Poyang Lake legend Peng Li opened the lake

Poyang Lake was called Pengli Lake in ancient times, and there is a story of Pengli opening the lake. Legend has it that in ancient times, jiangxi did not have a large lake, and it was either drought or flood every year. There was a warrior named Peng Li in northern Ganbei who was determined to dig a large lake, eradicate drought and flood, and benefit the people.

Just after breaking ground, I encountered a strange thing, which was dug up the day before and filled up again in the morning. That night, Peng Li inserted a double knife in his back, shouldered a strong bow and took advantage of the night to find out. At three o'clock, a gust of wind appeared, and a monster that was not a dragon or a snake appeared in the dust. The monster opened countless hands and feet, and even the grappling belt pickpocket filled the deep grooves dug during the day. Peng Li was furious and shot with his bow, and the monster turned around and pounced on Peng Li, who drew his sword to meet the battle. One man and one demon fought to fly sand and stones, and the moon was miserable and the stars were sad. After all, Peng Li was a mortal, and it was difficult to defeat this thousand-year-old demon, so he shook his sword in vain, turned around and retreated towards the mountain, and the demon chased after him. In a panic, Peng Li burrowed into a stone cave, and a fluffy thing slid under his feet, causing a chicken song. The monster heard the chicken chirping and ran away in fright. Peng Li picked up the furry thing and looked at it, and it turned out to be a rooster with red feathers. The rooster spat out, "I am the Twenty-Four Stars of the Twenty-Four Stars." Peng Li saw that the celestial star official knelt down and worshipped, asked the star official to help get rid of the demon, and made the matter of digging the great lake clear. Youxing said, "I have been forbidden to live here for five hundred years because of violating the Heavenly Rules, and now it is difficult to return to heaven, I can't help you get rid of the demon, you don't have to be uncomfortable, there are two rocks in the cave that have been essenced by me, and they have hatched into stone eggs, and you can use your own warm heat to hatch for seven days and seven hundred and forty-nine days, which can help you get rid of the demon." "Say goodbye and leave." Peng Li did as he said, took the stone egg back to his arms and hatched it for forty-nine days.

On the fiftieth day, Peng Li and the people began to dig again. The monster was startled in the cave and rushed out with a roar. Everyone fixed their eyes on it, and it turned out to be a green-headed centipede essence, followed by a white-haired mouse essence. The second demon surrounded Peng Li, and Peng Li could not resist, seeing that his life was in danger. Suddenly, a chicken chirped from Peng Li's arms, and two golden chickens of different sizes flew out and pounced on the centipede essence. The big chicken is like a tiger descending the mountain, opening its colored feathers, shaking its red crown, and staring at the centipede essence's head and pecking. Not to be outdone, the chicks pecked at the centipede's tail. Only the centipede spirit rolled up and down, leaning forward and backward. The white rat spirit panicked at first sight, knew that it was difficult to defeat the golden rooster, and hurriedly turned into a white smoke and fled in the direction of Sheshan.

Youxing returned to the Heavenly Court and excavated peng Li into the great lake, eradicated drought and floods, and encountered demons to obstruct the Jade Emperor. The Jade Emperor was inspired by Peng Li's ambition, and ordered the Nether realm of the Unitary Star to help Peng Li eliminate the demon. Just as Youxing walked to Sheshan, he saw the white-haired rat spirit fleeing, so he threw the ancient bell of the Sheshan Temple into the air, frightening the white rat spirit from possessing, and busied himself with punching holes, drilling into the ground, sneaking out of a deep ditch, through the lake mouth, and fleeing to the Yangtze River. The ancient bell fell next to the lake mouth and became today's Stone Bell Mountain.

Besides, the green-headed centipede essence was pecked by the two chickens and broke its claws and legs, and its skin was full of blood. Knowing that there was no hope of survival, he sprayed the poisonous gas that had accumulated for thousands of years on Peng Li, who was poisoned and fell. When the two chickens saw it, they were even more annoyed, the big chicken feet were like iron plows, and the small chicken mouths were like steel cones, pecking the centipede essence to nowhere to hide. This battle of two chickens pecking centipedes and rolling drills made the Ganbei Plain, which stretched for three hundred miles, remove a layer of soil and become a large pit, and the water of the Ganjiang River flowed down, becoming the current Poyang Lake. The centipede struggled to the death, trying to stop the water of the Ganjiang River, and crossed the body across the river, and the chicken pecked it into two pieces with one mouth, becoming today's "broken waist" (east of present-day Wucheng, Yongxiu County). The corpse of the centipede spirit became the present centipede mountain (that is, Yongxiu Songmen Mountain). The big and small chickens were resurrected and resurrected, so they were separated from the lake and turned into today's Big Chicken Mountain and Little Chicken Mountain (in the territory of today's Jishan Mountain in Duchang County). Since then, Jiangxi has had a large lake, and in order to commemorate Peng Li, the people have named the big lake "Peng Li Lake", which is today's Poyang Lake.

Excerpt from "The Legend of Poyang Lake"