Does Zhao Gao know a deer?

In recent years, there have been many reversals of the verdict. For example, some people say that Zhao Gao called a deer a horse because he had never seen a deer. After all, from today's perspective, horses are indeed common, but deer are often kept in zoos. If you don't go to the zoo or are not affected by the media, it is really not easy to recognize a deer.

This is interesting. So, were there really no deer in Zhao Gao's time? Let's talk about this today.

01. How can we be sure that Zhao Gao did not recognize the deer?

In fact, this question can also be asked in reverse: How can we be sure that Zhao Gao did not recognize the deer?

Should we find Zhao Gao, reconstruct him artificially, and then give him a lie detector test? But the problem is that the equipment also has problems and is not 100% accurate, so in the end we fall into agnosticism, and no one knows whether Zhao Gao recognizes the deer.

Similar problems will arise when it comes to many issues. At this time, we need to introduce a word called "common sense."

02. Deer are extremely common animals

Reality Research: China is the country with the most deer species in the world. There are 17 genera and 38 species of animals belonging to the Cervidae family in the world, of which 10 genera and 18 species have been or are still produced in China. So there is no doubt that there are deer in China. There are also records of deer in oracle bone inscriptions. There is basically no doubt that there were deer in the Qin State.

Place names: Many ancient place names are related to deer, such as Zhuolu, where Huangdi fought Chiyou.

Ancient monument: King Zhou of Shang built the famous Lutai

Literature: The Book of Songs·Xiaoya——"Deer Calling" The deer calls, eating apples in the wild. I have a guest, playing the harp and the flute. The Book of Songs·Zhaonan·There is a dead deer in the wild

The Book of Songs was written very early, at least most of it was laid down in the Western Zhou Dynasty. Unfortunately, at that time, the Qin State had not yet appeared.

Writing: Oracle

All of the above can be used to conclude that there were definitely deer in Zhao Gao's time.

03. About Zhao Gao

In addition, Zhao Gao was not a poor child who entered the palace at a young age and could not read a single word. How could Zhao Gao, a well-read man from the royal family of Zhao, not recognize a deer?

Zhao Gao himself was a great man. He was able to deceive Qin Shi Huang and Qin Ershi. His intelligence and ability showed that he was definitely not illiterate.

Xu Shen of the Eastern Han Dynasty wrote in the "Explanation of Chinese Characters" that "Zhao Gao wrote the "Yuanli Pian" and adopted the large seal script of Shi Zhuan, but made some changes to it."

The middle volume of Wang Qing's "Catalogue of Ancient and Modern Characters" in the Northern Wei Dynasty lists 59 calligraphers from the Qin, Han and Wu dynasties, among whom is Zhao Gao.

In the book "Collecting the Names of Calligraphers Since Ancient Times" by Yang Xin of the Southern Song Dynasty, it is said that Zhao Gao was "good at large seal script."

In the "Great Seal" in the first volume of "Book Judgment" by Zhang Huaiguan of the Tang Dynasty, it says: "Zhao Gao was good at seal script. He taught it to the Qin Shihuang's youngest son Hu Hai." He wrote "Yuanli Pian" with six chapters.

Therefore, from the perspective of common sense, Zhao Gao fully understood the deer.

04. Reverse inference: Did Zhao Gao know horses?

If you feel that the above content still cannot solve your doubts, then we can ask, in turn, does Zhao Gao know horses? If he knows horses, then when faced with an animal that is different from a horse, he can naturally infer that it is not a horse.

In fact, Zhao Gao accompanied the First Emperor on his tour of the country. When Qin Shihuang died, Zhao Gao was by his side and launched the Shaqiu coup together with Li Si. The First Emperor toured the country with a large number of troops and horses, so there is no doubt that he had seen horses, knew horses, or rode horses.

At worst, if you learn about the history of Qin State, you will know that Qin Fuzi, the ancestor of Qin State, was a horse herder for the Zhou Dynasty. Later, because of his meritorious service in defeating the Western Rong and leading troops to save Zhou, he was named a prince by King Ping of Zhou.

Therefore, the Qin people basically all knew about horses. Moreover, after Shang Yang's reforms turned Qin into a war machine, I cannot even convince myself if I say that the Qin people did not know about horses.