Why is going to the bathroom called relieving oneself?

The origin of the word "relieving oneself" is often said to be that immigrants are bound on the road, and they will inevitably urinate on the long journey. When they are in a hurry, they will ask to escort your official and untie their bound hands.

It is said that when Mr. Gu Jiegang was chatting with friends in Chongqing in the 194s, he explained it this way: it was said that drowning was "relieving the hand", but its meaning was not clear at first.

When I went to Sichuan and talked with people, I realized that in the late Ming Dynasty, only 11% of Sichuanese were not slaughtered by Zhang Xianzhong, and the fertile land was completely turned into grass. Therefore, in the early Qing dynasty, the government forced immigrants, first filling Sichuan with Huguang people, and then filling Huguang with Jiangxi people. When you immigrate, you should take it by the hand, if you can pull it today.

The displaced person is in a hurry, so please say "Thank you!" Hence, it comes down to the same generation as relieving oneself and urinating, and it is spread to foreign countries, which is not worthy of its meaning. When Jewish students take the exam, they must get a go to the lavatory card when they use the toilet, so they also call it "go to the lavatory". The origin of "Jieshou" did not come from Huguang filling Sichuan, but the word "Jieshou" was also popular among the immigrants of Sophora japonica in Hongdong, Shanxi.

In fact, the word "Jieshou" appeared as early as the Yuan Dynasty. Such as "Jing Ben Popular Novel"; "Wrong Chop Cui Ning" said: "After some cold and warm talk, Wei Sheng got up and went to relieve himself." It can be seen that the origin of "Jieshou" has nothing to do with immigrants from all over the Ming and Qing Dynasties.

Extended information:

Related legends

For hundreds of years, many families have passed down from generation to generation that their ancestors were from Dahuaishu, Hongdong, Shanxi. Because the symbol of immigrants in Hongdong county is the compound toenail (commonly known as double nails), there are people with compound toenail in many areas so far, so they call themselves Hongdong people.

The migration of Hongdong occurred during the Hongwu and Yongle periods of the Ming Dynasty. At the end of the Yuan Dynasty, due to more than ten years of war, natural disasters and epidemics, people in northern areas, especially in Hebei, Henan and Shandong, died one after another, leaving ten rooms and nine empty rooms.

However, the mutiny and various disasters and epidemics rarely spread to Shanxi. Compared with neighboring provinces, Shanxi enjoys social stability, economic prosperity and prosperous population. After the founding of the Ming Dynasty, in order to restore and develop agricultural production, the policy of emigrating to the fields was adopted, and Shanxi farmers with narrow land and dense population were moved to Hebei, Henan, Shandong and other places with vast land and sparse population.

Baidu Encyclopedia-Jieshou