Folk Tales about Carp

Carp is the traditional mascot of our country, and Quanzhou is known as "Carp City" in ancient times, and people in Quanzhou are always happy to know that the city they live in is a live carp, so there are many legends related to carp in Quanzhou City and its counties.

Ancient Quanzhou city through the successive generations of top repair, the formation of the "government in the Nga City, outside the sub-city, but also outside the Luo City, there are wings of the city" pattern, the east-west long and short of the north and south. In the early years of Hongwu in the Ming Dynasty, a small east gate was opened between Renfengmen and Tonghuaimen in the east of the city, directly facing the famous scenic area of Donghu Lake outside the city. He Qiaoyuan said in the Book of Min: "Xiao Dongmen, whose door is straight to the mouth of the East Lake, early in the morning, the lake glistening, such as the fish drinking water from the lake." This is the Quanzhou folk "carp spit pearl" of the scene. Ming Zheng Zhi-Hyun has climbed Qingyuan Mountain poem Yun: "Fish City smoke and fire look to have, a hundred feet before the Ping again and again to climb." The so-called "fish city" is carp city. A poem by Shi Yu of the Qing Dynasty reads: "The bow of the city of carp hangs on the third day of the moon, and the cross practice of the Wuyu River is in the orchid." Quanzhou city wall in the 1940s has been torn down, but part of the outline of the city foundation is still there, now climbed to the top of Qingyuan Mountain, south view of Quanzhou City, "carp spit pearl" scene is still clearly visible. But see the city houses heavy, pectinately, hidden in the green bushes, following the ruins of the ancient city, looking west, the west wall has two big bends, like a fish tail; and then look east, the east gate wall also has two smaller bends, and the original location of the small east gate is just in the concave place, which is the mouth of the fish, the East Lake rippling, like a carp spit out the pearl; the north side of the wall is the belly of the fish; the south side of the wall is very far away, it only looks like a straight line. Looks like only a straight line. On the shape of the entire wall, it is indeed quite like a large carp open mouth to drink the water of the East Lake.

Quanzhou because it looks like a carp and called Carp City, so there is Quanzhou is a carp cave attached to the said. People have a navel, inferring that the fish will also have a navel, its location should be in the center, and because the umbilical cord is round, downward concave, so located in the center of the city of carp an ancient well is said to be "carp umbilical cord". This well is commonly known as the "heart of the city well", located in the West Street and Flower Alley between the well Pavilion Lane, near the well there is a brick tower, the name of "fixed heart tower", built in the Ming Dynasty Wanli years. Although it is nonsense, but the city's well springs both more and faster, every year of drought have never dried up, is also a strange. Qing Kangxi years, served as governor of Fujian, Quanzhou, blue reason "in the art of bird, to the spring for carp Guo, should not be static, so the race to meet the gods, where to pray for the country's peace of mind", it can be seen that at that time there was a race to meet the gods to be active through the practice of "carp".

From the beginning of the Ming Dynasty, there is a legend of Quanzhou City as a carp, in the process of hundreds of years of circulation, but also affects the rest of Quanzhou, on the one hand, it is a continuous derivation, on the one hand, there are other types of carp legends.

Ancestral Quanzhou, Taiwan's famous female writers, painters and calligraphers Gong Shu Mian in the "Quanzhou Bay nostalgia" article mentioned: "When I was a child, my father in the after-dinner, always like to talk about some local anecdotes to me to listen to. For example, why Quanzhou was called Carp City, because the terrain was like a carp, and the neighboring city of Yongchun was like a big fish net. Yongchun people are good at business, since Yongchun built the city, every year to trade in Quanzhou, always 'fishers of men'. Therefore, Quanzhou City, the right to overflow, and other encounters have many difficulties, and then decided to open the temple on both sides of the East and West, the establishment of two towers, as a symbol of piercing the fishnet after the peace and prosperity. This is a myth, but it has been passed down to the present day, really incredible. In the north of China's Shandong Province, there is a beautiful piece of water called "Weishan Lake". A poignant love story is widely rumored around Weishan Lake. The carp in Weishan Lake have four nostrils. Of course, it is not really four nostrils, but the carp has two dragon whiskers that resemble the other two nostrils. There is a story about its origin.

A long time ago, on Weishan Island, there lived an old fisherman, Li Han, who had an eighteen-year-old daughter named Cuilian. Cuilian was born with a melon face, white and clean, double eyelids, big eyes, very handsome and lovely. Moreover, Cuilian was good at all kinds of work, and the two of them were dependent on each other. Cuilian and the same village young man Liu Xiaosan love, the two are often in a boat, singing fishing songs, talking and laughing, the old man to see in the eyes of the joy in the heart. He planned to save money to build a new house and buy a dowry for their wedding.

Then the society is big fish eat small fish, small fish eat shrimp, shrimp eat leaf mud. The line has a line bully, the city has a city bully, the land has a land bully, the lake has a lake bully, there is no good life for the people. Weishan Lake, there is a lake bully, called Hu Hu Hansan, he colluded with the government, under the oppression of the people, have the wealth and power is to eat crabs grew up, always rampant. He has a spoiled rogue son, twenty years old three, born with a crooked mouth, two slanting eyes, two legs, a face of horizontal meat hemp pimples. He is a dog, playing around with flowers and willow, see who is good-looking girl, hard to pull home, he was spoiled by the good family of countless women, the people said Hu Hansan masters and sons are: head long sores, heel flow thick - bad.

One day, the old Li Han said to Cuilian and Liu Xiaosan: "Today I went up the cliff to sell fish, sold fish for some money, buy some wine and vegetables and moon cakes and so on, tomorrow is the Mid-Autumn Festival, the three of us have a good holiday. You two went down to the lake and hit the fish early home." After the delivery of the pick of live fish flickered away. The center of the lake deep water fish, is a good place to put down the net. Xiao San and Cuilian down a good fish net, the boat to the lotus pond, one side of the indulgence of talking about the future of the happy life, one side of the picking diamonds picking lotus, the sweetness of the force on the mention of it. Suddenly, the south of a yellow saturnine boat with a mast came straight, the boat has a group of aggressive fighters, surrounded by a young man dressed as a gentleman.

Cui Lian and Xiao San couldn't dodge, so they had to flash aside. As the saying goes, "The nose of a greedy cat is sharp, and the eyes of a traitor are treacherous." The dude on this big boat was Hu Shoupi, the son of the great lake bully Hu Hansan. Hu Shoupi slanted one eye and asked his dog leg Zhao Sanzhong: "Whose little ni is this? She's so pretty, I didn't think there would be such a handsome girl in my Weishan Lake." Zhao Sanzhong nodded and said, "Back to the young master, this is the daughter of old man Li of Weishan Island, a rare beauty in the world." "Little ones quickly get her to our ship and marry me tonight." Hu Shoupi gave the order, the doglegs snatched Cuilian onto the big boat with seven hands and eight feet. How could Liu Xiaosan resist? He watched as his beloved was snatched onto the boat.

Cuilian struggled for half a day, still can not run away, can not die, the heart made up his mind. The mouth promised to obey, willing to marry with Hu Shoupi. Hu Shoupi look at Cuilian obedience, heart very like, busy people to set up wine dishes, the evening that is on the boat marriage. In Hu Shoupi and dog legs busy happy when, Cuilian saw the back of the ship in the warehouse has a rod two-stranded steel fork, while people did not pay attention to, a grabbed the fork on their face to stab, suddenly, blood dripped all over the spot fainted dead. Strange to say, two hours later, Cuilian live again, only to see the fork was pulled out after, above the nose appeared two bloody holes. Hu Shoupi still not let go, still want to marry Cuilian. On the wedding day, Cuilian was given a new dress embroidered with gold thread. Cui-lian looked around the waiting maids, grannies are women, they said to them: "to worship heaven and earth, my mother's family did not come, please make it easy for you, let me to the bow of the boat to my parents kowtow to it." Said came to the bow of the boat, cold, a have stuck into the water. How many people went down to salvage, but even a shadow did not see. Hu Shoupi white busy how many days, and finally fell a cat bite urine bubble - empty joy.

Cuilian jumped into the lake and immediately became a big carp. Night dream to Liu Xiaosan, Xiaosan the next morning boat to the lake, a net spread up a four nostrils eye, red tail gold carp. Knowing that this is Cuilian's body, they hugged in their arms, crying and howling and crying. Crying for a day and a night, tears dry, but the fish can no longer change into a man. Just feel the sky also turned, the water also turned, suddenly hugged the carp jumped into the lake, also turned into a carp. A pair of lovers were forced into a pair of carp, living freely in the big lake. From then on the carp in Weishan Lake became four nostrils eyes red tail gold color. The carp in Weishan Lake is four nostrils, which is unique in the country.

Why are the carp of Weishan Lake four nostrils?

Legend has it that in the earliest days, the carp of Weishan Lake, like the carp of other waters, had only two nostrils. One year, the Dragon King of the East China Sea took human form and came to the earth to inspect the earth, and saw that the earth practiced the examination system to select talents, and was inspired, and also wanted to select talents through the examination to help it manage the government and govern the waters. After returning to the Dragon Palace in the East China Sea, let the prime minister to order the waters to select talents, and then to the Dragon Palace to the examination, the selected talents to stay in the Dragon Palace to help him to govern the water tribe, revitalize the water tribe. After receiving the order, the waters, dare not be slow, immediately for selection, and then sent to the East China Sea's Dragon Palace, to participate in the Dragon King's Palace Examination. Weishan Lake selected carp, blackfish and crabs to take the test.

The Dragon King set up three passes for the students who came to take the test: the first pass is a cultural test, the second pass is an interview, the third pass is a skills test. The first cultural examination, carp, blackfish and crabs have successfully passed, the second level of the interview, crabs because of the ugly appearance did not pass, was brushed down; the third level of the skills test is to leap the Dragon Gate, blackfish jumped a few times did not jump over, and was brushed down, only the carp once jumped over and jumped very light, very beautiful, was the King of the Dragon selected as a talent to stay in the Palace of the Dragon reuse. However, because of the carp's poor background, and from such a small place as Weishan Lake, after being reused by the Dragon King, there were still some noble ministers who looked down on it, which made the carp feel very suffocated in his heart, and sulked all day long. In order to let the carp can be at ease for it to serve, the dragon king of their youngest daughter of love little dragon girl betrothed to it, and up to the court of heaven, to the carp to open up two heavenly eyes - so that the carp into four nostrils, not only so that the carp increased wisdom, but also into the status of the aristocrats. From then on, no one in the Dragon Palace looked down on the carp. The carp and the little dragon lady lived a rich, busy, and stressful life in the Dragon Palace.

Carp in the Dragon Palace after a few years, one is disgusted with the Dragon Palace in the official life, the second is to miss the hometown of Weishan Lake, miss those friends and relatives in Weishan Lake, Weishan Lake, the kind of calm, peaceful life, so, to the King of the Dragon resigned, and brought the little dragon lady back to the Weishan Lake, have children and grandchildren, and lived a leisurely life in the countryside. The children and grandchildren born of the carp are of course also four nostrils, but the people at that time were careless, did not notice this subtle change of the carp in Weishan Lake.

It was not until many years later, when Emperor Qianlong traveled to the south of the Yangtze River and passed by Weishan Lake, that the secret of the four nostrils of the carp in Weishan Lake was unveiled. Emperor Qianlong is the ninth son of the old Dragon King of the East China Sea, reincarnated on earth as the emperor, Weishan Lake carp is the secret of four nostrils he certainly knows. When he passed by Weishan Lake, he stayed for one day and one night in Nanyang Town of Weishan. After staying in Nanyang Town, Qianlong took a group of his ministers to tour Weishan Lake, hoping to meet his sister, Little Dragon Lady, and his brother-in-law. However, for some unknown reason, Qianlong swam around the lake for a day, and the Little Dragon Lady and his brother-in-law, the Old Carp, did not come out to see him. Qianlong as the emperor, in the lake swim a day, see his sister and brother-in-law do not come to see him, some annoyed, but it is not convenient to explicitly say, would like to carp four nostrils of the secret of the world, so he said to the ministers: you know how many nostrils of the carp in Weishan Lake? Ministers without thinking to answer in unison: two. Qianlong said: No, Weishan Lake carp is four nostrils. Ministers do not believe that the local fishermen to salvage up to see, really is four nostrils!

Since then, people have known that the carp of Weishan Lake is four nostrils, and it is no longer a secret.

Weishan Lake carp figure good-looking, people often use catty half of the carp - clever one, to describe a person's body grows well-proportioned, beautiful. Weishan Lake carp meat tender, flavorful, is the top of the fish, a rare delicacy. In the past, it has been when the tribute, by the feudal emperor's reward, it is a good dish and gifts. Local folk view carp as good luck, after the wedding please matchmaker, you must eat "big carp"; the old man lived to 73 years old, the daughters must send two "big carp" for parents; called: "seventy-three ate carp scurry a scurry! ", meaning that seventy-three years old in this year, there is no disease, even if there is any disease ate married daughters to send the big carp also jumped over the wish for the old man to prolong the meaning of life.