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Flower City Prose | Feng Jie: Twelve Tigers Whispering

Flower City Prose | Feng Jie: Twelve Tigers Whispering

Tiger, the king of the hundred beasts, as one of the twelve zodiac signs, in the minds of Chinese, similar to the spiritual totem, the status is lofty, full of kingly style, let people love and fear. The tiger in this article, living in legends, comes from the history books, folk and the mouth of the people. The author is cleverly written, combing through the tigers he has heard and known in his life, and with his unique narrative perspective, he has made a unique induction of tigers, relaxed and interesting, and observed reality in jokes.

Twelve tigers whispered

Feng Jie

Tigers also have times when they sniff roses.

- Caption

A

Tiger of the Northern Central Plains Grandmother

tiger. The earliest was a tiger that walked around in the moonlit night of Liuxiang Village and the legend.

In the shaking fan, listen to grandma tell the story of the tiger's retribution. A practitioner walked on the road at dusk, and a tiger blocked the way, opening its blood basin and mouth. People ask, do you want to eat me? The tiger shook his head. The man was leaving, and the tiger would not let go. The man looked closely, and it turned out that there was a silver hairpin stuck in the tiger's mouth, and the doctor pulled the silver hairpin out of the tiger's mouth, and the tiger roared away. When the man returned home, in the middle of the night, he overheard the roar of the tiger outside the courtyard, and then heard a thud, and returned to peace. The next day, a fat pig was left in the yard.

Before the story was over, I shouted to myself, "The pig came from the tiger." ”

Grandma praised: "Really can." ”

Many years later, I found several sources in the notes of the ancients, all of which belonged to the same kind of items as tiger rewards, but the ingredients were different, and the tiger sent venison was not pork. The Northern Central Plains do not produce deer but only raise pigs, and Grandma has localized the animals and become more and more cordial, which is the skill of folk writers.

Before the Spring Festival, I surrounded my grandfather to read and write the Spring Festival. One of them is "Tiger Line Snow Plum Blossom Five, Crane Frost Field Bamboo Leaf Three". Grandpa said, "Tiger righteousness, wolf greed, leopard honesty." Growing up, I knew that the countryside had a folk position on animal judgment.

Ever since I had the gift of the hairpin, I also wanted to meet a tiger with a hairpin in its mouth on the country road, so that my grandfather would not have to buy meat at the Gaopingji before the Spring Festival. Half a century has passed, except for the captain on the road to search to check whether he stole corn, he has not encountered a tiger with a hairpin. Later, I saw more "tigers" wearing brand masks.

Tigers gather in the Northern Central Plains. At the temple fair, there are folk painters selling tigers in the middle hall, and many tigers are hung on the hemp rope, and the hanging tigers almost freeze to death in the cold wind. The painter told me that those who belong to the tiger must hang up the mountain tiger in their homes to ward off evil spirits, and do not hang down the mountain tiger and eat people. All the tigers that go down the mountain are hungry.

There is a painter named Sun Jiugao in Liuxiangzhai Village, who usually likes to walk around the village with his hand, see whose wall is suitable, open the painting immediately, a bit of performance art, like Yang Ningshi in the Five Dynasties period likes to see the wall inscription, which is a kind of problem of the artist. One day, he hit the green wall of my house and improvised a white tiger out of white lime, occupying a wall from east to west. The white tiger on the green wall is particularly conspicuous, "How to turn when it comes to autumn waves." Every day in the village, people and tired cattle waddle back, and the tiger will be seen in the distance, and the spirit of the people and animals will be lifted.

Flower City Prose | Feng Jie: Twelve Tigers Whispering

At night in the countryside, white tigers walking in the moonlight, I saw dappled tiger shadows, determined to grow up to be painters, sell money or suppress evil.

When I went to the society, I knew that the most famous tiger painter was not the tiger artist in the outer village of the rally, nor the Sun Jiugao of my village, but a Zhang Shanxiao who was far away in the sky, the painter Zhang Daqian and his brother, called "Tiger Fool". He raised a tiger for the tiger painting, where to lead, to the banquet there are tigers crouched next to, the banquet guests while drinking with him, while looking at the tiger's expression, the hands are shaking and often forget to pick up the dish.

One year the village matchmaker wanted to tell me a daughter-in-law, and when I asked about the genus, the other party belonged to the tiger. Sun Banxian, the "prime minister" in the village, told my grandmother that dragons and tigers fight each other, and the eight characters are incompatible. Later, it seemed that the tiger girl was good-looking, and she also grew a pair of small tiger teeth. My grandmother said that this is not a big deal, and there will definitely be a law-breaking on the Dongzhuang Temple. Who knows that the tiger girl sees my family's superstition, the economic conditions are not good and still blindly exquisite, the tiger's teeth are harvested, and the marriage is blown away. I've always missed that little tiger tooth.

Seeing that I was in danger of being "over the post" at my age, the matchmaker said that a girl belonged to the little dragon, and the temple master said that "there is no lying on one bed and two dragons." My grandmother immediately corrected herself, saying that the little dragon was not a dragon, but a snake and a long worm.

The ancients made a rule that the zodiac signs could not eat a smorgasbord in one pot, such as "the tiger roared, the rabbit trembled three times", such as "since ancient times, the white horse made a green cow", such as "the pig and the monkey do not have a head", all of which advocate family class struggle. My common sense comes from the whispers of tigers at temple fairs, including the tiger whiskers function. Sun Banxian also said that tiger whiskers can cure toothache and heal when inserted between teeth while hot. I sound like he drank porridge himself in the winter.

My father's profession is a village accountant, and he has been cautious and cautious for the family's livelihood all his life, lest he miscalculate, he said to me: "Playing with money is like playing with tigers." "The tiger became another metaphor for life.

B

Tiger History Archives copied

I grew into a male and hadn't seen a tiger until I was 31. My dad told me that painting is only "better than a cat drawing a tiger." I was the first to copy the tiger of Liu Jiji and Liu Kuiling's father and son, and the first time I heard the teacher actually say that "tigers belong to the cat family", I smiled for the first time for the tiger.

Looking at tiger annual reports, look at the following:

The modern tiger ancestor is a small carnivorous cat called "Ancient Chinese Cat", which appeared on the earth after the Pleistocene about 3 million years ago, close to the time of human appearance, and may have lived with the human ancestor Lantian people, and ancient cats have seen Lantian people roast meat. Due to climate change, the tiger spread from its birthplace to all parts of Asia, west through Central Asia to Iran and the Caucasus, across the Arabian desert into Africa, and no higher than the Caucasus Mountains into Europe; one branch entered the Korean Peninsula, blocked by the strait, and failed to set foot on the Japanese archipelago; the other through North China, Central China, south China, into the Indochina Peninsula. This branch was divided into two groups: one through Myanmar and Bangladesh to the Indian Peninsula; the other along the Peninsula of Malaysia, with women and children, crossed the Strait of Malacca and landed on the Indonesian islands of Sumatra and Java, but the tiger never swam across the Taiwan Strait. The common tiger walked into the Tongrentang tiger bone plaster and digested it in the human world; ya tiger went to the national emblem and flag of the country and no longer came down.

Flower City Prose | Feng Jie: Twelve Tigers Whispering

In 1975, when I was 11 years old, I excavated a "First Tiger in China" made of mussel shells in Puyang, North Central Plains, and the mussel shell tigers have a history of 6000 to 7000 years. Tigers have walked in the northern central plains, and although I have not seen tigers when I was a child, I have always worn tiger head shoes, a tiger head hat, and tied a tiger's belly.

Cats magnified a hundredfold under the microscope are tigers. The tiger is majestic, strong and tall, with a beautiful coat color, a yellow to red gradient, and dark stripes. The tiger has a round head, a wide snout, large eyes, a long and hard black beard between the white sides of the mouth, a thick and short neck, the same width as the shoulders, strong limbs, sharp canine teeth and claws, the ventral surface and the inside of the limbs are white, there are double lines of black longitudinal stripes on the back, there are about ten black rings on the tail, and there is a white forbidden area above the eyes, so it is called "hanging eye white-fronted tiger", which was killed by Wu Song that year. The black stripe on the tiger's forehead made Wang Xizhi write down the word "King", and it was precisely because of this era name that he could be praised as "the king of the mountains" and "the king of the beasts". How important is the symbolism of the flag, and the battlefield is also won by cutting the flag.

The tiger has always been invincible, and even when the villagers coaxed the children, the adults pulled out the tiger to deceive the child. "Cry again, the old mahoo is coming." The child immediately stopped crying. Tigers also have shortcomings. Duan Chengshi revealed in "Youyang Miscellaneous Tricks": "When the hedgehog sees the tiger, it jumps into the tiger's ear." "Tigers are afraid of hedgehogs. The Beast King has loopholes. I didn't have a chance to verify, but after reading it, I questioned, is the tiger's ear so vast? It can be like a "tiger lake".

C

Native tiger knowledge of Shi Nai'an

I didn't become a painter, I became a writer first. Both belong to craftsmen. I know that among Chinese writers, Shi Nai'an is obsessed with tigers.

He skillfully used words to instruct Wu Song how to dodge, how to swing his fists, how to arrange the moonlight, and how to fight tigers. It was Shi Nai'an who prevented Wu Song from being eaten by a large insect, instead of a whistle stick and a fist.

Shi writers have always had a tiger complex, in addition to letting Wu Song and Li Kui fight tigers, and then driving out tigers in the area of 100 miles, twelve people in the 108 generals are named tigers, accounting for more than 10 percent -- Li Zhong, smiling tiger Zhu Fu, blue-eyed tiger Li Yun, winged tiger Lei Heng, Jinmao tiger Yanshun, short-legged tiger Wang Ying, jumping tiger Chen Da, Hua Xianghu Gong Wang, Zhongxian tiger Ding Desun, golden-eyed Biao Shien, sick insect Xue Yong, and mother worm Gu Dajie. There are both male and female tigers, among which "Biao" and "Big Worm" are the pen names of tigers.

The Pippi Niu'er who ran rampant in the capital was also a "hairless worm".

The proverb says "three spots out of a harrier, three tigers out of a biao", harrier is the common name of sparrowhawk, when I was a child I saw a harrier catch a chicken. Harriers hatch in a nest and come out to eat the chicks, similar to "doves occupying the magpie's nest". The "Miscellaneous Knowledge of Decoction" says: "When a tiger gives birth to three sons, there will be one Biao." "Biao is the most vicious and can eat tigers." "Biao" is ranked between the tigers and leopards, and the order of the powers is "Dragon Tiger Biao Leopard". As the saying goes, "nine dogs and one mastiff, three tigers and one biao", the fiercest of a litter of dogs is a mastiff, and the most fierce tiger in a tiger cub is "Biao", which is "the tiger of tigers".

The average person can't see Biao. There is a "Biao" shaped animal on the Uniform of the Liupin Military Attache of the Qing Dynasty, which can be inferred that Biao does not live in the mountains and wilderness, and mostly wanders in the official field of Shitu. Belongs to the fictional tiger that does not exist.

D

Borges is building an empty tiger

The tiger is different from people, there is no border, it can freely cross the border without an exit permit. It has no previous convictions and leaves tiger hooves without archives.

The Americas do not produce tigers, it did not swim across the Bering Strait that year, causing Borges to finally go blind and never saw a tiger, he often regarded the jaguar as a tiger, and misread the tiger all his life. Borges sat in the library, mirrors refracting tigers against each other, combing through other people's tiger skins with his own words.

For example, "I saw the endless process, and because I understood everything, I also understood the words of the tiger."

For example, "The tiger exists for love."

For example, "If I have infinite power, I can make a tiger."

For example, "We're going to look for a third tiger." This one, like nothing else, will become a form of my dreams, a combination of human words."

For example, "I took off my coat, lay on the bed, and re-dreamed of a tiger."

He knew the distance between the writer and the tiger. He said: "'Zhuangzi dreamed of a tiger, in a dream he became a tiger', such a metaphor has no meaning. Butterflies have an elegant, fleeting poetic quality. If life is really a dream, then the best metaphor to suggest is the butterfly. ”

Flower City Prose | Feng Jie: Twelve Tigers Whispering

Life is like a butterfly in a dream.

Borges finally became a tiger with colorful languages and realized his childhood tiger dream. This "tiger of a tiger" eventually became a "writer of writers." Borges was blind in his later years, with only the only gold left in his eyes. Lifting the tiger skin, I saw that Borges was the "Biao" in literature.

And

The flesh of the Goryeo tiger is drunk

I followed a Korean girl to the border city of Ji'an, went to the Goguryeo ruins to pay homage to the "Good King Stele", which is the largest stone stele with calligraphy value in the world, and bought a local rubbing of the "Good King Stele" in the drizzle. The rubbings are known as "black tigers" in the collection world, and there is a white tiger corresponding to the murals of the Goguryeo ruins. On the field, corn is turquoise, conceived at jointing. The white tiger waded through the water, and the iron net blocked it. From the ruins, the opposite shore is fiercer than the tiger.

The tiger is a god worshipped by Koreans. When I was a child, I watched the movie "Surprise Attack on the White Tiger Regiment" in the countryside of the Northern Central Plains, and a white tiger pattern was seized in it. For the first time, I knew that there were still white tigers in the world. The white tiger is mixed into the yellow tiger color, and the gene mutates, causing a chaotic color. In fact, the Korean tiger and the Chinese Siberian tiger are of the same origin, and the mascot was selected as the tiger for the Olympic Games in Seoul that year. In Korean mythology, the tiger wants to become a human being, and the sun god tests it, allowing it to spend a hundred days in the cave, allowing it to eat only garlic. The tiger could not wait a hundred days and failed to fulfill his wish. It can be seen that garlic is important to tigers. Hukou does not want to be full of dead garlic, which is different from the taste of Henan people. The northeast people of Changbai Mountain worship the mountain god, kill more pigs to prepare wine, burn incense to offer, but do not know that tigers prefer to eat beef, eat mutton, it is not suitable for dog meat, eat dogs will be drunk, so there is a "dog is the tiger's wine" said; pork is not on the tiger's taste, eat pigs will be paralyzed. Because pork and dog meat are too fragrant and greasy, I have the feeling of "meat drunkenness" when eating braised meat during the Spring Festival, which was once the ideal of childhood hairpins.

Flower City Prose | Feng Jie: Twelve Tigers Whispering

Things in the world should not be too luxurious, and we should eat less pork and dog meat.

The Tiger Hunting Sutra of the Northeasterners is "If you see the tiger lying down, do not move." That is, to tell the public. If you see a tiger running, don't stop, chase it and shoot it." The "sixteen-character policy" similar to guerrilla warfare. Now fighting tigers is punishable by heavy sentences. When the tiger came to Henan, everyone began to fight the tiger on paper, and the tiger was divided and sold in the form of four feet and three cuts. I have been to Zhuangzi's hometown of Minquan County, Henan, and the painting tiger village regards the painting of tigers as an industry, wholesale and retail, and sells tiger meat. I saw people painting tiger butts, some people painting tiger waists, some painting tiger heads, some painting tiger tails, and even people painting beards or stripes. Assembly line operation, quick and accurate, mobile phone video recording, and finally composed of a complete tiger. The whole village has formed a tiger industry chain, which is exported to home and abroad, and the supply of tigers is in short supply, which shows that the demand for tigers in society is large. The village chief told me that there were fifty tiger painters and five "tiger kings" in the village. It is unheard of in the art world.

This was something that Zhuangzi had not thought of at that time, he only dreamed of butterflies, not of tigers. Zhuangzi in order to cooperate with Borges.

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