Stories and Legends about the Land

(I)

Anciently, there was a pair of white-haired and silver-bearded old couple who lived under the Taihang Mountain, and the nine curves of the Yellow River flowed through their door. The two old men opened up their home right next to the Yellow River, and lived a happy life. The old couple did good deeds all their lives, ate fasting and recited Buddha's name, and did good deeds.

Just this old man old heart charity, to the world a kind, and this old lady but for a little petty yo, this also achieved his old two mouth in the people of different reputation, this is the latter word gradually and not into, but said that the old two mouths have seen this old man and eighty, can not be a man and a half of the woman in front of them, is worried about no one to take the fire, and so this has been the old couple of children's heart disease.

One day, the old two children are eating, the door drifted to a white-robed showman, in front of the door to ask for water to drink. After drinking the water, the showman said to the old man planting vegetables: "see your vegetables planted well, and so good, I have nothing to thank you, just give you this gourd seeds to plant, remember, this gourd ripe don't go to pick, and later have your benefits".

When he finished speaking, he put down a shiny seed and disappeared. The old couple chose the fattest place and planted the seed. A few days later, a fat young sprout emerged. The old man kept watering and fertilizing, and watched it grow and blossom and bear fruit. After the fall, the garden is full of vegetables are finished, only the seed produced by the gourd is still hanging quietly in the ground, the gourd has grown to have even a millstone big.

One day, when it was almost dark, the old couple heard a crunching sound, and rushed to the melon field to see, only to see that the big gourd is rolling towards them, and stopped at the feet of the old couple, and then exploded into two halves with a bang!

The first time I saw the old man's face, I saw the old man's face, I saw the old man's face.

The old two children for a while to understand, know that this is the gods to give them, and hastily kneel on the ground to worship the heavens, before getting up to help the children, led into the house.

Time flies, and more than ten years have passed since then, and the gourd siblings have grown up. This fall, I do not know why the heavens pouring rain, one is seven seventy-nine days, in front of the door of the Yellow River rose up to the sky water, day by day higher than the eye will be flooded to the roof, the family was anxious to no way.

This time the water to the year that the gourd floated up, in the yard spinning, the old two children will be a pair of children pushed into the gourd, the gourd is like a boat on the water floating up, then a wave hit, the gourd loaded with siblings washed away, the old two but drowned in the water.

The two siblings floated on the gourd for ninety-nine and eighty-one days before they came to a stop at the foot of a mountain. They then built a hut on this mountain and lived there. This time the rain was also too heavy, and the only people left in the world were these two brothers and sisters, who cried sadly, and had to open up barren land on the mountain and plant grain.

As time went by, the two siblings were not too young, and it was time for the brother to get married, and for the sister to get married. But there is no one else under the sky except for the two of them, what to do? Think about it, there is no way, the brother said to his sister: "Sister, I think we got married it?" Sister heard, shook his head: "Where is the brother and sister into marriage it, no no no!"

"Then what else can be done, we can't call people extinct." My sister thought about it, and it was true, there was no other way, so she married her brother. But she always felt inappropriate,

Sister on the brother said: "We each hold a fan of mill, climbed to the top of the two sides of the mountain, rolled down together, if the mill can be together, we will be married." , the brother agreed. Brother and sister each hold a fan of mill up to the top of the mountain, roll down together, come down to see, the two mills also firmly set together.

Sister still feel bad, and said to his brother: "Try again, you take the line, I take the needle, standing on both sides of the mountain, together to throw the needle and thread, line if you can wear to the eye of the needle, I two will be married, wear not in, even if." The elder brother promised. The two siblings each took a needle and thread, went up to the top of the hill, threw the needle and thread together, and then ran down the hill to look at it, only to see the thread accurately through the eye of the needle to go.

The brother said, "Sister, it's done this time, isn't it?" The sister thought it was God's will, and then nothing more, and the brother and sister were married.

A year later, the sister gave birth to a big and ugly lump of meat. The two siblings took a look at the gas, the sister said: "Chop it into a hundred pieces, hanging in the woods to feed the game!" The brother did not say anything, lifted the knife and chopped that lump of meat into a hundred pieces, hanging in the woods to go.

I didn't think that after a night, the hundred pieces of meat heap actually turned into a hundred people, men and women have, brother and sister did not expect to have so many children at once, according to the tree hanging them up their respective names, such as hanging in the poplar tree surnamed Yang, hanging in the willow tree surnamed Liu, so that the whole one hundred, respectively, children passed down, it became a hundred surnames.

The two siblings were the mother of mankind, Nyonya Luoshen and Grandpa Luoshen, who became the ancestors of mankind.

The Yellow River couple was later recommended by the Goddess of Mercy to the Jade Emperor to be named "Yellow River Land", in charge of all the land under the sky, which is the mother of the human ancestors.

The Land Goddess, however, objected, believing that there should be rich and poor people in the world in order to divide the labor in order for people to have something to look forward to. The Land Lord said, "Isn't that, too poor for the poor?" Granny Land said, "If everyone becomes rich, who will help carry the sedan chair when our daughter gets married in the future?"

The Landgrave had nothing to say, and was thus dissuaded from the original idea of "everyone being happy," which led to the world's current disparity between the rich and the poor. The world later felt that the landlady was selfish and an "evil woman" and refused to worship her, but respected the landlady very much.

Since then, the land god has become the closest relationship with the people of God, although the god is small, but in charge of all things of the people, and by him to connect the heaven and earth. This is not even the great Sun Wukong encountered unknown things, but also often ask the land master it.

(2) The sea of change

Once upon a time, there were two immortals, one called Wang Yuan and the other called Magu. Once, they met at Caijing's house to drink wine. On the appointed day, Wang Yuan, surrounded by a group of drummers and attendants riding on a unicorn, sat on a cart pulled by five dragons and traveled to Caijing's house. But he was seen wearing a faraway hat, a colorful ribbon, and a tiger-shaped arrow pouch, making him look formidable.

After Wang Yuan and his party landed in the courtyard of Cai Jing's house, all those who surrounded him were hidden for a while. Then, Wang Yuan and the members of the Cai family greeted each other and then sat alone to wait for Ma Gu's arrival. Wang Yuan waited for a long time but did not see Magu arrive, so he beckoned into the air and instructed the messenger to go and invite her.

None of the Caijing family members knew which fairy in the sky Magu was, so they waited with eager anticipation. After a while, the messenger reported to Wang Yuan in the air, "Ma Gu has ordered me to greet you first, and she said that she has not seen you for more than 500 years. At this moment, she is being ordered to patrol Penglai Immortal Island, so she will come to meet with Mr. after a short while."

Wang Yuan nodded slightly and waited patiently. It wasn't long before Magu landed from the air. Her entourage was only half the size of Wang Yuan's. It was only then that the Caijing family saw that Magu looked like a pretty girl of eighteen or nineteen on earth. She wore her hair down to her waist, and her clothes were made of some kind of material, embroidered with beautiful flower patterns that shone brightly.

After Ma Gu and Wang Yuan had saluted each other, Wang Yuan ordered a banquet to be held. The utensils on the table were all made of gold and jade, precious and exquisite; the dishes served inside were mostly exotic flowers and fruits, fragrant. All these, too, had never been seen by the people of Cai Jing's family.

During the banquet, Magu said to Wang Yuan, "Since I have attained the Dao and accepted the Heavenly Mandate, I have seen the East Sea turn into a mulberry field three times with my own eyes. Just now when I went to Penglai, I saw again that the sea water was half as shallow as the previous period, is it going to turn into land again?" Wang Yuan sighed, "Yes, the sages have said that the waters of the sea are falling. Soon the dust will rise there again."

Subsequent generations used the idiom "滄田桑田" to describe the great changes in the world, also known as "桑田沧海", or simply "沧桑".

(C) Xiaogang Village

In 1978, some farmers in Xiaogang Village, Fengyang County, Anhui Province, in order to survive, with the determination of "to be an orphan", divided the land into households, which opened what was later known as the "responsibility system based on the household contract", the agricultural production and management mode. "

The first step in the reform of the agricultural production and management system was taken by a group of peasants who were determined to survive.

"Contracting", a self-generated system unique to China's social transformation process, has spanned the dissolution of the people's commune, the rebuilding of township power, the development of villagers' autonomy, and even extended from rural reform to state-owned enterprise reform, and its vitality is surprising. But so far, the rural land rights structure is still in a process of institutional change.

(4) Two Gods Fighting for Land

During the Jiajing period of the Ming Dynasty, the dike broke at the eight shallow points of the Grand Canal in Baoying, and the floodwaters washed out a large pool of water several miles in circumference, which was unpredictably deep. The people worked together to block the break, but the pool did not know when a white dragon, often making waves, the ships can only go around.

One year of the Qingming Festival, the people are enjoying the scenery of the pool. Suddenly saw a small golden fish swimming up and down in the pool, very nice, the crowd gathered around, the crowd out of a young beautiful woman said loudly: "This is the pool dragon, to be my capture." The crowd was surprised, she has been like a spring swallow wings leaped into the pool.

After a few moments, a white dragon flew out of the waves with a bang, carrying the woman up into the air. The crowd was astonished and worshipped. The woman said in the air: "I am the top of Taishan Mountain Heavenly Immortal Jade Lady Bixia Yuanjun, by imperial decree of the Jade Emperor to subdue the evil dragon. You can set up a temple for me in the north of Baoying City, which will keep the canal safe forever." After saying this, he threw down a handful of copper coins and designated the temple site.

Bixia Yuanjun was about to ride the dragon back to the north, suddenly saw the south drifting to an auspicious cloud, was the South China Sea Guanyin Bodhisattva. The two gods met after salute, the bodhisattva said: "here is auspicious, is auspicious treasure, the next world you can set up a temple for me, can protect a side of peace, life is abundant." Said also cast a sword to the north of the city as the temple site. Bixia Yuanjun rush to explain the reason, hope that the bodhisattva to take back the order. The Bodhisattva was not pleased: "The sword has been cast, how can it be changed?" The two gods then argued in the air about this.

"What is this precious place that the two gods chose to meet here?" The voice was loud and clear, and it was the Barefoot Contessa who arrived. The Immortal asked the original reason, pressed down the cloud, on the ground to check, see the sword is inserted in the money eye, a slight smile, said to Guanyin: "Bodhisattva, Yuanjun in front of you in the back, you should let her step." The Bodhisattva, hearing this, also felt so, so he readily agreed, and the three gods looked at each other and laughed, and went away.

The two gods fight for this precious land is rare, the people will report this strange event to the county magistrate. Soon after the approval was issued, it was agreed to set up a temple for Yuanjun and Bodhisattva in Baoying, and to rename the water pool as the "Dragon Pool".

Because Yuanjun was in the front and Bodhisattva was in the back, Bixia Palace was built in 1561, and Guanyin Pavilion was built in 1568, the second year of Longqing. Because Bixia Yuanjun is a Taoist deity and Guanyin is a Buddhist bodhisattva, Taishan Temple is actually a giant view of Jianghuai where Buddhism and Taoism are united.

The story goes that Emperor Qianlong went down to the south of the Yangtze River, passing through Baoying, said Taishan Temple for the Jianghuai giant temple, the incense of the Southeast provinces of the crown, so the name to come to see. But see the temple heavy, temple far, many gods and buddhas, incense flourished, excited, put pen to paper, imperial edict "the world's most famous mountain". Since then, Taishan Temple greater fame, reputation all over the world.

(E) Jingwei reclamation

It is said that a long time ago, the sun god Yandi has a lovely little daughter, called the daughter, but also his favorite daughter. Yan Di was not only in charge of the sun, but also of the grains and herbs. He had a lot of things to do, and he had to go to the East China Sea early in the morning to command the sun to rise, and he didn't come home until the sun sank in the west.

When Yan Di was not at home, the girl child played alone, and she wanted very much for her father to take her out and visit the place where the sun rises in the East China Sea. But her father was busy with his official duties and always refused to take her. On this day, the girl child rowed alone in a small boat to the place where the sun rises in the East China Sea.

Unfortunately, there was a storm on the sea, and the mountainous waves overturned the boat, and the girl child was swallowed up by the merciless sea, never to return. Yan Di certainly misses his daughter, but he can't use medicine to bring her back from the dead, so he can only sigh in sorrow alone.

Women died, her soul into a small bird, flower head, white beak shell, red feet and claws, issued a "Jingwei, Jingwei," the sad song, so people also call this bird for "Jingwei".

Jingwei hated the merciless sea for taking away her young life, and she wanted to take revenge. Therefore, she took a small stone or a twig from Hatake Mountain, where she lived, and spread her wings and flew all the way to the East China Sea. She flew back and forth over the rough sea, and she sang sadly, and she threw the stone and the twig down, and she wanted to fill up the sea.

The sea rushed and roared, and laughed at her: "Forget it, little bird, you'll never fill the sea even if you do this job for a million years." ? Jingwei replied to the sea from high above, "Even if you work for ten million years, ten million years, until the end of the universe, the end of the world, I will finally fill you up!" ?

"Why do you hate me so much? ""Because you took my young life, and you will take many more young innocent lives in the future. I'm going to work forever, and one day I'll fill you in." And the spermatozoa flew and chirped, and left the sea, and flew back to Mount Hatchet to carry stones and twigs.

She carried and threw, and flew back and forth for years and years, never stopping. Later on, the two were married and gave birth to many little birds, the females like Jingwei and the males like Haiyan. Like their mother, the young Jingwei went to carry stones to fill the sea. To this day, they are still doing this kind of work.