In Jin Yong's classic martial arts novel "The Legend of the Archery Hero", Guo Jing takes Huang Rong, who is seriously injured, to find the master of a lamp, asking the master of a lamp to treat Huang Rong, and on the way encounters Yinggu (Liu Guifei) to seek revenge.
That night, when the four apprentices under the Master of One Lamp were fishing, tree, cultivating, and reading waiting in front of the Zen Temple, they heard a few whistlings faintly coming from the distance.
At this time, the farmer Wu Santong suddenly remembered what he had heard as a child: "That night the owl hid in the shadows, secretly counting people's eyebrows." Whoever counts the roots of his eyebrows will not live until dawn. The farmer also knew very well that this was obviously a fool's errand to deceive the children, but at this time, when he heard these few screams, his whole body actually shuddered: "Is it true that Master really cannot escape this disaster and die at the hands of this woman?" ”
Coincidentally, in "The Condor Man", Jin Yong once again told the reader the story of "owl counting eyebrows".
At that time, the Chilian immortal Li Moxuan came to Lujiazhuang to avenge, and Wu Sanniang took her two children, Wu Dunru and Wu Xiuwen, to lujiazhuang to help.
Wu Sanniang's husband, Wu Santong, became insane, but he also knew how to protect the two brothers Wu Dunru and Wu Xiuwen and take them away. Wu Santong initially took his brother Wu Dunru with him, leaving his younger brother Wu Xiuwen in place for the time being. After Wu Xiuwen waited for a while, he saw that his father had never come, so he turned around and went back to Lujiazhuang to find his mother Wu Sanniang.
The article wrote that Wu Xiuwen walked in the field in the dark for a while, touched into a forest, everywhere was pitch black, anxious to cry, shouting: "Daddy, Daddy! Mom, Mom! He did not wait for the answer of Wu Santong and Wu Sanniang, but he waited for a few owl cries.
"He had heard it said that owls loved to count the number of eyebrows. If it counts clearly, it will be killed immediately, and immediately stretch out its fingers to wet its saliva and wet its eyebrows, so that the owl cannot be counted. But the owl still kept crying, he leaned on the trunk of the tree and stretched out his fingers to hold his eyebrows tightly, did not dare to move slightly, his heart was just throbbing, and after a while, he finally closed his eyes and fell asleep. ”
Wu Santong had heard the story of "owl counting eyebrows", and his son Wu Xiuwen had also heard this story, which was not surprising, strangely, even Lu Dayou in "Smiling Proud of the Jianghu" knew this story.
Mount Hua abandoned cheng bu and feng buping to attack mount Hua, forcing Yue Buqun to give up his position in charge, and severely injuring Ling Hu Chong. The Six Immortals of Peach Valley were kind enough to do bad things, and treated Ling Hu Chong's external injuries into internal injuries. At the critical moment when Ling Huchong's life was at stake, Yue Buqun fled mount Hua with all the disciples of the Huashan Sect, and only the sixth disciple, Lu Dayou, accompanied Ling Huchong, whose life was in danger.
At nightfall, Lu Dayou cooked a pot of porridge for Ling Hu Chong, and helped him drink two sips, but unexpectedly Ling Hu Chong "squirted out the porridge, and the white porridge turned pink, but even the blood in his abdomen also spewed out." Lu Dayou was very frightened and helped him to fall back to sleep.
Lu Dayou "looked out of the window at the dark and heavy patch just in a daze, and I don't know how much time had passed, but I heard a few owl night cries in the distance, and thought: 'The night owl's cry is counting the patient's eyebrows, and if the number of eyebrows is counted, the patient will die.' Immediately dip some spit with his fingers and apply it to the eyebrows of the fox, so that the owl can hardly count. ”
Seeing this, Lu Dayou's feelings for Master Brother jumped on the paper, which was touching.
Why does Jin Yong like to write the story of "owl counting eyebrows" in novels? Some people say that this is in the past, jiangsu and Zhejiang areas circulated such folklore. Jin Yong grew up in Haining, Zhejiang Province, and must have heard this story. When he was writing martial arts novels, he wrote this story into it to set off the atmosphere of horror and tension.
In fact, not only in Zhejiang, but also in many parts of China there are similar folklore. In these folklore, owls are ominous. Its appearance often means fear.
Back in 2,000 years, the owl was a less likable animal.
Zhuangzi once told a story about a sacred bird called the Osprey, which perched on a plane tree, ate the fruits of bamboo, and drank sweet spring water. One of the owl saw it, afraid that it would come to snatch the rotten rats it liked to eat, and wanted to drive it away. But the storks can't look at the filthy food of the owl at all, and they don't want to give it to it.
Here, Zhuangzi compares himself to a bird of noble character and to those who are obsessed with lust. The grebe is the legendary sacred bird, and the grebe is real, it is the owl.
Owls live in the tree holes of the big trees in the suburbs and are used to coming out at night to eat the rats that live in the graveyards of the suburbs. Its cry was somber and hoarse that it sounded uncomfortable. Owls have a keen sense of smell and can smell the smell of terminally ill people. Therefore, it is true that some patients hear the owl's call and die in a very short time, so the owl is also called "mourning bird" and "evil sound bird" and so on.
Although the owl is not pleasant, it is a guardian of farmland and granaries, a beneficial bird, and a friend of mankind. Now, owls are listed as national second-level protected animals, and their sale, purchase, etc. are prohibited.