The famous seedless jujube is abundantly produced in the Leling area of Shandong. Why don't the dates here have cores?
Legend has it that in the early years, there was a very talented and very modest young man in Leling. Once, he went to the countryside and met the princess of the king, and the two fell in love at first sight and fell in love deeply. When the king knew, he would see the young man in person.
On this day, the youth was led into the "Yangshen Pavilion" of the Great King. The king saw that the young man was generous and polite, and he was already somewhat satisfied, but he did not know what his moral integrity was, so he wanted to test him.
The king pointed to a painting in the middle of the pavilion and asked, "You see, how is this painting?" The youth got up and looked at it, and saw that it was a picture of a "red date"—on a rice paper that was more than a foot long, there was only a small red date. The youth said, "Is this painting also worth hanging in the nave?" When the king saw that he did not see the brilliance of the painting, he ordered a man to bring a pot of clear water, scooped up a spoon himself, and poured it on the red dates. I saw that the red dates were gradually disappearing; a small seedling appeared in the place where the red dates were originally painted. The king scooped up a spoonful of water and splashed it on it, and the seedlings grew into a large jujube tree; the jujube tree sprouted "noisily", gave birth to leaves, blossomed, and bore fruit. The heavy red dates bent the branches, and the entire Yangshen Pavilion was filled with a piece of jujube fragrance!
The king stepped forward with joy, pulled up the scroll and shook it slightly, and the picture immediately returned to its original state - only a small red date remained! The king smiled and twisted his beard and looked at the youth. Who knew that the young man said, "If you want to hang on the wall and admire, this 'red date' is not as good as the 'green bamboo' in the corner." Why doesn't the king change it? ”
When the king listened, he was angry! This young man asked me to move the love paintings that had been hanging in the middle hall for more than two years to the corner, which was really unlearned and arrogant! When the young man saw that the king's anger had become a big red face, his heart could not help but get anxious, and he busied himself with a deep salute: "Great king, I mean . . . . . ”
"Ahem!" The king interrupted him and shouted, "Send! ”
Just like that, the young man was blasted out of the palace gate!
The princess did not know what was going on and came forward. The great king was angry at the mouth of the fire, pointing at his daughter and scolding, "Unworthy! He fell in love with a morally talentless, flying little man! ”
When the princess heard this, she stomped her feet in a hurry: "Daddy, where is he bad?" "No-void-heart!" The princess knew that her father hated young people the most, and now when she heard this, she couldn't help but tremble in her heart, and "poof" fell to her knees in front of her father, bursting into tears, begging her father to fulfill them!
When the king saw that his daughter was so delusional, he trembled with anger, slapped the table and said, "Unworthy, you dare to meet that little man again and beat him to death!" Immediately, he ordered the princess to be strictly guarded!
As for the young man, since he was expelled from the palace by the king, he did not think about tea or food, and he missed the princess all day. Later, when I heard the news of the princess's imprisonment, my heart was even more burning! He ran to a mound next to the palace and tiptoed into the palace. I don't know how many days and nights I looked at, but finally I gradually fell to the ground and never got up again. People sympathized with him and buried his body on the mound.
Who knew that the next year, a sapling grew on his grave, which looked very much like a local jujube tree, and also produced many big red dates!
Besides, the king knew that the young man was dead, so he released the princess. The princess ran to the grave of the youth sadly and wept! She was crying when she suddenly saw a red date fall to her feet and "snap" into three petals. The princess picked it up and looked at it: Strange, how come this date has no core? Pick a few more, break them open and see, still seedless! The princess suddenly realized: he is "humble"!
Holding the "humble jujube", the princess ran to her father with tears in her eyes and said, "Father King, you said that the young man was not humble, look, this is his incarnation!" ”
When the king took a look, it was indeed "humble heart" and told him about the painting that day. The princess immediately pounded her chest and cried, "Father king, you... You don't know, that's what he drew! Saying this, he took a handkerchief from his arms and handed it to the king: "You see, there are red dates he painted on it!" ”
The king took a look at it, and only then did he realize that he was wrong. He held the humble jujube in both hands, remorseful, and ordered people to move the jujube tree to the palace and ask people to take good care of it!
Some people say that dates were not called "dates" before this. It was because after this great king moved the humble jujube tree into the official, in order to let it receive the spring light first, he named it jujube (early)! But it is still very humble. Every year, we have to wait for the peach tree and the almond tree to produce green leaves and blossoms, and then it will slowly sprout and never compete for spring!
To this day, the humble heart jujube continues to maintain this virtue. It is today's seedless jujube!
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