Chapter 24 Meet the dragon

Xian Sui Fa Chun, the year of Bing Chen in the lunar calendar, is calculated to belong to the dragon according to the twelve zodiac signs, so it is also called the year of the dragon.Li Xuchang, a famous photographer in Hong Kong, said the year before last that Chen belongs to water, C belongs to fire, water and fire are both economical, flying dragons are in the sky, and Bingchen is a year of rapid development for us, so the year of Bingchen is called auspicious. There is nothing wrong with the year.Our compatriots welcome the Year of the Dragon very much and attach great importance to it. There are adult men and women in the family, and they all hope to get married during the period of the Rabbit Tail and the Dragon Head, so that they can give birth to a dragon zodiac in the Year of the Dragon to shine on the family lintel.All in all, the Year of the Dragon is a symbol of prosperity and auspiciousness, both in the country and among the people.

There must be a lot of articles about dragons in the year of the dragon. After much deliberation, I decided to write a few stories about dragons from my own experience, to embellish and embellish, so as not to conflict with the articles written by everyone. In the ten years of the Republic of China, there was a sudden flood in Tianjin. At that time, Mr. Liansheng Fang Dishan, who was famous for his antithetical couplets in Tianjin, escaped from the window on the second floor while sitting in a bathtub. It can be seen how fierce and rapid the water was at that time.When the water receded, the author rushed from Beiping to Tianjin to visit relatives and friends everywhere. I heard that General Xikun, one of the four kings of the Golden Dragon, had appeared in Haihe River. Reward God for singing.

The ancestor of Xu Yusheng, who gave up his relatives, was a river governor in the former Qing Dynasty. Because of the Yellow River breach, he couldn't join the dragon for a long time, and jumped into the flood and died.His family has a manuscript "Longzi Handbook" with rich pictures and texts, which includes the life of the great officials who have contributed to the river control and died in the line of duty, the gifts from the deceased, and the incarnations after death (most of which are transformed into dragons and snakes).It is said that when the dikes collapse and the dragons finally merge, there must be a kind of river god, one of the four golden dragon kings, to protect them. It is clear which one is coming after reading the "Dragon Posture Handbook".However, this kind of books are all carefully collected, and they don't want to be read casually on weekdays.One year, on June 6th of a year, the Xu family released books as usual, and the author happened to catch up with them. Although I didn't pay much attention to such things at that time, I had never seen this kind of book, so I also read it. I only remember that the first one was King Dayu, the incarnation of the river god in the past dynasties, some are like dragons, some are like snakes, but every feature is described in detail in the book.I always have this impression in my mind.

Now that I have heard that General Xikun has appeared, there is a chance to see the dragon, how can I easily miss it?So I rushed to Dawang Temple to see the excitement.As soon as we arrived at Dawang Temple, there were huge crowds of people inside and outside the temple. It took a lot of effort to get close to the altar. General Kun Ganqing is a small green and blue snake more than two feet long and slightly thicker than a thumb.What is strange is that the snake's body is coiled on the plate, its neck is raised high, and its legs are unmovable. Although there are more than a dozen large incense burners around, each burner is burning with a hundred speed ding ( The name of the incense), the flying flames were shining and approached the general's forehead, but this little snake held its head up, unafraid of moving, accepting the incense for four days, and quietly disappeared.What is going on is always a mystery in the author's mind, and I haven't figured it out until now.

The hot summer in Hankou is famous all over the country, and the summer in the 21st year of the Republic of China was even more unusually hot.Thanks to the concern of Mr. Fang Yaoting (Benren), a well-known man from Wuhan, I moved to Jishantang in the middle of the Yellow Crane Tower in Wuchang in summer.This shantang gives out porridge and cotton clothes and quilts in winter, and only gives out summer soup and medicine in summer. There are two elderly people in charge, so things are very leisurely.One of them, Yu Liren, was the head of the soap team in the Wuchang Prefecture Yamen in the late Qing Dynasty. He once served Liang Dingfen, the magistrate of Wuchang Prefecture.Every holiday, Mr. Yu took me to various places of interest in Hanyang, Wuchang.

One day, when I entered the Qingchuan Pavilion, which was luxuriant with fragrant grass, there was a square brick pavilion in front of it, and there was a well more than twenty feet away from the pavilion. There was a rusty manhole cover on the well, and it was locked with a big iron lock.Mr. Yu said that there is an evil dragon locked in the well, which is one of the four evil dragons subdued by King Dayu to control the water. This dragon is called Wu Muqi.I asked Mr. Yu why he knew so clearly. He said that when he first arrived at the Yamen as an official, Zhang Xiangshuai (Zhang Zhidong) was the one who made the platform.Since the bet in the well is a dragon, let's see what it looks like.So a locksmith was asked to open the lock cover, and the manhole cover was connected with a thick iron chain, hanging down into the well, and dozens of peasants were hired to pull the iron chain up, but the iron chains were pulled more and more, and the pile was higher than the house. , the iron chain has not been pulled out, but gradually it is difficult to pull, and more laborers are hired to pull it. For a while, the water in the well is caught in the wind, and the roar is soaring, and the well water overflows with turbulence. Everyone is caught off guard, and once they let go, they pull for a whole day The thick iron chain fell back into the well in an instant.Although Dang Xiangshuai doesn't believe in strange powers and gods, at this moment, he can only burn incense and say goodbye, and still lock and seal it.At that time, there was still a wooden sign notice, but the notice has long since disappeared.

But until now, the well is still locked and no one dares to open it.This incident was witnessed by Mr. Yu, so he said it vividly.Later, the author once mentioned to He Xuegong, the governor of Wuhan at that time, that there was Zhu Chuanjing, the counselor of Suizong, who also agreed to open the well to see what happened.However, He Xuegong has always been steady and prudent in his life and work. He said that after the flood in Wuhan last year (the flood in Wuhan in the 20th year of the Republic of China, which lasted for more than 70 days), he went to provoke that evil dragon again this year, in case there is another flood. That would be bad.Since Xuegong said so, everyone just laughed it off.

Later, in the "Dongling Xiaozhi" written by Mr. Guo Xiaolu, Fujian Marquis (Guo Zefa was the state affairs manager), he said that the evil dragon Wumuqi in Qingchuan Pavilion was exactly the same as what Mr. Yu saw.He said that Sizhou, Anhui Province was also held by King Dayu, and there was an evil dragon. Probably the pig dragon in the Peking opera "Flooding Sizhou" is the sacred one. , Guo said that there are four evil dragons in total, and the ins and outs of the other two dragons are also very clear. Unfortunately, I don't have this book in my hand, so I can't remember it for a while.

Before the Anti-Japanese War, Shejian and a few friends were transporting and selling salt in Dongtai, Xinghua, Tai County, Lixiahe, Jiangsu.When the Anti-Japanese War broke out, the government was afraid that the salt would be used by the enemy, and the salt that had been taxed was ordered to be evacuated free of tax. The salt warehouses in all counties had to close down, and all the furniture that made money were gathered in the warehouses of Tai County for storage.In the early years, in all walks of life, in addition to their ancestors, they also had their own guardian gods.Those who do salt work eat the sea and walk the rivers, so the sacrifices are all the river officials who died in the line of duty in the past dynasties, and the imperial conferment of a certain general.After the victory of the Anti-Japanese War, the author came to Tai County and planned to rehabilitate the old business, so the tablets enshrined by the generals in various places were all placed on the long table against the wall of the main house.The troops stationed at Li Tianxia were transferred separately, and Huang Botao's troops in Yangchuan took over the defense.When Huang Bu first arrived in Tai County, he was not familiar with the place, so he looked for a place to live everywhere. He saw that the big house in Xiaba was nice, and a platoon leader came in to have a look. He looked around in the living room, and left without saying a word.Later, Huang Botao entered Guangxiao Temple in Tai County by himself. He is a fellow from Tianjin. The author invited him to eat boiled fish and paste pastries. As soon as he entered the living room, he said that he heard from his subordinates that there was a high-ranking official in Tai County, and there were ten generals in the previous generation. Many people, although there are many groups of houses idle, but they did not dare to borrow them. Brother, you know the reason, you can't think of it, it is the Dragon King who made your confession, this general, that general, a bunch of stunned people Qing was frightened away.Only now did I know that I was blessed by the Dragon King of the Four Seas, so I was spared a lot of idleness and a lot of talk.

In the seventeenth or eighth year of the Republic of China, before Yang Baozhong changed his literary field, he sang old students in the Yang Xiaolou troupe. He knew that Wu Tiechang would sing. Talk about it carefully.Cheng Yanqiu's master Rong Diexian, Zhen Hongkui and Wu Tiechang are close relatives, so Rong Zhen and Wu Tiechang invited Wu Tiechang to have a meal and drink at Wulong Pavilion in Beihai.Baozhong knew that although Wu Tiechang had good wine, he didn't drink at all because of the sores on his neck caused by rats, but when he encountered good wine, he would drink it all.In order to please the Iron Works, Baozhong also took Erguotou wine that had been brewed with magnolia flowers from Dajue Temple for many years.Singing pays attention to blowing and singing. In winter, there are not many tourists in Beihai. Even talking and singing took an entire hour. Drunk, but also a little too much.Once the wine is full, there will be more talk in the iron factory.He said that there are three Nine-Dragon Walls in China, one is the screen wall in the Huangji Hall in Da Nei, one is in Datong Mansion, Shanxi, and the other is the Nine-Dragon Wall in Beihai.Among the three, there is only Nine Dragon Wall in Beihai. Because of the completion of Xiaoxitian Ten Thousand Buddhas Building, the Tibetan Tantric monk consecrated it. He saw the colorful Nine Dragon Wall and shimmering rays of light.If it is really psychic, once it breaks through the wall and flies away, and the court interrogates it, it will be a big trouble.So he stopped chanting the mantra immediately, but there was a blue dragon among them, already possessed by the spirit of youth.Normally, everyone in the Tai family knew that Wu Tiechang was a bit of a ghost, and someone had seen him perform the big moving method. Today, since he was drunk, he invited him to perform in front of the Nine Dragon Wall, and opened his eyes.A group of four people arrived in front of the Nine Dragon Wall, because there was a barbed wire fence in front of the wall, so they couldn't get close. Wu Tiechang took out a handkerchief and threw it at the blue dragon's head. Looking at the eyes of the blue dragon's whiskers and horns, they were all moving. Yang Zhen and the others thought that they might be dazzled after drinking, but Rong Diexian didn't drink any alcohol, so he could clearly see the dragon's head, and the whiskers and horns were shaking, lifelike.It took about three minutes to come to a standstill.This incident was told by Yang Baozhong after Wu Tiechang's death, and it was not expected to be false.

Some of the above-mentioned short stories about dragons have been witnessed, heard, or experienced personally. In this era of prosperous science, the truth is incomprehensible, and no one believes it when told.But they are all definite facts, which make people unable to figure out the mystery, so writing them out now is nothing but nonsense.