There is no cornel in my hometown, but before going to elementary school, I read the famous phrase "You know that when brothers go to high places, there is one less cornel", and I became familiar with the word "dogwood".
Later, I learned that it is an amazing plant. It can not only be used as medicine to cure diseases, make wine and nourish the body, but the ancients also used it as a sacrifice, adornment, and ward off evil.
Today is Chongyang again. Looking at the blooming chrysanthemums, I naturally think of dogwood, so I search for its shadow in the poetry of Chongyang.
Before the discovery of the Tang Dynasty, there were very few poems describing cornel, but the records in the literature were earlier.
As early as the "Zhou Li Nei Ze", there is a record of "three sacrifices using sycamore".
The system of sacrifice in the Zhou Dynasty was to put the "three animals" of cattle, sheep and pigs on the sacrifice plate, and put eight kinds of fruits such as fried dogwood on the sacrifice plate for sacrifice. It can be seen that people regarded dogwood as an extraordinary thing at that time. .
Speaking of the medicinal effect of cornel, it has been recorded and praised in works such as "Shen Nong's Materia Medica" and "Wu Jin Materia Medica".
Later, after the story of "Huanjing brought his family to wear cornel bags and climbed the mountains to escape the disaster on the ninth day of September" spread in the Eastern Han Dynasty, this episode was recorded by the Southern Dynasty writer Wu Jun in "Continuation of Qi Xie Ji", and the cornel also It is used as a talisman to ward off evil spirits and ghosts, and it is called "Evil Ward Weng".
In the Southern Dynasty, Emperor Wu of Song Dynasty, Liu Yu, feasted his colleagues on the horse stage at the Double Ninth Festival, and even regarded the cornel as a prize to reward the whole army. There is a poem saying: "The goddess of Tianmen, the god of the martial tree, the nine-day cornel and the six armies" (Chu Guangxi's "On the Horse Stage") do").
It can be seen that the status of dogwood in Chinese folklore is not inferior to that of chrysanthemum.
That being the case, before the Tang Dynasty, why couldn't the dogwood be as brilliant as the chrysanthemum in the poet's words?
When I was in doubt, I remembered reading Mr. Yu Guangzhong's article "The Mystery of Dogwood", and saw the text in the article: "Chongjiu Erhua, chrysanthemum and dogwood, of course chrysanthemum is more in the limelight, because it has a deep relationship with Tao Yuanming, and dogwood, in the After Qu Yuan's reprimand, no poet came to cheer him on." I think Qu Yuan once sang the verse in "Li Sao", "Jiao Zhuan is slow, but he wants to fill his husband and wear a curtain", and denounced Zhu Yu as a Evil grass, perhaps it is related to its influence.
In the Tang Dynasty, the cornel, which Qu Yuan denounced as an evil weed, suddenly turned into a fragrant thing.
At this time, the poets liked to use cornel as poetry material, and expressed their mood from different angles. There were many good poems about cornel.
Zhang Shuo wrote "Five Poems on the Nine Days into the Cornel Mountain", two of which mentioned cornel: "Carved for the Cornel Festival, between love and good fortune", "Chrysanthemum wine carries mountain guests, and the dogwood bag is a shepherd boy".
Du Fu also mentioned cornel three times in the fourteen poems of Chongjiu.
There are countless poems about cornel in the poets of the Tang Dynasty. It can also be seen from the poems that the wind of inserting cornel on the Double Ninth Festival was very common in the Tang Dynasty.
It is appropriate to cover it with the four characters of "pushing dogwood all over the place" in Wang Wei's poems.
After the Song Dynasty, the custom of wearing dogwood gradually declined. , and the verse of "The rice will be welcomed by the farmer, and the cornel will be filled with pity for the deceased" in Wu Weiye's "The Autumn of Dinghai" in "The Autumn King of Dinghai invites the smoker to appreciate the chrysanthemum in Xitian". region is still prevalent.
So, where does the ancient poem "put the cornel all over the place"?
It's not all plugged in that time, but where exactly?
How to insert it?
This is clearly seen in Tang poetry.
Zhu Fang's "How can I put more hair on my head, and learn from him when he was young to put dogwoods", Quan Deyu's "His head is like snow when he is like snow, and he also put dogwoods in it", Geng Tao's "Nine days forcibly travel to the caisson, and the hair is thin. Dare to insert the dogwood", etc., it can be seen that in the Tang Dynasty, the dogwood was inserted on the head, and it was inserted between the hairline.
Where is the hairline?
Look at Lu Lun's "Three layers of continuous step barriers, a dogwood with a flower hairpin".
The hairpin is a long needle used by the ancients to tie the hairpin or crown. It turned out that the Tang people inserted the dogwood on the hairpin.
Bai Juyi also said in the poem "Nine Days Banquet Collection Drunk Titles of the County Tower and the Second Judge of Zhou and Yin": "Gunyan turns over the leaves, and the dancer sets the dogwood room." Zheng Zhen, a Qing scholar, noted: "It's called Pan Huan. Such as a ring", that is, a circular bun that is combed on the head or beside the forehead.
Wang Changling's "Putting the dogwood on the temples and flowers in Yichun", Dai Shulun's "Putting the dogwoods on the temples will not end", Li Bai's "Putting the dogwoods on the temples and hurting early white", etc., all show that the dogwoods are inserted on the head or on the ring-shaped bun combed on the side of the forehead. .
Before the Tang Dynasty, dogwood, as a unique ornament for the Double Ninth Festival to ward off evil spirits, was not "inserted" on the head, but was wrapped around the arm or worn on the body.
As we all know, the relationship between the Double Ninth Festival and the dogwood was first seen in a legend recorded in the "Continuation of Qi Kaiji". The details of the legend are that the colorful cloth bag containing the dogwood was wrapped around the arm, and the mountain was climbed to drink chrysanthemum wine to avoid disasters.
It can be seen that the dogwood was "plugged" on the head, which is a later event. As for when, there is no test, but there is a saying in the "Territory of Fengtu" written by Zhou Chu in the Jin Dynasty: "On September 9th, the dogwood is folded and inserted into the plug, and the Get rid of bad qi and keep out the cold at the beginning." Looking at the ancient poems, it can be seen that the wind of "plugging dogwood" was the most prosperous in the Tang Dynasty.
Cornel is mainly divided into two types: Evodia and dogwood. What kind of dogwood is there in the custom?
This can also be found in ancient poetry.
The earliest ones include Cao Zhi's "Duckweed": "The cornel has its own fragrance, not as good as the osmanthus and orchid." The Southern Dynasties Jiang's "Wanzhuan Song": "The heart of the cornel is endless, and the leaves of the cornel are more fragrant." "Poems": "Fragrant rows of red knots are small, and the fragrance is transparent and the clothes are light", etc. These verses have written the characteristics of the fragrant smell of cornel.
The fruit of Evodia has a distinct aroma at maturity, which is exactly what is described in the poem, while dogwood is almost odorless.
In particular, Si Kongshu's description in the poem "Autumn Garden": "Strong to the weak, see the fragrance, the red dogwood is like a flower", which shows another obvious feature of the fruit of the dogwood, which is divided into petals and ripe like a flower. This is just like Evodia has The fruit petal shape, while the dogwood is a single drupe.
According to the poems, what the ancients inserted on the Double Ninth Festival was the fragrant wushuyu mentioned in the poems.
Along the rhythm of dogwood's rhythm, step by step, you can smell the aroma of dogwood's wine.
From the Song Dynasty Su Shunqin's "Speaking is the best policy, and get drunk on the cornel", you can feel the drunkenness of drinking cornel wine; from the Tang Dynasty Bai Juyi's "Let's listen to the bamboo branches, drink the cornel cup", you can share the Chongyang drink The pleasure of listening to the bamboo song in the dogwood wine... Finally, my eyes were surprised at the verse of Zhang Chen's "Nine Days Banquet" in the Tang Dynasty: "When I return, I have to ask the dogwood girl, how many people are drunk today?" The original Double Ninth Festival in ancient times, Such an intoxicating holiday!
Lu Enjun