Love to play and can play is a characteristic of old Beijingers. Walking birds, playing chess, playing the piano, listening to plays, looking for old books... People of all cultural levels and economic abilities have their own hobbies. With their unique patience and sophistication, Beijingers take these pastimes to the extreme. They are not only a landscape of old Beijing, but also an indispensable part of Beijing's culture.
In winter, the old Beijingers have fun "song insects", which is a scene, a pleasure for the old Beijingers, although the insects are small, they occupy a place in the "flowers, birds, fish and insects". Heavy snow, the cold is very strong, the whole city of Beijing is wrapped in silver, carrying the grasshoppers in the gourds or sticks of the gourd, walking in the alleys of the hutongs where pedestrians are sparsely populated, I don't know whose courtyard wall stretches out a bunch of snow, just falling on your head, at this time the grasshoppers "squeak, squeak, squeak" sing cheerful little songs, it is simply a great joy of life.
The goodness of the songbirds begins with the royal family
The earliest historical record that can be found so far is the Tang Dynasty, according to the "Kaiyuan Tianbao Testament": "Every autumn, the concubines in the palace catch crickets in small gold cages, close them in cages, place them on the pillow, and listen to their sounds at night. By the Song Dynasty, it had become popular among the people, and according to the "Records of the Old Man of the West Lake", the people of Hangzhou "every morning, more than the north and south of Guanxiang, there are often thirty or fifty fire fighters." And the "Record of Dreams" also mentioned that the Beijing street market is "specially designed for shed heads, fighting yellow heads, raising hundreds of insects and ants, and promoting weaving." ”
It is said that Zhu Zhanji, the Xuande Emperor of the Ming Dynasty, was the best at fighting crickets, and it is said in the "Wan LiYe Zhi Zhi" that "I was the most skillful at this play by Emperor Xuanzong, and I secretly ordered the Suzhou prefect Zhong Jinqian, and at one point he said: 'Promote the weaving of Qu Qu, the Xuande Emperor wants.'" This phrase is still spoken today. ”
In the Qing Dynasty, the "Qing Palace Chinese New Year's Eve and the Xinzheng Court Feast, placed on the side of the feast with embroidered cages to store autumn insects, covered from the Kangxi Dynasty. In the small garden north of Shi Fengchen Garden, the greenhouse where the children of autumn insects are bred, such as Tang Huaran, and the feast is undertaken. From then on, it is a constant system".
The so-called "Tang Flower", that is, in winter, the fire is used to cultivate flowers and urge them to open, also known as "Tang Flower", and there are still Tang Flower Docks in Zhongshan Park today, that is, the ancient Tang Flowers. The Tang Flower Room is warm as spring, and at the same time it is used to raise songbirds, which can be described as killing two birds with one stone. Generally speaking, songworms are autumn insects, the life expectancy is only 120 days, placed in the greenhouse, its life expectancy will be greatly extended, the Annual Feast, accompanied by the sound of songbirds, adds a lot of fun.
Three major songworms
"Raising autumn insects in winter, mainly grasshoppers, oil gourds, crickets, golden bells, and smacks, not only listening to calls, but also enjoying their shape." Mr. Weng Yihong said so in "The Art of Living of Old Beijingers". Among them, it is mainly based on cockroaches, grasshoppers and oil gourds, known as the three major songworms, and few people today can distinguish these three major songworms. Today we will talk about these two kinds of songbirds.
Grasshoppers
Grasshoppers are also known as singing cockroaches, brothers, and grasshoppers, and the ancients called them "slugs" or "slugs". It is 35 to 50 mm long, the whole body is green, the antennae are thin and long, and the body is thick. The forebutment is particularly large, the abdomen is also larger, the wings are shorter, only half of the abdomen can be covered, and the hind feet are longer than the front and middle feet. The insect has a large head, hard and strong jaw teeth, 60 mm long antennae, and is yellowish brown.
The body color of grasshoppers can vary depending on the living environment except for green. The black-brown ones are called "Green Brother", "Green Brother" or "Three Green Grasshoppers"; the yellow ones are called "Rice White" or "Grass White Grasshoppers". Because the color of its eyes is different, it can be divided into "green eyes", "black eyes" and "red eyes" according to the color of their eyes. Experienced players believe that "yellow is not as good as green, green is not as good as black", and there is more "green is not as good as black, black is not as good as red". Among them, the "red-eyed brother" is known as the best.
First of all, this grasshopper is a hobby of many people in the courtyard. In the past, after the wheat harvest, grasshoppers began to appear in the alleys. Hawkers mostly pack grasshoppers in cages woven of straw or wheat straw. The appearance of the cage is very fancy, there are round, square, octagonal, triangular, you can hear the crisp sound of grasshoppers in the distance, attracting many people in the courtyard to buy.
In the "Records of the Yanjing Dynasty", there is an account that "after the May of the Beijing Master, there were Qing Yun'er (grasshoppers) selling along the street, each of which was only one or two texts". Most of these grasshoppers come from YiXian county in Hebei Province and laishui area, one is big, and the other is a crisp and pleasant sound. And the people in the courtyard buy grasshoppers when they buy one, most of them buy doubles, one is that old Beijingers have the habit of pairing up in pairs, double is auspicious number, and the other is that two can tease each other and call more joyfully. Most of the grasshopper cages bought are hung on the eaves, lintels, grapevines or begonia trees in front of windows or yards. Since then, the sound of grasshoppers has become the most beautiful sound in the courtyard, and it can be called until Lidong.
Beijingers have a lot of exquisite grasshoppers, one is to choose the best grasshoppers, pay attention to the full beard, the sound is pleasant; the second is the color is positive, the quality is good, generally choose more black, green, green three kinds; the third is to be good at moving and love to jump, the more lively and noisy the grasshopper, the more popular. According to the seasons, there are summer and autumn, "LiQiu" before the summer grasshopper, "Liqiu" after the autumn grasshopper, good breeders can raise until the middle of winter.
The grasshopper is a "tenor" whose voice is clearer and louder, and is named after its call. Big head, good body, yuanbao belly, wide and tall shoulders for good looks, such a grasshopper must be good to hear, but to really reach the boutique level, you have to use the skill of pointing medicine. In the past, some rich or status people in the courtyard would run away from hebei, Shandong and even northeast China to buy a high-priced grasshopper in order to buy a high-quality grasshopper.
Cockroaches
Then there was the cockroach, whose scientific name was cricket, and the worm was brown all over its body and had long antennae. The hind feet are large and good at jumping. The male is 20 to 25 mm long and has 2 tail whiskers, commonly known as "two tails". The female has 4 tail whiskers, two long and two short, with an oviduct in the middle. The crickets have dark and reflective heads and orange-yellow longitudinal stripes. The males have forelimbs up to the ventral end, most individuals have no hindwings, and a few males have hindwings and can fly.
It is one of the more representative of autumn songbirds. The male of this insect is good at fighting, and since ancient times, our people have watched it fight for fun, so it is also called "fighting cricket" and "general". It is not only aggressive, but also good at jumping, and good at singing, so it has become a popular insect for generations. The male insect pronunciation mirror is slightly rectangular in shape and has a loud chirping sound. The syllables are symmetrical and slightly pronounced. When pronounced, the two forewings stand up and make a "squeaky" sound due to friction, which can continuously chirp. This insect not only makes a pleasant sound, but also has a combative habit, so it is considered to be the most valuable kind of playing insect, and the repeatedly victorious crickets can often be fried to a very high value.
Some articles call it Mingxuan, and the more common name is to promote weaving. Because as soon as I heard the clams calling, it was autumn, and the weather was getting cooler, reminding people that it was time to prepare winter clothes. Therefore, there is a saying that "promoting weaving and slacking" is said. The Southern Song Dynasty was similar to Jia Xiangdao, and he was particularly happy to promote the drama of weaving, and wrote a monograph: "Promoting weaving".
Most of the clams played by Beijingers are moya yellow produced in Dezhou, Shandong, iron head blue back and black tooth green hemp head in Ningyang, as well as "fudi clams" in Sujiatuo, the northwest suburbs of Beijing, the "shrimp head green" in Heilongtan and the "green matou" in Fushouling, Shijingshan.
The joy of raising clams lies in their fighting and singing. In the old days, every autumn, fighting clams became a common custom in the courtyard, from the princes and nobles to the common people, there were good fighting clams. But most of the average Beijinger fight without gambling, fighting is a pleasure, even if you hang up a little "salary", it is just a pack of cigarettes, half a pound of "mixed candy", and there are very few big bets.
When fighting, the cockroaches pay attention to the use of clips, hooks, flashes, dodges, hugs, hoops, bites, pinches, rolls and other "tricks". Raising clams needs pots, and fighting cockroaches also need pots, and it is very exquisite. Ordinary people in the courtyard mostly use wooden cages and bamboo cages to raise them, and when fighting, they often use clay pots or clay pots. The general fighting of the cockroach is not fascinating, while the good cockroach is not, and its titles are also beautiful: the winged general, the red-bearded marshal, the giant, the invincible king, the spotted leopard and so on.
Although the cockroaches are small, they are also exquisite. The same is the dou moth, in the courtyard is also divided into three, six and nine grades. The most inferior thing is just a few small children squatting in their own yard or doorway fighting for fun. The utensils are nothing more than enamel clay pots and glass bottles, and all the clams are not high-grade goods, most of them are coffin boards and old rice mouths that they have caught. In the middle, some literati fight in their homes, mainly for entertainment, and meet with clams. The superior are high-ranking officials and nobles, who mostly set up cases in the courtyard and invite some noble friends and distinguished guests to gather for a liberal and elegant fun, but they hang up more gambling games when fighting.
Around the Mid-Autumn Festival, it is the climax of the fight between the cockroaches in the courtyard, and the fight between the two little clams can attract more than a dozen people to watch and applaud. The victorious cockroaches shook their wings and roared, and the master suddenly felt his face glow. If the autumn is divided equally, the number of battles is not decided, and the master will give in peace. The little cockroaches bring endless fun to the courtyard.
Oil gourd
The oil gourd is also known as the knotted yellow. This insect belongs to the family Orthoptera cricketidae. The body is 20 to 30 mm long, 6 to 8 mm wide, and the antennae are brown and 20 to 30 mm long. The body color is black-brown, yellow-brown and so on, and it is shiny and shiny. The head is black, spherical in shape, and the face is yellowish brown, and from the back of its head, the two antennae are "eight" shaped, and the antennae are black around the antennae. The dorsal plate of the forebreast is dark brown with left and right symmetrical pale markings, and the lower half of the side plate is pale. The forewings are brown on the back, shiny, and yellow on the sides. The tail whiskers are long , can exceed the posterior femoral segment , and are lighter in color. The ovipositor valve of the female is straight and longer than the hindquarter segment.
Oil gourd and cricket belong to the same cricket, but quite different, also known as knotted yellow, because its whole body is shiny, as if it has just been fished out of the oil bottle, and because of its sound like oil poured out of the gourd, but also because its adults love to eat a variety of oil plants, such as peanuts, soybeans, sesame seeds, etc., so it got the name of "oil gourd". The oil gourd is larger and has a wing-formed spine in the middle of the tail.
The oil gourd is used to listen to the bark. Its call is different from crickets, the sound is elegant and varied, from high to low a series, followed by a series from high to low, the jargon is called "You'er", the more the call "You'er", the more powerful, a whole set of several Yo-Er down, euphemisms, depression, strong sense of rhythm is not noisy.
Playing with the oil gourd also pays attention to the "reverse call", because the oil gourd rests during the day and calls at night, and the call is extremely loud, so it is necessary to use a special process to "call backwards", so that he can call during the day and rest at night.
In addition, the sustainability of the oil gourd's cry can be improved by exercise. Some oil gourds have a short call, weak persistence, it doesn't matter, all you have to do is to maintain the temperature that can make it call, let it keep calling, and its call duration will naturally be stronger for a long time, and the sound will be louder! Of course, this is also related to the innate conditions of the oil gourd itself!
Having said so much, many people may be easy to remember, in layman's terms:
Crickets are crickets, easy to fight.
The oil gourd is a big cricket that is good at chirping.
Grasshoppers are grasshoppers, and good figures can sing.
An elegant grasshopper in captivity - a grasshopper
Order the medicine
In order to make the sound of the songbird more beautiful, the ancients also created some medicine to change its sound. Because insect calls are not made by the mouth, but through the friction of vibrating organs, locust songbirds mostly make sounds by rubbing their hind legs against their forewings, and crickets and crickets are sounded by the friction of the front and hindwings.
The medicine is made of rosin, yellow wax, and cinnabar, and the work of boiling is very important, otherwise it will not stick firmly. According to Mr. Wang Shixiang's record, the point medicine not only has the theory of cover medicine and the bottom medicine, but also has the difference between the bright medicine and the dark medicine, and the point grasshopper uses the method of throwing the medicine, and the point oil gourd and the moth have the method of continuation, of which the doorway is quite deep, and non-professionals cannot master it.
Choose a gourd
In winter, the insect is stored, and the gourd is used, and each insect is one type, and the size and length must be suitable for the body of the insect.
The grasshopper gourd type must be long and round, and the copper wire must be used between the mouths of the seeds to prevent poking whiskers.
The oil gourd gourd, which is slightly shorter and slightly wider in the lower part, must be smashed with triad soil to form a slope shape, like a wild cave.
Cricket gourds are smaller than oil gourd gourds, with the same posture, and must also be smashed to the bottom.
Winter is extremely cold, so the keeper often carries the gourd into the cotton jacket to its own body temperature, and warms the autumn insects to listen to its song. Mr. Weng Yihong in the "Winter Talk Autumn Worms" article described more fascinatingly, there are insect lovers and do not want to carry into the arms, do not come out of the plumbing method, with a large round cage (wooden) in the middle of the tin pot, the pot boiling water, up to half a day and still warm, after dinner, easy to boil water again, can be warm all night.
The gourd that raises insects has both practical and ornamental dual value, both can raise insects to listen, but also can be enjoyed and played, in terms of its production method, it can be divided into this long, neck, fan fire painting, stone flower and other kinds, there are carved flowers, carved flowers and hot flowers outside, the pattern is mostly simple mascots, such as Pine Crane Yannian, Fulu Shouxi, Meilan Bamboo Chrysanthemum, etc., simple and elegant, it is a work of art. Among them, this long gourd is the most rare, because its shape is completely formed naturally, although the shape is limited, but it has a natural charm. Moreover, the long gourd that meets the requirements of feeding insects is rare, which is suitable for insects to live and can transmit sound very well, and has extremely harsh requirements for the proportion of gourds.
Snow rises in the north at night,
The fire in the furnace has risen.
Boiling water to make tea red,
Listen quietly to the insects.
People who don't know the types of songbirds and don't understand why someone likes them, after reading this article, do you know more?