World Octopus Day | A lot of synonyms, eyes on the waist... The ancients' understanding of octopuses is really funny

October 8th is International Octopus Day.

What? Octopuses have a festival? Who is so bored to set up such a festival? (Octopus:?? Then I leave?)

In 2006, TONMO (The Octopus News Magazine Online) established International Octopus Day on International Cephalopod Awareness Day (October) to promote octopus biology, species diversity and conservation, and chose the "eighth day" of this month to express feelings for octopuses, which have eight brachiopods. When did ancient people begin to know about octopuses, a cephalopod with a strange structure that is still associated with "alien creatures" by many people? In the context of underdeveloped natural sciences, how would ancient people react to seeing these strange creatures?

Early records of octopuses in China and abroad

Animal archaeological research shows that octopus had become an important food source for local people in Latin America at least 4,000 years ago. The image of octopus can often be found on unearthed daily life and sacrificial utensils.

Funerary mask and chest of an Old Lord of Sipan, with large gilded copper scrolls that may represent the eight arms of an octopus (Photo courtesy of the Royal Tombs of Sipan Museum, Lambayeque, Peru)

B Anthropomorphic octopus tentacles depicted on Mochica pottery may represent octopus weapons (Source: Lima Laco Museum)

Among the remains discovered from the Misno civilization and the Mycenaean civilization that arose in the Mediterranean at the same time or slightly later, there are also octopus-shaped pottery and gold ornaments.

A vase with an octopus pattern unearthed on the Greek island of Crete was made by the Minoans about 3,500 years ago (Source: Heraklion Archaeological Museum)

Unfortunately, there are almost no prehistoric clues related to octopuses in China so far. As for the era of written records, compared with the "Bingwu divination, the use of turtles" in the Shang Dynasty oracle inscriptions and the "February tuna sacrifice" in the "Xia Xiaozheng" of the Spring and Autumn Period, the appearance of octopuses in literature can be said to be "several Gs" later.

The oracle character for "turtle" (Source: wiki)

It was not until the Three Kingdoms period that Shen Ying, the prefect of Danyang in the Eastern Wu Dynasty, wrote in "Records of Strange Things in the Water and Soil of Linhai", that it was recorded that "it is like a fat squid and tastes sweet." The dictionary's explanation of the word "octopus" is vague, and the mainstream interpretation of this word in all dynasties is octopus. Although the description of the appearance characteristics of "like a fat squid" cannot completely determine that it is an octopus, this document can be regarded as the earliest record related to octopus.

Octopus Alien Battle?

Don't think Han Yu is just a great writer. Han Yu can be said to have made an indelible contribution to the origin of the relatively clear name of "octopus"! In his poem "Zhang Ju Ma Jia Zhu", some people in later generations interpreted it as "aquatic product with eight legs and very white flesh on the body, which can also be called octopus". It seems that at least in the Tang Dynasty, we have observed more about octopuses and tried to give them a fixed name. But the people of the Tang Dynasty seemed to have a great interest in octopuses. Liu Xun, the Sima of Guangzhou in the late Tang Dynasty, recorded an animal called "Shi Ju" (or Ju) in his book "Ling Biao Lu Yi". It is very similar to Zhang Ju.

The external appearance of an octopus, with its suction cups arranged in a certain pattern (Source: Penghu University of Science and Technology)

In the Southern Song Dynasty, there appeared an "octopus scientist" (bushi) named Liang Jiake. In his book "Sanshanzhi", he summarized the three animals mentioned by predecessors, namely octopus, zhangju and shiju, and gave a brief explanation of them one by one:

1. Stone-rejecting frog: Also known as the Eight-belt Duck, it lives in stone caves in the water. When people try to catch it, it will stick its feet to the rocks to “resist capture.”

2. Octopus: It is very similar to the stone cicada, but smaller in size. The flesh on its feet is in the form of "circles" arranged in a very orderly manner, so it is called octopus.

3. Zhangju: It is very similar to an octopus, but its head is slightly bigger and its legs are shorter.

During this period, another word related to octopus appeared in the local chronicles of Zhejiang Province - Wangchao, which said that it was smaller than Zhangju, about one to two inches. Although it is not entirely certain which species of the modern octopus Wangchao belongs to (for example, Octopus brevis and Octopus jiageng have both been called Wangchao), the word Wangchao has been used for thousands of years and is still used in the southeast coastal areas.

Short octopus: A small short-clawed octopus that lives in shallow waters. It has two "golden ring patterns" on the folds between its tentacles, which are its iconic features (Source: wiki)

During the Ming and Qing dynasties, more octopuses were observed, and nicknames for octopuses sprang up like mushrooms after a rain, such as red octopus, mud monkey, leopard fish, red mother, etc., which even far exceeded the eight existing species in my country's waters, causing great confusion in biological identification. The main reasons are as follows:

1. Miscommunication or mispronunciation of names results in one thing having multiple names or multiple things having one name.

2. After an octopus leaves the water, it dies and its body gradually fades and turns white. The differences between various octopuses become extremely subtle, making it difficult for ordinary people to identify them.

3. In ancient times, it was difficult for people who had the ability to write books (scholars) to communicate with people who had extensive knowledge of marine life (fishermen), making it difficult to form a scientific and systematic biological identification record.

[Key points] There are 8 main types of octopus in China's waters, namely: Octopus ocellatus, O. ovulum, O. sbimaculatus, O. vulgaris, O. faciatus, O. svariabilis, O. fusiformis, O. tankahkeei

What did the ancients think octopus looked like?

The name of the octopus has been "magically changed" like this, so what did the ancients think of the octopus? As shown in the "Octopus External Form Diagram" above, the modern scientific classification of the external form of the octopus is: head, trunk, eyes, funnel, tentacles, suckers and mouthparts. However, due to the limited knowledge of biology, the ancients made a lot of jokes when describing the appearance of the octopus:

The image of octopus in "Illustrated Collection of Sea Creatures" (Source: "Illustrated Collection of Sea Creatures in the Qing Palace")

Joke A

Chen Qiqing of the Song Dynasty said: "The octopus has a large head and parallel feet, and its eyes are on the waist and thighs." Because the octopus's eyes are between the trunk and the tentacles, the ancients thought that the octopus's eyes were on the waist, but octopuses do not have waists.

Joke B:

Xu Baoguang of the Qing Dynasty said: "The head is round, with eight arms and no legs." This guy mistook the octopus's trunk for its head (maybe some of you do the same? Laugh and cry), and the tentacles for cute little hands.

Joke C

Li Diaoyuan of the Qing Dynasty said: "There are tiny eyes like pinholes where the eight legs gather, which are the buttocks behind. The mouth is near the buttocks, but fortunately there are feet between them as upper and lower ears." In short, he thought that the mouth and anus of the octopus were close together, and probably mistook the octopus's funnel for a mouth...

Let's consolidate the various parts of the octopus. Don't make a fool of yourself like the above people. Just treat this as homework, hahaha! (Image source: wiki)

Octopus behavior in the eyes of ancient people

Compared with its name and appearance, the behavioral characteristics of an octopus are easy to identify. It is unlikely that it has been "modified" to be so outrageous, right?

Hehe, remember this sneer~

According to "One Hundred and One Records of Haicang" by Guo Baicang of the Qing Dynasty, "When a fisherman goes into the water naked, his eight belts entangle his body, and his mouth covers his blood vessels..." The first two sentences are relatively reliable, saying that if a fisherman goes into the water naked and is sucked by an octopus, the more he struggles, the tighter the octopus will suck him.

The latter sentence says that octopuses suck human blood, which is obviously exaggerated. Maybe someone will immediately refute, no! I remember there are "blood-sucking octopuses" in the deep sea. You may be talking about "ghost octopus".

There are two issues to correct here.

1. Vampyroteuthis infernalis, also known as the vampire from hell, is actually not related to the squid. It belongs to the order Octopoda, which is the same order as the octopus. And its name "blood sucking" refers to its appearance like a vampire, not that it has the behavior of sucking blood.

The latest research shows that the ghost octopus uses its tentacles to pick up animal remains, feces and other debris in the ocean to eat (yue), and its role is similar to that of a deep-sea cleaner.

Ghost octopus appearance characteristics (Source: wiki)

2. The ghost octopus is a deep-sea species that lives in tropical and temperate oceans. Billions of years ago, in order to avoid being preyed upon by plesiosaurs, it came to live in deep waters of 500 to 1000 meters. At that time, humans did not have the ability to work in the deep sea, so even if there were blood-sucking creatures in the deep sea, humans would not be able to encounter them.

The "defensive weapons" on the tentacles of the ghost octopus (Source: wiki)

But there are some that are true!

As some documents record, octopuses have the ability to eat "shrimp and crabs", which is consistent with the eating habits of some octopuses today that eat crabs.

For example, there are also documents that record that when octopuses have nothing to eat in the winter, they will eat their own arms and legs until they are all eaten up and die. Then their eggs will be scattered on the mudflats. In the second year, baby octopuses will hatch from the eggs. This describes the life cycle of modern octopuses in a very accurate way.

We have known octopuses for two thousand years (certainly longer than that!!) since the earliest recorded history of the Three Kingdoms period.

Let us work together to better protect them in the days to come!

References:

Markaida, U & Gilly, WF "Cephalopods of Pacific Latin America", Fishery Research 173 (2016).

Dai De. Xia Xiaozheng Annotation[M]. New 1st edition. Beijing: Zhonghua Book Company, 1985

Ye Yusen. The Preface to the Yinxu Oracle: Eight Volumes[M]. Photocopy. Hefei: Anhui People's Publishing House, 2015

Shen Ying, Zhang Chonggen, Linhai Water and Soil Alien Records, edited and revised. Beijing: Agricultural Press, 1988.

Liao Yongyan, Gao Fengying, Zhang Jujie. Research and breeding of octopus produced in China[J]. Aquaculture, 2006(05)

Liu Xun. Records of Strange Things in Lingbiao[M]. Shanghai: Commercial Press, 1936

Yang Dejian, Chen Wanqing. Research on the history of marine animals in ancient China[J]. Journal of Ocean University of China: Natural Science Edition, 2000(z1)