1. Selected Folk Legends
In the time of the Yellow Emperor, there was a man named Ning Feng whose family lived in a tribe along a river. His mother was a potter, and when he was three years old, he followed her to the kiln. He loved to make all kinds of pots and pans just like his mother. His mother saw that he was smart and eager to learn, so she taught him the art of making all kinds of pottery blanks. Year after year, the stars changed. Ning Feng grew up, the tribe sent him to specialize in pottery.
Ning Feng was infected by his mother, very responsible for the work, he concentrated on pinch ah burn ah, but the burned pottery always feel dissatisfied, either rough and clumsy, or the shape is not right. Ning Fengzi said he was sorry for the people of the tribe, every day in addition to the kiln work, they hide in their own mud house, do not contact with outsiders, even his wife and he talked to him, he also ignored.
He just stayed in the house so sullenly, and every day his wife put the tribal distribution of meals, with a pottery bowl for him to bring back to eat. Ning Feng ate, thought, and ate. Wife to see him focus on pottery, tired people are thin and black, after eating, told him to lie down on the straw mat to rest a while. Strange to say, in the past, Ning Feng simply can not sleep, today, a body down, and snore into the dreamland.
He dreamed that his feet stepped on the colorful clouds, went to 10,000 countries, people everywhere to give him a lot of pottery, those pottery can be very nice, chic style, there are pointed bottom, there are round, there are square, there are also with a lid, and painted colorful patterns and a variety of patterns, simply dazzling, as if to the heavenly palace.
Ning Feng happily laughed, laughed out loud, but also woke up laughing. He quickly told his wife about his dream. His wife also said excitedly, "Good, you might as well go around outside and see more pottery from other tribes, maybe you can make it."
Zifeng was thinking of doing just that, and hearing his wife's words, he hurriedly packed his bag. The chief of the tribe knew of Ning Feng's intention and gave him a horse, which Ning Feng rode and set off. Ning Feng was gone for two years. The wife was looking forward to it, but she finally got him back.
He pulled back a carload of pottery, all day in the pile of pottery, see ah compare ah, tracing ah draw ah, and take the sand clay disk a disk, pinch a pinch, no head and no tail.
This day, before dawn, he woke up his wife, the two came to the kiln and sand clay in the dark. Once the mud and good, Ning Feng sat on a straw mat on the disk billet. He will disk a pinch, his wife brought rice did not eat. The sun is directly overhead, he is still dry. His wife gave him a bamboo hedge, and scrutinized a pile of billets he pinched, and said happily, "Good! Really good ah!"
Ning Feng teasingly said: "Than I dreamed of is also good-looking miles!"
One by one, the billet is made, put under the hayloft to dry. When it is almost dry, his wife stirred the wheel, and Ning Feng took the billet to grind on the wheel. After polishing, Ning Feng and his wife used ochre to draw patterns on the blanks. They no longer repeat the simple shapes and straight lines of the past.
Ning Feng's wife is particularly dexterous, the sky flew over a bird, chirping a call, she drew a few strokes of a flying bird; the ground ran over a deer, did not run out of her hands, she let it stand still on the wall of the pot. She remembered the nets in which the men had fished and the carp they had retrieved, and drew them on the clay pots as well.
Almost to the harvest season, imagining the harvest after all the fall of the people in the square celebratory scene, she painted a circle of hand-in-hand dance on the pottery bowl, there are men and women, lively and enthusiastic, and even Ning Feng praised her good painting.
Later, they drew a set of deformed patterns, as if they were not quite alike, but very evocative, but also have a sense of life.
They also pinched the nails on the pot with prismatic arrangement of nail patterns, take the rope printed rows of diagonal patterns, and sometimes also made a few circles of the pile pattern, snake pattern for the pot. The most interesting is the handle of the lid, they pinched the lid into a variety of animal images, bird head pierced with cone pattern, the beast mischievous standing, and open mouth call the human head.
Day after day of hard work, a few years of hard work, Ning Feng finally made a very beautiful pottery. These beautiful and practical pottery, not only the people of this tribe love, exchange to the outer tribes, also very popular.
The tribal leaders presented the jars made by Ning Feng to the Yellow Emperor. Seeing such a round and delicate pot, the Yellow Emperor carefully admired the colorful patterns on it and said, "Good, good! There is such a talent in heaven!"
Huangdi immediately sent someone to invite Ning Feng to the palace, inquired in detail about the production of pots, and then appointed Ning Feng as the Tao Zheng, specializing in the management of the country's pottery work.
From then on, pottery has been contributing to the earth.
2. Selected Folk Legends
Legend has it that Cangjie was an official under the Yellow Emperor. The Yellow Emperor assigned him to specialize in managing the number of livestock in the pen and the amount of food in the canton. Cangjie was a smart man who did his best and made few mistakes. However, as the number of animals and the amount of food in storage changed, Cangjie could not remember them with his head alone. Cangjie was in a dilemma. The Cangjie is in trouble.
Cangjie thought of a lot of ways, first of all, in the knot on the rope, with a variety of different colors of the rope, said a variety of different livestock, food, the number of knots on behalf of the rope. But increase the number of knots on the rope is very convenient, and reduce the number of times, in the rope to untie a knot on the trouble. So Cangjie made circles on the rope and hung various kinds of shells in the circles to represent the things he controlled. When there was an increase, a shell was added, and when there was a decrease, a shell was removed.
Seeing Cangjie's ability, Huangdi gave Cangjie the responsibility for the number of sacrifices each year, the distribution of each hunt, and the increase or decrease in the number of tribal people. The first time I saw him, he was in the middle of a long journey, and he was in the middle of a long journey. The Cangjie is worried again.
This day, he participated in the collective hunting, found that people look at the underground beasts of the footprints can be identified in front of what animals. Cangjie's heart was suddenly happy: since a footprint represents a kind of beast, why can't I use a symbol to represent what I am in charge of? He happily ran home and began to create various symbols to represent things. Sure enough, he managed things to the best of his ability.
When Huangdi found out about this, he praised him greatly and ordered Cangjie to go to all the tribes to teach this method. Gradually, the usage of these symbols spread. In this way, writing began to take shape.
When Cangjie made the characters, the Yellow Emperor highly valued him, and everyone praised him, and he became more and more famous. Cangjie became a bit proud and arrogant, and looked down on everyone, and made words sloppily.
When Huangdi realized this, he was very angry, so he summoned the oldest man around to discuss the matter. This old man was already more than one hundred and twenty years old. The old man pondered for a while and went to Cangjie alone.
The old man said to Cangjie, "Cangjie, the characters you created are already a household name, but I am old and blind, and there are a few characters that are still confusing, are you willing to teach me again?"
Cangjie was very happy to see such an old man respecting him so much, and urged him to speak quickly.
The old man said, "The characters you made for 'horse', 'donkey', and 'mule' all have four legs, right? And the ox also has four legs, how come the word 'ox' you made doesn't have four legs and only has a tail?"
When the old man heard this, he panicked: he had taught the words "ox" and "fish" the opposite way.
The old man went on to say, "You made the word 'heavy' to mean that it is a thousand miles away, so you should read the word 'out' as in 'go out', but you taught it to be read as the word 'heavy' as in 'weight'. ' character. On the other hand, the word 'out' for two mountains together should be the word 'heavy' for weight, but you taught it as the word 'out' for going far away. These words are really hard for me to figure out, so I had to come and ask you for advice."
At this point, Cangjie was so ashamed that he knew he had made a big mistake because of his pride. He quickly apologized and wept bitterly to express his repentance.
The old man took Cangjie's hand and said sincerely, "Cangjie, you created the character, so that the experience of our old generation can be recorded and passed on, you have done a great thing, and people will remember you for generations to come. You can't be proud and arrogant!"
From then on, every time Cangjie made a word, he always repeated the meaning of the word over and over again, and also took it to the people to ask for their opinions, and only when everyone said it was good did he finalize it, and then gradually passed it on to every tribe.
3. Selected Folk Legends
Guilin landscape A world, people who have been to Guilin, know that the hole is big to count the Seven Star Rock, the mountain is high to count the old man mountain. This mountain, sitting north to south, facing the size of the mountains in Guilin, like a dignified old man.
According to legend, Emperor Qin Shi Huang had enlisted a large number of people to build the Great Wall of China, and the people who were enlisted could suffer. Supervisors like a ghost with a whip, followed closely behind the people, day and night to urge the pick stone ah, lift the stone ah, the people tired of the back of the arch, sweat flow. A lot of people are tired to death, call the sky blessing ah, the sky does not promise; shouting ground rescue ah, the ground does not show spirit.
One day, the East China Sea Dragon King of the three main to the South China Sea to visit the fairy, want to take the dry road, take the opportunity to see the mortal world on earth. She got up early in the morning to pay her respects to the Dragon King, jumped out of the Dragon Palace, driving an auspicious cloud, took off high in the sky, floating and swimming. She stood in the clouds to look down to the world, only to see the black pressure into thousands of people, withered only a handful of bones, bare arms, desperate to carry stones under the Great Wall. So, she was up sympathy and compassion, secretly resolved to think of ways to help the people to lift the suffering.
The Third Princess waved a colorful ribbon, urging the tight flying clouds floating to the South China Sea, pressed the clouds, into the Putuo Rock, to meet the fairy, opened the mouth of the report: "Fairy ah, you do a good deed, save the poor people building the Great Wall of the folk strike!" Hearing this, the fairy raised her willow eyebrows and replied, "Kind Third Princess, Qin Shi Huang built the Great Wall to ward off foreign enemies; if you want to help the poor people to alleviate their pain, I can give you a willow branch to drive the rocky mountains in the South China Sea to build the wall!" The Third Princess was very glad to hear this, and taking the willow branch, she turned and went out. Suddenly, I heard the fairy say, "Third Princess, I will help you to drive the mountains to build the wall, you have to follow me two things: first, do not want to play along the way; second, don't talk to mortals along the way."
The three princesses quickly agreed, to the South China Sea, the willow branch to the sea water gently flung. Just see the sea water tumbling, a stone mountain jumped out of the water one after another, some become tigers, leopards, some become camels, some become elephants, some become a brocade chicken ...... Three Princess look at these stones into the birds and beasts, joyful brow smiling. She waved the willow branch to the east to stop to the west to block, drive them slowly toward the north.
The third princess remembered the fairy words, driving the group of birds and beasts, walked through the vast ocean, and walked through the thousands of mountains and valleys, for three days and three nights did not dare to stop. By this time she was already tired and sweaty, walking, suddenly arrived at a very beautiful place. Here a river water turquoise like jade, the banks of flowers of all colors. The third princess thought, there is such a good place on earth, why don't I go to the river to wash my face, wipe the sweat before rushing. The tigers, leopards, camels, elephants, cranes and pheasants were running faster and faster. The Third Princess was in a hurry when she saw an old man wearing a hood and a big robe coming out from his house. The Third Princess said happily, "Old man, I have been rushing for three days and three nights, and would like to wash my face in this river; will you please look after this group of tigers, leopards, camels, elephants, cranes, and mallard chickens for me?" The old man wiped his eyes with his hand, took a closer look, and replied, "What are these tigers, leopards, camels, elephants, cranes, and pheasants, they are obviously some big green stones!" The old man said, these birds and beasts all of a sudden into the stone mountain, never go.
At this time, the three princess panicked, hastily pulled up the willow branch and pumping and beating, straight tired sweat drops, stone mountain or not shake. The third princess sighed and said, "I forgot the words of the fairy, and delayed the rescue of the great event." Then she bowed y to the old man and said, "Please take care of these rocky mountains for me, I will go to the South Sea to apologize." Where did the Third Princess expect that the Old Eunuch would all of a sudden turn into a stone mountain as well?
This stone mountain, is the old man mountain. On the four sides of the old man mountain, surrounded by many large and small stone mountain, some like a tiger, some like a leopard, some like a camel, elephant, some like cranes, brocade chicken. The old man is still entrusted by the Three Princesses to watch over them carefully.
4. Selected Folk Legends
Once upon a time, there lived a young man named Zhou Cheng in Liuhewan, who had lost both his parents when he was young and was very lonely. When Zhou Cheng was eighteen years old, a kind neighbor gave him a daughter-in-law, Pu. After their marriage, the two were very much in love. Zhou Cheng to work in the field, Pu's home spinning, weaving, housekeeping, a happy life.
This year, just after the busy wheat harvest. Zhou Cheng suddenly got sick, sore throat, nose and mouth fire, eating is also inevitable to the neck crooked a few crooked, and many people in the village have the same disease, people everywhere to seek medical treatment, the result is that the medicine is ineffective, the God does not work. Pu's heart sad, all day open mouth tears, one night, she dreamed she came to a high mountain, called the flower mountain. The mountain is full of colorful flowers and a strong fragrance. She went to the top of the mountain, see a flower plant was born chic and delightful. It spread a cluster of green leaves on both sides like jagged, greenish-purple stems with small golden flowers. Someone told her that this kind of grass is called Gongying. It can be used as medicine and has the effect of clearing heat and removing toxins, dispersing pain and swelling. Pu couldn't help but smile happily when she heard this. Pu woke up with a smile, which turned out to be a dream she had.
Early the next morning, she told her husband about the dream and planned to go to Huar Mountain to collect medicine. Zhou Cheng heard this and said, "Hua'er Mountain, southeast days, feet raw blisters, shoes worn through, dripping through ninety-nine rivers, around ninety-nine bays. It's a long way, you can't go there." Pu said, "As long as I can find this kind of herb, not to mention crossing the river and going around the bends, even if I have to walk up a thousand mountains and tens of thousands of rivers, I am willing to do it." She packed up her traveling clothes and resolutely left her husband and the townspeople.
Pu walked day after day, hungry mouth gnawing dry bread, thirsty river drinking spring, tired of the grass cover manna. Finally, she crossed ninety-nine rivers and circled ninety-nine bays. One day, she came to the bottom of a mountain, and saw a hut in which an old woman was spinning yarn.
She hurried into the hut and asked the old woman for directions. The old lady said, "You walk up a hundred paces further to the east, count ninety-nine trees on the left and ninety-nine trees on the right, and walk forward against the one in the center, and there will be a way up the mountain." Pu followed the old man's instructions and came to the end of the hundred paces, really counting ninety-nine to the left and ninety-nine to the right, and walking faithfully toward the mountain along the tree in the center. After a short while, there appeared before her eyes an avenue leading straight to the top of the hill. She came to the top of the hill, only to see the shade of green trees, located in a house, there is an old man is sitting in front of the door to concentrate on reading books, the old man cran hair, healthy spirit. Pu went up and saluted, explaining his intention and begging the old man to give him guidance.
The old man looked at Pu carefully and said, "This herb is called Gongying, and it takes three thousand years to grow before it can be used as medicine. It's not easy for you to go through all this trouble, so go back."
Pu looked at the old man in disbelief and said, "Do you have to wait 3,000 years to cure a serious illness?"
The old man listened to Pu's words, nodded and said, "Yes, if we do not wait for three thousand years, the patient took this herb, the medicine picker will die immediately."
Pu earnestly said, "I am willing to die as long as the group is cured."
The old man listened, pondered for a while, nodded and said, "Since you have this sincere heart, okay." With that, he took out a golden flower from the house and handed it to Pu, saying, "As long as you wear this golden flower, you will be spared a death. Go and seek to go as you have seen in your dream."
Pu thanked the old man and, with the golden flower on her head, went straight to the top of the mountain. She reached the top of the mountain, ho, the top of the mountain full of flowers everywhere, green leaves reflecting, colorful. With her memory, she finally found the immortal grass - Gongying. Her hands holding Gongying grass, looking toward their hometown, excited two lines of hot tears such as broken pearls, and no longer have the heart to stay on the mountain, hurriedly ran towards the mountain, the head of the golden flower, also lost in the running.
Pu returned home, boiled a pot of medicinal soup, big bowls of big bowls distributed to the folks. In only three days, the townspeople and Zhou Cheng's illnesses all got better. Pu's eyes closed with a smile as she watched everyone's condition improve. When the people heard the sad news of Pu's death, they were all saddened and shed tears. Soon after she was buried, many dandelions grew on her grave, which later became known as "dandelion".
5. Selected Folk Legends
That is to say, during the Qianlong era, Qianlong likes to eat radish, when the minister and Kun offered to the national collection of radish tribute, the officials in order to please Qianlong have to collect good radish. But coincidentally at this time in Sichuan around a major drought, the field crops failed to harvest, and the court's taxes are heavy as usual, the people of Sichuan, when the dynasty called Lawrence Liu in the eyes, anxious in the heart, a heart to ease the burden of the people. Lawrence Liu heard the Emperor to collect radish, so a plan on the mind.
Lawrence Liu came to Sichuan, called the local officials to give the emperor to collect radish will, the local officials Wan adults difficult to say: "Liu adults, we have a drought in the area of Sichuan, you are aware of, and now the crops are not harvested, which has a good radish on the tribute." Lawrence Liu saw his difficult face, beckoned him over, signaling him to come over, Lawrence Liu whispered a few words to him. Only then that Wan adults heard scared kneeling on the ground hastily said: "Liu adults, this is not good, in case of long-lived master blame down, the next official can not afford ah, then I am afraid of suffering or the people ah." Lawrence Liu smiled: "It's okay, something is also borne by me, and may also benefit the people of Sichuan Oh." Lord Wan seems to have a slight understanding.
The next day, Mr. Wan took a package of things to find Lawrence Liu, said to Lawrence: "This is what I picked last night, you see how." Said open the package, Lawrence Liu looked at, the radish is really small, all only finger size. Liu Yong chose a radish smaller than his little finger and smiled, "This is good, this is it." That Lord Wan still had misgivings, "Lord Liu, is this okay? If the emperor really blames it, my humble servant can't really afford it."
"Lord Wan, it's fine. Just rest assured that you will wait for news here." After saying this, Mr. Lawrence Liu whisked his sleeve and left.
That said, to the tribute this day, full of civil servants have taken out their own in all parts of the collection of radish, that can be really big and good. In this to count and Kun's tribute to the radish. Qianlong saw these radishes smiled and said, "and the love secretary, see your tribute of radishes, I think the day one must be peaceful, another harvest year."
"Right, right. With a wise ruler like His Majesty, who governs well, of course the world must be peaceful" He Kun patted his horse* and smiled. The ministers also said yes in a row.
At this time to Liu Yong tribute, see Liu Yong hand holding a red box, the appearance of extremely beautiful, tribute to Qianlong, Qianlong saw a good like, guess which must be a big carrot, so personally take over, open the box, which know that open the box inside there is another one of the same red box. Qianlong did not know what medicine Liu Yong hoist sold. Only continue to look down. After opening five boxes in a row, only to see that the box is only the size of the palm, Qianlong opened a look, only to see a radish smaller than the little finger. At once angry. "Liu Yong, this is your tribute radish." He Kun on the side also fell on the well to speak, "good you a Liu Yong, how dare you tease the emperor."
Liu Tang, a bitter face, said to the emperor helplessly: "This time I went to Sichuan to collect radish, the local drought, this is my local officials in the tribute of the radish in the radish selected one of the radish, the local people not only crops, but also have to face the heavy tax, the people are now eating grass roots, after eating grass roots to eat Guan Yin soil, this radish is my! It took me a thousand years of hard work to collect it." Qianlong heard, "Really, and love secretary, just you did not say that the world is peaceful? How to have such things, all the officials here, you say how to solve the drought in the Sichuan area."
The words, and Kun 'squeak, squeak' a few times, there are no words.
Lawrence Liu stepped forward to return to the pipeline: "Long live the master, it is imperative that we still have to reduce taxes, the court and then allocated disaster relief gold down, so that will certainly help them through the drought."
The civil and military officials also said yes. Once Qianlong heard, nodded: "Good, good. Pass on my decree, the area around Sichuan is exempt from taxes for three years. Allocate one million taels of grain silver. Help Sichuan through the disaster."
The next day, Sichuan shouted everywhere: "Tax-free for three years!" Liu Tang a radish in exchange for the people's welfare has also become a good story.