirates, coastal fishing was banned on several occasions, and fisher folk were even moved inland. But it proved difficult to keep these people, who had relied on fishing for generations, from their trade, and coastal fishing (as well as taxes from it) increased steadily.

It was perhaps because the ocean was so generous, and there was no experience of inland water resources being exhausted, that there was, according to A History of the Fishing Industry in China, rarely any regulation of fishing in the Yuan, Ming, or Qing dynasties. In the late Qing dynasty, foreigners began encroaching on Chinese fishing grounds. In 1903, Zhang Qian, an adviser to the Qing government, angrily declared: "China has been without a maritime policy for so long, these officials have no idea how to protect our maritime rights!"

Today, fishing regulations are increasingly complex because sustainable use of marine resources cannot be ensured by an occasional edict endorsing the wisdom of conservation. Yet, no matter how detailed the regulations, it is still up to the individual to take a moment away from savoring his or her seafood and extend a sympathetic thought to those sea creatures which have been used nearly to extinction.

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As well as envying the "old man alone in a lonely boat, fishing the winter river," some Chinese literati also empathized with aquatic creatures, vowing to eat as few as possible to avoid unnecessary killing. Shown here is a detail from a painting by Ma Yuan of the Southern Song.