Chapter 36 spooky flower fight

The ancestor traveled to the south of the Five Ridges, resigned from office and returned to Beijing, bringing back a few servants from Cantonese.They had nothing to chat about, and they often mentioned the grand occasion of the Flower Show in Guangdong, such as sleeping in the wilderness at night, praying in temples, stealing graves and digging bones for signs, and the vivid and vivid words were fascinating.I heard many such bizarre stories when I was a child, so the term Huahuahui is not unfamiliar to me. In the fourteenth year of the Republic of China, I accompanied my mother back to Ning's family, passed by Shanghai, and lived in the house of my sister-in-law Li Xuchang. More than a hundred people.There is an accountant in his family, and everyone calls him accountant Xiong.After lunch and dinner every day, his accounting room was crowded with people, and the hustle and bustle always lasted for more than an hour.I think although Xuchang's grandfather was the prime minister of Beiyang and his uncle Fei Jun was the governor of Yunnan, they have already confessed their secrets. Why are there so many chores to be done in the account room every day?Xuchang said: "The ancestor of Xiong accountant, in the early years of Daoguang, served as the chief inspector in the Admiral's Yamen of the Guangzhou Navy. At the beginning of the establishment of the Flower Fair, it was his ancestors who worked hard in many ways before being established with the approval of the Admiral. So later, wherever there is a Flower Fair , as if hereditary, always leaving a receiver for the Xiong family. There are 150 or 60 people in the mansions of various sizes on New Chongqing Road, plus the Weihaiwei Road city house in the four alleys of Xianyili. There are about 1,800 residents in the store (all of which are owned by the Li Mansion), even if they have no special relationship with the Flower Fair, the accountant Xiong is also qualified to be a super receiver. As for the endless stream of people coming and going every afternoon and night, that’s all It’s the miscellaneous people who run errands on the ship, if you want to know the situation in the flower fair, the accountant Xiong will tell you in detail.”

I don't know the name of Accountant Xiong, but everyone calls him Accountant Xiong, and I haven't consulted his master of elegant script, so I follow everyone to call him Accountant Xiong.Although he is a Hefei fellow of Li's family, probably because he lived in Yangcheng for a long time, the ending of his speech still has a Cantonese flavor.He looked at the outside of the bosom, but his conversation did not change the Confucianism, polite and refined.I asked him for all the inside information of the Flower Fair, but he told me without hesitation. He said that in the early years of Daoguang, the state had been in peace for a long time, and the ships of the Guangdong Navy had nothing to do in their daily lives except for one or two drills a day, housekeeping, and cleaning of the ships.The sailors are always in groups of three or four, leading each other to wander ashore, either drinking and making prostitution, or fighting and causing trouble, which makes the public resentful.Once there was a conflict with Banner Lvying and a gang fight almost caused a huge change.At that time, Xiong's ancestor served as the chief inspector of the admiral's yamen, and the admiral Jiang Junmen asked him for advice. Xiong Zongxun thought about it several times, and most of the sailors and soldiers were fond of gambling. Only gambling can restrain their bodies and prevent them from leaving the ship to cause trouble.However, it is not possible to openly start gambling on the ship, so they came up with the idea of ​​setting up a factory on land. The gamblers wait on the boat, and the bets are drawn by the "ship" and "handset".It started in the navy at first, and then became popular in the whole province of Guangdong.Sure enough, the sailors stopped making trouble, and the navy yamen also added an extra income.In the Xianfeng period, this kind of gambling expanded to Shanghai, and first set up a lottery in a sparsely populated place in Jiangwan South City.Because the guess is right, one wins thirty, the cost is light and the profit is thin, and the idlers and rogues regard it as a treasure, and people strive for it.So playing flowers will soon become the most popular gambling in Shanghai, even more lively than in Guangdong.

There are a total of thirty-six flower gods in the Flower Fair, so it is also called thirty-six gates (it is said that there were only thirty-four gates in the beginning, and two were added. As for which two were added later, the accountant Xiong couldn't figure it out either) .Some people say that the flower god is mainly composed of the twelve zodiac signs, supplemented by scales, monks, nuns and other animals.However, the zodiac lacks "rabbit" alone, and monkey, dog, sheep and snake have double parts, which makes it impossible to explore the original intention of the people who made it.The existing "Hua Hui Cui Bian" was published in the sixth year of Guangxu, and only lists the names of the flower gods, so there are some ins and outs, and now no one knows the original source.

The main organ of the flower fair is called the main tube, also called Dajian, and there are several receivers, also called sub-tubes, and ships to attract gamblers.Male sailing boats go to shopkeepers to lure shop assistants and apprentices to gamble.The women's ship targets the rich and powerful, and specializes in persuading women from good families, servants, and maids to relax and relieve boredom.Not only are they closely linked, but they also have local ruffians as their backers.The flower fair will open twice a day, at 4:00 p.m. for the sun and 10:00 p.m. for the night. Those who guess correctly will earn 30 yuan for 1 yuan, but they will deduct 1 yuan for each of the handsets and boats, so they will get 28 yuan. .Where the benefit lies, it makes men and women lose their souls all day long, not only depraved, but also many people go bankrupt, hang their beams to find a well, and lose their lives.

Although the Flower Fair is known as thirty-six gates, in fact, only twelve gates are open. The Flower Fair in the Boulevard Street (Phant) is revered as the chief flower god, and it is worshiped devoutly with flowers, lanterns and fruits every day, so it is not open as usual.The god of flowers day and night the day before is called the left and right goalkeepers. Before opening the tubes, they hang in the main hall to remind everyone not to open them. As usual, the day tubes do not open Chen Rishan (chicken), and the night tubes do not open Wang Kunshan (tiger). These are all from the beginning of the Flower Festival. It is not clear what the reason for the established rules is.

Although Xiong Accountant is the receiver, he not only hates Huahui, but his children are also absolutely forbidden from playing Huahui, and they are not even allowed to have anything to do with Huahui.He thinks that his receiver is the right left by his ancestors, and he vowed not to pass it on any longer.The head office in Shanghai is located on Eduardo Road, and I once asked him to take me on a tour.The layout of the main hall is like a Buddhist hall. A vermilion railing is added in front of the altar table, and there is a desk inside the railing.The person in charge of writing the flower name looks solemn, and sits facing the shrine with a serious face, with the last goalkeeper's flower name hanging on the left and right pillars.A cloth shaft is hung on the main beam, and the secret of the flower god is written and sealed, rolled into the shaft, and hung on the beam head.Wait until all the bets on the receivers of the ships are reported, and then firecrackers are fired, the hanging shaft is lowered, and it is opened in public to show the great faith.As for whether or not there are organ techniques, and various disadvantages such as selecting and replacing flower gods while avoiding serious ones, no one dares to say that they exist, and no one dares to say that they do not exist.

Generally, the most common thing for friends in flower-playing parties is to pray for gods and dreams.In Shatian, Dongdi, and Lizhiwan, Guangzhou, there are people sleeping in ruins and barren mounds, hoping to get a dream omen.The Jade Buddha Temple in Shanghai, Weiyangsheng Temple in Xiaodongmen, Fahua Temple in Hongqiao, Mengjiangtang in Dadongmen are all good places for gamblers to dream.What is even more ridiculous is that there are two Shi Wengzhong in crowned court clothes and holding a tooth wat at the intersection of Mahuo Road in the racetrack.Originally, the curfew was to cut off pedestrians. If anyone violated the curfew, they would be detained in a police car and sent to the patrol room.I don't know if it was another powerful gangster who said hello, or the patrols also had a flower party, fearing that they would offend the gods and be harmful to themselves.For many years, I still can't figure out why.

Playing flowers is an evil gambling.Going to the temple to pray for dreams is considered a dutiful gambler.Some went to the suburbs at night to dig ancient tombs for many years, retrieved the bones, and asked the shamans to recite mantras, draw amulets and incense candles to worship, praying for signs of omens.Some flirtatious and slutty women sleep in the open at night, and they don't hesitate to fit together, hoping to win the lottery with the "double contract".When I was in Shanghai, someone once asked me to have dinner at Taohuajiang Cantonese Restaurant on Sanma Road, and I happened to come in with Tang Ying, a famous lady in Shanghai at the time.At the corner of the stairs in the restaurant, there is a wire cage with two pairs of civet cats. I said "very fat civet cats", she froze for a moment and told me to wait a while, she went to make a phone call, and then went upstairs together to dinner.Two days later, she suddenly invited me to have lunch at the Duntmore Hotel on Sichuan Road, and opened a bottle of champagne.I said why should it be so luxurious to have a casual drink. She said that she saw a civet cat in Taohua River the day before yesterday, and she thought that a civet cat was of the same type. Cai, isn't it right to open a bottle of champagne to celebrate?I always think of this kind of thing as a coincidence.One day, when I was eating breakfast, Mama Wang, who had served me daily since childhood, suddenly asked me how I slept last night and whether I had any dreams.I was just wondering that I did toss and turn last night and didn't sleep soundly, but I didn't dream. There must be articles in her question.In the end, she told me that if the person who plays the flower show finds a talented person, writes "Zhang Jiuguan" on red paper, and stuffs it in his pillowcase, if there is a dream.On the second day, you will definitely win the lottery in the flower fight.It's a pity that although I'm not a stranger, I seldom dream, but it's rare that I tossed and turned last night and couldn't sleep, which is really a bit suspenseful.

Xiong Accountant also said that if the flower-playing party fails to win repeatedly, they will organize a "flag bump" with their colleagues to pray for omens.Participants should be single or not. If there are women, they must be married in the same class before they are allowed to participate.First make thirty-six paper or cloth flags, the size and weight of which are even the same as the length of the flagpoles, and write the name of the flower festival on the flags. All these work must be done under oil lamps at midnight.After the flag is ready, take the three animals with you, and go to the ancient tomb in the suburbs at midnight to burn incense and make offerings, and then put the flower name flag around the tomb according to the eight trigrams.After everyone burned incense and prayed, they sat around the grave and watched the wind direction. Whichever flower name flag fell first, they would place heavy bets on which one to hit the next day.This kind of superstition can be said to be both ignorant and ridiculous, but once when the Shengxian Gang hit the flag with a heavy bet, Aiduo Yalu was almost crushed by that heavy bet.Later, the top boss of the Jingqing and Honggang gangs, along with Yu Qiaqing, Yuan Ludeng, and Wang Xiaolai, came forward and settled the matter at a payout of 12.If we say that in this kind of betting method, the change of the color tube has a unique mechanism, you can avoid the important and focus on the light, and only release the empty door, then the heavy bet by the Shengxian County Gang was a momentary negligence of the player of the color tube, or was it deliberately showing off to win the trust of the gamblers? We know it from the outside.

Since the national government moved to Nanjing, the popularity of foreigners in the British and French Concession in Shanghai has gradually declined, and the harmful flower fairs no longer dare to be as pervasive and ostentatious as they were in the early years.During the Japanese and Puppet Period, it is said that there was a resurgence for a while, and even in Pingjin, there were flower-playing organizations that were popular in various places, and the light was gone, but it was only a flash in the pan, and it would disappear invisible. Otherwise, this kind of gambling, which is more domineering than a scourge, will ruin many men and women. !

Green Street (Duck) Wu Zhankui (White Snake) Gu Maolin (Little Monk) Weng Li (Elephant) Chen Fengchun (Crane) Wu Zhankui (White Fish) Huang Zhigao (Qu Eel) Zhu Guangming (Horse) Zhang Hehai (Green Snake) Xu Yuangui (shrimp) Double contract (yan) Song Zhengshun (pig) Cheng Bide (rat) Chen Jipin (black sheep) Zhou Qingyun (camel) Chen Rishan (chicken) Gong Jiangci (centipede) horse flea (cat) Li Hanyun (Bull) Zhang Yuanji (Aries) Chen Rongsheng (Goose) Zhao Tianrui (flower dog) Li Mingzhu (spider) Su Qingyuan (black fish) Wang Kunshan (tiger) Zhang Sanhuai (mountain monkey) Chen Pangui (snail) Tian Fushuang (Tian Dog) Lin Yinyu (Crab) Zheng Tianlong (Old Monk) Lin Taiping (Dragon) Zhang Jiuguan (Old Monkey) Chen Anshi (Nun) Luo Zhide (Black Dog) Liu Jingli (Turtle) Li Yuebao (Turtle)