Once Upon a Time in a Small Town - Legend of a Small Town

Now, if you take a bus to Linyi, you will see: just south of the old bus station in the county, there is a shining golden yak standing on a platform dozens of meters high. The bull's head is held high, and its open mouth seems to be emitting a deafening roar; the golden hairs stand on the top of the thick and strong neck; the whole body is strong and powerful, with prominent tendons; the powerful tail is raised back; the four legs are as strong as pillars, and they are solid and powerful. Nailed on a high platform. This sacred cow seems to be sending out the cry of the times, calling for a better future.

This is the city logo of Linyi County: the rising cow.

Yes, Linyi City is commonly known as "Wanniu City" and its ancient name was Liqiu. The entire old town of the county is like a "crouching cow". The commanding heights of Yingbin Road in the county -- the office of the old county committee (commonly known as the North "Ten" Street) is the junction of the cow's head and its body. It turns out to be higher than the surrounding blocks. It was a few meters out and was leveled many times after many road constructions. Although it was left behind a lot, it was still much higher than the surrounding area.

This lying cow is said to be a sacred cow that can bring wealth and well-being. In order to prevent it from wandering. A long street is like a heavy martingale, tightly tied to the neck of the sacred cow, allowing him to continue to cultivate and cultivate for the people of the small town.

Although Linyi is a small town. , but has a long history of legends. The story of "Plough Hill" recorded in historical records during the Zhou Dynasty certainly shows its long history, but it still exists in the large depression covered with rubble in the southeast of the small town. The ground is silently telling the frightening and lamentable legend of immortality

One of the legends: The destruction of the city when the cock crows

There is a place named Southeast of Linyi, Shandong. The place called "Crowing City" is low-lying and overgrown with weeds. Why is it called "Crowing City"? It turns out that there was an ancient city called "Crowing City" in a short time. It was flooded and destroyed and became a large depression, which was renamed "Chicken Crowing Depression". How did the Rooster Crow City be destroyed?

Legend has it that the Rooster Crow City was very prosperous before its destruction. Every day, there is an endless stream of businessmen, performers, market-goers, and opera singers in the city, which is really lively. However, as the economy develops, people's hearts gradually turn bad. One day, the Queen Mother descends to earth and turns into a woman who looks eight-year-old. A teenage beggar came to Cock City with a dog-beating stick. She came to the door of a house, and the hostess was baking pancakes. She said, "Sister-in-law, please give me a bite. Let's eat. I haven't had a bite of food in three days. "Who would have thought that the woman who was frying single cakes looked up and saw a gray-haired beggar, and scolded her with raised eyebrows: "You old beggar, there is food for you to eat, hurry up! "At this time, the child of that family had just finished pooping and shouted: "Mom, wipe your butt for me." "The woman cursed and picked up a piece of cake to wipe the child's buttocks and threw it aside. When the Queen Mother saw that the people in the city were so bad that she would rather wipe the child's buttocks with a cake than give alms to a poor person. , he left Cockcrow City and returned to the sky. When the Jade Emperor saw that the people in Cockcrow City were so bad, he decided to bring disaster as punishment.

Taibai Jinxing couldn't bear to bring disaster to the people here. I came up with a plan, dressed up as a foreign oil seller, and shouted along the street: "I am selling oil, one gourd is four taels, four gourds are half a catty (in ancient times it was sixteen liang per catty), come and buy oil!" "When people saw this old oil seller, he was so stupid that he couldn't even add up. It was clear that one gourd was four taels of oil, and four gourds was one pound of oil, but he said four gourds were half a pound. So people crowded forward to buy four gourds. Gourd sells a pound of oil, but he only pays half a pound of oil, and no one tells the old oil seller, leaving him to do a loss-making business.

There was a family named Lu living in the city. There were only three people. A woman lived with a son and a daughter. She was loyal and sincere to others. She couldn't bear to let outsiders suffer, so she just bought a bottle of oil and said: "Old man, you made a miscalculation. The four gourds are not half a catty, but one catty of oil. If you sell them like this, you will lose your capital. "

When Taibai Jinxing saw that this woman was the only one who was honest and kind in the whole city, he sighed at the sinister nature of people's hearts. He took out a small paper boat from his pocket and gave it to her and said: I It's the Taibai Venus. You should keep this paper boat with you. You can take it out in times of crisis to keep you safe. Then he told her, "The flowers on the shoulder pole are blooming, the lion's eyes are red, and the rooster is gone." At that time, if you have a kind heart, you will only save the bees and ants. "After saying that, he disappeared in a blink of an eye. Sister Lu knew that this was the enlightenment of the immortal, and she quickly knelt down and kowtowed.

She really couldn't bear to let the whole city suffer, so she told people about it. But none of the impetuous people believed it, and some even laughed at her for talking in her sleep during the day.

On September 9th of this year, there was a temple fair, and the city was very lively. People from all over the country flocked into the city. There was an old man selling paper flowers in the crowd, carrying a pole on his shoulders. There were two bundles of hay tied at both ends of the pole. The hay was filled with red and green paper flowers. As soon as he entered the city, he shouted at the top of his lungs: "Selling flowers, selling flowers! Come and buy, we're too late." As he shouted, he walked towards the Earth Temple in the north of the city. At this time, his actions were in response. They heard the phrase "the flowers bloomed on the pole", but the poor people didn't care.

There is a pair of stone lions at the entrance of Tutu Temple. Near noon, another persimmon seller came. After playing for a long time, people were tired and thirsty. When they saw the sweet and big persimmons, they rushed to buy them. Among them, there was a lazy man who devoured the persimmons and put the persimmon skin on the eyes of the stone lion. This happened to fulfill the saying "the lion's eyes are red".

It happened that Mrs. Lu also came to the market with her two children. She immediately saw the carrying pole of the old man selling paper flowers, and then turned around to see the red-eyed stone lion. She knew that a disaster was about to happen. She quickly ran out of the city with her children and shouted: Run for your life, the disaster is coming. At this time people laughed at her and said she was crazy.

Just after Mrs. Lu and her children escaped from the market, strong winds came up, dark clouds covered the sky, and the roosters crowed so dark that it was so dark that they could not see their fingers. Then thunder tore the sky, and heavy rain poured down like the Tianhe burst. . Sister-in-law Lu and her child were running when they saw the water rising behind them and the waves rough. At this time, she remembered that she had been carrying the small paper boat given by the god, so she took out the paper boat. The paper boat turned into a real boat in an instant, and Mrs. Lu led the child aboard. The boat drifted with the strong water, and during this period, the family rescued many bees and ants. It was not until the clouds cleared and the fog cleared after the heavy rain that they docked. After Mrs. Lu took the child ashore, she looked back and saw that Crow City had sunk into the water, and behind her was just a vast depression. They were the only ones in the city who survived. Later, this depression was renamed "Chicken Crow Depression".

Later, Mrs. Lu’s son miraculously passed high school with the secret help of Beezi and Ant when he was taking the exam. From then on, the family lived a happy life.

Legend 2: The Changes of Plow Hill

There is a mound in the southeast of Linyi City. It is said that King Mu of Zhou was taught by his mother Danzhu that "it is good to roam" and rode eight horses. During this trip, he drank horses in Luoshui and read in Liqiu, which was later named "Mu Tianzi's Reading Platform". "The Biography of Emperor Mu" has a record of "Ji Dong Jia Xu, the emperor traveled eastward and studied in Liqiu".

King Zhou Cheng destroyed the Pugu family and granted Jiang Ziya the title of Qi State. Xi Peng, the Qi official, plowed the fields and gathered food here, so it was called Liqiu. Xing Dong's poem "Liqiu" said: "This is Liqiu." It is said that the name of Liqiu is ancient. In the past, Emperor Mu was the place where he studied. Today, the people of Linyi have inherited the virtues of studying from generation to generation. Linyi City has successively built Tongren Academy, Liqiu Academy and Litai Academy since ancient times.

Litai Academy has been renovated and expanded many times. It has two verandas and sixteen rooms, six halberd doors, twelve dining rooms, eighteen couplet rooms, and Dacheng Hall and Minglun Hall. , Lingxing Gate and Jinxian Gate, etc., the government purchased more than one hectare, forty-nine acres and six cents, and relied on rent to support their studies. In the Ming Dynasty, Xing Tong built a garden in Liqiu District after resigning from office. "History of the Ming Dynasty": "Built a poultry house in the ancient Liqiu Qiu", Xing Dong's poem said: "My family has a poultry house, and the house is next to the Liqiu platform." Xing Dong concentrated on poetry on the ancient Liqiu platform. Calligraphy and painting. His calligraphy and Dong Qichang's calligraphy are famous in the north and south of the Yangtze River, and are famous in all nine states.

In 1952, Shandong Provincial Linyi Middle School was established at the former site of Liqiu Academy. In 1956, it was renamed Shandong Province Linyi No. 1 Middle School. It is now developed into the New Century Commercial Garden residential area.

Rivers are flowing across the river and things are changing. What kind of story will this ancient town tell in its changes?

※ Part of the text in this article is quoted from "Linyi Literary and Historical Materials". I would like to express my gratitude to the author. ?

? July 22, 2018