Why do northerners call going to the toilet “relieving yourself”?

Introduction to its origin

The term "relief" comes from the great immigrants from northern China during the Ming Dynasty. To this day, Jiangxi, Hunan, Hubei, Sichuan, Chongqing, Hebei, Henan, Shandong and other places generally still follow this saying when referring to going to the toilet. Since the Ming Dynasty government enforced immigration, in order to prevent the immigrants from escaping, the officers and soldiers tied them up and took them on the road. Binding two arms is called big binding, and tying one arm is called small binding. Not only that, to prevent them from escaping with their hands tied, the tied people were tied together with ropes before being escorted on the road. Many people are connected together, and they move and stop whenever they want. If one person wants to move, there are many things involved, and no one can escape. It is easy for the officers and soldiers escorting them, but it is painful for the bound immigrants. The most troublesome thing is defecation. In order to express the meaning clearly, the words are very long. For example, if a person wants to defecate or urinate, he must first report it and say: "Sir, please stop everyone and untie my hands. I want to urinate." The number of times the rope was tied was too many, and the officers and soldiers also found it troublesome, but this method could not be changed. In the end, it was simplified to just a few words: I want to relieve myself. The listener also understands. After settling down later, this expression became an idiom and became synonymous with urination and defecation.

However, up to now, there are still sayings of "releasing big hands" and "releasing small hands", which means defecation and urination. It is not clear where this comes from.

Folklore

For hundreds of years, many families have passed down from generation to generation that their ancestors were the ancient Sophora tree people from Hongdong, Shanxi. Because the symbol of immigration in Hongdong County is the double nail on the little toenail of the foot (commonly known as double nails), there are still people in many areas with the double nail on the foot, so they call themselves Hongdong people.

Hongdong immigration happened during the Hongwu and Yongle years of the Ming Dynasty. At the end of the Yuan Dynasty, due to more than ten years of war, coupled with natural disasters and epidemics of plague, people in the northern region, especially in Hebei, Henan, and Shandong, died one after another, and all their homes were empty. However, military chaos and various disasters rarely affected Shanxi. Compared with neighboring provinces, Shanxi has a stable society, a prosperous economy and a prosperous population. After the founding of the Ming Dynasty, in order to restore and develop agricultural production, the policy of immigration was adopted to move farmers from Shanxi, a small and densely populated area, to Hebei, Henan, Shandong and other places with a large area and sparsely populated areas.

The moon shines brightly in my hometown, and it’s hard to leave my homeland. Who doesn’t miss the hometown where he was born and raised? No matter how hard the government pressed, people remained motionless. The government had no choice but to put up advertisements everywhere, saying, "Those who do not want to move should quickly gather under the big locust tree in Hongdong and must arrive within three days. Those who want to move can wait at home." After people knew the news, they rushed there one after another. Go under the ancient locust tree. People from northern Shanxi came, and people from southern Shanxi and southeastern Shanxi also came. On the third day, hundreds of thousands of people gathered around the ancient locust tree. They were bustling with their families and silently praying to God for blessing. Suddenly, a large group of officers and soldiers rushed over and surrounded the unarmed people. Several military generals surrounded an official and came to the middle of the crowd and announced loudly: "The Emperor of Ming Dynasty has decreed that all those who come to the big locust tree will be moved away." This order was like a bolt from the blue. People were shocked, but they soon realized it. Come here: deceived. There was a continuous chorus of people shouting curses, calling for their children, and crying for their fathers and mothers. But all to no avail, officers and soldiers forced people to register and issue vouchers. To prevent escape, the officers and soldiers asked the evicted to take off their shoes and socks every time they were registered, and used a knife to mark the little toenail of their feet. From then on, the little toenails of descendants of immigrants became deformed.

After the officers and soldiers forced the people to register, they tied them up behind their backs to prevent them from escaping, and then connected them in a string with a long rope to escort the immigrants on their way. People turned around step by step, and the adults looked at the big locust tree and told the children, "This is our hometown." To this day, the descendants of immigrants regard the ancient locust tree as their hometown, no matter where they live. This is the reason. As the immigrants' arms were tied for a long time, their arms gradually became numb, and soon they got used to it. Later, most immigrants liked to walk with their hands behind their backs, and their descendants also followed this habit.

During the escort process, due to the long journey, people often needed to urinate on the road, so they had to report to the officers and soldiers: "Sir, please relieve yourself, I need to urinate." As time goes by, this kind of verbal request becomes simpler. As long as you say: "Master, relieve yourself", you will understand that you need to urinate. Since then, "relieving one's hands" has become synonymous with peeing.