Marriage customs in Shixing County, Shaoguan, Guangdong

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1. Wedding Utensils

The villagers of Donghuping, Shixing County, are very particular about their weddings and have a grand ceremony. There are many utensils used and they are arranged in strict order. Most of the utensils are made of finely carved wood, painted and gilded. The specific utensils and the order of the wedding team are roughly as follows:

(1) Bring wedding wine. A lucky man with many sons carries a wooden "Crane Hulong" with a clay pot filled with sweet glutinous rice wine. There is a wooden chicken coop at the other end, which contains male and female chickens, meatballs, firecrackers, preserved meats, and 10 eggs (you can only receive 1, and take back the remaining 9).

(2) Carry the color. Two little boys aged 14 and 15 each carried a red cloth flag, which was about 1.9 meters long and 0.3 meters wide.

(3) Dragon and Phoenix candle. A young man holds a pair of dragon and phoenix red candles with the word "happy" in them. The candle is red, with dragon and phoenix graphics and the word "happy".

(4) Hit the gong. A lucky man carries a gong with a big head and a small one. He beats the gong while walking, and the sound it makes is "peng, peng, peng, peng".

(5) Eight-tone class. It consists of 8 players, each holding an instrument: drum, gong, cymbal, gaolhu, banhu, suona, yueqin, flute, etc., playing and playing all the way.

(6) Matchmaker. A wooden sedan carried by two people, with a cloth awning on top to provide shade. It is called "Pengli sedan chair". On the sedan sat a matchmaker and a little boy she brought with her who wanted to get an extra red envelope.

(7) Groom’s sedan chair. A wooden sedan chair carried by 4 people. Similar to today's bamboo chairs.

(8) Sedan sedan. The sedan chair in which the bride sits is carried by 4 or 8 people.

(9) Gunner. A lucky man holds a "ton cannon" and fires three cannons when leaving the husband's house and leaving his parents' house.

(10)Yuancheng Wine. Two good-luck men will pick out 2 loads of original wine. One load is reserved for the bride's family to carry back to the groom's house for the bride to drink when she gives birth to a child.

(11) Carrying the prison basket. Two well-to-do men carried a wooden box-bottom 1:3 container, in which was placed a whole pig with its internal organs removed, and the whole pig was painted red.

(12) Food grid. A lucky man will bear one load, and those who are in good condition will have several loads of rice cakes and other gifts.

(13) Carrying layers of baskets. A lucky man will carry one or more loads of fruits, peanuts, rice cakes and other gifts.

(14) Chicken cage. A lucky man carries one or several loads of chickens, geese, and ducks, usually ranging from 12 to 16. Numbers 3, 4, 7, and 8 are not available.

(15) Send dowry. The girl's family sends several people to deliver footbaths, urine buckets, mosquito nets, quilts, wooden boxes, etc. The more gifts there are, the more people will bear them, but the number of people must be in pairs and not in singles.

The sedan chair is the most important tool for weddings. Shaped into a rectangular parallelepiped. Generally, it is 1.88 meters high and 0.55 meters to 0.66 meters wide. A pointed roof. The whole body is engraved with various patterns and auspicious words using exquisite carving arts such as openwork, round carving, negative carving and relief, and is covered with gold foil. It looks solemn and magnificent. The top of the sedan is like a "black gauze hat" with red curling cloud patterns, which means blue clouds rising straight up. There are couplets carved on the front door of the sedan body, the content of which is unknown, but they are all auspicious words. The patterns include mandarin ducks playing in the water, Guanyin delivering children, the number one scholar and his younger brother, plum orchids, chrysanthemums and bamboos (peaceful seasons), bats, running deer, bees, monkeys, elephants (meaning fortune, wealth, and being a prince), cypress trees (hundreds of years of life). ), Bai Que (Hundred Lords), I hope to be granted an official title, which means either a Marquis or a Prime Minister. There are also pomegranates (many sons), lotus flowers (twin births), bergamot (five sons), etc.

The groom usually wears a top hat, long robe, mandarin jacket, and black cloth shoes. The bride wears a phoenix crown and various silver hairpins, flower ornaments, hairpins, multi-treasure strings, a red sedan shirt, a red pleated embroidered skirt, a red embroidered ropa, red embroidered shoes, and a red embroidered cloud shoulder.

2. Marriage Customs

Most of the Hakkas in Shixing County migrated from Fujian, Jiangxi, Meizhou, Guangdong and other places during the Ming and Qing Dynasties. Because they did not migrate from the same place at the same time, the wedding customs are also different, with the marriage habits of the original place. As the saying goes, the winds are different within ten miles, and the customs are different within a hundred miles. However, after migrating to the same place and reproducing, and "drinking from the same river and living in the same land" as the local ancestors, their marriage habits will influence and penetrate each other.

From the Qing Dynasty to the Republic of China, marriages in Donghuping, Shixing County were all arranged by parents. The age of marriage is generally 16 to 18 years old for men and 13 to 16 years old for women. Those who marry a young daughter-in-law take someone else's young daughter to raise them and keep them as their daughter-in-law when they grow up, commonly known as child brides. Some maids are bought back to serve as slaves and kept as concubines or married off after they reach adulthood, depending on the needs of the master's family. For those who have three children, they will first ask a matchmaker to introduce a baby girl to their home to raise them first, and wait until they give birth to a son and grow up before getting married.

The marriage customs from the Qing Dynasty to the Republic of China mainly went through the following stages:

Determining the year of Geng. The age is determined by the parents of both men and women based on the matchmaker's agreement. First, ask a matchmaker to arrange marriage, or the matchmaker takes the initiative to come and arrange marriage. After being negotiated by a matchmaker, the parents of both men and women initially thought that their mutual conditions were acceptable, or that they were "a good match." The groom's family will ask a matchmaker to go to the bride's family to get the girl's "Nian Geng", which is the date, month, day and time of the girl's birth. Then, the groom's family sends the age of both men and women to the fortune teller for "horoscope arrangement" calculation, which is also called "he Kun" and "determination of age". It depends on whether the heroines are compatible with each other, whether they "engender each other" or "reject each other". The fortune teller based on the "White Horse is afraid of the green ox, and the sheep and rat are once divorced. The snake and the tiger are like knives, and the dragon and the rabbit communicate with each other in tears. The golden rooster is afraid of the five dogs, and the pig and the monkey are not enough." and other so-called "offending signs." Identify whether they belong to each other according to the "belonging" standard. Whenever a woman born in the year of Tiger or Sheep is found, she will be a widow after marrying off her parents-in-law. If the element of the Yuan Dynasty is in conflict with each other, they are considered to be a "natural match" and they can become husband and wife. If there is a "match in conflict" with each other, send more red envelopes to the fortune teller for guidance, and you can turn bad luck into good luck and make good friends in Qin and Jin Dynasties. . If the fortune teller has a plan and fails to achieve his goal, then no matter how good the zodiac sign is, he will not be destined to have a good relationship for a hundred years. The so-called "men's horoscopes are always false, and women's horoscopes are never true". A woman's horoscope can be pushed forward and backward by the fortune teller until she is combined with a man. In the late Republic of China, "meeting" began to be popular. After the fortune teller determines the compatibility, the man and the woman will meet with each other at a suitable place with their parents under the arrangement of the matchmaker. Most of them meet on the market day. After the meeting, it doesn't matter whether the two parties are willing or not, it is mainly the parents of both parties who have the final say. It's OK if it says it's OK, and it's OK if it's not OK. The young men and women have no right to decide. The parents of both parties or the matchmaker are in charge and live a good life together. That is, they pay a "deposit" to the woman, which is commonly known as an engagement.

A betrothal gift is a gift from the groom’s family to the bride’s family. Both parties can bargain over the gift money. There are two types of gifts: large and small. Dading's deposit is richer and there are more "gifts". One gift is 16 yuan of silver. If you have a small amount, give one gift, and if you have a large amount, give several gifts. Usually 8 to 10 rites. But some require the number "3". The numbers 3, 4, and 5 can be used to take the meaning of "three cardinal principles and five constant principles" and "three obediences and four virtues". For example, 300 kilograms of pork, 400 kilograms of rice, 500 silver dollars, etc. If there is a lot of pork, it is carried in prison baskets, and if there is a small amount of pork, it is carried on a food grid. In addition to pork, gifts include wine, rice, chicken, duck, goose, various rice cakes, etc. After the bride's family received the deposit, they invited the bride's bride to have a meal and told everyone that her daughter was engaged. If the girl's family reneges on the marriage, they must redeem "Nian Geng" from the boy's family, and the gifts must be returned in full before the marriage can be dissolved.

After the engagement, the groom's family chooses a specific and auspicious date for the wedding, writes it in a full letter, and prepares gifts of wine and meat to send to the bride's family.

After getting engaged, the woman will be busy making wedding gifts, such as embroidered ropa, embroidered shirt, embroidered skirt, embroidered shoes, etc. The younger ones are helped by their mothers, aunts, sisters-in-law and other relatives. The girl's family is busy preparing various dowries, while the boy's family is preparing various belongings, household utensils, etc. Both families are busy with the wedding. Generally speaking, the girl's family needs to know how much gift money the boy's family will give, and the boy's family also needs the girl's family to purchase a corresponding dowry to accompany her. If one party cannot honor the promise and cannot get the understanding of both parties, conflicts will arise when welcoming the bride, and even "in-laws turn into enemies." This is a very unique phenomenon. Of course, there are also cases where the man's family pays more and the woman's family provides less escorts to compensate the woman's family. It depends on the financial situation of the man's family. There is a local saying that "upper-class families advance money to marry their girls, middle-class families use money to marry their girls, and lower-class families make money to marry their girls." This is a good explanation. After a period of time, both parties felt that they had sufficient funds for the wedding, so they asked the Feng Shui master to choose an "auspicious day" and, with the consent of the woman's family, issued invitations to entertain the guests. Weddings are mostly held in the winter slack season and are called wedding ceremonies.

Welcome to the bride, that is, the groom’s family goes to the bride’s home to pick up the bride.

In the morning or afternoon before the wedding day, the matchmaker takes the "Pengli sedan" from the groom's family to lead the way and delivers the pork, chicken, goose, fish, wine and other food, gifts, and gifts agreed upon between the groom's family and the bride's family to the bride's family. Go, known as "send wine and meat" or "go to the fruit box". The matchmaker stays at the bride's house for one night and goes to the groom's house with the bride and others the next day. Before dinner, guests from both parties must go to the man and woman's home to have dinner together, which is called "Qi Ke". After dinner, the groom's family puts the fire bucket with charcoal and mango stalks into the sedan chair, and takes it out after a period of time, which is called "warm sedan chair". In the early morning of that night, when the rooster crows, or at the time designated by the fortune teller, a woman's wedding "combing her hair" ceremony will be held. A pair of big red candles are burned in the ancestral hall, equipped with five-color threads of red, blue, yellow, green and black, and a piece of rice and two fertilized hard-boiled eggs are wrapped in handkerchief with rouge and gouache. After setting off the firecrackers, the lucky woman or the bride's mother rolls eggs up and down on the bride's face, which is commonly known as "opening the face". Then comb the bride's hair. The bride sits on a bench with her face facing the east. While combing it, she says auspicious words, such as "One comb will make it longer, two combs will make it longer, and three combs will penetrate the pillars." ", "If you comb the left and right combs, five sons will pass the exam, and the number one scholar will be the highest", "If the hair is long and long, the noble son will be born early, and the number one scholar will be the number one", etc. After combing, insert silver pressure head flowers, double-character silver flat hairpins, silver needle paper flowers and other headdresses. Wear a collar on the head, which contains locks, bowls, one pair of men's and women's shoes, a bell, a knife, scissors, a triangle ruler, a square table and other small and exquisite decorations, commonly known as "multi-treasure strings", and earrings. Before dawn, after finishing dressing up, the bride returns to the boudoir to wait for her wedding (some people set off firecrackers in the ancestral hall and then return to the boudoir to comb their hair). At this time, peel the two open-faced eggs and give them to the bride. When a young girl is thirteen or fourteen years old, she wears her hair braided. She doesn't comb her hair until she gets married. Those with more hair comb their "natural hair" and those with less hair comb their "false hair". If a child bride gets married, she is called "Shangtou". A woman cannot shave her face before she gets married, and can twist her facial hair with a thread after she gets married.

On the morning of the wedding day, the bride’s family must first send the dowry to the groom’s family. The higher-end dowry is called "Begonia Red" and has 24 "longs" (large wooden boxes), a flower bed, a dressing table, two Eight Immortal tables, on which are placed the bride and groom's clothes, shoes and hats, and other complete sets of clothing, large and small cabinets, and high and low chairs. , washbasin stand, Baizi bucket (urine bucket), Qiansun basin (foot basin), etc. "Long" is filled with clothes and bedding. Some of them are "three blue and three hot" fabrics. The three blues are three kinds of blue cloth sold in the market, also called guest cloth, which are shipped from other places and sold locally. "Sanre" refers to three pieces of linen cloth woven by local farmers, also known as "homemade cloth", "hot cloth", etc. Lower-end dowries generally have 2, 4, or 6 "long" and few other things. At the same time, the bride's family sends the bride's younger brothers and sisters to the groom's family to "invite" the groom to visit the bride's parents-in-law and other relatives, and then pick up the bride, which is commonly known as the revolving door. At this time, the groom took the music troupe and other welcoming teams, played and played, and headed towards the bride's house in a lively and joyous manner. The total number of people in the team must be in odd numbers when leaving, and must be in even numbers when returning, which means "good things come in pairs".

After the "welcoming team" has lunch and early dinner at the bride's house, the groom, accompanied by the best man, leaves the bride's house and goes back to wait for the bride's arrival. Then, the bride came out wearing a dazzling array of headdresses, a multi-treasure string around her neck, an embroidered cloud shoulder draped over her shoulders, a bright red sedan shirt, an embroidered red skirt, embroidered red cloth shoes, and an embroidered red rupa on her head. It comes out mostly at dusk. Before the wedding, the bride sadly "cryed goodbye" to her parents, grandparents and other elders as well as her brothers and sisters in the family hall. While crying, she said how she could never forget the upbringing of her parents and the brotherhood of her brothers and sisters. How much I missed them, and how I hoped they would take better care of their health in the future, and so on, "heartbreaking words, warm words", which made me cry until I had runny noses and tears. "My voice was full of emotion", which moved others to see it. At this time, parents and others will comfort and warn their daughters, saying that men should get married and women should get married. When going to the groom's house, they should honor their parents-in-law, brothers, uncles, and be harmonious. At the same time, the bride kneels down to her relatives one by one and bids farewell. When he helps her up, he will hand her a red envelope. After crying goodbye, the parents put the embroidered rupa on the bride's head. The bride is carried by her elder brother or younger brother (for unrelated brothers, her cousin or a brother from a lucky family in the village) carries her out of the house and goes to the hall (ancestral hall) to say goodbye to her ancestors. Then she is carried to the gate and sent to the sedan chair. You must not let the bride go to the ground on the way, otherwise it will be considered unlucky. This is the local custom of "brother carrying his sister on his back to the sedan chair" which is still popular among local people (see below for details).

After the bride gets on the sedan, the bearer locks the sedan door and hangs a "Bagua Diagram" on the exterior of the sedan to ward off evil and bless her with peace, good luck and good fortune. Then, accompanied by the bridesmaids and accompanied by the music of the eight-note class, they lifted up the sedan chair and headed happily to the groom's house.

Some people say that the key to the sedan door is carried by the sedan bearer, while others say that it is carried by the matchmaker to the sedan parking lot at the gate of the groom's house to unlock it. No matter the distance or any situation, the lock cannot be unlocked on the way. Otherwise, the groom's family will hold him accountable, cause trouble, or even cancel the engagement. There is a saying that "the bearer lifts the sedan as long as he lifts it, regardless of whether the bride poops or urinates" can illustrate the importance of not opening the sedan door. If they meet another bridal sedan carrying a wedding team on the way, the two brides will send each other a handkerchief from the sedan window in exchange to wish each other good luck and happiness. If the bride's family is too far away from the groom's family, the groom's family will send someone with a torch to meet the bride halfway and light the way for the welcoming procession. When the bride is carried to the sedan parking lot at the gate of the groom's house, she has to wait for a while to "submit" (standing more tired means that she will be obedient and obey the groom's house in the future). Men, women and children in the village gathered around to watch. Ancient and auspicious couplets are pasted on the gate, such as "Let's see the lady become a beautiful woman, and the strange man will be a husband from now on", "The double walls of the jade hall are closed, and the precious trees are blooming with thousands of branches", "A hundred years of singing will bring good fortune, and the fifth life will predict their prosperity", etc. The horizontal batches all have four characters combined with the surnames of men and women, such as "Marriage of Zeng and Li" and "Marriage of Zeng and Zhang". If the bride is marrying a daughter, the couplets often read "A celebrity is happy to get a son-in-law from a famous family, a talented girl is happy to meet a talented man's family", and the horizontal comment is "The embroidered pavilion blooms in spring" and so on. When the time comes for the bride to enter the house, the cannon blaster fires three loud cannons. The bearer opened the door. Two lucky women from the groom's family (must be the first wife and have many children and grandchildren) lead the bride out of the sedan chair, which is called "leading the bride". At the same time, another lucky woman held a "rice sieve" (a bamboo product, originally used to sift rice) on the bride's head, with wooden rulers, soybeans, "Book of Changes", green onions, and "Tongshu" placed on it. 》 or a talisman drawn by a fortune teller, which means knowing the book and being polite, avoiding evil, having a son early, being smart and promising. To entrust the good wishes of the man's family, it is commonly known as "to sieve".

The bride was led to the gate and could not enter immediately. You must wait until the fortune teller standing inside the gate has completed the "evil-killing" ceremony before entering. The fortune teller holds a sword or kitchen knife in his right hand and a big rooster in his left hand. He mutters something in his mouth: "...the gods will return to the sky and earth evil spirits will return to the ground to hide. If there are evil gods and evil spirits, the rooster will bear the responsibility." After reciting, use a knife to cut off a little bit of the rooster's comb, and drop the chicken's blood on the door threshold, which is called "Beheading the Evil". This means that the bride will inevitably bring with her all kinds of "evil and evil spirits" along the way, which must be eliminated by killing them. Then, the bride is taken into the ancestral hall to pay homage to the ancestors together with the groom. Dragon and phoenix red incense candles are lit on both sides of the ancestral hall altar table. After paying homage to their ancestors, the two parties enter the bridal chamber, close the door, and the groom taps the bride's head three times with a ruler, then lifts the ruppa and has a kiss. Knocking the bride on the head means to "subdue" her so that she will not be aggressive and lose her temper during marriage. About 10 minutes later, the door of the bridal chamber was opened, and the lucky woman helped the bride "spread the bed" and said auspicious words while spreading it, "spread the stalks to lay eggs" (straws were used as mattresses in the past), "a mosquito net will spread four "On one corner, the bride gives birth to a table (eight sons)", "One pillow is tied three times, and one tells (sleeps) when one wakes up", "A Jiesi (straw mat) has four corners, the bride gives birth to a son "One table" waiting. There was a red envelope in the quilt for the woman spreading the bed. At the same time, a group of children broke into the bridal chamber and asked for sweets and snacks. Among them, there must be a more spirited little boy who went to the urinal in the bridal chamber to pick up a red envelope and then piled it into the urinal to pee, which meant that the bride would give birth to a child early. Then have dinner in the hall. Dinner is called "dinner" and has a variety of dishes, including sea cucumber, chicken, fish, meatballs, squid, eyebrow beans, whole spring (eggs), grass worms, vermicelli, braised pork and other commonly known names (ten big and ten small), and also "four small" There are "eight bowls" of dishes ranging from 12, 14, and 16 bowls (plates). Before the meal, the bride takes a piece of cloth and arranges a seat for the senior person in the family and guests, which is called "an seat". That is, she wipes the seat symbolically, puts on the bowls and chopsticks, pours wine, and then presents the seat to the person being seated. The person bows and invites him/her to take a seat. Generally, the elders are in the upper hall and the younger ones are in the lower hall. During the banquet, the mother-in-law took the bride to the hall to introduce her daughter-in-law to the guests, and she and the bride and groom frequently poured wine to the guests. The host and close relatives and elders of the clan also take turns toasting to the foreign guests to show the host's hospitality. The eight-note troupe plays different music according to different stages during the banquet. The music is cheerful and bright.

Talking with the bride after dinner is usually done in the private hall. The groom and those sitting on the stage guess the game, and the loser drinks. Visitors from the village come up with ideas for the bride and groom to do or say actions or words that make them very embarrassed. Such as carrying the bride across a long bench, calling others drinking or smoking according to the generation of the bride's son, such as so-and-so uncle please drink, so-and-so grandpa please smoke, etc. Most of them are open until one or two o'clock in the middle of the night. On the morning after the wedding, the bride and groom went to the ancestral hall to "worship". Place a straw mat in the ancestral hall and kneel on it to worship.

The eight-note class played "Bai Tang Tune", and each guest prepared a "red envelope", which ranged from a few yuan to a dozen yuan to dozens of yuan. During the ceremony, the "master of ceremonies" rolls the names of the bridegroom's parents, grandparents, uncles and aunts, aunts and uncles, from relatives to relatives, from seniors to peers, from old to young, and finally to the matchmaker. The person being worshiped will say some auspicious words such as "birth a precious son early", "twin precious sons", "grow old together", "a hundred blessings and a hundred lives", "a hundred sons and a thousand grandchildren", and then hand over a red envelope. Instead of giving red envelopes, the matchmaker gives the key to the dowry box to the bride. After worshiping, have a "faith meal", which is breakfast. After breakfast, everyone leaves separately and is called "individual guest". The size of the gift given back to the guest will be determined based on the number of gifts sent by the guest. The bride and groom will see the guests to the gate. Finally, the gift is given to the matchmaker. The gift given to the matchmaker depends on the host's generosity, usually a bottle of wine, a few kilograms of pork or dozens of kilograms of pork. A red envelope for the children who came with her ranged from a few yuan to several tens of yuan.

After leaving, the girl’s mother, aunt and other close relatives go to the groom’s house to visit their married daughter, which is commonly known as "making two dynasties" or "making three dynasties". The first is to visit the daughter, the second is to see the husband’s house and property, and the third is to see whether the husband’s family is warm to others. The groom’s family will entertain him with the best wine and meat, and stay overnight. It is said locally that "a wedding takes place for three days and two nights." This is the end of the wedding day. After 10 days, the bride returns to her parents' home to visit relatives and stay for 20 days to a month before returning home, commonly known as "Xinliao".

3. Wedding legends

People in Shixing County still pass down the wedding custom of the elder brother carrying his younger sister on his back to the sedan chair. The process is roughly like this:

When the bride gets married, she first bids farewell to her grandparents, parents, brothers and sisters at home. At this moment, she often bursts into tears, which is the so-called "crying goodbye to her relatives". ", while crying, she talked about how she could not forget the nurturing grace of her elders, the brotherhood of brothers and sisters, how she couldn't bear to leave, and other heart-wrenching words. Then, the elder brother, or the younger brother if there is no elder brother, or the cousin if there are no brothers, will carry the bride to the ancestral hall in one breath, so that the groom can bid farewell to his ancestors, and then carry it to the gate and put it on the sedan chair parked there. No matter the distance from home to the sedan chair, the bride cannot be placed on the ground. Otherwise it will be considered unlucky. Nowadays, although the sedan chair has become obsolete, the custom of the elder brother carrying his younger sister to marry is still popular. However, when I cried goodbye, I no longer cried as much as before. Some of them are just symbolic expressions. The sedan chair has also been replaced by modern transportation vehicles such as bicycles, tractors and cars. So, how did this ancient marriage custom come about? One of the legends is very interesting.

It is said that during the Three Kingdoms period, Sun Quan, the emperor of Wu Kingdom, had a sister named Sun Jiao. She was pampered since she was a child and developed a character that tells the truth. Her family belongs to a general, so she is also good at martial arts and likes to dance with swords and sticks. The whole family doted on her, and even her brother Sun Quan, who was the emperor, had to give her some respect. It is often said that the emperor's daughter has no worries about getting married. However, Sun Jiao, who is as beautiful as a flower, cannot get married. Because her "squeamish" reputation has become "famous", everyone is afraid of her. No one in her country dares to ask her to be his wife. Seeing that she is getting older and older, no matchmaker has come to ask for her hand in marriage. Her mother, Wu Guotai, was worried that her daughter would become an old girl who could not get married.

Soon, Zhuge Liang, the military advisor of the Shu Kingdom, was very happy when he learned the news. In order to unite the generals of Wu State to fight against Wei State, he wanted Liu Bei, who was in his forties or fifties, to marry Sun Jiao as his wife. In this way, Shu and Wu became in-laws, and they were no longer afraid of the powerful Wei. Liu Bei was very happy to hear this and wanted to get married immediately. But he was a married man, and Sun Jiao was still a young girl and the sister of the Emperor of Soochow. How could she be willing to marry someone else as a concubine? Liu Bei was unsure, but Zhuge Liang was confident and sent people to the Kingdom of Wu. Go find Wu Guotai and propose marriage. Wu Guotai, who was worried about his daughter's marriage, originally wanted to find a "well-matched" son-in-law. When he heard that Liu Bei was the overlord of the party and a talented person, he was extremely happy and thought that it would be a good idea for his daughter to marry Liu Bei. He agreed to the marriage with all his heart. As for Sun Quan, he knew that his sister would be difficult to marry. Now that Liu Bei had taken the initiative to propose marriage, he agreed to his mother's opinion. However, Sun Jiao is no ordinary girl, she is very scheming. She thinks that if she marries Liu Bei as his concubine and does not have a generous dowry, she will be looked down upon by the Liu family and laughed at. Therefore, she was creative and came up with a request for a special and different dowry. She would not marry until she achieved her goal.

One day, Sun Jiao said to her mother and brother: "You can ask me to marry Liu Bei, but Liu Bei doesn't even have a decent land at the moment. Do you want me to marry him and live a homeless life?" ?If you care about the love between mother and daughter, brother and sister, give me the land in Jingzhou as a dowry. After we get married, we will settle down in Jingzhou. Firstly, we will be closer to my mother, and secondly, we can come back to visit often. You can't let people look down on me, Sun Jiao!" Sun Quan was very angry when he heard this. He couldn't wait to say anything to his mother: "No, no, you haven't even gotten married yet, and you want to fight for the family property left by my grandfather. ?Hmph!" As mentioned before, Sun Jiao is a person who always speaks her mind. She must get what she wants, and cry and make trouble when she can't get it, turning the Sun family upside down. Wu Guotai loved his daughter very much, so he nodded in agreement when she cried and made trouble. Sun Quan is a famous filial son. After seeing his mother agree, he couldn't think of any solution for a while, so he had to find Zhou Yu and Lu Su in a hurry and said: "Your sister has a strong temperament. If you don't agree to her request, big trouble will definitely happen. Do you agree? Since ancient times, What about those who have given away territory for dowry?" Zhou Yu smiled after hearing this and said, "Since she wants Jingzhou, my lord may as well give Jingzhou to her, as long as you do this and this...". Zhou Yu quietly told Sun Quan his idea.

On the day of Sun Jiao's wedding, Sun Quan took out the population book and atlas of Jingzhou, handed them to Sun Jiao in front of Liu Bei who came to welcome the bride, and said, "Sister, brother, please take Jingzhou with you." You marry to make a place to live!" Then, avoiding Liu Bei, he quietly gave the dowry list to Sun Jiao and asked her to take the gift list with her. When you marry into the Liu family, see how they treat you. If Hello, I will hand over the gift slip. If it is not good for you, please do not hand over the gift slip to avoid misfortune in the future. Sun Jiao heard the truth and put the gift list on her body. When it was time to get married, Sun Quan suddenly cried bitterly to Sun Jiao. While crying, he said many good things about his sister, how he couldn't bear to leave her, how he was afraid that his sister would suffer hardship when she got married, and how he hoped that her sister would be happy in the future. . I cried so hard that I burst into tears. It is often said that men do not shed tears lightly. Sun Jiao was really moved when she saw and heard her brother crying so sadly. She thought about how her brother was always obedient to her, and now he was so generous. He really gave Jingzhou to her as a dowry. Now they were about to break up, and he was worried about her future. Thinking of this, she felt even more uncomfortable. I couldn't help but burst into tears, crying very sadly. While crying, I also talked about how good my mother was to me, how caring my brother was to me, how I didn't want to leave them, and other "heartbreaking words". Who knows? , the more she spoke, the more emotional she became, and the more she cried, the more sad she became, until she collapsed on the ground crying. At this time, the time for getting married had arrived, but Sun Jiao burst into tears and was in a daze, unable to even walk. When Sun Quan saw it, he said: "Sister, my brother has carried you on his back since you were a child. Now you are going to get married. From now on, my brother can no longer love you. Now let me carry you on my sedan chair to see you off again." My brother's kindness!" After saying that, he immediately carried his sister on his back and took the opportunity to steal the dowry gift list quietly. Without further ado, Sun Quan carried his sister from home to the hall in one breath, then carried her out of the gate and put her on the sedan chair. It didn’t even stop along the way. As soon as the bride got on the sedan, Sun Quan quickly ordered the sedan door to be locked and not allowed to be opened until the groom's house. At this time, cannons fired and drums played, and the bride was carried away quickly. Sun Quan breathed a sigh of relief when he saw the sedan chair gradually walking away.

After some time, Sun Quan, Zhou Yu, and Lu Su agreed to take Jingzhou back. He sent Lu Su to find Liu Bei. After Lu Su explained his intention, Liu Bei was very unhappy and said, "Didn't Sun Quan say that Jingzhou will marry his sister to me? Why do you want to take it back?" Lu Su smiled after hearing this and said, "You are wrong. Well, Sun Quan said that he would lend his sister Jingzhou to you, not marry her. Our lord is from Jiangdong. You know that the words "borrow" and "marry" are similar at first. Maybe you didn't hear it clearly. ?Please think about it, since ancient times, who has married off his daughter and even married off the land?" The two of them talked for a long time, but no one could convince the other. Finally, Lu Su said, "Well, you should take out the dowry gift list and take a look at it. If it says "Jing kl, I-" on it, I will leave Jingzhou to you. If not, Jingzhou will return to Zhao intact. How about it? "Liu Bei had no choice but to go to Sun Jiao and ask for the gift list. Unexpectedly, no matter how much they searched through the boxes and cabinets, there was no trace of the gift list. Liu Bei was so anxious that he stamped his feet. Zhuge Liang knew and smiled.

He knew in his heart that this was a trick played by Zhou Yu, and secretly thought that he would be angry with Zhou Yu to death in the future. This is why Zhuge Liang later asked Zhou Yu to have three Qi. Zhuge Liang thought that Liu Bei was running around anxiously, so he said to Liu Bei and his wife: "Don't look for it, don't look for it. This gift list is still in Soochow! However, lord, don't be anxious, just borrow it. A son-in-law can borrow something from his mother-in-law." If you pay back, you won't pay back." This is also a joke we often say nowadays: Liu Bei borrowed money from Jingzhou for the reason of borrowing money and paying it back.

Later, the people of Wu State did not understand the secret of Sun Quan carrying his sister to the sedan chair. They thought that the emperor respected his sister even when she got married, so they followed suit. Over time, it became a custom for the elder brother to carry his sister to the sedan chair on his back. It became popular among the people and has been passed down to this day.

Date of receipt: 2005-12-15

About the author: Liao Jinxiong (1954- ), male, from Meixian County, Guangdong, Vice Chairman of the CPPCC of Shixing County.

(The article comes from the 2007 Issue 1 of the Hakka Research Institute of Jiaying University)