A long time ago, there lived a farmer named A Niu near the Grand Canal. A Niu's family is very poor. He lost his father at the age of seven and lived on his mother's textiles. A Niu's mother has a hard life because she lost her husband when she was a child. She often cries and her eyes are broken.
When A Niu was 13 years old, he said to his mother, "Mom, your eyes are not good. Don't spin and weave day and night in the future. I have grown up, I can support you! " So I went to Zhang's rich man's house to do small jobs, and the mother and son lived alone. Two years later, my mother's eye disease became more and more serious and she soon became blind. A Niu thought, my mother's eyes are blind to me, and I will cure her eyes anyway. While working for the rich man, I get up early and grow vegetables in the dark, and earn some money by selling vegetables to seek medical advice for my mother. But I don't know how much medicine I took, but my mother's eye disease still hasn't improved. One night, A Niu had a dream that a beautiful girl came to help him grow vegetables and told him, "There is a wild place dozens of miles west along the canal where a white chrysanthemum grows, which can cure eye diseases. This kind of flower won't bloom until the Double Ninth Festival in September. At that time, you can use this flower to make soup for your mother, which will definitely cure her eye disease. " On the Double Ninth Festival, A Niu took dry food to the big grass to find white chrysanthemums. It turns out that this place is wild and overgrown with weeds, commonly known as "wild sky" He searched there for a long time, only saw Huang Juhua, but didn't see the white chrysanthemum. Until the afternoon, he found a white wild chrysanthemum in the grass next to a small mound. This kind of white chrysanthemum is very special. It is divided into nine branches, only one of which blooms, and the other eight branches are in bud. A Niu dug up this white chrysanthemum with roots and soil, and planted it next to his house. After his watering and nursing, before long, the other eight flowers opened one after another, beautiful and fragrant. Therefore, A Niu picks a decoction for her mother every day. After eating the seventh chrysanthemum, her mother's eyes began to see again.
The news that white chrysanthemum can cure eye diseases soon spread, and people in the village rushed to watch this unusual wild chrysanthemum. When Zhang Man, a rich man, heard about it, he called A Niu and ordered him to transplant the white chrysanthemum into the Zhangjia Garden immediately. Of course, A Niu refused. Zhang Man, a rich man, thought, how dare you, a small laborer, disobey the master's orders, and decided to dismiss A Niu on the spot, and sent several people to A Niu's house to rob the white chrysanthemums. Under the competition between the two sides, the chrysanthemum was broken and the men walked away. A Niu was very sad to see that this white chrysanthemum, which can treat her mother's eye diseases, was destroyed. She sat beside the broken white chrysanthemum and cried till dark. After midnight, his tearful eyes suddenly lit up, and the beautiful girl I dreamed of last time came to his side again. The girl advised him: "Don't be sad, go back to sleep. 1 "A Niu said," This chrysanthemum saved my mother. How can I live if I am killed by a fall? " The girl said, "Although the stem of this chrysanthemum is broken, the root is still there. It's not dead. You just have to dig out the root and transplant it to another place until next spring, when it will burst into branches. " At that time, if you cut off branches and plant seeds, you can grow white chrysanthemums again. "A Niu asked," who are you, girl? The girl said, "I am the chrysanthemum fairy in the sky, and I am here to help you." As long as you follow a "Chrysanthemum Ballad", the white chrysanthemum will definitely grow alive. "Then Juxian read:" Three points and four heads, watering in May, throwing materials in June, covering the head in July and August, rolling hydrangeas in September ",and disappeared after reading it.
A Niu went back to the house to read Ju Xian's "Chrysanthemum Ballad" carefully, and finally realized its meaning: planting chrysanthemums requires transplanting in March, pinching flowers in April, watering more in May, fertilizing frequently in June, protecting roots in July and August, and hydrangea-shaped chrysanthemums can only bloom in September. A Niu did it according to the instructions of Chrysanthemum Fairy. Later, many branches grew on the old roots of chrysanthemum. He cut off these branches to make cuttings, and then cultivated them according to the saying of "planting chrysanthemums" On the ninth double ninth festival in September of the following year, white chrysanthemums were in full bloom and the fragrance was overflowing. Later, A Niu taught the poor in the village the skills of planting chrysanthemums, and more and more people planted white chrysanthemums. Because A Niu discovered this white chrysanthemum on the ninth day of September, people later called it Chrysanthemum Festival, and gradually formed the custom of enjoying chrysanthemum, drinking chrysanthemum tea and drinking chrysanthemum wine.