The legend of Dong Yong is one of the four great folk tales in China, which was first seen in Liu Xiang's Biography of the Filial Son and later in Cao Zhi's Ganoderma lucidum. Gan Bao in the Eastern Jin Dynasty took filial piety to Yong Dong as the prominent theme in Searching for Ji Shen, with complete plot, which was widely circulated in rural areas of China.
Time flies, in the long time of more than two thousand years, the legend of Dong Yong has experienced the change of dynasties, and has been continuously integrated into the thoughts of people in various times and regions, from a story with the theme of filial piety to a story full of love and myth.
"Twenty-four Filial Pieties" records the story of Yong Dong who sold himself to bury his father. Yong Dong was born in a poor family. After his father's death, he had no money for his father's funeral, so he sold himself to a rich local family as a slave. The legend of the goddess helping others was first seen in Cao Zhi's Ganoderma lucidum, but it was only a generation. Now we are familiar with the story of the goddess helping others, which comes from Gan Bao's Search for God. The emperor was moved by Yong Dong's filial piety, so he sent a goddess to help Yong Dong pay his debts and redeem him. Many operas in later generations are based on this, such as Yong Dong's encounter with immortals in Southern Opera and Huangmei's immortal match.
The legend of Yong Dong and the Seven Fairies is an important part of Dong Yong's legend. In 1950s, the story of Yong Dong and the Seven Fairies was widely circulated in the movie The Fairy Couple. Today, the legend of Dong Yong is a famous intangible cultural heritage in China, which plays an important role in the inheritance of Chinese traditional culture. ?
Yong Dong betrayed himself.
Yong Dong's family is very poor. His mother died when he was a child, and he has been living alone with his father. Helping my father farm and pull a cart, his father's unexpected death made it more difficult for the poor family. He left no money for his father's funeral. In order to let his father be buried as soon as possible, he was very filial and sold himself to a large local family as a slave in exchange for the money to bury his father.
The owner of that big family was originally a kind-hearted person. Seeing that Yong Dong was filial and virtuous, he gave Yong Dong ten thousand yuan to arrange his father's affairs properly. At that time, he didn't regard Yong Dong as his servant. He just feels that he is helping someone who deserves help.
But three years later, after the funeral, Yong Dong consciously went to the rich man's house and planned to work to pay off his debts. On his way to work, he met a woman under the Huaiyin tree, that is, the seven fairies, who said she would marry her. Yong Dong dodged, agreed, and took her to the rich man's house. The rich man didn't expect Yong Dong to come back three years later. Yong Dong said to the rich man, "Because of your kindness, I was able to bury my father. This is a great kindness to me. I have nothing to repay you. Only by serving you wholeheartedly and working for you can I repay your great kindness. "
Helpless, the rich man happened to know that the seven fairies could weave, so he said to Yong Dong, "If you must do this, let your wife knit me a hundred pieces of brocade." . So the seven fairies began to weave for the rich family, and in less than ten days, they knitted a hundred brocade horses.
Yong Dong got back the deed of sale and became a free man again. After leaving the gate of the rich family, the fairy said to Yong Dong, "I used to be a fairy in the sky. Because God was moved by your filial piety, he sent me down to help you pay your debts. " ?
Yong Dong met a fairy.
The story of Yong Dong's encounter with immortals began with Ganoderma lucidum written by Chen and Cao Zhi. After more than 2,000 years of historical evolution, the ideological themes it sang have their own emphases in different dynasties.
Dong Yongsheng was born in the Eastern Han Dynasty, and "filial piety" was the core theme of the society at that time. The main points of Yong Dong's fairy tales are: Dong Yongqiong, filial piety, selling his body to bury his father, filial piety moving heaven, and fairies coming down to earth to help. But the core element of this story is "filial piety". Filial piety is one of the main values of Confucianism in Han Dynasty. The mode of "ruling the world by filial piety" in the history of China in Han Dynasty is the filial piety mode listed in Twenty-four Filial Pieties. Therefore, an important reason why The Story of Yong Dong was broadcast at that time was the influence of the political environment.
"Filial piety" is the motive of Yong Dong's story, and meeting immortals is its purpose. It warns the world that filial people will get help from the gods. In the feudal social environment at that time, the ancients had a special reverence for the gods, and promoted filial piety to the height of a fairy in a mythical way, which was more convenient for ordinary people to accept.
When Yong Dong met a fairy, she met a beautiful goddess who was also good at knitting. This arrangement actually gives strong psychological comfort to those who are not married because of their poor family, those who are frustrated politically, and those who are frustrated in gaining fame and fortune. A beautiful and capable wife is every man's fantasy, which to some extent highlights the relatively low status of women in a patriarchal society. In the original version, the fairy left after helping Dong Yong, but there was no later love between Yong Dong and the seven fairies. For them, this marriage is only a unilateral help from the woman. Later, the beautiful love story in our eyes appeared in the Yuan and Ming Dynasties. At that time, drama prevailed in society, and emotional drama attracted the most attention. The theme of "filial piety" gradually faded and was replaced by love stories that could not be together.