Category: Region gt; gt; Guangdong gt; gt; Guangzhou City
Analysis:
Guangzhou is not rich in sheep. The so-called Yangcheng is related to an ancient legend that the five sheep bring blessings. There is a statue of the five sheep in Yuexiu Park in Guangzhou, which also describes this legend.
Guangzhou, also known as "Guangzhou", has a history of more than 2,210 years. Like many ancient cities in the world, it has a beautiful legend.
In the 9th century BC, the Chu State of the Zhou Dynasty built a city named Chu Ting in what is now Guangzhou. One year, due to successive disasters in Chu Ting, the fields were barren, the agricultural harvest was lost, and the people were starving. One day, five auspicious clouds appeared in the sky over the South China Sea. There were five immortals on them, dressed in red, orange, yellow, green, and purple. They were riding five immortal sheep. The immortal sheep held a six-stalked rice stalk in its mouth and slowly landed. in this city. The immortal gave the ears of rice to the people, left five sheep behind, and wished that there would never be famine here, and then flew away.
From then on, Guangzhou became the richest place in Lingnan; it also began to be known as "Yangcheng", "Wuyangcheng" and "Suicheng". People in Guangzhou also built the "Five Immortals Temple" on Huifu West Road to commemorate the five immortals who brought blessings. If you don't believe it, go to the east side of the Five Immortals Temple and take a look. There is a huge red sandstone footprint-shaped depression there, which is the "immortal's thumb mark". If you still don't believe it, go to the foothills of Yuexiu Mountain, where there is a stone tablet of "Ancient Chu Ting". It tells us that the oldest name in Guangzhou is "Chu Ting".
This legend of the five sheep is a "prehistoric colonization story" of Guangzhou. Through "the five sheep carrying the grain and gathering in Chu Ting", it reflects that in the Western Zhou Dynasty, due to the rise of the princes, the people were in dire straits and the people of the Central Plains were in dire straits. The fact that they migrated southward with their livestock and crops expresses the ancient Guangzhou ancestors' yearning for a better life.
However, this is how the real historical Guangzhou came into being.
Guangzhou faces the South China Sea and is located in the hinterland of the Pearl River Delta. It has a mild climate, long sunshine hours and abundant rainfall. As early as the Neolithic Age, about five thousand years ago, our ancestors were engaged in fishing, hunting and primitive agricultural activities here. A large number of production tools such as stone axes, stone chisels, stone mills, and pottery were unearthed from the ancient cultural sites found in Longyan Cave, Feieling and other places in Guangzhou, indicating that mobile fishing and hunting tribes have settled in the Guangzhou area of ??the Pearl River Delta, and Gradually developed into the original settlement of Guangzhou.
Later, as people’s farming and hunting techniques improved, they learned various handicraft techniques, and produced more food and caught more fish, they began to trade the remaining food and fish with other tribes. of remaining products, exchange them for useful tools. In the Pearl River Delta region, which is rich in products, craftsmen from all walks of life have emerged. They do not have to farm quickly or live in scattered villages, but live in centralized areas. In this way, the exchanges between various settlements in Guangzhou became closer, and no one could do without the other. An economic society was slowly formed, thus laying the foundation of Guangzhou city. At that time, many famous cities in the world were still forests where hunters bent their bows and arrows, or rivers where fishermen cast their nets.
Why is Guangzhou also called "Yangcheng" and "Suicheng"? There is a very beautiful legend here.
According to legend, one year, Chu Ting’s fields were barren due to successive disasters. Agricultural harvests were lost and the people were starving. One day. Five auspicious clouds appeared in the sky. There were five immortals wearing red, orange, yellow, green and purple clothes, riding five fairy sheep of different colors. Each of the fairy sheep held a stalk of rice with six ears in its mouth, and slowly landed here. a city. The immortal gave the rice to the people, left five sheep behind, wished that there would never be famine here, and then flew away.
Since then, Guangzhou has become the richest place in Lingnan, and the "Sheep City" has also begun to appear. It is also known as "Wuyang City" and "Suicheng City". Later, the people of Guangzhou also built the "Five Immortals Temple" on Huifu West Road to commemorate these five immortals who benefited Guangzhou. If you don't believe it, you can go to the east side of the Five Immortals Temple and take a look. There is still a huge red sandstone footprint-shaped depression there, which is the "immortal's thumb mark".
If you still don’t believe it, go to the foothills of Yuexiu Mountain. There is a famous archway of "Ancient Chu Ting" there, which tells people that the oldest name in Guangzhou is "Chu Ting".
People who like to use their brains and are good at thinking may wonder: In this myth and legend, why do the immortals ride sheep instead of other animals? Why are the clothes of the five immortals in five colors, and the clothes of the sheep are also in five colors? Is there any mystery here?
Yes, behind this myth and legend, there is also a very rich historical, cultural and ideological connotation. In other words, it is not accidental that the immortal comes riding a sheep, that the immortal has five numbers, his clothes are five colors, and that the sheep is also five colors. First let’s talk about why it is sheep. Here I will tell you a basic fact. Animal husbandry scientists have proven that the sheep in Guangdong come from the north. This shows that the Five Sheep Myth is a prehistoric colonization myth. The people of the Central Plains were as early as the Zhou Dynasty in the 9th century BC. They began to move southward and brought northern culture and civilization to Lingnan people. It also proved that Guangzhou was an immigrant city very early. Some people may also ask, the ancestors who moved to Yangcheng could also keep dogs. You brought pigs and so on, why did you just bring sheep? This may be due to the long distance. Pigs move slowly and are inconvenient to drive in groups. In addition, pigs have a bad image in ancient legends. Dogs, in ancient times, were the totems and ancestral gods of many ethnic groups and were rarely raised as livestock with economic value. Compared with dogs and pigs, sheep have strong reproductive capacity, strong adaptability, and high economic value. To this day, there are still sayings in Guangdong that "raising ginger and raising sheep will save you money but make a profit" and "sheep never leave the womb." . In addition, it moves quickly and is easy to drive away. It can be seen that the immortal riding the sheep in the Wuyang myth not only symbolizes its coming from the north, but also has psychological, moral and economic considerations. There is a certain scientific reason why sheep became the ideal livestock carried by the ancestors who migrated south.
Today. Wuyang has become the city emblem of Guangzhou. Careful tourists will find that the nickname "Yangcheng" has penetrated into all aspects of life in Guangzhou: the book "Yangcheng Ancient Banknotes", the publication "Yangcheng Ancient and Modern", the newspaper "Yangcheng Evening News", and the "Eight Scenes of Yangcheng" ; Even many building trademarks, companies, associations, and places of interest are named after "Yangcheng"; the "Five Immortals Temple" still exists today, and the "immortal thumb traces" can still be seen; Xianhu Street, Xianlin Lane, Wuxianmen, etc. are still there. There is a bit of "immortality" in it - the myth of the "Five Sheep Immortal" has a profound influence.