In the summer, there was a cicada chirping outside the window, a sentence of three stacks, high and low, and the sound entered the ear. Cicadas are representative of summer. The word "Xia" on the oracle bone is the appearance of a cicada.
In ancient Chinese culture, cicadas are not only cicadas, but also the externalization of the human spirit.
It has been "ascetic" in the dark soil of the underground for many years, accumulating thick and thin hair, waiting only for a summer, breaking out of the soil, fading the shell, flapping its wings and flying, a blockbuster. The ancients believed that cicadas inhabited high branches, drank dew, and were clean. Therefore, in the minds of the ancients, it became an image of elegance and incorruptibility. For thousands of years, cicadas have entered poetry into paintings and become regular guests of the writers and inkers.
Cao Zhi's "Cicada Endowment" praises: "Solid and widowed, lonely and long-lasting." The voice is loud and strong, like the heart of a virgin. ”
In the Biography of Qu Yuan, it is said: "Cicadas, degenerating from turbidity, do not gain the dirt of the world beyond the floating dust." ”
The early Tang Dynasty poet Yu Shinan's "Cicada" wrote: "Drinking dew from weeping, flowing out of the sparse trees, and being high and distant, not through the autumn wind"
Take the cicada into the jade, wear it on the body, show yourself and wake yourself up.
In addition, the characteristic that cicadas need to be shelled is also regarded by the ancients as a symbol of immortality. Since the Han Dynasty, the feathering of cicadas has been used as a metaphor for people to be reborn. Placing a jade cicada in the mouth of the deceased is called a cicada, which means that the spirit does not die and is resurrected.
After the Ming and Qing dynasties, jade cicadas were relatively rare as mouth-bearing devices, and most of them were used to wear. Wearing it on the waist means "waist wrapped around the waist", and wearing it on the chest means "a blockbuster". If the jade cicada is lying on a branch, it is a harmonic golden branch and jade leaf.
Among the jade cicada crafts, the most widely known one is the "Han Eight Knives". The so-called "eight knives" does not mean that only eight knives are carved, "eight" is just an approximation, which is used to describe its strong and powerful lines, concise knife technique, seemingly few knives, and the charm of the artifacts is exhausted, which is impressive. Moreover, when using the knife, pay attention to the symmetry of the left and right, forming an effect like the Chinese character "eight", which is very special.
Today, in the hearts of many people, cicadas also represent fun. It was a memory of childhood: a group of children, carrying buckets, rods, nets, shouting, catching cicadas. The sound of cicadas also includes the laughter of children. In this way, it is beautiful.
These memories are also found in various literary works, and Mr. Wang Zengqi's "Cicadas" said: "Children in Beijing catch cicadas with sticky poles and apply glue to their heads. When we were kids, we used spider webs. Choose a strong long reed, one end is plucked into a triangle, tied with a thread, and when you see a large spider web, you will twist it, and the triangle is full of spider webs, which is very sticky. I looked at a cicada, and with a gentle touch, the cicada's wings were glued. ”
From ancient times to the present, cicadas are not only natural things in the Oriental context, but also have cultural attributes. There is also Zen in the cicadas, listening to the sound of cicadas like boiling, and realizing that "there is great silence in the midst of the big noise". Ancient Buddhist disciples would also choose to accompany the cicadas in their practice, and the cicadas became quieter and quieter, and there was a kind of enlightenment of "where to stir up dust".
Cicadas, not just cicadas. The summer will be exhausted, the cicadas will grow farther and farther away, you can leave the jade cicada in your hand, remember the summer and remember the flowing years, understand the ancient people's state of mind, and feel the warmth of jade.