1. Ancient Chinese legend has it that a carp in the Yellow River will change into a dragon when it jumps over the Dragon Gate (located in the Yellow River Canyon northwest of Hejin City, Shanxi Province). It is a metaphor for the soaring of the Yellow River, such as being successful in the imperial examination and being promoted to an official position. It is also used as a metaphor for advancing against the current and striving for advancement.
A long, long time ago, the Dragon Gate had not yet been cut open, and the flow of Yishui to this place was blocked by the Zilongmen Mountain, so it accumulated in the south of the mountain as a big lake.
The carp living in the Yellow River heard that the scenery of Longmen was good, and they all wanted to go sightseeing. They set out from the Yellow River in Mengjin, Henan Province, passed through the Luo River, and came down the Yi River to the place where the water splashed out of Longmen, but there was no waterway up Longmen Mountain, so they couldn't get up there, so they had to gather at the foot of the north mountain of Longmen. "I have an idea, how about we jump over this Dragon Gate Mountain?" A big red carp said to the group.
"It's so high, how can we jump?" "If we don't jump well, we'll fall to our deaths!" The big red carp then volunteered, "I'll jump first and give it a try." Only to see it from half a mile away from the whole body strength, like an arrow off the string, a leap, all of a sudden jumped to half a day in the clouds, driving the clouds and rain in the air to go forward.
A cloud of heavenly fire came after it from behind and burned off its tail. It endured the pain and continued to leap forward, finally crossing Dragon Gate Mountain and landing in the lake south of the mountain, turning into a giant dragon in the blink of an eye. When the carp in the north of the mountain saw this, they were all cowered in fear and did not dare to take the risk again.
At this time, they suddenly saw a huge dragon descending from the sky and said, "Don't be afraid, I am your partner, the big red carp, because I jumped over the dragon's gate and became a dragon, so you should be brave to jump too!" Hearing these words, the carp were encouraged and began to jump over the Dragon Gate Mountain one by one. But except for a few that jumped over and turned into dragons, most of them couldn't get over.
Anyone who couldn't jump over and fell through the air got a black scar on his forehead. Until today, this black scar still grows on the forehead of the Yellow River carp. Later, Li Bai, a great poet of Tang Dynasty, wrote a poem specially for this matter: "The three-foot carp of the Yellow River, originally residing in Mengjin, pointing the forehead does not become a dragon, returning to accompany the mortal fish."
2. The fairy tale of "Carp Jump Dragon Gate" tells us that we must be persistent in doing things, and only persistence will lead to success in doing every thing, and we have to work hard to insist on doing every thing, and influence all the people around us with our actions. I hope they can also be like me, perseverance.