A song "Little Cowherd", which is widely sung by the people, sets Zhang Guolao, who was riding a donkey backwards on the Zhao Zhouqiao with the sun, moon and stars in his wallet, to test the engineering quality of this bridge and fight against Lu Ban, in the myths and legends of Zhao Zhouqiao.
Du Deyuan, a poet and secretariat of Zhaozhou in the Song Dynasty, also left a poem like this: "The Sui Dynasty chose a stone bridge to build Hongqiao, and the world is famous for years. Where is the fairy riding a donkey? The footprint is still bright. " Since then, Zhang Guolao, a strange old man, has forged an indissoluble bond with the famous bridge through the ages.
On Eight Immortals Avenue in Zhao Zhouqiao Park, there is a statue of Zhang Guolao riding a donkey backwards. On the bridge deck, the "fairy donkey fairy trace" he left is still alive. Nowadays, all visitors to Zhao Zhouqiao, without exception, are interested in finding the footprints of donkey's hoofs on the bridge. People are infatuated with the story full of magical colors and are also curious about Zhang Guolao in the story.
So, is there a Zhang Guolao in the calendar? According to the records in the Book of the Tang Dynasty, there is a real person.
Zhang Guolao's real name is Zhang Guo, and affixing the word "Lao" is a courtesy title for him. He is the legendary immortal and the oldest among the Eight Immortals.
According to legend, he was born in Xingzhou in Tang Dynasty, and now Zhanggu (Guo) Village in Guangzong County is his hometown. There is Xianweng Mountain in the west of Xingtai, commonly known as Zhang Guolao Mountain. Zhang Guo lived in seclusion in Zhongtiaoshan, Hengzhou, and traveled between Fen and Jin Dynasties. Tang Wuze was hundreds of years old. Wu Zetian once sent an envoy to summon him, but he pretended to die and disappeared. Later generations saw him living in Hengzhou Mountain again.
Emperor Xuanzong of the Tang Dynasty, a good immortal, summoned him several times to seek immortality.
When I met Zhang Guolao, I found him senile, and I suddenly wondered, "Mr. Wang is a man of virtue. Why is he so senile?" Zhang Guolao said, "I got my way when my teeth are loose and my hair is thin, so this is the only situation. If your majesty doesn't like it, I might as well get rid of them. " So he pulled out his sideburns and shot down his teeth in front of the temple. Xuanzong was a little scared and asked someone to help Zhang Guolao to rest.
After a while, Zhang Guolao returned to the temple. Sure enough, his face was new, his temples were green and his teeth were white, which was better than his prime. Zhang Guolao claimed to be: "Born in Yao, Bingzi was old, and he was an assistant." Zhang Guolao lived from Yao to Tang Xuanzong, so he should be quite old! Zhang Guolao often rides a white donkey upside down, and the number of days is Wan Li. Interestingly, after arriving at the destination, he folds the donkey like an origami, hides it in a towel box, takes it out when riding, blows it out, and then turns it into a real donkey. Emperor Xuanzong of the Tang Dynasty once awarded Dr. Yin Qingguang Lu the title of "Mr. Tong Xuan". His stories were first seen in the Ming Dynasty Miscellaneous Records, Old Tang Books and New Tang Books.
as for how Zhang Guolao became an immortal, there are many folk legends. According to legend, Zhang Guolao was born in poverty, and lived by driving donkeys to transport goods. One day, he passed a small temple. The meat in the temple smelled fragrant. He pushed the door into the temple and saw a pot of white meat stewed in an iron pot.
Zhang Guolao was hungry and saw no one around, so he ate it with a wooden stick and ate up a pot of delicious white meat. The rest of the soup was also fed to the donkey. Zhang Guolao didn't know that what he ate was "goblin doll meat" which bloomed in one thousand years and yielded results in three thousand years. If people eat it, they can live forever and become immortal!
This legend is similar to a monkey who ate ginseng fruit secretly.
People also regard Zhang Guolao as the granddaddy of rap and Taoism.
According to legend, Emperor Xuanzong of the Tang Dynasty was bent on marrying Princess Yuzhen to Zhang Guolao, but Zhang Guolao refused. He beat the fishing drum and sang, "If you marry a princess, you will be promoted to the government. People think it is gratifying, but I think it is awesome. "
after Zhang Guolao implored him to return to the mountain, he traveled around the country, beating the fishing drums and singing Taoist sentiments on the simple board to persuade the world. Up to now, there are still Taoist sentiments in northern Shaanxi, Yiwu, Yangzhou, Hubei, Hunan and Shandong.