Xu Xingde thought for a while and said, "I understand, it's because you are here in a mountain village, right?

Yang Meng smiled and shook his head: "What you said is just one aspect, this is not the most critical." ”

"What is the most critical reason?" asked Xu Xingde, puzzled.

Yang Meng explained: "As I just said, our village is a village established here by people who are fleeing the war, and among the elders who established this village at that time, there was a person named Sun Diantang, well, this name is a bit unfamiliar, but his father is Sun Yusheng. ”

"Who is Sun Yusheng?" asked Xu Xingde, puzzled.

Yang Meng laughed: "Okay, Xiao Xu, you are a college student, then let me ask you first, why do we set off firecrackers during the New Year?"

Xu Xingde didn't think about it, so he replied directly: "Of course, it's to drive away the 'Year Beast', elementary school students know this, right?"

Yang Meng shook his finger: "You are really wrong." Then let me ask you, if there really is a 'Nian Beast', why is it that the 'Nian Beast' has never been mentioned in ancient books such as the "Classic of Mountains and Seas" that record demons and monsters? And if it is really because of the 'Nian Beast', then why does the Nian Beast only haunt during the New Year? And in our country, firecrackers are set off on any festival and red and white celebration, so is it still to drive away the 'Nian Beast'?"

"Huh?" Yang Meng instead stopped Xu Xingde: "You said that the ancient books didn't mention the 'Year Beast'?"

Yang Meng nodded: "There is no ancient book that records the 'Year Beast', that is to say, the 'Year Beast' does not exist at all." ”

"Won't it?" Xu Xingde didn't quite believe Yang Meng's statement.

Yang Meng smiled: "Really, I don't lie to you." The earliest record of Chinese people setting off firecrackers is in the Han Dynasty's "Divine Strange Scripture", which records that residents at that time would light bamboo to drive away 'mandrills', and the bamboo cracked and made a sound to scare away 'mandrills' after being lit, that is, since then, there has been the name 'firecrackers'. ”

"What is it?" asked Xu Xingde, puzzled.

According to the records of the "Divine Sutra", this mandrill is very similar to a person, it is also in human form, and it has a lot of hair on its body, and it is not afraid of people, and it will run to the village at night to steal food. If someone catches someone and scratches someone with their claws to run away, the person who is injured by them will get sick, but they are afraid of sound, so people use firecrackers to drive away mandrills. Yang Meng explained.

Xu Xingde pouted and said, "Isn't this a monkey? When I traveled to Mount Emei, I was robbed by the monkeys there, and when the monkeys scratched me, I was infected with bacteria, and I went to the hospital for a long time." ”

Yang Meng snapped his fingers: "It should be like this! Do you think, whether it is a festival or a happy event, there is often a rich food, which will definitely attract these mandrills to join in the fun, right? The earliest record of setting off firecrackers during the Chinese New Year was during the Northern and Southern Dynasties, and a book called "Jing Chu Sui Ji Ji" recorded that on the morning of the first day of the Lunar New Year, people would burn firecrackers in the yard to scare the mandrills. ”

"Wait a minute!" Xu Xingde objected: "The "Divine Strange Sutra" says that the mandrills come to steal things at night, while the "Jing Chu Sui Ji" says that firecrackers are set off in the morning! Yang Meng smiled: "From the Han Dynasty to the Northern and Southern Dynasties for hundreds of years, maybe those mandrills have moved? According to my guess, firecrackers were a symbolic entertainment at that time." After all, in ancient times, there was no mobile phone network or anything, so what do you let them play? In the Song Dynasty, there was gunpowder, and then people stuffed gunpowder into bamboo, and the sound was even louder. And at that time, people would also study fireworks by adjusting the composition of gunpowder, and the scene of people playing fireworks was painted in "Qingming Riverside Picture". Later, gunpowder was stuffed into a paper tube, and it became the current firecracker. ”

Xu Xingde scratched his head and said: "You just explained the origin of firecrackers for a long time, what does it have to do with your non-firecrackers during the New Year?"

Yang Meng smiled: "Don't worry, listen to me explain to you slowly." He picked up his wine glass, took a sip of wine, moistened his throat, and continued: "In ancient times, Taoism in our country was strong, and they linked the custom of setting off firecrackers with the Taoist allusion of 'Emperor Ziwei surrendered to Pixiu'. Before the Qing Dynasty, the common people thought that the crape myrtle emperor was a symbol of exorcism, so during the New Year, they would hang the New Year's painting of 'the crape myrtle emperor descended to Pixiu', and then set off firecrackers to help the crape myrtle emperor beat the pixiu together, this custom is especially prevalent in the south of our country, and this custom will still be maintained in Zhanjiang today. An event is held every year to commemorate the surrender of Emperor Ziwei to Pixiu. ”

Xu Xingde still wanted to speak, but Yang Meng stopped him: "The next important point is an important point: when I arrived in the Republic of China, a family wrote an article called "Old Records of Shanghai Dialect", which named the Pixiu in the New Year's painting of 'Ziwei Emperor descended to Pixiu' 'Year Beast'. It has become a fierce beast that eats people in thousands of households every New Year. ”

"Why did he do that?" asked Xu Xingde, puzzled.

Yang Meng explained: "During the Republic of China, the people were not making a living, and at that time, if the poor wanted to live, they had to keep accounts or borrow money first, and at the end of the year, those who collected the debts would come to settle the bills. Well, just like those who borrow usury now, have you read "The White-Haired Girl"? Isn't Yang Bailao just forced to use his daughter to pay off his debts? That family wrote this article to say that those who collect debts are all flood beasts, and I hope that a god like 'Ziwei Emperor' can come out of the world to get rid of these man-eating 'Year Beasts', so that everyone can have a good year with peace of mind. And his statement was agreed by other authors during the Republic of China, which is the origin of the legend of the 'Year Beast'!"

Xu Xingde suddenly realized: "So that's the case。。。。。。 But Brother Yang, you still haven't said why you don't set off firecrackers here for the New Year?"

Yang Meng said with a smile: "I just said at the beginning, there is a person named Sun Diantang in the founder of our village, and his father's name is Sun Yusheng. His son also came here to escape the war in order to keep the incense of their grandson's family, and participated in the creation of Zhushanzi Village. Just because his father made a young beast, he was about to leave his hometown to live here, so since the establishment of Zhushanzi Village, there have been no firecrackers. ”

"There are so many stories about a small firecracker. Xu Xingde sighed.

Yang Meng said with a smile: "Although it is a bit exaggerated to say that our village is the descendants of literati and ink writers just now, it is true that the ancestors of many of us here were famous families back then. The more such large families are, the more they pay attention to the inheritance of incense. ”

Xu Xingde asked curiously: "Then Brother Yang, who is your ancestor?"

Yang Meng grinned: "Back then, those famous families came out without a little servant or maid or something, how could they survive? My ancestor was the housekeeper of the Sun family." Later, after the founding of our country, some people went back to recognize their ancestors and returned to their ancestors, and some people continued to live here, and our family was the one who stayed here to live. ”

Xu Xingde suddenly realized: "No wonder you people are so particular about family rules." It's all influenced by our ancestors. At that time, whether it was a servant or something here, it would be affected by the image of the master's family, and the master's life was exquisite, and these subordinates would naturally learn from them. ”

Yang Meng nodded and said, "You're right, it's because of this!"

Xu Xingde continued to ask: "Then why don't you eat wild meat? Let me tell you a funny thing." When I first came, I found that there was a situation of wild boars in the arch field, and I wanted to contact the town's joint defense team to fight wild boars, but I was told by the village that I could only drive away wild boars, and I couldn't watch the banker being ruined, so I asked my classmates to contact a power grid. It turned out to be useful at first, and the wild boars used their noses to arch the grid and then escaped, but then the wild boars didn't know what was going on, and found that it was okay to arch the grid with their butts. So now those wild boars are arching the grid with their butts, and I really don't have any tricks with them. Don't you eat wild meat, but it's also an ancestral precept handed down from your ancestors?"

Yang Meng smiled: "This is really not, didn't you hear the lobster just now? We are also rich here, including the most difficult period in those years, we have no hunger, we live by eating wild meat." How do you say that? Relying on the mountains to eat the mountains and the water to eat the water, it turns out that we rely on selling game meat to increase our income. ”

"Then why don't you eat it?" Xu Xingde asked curiously.

"It's not because of the last pneumonia incident? Since then we have stopped eating wild meat. Yang Meng said.

Xu Xingde suddenly realized: "Oh, you're talking about the big epidemic caused by the people of Jiangcheng eating bats, right?"

As a result, Yang Meng looked at Xu Xingde with a disgusted face after hearing this: "It's a shame that you are still a college student, why do Jiangcheng people eat bats? Don't you say this to make Jiangcheng people feel cold when they hear it? It is true that there are places in Africa and Asia where there is a custom of eating bats, but among the more than one billion people in our country, there may be less than 100,000 people who have actually eaten bats! In a country as big as ours, this number may be less than the people who eat! The number of people who have eaten bats in the entire Jiangcheng may only be a few dozen! The epidemic was indeed caused by bats, but it should have been those bats that infected those wild meat through feces and other factors that led to the epidemic, and there are more people eating wild meat in our country, and now the price of a pheasant in the farmers' market is more than five times the price of a domestic chicken. It's just that that incident was unlucky for the people of Jiangcheng, it just happened from them first, and they were unfortunate enough, and you still said that they ate bats, isn't it chilling?"

Before Xu Xingde could speak, Xiao Peng's son spoke first: "Uncle Yang, there are so many people in our country who eat?"

“。。。。。。 ”