Legends about rabbits

It is said that the rabbit used to have a long tail. Then one day, the rabbit wanted to cross the river, so he told the tortoise to carry it across the river and promised him that he didn't know what he wanted. But when the rabbit reached the other side, he didn't meet his requirements. The tortoise was very angry and bit off the rabbit's tail. As a result, the rabbit's tail becomes very short.

The Tortoise and the Hare

This is the first game between the tortoise and the rabbit. The tortoise stepped up training before the game and made full preparations. Rabbits don't think so. They don't care about their opponents at all. The game has started. The rabbit ran forward and looked back from time to time. Seeing that the tortoise was still crawling slowly, he thought, "The champion is mine. It's okay to have a rest first." So he fell asleep under a tree by the roadside. The final result must be familiar to everyone. The tortoise insisted on winning.

Rabbit is the fourth of the 12 zodiac animals. It is associated with the twelve branches of the earth, so twelve o'clock in the day is also called "rabbit time"-from five to seven in the morning.

Speaking of rabbit, the Chinese zodiac, there is an interesting legend of "rabbit-cow race" circulating among the people. According to legend, rabbits and cows are neighbors. They get along well and call each other brothers. Cows live by hard work, rabbits live by cleverness and ability, and they all live well.

One day, the rabbit who is good at long-distance running shows off in front of the bull: "I am the champion of long-distance running in the animal kingdom, and no one can outrun me!" " "The bull humbly asks for the know-how of long-distance running, but the rabbit proudly shakes his head and says," Long-distance running champions can't learn by their innate qualities. "In addition, if you run lightly, you will never run fast." Niu Xin was half cold to the rabbit, but he was not convinced. From then on, scalpers began to practice long-distance running. With the strength of an indomitable bull, the bull finally became a pair of "iron feet". I don't know how tired I am for days and nights.

On the day when the Jade Emperor ranked the zodiac, according to the rules, whoever arrived first was allowed to be the zodiac. The cow and the rabbit agreed that the rooster would get up at the first crow and go straight to the Heavenly Palace to compete for the zodiac. When the cock crowed for the first time, when the bull got up, the rabbit had run away alone. The rabbit ran for a long time, turned around and hugged it, but there was no sign of any animals. Rabbit thought, I got up the earliest and ran the fastest today, that is, I slept. The first name of this zodiac is mine, too. So it fell asleep on the grass. Although the bull lags behind, it is driven by its tenacious endurance and steel-like foot strength. While the rabbit was still sleeping, it ran to the heavenly palace first.

A rush of footsteps woke the rabbit. When I opened my eyes, it turned out that the tiger ran past like a gust of wind. Now the rabbit is in a hurry and rushes to catch up. It's a pity that we are a step behind the tiger. Because there is a mouse crouching between the horns of the cow, the rabbit is only ranked fourth, and the top three are mouse, cow and tiger.

Although the rabbit became the zodiac, in the end he felt ashamed and lost to his sarcastic old cow. After he came back, he moved his family to a cave, and now the rabbit still lives in the cave. But rabbits don't learn from it. Do not believe me, today you will have another "bull-rabbit race" or "tortoise-rabbit race", and the winner will definitely be the rabbit.

From 5: 00 to 7: 00 in the morning (that is, "Shi Mao"), the sun has not appeared, and the brilliance of the moon has not completely retired. The Jade Rabbit is the representative of the moon and the only animal in the myth of the Moon Palace, so Shi Mao matches the rabbit.

This is just a beautiful legend. It is the zodiac sign of China, which is determined by the most active time of animals at a certain time. Everyone hates mice, so we can infer that they are the oldest of the 12 zodiac, that is, mice are usually the most rampant at 0-2 pm, that is, animal habits. In the Seven Revisions, he thinks that midnight, midnight (23: 00 to 65438+ 0: 00 am), the night is darkest, the mouse is the most active, and the mouse is matched with "Zi". Ugly time (65438+ 0:00-3:00 am), during this time, the cows ate enough grass to go out to plow the fields in the morning, so "ugly time" is matched with cows; Yin Shi (3 am to 5 am), it is said that the tiger is the fiercest at this time, so "Yin" matches the tiger; After five o'clock in the morning, Yuehua still shines on the earth, so it is connected with Gong Yueyu Rabbit at the time of "Mao" (from five to seven o'clock); Chen Shi (7: 00 a.m. to 9: 00 a.m.) is just when the dragon rains, and "Chen" belongs to the dragon; Shi Si (9: 00 to 1 1: 00), at this time, even if the snake swims on the road, it will not hurt people, so "Si" is a snake; At noon (from 1 1 to 13), the anode rises and falls, and the cathode grows quickly. Because horses are "yin" animals, they will belong to horses at noon. At the end of the day (from the afternoon of 13 to the afternoon of 15), the sheep eat grass at this time, which will not affect the growth of grass, so it belongs to the end sheep; At the time of application (15 to 17), monkeys like to crow, so it matches the time of application; Chickens begin to return to their nests at the unitary time, and return to chickens at the unitary time (from 17 to 19 in the evening); At dusk (from 19 to 2 1 night), dogs start guarding the portal, so it is related to dogs at dusk. At the time of Hai (2 1: 00 to 23: 00), when everything was silent and the pig slept soundly, he gave it to the pig. This explanation seems to have some truth from the posture and habits of animals, but it does not explain why animals should be used to match time.

According to legend, three immortals became three poor old people, begging for food from foxes, monkeys and rabbits. Both the fox and the monkey provide food to help the old man, but only the rabbit doesn't. Later, the rabbit told the old people, "Eat me." They jumped into the fire, and the immortals were greatly moved, so they sent the rabbit to Guanghan Palace and turned it into a jade rabbit. Later, Jade Rabbit accompanied Chang 'e to drum up the elixir of life in Guanghan Palace.

Legend has it that a long time ago, there was a pair of rabbits who practiced for thousands of years and became immortals. They have four lovely daughters, all pure white and well-behaved. One day, the Jade Emperor summoned the male rabbit to the Heavenly Palace. He reluctantly left his wife and children and went through the clouds to the Heavenly Palace. Just as it came to the worse heaven, it saw the Taibai Venus leading the heavenly soldiers to walk away with Chang 'e. The Rabbit Fairy didn't know what had happened, so she asked a nearby god who guarded the worse heaven. When Rabbit Fairy heard about her experience, she felt that Chang 'e had suffered innocently and sympathized with her. But my strength is meager. What can I do to help? Think of how lonely and sad Chang 'e is alone in the moon palace. If only there were company, suddenly she remembered her four daughters, so she flew home at once. Rabbit fairy told the mother rabbit about Chang 'e and said that she would send a child to accompany Chang 'e. Although the mother rabbit deeply sympathizes with Chang 'e, she is reluctant to part with her precious daughter, which is equivalent to cutting off the meat in her heart! Several daughters are reluctant to leave their parents, and they are all in tears. The male rabbit said seriously, "If I am locked up alone, will you accompany me?" Chang 'e was tied up to save the people. Can we not sympathize with her? Son, we can't just think about ourselves! "The children understood their father's heart and expressed their willingness to go. The male rabbit and the female rabbit laughed with tears in their eyes. They decided to let their youngest daughter leave. So Xiaoyu Rabbit bid farewell to her parents and sisters and went to the Moon Palace to accompany Chang 'e in taking medicine!

Some people say that Yutu was originally Houyi, because the Goddess Chang'e flying to the moon missed Houyi. In order to be with Chang 'e, Hou Yi is willing to become her favorite animal-Jade Rabbit. It's a pity that Chang 'e never knew that Jade Rabbit was the Hou Yi she missed day and night!

This also comes from a legend about Hou Yi and Chang 'e, who were originally sent from heaven to earth. Because Chang 'e didn't want to live a lonely life for a long time, she stole the elixir and became an ugly "toad" after flying to the moon. She was punished for pounding the elixir all day, day after day, year after year, losing her former freedom and feeling lonely. Li Shangyin, a poet in the Tang Dynasty, once lamented: "Chang 'e should regret stealing the elixir. Jade Rabbit is Chang 'e, but why did Jade Rabbit become Chang 'e? According to textual research, "Jade Rabbit" originated from "Yu Tu" and "Yu Tu" is a dialect of ancient Chu, which is called "Tiger". Some ethnic groups in ancient Bachu area worshipped tigers. They not only call themselves tigers, but also like to name mountains, place names and water names after tigers. They even called almost all the gods "Tiger God", "Moon God" or "Yu Tu" in the local language. After the goddess the Goddess Chang'e flying to the moon became the moon god, she naturally became the "tiger god" in the eyes of tiger worshippers in Bachu. Chang 'e is naturally "Yu Tu". Interpreting "rabbit" as "rabbit" is a mistake made by Wang Yi, a scholar in Jin Dynasty, when commenting on Qu Yuan's Tian Wen. Later generations used this wrong interpretation to replace "rabbit" with "rabbit". Because "Jade" is similar to "Jade", the name "Yu Tu" was named "Jade Rabbit" by later generations. It can be seen that the Jade Rabbit is the Moon God Chang 'e.

Yutujing is a supernatural monster in Journey to the West. It turned out to be the Jade Rabbit in Guanghan Palace. She slipped out of the palace gate and fled to the lower boundary, took photos of Princess Tianzhu and became a princess. She wants to set up a stage to throw colored balls, to attract Tang Priest's promise, and to lure Tang Priest's mandarin duck. The Monkey King saw through it and was about to kill it with a wave of his hand. Tai Xing Jun descended from the sky and took the Jade Rabbit away.

One year, a plague broke out in Beijing, and almost everyone got it and could not be cured. Chang 'e was very sad to see this scene, so she sent the jade rabbit around her to treat the people. Jade rabbit turned into a girl. She went door to door and cured many people. In order to thank Jade Rabbit, people gave her things in succession. Yutu wants nothing but to borrow other people's clothes to wear. Wherever she goes, she has to change clothes. Sometimes she dresses like an oil seller, sometimes she looks like a fortune teller ... sometimes she dresses like a man and then dresses like a woman. In order to treat more people, Yutu rode his horse, deer, lion and tiger all over the capital. After the plague was eliminated in Beijing, the Jade Rabbit returned to the Moon Palace. Therefore, people created the image of Jade Rabbit with clay sculpture, including those who rode deer, those who rode phoenix, those who wore armor, and those who wore various work clothes. It was very cute. On the fifteenth day of the eighth lunar month, every household will worship her and give her delicious fruits and beans as a reward for her good luck and happiness. They also affectionately called her "male prostitute" and "grandma rabbit".