If you have ever passed by a village called Lion Sun, if you have ever noticed the gilded tile pavilion at the west end of the village farmer's market, if you have asked a little more about the origin of the pavilion, you may know this story.

The blue waves ripple under the blue sky, the lake fluctuates and the water of the Xiaoqing River is flowing quietly, there are countless bays and ponds on both sides of the river, the tall mound is an ancient lookout, and under the mound is a large area of dense pine and cypress, which contains the eternal sleep of our deceased ancestors. In this ancient and mysterious land, there is a legend of a beautiful woman and a stone lion.

This is a legend from her hometown told by Xiaomei, the fourth guest who visited Fengyi Pavilion.

When Xiaomei was a child, she followed her grandmother to visit relatives in the lion grandson, and passed a big bay in the west of the village halfway.

Xiaomei inadvertently lowered her head, but met a pair of round eyes, it was a terrible thing in the bay baring her teeth, arching her body and preparing to attack, as if she was going to rush up and eat her. She was so frightened that her lips trembled and she couldn't speak, she pointed to the bay with one hand, and pulled her grandmother with the other hand to tell her to run. Grandma was startled by his reaction at first, but after seeing the things in the water, she smiled, and she told Xiaomei: That's the stone lion, otherwise how can this village be called Lion Sun? After grandma finished speaking, she pulled Xiaomei to the bay and said, don't be afraid, it's a stone lion that fell into the water. Xiaomei looked carefully and found that it was indeed a stone statue of a big lioness holding a little young teacher, and the stone statue fell on its back in the water. The stone sitting base carved with a delicate lotus pattern is stuck closer to the water's edge, and as the water surface ripples slightly, the stone lion is given a dynamic, as if it is baring its teeth at a person.

Grandma said that there were originally two stone lion statues of the mother and son, but now one is missing, and very early, there is a young male lion, who is the eldest son of the lioness. The lion lion has a fashionable mane and a bell hanging from his neck, and his momentum is majestic. When these three stone lions came here, and why they are mother and son, no one can say. There are only various rumors circulating in the mouths of the villagers, and the most popular one is this:

A long time ago, a big flood washed two stone lions to the lion grandson of the year. The stone lion absorbed the aura of heaven and earth, the essence of the sun and the moon in this treasure land, and after many years, he opened his spiritual wisdom and became a refinement. When he became a spirit, he had feelings, and the male lion who had feelings thought he was an adult male lion, and then he missed his daughter-in-law.

At that time, there was a poor peasant living by the bay, there was a daughter at home, this daughter was handsome, and her temperament was also very lovely, the small jasper was like a hibiscus out of the water, and the lotus flowers in the bay outside the wall reflected each other, and it was a famous beauty in ten miles and eight towns. At that time, there was no running water, and it was far less convenient to use water than it is now, and the children of poor families did not pay much attention to it, and after a day's farm work, it was common to quietly go to the bay to take a shower and take a bath when there was no one at night. The lion looked at the beauty day after day, and fell in love with the bottom of his heart, but the girl didn't know it.

One summer evening, the girl was rolling noodles in the courtyard, and the afterglow of the setting sun sprinkled a layer of orange ink on the courtyard. The lion turned into a young man dressed in white, and quietly came behind the girl, he looked at the back of this haunting him, and couldn't help but blindfold the girl with his hands, and the girl thought that her cousin was joking with her, so she touched her hands covered with flour and said with a smile, "What a man, look at you!" Touched by her flour hand, the hand that covered her eyes was released, and the girl turned back to look at her cousin's face, but found that the courtyard was empty, and there was no one.

"Brother?" She tried to scream twice, but no one answered, and the girl was frightened. When my parents came back from the field, they asked about it, but the answer I got was that my cousin had been working in the field with his family since he left at noon, and he had never returned. Although the incident was strange, the family did not pay much attention to it, until the next morning, when the girl's father went out to work in the fields, he found a white handprint on the head of the lion statue. He suddenly remembered what happened to his daughter yesterday, and when he walked in, he looked at it again, and the more he looked at it, the more it looked like his daughter's handprint.

When this man has something in his heart, he will say it to one person, and the whole village will know about it. Someone stood up and said that the lion had become a spirit and was going to kill people. The villagers fell into a panic, and the village chief and several village representatives went around to find a way to crack it, and after searching for it in many ways, they invited a Taoist. When the man arrived at the village with his two disciples, he immediately tied the male lion with a red rope, and the red rope was not known what it was made of, what it was dyed with, or whether the male lion could not show his magic power in front of people, and the male lion did not struggle after being trapped. The Taoist priest moved quickly, spat out a few incantations, and smashed a hammer with talisman paper into the front limbs of the male lion, and a net-like crack instantly appeared where it fell. The stone lion, which looked extremely hard, was smashed in this way, and the villagers praised Dao Humanitarianism for its ingenuity.

Just as the crowd was cheering for the removal of a pest from the village, a witness noticed that the lioness standing next to her and the lion cub in her arms had tears in the corners of their eyes, and that the place where the male lion had been smashed open was bleeding. Seeing this, the Taoist priest showed pity, and he sighed helplessly: "The shemale has a different path, if you leave, I will never see it." ”

No voice answered.

The Taoist shook his head, "It's not easy to practice, why bother?" Why bother?" As he spoke, he raised his arm and smashed the lion to pieces.

After smashing the lion, the Taoist turned his head to look at the lioness. "For the sake of motherhood and not teaching, let the heirs covet the world, and almost rebelled against the way of heaven. From this day onwards, you will be washed by the currents of the bay of this place, and when you are enlightened, someone will let you out. ”

Two disciples of the Taoist and several young and strong villagers worked together to push the lioness into the water. Since then, the lioness and the lion cub in her arms have been baptized by clear water year after year.

The lion was smashed, and the whole village rejoiced, but only one person did not smile, and that person was the girl whom the lion loved. The girl had a repetitive dream night after night, and in the dream, the handsome young man in white asked her with tears in his eyes: I am only devoted to you, why should I kill myself! The girl's heart was so painful but she was speechless.

The girl's mental state attracted the attention of the family, and her parents quickly negotiated for her in-laws, hoping that the lion would no longer be entangled after the girl got married. On the day of the wedding, the two families were dressed in red, and the girl disappeared. Some claimed to have seen the dressed girl lingering in the place where the lion had been smashed the night before, while others claimed that the girl had last been seen on the bay west of the village.

And what about the bay west of the village? I saw that it was full of blood-colored lotus flowers overnight, the red flowers in the bay were swaying in the morning sun with dewdrops, and the lotus leaves were lined with lotus flowers, with the ups and downs of the water, red as fire, as jade as jade, between the waves, the colors of the two extreme confrontations were mixed. The pond is red and blue, and the two white lotus branches in the center of the unique bay stand tall and upright, proud of the flowers and leaves of the pond, and the two flowers are close to each other, and they support each other. Do you think it would be Xiongshi and his beloved girl?

In the early 90s of the last century, after a night of storm, the male lion fragments on the bay were gone, leaving the lioness alone to fall to the bottom of the bay with her young teacher in her arms. At this time, someone stood up and said that the antique dealer had come and stole the stone lion with a crane at night. Some people say that the villagers were afraid that the antique dealers would steal it at night, so they brought the stone lion home and hid it in their own pigsty. What's more, he said that night, he saw a flash of white light, and the stone lion cultivated into an immortal and flew away.

All these things are just legends, and the stone lion is a mystery when it comes and goes, who can say clearly?

In 2005, the village will set up a farmers' market. After the farmer's market was built, people always felt that something was missing when they looked at the empty land, and after the whole village met and voted, it was finally decided to erect a stone lion. So on the side of the road at the west end of the farmer's market, a majestic stone statue of a male lion stood again, and the male lion - the lion head was fashionable with a mane, and the neck hung with a bell, and the momentum was majestic. Later, a gilded pavilion was built around a male lion. The stone lion statue has become a characteristic feature of the site.

Over time, the lion statue became the symbol of the village, and the original name of the village was forgotten by the world, because people used to call the village "Lion Sun".

If you have ever passed by a village called Lion Sun, if you have paid attention to the gilded tile pavilion at the west end of the village farmers' market, if you have looked at the stone lion in the pavilion and asked more about the origin of the pavilion, you may know that there is a stone lion who loved a girl with his life.