Lei Zu's hometown Dongqiaoxing
The sixth day of the third lunar month is the legendary birthday of Lei Zu. Early in the morning, a group of more than 1 people took four buses and sailed to Dong Qiao, Xiping, Lei Zu's hometown, facing the morning breeze.
People sitting in the car are laughing and talking freely, and the topic can't be separated from Lei Zu. Lei Zu is Zheng Ji of Xuanyuan Huangdi. Sima Qian's "Historical Records" records: "The Yellow Emperor lived in the hill of Xuanyuan, and the daughter who married Xiling was for Lei Zu." Lei Zu is the daughter of Xiling clan leader Xiling clan. According to "Notes on Water Classics", "Its west Lu ruins, namely Xiling Pavilion, and Xiling Pingyi, are called Xiping." Dong Qiao (Lvxu) Village, Lvdian Township, Xiping County, is the birthplace of silkworm god Lei Zu.
According to legend, when Lei Zu went up the mountain to pick wild fruits, he found that the trees were covered with white balls, which were hard to bite and chewy. After picking them, he put them in a pot and cooked them, but they could not be cooked. Holding a stick and stirring it, I found that some white silk like hair was wrapped around the stick, which was very strong, so it was used to compose animal skins and used as thread. One day, she was covered with a big spider web. I didn't know what it was, so she ran to the river to take a picture, as if covered with a layer of yarn. After observation, she found that both spiders and silkworms can spin silk. Can you weave silk into a net? After hard work, Lei Zu weaved silk into yarn, which was admired by the Yellow Emperor. The Yellow Emperor sent someone to propose to the chieftain of Xiling. After the chieftain agreed, Lei Zu wore her own wedding dress and married the Yellow Emperor. Later, people called this kind of worm silkworm, and the spun yarn was called silk. After the merger of Huangdi and Yandi, Yandi was in charge of farming crop production, and Huangdi was responsible for planting mulberry, raising silkworms and reeling clothes. Lei Zu assisted the Yellow Emperor, worked at sunrise and stopped at sunset, helped her husband to teach, turned silkworms into clothes, unified the Central Plains and laid a foundation for the country, so she was called mother.
In ancient times, only wild cotton or animal skins could be used as clothes, and people far away from tribal centers could only hang some leaves. It was Lei Zu's invention of sericulture and garment making that ended the savage era of nakedness. After the Eastern Zhou Dynasty, Lei Zu was revered by later generations as a god, known as the Wild Silkworm. As a silkworm god, he was worshipped by later generations as a fairy silkworm empress. He once built a Niangniang Temple in Shiling Town to worship the silkworm god. Later, the temple continued to expand and became a seven-story courtyard, with unique design and seven-level relief, including pines, cypresses and ginkgo trees, which were gloomy and lush. On the sixth day of the third lunar month, people hold three-day temple fairs, sing big plays and worship ancestors in Lei Zu. Now Lei Zu Temple no longer exists, but the site still exists.
When you come to Lei Zu Mausoleum, take a deep breath, relax your body and mind, and have a silent conversation with the respected Lei Zu. At this time, the breeze gently brushed your cheeks, and through the Qingming rain, the precipitation of history became more beautiful, which made people feel satisfied and gratified in the quiet and peaceful environment of nature.
At the beginning of the memorial ceremony, 36 salutes were fired and resounded through the sky. At this time, the vast sky was filled with the breath of ancient civilization. In the accompaniment of the ode "The First Silkworm Queen", the comrades of the city and county Yanhuang Culture Research Association presented flower baskets, and Chinese businessmen and overseas people paid homage. Being descendants of the Chinese people, falling leaves is a common saying of the Chinese nation, and it is also a comfort to the gods of Lei Zu.
The seventh item of the ceremony was to sing carols, which were led by 5 primary school students: "Princess Xuanyuan was the first silkworm empress, and she began to teach people to make clothes. She has been in China for 5, years, and her name has been honored forever ..." Her childish face, set off by a red skirt, was like delicate flowers, and her crisp children's voice brought me back to my naive childhood. Standing on this sacred land, I seem to see my neighbor's aunt running while knitting, and I seem to hear the sound of a loom clicking, which is a harmonious movement played by camel bells on the Silk Road. At this time, cigarettes are wrapped around, filled with smoke from cooking stoves for 5, years, and the splendid culture of 5, years blends with the glorious tradition of Chinese people.
The last item of the ceremony was a folk memorial service. Dozens of villagers' representatives held incense and lined up neatly, waiting for this moment. The traditional ways and procedures of paying homage to the gods are: welcoming the gods, offering incense, offering sacrifices, worshipping, offering dances and offering sacrifices to the gods, which echoes the paragraph level of the ode to "The First Silkworm Queen". After the ceremony, I watched Dong Qiao again, where the original dirt road became a cement road and the small tile house became a bungalow and a building. The row of houses with looms on the west side of the village was washed down by the "July 8" flood in the early years, and now it is a lush wheat field. Time flies, more than 2 years have passed, and the familiar faces are still in my heart. I can't name each other when I look at each other. It's really "the flowers in my neighbors are all gone, and I pity Yu Fang with tears all over my clothes." Most of the children who play with me have gone to work in big cities, leaving regrets and spiritual pains in this familiar and unfamiliar country.
The car passed Shi Ling, and I also saw people singing operas. Maybe there is a memorial service for Lei Zu here. After I came back, my mood couldn't be calm for a long time, and the lingering charm of that memorial carol has been echoing in my chest: "The silkworm first blessed the fairy dew, the mulberry tree-lined silkworm was busy, and the silkworm empress first ... admired from generation to generation."