The Year of the Tiger has arrived. According to the rules of our Chinese, we must speak auspicious words at the beginning of the year, so this issue of "Narrative Notes" will talk about those "good tigers" who help others in ancient notes, know righteousness and repay kindness, punish evil and promote good, and are wise and upright.
1. The Tiger That Bites the Foot: Maintaining Filial Piety
Many people think that tigers, as beasts of prey, must have been an absolute negative image in ancient times, but in fact, they are not. Although the people are afraid of tigers, do not forget that although this object hurts animals and eats people, it is mostly harmful in the mountains and villages, and there is very little harassment for urban residents, which is to have a different image in the civic culture, that is, masculinity, integrity and bravery. For example, the elderly boys often take the nickname "Tiger" to bless their strength, and the Children of the Dragon Boat Festival will wear tiger hats to drive away evil spirits, and even hang a wooden printed version of the Fuhu Diagram on the wall of the main hall of the home to the town house. During the Jiaqing period of the Qing Dynasty, on the engravings of Yangliuqing in Hebei Province, a ray of brilliance on a tiger's body contained four objects of "bottle, saddle, halberd, and chime", suggesting "peace and auspicious celebration", and three swords were inserted into the ground below to suppress the ghosts underground, which is a concentrated reflection of the above concept.
In ancient notes, the positive image of the tiger is also shown from time to time, even if it is "intertwined" with the negative image. For example, in the Book of later Han Dynasty, it is written that the Eastern Han County Ling Tong restored the government: "The people tasted the harm of the tiger, but set up a threshold to catch it, and gave birth to the second tiger." Hearing this, he cursed the tiger: 'All things are born, and only people are precious.' The tiger wolf ate six animals and was cruel to man. The king law kills people and injures them, and the wounded people discuss the law. If you are a murderer, you should bow your head and confess your sins; if you know what is wrong, you should cry out for injustice. After listening to Tong Hui's words, one tiger bowed its head and closed its eyes, like a shock, and immediately surrendered to the Law; the other tiger looked at Tong Hui and roared, enthusiastically and excitedly, and was immediately released. In this story, although the tiger is harmful to people, it is bold and bold.
In Gan Bao's "Search for God" of the Jin Dynasty, there are two popular stories.
"Search for God"
The first is that Su Yi, a woman from Luling, who was good at delivering babies, was suddenly abducted by a tiger one night, walked six or seven miles, and came to a large tomb, only to see a difficult female tiger, "creeping to death, looking up." Su Yi hurriedly delivered it, "but for the sake of probing it, there are three sons." After that, the tiger carried Su Yi home on her back and put the wild game she caught on her doorstep several times. The second says that dongping has a man named Hengnong, whose biological parents have died one after another since he was a child, leaving only one stepmother to raise him, and he is extremely filial. One night he was living in someone else's house, and suddenly there was thunder and wind in the night, and he dreamed that a tiger kept biting his foot, and when he woke up, he pulled his wife to the courtyard, and just at this moment, the house suddenly collapsed, "crushing more than thirty people, but the peasant husband and wife were spared." In these two notes, in addition to the tiger's retribution, we can also see the cultural projection of the Jin Dynasty advocating filial piety to rule the country.
In later notes, the tiger also often appears as a defender of filial piety, such as the image recorded in the History of the Song Dynasty. During the Chunhua period of the Northern Song Dynasty, Li Shun's rebel army attacked the county, and Chengxiang's parents died of panic, and Chengxiang knotted on the side of the tomb, "sifting the soil on the grave with a decaying garment, and fighting three times in a day". Every time he cried because he missed his parents, the smellers felt sorry. Later, a tiger and a leopard lay in a circle, and the elephant was fearless, and the tiger and leopard not only did not harm him, but protected his safety. After that, the great name of The Great Son of Shōshū was even more known.
Among these notes, the most legendary is the story of the "monk tiger" in the Qing Dynasty notes "Yao Yu".
"The Leftovers"
There was a man named Song Shuyi who "lived in a poor and lonely family (referring to the death of his father), and lived in the sun to cast the mountain", and made a living by cutting firewood. He was very filial to his mother, and every morning he had to prepare breakfast for her and wait for her to eat before he could afford to pay the salary. On this day, a friend came to visit, Song Twenty left him for breakfast, and by the time he was sent away, he went up the mountain to cut firewood, it was already noon. Entering the mountain, an old monk sat on the side of the road and said to Song Twenty-One, "I have been waiting for you for a long time, why am I late today?" Your stomach is full, and I'm still hungry!" Song Twenty-One said inexplicably, "I have never known you, so why did I say this?" The old monk said, "I'm tired and want you to be my crutch." After saying that, he jumped directly onto Song Twenty-One's back. Song Twenty-one has always respected the elderly, so he had to carry him on his back, and the more he walked, the more he felt that the old monk was heavy, and joked: "Look at your yellow face and thin muscles, why is it so heavy?" The old monk smiled and said, "You have always been very burdened, do you still care about this weight?" Just then, a man cutting bamboo in the mountain saw them from a distance on Takaoka and shouted, "Song Twenty-one, why are you carrying a tiger on your back?" Then he rushed down with a machete. The old monk transformed into a colorful tiger, "jumped down from his back, crossed the stream", Song Twenty-one fell down in fright, and the person who cut down the bamboo came over and saw that he was "five points of loess on the left shoulder, and the palm marks were like three points". Song Twenty-one moved to the city with his mother and changed to a small business, and people said that it was because of his filial piety that the tiger could not bear to hurt him.
Second, the tiger digging the ground: punishing evil and promoting good
In addition to maintaining filial piety, the Tiger King is also quite capable of punishing evil and promoting good.
The Ming Dynasty notes "Continuing Ear Tan" contains an incident:
"Continuing Ear Tan"
There was a monk at the White Horse Temple who had committed many evil deeds, and once he saw the beautiful wife of the officer Zhang Wu, so he took advantage of Zhang Wu's drunken return home and attacked and killed him halfway. Zhang Wu's wife received the fierce letter and wept bitterly, and her mother repeatedly advised her to "eat water and food." When her husband was buried, she settled in the cemetery, accompanied only by her brother and a maid. That night, her brother went home, and the monk who had been spying broke into Zhang Wu's wife's grass shed, wanted to do something wrong, and was scolded by Zhang Wu's wife, and the monk became angry and embarrassed, "cutting off his head with a blade"! The awakened maid was going to run outside, being pulled by the monk, and also raping, and the maid was also a fierce woman, preferring to die rather than obey, and then killed by the monk. The monk then buried the two bodies in a nearby tomb and buried them in a hurry. After Zhang Wu's brother returned, he could not find his sister and maid, which became a suspicious case. Soon, the monk went out to pass through the cemetery, was bitten to death by a fierce tiger, and when people came to check it out, the tiger crouched on the ground, constantly digging the soil on the ground with its tiger's claws, "angry", and left for a long time. Curious, the people dug up the ground and found the bodies of Zhang Wu's wife and maid, only to understand the truth of the matter and bury the two coffins and rebury them.
Zhu Zhishan, a famous scholar of the Ming Dynasty, had a famous work "The Legend of the Righteous Tiger", which said that there were two people in Jingxi, who grew up together from childhood, and later one was rich and the other was poor. The poor one had no other skills, knew only a little bit of writing and arithmetic, but married a very beautiful daughter-in-law. When the rich man wanted to take away his wife, he deceived the poor and said, "There is a rich man who lives in the mountains and lacks a mr. bookkeeper in his family. "The poor are very happy and thank you one after another. The rich hired a boat to carry the poor man and his wife into the mountains. The boat just docked, the rich man said I did not say hello to the rich man, just take your whole family to the door, is it a bit abrupt, this way, let your wife stay on the boat, I will take you first, wait for the other party to agree to hire you, and then take your wife with you. The poor agreed. The two men went up the mountain together, and the rich man deliberately took him on a treacherous mountain road, and all the way down, his feet were broken, and "the blood was heeled by the ankles." When he reached a dangerous place, the rich man suddenly kicked him to the ground and slashed him several times with a sickle, and the poor man immediately passed out. The rich man thought he was dead, so he went down the hill, found his wife, and while crying, said, "Your husband was eaten by a tiger halfway through." "The wife wept bitterly, and the rich man said that if you don't believe me, come with me to see his body." His wife went with him, and the rich man "turned and led him to the treacherous streams and forests, to the extreme silence, and embraced and begged for adultery." At this moment, suddenly a colorful tiger emerged from the forest, roared forward, bit the rich man in one bite, and then flew away. The wife thought that it seemed that the husband was really eaten by the tiger, so he had to go down the mountain, but he did not remember the road when he came, and he was lost in the forest. Just when I was helpless, an old man came over and listened to her crying, saying that I would take you down the mountain. The wife went down the mountain with him, but saw that her husband, who was covered in blood, also came down from the mountain, and the husband and wife hugged and cried, for various reasons, and finally understood that although they were harmed by the rich, they were fortunately saved by the tiger, so they went home together.
Third, the tiger of food: trustworthiness and righteousness
Among the various "righteous tigers" described in ancient notes, the most touching should be the "Record of the Righteous Tiger" written by the famous essayist Wang Youding in the late Ming Dynasty.
The Book of the Righteous Tiger is included in the Yu Chu Xinzhi compiled by Zhang Chao of the Qing Dynasty
During the Jiaqing period, there were many tigers in Gaotang Mountain and Guqi Mountain outside Xiaoyi County, Shanxi. When a woodcutter went up the hill, he stumbled and fell into the tiger cave, and saw two small tigers in the hole. The woodcutter observed the cave, "the stone teeth on three sides are cheap, the front wall is slightly flat, and the height is high", he tried many times, how can not climb out, he seems to wander around the wall, crying and waiting for death. After the sun went down, the big tiger returned, holding a deer in its mouth, feeding two tiger cubs to eat, and suddenly found that there was another living person in the hole, and suddenly opened its teeth to fight. A moment later, seeing the woodcutter's eyes closed and waiting for death, the big tiger stopped moving, gave him the rest of the venison to eat, and then put his arms around the well-fed little tigers and went to sleep. The woodcutter thought that probably the big tiger had a deer to eat, not hungry, tomorrow it should be his turn to be "food", who knew that the next day "the tiger jumped out", and like yesterday, he took a deer, and the little tigers ate and gave the rest to the woodcutter... After a few months like this, everyone got along safely.
The little tigers grew up, and one day the big tiger carried them out of the cave. When the woodcutter saw that he was in a hurry, he shouted", "The king save me"! The big tiger returned, and the woodcutter on his back also came out of the hole, and after putting him down, he was about to leave with the little tiger. At this time, it was late, the black wind in the mountains was hunting, the birds were desperate, and the woodcutter bowed to the big tiger: "Thanks to the king to save me, but as soon as you leave, I am afraid that other beasts in the mountains will still harm me, I don't know if you can take me down the mountain, I would rather die than forget your kindness." The big tiger bowed his head and carried him all the way down the mountain. The woodcutter said with tears: "When I get home, I will buy a pig and offer it to you at the post booth outside Xiguan on a certain day in a certain month. The tiger listened and left.
When the woodcutter returned home, his family was ecstatic, and when he told him about his experience, everyone could not help but cry. On the day of the appointment, the woodcutter had prepared the pigs, but because the slaughter was delayed a little, it did not arrive under the post kiosk on schedule, and the tiger entered the city with a big swing. The whole city was in an uproar, and the hunters closed the gates of the city, "spears and crossbows are gathered, and the life is captured to sacrifice the slaughter." When the woodcutter heard this, he rushed to tell everyone that the tiger had saved my life and must not be harmed, but the big tiger had fallen into the trap, was locked in a cage, and was escorted into the county court. The woodcutter ran to the county court again and beat the drum and shouted. Xian Ling angrily asked him why, and he told him the ins and outs of what he had saved for the big tiger, and Xian Ling did not believe it. The woodcutter said I would like to verify it myself! The county order agreed, and took him to the cage, and when the woodcutter saw the big tiger, he held it through the cage and cried bitterly, and then said, "Did you save me?" The big tiger nodded, and the woodcutter said, "Did you enter the city because I made an appointment with you for a time and place, but I didn't arrive in time?" The big tiger nodded again, and the woodcutter said that I would go and intercede with the county order, and if he refused to forgive you, I would like to die with you. At this time, the thousands of people who were watching were moved to tears, and the county ordered people to quickly release the big tiger. The woodcutter took it all the way to the Xiguan post booth and gave it the pork, and the big tiger picked up the pork and walked away with its tail wagging.
This story is also recorded in notes such as "Chibei Even Talk", which shows that it is widely circulated. Wang Youding said, "The world often attributes the killing of people to the beasts of prey, and when he hears the words of the righteous tiger, he also knows what he is ashamed of!" "It turns out that in that era, people already knew that the worst evil in the world could not be attributed to the beast, and the best good in the world was not necessarily the same kind of work. In this sense, the mountain king's wagging tail and distant back is really heartwarming.