Stories about folk proverbs

Once upon a time, there was a man named Ashan in Chaoyang mainland who was invited to visit his rival in Haimen Ahai for the first time. Ahai and Ashan are chatting in the living room and tasting Chaoshan congou. Near noon, A Hai's family prepared lunch. I saw two plates of delicious "lotus root snails" on the table, as well as other dishes and rice wine. Ashan has long heard that "Lotus Snail" is delicious and an excellent raw material for brewing wine, and he can't help drooling secretly.

During the dinner, A Hai held the cooked "Lotus Snail" in one hand and a small bamboo stick in the other, and taught her in-laws how to choose the "Lotus Snail" meat. Ashan inserted a small bamboo stick into the head of the "Lotus Snail" meat according to the demonstration of his in-laws Ahai, then squeezed the small bamboo stick and rotated it counterclockwise, trying to pick out the snail meat at once. However, due to the wrong method and excessive force, only a section of snail meat was pulled out. He dipped the snail meat in Chili water, sent it to his mouth and chewed it slowly; I took another sip of rice wine, and I couldn't forget it. It tastes really good. Hai Ruo said thoughtfully, "In-laws, you just broke the tail of the lotus snail in its shell. Take it out quickly, the best. "

Ashan followed Ahai's demonstration, holding a snail shell in his right hand, and the mouth of the snail shell was aimed at the heart of his left hand, shaking violently. The tail of the lotus snail fell to the ground because of too much force. Ashan bent down to pick it up and handed it to her mouth. Who knows, he pulled a long face, spat "bah" and quickly rinsed his mouth with water. It turned out that Ashan mistakenly picked up chicken excrement as the tail of a lotus snail and ate it. Because the tail color of "Lotus snail" is similar to that of chicken excrement, no wonder he made a mistake. Although Ahai repeatedly called her in-laws Ashan to continue to taste the "Lotus Snail", Ashan never dared to ask again.

After eating the remaining oranges,

This is a humorous and interesting Chaoshan folk proverb, which is used to compare and criticize those who love to brag, find fault, exaggerate or demand too much, or are arrogant and strive for fame and profit. It means that a load (two baskets) of oranges are finished, and naturally there are empty ones left. Mandarin Mandarin has a homonym of "dare to speak". "Dare to say" means dare to say. But this is a derogatory term, which is unrealistic and impossible to realize.

This proverb, regardless of its form and meaning, comes from an ancient folk game called "gambling on sugar cane and fighting oranges", which is a spontaneous entertainment activity of villagers during the slack season after the autumn harvest. This kind of activity exists in Chaoshan and Guangzhou. In the Qing Dynasty, Qu Dajun wrote in article 337 of "Guangdong New Language", "Guangzhou children bet on sugarcane and oranges. Break the cane from one end to the first with a knife, and then break it again until the person with the first cane wins. Citrus wins more than stones. There is a saying called' Bet on Sugarcane and Fight on Oranges', which is unique to Chaoshan. The plays I saw before were different from those in Guangzhou. Gambling on sugar cane is the same, but the rules of players are different from playing oranges. In Chaoshan, the participants are mostly young and middle-aged. Their blood is boiling and they are competitive. Whenever citrus sugar cane comes into the market in the slack season after autumn, these young people often gather in small groups near small vendors selling oranges and sugar cane in the corner of the village to gamble and smash oranges. Fighting oranges is to win by guessing the number of pieces. Winners eat oranges for free, and those who can't guess pay for oranges. There are two ways to play the game: first, the stall owner is the host, and everyone is guessing; Second, participants bet on each other. Either way, the stall owner is willing to participate and support. As a result of the bet, he also sold out of oranges, which is very beneficial to his business. And because there is no fixed number of orange slices, it is hard to guess, and often you win less and lose more. It is not easy for young people to give up and continue to do it over and over again until they have finished guessing the dishes. This is how the proverb "put up with oranges and eat leftover oranges" came into being. Its original meaning is that people who can't guess have no skill, and they still can't guess until they have finished guessing a handful of oranges. Isn't it a citrus bear? Homophony means "dare to speak". Later, it was extended as a metaphor for similar inaccurate and unrealistic words.

After liberation, due to the continuous progress of society, folk cultural and entertainment activities have become more and more rich and advanced, and this relatively low-level game of gambling on sugar cane and fighting oranges has gradually disappeared and is no longer rare. But the resulting proverbs are still circulating among the people. Citrus is a very common thing in Chaoshan, which is well understood by hipsters as citrus bear and citrus bear. The homonym of citrus bear is very interesting, so this proverb is often used among hipsters.

"It's better to race pigs than geese."

Pigs are the treasure of the whole body, and used to be an indispensable family sideline in rural areas. Pigs must be fed in a trough, which is made of wood, pottery and stone, long, square and round, and is common in rural areas. Before the establishment of People's Republic of China (PRC), a large carved jade pig trough made of jade was found in Chenghai County (see photo). The jade pig trough in the picture weighs 4298 grams, is 46 cm long, 20 cm wide and 9 cm high. It is made of dark green jade, with living ears and carved lion head. It was collected by the cultural department of Chenghai County in 1950s, and now it is collected as a precious cultural relic in Chenghai Museum.

There is a popular saying in Chaoshan that "pigs are better than geese".

The traditional custom of the villagers in Huaguanshan Village in Chenghai has always been to compete for big pigs and geese on the 18th day of the first month of each year. The villagers make do with raising pigs and compete in front of the gods. The largest pig has a total meat weight of more than 400 Jin, and all social competition areas have attracted men, women and children from four townships and six miles around to watch. Very lively.

Eight-Nation Alliance happened in history. After the cultural relics of Yuanmingyuan in Beijing were stolen, some of them were taken abroad and some were sold at a discount in the market. A rich man in Dutou Village, adjacent to Guanshan Mountain, bought the jade pig troughs scattered in Yuanmingyuan. In the first month, I saw the spectacular scene of villagers competing for big pigs and geese in Guanshan. The rich man personally bought this precious jade pig trough, sent someone to look after it and protect it, and moved it to God for exhibition. Word spread from one mouth to ten, and at one time people near Chaoan and Shantou came to see Qibao, which was unprecedented. Therefore, the story of "the pig race is not as good as the tile-headed jade pig trough" is circulated among the people.

Let go of the peach and grab the cake.

The first episode of Chaoshan culture series collected the proverb "Let go of peaches and grab cakes". According to the explanation of allusions, it seems a little poor. I think this proverb should come from the custom of "stone drum" in Chaoshan, and should start from the Mid-Autumn Festival.

In ancient times, there were three yuan in a year. The Lantern Festival on the fifteenth day of the first month was also called Shangyuan Festival, the Mid-Autumn Festival on August 15th was called Xiayuan Festival, and the Mid-Autumn Festival on July 15th was called Zhongyuan Festival. The Mid-Autumn Festival is also called Ghost Festival, which is found in many places, and the activities in different places are similar.

In Chaoshan, the Mid-Autumn Festival is a ghost festival, and every township will hold a series of "stone drum activities". Legend has it that on this day, the underworld will open the door of hell and will be "banned" until July 30. During this time, all the ghosts will be liberated, so that they can go home and have a look, let future generations worship and have a full meal. Naturally, some ghosts are homeless and only wander around, and people in each village will set up an altar at the head of each village on the Mid-Autumn Festival or until July 30, and put all kinds of fruits, paper clothes, daily necessities and paper money on it to give to those ghosts who can't get Purdue.

We can't see the scene of ghosts and gods "robbing orphans" because it is a superstition. Therefore, the living also learn from ghosts and gods to "rob orphans." People think they should eat what they catch or feed pigs and pray for peace. Some of these activities are carried out on towers, and some places distribute a kind of "isolated dish" made of flat bamboo strips to residents in advance. When people put some sacrifices on "isolated dishes", they will be recycled and placed neatly on both sides of the road leading to the village. The villagers will stand next to the sacrifices, and when the firecrackers sound, everyone will compete for the sacrifices and grab as much as possible.

It is said that a greedy woman in the village once went to "rob orphans" and chose a plate of "flour peaches" to stand. Peach flour is a kind of steamed stuffed bun made of flour in the shape of a peach. When firecrackers sounded, Fu Min still felt that there were too few peaches. She wanted to run across the street and grab a cake from a child's lonely dish. But when she ran to the child, the clever child saw that she had run away, and Fu Min wanted to go back and get the peach back just now. But those peaches have fallen into other people's hands, leaving an empty plate, so there is a proverb "put down the peaches and grab the cake", which is often used to mean that some people give up their vested interests. So, some people want to do this today and want to do something else tomorrow. Without a clear goal, people will eventually achieve nothing, and people will say that they really "put down the peaches and grab the cake."

Cowboy Wu Beihu

Chaoshan proverb "Cowboys don't say goodbye to tigers" is synonymous with China proverb "Newborn calves don't know tigers", which is used to describe people.

The calf has the courage that the old cow has never seen the world, and is not afraid of any behemoths, including the tiger that everyone fears. You can take Wang Bo, a poet in the Tang Dynasty, as an example. Bob has little talent and fame, and he can write at the age of six. In the second year of Xianheng (67 1), Yan worked as a shepherd in Hongzhou and rebuilt the pavilion. On the Double Ninth Festival, guests enjoy a feast in the brand-new Wang Teng Pavilion. Wang Bo, 14 years old, passed by Nanchang and also attended the banquet. Yan praised Wu's talent and ordered Wu to carefully prepare a preface in advance. On the surface, Yan just wants to invite the talents at home and abroad to make a preface. Everyone knows his intention, and he is very modest. It was the youngest Wang Bo's turn to pick up a large sum of money without hesitation. This is a surprise for people who read widely in their seats, and it also makes Yan's adult look askance. The running water finally made Yan clap her hands and sigh: "This genius is also". His son-in-law's works dare not make a fool of themselves.

Chaoshan also has many examples. We can take Lin Daqin, the top scholar of the Ming Dynasty, as an example. Legend has it that 13 years old, he went to Yinhu Village to set up an account to teach students. The villagers bullied him at his young age, made things difficult for him in every way, or tested him with the phrase "Saxifraga after the courtyard of Yinhu". Lin even calmly said, "The dragon in front of Jinshi Palace is dazzled", which finally touched the villagers. It is also said that young people dare to argue with Xue, who occupies private land, and persuade him to admit his mistake.

However, everything has two sides. Cowboys don't care about other tigers, so they lack the self-protection consciousness of Daniel and Niu Lao. Or a young man is arrogant. I still don't understand the pros and cons of officialdom, the hardships of official career and the lack of rational brilliance. In addition, he was edited by Zhao because of his erudition. At that time, kings were idle and cockfighting was popular. Wang Bo wrote a campaign for people who are tired of playing with toys like the king of England. Emperor Li Zhi was very angry when he read this article. He thought it was destroying the relationship between the kings and immediately expelled him from the palace. Arrogant Wang Bo got a rebuff, and his father was banished to a far place. Later, Wang Bo crossed the ocean to visit his father and drowned at the age of 27.

Prodigy is short-lived. Chaoshan prodigy Fu Su lived only 14 years old, Cao Zongcai lived 20 years old, and Lin Daqin only lived 36 years old. Chaoshan people boil down to "the sun rises early and won't last all day". Among them, philosophy is worth pondering.