The legend of the "year"

【Short Story】

According to legend, in ancient China, there was a monster called "Nian", with a head with long tentacles and fierceness. The "Nian" beast has been living on the bottom of the sea for many years, climbing ashore every Chinese New Year's Eve, devouring livestock and harming people. Therefore, every Chinese New Year's Eve day, the people of the villages and villages help the old and the young to flee to the mountains to avoid the harm of the "Nian" beast.

It's the Chinese New Year's Eve of another year, and the villagers, as in previous years, are preparing to help the old and the young to take refuge in the mountains. At this time, an old man begging from outside the village saw him on crutches, his arms in his pockets, his silver whiskers fluttering, and his eyes like stars.

Some of the villagers sealed the windows and locked the doors, some packed their bags, some led the cattle and herded sheep, and people shouted horses everywhere, a scene of haste and panic. At this time, who still had the heart to take care of the begging old man, only an old woman in the east of the village gave the old man some food and advised him to quickly go up the mountain to avoid the "Nian" beast, and the old man smiled and said: "If the mother-in-law let me stay at home for one night, I will definitely take away the 'Nian' beast."

The old woman was shocked to look closely and saw that he had a childlike face, a strong spirit, and an extraordinary spirit. But she continued to persuade, begging the old man to laugh and say nothing. The mother-in-law had no choice but to leave her home and take refuge in the mountains.

In the middle of the night, the "Nian" beast broke into the village. It found that the atmosphere in the village was different from previous years: the old woman's house at the east end of the village, the door was pasted with big red paper, and the candles in the house were bright. "Nian" trembled and screamed strangely. "Nian" glared at the old woman's house for a moment, and then screamed and pounced. When approaching the door, there was a sudden explosion sound of "banging and popping" in the courtyard, and "Nian" trembled and did not dare to move forward anymore. It turned out that "Nian" was most afraid of red, fire and explosion.

At this time, the door of the old woman's house was wide open, and I saw an old man in a red robe in the courtyard laughing. "Nian" was horrified and fled.

The next day was the first day of the first lunar month, and the people who had returned from the asylum were amazed to see that the village was safe and sound. At this time, the old woman suddenly realized, and hurriedly told the villagers about the promise of begging the old man. The villagers rushed to the old woman's house together, only to see that the old woman's door was pasted with red paper, a pile of unburned bamboo in the courtyard was still "snapping" and exploding, and several red candles in the house were still glowing... It turned out that the white-haired old man was a god who helped everyone expel the "Nian" beast, and people also discovered the three magic weapons for the white-haired old man to expel the "Nian" beast: red, fire and explosion.

In order to celebrate the auspicious coming, the ecstatic villagers changed into new clothes and hats, and went to the homes of relatives and friends to say hello. Word soon spread in the surrounding villages, and everyone knew how to drive away the Nian beast.

Since then, every year Chinese New Year's Eve, every household has posted red couplets and set off firecrackers; households have candles lit up and waited for the age. Early in the morning of the first day of the first year, I also have to go to relatives and friends to say hello. This custom has spread more and more widely, and has become the most solemn traditional festival in Chinese folk: "New Year".

【Great Truth】

Now, the Spring Festival is a festival for the people of the mainland, it symbolizes unity and prosperity, and people are pinning their hopes for the new year.

In this legend, the image of the middle age and the image of the current year can be described as very different, the image of the current year is often the zodiac, for example, this year is the year of the tiger, then the year comes to the human world with a tiger tiger shape, welcoming the arrival of each zodiac year means saying goodbye to the misfortunes of the past and welcoming new hopes, so the new year has been full of grand joy before the end of the year. The legendary New Year is to avoid the fierce beasts, the New Year means to run, to dodge, if there is a so-called joy is only to feel fortunate that they are still alive. Leaving aside the factors of interpretation of customs in legends, it is still not difficult to find that there are still fundamental differences in attitudes towards the year between legend and reality.

Why? Why does the legendary nian appear in the form of a fierce beast?

Let's relive this legend, which tells us that Nian is a ferocious and abnormal "monster", "living deep in the sea" all year round, and every Chinese New Year's Eve will go ashore and so on. The story would not be so interesting if we understood it not in terms of the practical meaning but in the symbolic sense. The "sea" is a symbol of the mysterious thing, and the year comes from the sea, that is, it tells us that the source of the year is unspeakable mysterious and incomprehensible. And every time Chinese New Year's Eve ashore, it means that the year appears in a cycle of Chinese New Year's Eve, following a certain length of time to "harm people's lives", and the arrival of the year is aimed at taking away life, which is the purpose of the year' appearance, and the reason why the year is therefore regarded as a monster - the appearance of the year is incomprehensible, and the consequences are so terrible that people have to avoid it. At this point, we can guess that this "year" that comes to the human world again and again to take away life and no one can resist, from an incomprehensible mysterious place to the human world, actually refers to time. Time is constantly passing, with Chinese New Year's Eve as a cycle reminding people of their existence, and the time between two Chinese New Year's Eve is a "year" that takes away the life of all living things on the earth, especially the life that has a time consciousness in it, man.

As the only time-conscious creature of all living things, man needs to respond to the imminent threat of time.

The first attitude is not surprisingly biological - to escape, to flee to the mountains to avoid "year", in fact, to escape from the temporality of man himself, to hope to distance himself from time with spatial avoidance, so as to escape the anxiety of the end of life brought about by time. Obviously, this is only a stopgap measure, and when the year comes, it will still be true, and this kind of escape will not help to drive away people's anxiety about time. Just when people were at a loss for the year (time), an old man appeared. By the way, in the various legends of different countries, there are always images of old people who appear in the middle of the story to point the way for the protagonist, who represent a spiritual archetype - wise, far-sighted, and often known for their moral qualities. The old man in this story is no exception, he claims that he can drive away the "year", and the crowd of course doubts his statement, of course, just as a man cannot pull his hair off the ground, how can a man in time transcend the temporality rooted in himself? Can man live beyond time? Thus, wisdom (the old man) is left alone to face time (years).

Time appears step by step, but wisdom prepares a surprise for time - red, fire and explosion, and Nian is scared away. Sound, light, and color, corresponding to hearing, sight, and touch, can only be experienced by conscious beings, and wisdom confronts time with enhanced life experience. Here, a second attitude towards time emerges, not a passive escape, but a positive response.

However, time is unconscious and indifferent, and has nothing to do with all feelings, so why in the story is it that it is frightened by red, fire, and explosions?

At the end of the story, when people return to the village, they are surprised to find that Nian was driven away, not only that, people also got three magic weapons for the year of confrontation, and from then on, people no longer need to flee when they Chinese New Year's Eve, but use the derivative form of these three magic weapons to spend the Year by "pasting red couplets, setting off firecrackers, and keeping the lights in every household". Wisdom summons the strengthening of the experience of life with the help of tools, and fixes this experience in a formal way, becoming a ritual with which people no longer feel afraid of the year, and people can be comfortable with the coming of the year. In other words, people dispel anxiety about time through rituals. At this point, the strategy of wisdom (the old man) gradually becomes clear, people can not survive from time, but can overcome the anxiety that comes with time, by shifting the gaze from time (year) to ritual (sticking couplets, setting off firecrackers, guarding the age at home), people's anxiety is alleviated, people feel safe in the form of New Year's ceremonies, although time still continues ("year" lives deep at the bottom of the sea), but people are no longer afraid ("year" rushes away), the power of the year is deprived, and people are free. Man lives freely on the earth and begins his own life ("New Year" becomes a festival).

Kafka once said of fairy tales, "There is no fairy tale that does not shed blood." Every fairy tale comes from the depths of blood and fear. This is where all fairy tales are in common." The legend about the year is also a little fairy tale, what he really tells is a story about time, time brings death, and the anxiety about death requires people to overcome it, and finally to some extent overcome time. Not only through ritual, but also through language, people tell themselves a story of overcoming time and its anxieties, and at the end of the story, like other fairy tales, people promise themselves a bright future.

Finally, I wish you all a Happy New Year in 2022 and a happy family! The Year of the Tiger is like a tiger, all the best! I wish everyone a comfortable work, a good salary, a friend, a lover, all the best, and always happy!