Guo Hong listened to He Qiong's question, and hurriedly nodded again and again.

The lotus was called hibiscus in ancient times, and in the "Erya" of the early Han Dynasty, it was said: "Lotus, hibiscus, its stem eggplant, its leaf bracket, its secret, its painting, in fact, lotus, its root lotus, among them, the barley in the sage." ”

So the lotus is the fruit of the lotus flower, also known as the lotus pod.

The He family likes to call the lotus flower a lotus, and don't mention the name "lotus" in front of them, otherwise they will offend people unconsciously and don't know it.

Ordinary people make river lanterns are generally a candle placed on a paper boat, and the more complex ones are made into the shape of lanterns, after all, this is something that goes with the water, and will not use too expensive materials.

The river lamp on the table is made in the shape of a lotus, although the material is better, but the paper bamboo velvet rope is also used, the rope is tied very beautifully, and the paper is painted with a talisman, adding a bit of mystery, just like the lotus platform under the throne of the Buddha!

"It's so big, you can put several candles!" Lu Chaoyang exclaimed.

"Of course, but according to the rules, you can only plug in one. You see, this is my father's newly carved jade box, and I asked for the load! ”

The bait was a jade box, glowing with a faint yellow, crystal clear, with intricate patterns engraved on it, revealing a mysterious atmosphere.

"This is the legendary Langji!" He Qiong explained with a little smugness.

Langji is a kind of stone like jade beads in the legend, and it is said in the "Classic of Mountains and Seas" that there is a Langji tree in Kunlun Mountain.

Baoyu is psychic, and only Huaxia in all the countries of the world has associated jade with immortals.

With its roundness, smoothness and crystal clearness, the fine jade has become a treasure for the magnates of all dynasties.

The ritual vessels of the Tang Dynasty were all made of jade, and the jade ornaments and jade belts hung around the waists of officials above the third grade were mainly from Hotan in the Western Regions.

Although there are jade workshops among the people, the jade materials used are not Hetian jade, but some jade materials with relatively poor jade quality, and even then not everyone can use them.

Ordinary civilians were not allowed to own precious jade, and the imperial court controlled high-quality jade very strictly, in other words, if you didn't have enough status, you couldn't buy it with money.

Although this carved jade box is not from the legendary Kunlun Mountain, it is also very rare and not available to ordinary people.

He Deng carved a good jade, is the master of the world, and several pieces of jade pendants that have been handed down to later generations in the Tang Dynasty are from his hands.

The carving of this jade box is delicate, and the sunlight falling between the trees shines on it, glowing with a pale yellow halo, which is beautiful, making Cao Shouzhen and Lu Chaoyang fascinated.

He Qiong was very satisfied with the reaction of the two teenagers, and she was amazed for a long time when she saw it for the first time.

As for the twelve-year-old junior brother, he has been expressionless, presumably because he has no knowledge and does not understand how precious this treasure is.

Tomorrow is the Midyear Festival, and this box of bait makes the little girl full of confidence.

Cao Shouzhen and Lu Chaoyang, the two teenagers, you and I said a word, and studied the runes on the river lantern there.

"Do you understand? Don't pretend to understand! ”

He Qiong achieved the purpose of showing off, put away the river lantern, folded it into the size of a small umbrella, carried it diagonally on his back, closed the lid on the jade box, solemnly locked it, and put the key in a small purse tied around his waist.

Cao Shouzhen saw that it was the purse he sent, and he stopped talking, He Qiong glanced at him and asked, "What's wrong with you?" ”

The young man snorted twice, and finally mustered up the courage to say, "If I want to talk to you in the future, will I have to go through Senior Brother Guo?" ”

He Qiong glanced at Guo Hong, a trace of cunning light flashed in his eyes, the corners of his mouth twitched, he forcibly held back a smile, and said with fake anger: "Yes, look at you still dare to send things indiscriminately!" ”

In fact, early this morning, Guo Hong told He Qiong what happened yesterday and asked: "Is there a poem in the purse?" ”

He Qiong quickly reacted, shouldn't this kind of thing have a piece of poetry in it that expresses her heart? In the Tang Dynasty, Hu Feng was very heavy, and when courting between men and women, he directly expressed his intentions, and he was not as subtle as in later generations.

You must know that Tang poetry is everywhere in life, even if you can't write it, you can copy the famous sentences of your predecessors!

Besides, if you are chased easily, will it make people not know how to cherish it? It's always right to play tricks on this stupid brother with the little junior brother.

Guo Hong was not worried at all, although He Qiong didn't say anything at the time, he really gave a positive answer when Cao Shouzhen asked.

Cao Shouzhen was dumbfounded at that time, looking at a loss, and kept grabbing his cheek with his left hand, like a monkey.

He Qiong ran out secretly, and her father also asked her to be familiar with the preparation of the bait, so she hurriedly said goodbye to the three of them and left with the jade box.

Lu Chaoyang also went back to serve the master, Cao Shouzhen grabbed Guo Hong and asked in a low voice, "What does Senior Sister He mean?" She's blaming me for sending that purse? ”

Guo Hong said: "Senior sister said that you didn't write poetry, and you have no sincerity. ”

Cao Shouzhen patted his head in annoyance and said, "Didn't I dare, so I bought a purse embroidered with mandarin ducks first." ”

He rolled his eyes and suddenly asked, "Senior brother, is it too late for me to write a poem now?" ”

"Write it yourself or copy it?"

"How can I have that ability, of course it's copying."

"Then don't worry, do things first, if something goes wrong, senior sister won't spare you."

"Okay, okay, I'll go and stare at Wei Zhicheng."

After saying that, Cao Shouzhen turned around and left, he didn't like He Qiong ordinarily, and he was naturally willing to do this little thing.

In the evening, there was still no movement, Guo Hong secretly wondered, it can't be tomorrow daytime.

It's just that tomorrow there will be fewer opportunities, and He Qiong will follow He Deng all day long to participate in the Dharma held in Guanzhong.

The midyear festival is the birthday of the local official, and an altar has been set up in front of the main hall of the first person to enter the temple, and then the Jiao will be built in the dojo to pray, praying for the forgiveness of the sins of the local official.

The Zhongyuan Festival is derived from the Ghost Festival, which was previously a festival to worship ancestors in the Han Dynasty and was known as the Autumn Taste.

In ancient times, there were four ancestral sacrifices a year, namely spring temple, summer wine, autumn taste, and winter steaming.

In Qu Yuan's Chu Ci "The Conjuring", there is: "The soul returns!" There is no such secluded capital. Tubo nine covenants, its horns are smiling. ”

It shows that as early as the Spring and Autumn Period, there was the concept of the hidden capital, and the Tubo mentioned in the poem refers to the Houtu, which is also the god in charge of the underworld in the legend of Chu.

At the end of the Eastern Han Dynasty, the Taoist priest Yu Ji's "Taiping Sutra" already had a description of the judge of the underworld, and the concept of the underworld had already taken shape in the Han Dynasty, and the Emperor Xudu officially replaced Houtu in charge of the ghost world.

Zhang Daoling of the Eastern Han Dynasty founded Zhengyi, among the gods enshrined are heavenly officials, earth officials, water officials, collectively known as the three official emperors, the status is under the three Qing, above the four emperors, the heavenly officials are blessed on the fifteenth day of the first month, the local officials are pardoned on the fifteenth day of July, and the water officials are relieved of misfortune on the fifteenth of October.

The full name of the local official is Zhongyuan Erpin Forgiveness Official, Qingxu Emperor, subordinate to the Shangqing Realm, formed by the spirit of the Yuan Cave and the essence of extreme yellow, and is in charge of the five emperors and five mountains of the immortals. On the fifteenth day of the seventh month, he will come to the world to abstain from sins and forgive them.

The festival is called Obon in Buddhism.

The Western Jin Dynasty Shiyue monk Tanmara Rakshasa translated the "Buddha Says the Bon Sutra", the Bon is a Sanskrit transliteration, which means "to relieve the upside down", telling the story of the day of July 15, the high monk Mulian rescued the soul of the deceased mother.

After Muren became a monk, in order to repay the kindness of his parents, he tried to redeem his dead mother who became a hungry ghost in reincarnation.

He gave his mother rice in a bowl, but when it came into her hands, it was immediately reduced to ashes, and she could not satisfy her stomach. Mulian then prayed to the Buddha for the salvation of his mother, and the Buddha said that on the 15th day of the seventh month, he must make offerings to the monks of the ten directions in order to transcend the souls of the dead.

So according to the Buddha's words, on the 15th day of the seventh month, the monks blessed the seventh generation of parents for the benefactor, meditated and determined, and then eaten, and Muren's mother was able to free herself from the suffering of hungry ghosts.

Muren later suggested that all disciples who wished to practice filial piety could make offerings to Obon on July 15 to redeem their parents in this world and even in the seventh generation.

This is where the Bon comes from.

Emperor Wu of Liang believed in Buddhism, set July 15 as the Bon Festival, and then became a grand ceremony in the palace, to the Tang Dynasty, every year the royal family sent the basin to the official temples with a guard of honor, offering sacrifices.

During the reign of Wu Zetian, the Khotanese monk Shicha Nanda came to Chang'an and translated the Three Classics of Jizo, and the saying that Jizo was in charge of hell became popular in the Central Plains.

The name of the Zhongyuan Festival was originally seen in the Northern Wei Dynasty's "Daozang", but it was not officially named until the middle and late Tang Dynasty.

Before Wuzong destroyed the Buddha, the momentum of the Bon Festival was far about the Zhongyuan Festival, which became a folk consensus, and there were relevant records in the famous "Yan's Family Motto" in the Northern and Southern Dynasties.

When Guo Hong's father, Guo Zhongwen, served as the head of the Fujiao sect, the major event of the attack on Buddhism was to confiscate the Bon of the temples in Chang'an on the day of the Midyear Festival and send them to the Taoist temple as a sacrifice, and he died violently in his home in Chang'an on September 1 of that year.