China traditional decorative catfish box

In ancient times, there was a custom of putting up New Year pictures. In the picture, carp means to leap on the dragon gate, which means to leap and go further.

It is said in the Han Dynasty that the Yellow River carp will turn into a dragon when it jumps over the Longmen. Metaphor promotion, promotion and the like. It is also a metaphor for going upstream and striving for progress.

One legend is that ...

Long, long ago, before the Longmen was cut, Yishui was blocked by Longmen Mountain, and a big lake was piled up to the south of the mountain.

Carps living in the Yellow River have heard that Longmen is beautiful and all want to go sightseeing. They started from the Yellow River in Jin Meng, Henan Province, crossed the Luohe River, followed the Yi River to the splash mouth of Longmen, but there was no waterway on Longmen Mountain, so they had to gather at the foot of Longmen North Mountain. "I have an idea. How about we skip this Longmen Mountain? " A red carp said to everyone. "How can you jump so high?" "If you don't jump well, you will fall to your death!" The partners are confused and can't make up their minds. Red carp volunteered and said, "I'll try it first." I saw it exhausted all its strength from half a mile away, like an arrow that left the string, jumping into the clouds for a long time, driving the clouds and rain in the air forward. A mass of skyfire came from behind and burned its tail. It endured the pain, continued to leap forward, and finally crossed Longmen Mountain and fell into the lake in the south of Shannan. In a blink of an eye, it became a dragon. Seeing this, the carp in the north of the mountain are scared to shrink together and dare not take any more risks. Just then, I suddenly saw a dragon descending from the sky and said, "Don't be afraid, I'm your partner Red Carp, because I jumped over the Longmen and became a dragon." You have to jump bravely! " "Hearing these words, the carp was encouraged and began to jump off the Longmen Mountain one by one. But except for a few who jumped into dragons, most of them couldn't get through. Anyone who can't jump over and fall from the air will have a black scar on his forehead. To this day, this black scar still grows on the forehead of the Yellow River carp. Later, Li Bai, a great poet in the Tang Dynasty, wrote a poem specifically for this matter: "The Yellow River three-foot carp originally lived in Jin Meng, but it didn't last long, and all the fish returned. "