Whether it is in daily life or in TV dramas, we can always hear many poems about love. Most of them come from the mouths of great poets of all dynasties. Of course, there are some poems that were not originally about chanting love, but later generations forcibly linked them with love, and over time they became poems about chanting love.
I believe many people must have heard such a sentence, which is used to describe love, "There are three thousand weak water, only take one scoop to drink". Everyone must be familiar with it, or even have heard it by heart!
So, what exactly is "weak water"? There are three thousand weak water. How should we understand it when we only take one ladle to drink the weak water?
Generally speaking, our understanding of this sentence is that there are many beauties in the world, but I just want to be friends with you. Although today we all think that this sentence was left by the ancients, it was not written by a great poet. It comes from a certain novel, in which the author used weak water in love for the first time. From then on, it got out of hand, and everyone began to praise each other. Today, it has been completely used to describe love.
So, what kind of water is the "weak water" in this sentence? Is there really "weak water" in the world? This kind of water?
1. Weak water has been recorded in ancient historical books
Through researching various ancient books, we found that many books have actually mentioned weak water. Especially "The Classic of Mountains and Seas", a slightly mythical geography book, is also mentioned in it. If this book is too mysterious, there are other historical books that can support it, such as "Zi Zhi Tong Jian", "Historical Records" and "Han Shu". Let's first take a look at the records in "The Classic of Mountains and Seas". In this book, "Xishan Jing" and "Dahuang Xi Jing" both have weak water.
The weak water in the former probably refers to a certain tributary in the upper reaches of Luoshui River today. The weak water here indeed refers to the river. The "weak water" in the latter refers to a river whose buoyancy is too small to allow boating. Even if you put a leaf on it, it will sink to the bottom. The above is recorded in the "Book of Mountains and Seas", and in some other ancient books, it is said that Weoshui was probably located in the area of ??today's Tibet and Qinghai.
There is also a sentence: "Weak water flows to the west". This sentence appears in "Shang Shu Yu Gong", which means that weak water flows westward. In real life, a section of the Heihe River from Gansu to Inner Mongolia is weak water. It can be seen that weak water does not only exist in myths and legends. It is precisely because it has existed in reality that it can be recorded in various ancient books. Now we can verify the existence of weak water through ancient books.
2. Warnings about choices in Buddhist scriptures
The above are records in ancient books. It is said that weak water is also mentioned in Buddhist scriptures. It is said that Buddha met a man who was rich, powerful and in love. This man was unhappy. He complained to Buddha that he had too many good things and didn't know which one to choose. Buddha used a story to warn him, saying that there was a man who was about to die of thirst in the desert. Buddha appeared and led him to a big river, but in the face of so much water, the man did not drink a sip. Buddha asked him why. He said that there was so much water in this river, but I couldn't drink it all. Since I couldn't drink it all, it was better not to drink it.
What the Buddha means is that there are too many beautiful things in the world, but a person cannot fully possess them, as long as he possesses the most desired ones. Therefore, the most taboo thing in life is greed. If you become greedy, it may be counterproductive. In the end, you will get nothing. Instead, you will get something if you have to make choices. These words of Buddha are still applicable today and serve as a warning and warning.
3. The place where the gods are far away
As we said above, the first time weak water was used in love was a novel, and this novel is "Dream of Red Mansions". Weak water is mentioned more than once in "A Dream of Red Mansions". The first time is in Chapter 25, when describing the lame old Taoist. At that time, weak water was already associated with Penglai Wonderland. Not only in "A Dream of Red Mansions", many great poets have also associated weak water with places where gods and goddesses hang out. The places where gods live and are out of reach are called weak water. In Chapter 91, the author connects weak water and love together for the first time.
4. Weak water symbolizes the fidelity of love
The description in the book is like this. Daiyu asked Baoyu who he liked more. After Baoyu thought for a while, he came up with a famous sentence , "Three thousand weak water, I only took a scoop to drink" to prove my true love for Daiyu. When many people read the novel, they think it is the author quoting previous poems, but this is not the case. No one has ever put weak water and love together before, and the author is the first to do so. So we can think that it was the author of this book who used weak water to represent love for the first time. Unexpectedly, this sentence has been passed down for hundreds of years, and now it completely means love.
It can be seen that weak water probably did exist, otherwise it would not appear in ancient books, but later people covered weak water with a more mysterious veil, and even gave it other meanings. That’s why today, we have this poem about weak love