Storytelling at Dacheng Bridge
According to the rules, the four leaders in charge of the Guanyin Society must serve as the hosts of the storytelling session in the second year. There are three days before and after the Zhongzhai of the Guanyin Opera. The formations are the same every day, but the opera characters in the stories are changed every day to show the excitement.
The formations of the storytelling session:
(1) The four chiefs opened the way, accompanied by the acrobatic "bolide"; (2) Four unified umbrellas; (3) Twenty Centipede flag; (4) four to eight palace lanterns; (5) nine-section dragon lanterns with big gongs and drums; (6) four to eight row lanterns, with the words "Guotai and people's peace, political harmony and harmony, good weather, good harvest, clean and safe, joyful world, old age" auspicious words such as "good health" and "prosperous animals"; (7) Rehearsal high-legged team (ranging from 12 to 20 people); (8) costumed Eighteen Arhats and little monk team; (9) local stories, with the rehearsal of "Eight Immortals Celebration" "Shou", "Tang Monk Goes for Buddhist Scriptures", "Meeting in the Ancient City", "Generals and Prime Ministers" and other dramas lined up to accompany the procession; (10) Four stories were carried on four frames, with exquisite children, decorated into "Guanyin Sitting on the Lotus", "Bangs Chopped" and other dramas. Plays such as "The Vertebra" and "Nezha Makes the Sea" became the finale of the story show; (11) Rehearsal of "The Fish and the Clam"; (12) The swing decorated with four children, with four sets of small openings in between and musical instruments large and small to follow. This is purely for farmers’ self-entertainment.
After the reform and opening up, a major performance was held. The poem written by Xie Guoen, a native of Yi, was published in the second volume of "Ningxiang Poetry". Poem title: Dacheng Bridge Storytelling Festival, which is said to have begun in the Ming Dynasty, was a gathering of folk skills for self-amusement. However, after a grand performance was held to celebrate the victory of the Anti-Japanese War, it has been suspended ever since. In September 1993, the villagers celebrated the happiness of being well-off and spontaneously raised funds to hold the story-telling event, which had been suspended for half a century. The program was exciting, large-scale, with tens of thousands of viewers, and the order was very orderly. Caidong rushed to sponsor and donated more than 40,000 yuan on the spot. The scene was touching and the poem was written in memory: the story was staged and staged by himself, attracting thousands of people, young and old. Young students with painted faces and blue robes danced, while lions, dragons and lanterns circulated. Songs and songs praise the prosperous age, and the sound of gongs and drums shakes Yao Tian. Caidong sponsored Tianjiaqu and donated NT$40,000 in one fell swoop.
A story known to all women and children within a few dozen miles of Dacheng Bridge happened in the middle of the Ming Dynasty. There is a big house called "Gaotangchong" one mile south of Dachengqiao Street. The owner at that time was Ou Xingfang. The property was so huge that the rent exceeded 10,000 Dan. Most of the land around Dacheng Bridge is his ancestral property. Dacheng Bridge was originally a wooden bridge, which was washed away by flash floods from time to time, making it extremely inconvenient for pedestrians. With the prosperity of commerce, the number of shops continued to increase, and the wooden bridge was no longer suitable. Some local social sages proposed the reconstruction, and the neighbors voluntarily donated funds. Only this wealthy man, who collected tens of thousands of dan in rent, had no money. He told the donor that his tenants had a Xia Quantang Bay wooden bridge 50 meters downstream of Dacheng Bridge, and he could use his own bridge to travel.
The local people were not discouraged because this large family did not donate money. It took three years to finally rebuild the small wooden bridge into a permanent stone bridge with four piers and five ridges, and four large stone tablets were erected on the left side of the bridge head. . The first inscription records the process and difficulty of building the bridge; the other three inscriptions all record the names of people who donated money and worked.
Decades later, Ou Xingfang’s eighth son got married. The woman in the marriage is the fourth daughter of He Tianyou's family in Yiyang. Her family is the largest wealthy family in Yiyang, and their rent collection exceeds 10,000 Dan. On the wedding day, both the man's and the woman's families must appear wealthy and lively. He's dowry was innumerable, and everything was made up of eight. The homophone of eight is "fa", eight, eight, sixty-four sets, a band of forty-eight people, eighteen long trumpets, and more than a hundred sedans. The four accompanying maids all rode in sedan chairs, and there were thousands of people in the wedding party. There was a problem for such a procession to pass through Dacheng Bridge. The neighbors of Dacheng Bridge did not allow his wedding procession to cross the bridge. The reason was that Ou Xingfang refused to donate money when the bridge was repaired. The rich man was afraid of losing his dignity, so he negotiated with the local people, paved the bridge with a red carpet, and agreed to the harsh conditions of having firecrackers crossing the bridge.
Decades later, Gao Tangchong's family business quickly declined. The bride Ouba, who was welcomed by thousands of people, was so poor that she begged for rice in the end. Why didn't her natal family support her if she collected tens of thousands of dan in rent? Because of the deep grudge between the two families, they have never been able to communicate with each other. The reason was that He Tianyou misheard the words and expressed his position indiscriminately. After the husband's family presented the "eight characters", He Tianyou sent a long-term worker from Ningxiang to Gaotang Chong to inspect the family. The long-term worker returned home and truthfully reported to his master: Gaotang Chong had divided the family for four generations, and it was difficult to maintain a large number of people. He's son-in-law, Master Ou Ba, was allocated more than 1,000 dan of rented land in his name. Yiyang and Ningxiang had some confusing accents, and He Tianyou misunderstood "more than one thousand dan" as "more than 7,000 dan", so he agreed to the marriage. On the day of the wedding, He Tianyou had made great fortune and was very arrogant. On the trough door in the high hall was a "Hanlin Bachelor", which was awarded by the emperor. The trough door in the high hall was not a sedan. He Tianyou deliberately wanted to ridicule him, so he turned around and went in but did not see his "in-laws". From then on, the two families had no contact with each other. Miss He Si was far away from her natal family, isolated and helpless, and ended up begging for rice. Moreover, she did not know how to ask for directions. She would only take the same route when going out every day. How could the neighboring households afford to provide for her in the long term, so they had to take her to some new households. .
Why has this story been told for so long? Donating money to build a bridge is just a drop in the bucket. Farmers hate people who are "unkind for the sake of wealth" and pride themselves on wealth. Building bridges and roads is a virtue recognized by the people. It is intended to inspire future generations to be independent and not to be arrogant, and to do more good deeds and accumulate virtue. There is also a warning among the people that "you cannot get rich for three generations", which is full of philosophy if you think about it carefully.
Because the children of rich families rely on their ancestral wealth and live a life where they can only stretch their hands for clothes and open their mouths for food, what kind of fighting spirit do they have? Passed down from generation to generation, no matter how many ancestral inheritances there are, it is impossible to keep them.