As fine as needles and packed densely, too numerous to count. In the Song dynasty, grass carp made up a sign…
As fine as needles and packed densely, too numerous to count.
In the Song dynasty, grass carp made up a significant portion of freshwater fish farming. People dug ponds, constructed buildings beside them, and often cultivated economic crops like lotus root, gorgon fruit, and wild rice, creating an ideal environment for fish to thrive. They would then release fry as fine as needles into the ponds and raise them with great care. Some fry were too tiny to count accurately, so the ancients inserted bamboo markers and used portioning methods to gauge the density of fry in a container. This shows that measurement tools for counting fry already existed in the Song dynasty.