Also known as: Flying Pigeon Passing Letters
Explanation: Hongyan is a large migratory bird that migrates south every autumn, often causing travelers to feel homesick for their loved ones and sad to travel. Hongyan Chuan Shu refers to communication. There are also swan geese used to refer to letters.
For example, Xue Daoheng from the Sui Dynasty wrote in "Everyone Thinks of Returning Home": "When people return home after the wild geese have fallen, their thoughts are in front of the flowers." The thought of returning home occurred long before the flowers bloomed; but when the geese have gone north, Return, people have not returned home yet. When the poet was an official in the Northern Dynasty, he went to Chen as an envoy to the Southern Dynasty, and wrote this poem about returning home, which is implicit and tactful. Others who use wild geese to write thoughts include "I hear the returning geese at night and miss each other, and I feel the splendor of things in the new year when I am sick" (Ouyang Xiu's "Playing Reply to Yuan Zhen"), "The remaining stars are counting the wild geese across the block, and the sound of the flute makes people lean on the building" (Zhao Gu of the Tang Dynasty) "Autumn View of Chang'an"), "The stars are cold on the blue pool water, and the geese cry sadly on the red polygonum wind" ("Moonlight Night Boat" by Dai Fu, a Song Dynasty artist), etc. The use of swan geese in poetry as messengers of letters is also common. For example, "When will the swan geese arrive, the river will be full of autumn water" (Du Fu's "Li Bai is pregnant at the end of the day"), "Shuoyan will send out countless books, and the Xianghuang will be stained with tears" (Li Shangyin's "Li Si"), etc.
Allusion:
2,500 years ago, our ancestors began to domesticate homing pigeons. During the war between Xixia and the Northern Song Dynasty, the Xixia army used carrier pigeons for military communications.
In the early Southern Song Dynasty, general Qu Duan’s army also used carrier pigeons to convey messages and summon troops. In ancient times, homing pigeons were called "flying slaves". Legend has it that when Liu Bang, the founder of the Han Dynasty, was besieged by Xiang Yu, the overlord of Chu, he used carrier pigeons to deliver messages and attract reinforcements to escape the danger. Zhang Qian and Ban Chao envoys to the Western Regions also used pigeons to convey messages to the royal family. During the Qianlong period of the Qing Dynasty, pigeon racing was held every May and June in Foshan, Guangdong, my country. Thousands of pigeons participated every year, and the racing distance was about 400 miles. At that time, there were similar pigeon racing clubs in Shanghai, Beijing and other places. The earliest written record of the use of carrier pigeons to deliver messages abroad can be found in 530 BC, when carrier pigeons were used to transmit the results of the Olympic Games.
Hongyan is a nickname for letters, and sometimes also for postmen. Why does "Hongyan" refer to letters and postmen? Tracing its origins, during the Han Dynasty, Su Wu was sent as an envoy to the Xiongnu, and was exiled to Beihai to herd sheep. Ten years later, the Han Dynasty made peace with the Xiongnu, but the Chanyu still refused to let Su Wu return to Han. Chang Hui, who was on an envoy to the Xiongnu with Su Wu, reported Su Wu's situation to the Han envoy, and planned to have the Han envoy tell Shan Yu: The emperor of the Han Dynasty shot a goose while hunting, and there was a letter tied to the goose's foot, saying that Su Wu was in a certain place. Shepherding sheep in swampland. After hearing this, Shan Yu had no choice but to let Su Wu return to Han. Later, people used swan geese as a metaphor for letters and the people who deliver them.
This is the legend of "Hongyan Chuan Shu".
Another more well-known and popular story is the folk story: Xue Pinggui of the Tang Dynasty was away on an expedition, and Wang Baochuan was struggling to stay in the cold. The kiln has been unswervingly determined for more than ten years. One day, while Wang Baochuan was picking wild vegetables, he suddenly heard the calls of swan geese in the sky, so he asked to pass a letter to Mr. Pinggui on his behalf. However, he could not find pen and ink for a while. In desperation, he tore off his skirt, bit his fingertips, and wrote a letter of blood and tears. , expressing feelings of loyalty to love and longing for the reunion of husband and wife. The former is loyalty to the country, and the latter is loyalty to feelings. The spread of these two stories has made "Hongyan" a messenger of ancient communication, and the two stories themselves have become an eternal legend. However, many people don't know that before "Swan Goose", there is also the story of "Blue Bird Passing Letters":
On October 9, 1998, the State Post Bureau issued "The 22nd Universal Postal Union Congress·1999 Beijing" (2)" A set of 4 commemorative postage stamps, the third of which is "Love in the East". The main image and the stamp image have the same content, both showing a colorful flying bird, with the inn and the Great Wall in the background, showing the legend of the blue bird in ancient my country. Book of legends. What allusion does "Blue Bird Biography" come from? To trace the origin, we still need to find the answer in the ancient pre-Qin book "The Classic of Mountains and Seas".
According to the "Book of Mountains and Seas", there are three bluebirds. "The three bluebirds have red heads and black eyes, one is a big sorghum, one is a small succulent, and one is a bluebird. They live in a mountain with three dangers. The Queen Mother of the West feeds. "These three sacred birds with red heads and black eyes, named Da Mian, Shao Mian, and Blue Bird, are the attendants and messengers of the Queen Mother of the West. They have three legs and live on Sanwei Mountain. They are powerful and fly. Birds of prey, they not only find food for the Queen Mother of the West who lives on Yushan Mountain close to the Kunlun Mountains, but they can also fly across thousands of mountains and rivers to deliver messages to the Queen Mother of the West. Tao Yuanming's "Reading the Classic of Mountains and Seas" Part 5 says: "Three graceful blue birds have very pitiful fur colors. They serve as the Queen Mother's envoy in the morning and return to Sanwei Mountain in the evening. I want to be this bird, so I say to the Queen Mother: I have nothing to do in this world. Only wine and long years."
It is said that before the Queen Mother of the West arrives, a blue bird always comes to deliver a message. It is said that when the Queen Mother of the West went to the Han Palace, the blue bird went to deliver a message, and the blue bird flew all the way to the Chenghua Palace. Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty was very surprised when he saw this beautiful and lovely bird, so he asked his minister Dongfang Shuo what the name of this bird was. Where did it fly from? Dongfang Shuo told him that the bird was called the Blue Bird, and it was the messenger of the Queen Mother of the West. It was here specifically to report the news, and the Queen Mother of the West would be coming soon. Sure enough, after a while, the Queen Mother of the West was supported by two beautiful birds, the big and the small.
In subsequent myths, the blue bird gradually evolved into the extremely beautiful king of birds, the Phoenix. The beautiful blue bird and the beautiful legend attracted literati and poets to write poems and chant in praise of it.
Li Jing's poem "The blue bird does not send foreign messages from the clouds, and the lilacs are empty and sad in the rain", Li Bai's poem "I hope that because of the three blue birds, I will report longing for you", "Three birds bid farewell to the Queen Mother, I came to see you with a book in my hand", Li Shangyin's poem The poem "The blue bird flies to the west but has not returned, the king is staying at Jilingtai", "There is no way to go from Pengshan, the blue bird is diligent to visit", Wei Yingwu has a poem "It is still late at night if you want to come but not come, the blue bird flies back in front of the palace first" , Cui Guofu's poem "Thinking of Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty in the distance, when will the blue bird pass by", Cao Tang's poem "Listening to the song, the purple luan is still misty, the blue bird is calm when speaking", Hu Zeng's poem "The Emperor Wu has no road to Kunqiu, the blue bird sinks to the west "Longshu Autumn", Zeng Shiyi's poem "The flags and shadows do not follow the bluebirds, the cave doors are empty and the purple clouds are faint", Guo Chongsi's poem "The bluebirds do not convey the message from outside the clouds, the white clouds lock the ridgehead monument", Yao Mengyu has the poem "King Mu Yu Yu" "Jun traveled in the old days, and the blue bird's letter passed down for a long time." Yang Wei had a poem, "Blue birds no longer come, and the white birds came, and the emperor of the Han Dynasty built a memorial platform in the sky." Zhang Bangjiao had a poem, "The song of yellow bamboo is pleasant to listen to, and the letter of Qingluan can be communicated." There is a poem by Lian Guoshi. The poem "It's hard to tell the day when the flat peaches are facing the sky, and the bluebirds are still in the Han Dynasty", the poem "Where do the pair of bluebirds go?" in Wanxiang Chun, and the peach blossoms are empty and doubtful for a thousand years. One peak". The above poems all use the allusion of "Blue Bird Chuanshu". From these poems, we can see that the blue birds are no longer birds of prey as described in "The Classic of Mountains and Seas", but have become three good and understanding people. , a cute "messenger" who is gentle, kind, light, and small.
Indeed, in ancient times, it was extremely difficult for people to communicate with their relatives who were traveling far away. Ordinary people had almost no specialized communication equipment. "Nine times I sent a letter to Luoyang, but there was no news about my flesh and blood for ten years", "The war raged for three months, and letters from home were worth ten thousand gold", "Sending letters often failed to arrive, and the situation was that the army had not stopped"... These poems tell the story of the difficulty of hearing news from the ancients. I feel so melancholy and helpless all the time, so I can only entrust my true feelings to the blue bird and let the blue bird help me convey the good news of auspiciousness, happiness and joy, so as to express my homesickness and homesickness. The ancient legends and myths have left infinite reveries to future generations.