Historical stories about bamboo

Painters in the Northern Song Dynasty have the same language, word and ability. The bamboo he painted is well known, and many people come to paint it every day. Where is the secret of Wen Tong's painting bamboo?

It turned out that Wentong planted all kinds of bamboos in front of and behind his house. No matter spring, summer, autumn and winter, it is cloudy and rainy. He often goes to the bamboo forest to observe the growth and changes of bamboo, and figure out the length and thickness of bamboo branches and the shape and color of leaves. As soon as he has new feelings, he returns to his study, spreads paper and grinds ink, and draws his impressions on paper.

Over the years, the images of bamboo in different seasons, different weather and different times have been deeply imprinted in his mind. As long as you concentrate on writing and stand in front of drawing paper, the various forms of bamboo observed on weekdays will immediately emerge in front of your eyes. So every time he draws bamboo, he looks very calm and confident, and the bamboo he draws is vivid and lifelike.

When people praised his paintings, he always said modestly, "I just painted the mature bamboo in my heart."

There was a young man who wanted to learn to draw bamboo. He heard that the poet Chao was very good at Wentong's paintings, so he asked for advice. Huang wrote a poem for him, including two sentences: "You can use it to draw bamboo, and you have answers."

2. The origin of bamboo

According to legend, there was no bamboo on the ancient earth, and bamboo only grew in the imperial garden of the Queen Mother. Bamboo is watered by dew from Xianlin, and it grows handsome and tall. Immortals love fairy bamboo, especially the heavenly queen, and they can't put it down.

She ordered the maid Xianxia Fairy to take care of Zhu Xian. Zhu Xian likes her very much and takes care of her every day. Xianzhu seems to know her mind very well. As long as the morning glow passes by, she will show off her posture and say hello to her.

Although the sky is clear, Zhao Xia yearns for a life of life and death, tears and laughter. She talked with her best friend about people's lives and always said, "If I can live on earth for one day, I don't even want immortals!" "But her girl friends laughed that she was an idiot, which violated the rules of the fairy.

Speaking of dreams, it has really come. The queen mother drank several cups of Baihua dew brewed by Baihua Fairy at the flat peach party and got drunk. After drinking a cup of this Baihua dew, the immortal has been drunk for three days, not to mention drinking a few more cups. Zhao Xia knew that this drunken state would last for ten and a half days. This is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity!

If you want to keep your feet on the ground, you must seize this opportunity. He quietly brought some fairy bamboos from the worse gate to the world. Since then, tall and handsome bamboos have appeared in the world.

3. Bambusa quadrangularis

There are many different bamboos on Xiqiao Mountain, especially Chimonobamboos. Bambusa quadrangularis is short in shape, dark green in color, with slender leaves and slightly square stems and branches. When you pinch it with your hand, it has an obvious sense of square, and its cross section is square. Because of its high density and elegant shape, it is suitable for potted plants and is a treasure to watch. Legend has it that this kind of bamboo was originally cultivated by determined people, and it is difficult for people without determination to plant it alive.

A long time ago, a young man and a young woman fell in love on the mountain. They make love to songs and make secret promises to life. However, women are snobbish and don't like men who live on firewood. When the man proposed to the woman's house, the woman's mother blocked the door and sang:

Don't walk without flower boots, don't cut wood without axe.

Unless the heaven and the earth change on the mountain, bamboo will be sent to a woman in the square.

This man is a determined man. He made up his mind to be a bamboo square. He planted a bamboo under his hut and squeezed it hard on the bamboo pole for a while in the morning and evening. After a year of kneading, the lower half of the bamboo pole became square, but the upper half was still round. After two years of kneading, the upper part of the bamboo pole became square, but the lower part returned to a circle.

Before the bamboo was squeezed, the woman's mother gave her daughter to a housekeeper. On the way in, the woman committed suicide with a sigh in the sedan chair.

The man was so popular that he pulled up the bamboo seedlings under the shed and took them into the Buddhist temple to become a monk.

The young monk goes to the meditation hall to chant Buddhist scripture every day and holds the newly moved bamboo under the eaves every day. I have read the scriptures ten times, a hundred times and a thousand times, and bamboo has been pinched for ten, twenty and thirty years.

Finally, a square bamboo appeared in the cigarette smoke, with slender leaves and dark green stems. Later, Hsinchu, which grew from the side, was also square. The monk put on a neat cassock and piously transplanted the bamboo in front of the meditation room to the woman's grave.

Chimonobamboos breed in cemeteries, which cover slopes and ridges. Mountain people regard it as a symbol of loyalty. Since then, there has been a habit in the mountains: a man proposes to a woman and wants to plant a bamboo in front of her house to show his loyalty.

4. peerless bamboo

In ancient times, the traditional marriage habit of Yi people was arranged in late October, and the moon rose very late at night. One October, there was a family, and the two families were separated by seven days. One day in October of that year, a family with a son sent someone to propose to another family with a girl. With the consent of two relatives, they chose a good date to get married.

So the girl held her daughter's wedding on the seventh day before the wedding. And happily arranged to bid farewell to relatives and send away their daughters. This morning, as soon as the sun rose, I set out from home, and more than 30 people went to see my family off together.

Walking on the road day after day, on the third day, the guests will pass by a bamboo forest, which is very large and dense. There are many weeds in the bamboo forest. On this day in this bamboo forest, I walked and walked until the evening.

It was already dark, and the bride and tourists were very tired. It was difficult to walk in the dark, so they camped out in this bamboo forest that night and prepared to go again the next day. After several days' long journey, everyone was tired and slept soundly.

At dawn the next day, the guests who woke up found that several people had disappeared with the bride, so everyone looked for someone everywhere, but there was no trace for a long time, only some human bones were found around the bride's sleeping place.

However, before camping the night before, I didn't see any bones because it was dark, so I couldn't explain what these bones were. Finally, people found traces of the bride's skirt in the crack of a bamboo beside the bride's sleeping, so they cut it down. When Bloom looked at the bamboo, it turned out that it was full of human bones and the bride's dress was in it.

Only then did people realize that the bamboo and plants in this bamboo forest would eat people. Since then, the Yi people have left the habit of not planting bamboo and regarded bamboo as a seedless plant. This custom has continued to this day.

5. Bamboo God

A long time ago, a strange man named "Gong Yan" came out of a floating country (now Yong 'an). He likes bamboo and wanders around the bamboo forest all day. Bamboo is his partner. One year, there was a great drought, rivers dried up, everything withered, everything withered. Gong Yan see in the eye, anxious in the heart, determined to do something good for the people.

He pulled up a bamboo and used his magic to drive away the boulder, preparing to build a stone wall on the Jiangyan River to store water and fight drought. When the gods learned about this, they were furious and thought it was a violation of heaven and chaos. So he landed on the earth and destroyed the stone wall to be built. Gong Yan fell short and hated Jiang Yan.

Instead of bowing to God, Qi Huangong decided to teach the arrogant God a lesson. One morning, Gong Yan made a bow and an arrow out of bamboo, stretched out his arms to hold the bow and shot into the sky. Bamboo arrows, carrying wind and electricity, went straight to the Jade Emperor's Palace. On this day, the Jade Emperor happened to be sleepy. Before the early dynasty, bamboo arrows pointed to the back of the Jade Emperor's dragon chair.

When the Jade Emperor came to the temple, he saw an arrow stuck in the back of the chair. He was shocked and asked why. Taibai Venus pulled out an arrow, looked at it and said, "This is an arrow with a bamboo handle, not in Zhang Yu (now Jiangxi), but in Fujian (now Fujian): the golden arrow and the silver arrow tail are not in Shaxian, but floating."

Hearing this, the Jade Emperor ordered the heavenly soldiers to go to the floating country to catch the man who stabbed him in the back. Mountain soldiers came to the floating countryside and went deep into the bamboo forest to find Gong Yan. I saw a man with five beautiful beards, fluttering hair and a bamboo flute in the bamboo forest. Mountain soldiers cut down all the bamboos, but they couldn't catch the bearded man, so they had to go back to the life of Tianhou angrily.

After listening to this, the Jade Emperor sighed and reported, "This is not a bamboo forest haunted by mortals, but a bamboo god!" We have to order Yulong to rain to eliminate the drought in Yong 'an. When it rains, bamboo shoots come out and the bamboo forest is lush.

From then on, Yong 'an people revered Gong Yan as the "Bamboo God", prostrating themselves in homage to commemorate this strange man who helped Yong 'an hang upside down.