The moment under the pepper tree

Standing under the Zanthoxylum bungeanum tree, the scorching sun shrouded mercilessly above my head, the earth cracked, and the listless crops appeared to wither. Only the bright red peppercorns are still echoing the sun.

The sound of Qin lingers in the pepper garden, and the sounds of people playing and talking pierce through the sky. Beautiful music echoed in my ears, and I kept picking peppercorns in my hands, thinking about the "secret" in my heart. Everything seems so comfortable and peaceful, as if isolated from the world, and there is a wonderful feeling of being integrated into nature.

One Zanthoxylum bungeanum leaf

There is a voice that seems to be asking myself, "How many Zanthoxylum bungeanum leaves are there?" This was a joke once, and it was this joke that aroused my endless reverie. I remember my father once said that someone once asked a beekeeper how many legs a bee has. Although they deal with bees every day, few people can tell the result at once.

So how many small leaves are there in a large piece of Zanthoxylum bungeanum leaves? The answers are undoubtedly diverse, but they are also fixed.

For a twig with strong vitality, almost most leaves have nine leaves, and a few have ten or eleven leaves. Most of these phenomena appear on the young shoots that are newly taken out that year, and are almost invisible on the branches that start to grow fruits.

The number of nine is a very magical and mysterious number. It is the reincarnation of numbers, such as ninety-nine, heaven and man are one, ninety-five supreme, etc. It is the ultimate number. Some Zanthoxylum bungeanum leaves are just like young people, they like to go against the grain when their life is strong, break the rules and break through, and find a new world. Therefore, ten perfect leaves were derived, just like the legendary ten directions of heaven and earth, and there are even eleven leaves.

But I know that this is not their ultimate goal, nor is it the limit of their potential, because there is still a pole number like nine or ten waiting for their arrival in front of them. That is the mysterious number thirteen that is rarely heard of.

If the nine, ten, and eleven leaves are like explorers and introducers among humans, then the seven leaves are a group of contemporary people who promote social development, just like the people who are working hard all over the world. , symbolizing prosperity. Red flowers match green leaves. Almost all leaves are at this value, setting off the bright red fruits, like seven-star guards, guarding a bunch of peppercorns in pairs.

In addition, five-leaf leaves are also common. Although not as many as seven-leaf leaves, they appear in people's field of vision all the time like the old people.

If these numbers represent a world, then the five leaves are like the old people in their 60s and 70s, the seven leaves are like the hardworking people between the ages of 189 and 50s, and the nine leaves are like Just like scientific explorers who silently seek the path of human development, few people pay attention. The ten pieces seem to have achieved results and have reached the top of the secret existence. Then the eleven pieces, like Einstein, have reached an unknown realm and are always as rare as a rarity.

This is the Zanthoxylum bungeanum leaf, a magical leaf that contains several extreme numbers in the Taoism of the Book of Changes. It is the five elements, the seven stars and the seven evil spirits, the nine palaces, the world of the ten directions, or something else?

Er Zanthoxylum bungeanum

Zanthoxylum bungeanum is the hope of farmers. It is people's wealth, the result of farmers' hard work and sweat for a year.

He always stares into the scorching sun with his delicate red face, and always uses his spring breeze-like elegance to melt away people’s heat under the scorching sun.

Seeing the joy on my mother’s face always brings a sweet smile to my heart. I heard from my mother that the best peppercorns are in the shape of plum blossoms, that is, three peppercorns grow together. If they are all like that, it will be a good harvest. However, there are not many three-grain ones. Most are one-grain or two-grain ones. Of course, there are exceptions, such as four-grain ones.

However, the first thought I heard was that there are three plum blossoms. Isn’t the plum blossom five-petaled?

In the end, I observed and verified that there were really five flowers. This is its original state. During the flowering season, each flower has five small flowers, and the five small flowers form a plum blossom shape. Unique flowers, all the plum-shaped flowers come together to form a bunch of peppercorns.

As time goes by, some continue to grow and mature, while most seem to be perfected by sacrificing themselves, or are strangled in the cradle due to insufficient nutritional supply, until they are still in the cradle in the end. The state when flowers fall off.

Sometimes I think about it, is this restricted by the rules of heaven and earth? Is it because the Zanthoxylum bungeanum tree holds too many secrets?

If not, should we call it the five-element pepper tree? Is there any tree in the world that contains so many poles? No, even the so-called Bodhi Tree of Enlightenment must be nothing more than this.

Three Ways of Nature

Red flowers and green leaves are the most perfect combination in nature. But under the scorching sun or on dry branches, you can always see pepper seeds that are as crystal clear as black gems.

These prickly ash seeds, as bright and dark as pearls, are the most precious crystals for the prickly ash tree and are the continuation of its life.

Because of this, someone used one sentence to describe the entire Zanthoxylum bungeanum tree: "Red face, black heart, black leaves and numb leaves." This may be a joke, or it may have other meanings, but in this harvest season, when facing the wealth that has been poured out with hard work and sweat over the past year, there is still a price of tears and blood every year. This is a question worthy of vigilance and reflection by each of us.

However, the beginning of all things has its own natural laws. The dark light of pepper seeds seems to be closer to the origin of life before chaos. Break the darkness and give birth to new life, just like what the Taoist scriptures say, Tao gives birth to one, one gives birth to two, two gives birth to three, and three gives birth to all things.

When life is first born, the two poles of Yin and Yang are formed. The cathode takes root in the soil and faces the center of the earth, and the anode breaks out of the soil and touches the sunlight. However, the two poles of yin and yang complement each other, so the anode also has the yang of yang and the yin of yang. Yin is also divided into the yang of yin and the yin of yin. Therefore, almost all primary plants are two-petal buds.

In the later growth, some people will cultivate three main branches like peach trees and apple trees, and break the heads into two branches at a certain distance between the three main branches. In places like ours, if these six branches can develop in a balanced way, it will be a perfect pepper tree.

The gaps corresponding to the three main branches can be used as the best location for the later development of second-generation branches. Everything seems so natural, and everything seems to be running along a certain track inadvertently.

The breeze blew across my face, and cicadas sang in my ears. When I came back to my senses, I seemed to have fallen into deep thought again. What kind of existence is "three"? Is it really just a simple number "three"? Worth pondering!