Ｍythical beast toad

 

Ｍythical beast toad

 

During the Chinese Lunar New Year, Agudengba told the coachman Azhuo many stories about the gods of wealth in the minds of the Chinese people, such as Zhao Gongming, the god of positive wealth, Lishi Xianguan, the god of partial wealth, Bigan and Zhugong, the gods of literary wealth, and Guan Gong, the god of martial wealth. wait.

Agudengba said: Among the major religions in the world, there is almost no belief and etiquette in worshiping the God of Wealth, praying for abundant wealth, or even wishing for promotion and wealth. Sacrifice and wealth is the most distinctive Chinese dream. Among the Chinese gods of wealth, in addition to the legendary gods and talented heroes, even the ugly toad has become a great god of wealth. For example, the three-legged golden toad is a very common image of the God of Wealth in traditional Chinese culture. To this day, three-legged toads still often appear in the daily lives of Chinese people: jade carvings, tea set decorations, merchant cashiers... This three-legged toad can be seen on many occasions. So what is the unique meaning of this three-legged toad? Why do Chinese people like to wear and display it so much?

Coachman Azhuo asked: Why are three-legged toads so popular in traditional Chinese culture?

Agudenba smiled and said:

The three-legged toad, as the name suggests, is a toad with only three legs. Toad is commonly known as toad.

The story happened a long time ago in a village in the west of Jinan Prefecture. This village is not big, with about two hundred residents, but it has a long history. The folk customs are simple and the villagers are also very hardworking and kind.

There is a temple to the west of the village. Villagers from several nearby villages often come to this temple to burn incense and pray for blessings. However, this temple is too old. Although there are villagers taking care of it, the walls have long been eroded by wind and rain, and it looks dilapidated.

The villagers were worried that the ruined temple would collapse, and they once discussed building a new temple. Later, war broke out here, and the construction of a new temple was shelved.

After the war was over, the villagers began to discuss building a new temple. Later, after the elders of several nearby villages called for it, the matter of building a new temple was finally decided.

When the villagers learned about this, they were very happy. On the morning of the day when the new temple was to be built, the villagers came to the village voluntarily, each carrying a pickaxe, wanting to contribute.

Several elders stroking their beards looked at the villagers being so active, with smiles on their faces.

"Today is an auspicious day for building a new temple. It's not easy for all the folks to be so enthusiastic. A few of us are already old and I'm afraid we can't help much, so I'm sorry to bother you all!" said an elder, and several other elders moved toward All the villagers nodded.

  "Several elders, it is our local custom to burn incense and pray for blessings. Now this temple is really dilapidated. The new temple is built for the villagers' own use. How can we do anything?" said a villager.

"That makes sense! Elders, please stop being polite and hurry up and build it!" the villagers said one after another.

After hearing this, the elders walked to the front of the temple and kowtowed together, and then the construction of the new temple began.

Li Shijiang from the next village and several villagers started to demolish the wall, and Zhang Carpenter from this village started to dig holes and prepare to lay the foundation. Soon, the main body of the ruined temple was demolished, and the villagers gathered around to dig holes with pickaxes.

When digging the southwest corner of the foundation, Carpenter Zhang dug out the dry soil and found that there was some thin mud underneath. After digging for a while, he found a pit underneath with water in it.

Carpenter Zhang was a little surprised. He looked at a villager not far from him. The soil dug out was normal, and the pit was very dry. There was no mud. Carpenter Zhang scratched his head and became wary.

He continued digging, and suddenly, more and more mud began to bubble, and the mud water began to bubble. Carpenter Zhang took a step back, dropped his pickaxe, and ran up.

"Come and see, I don't know what I've dug up." Carpenter Zhang shouted loudly.

After hearing the shouting, the others gathered around and looked into the pit. Sure enough, bubbles kept popping up in the turbid muddy water.

"This temple has a history of hundreds of years, and no one dared to touch this temple before. It is really difficult to understand how there could be so much mud and bubbles underneath."

"Is there a fish down there?" Everyone was puzzled and started talking around.

After a while, something was crawling in the mud. Everyone was surprised. When they looked again, a toad actually crawled out of the mud. This toad is very large, three feet long. The body is dark green, and there is a red spot on the top of the head, which looks like a flower.

The toad crawled out of the mud slowly and looked at the villagers with its red eyes. When the villagers saw this, they backed away one after another, frightened by the huge toad.

"It turned out to be a toad! But how could there be such a big toad in the world?" Carpenter Zhang said in surprise.

Li Shijiang looked at the toad and said to everyone: "This temple is a sacred place, how can we tolerate this toad monster running wild here? We should get rid of it!"

"No! You and I don't know whether this toad is a demon or not. Why not report it to a few elders before making a decision!" Carpenter Zhang said.

"It's just a toad, so why make such a fuss? We should have dug the foundation earlier!" Li Shijiang said again.

Carpenter Zhang thought for a moment and said to the villagers: "I feel that this toad can survive under the temple. It must be related to the temple. We should not act rashly. I suggest that a few elders make a decision. What do you think? ?”

Carpenter Zhang is nearly sixty years old. He is kind and kind, and the nearby villagers respect him very much. As soon as this statement came out, the villagers felt that it made sense, so they also suggested reporting it to several elders.

Seeing this, Li Shijiang dropped the pickaxe and stopped talking. Zhang Carpenter then sent a young man to invite several elders. Soon, the elders arrived at the scene.

"This is the first time I have seen such a big toad in my life. I am afraid that it is the patron saint of this temple, so we must not act rashly. I know a Taoist priest, so why not invite him to come and have a look? What do you think?" The elder said seriously.

"It's just a toad, why bother with all the troops? It's enough to get rid of it!" After speaking, Li Shijiang picked up the pickaxe and started to step forward. Several elders hurriedly stepped forward to stop it, and then Li Shijiang gave up.

Looking at the toad again, he was squatting on the edge of the mud pit, watching everyone motionless. It refused to leave, as if it was guarding something.

"This toad refuses to leave, so it must have something to do with this temple. I'm going to ask a Taoist priest right now. You must not hurt it!" After that, several elders left together, got on the carriage and went to the Taoist temple.

As soon as the elders left, the mud pit started bubbling again. After a while, a golden toad crawled out, and the two toads lay side by side on the edge of the pit, showing no intention of leaving. Everyone was puzzled, but no one dared to come forward to disturb him.

After a while, several elders returned in carriages. A Taoist priest wearing a green robe, holding a whisk in his hand, got off the carriage and walked straight towards the mud pit.

The Taoist priest walked around the mud pit and took a closer look at the two huge toads. Then he closed his eyes and started pinching his fingers.

After a while, the Taoist priest opened his eyes and said to the elders: "Donors, please do not harm them! These two toads are not ordinary things. They have been here for hundreds of years and have been guarding this temple. They are not monsters." It’s just that today you are carrying out a lot of construction work, which disturbed them, and they don’t know why, so they came out to see what happened.”

"Taoist priest, the villagers building a new temple is a good thing that benefits one side. If the toad refuses to leave and cannot be harmed, how can we continue to build the temple?" asked an elder.

The Taoist priest stroked his beard, smiled slightly, and said: "Donor, don't worry. Since this is a good deed that benefits one party, how can they stop them and refuse to leave? Later, the poor Taoist will convey the benefactor's good intentions, and they will leave on their own!" "

After hearing this, several elders quickly raised their hands to express their thanks. At this time, the villagers praised Carpenter Zhang for his kindness and good deeds. At this time, Li Shijiang was so ashamed that he hid behind the crowd and did not dare to speak any more.

After a while, the Taoist priest took a whisk and bowed to the two toads. He muttered something and occasionally shook the whisk.

After a while, the two toads looked at each other and just called in a low voice. Then they crawled out of the mud pit and headed towards the river not far away.

When the villagers saw this, they all bowed their hands to the Taoist priest and thanked him. The Taoist priest waved his hand and said, "Donor, you don't have to be polite. It's the poor Taoist's duty to save all the people in the world. Now that the matter has been resolved, let the poor Taoist say goodbye!" After saying that, the Taoist priest turned around and left.

Several elders stopped him and said, "Don't worry, Taoist priest. I will go back to the village to eat something later, and I will find a carriage for the Taoist priest to take him back to the Taoist temple."

"I don't want to disturb you anymore. There are still trivial matters in the Taoist temple. I'm going to take my leave!" After saying that, the Taoist left quickly.

After watching the Taoist priest leave, the villagers continued to dig holes and lay the foundation. A month later, the new temple was completed. The villagers knelt down to worship and there was an endless stream of people burning incense and praying for blessings.

Another month later, someone discovered a hole in the southwest corner of the new temple. The hole was huge and bottomless. However, the villagers did not panic, because they knew that what lived in the hole was none other than the two huge toads.

Toad continues to guard the new temple, and also protects the simple local people. Coincidentally, there has never been a natural disaster here. The weather is smooth all year round, the crops are harvested every year, and the villagers' lives are getting happier and happier!

As the saying goes: Everything has spirituality. While digging the foundation for a temple, Carpenter Zhang accidentally discovered a huge toad. Because the toad refused to leave, Li Shijiang wanted to hurt the toad. Zhang Carpenter felt pity and advised Li Shijiang and the villagers to respect the toads and not to hurt them. This shows that Zhang Carpenter is a kind-hearted person.

At the same time, Carpenter Zhang remained calm when faced with the situation and did not act rashly. He dissuaded Li Shijiang in time and thus did not cause any trouble. It can be seen from this: when things go wrong, there will be monsters. When we encounter extraordinary things, we must be calm and cautious, and we must not act arbitrarily! At the same time, let us all have a heart of awe!

Agudengba sang a song called "Everything Has Spirit":

 

Destiny is created by oneself, appearance is born by the heart.

Everything in the world is in disguise,

If the heart does not move, everything will not move.

If the heart remains unchanged, everything remains unchanged.

 

All dharmas are empty, cause and effect are not empty.

Everything in the world has cause and effect,

Where there is a cause, there must be a consequence.

There are consequences, which must start from the antecedents.

 

Everything has a root and everything has an aura.

Everything in the world has spirituality,

Heaven and earth, when the wind rises, the water rises;

Man and beast, there is peace without self.