Willow, as a common plant in life, has always played an important role in our life, whether it is enjoying the cool under the tree or praying for the Dragon Boat Festival. We have an innate affinity for Liu, because there are many descriptions of Liu in our culture, whether poetry or prose, which express the author's most intuitive feelings about Liu at that time.
Today, we will systematically talk about the significance of willow in our traditional cognition. When Liu describes women, he mainly describes them from two aspects: one is the waist; The second is to bend the eyebrows. Willow branches are slender and graceful, which is often used to describe the graceful or beautiful posture of women.
For example, Wen Tingyun wrote in "Nan Gezi": "Turn your eyes like waves and have a graceful demeanour like your waist." Meaning: flowing eyes, clear and moving, slender and moving waist, graceful as a willow. Don Yan Qian's weeping willows: "If you stir it up, you won't feel it. Who dares to go into battle light? If you plant seeds by the King of Chu River for no reason, you will be hungry and lose your waist. "
It means: weeping willows dance with the spring breeze, and there is no feeling. What can be compared with elegant beauty in this world? The weeping willows dancing by the river are unintentional, but the concubines in the Chu Palace would rather endure hunger or even starve to death in vain in order to make their waists as slender and light as weeping willows.
Express the meaning of evil spirits
The meaning of exorcism expressed by willow is quite common in our life, especially in Tomb-Sweeping Day, where every household sticks willow branches on their doors to exorcise evil spirits and pray for blessings, which is more common in rural areas. Jia Sixie, an agronomist in the Northern Wei Dynasty, wrote in the Book of Qi Yao Min: "Take a willow branch and put it in the house, and a hundred ghosts will not enter the house." Putting willow branches on the door can prevent ghosts from entering the house.
Youyang Miscellaneous Notes in the Tang Dynasty: "On March 3rd, I gave my minister a willow circle to avoid stinging (four sounds of firewood refer to poisonous insects such as scorpions)." On March 3rd, Tang Zhongzong gave civil and military officials a circle made of willow branches to wear on their heads to protect them from poisonous insects.