Chapter 51 Dan bird

It is mentioned that among the hills in the south, there is a mountain named Cabinet Mountain.A huge red strange bird named Danniao lives on the mountain.The two eyes of this bird are on the same plane, unlike other birds, which are separated on both sides of the head.So it looks like a god with a human head and a bird body.And since the eyes look so much like those of an evil owl, it's obvious that it's also ominous.Another ominous feature of the Danbird is that, like a bat, it has fleshy claws on the upper edge of its wings.  Inheriting the dual evils of owls and bats, Danniao has become the biggest unstable factor in the political life of the southern countries.According to a book on animal taxonomy written in the early Warring States Period, Danniao leaves its nest in the cabinet mountain for four months every year to travel.And its appearance will cause political turmoil wherever it goes, the virtuous nobles will be expelled, and the barbaric natives will enter the court, causing chaos.

 The author of the book talked about the origin of this evil characteristic of Danbird in the last part of the article.He wrote:  Why should you be amazed at Danbird's dislike of the virtuous?Because it was the virtuous people who, driven by ambition and violence, drove Danniao to a dead end.Let us go back to the distant ancient times, when the sages had not established human wisdom, tigers and wolves sometimes climbed trees and gnawed leaves.  It was the time when Emperor Yao ruled the world. When he was young, Emperor Yao paid tribute to Sanyi, the god of the west, and received rewards for it. He married Sanyi's daughter and had his only son, Zhu.Emperor Yao carefully governed the country and arranged everything in an orderly manner.Go is the emperor's only hobby. He carved the chessboard with mulberry wood and decorated it with lapis lazuli, and then ground the white ivory and brown-black wide angles into thumb-sized slices to serve as chess pieces.Emperor Yao believed that this great game absorbed the wisdom of the sage kings since the creation of heaven and earth, and at the same time symbolized the orbits of the sun, moon, and stars, as well as the inevitable laws of human affairs.Therefore, Emperor Yao used Go as a model for selecting and evaluating sages and officials.

 In the final game of chess, Zhu was defeated by Shun from the East, and lost his chance to inherit the throne.Several years later, Shun became the guardian of the Central Plains and moved Prince Zhu to Danyuan, a lake upstream of Danshui.Therefore, Zhu was renamed Danzhu.  Danzhu couldn't let go of his failure. After experiencing a period of inner struggle, he threw himself into Danyuan in order to die.Who knew that Danyuan turned out to be a residence of gods, because the sun often dwells here.The sun god revived Danzhu, gave him the appearance of a bird, and let him live in the cabinet mountain.Because this bird comes from Danshui, it is called Danbird.Because he was rejected by those legendary sages and committed suicide, Danniao hated the sages very much, so wherever he went, he always tried to uplift the local barbarians and drive out the traditional nobles.

 Dan Bird's final outcome, there are many different records.One theory is that Emperor Shun couldn't bear the chaos caused by Danniao in his own territory, so he managed to lure him to the "Nantiao Mountain" and secretly killed him.Another theory says that although Emperor Shun hated the dan bird, he was still unable to kill the dan bird, which was blessed by the sun god, so he expelled him to the South China Sea.Until the end of the Eastern Jin Dynasty, he still lived in the South China Sea.According to the ancient chronicle "Bamboo Book Chronicles" compiled into a book in the 3rd century AD, Danniao suddenly ended his life before the killer Yaoguang sent by Emperor Shun arrived at Danyuan.