As the saying goes: "But fifteen is the year", unconsciously, the Lantern Festival is coming, let's tell the story related to the Lantern Festival.
The most important link of the Lantern Festival is to see the lanterns and guess the riddles, and Xu Wenchang, a great talent of the Ming Dynasty, is a master of guessing the riddles.
Once, Xu Wenchang was playing in Hangzhou, just in time for the Lantern Festival, and the shores of the West Lake were hung with lanterns with riddles written on them. A man stood in front of a lantern and said, "This riddle of mine has never been guessed correctly, and if it is correct, a reward of one hundred taels of silver will be awarded!" ”
"One hundred and two silver" is not a small amount of money, about the Ming Dynasty one or two silver is worth how much money is now, there are many opinions, some say 200 yuan, some say 600 yuan, and some say two or three thousand, let's take an average, 1000 yuan, then, one hundred and two silver is now 100,000 yuan, indeed a lot.
Xu Wenchang just happened to be short of money, so he went over to take a look. This is a pair of riddle couplets, the upper link is: white snake crossing the river, overhead a round of red sun. Asking to play an item that must be used in life, and the downward link to be right, is also a riddle that must be used in life, and it is really difficult for ordinary people to be right.
But is Xu Wenchang an ordinary person? Of course not, in his opinion, it was just a piece of cake.
Xu Wenchang wanted to write, and wrote the next link on the lantern: Oolong on the wall, covered with ten thousand points of Venus.
As soon as the next link came out, the onlookers were all talking about it, but still no one guessed what the mystery was, so they had to ask Xu Wenchang for advice.
Xu Wenchang was also very happy, saying: "The mystery of the upper link is the oil lamp, and the bottom of the puzzle of the lower link is the scale." ”
When everyone listened, they all suddenly realized, but didn't they? What an image! In ancient times, many young people may not have seen it, look at the following picture -
The wick is generally made of white thread, immersed in oil, is not like a white snake crossing the river? The wick head is a flame, but isn't it "a red sun overhead"?
As for the lower link, the scale rod is generally black, and when it is used up and hung on the wall, it is the "oolong upper wall", and the stars on the scale pole, under the illumination of the oil lamp, is not it "covered with ten thousand points of Venus"?
The person who came out of the mystery also shouted loudly, happily gave Xu Wenchang ten pieces of silver, and asked Xu Wenchang's high surname and name. Xu Wenchang said his name in his ear, and the mystery man suddenly realized, saying: "Ten silver to get Mr. Half a pair of subordinates, it is worth it!" ”
In the Song Dynasty, the Lantern Festival was also very lively, li Qingzhao's song "Yong Yu Le Sunset Melting Gold": "Lantern Festival, melting the weather, the second is no wind and rain." Come to summon, incense car BMW, thank him for drinking friends poets. "It's about the grand scene of the Lantern Festival.
However, in this festival of universal celebration, there are always some people who have quarrels with the common people, such as a prefect in Fuzhou, Fujian Province, who, in order to make a splash, ordered every family to make seven big flower lanterns on the day of the Lantern Festival, otherwise they will be punished.
Making flower lanterns is not so simple, it costs a lot of money, and it also makes seven lights at once, how can ordinary people afford it?
That night, before the Lantern Festival, the prefect heard that a scholar had made a large flower lamp and came to the prefect to admire it. When the prefect heard this, he was very happy and said in his heart: Who said that the people are not willing to do it? Isn't that someone rushing to do it? Therefore, the prefect led all his colleagues to admire the flower lanterns.
The lantern was more than three meters high, and it lay on the ground like a big tree with a poem written on it.
The prefect was very happy and took everyone over to see what poems were written, and as a result, the prefect's face turned green.
The poem reads:
A lamp for a rich family, a grain of millet in Taicang.
The poor family has a lamp, and the father and son cry relatively.
Yes, for the rich, a flower lamp is just a grain of rice in the granary, a small meaning, but for the poor, a flower lamp is the ration of the whole family!
The prefect finally had some conscience, and when he went back, he canceled this order, saving the people a lot of money.