Flowering Jiao Niang
-A real legend about the Han Cheng Dahongpao pepper
Xiaoyang this place, bordering the mountains and plains, the four seasons are clear, warm in winter and cool in summer. For thousands of years, people here to farming and herding for a living, villages and households, although the dogs and chickens heard and old and dead, generations of peace and tranquility.
Legend has it that a long, long time ago, in a remote small mountain village of dilapidated small kiln cave inhabited by a father and daughter. Dad is not cultured, the bucket of words do not know half a liter, his partner died early, his daughter has grown to fifteen or sixteen years old has not had a formal name, the village people tube masters and children called the father, A Auntie. Father and daughter two people work at sunrise, sunset, dependent on each other, living a quiet and hard life. Autumn and spring, the years change, Aunt grew up day by day, out of becoming generous, Chu Chu touching. Clothes and dress, trim and short appropriate, elegant and appropriate, appearance can be shy flowers and closed moon, no need to powder. Slender and graceful, skillful manner, coy smile to make the peach-colored flowers more like red color; nicknamed style, rich skin enough to make people fall; that silver bell-like sweet voice will make you intoxicated; its walk, cloud bun slightly moving, light steps, like a butterfly in the fog, the pool head of the green lotus; running clouds and water, floating like a fairy; her cherry mouth, open and close the degree of, if a sweet smile, the phoenix eyes, willow eyebrows, bright eyes, nose slightly moving, white teeth slightly exposed. If she smiles sweetly, her phoenix eyes, willow eyebrows, bright eyes, nose, and teeth are slightly exposed, you will definitely forget what she said. Auntie also has a handful of wonderful cooking skills: steaming, boiling, boiling and stir-frying, the fire and seasoning are all refined and skillful, hot and cold, meat and vegetable, color, flavor and shape are all wonderful. All friends and neighbors would smell the aroma and know the taste and wonder. This is where the mystery of Auntie's fame lies. Not only that, her pair of white, delicate hands textile tailoring all know, if the sleeve collar, lapel embroidered on a bunch or a few eye-catching flowers or seductive vanilla is the icing on the cake. When you occasionally look from behind, will have a sense of God to the immortal, when you face her, I think I must have felt that Jianglang talent, self-shame and self-abasement. Nowadays, I do not know how many people will be silent and ask themselves: in the end, who is the butterfly dance?
Women should be married, the world of common sense. The strong men of the eight villages of the eye, salivating, are bent on love, hope, yearning, envy, bet on the Auntie. So the matchmaker, the moon old man non-stop hoof, day and night running around, back and forth endlessly, the door is like a market. In recent times, the father of the near welcome far away, to meet, so busy, I do not know whether it is happy or sad. Why doesn't he want his daughter to have a peaceful and happy home? Auntie was brought up by her father, and she had no faults in the world of human affairs; she was skillful in her speech and behavior; she had the right number of movements and weights; and she was polite and courteous in her treatment of others. Although the proposer is full of heart, beautiful words, or bitterly begging, or tired of persuasion, but more than rejected. This can not help but call people doubly embarrassed. Aunt not very old, but the sentiment is still very human comparison, she is not high-minded, but in the face of the world's bad habits, at a loss. Mentioned the east family business thick family rich, she scorned its "black"; said that the west door of the powerful, she despised the "dangerous"; come to talk about a hundred workers pharmacist, she said its "stingy"; and said the skilled craftsmen, she returned to the "heart". She said, "The heart is short."...... Aunt ah, Aunt, heaven and earth boundless, Qiankun rotation, life geometry, years is short, you, you ......, do not have you can choose. So one by one is sent often two by two again to. The first thing you need to do is to get your hands on a new one, and you'll be able to do that.
The words also have to start from Auntie six years old that year.
The previous winter, there was not a single drop of snow or rain, and since the beginning of spring, there has been more than one dry wind, so the fall planting was not possible, and the summer harvest was hopeless, and the harvest was not enough, and the disaster was imminent. Poor people can't get enough to eat, the difficulty of the year of famine, the days of suffering. The rich family, the son of a gentleman, butler free, overbearing, flaunted. At this time, the warmth and coldness of the human condition is suddenly apparent. For most of the people, it is important to fill their stomachs, so there are those who help each other, those who borrow and lend, and those who beg along the door with their children and grandchildren. Aunt often tugged at the lapel of the father to see this in the eyes of the heart, but only can not understand the question brought up, the father always just said, you will understand when you grow up. This is the old saying.
The sky is the limit. Just as the daughter wedding tightly, the East knocking when, the year of famine once again came. The first time I saw this, I was in the middle of a long, hardworking, kind, generous and straight, all my life, although the days are like years, suffered a lot of difficulties, but also not at any time to anyone to flatter, lowly. In years of famine, he still does not pray, do not beg, all day long carrying a prostrate head, sickle down to the back of the ditch, picking mulberry bark, digging roots, planing wild taro ...... as a hunger. He always did not want to see his daughter starving. The daughter knows that the father early morning and late at night, suffering and tired, save every mouthful of food and drink are for their own not miserable. Looking at her father's exhausted body and haggard, swollen face, her heart was like a needle stabbing a knife. Tears flowed to the corners of her mouth like fallen rainwater and were swallowed back into her belly; she did not want to add to her illness by letting her father see her sorrow. Sometimes, the beautiful woman's grief, often because of it and more beautiful, pity will become a common human feeling. Father also knows that his daughter's delicate face and temperament are by no means spoiled. She grew up in the hardship, in a few tortures in the adult, she has more than ordinary intelligence and precocious natural beauty. Dad's simple, honest, hard-working, simple character all the time in his dearest daughter, more can not help but make his pearl y inculcated and infected. He has known no ability to dictate the fate of his daughter. He finally could not support, he really did not want to leave this poor daughter without support, but what could he do? A few days, he was bedridden, soup and water do not enter, he had a premonition that he was about to leave this suffering world, but also want to some words have not yet said to the daughter, some things still have to focus on the daughter to do. So that the daughter know, not to leave a complaint.
For several days, he did not eat or drink, but also sleepless days and nights. This night, the disease tormented and threatened him like a monster. He tossed and turned, thinking a lot, when after midnight still did not close his eyes. So, light up the oil lamp, get up off the bed, from a dark corner held out a black shiny porcelain jar. A burst of bitter thought, strong spirit, by the way to wake up his daughter, said, "A Auntie ah, you have grown up, there are some things father should also explain to you." He coughed dryly a few times, breathing seems short and nervous, the daughter was busy hammering her father's back, and then hit the pot to boil water, wanting to give her father a bowl of boiling water. Seeing his daughter busy up and down, Father said in a weak voice, "Filial daughter, there is no need, listen to Father finish his sentence." He was laboriously continuing what he had just said. Word by word, it triggered a bitter and sorrowful past.
"When you were two years old, your mother left us. She looked beautiful, everyone called her black pearl, strong nature, skillful and observant, clean. When she was working for others, she could not stand the bullying of the proprietor and always reasoned with him. The last time, the proprietor was not convinced, and deducted half a year's wages, which drove her crazy. After that, for a long time, she cried and laughed erratically and was incoherent. In serious cases, she would not come in and out of the house, or even stay out day and night. I entrusted you to look around for your mother all day long. I don't know how long it took, but one day, she seemed to be getting better, and cooked a dinner that smelled so good, I never knew she was that good. After dinner, she changed her clothes, freshened up a little, and said, 'I'm going out for a while.' You don't know, at that time, our masters how happy, I hold you, sitting in front of the house, waiting for a long time, you are still singing 'this mountain is low, that mountain is high, my father is poor again not stooped ......' mountain song. Suddenly, not far away from the people quarrel dog bite, I got suspicious, put down you, went to inquire, only to know that your mother went to the east family debt collection, just knocked a few times on the door was later that crippled man released their family's wolfhound, chasing after her bite, biting her all over the ground, all over the body. I assisted her to go home, she was cursing all the way: 'Dogs are more poisonous than wolves, and people are more evil ...... than dogs.' After returning home, I washed your mom's wounds, bandaged busy half a day. I clearly remember, you repeatedly shed tears urged that 'mom, tomorrow go out to prevent the dog bite, remember to take a stick Oh ......' and said, 'when I grow up, kill it, there will be no dog to bite you again. ' It was a sleepless night, and your mom always recited over and over again in her dreams that dogs are more poisonous than wolves, and that people are more evil than dogs." Speaking of this, Ah Dad probably remembered an even more heart-wrenching scene from that year, he was sad and angry, he was a little out of breath. Although Auntie was filled with grief and indignation, she still suppressed the fire in her heart and advised Father, "Let's not talk about that unforgivable past." Dad waved his hand, signaling Auntie to listen carefully, as if there were more painful things to come. He went on to say, "The next night, in the middle of the night, your mother went out again, I thought she would not go to the East House, but not more than half an hour later, what do you think? She didn't know where to get so much firewood, put it in front of the door of the east house, under the eaves of the house to light it. At once, the landlord's house was on fire, the house collapsed, a mess. That cripple, he used a shovel to kill your mom! God's retribution, when he had just turned around and hadn't taken two steps, a piece of wood collapsed and broke one of his legs. The next day, the east family also moved to a relative's house far away. They still kept thinking about it, forcing you to marry the cripple to cover the debt, while they beat the man to death, and in time, things just went away." By this point, Father was tired, breathing nervously and panting, like he had something more important to say.
So he patted the black jar in his arms and struggled to say, "This jar is your mom's from the landlord's house, there are some black pearls like seeds inside, the taste is very numb, strange fragrance. She didn't want to tell anyone. I sowed these seeds in the back of the mountain along the open space where people don't go, and a few years later, it bloomed and seeded, and the flavor, the hemp fragrance is abnormal, and the strange taste can be scooped up. Later, I realized, your mother made that meal with strong fragrance, is put that treasure. Since then, people for this several times to find the door, finally your mom set fire to that matter made a big, landlord house down people go, no matter. Every year, I collect some seeds and put them in this jar, so that when the world is peaceful and the people's hearts are warmed up, I will spread them to everyone. It's good stuff! It sees the wind on the long, love the sun, drought-resistant, April bloom, May bear fruit, June results, flowers red like fire, delicate, fragrance dye for miles. At that time, people used to say: this flower is only allowed to the rich family, the poor where a few times heard." Said here, he long breath, must be what to say is almost finished, he dry cough for a while, do not let the aunt to stop. He violently changed the topic: "father no tomorrow, you have grown up, father of want to say a word to you, ask you to do a thing: you remember, people live a life, no matter rich or poor, when from the good; this pot of seeds in our poor people's mountains, let it take root and germinate results, a hundred years ...... "These were the last two words spoken by Father. With that, the old man slowly closed his eyes. No matter how much his daughter cried out, he left this world forever with a bitter smile.
At this moment, it was nearly dawn. Auntie's cries alarmed her neighbors, and everyone helped her take care of her father's funeral. The next day, A-Gu then dressed in a white veil, wearing a bouquet of white flowers, holding that black shiny black jar filled with black pearl seeds, in accordance with her father's will, starting from A-Da's grave, stepping towards the rising sun, facing the mountain winds, and walking all over the place, every corner of the hill. She spread ah, spread ...... she does not know labor, do not know hunger and thirst, seems to also do not distinguish between day and night, has been spreading. Ten miles eight villages, from time to time someone saw a demon like non-demon, like fairy non-fairy, come and go without a trace of people, a moment on this hill, and then suddenly went to the hillside, the field, the ground everywhere left her footprints. There are good people, want to see in the end, however, whenever people will approach, but in front of the trace of no trace, as if the ash flew away. In the distance, a mournful song will come from the shadows: "This mountain is low, that mountain is high, the father will not bend down to death ......"
This day, she has exhausted her heart, and it is difficult to move. She finally collapsed within a puddle of mountain flowers, her jar shattered, and in her hand she squeezed a seed that hadn't been sown. She was no longer breathing, and tears of sadness welled up in the corners of her eyes. There was a surprisingly fragrant odor about her, which intrigued the crowd, and the townspeople were perplexed as to the fate of this beautiful and voluptuous girl who had been on the trail for several days. Then some kind person wrapped her whole body in a red quilt and buried her body on the spot. A few years later, she sowed the seeds, self-generated and self-grown, into a forest, every year, the white dew will come, the flowers red like fire, fragrant for miles. In the girl's grave, there is a huge tree, deep-rooted, flourishing like fire. The fragrance is intoxicating but the thorns are all over the body. So a person in the know will recite a limerick, said: fragrance of a flower, enchanting hard to get close to the body. The pearl Da Hong Pao, all the grains are good heart.
After that, there is a teacher for the inscription of the monument, checking the classics, tracing the origin, it was written to remember "pepper girl's tomb. Later, he explained: Jiao, describing the person delicate and difficult to climb, enchanting extraordinary; pepper, thorns difficult to approach, fragrant hemp tantalizing. Tone agreed to close, so it is. After that, no one corrected, ask for help.
This is a true story, hours in my home under the old locust tree to hear the old people often talk about, I do not know how many times I have heard of that monument is still in the 60's, there are people who have seen, is in the cowshed on the bottom of the food trough. I have not been there for many years, I do not know if I can still find it?