Many people have an innate fear of snakes, which may be due to the millions of years of struggle between primates and snakes. Natural fears aside, super pythons are indeed scary. The ancient poem says: "Since the giant python is prosperous, it often lives for thousands of years." Daylight covers the long road, and Qingxi steames poisonous smoke. ”
According to the "Jiwen", in the seventh year of Tianbao, the Xuanzhou River flooded, and local people who were good swimmers went down to the river to find firewood. Suddenly, a large log more than ten feet long went down the river, and someone swam over to observe, it turned out to be a yellow giant snake. The man returned in shock, but was latched onto by the giant snake. The serpent raised its head a few feet above the surface of the water, and the man lay in the mouth of the snake, waving his hands and feet and struggling, crying for help. The people on the shore were so desperate that they could not be rescued, and they saw that the big snake was getting farther and farther away.
It is also said that the water rises in a certain place, and a dragon floats down the river. Everyone stood by the river and watched, it turned out to be a dead python, with a sheep in its mouth, only swallowed more than half, and the two horns were still exposed, so it was mistaken for a dragon.
According to the "Yutang Gossip", during the Liang Dynasty, Zhu Hanbin guarded An Lu Mansion (in present-day Hubei). One morning, just after dawn, a large snake appeared on the southwestern city wall. The giant serpent's head rested on the city tower, and its body hung down the city wall, extending to the land temple on the other side of the moat. The snake head is five-bucketed, his eyes are like electricity, and he looks at the city from the city tower. The military academy patrolling the night in the city tower suddenly saw it and shouted and was scared to death. The whole city was so scared that no one dared to touch it. At night, the serpent slowly slid down the city wall and did not know where it went.
Lang Zhongling Gu Sui's father served as the county commander of Gong'an County (in present-day Hubei). After his resignation, he lived on the banks of the Jingjiang River, surrounded by lush forests. One moonlit night, he went out for a walk, and just out of the door, he saw a wooden stick-like thing straddling the road. He thought it was a wooden bar for the bolt door, so he kicked it. The thing turned out to be a large snake with a thick wrist, which bounced up and wrapped around him several times. Gu Xianling was strangled to faint, and his family heard the sound and went out to see. In the moonlight, I saw several white bands wrapped around his chest and abdomen, and when he got closer, he realized that it was a snake. So he cut it with a knife and threw it to the ground in pieces, still bending and twisting. Gu Xianling was unable to speak after being rescued, and died more than ten days later.
The above stories are highly documentary, and there are many strange stories about snakes, among which there are many that involve killing snakes and catching snakes, such as Liu Bang chopping snakes, Li sending to kill snakes, Deng Jia snake talismans, Cheng Junzhi snakes, beggars catching snakes and so on. I've talked about it all before.
In the "Notes of My Foshan People", it is said that snake charmers wrap snakes around their arms and hang them around their necks, as easily as fiddling with rope. Their magic weapon for curing snakes was a secret medicine, which was refused to be taught by their children and nephews.
A shepherd boy encountered a man in the wilderness squatting next to a small hole, his right hand reaching into the hole, his arm swollen, his face blue and black, his whole body stiff, and his cloak and cage were thrown on the ground. The shepherd boy stepped forward and asked, "Snake hunting? The man nodded slightly. The shepherd boy asked again: "Poisoned?" The man nodded again. The shepherd boy asked him where the antidote was, and the snake catcher looked at Dooka. The shepherd boy found a paper packet in the mezzanine of the cloak, which contained several dead psyllids (bed bugs), and asked whether it was applied externally or internally, and the snake catcher moved his lips. After the shepherd boy fed him dry psyllids, the snake catcher's face slowly turned rosy, and after a long time, he finally stood up, and with his right hand he grabbed a small snake from the earthen hole, crimson and more than a foot long. The snake man shouted "sin barrier" and beat the snake to death. After all, he didn't tell the shepherd boy the method of refining snake medicine.
"Yi Jianzhi" mentions a snake catcher surnamed Dai, who is bold and daring, and catching snakes is more calm than catching loaches. There are dozens of different snakes in the family, with two heads, four legs, short and thick, large and thin heads, serrated hairy bodies... As for the black and white chapter that Liu Zongyuan said, it is not worth mentioning in him. Dai used these snake performances to make money, and lived a very good life. Although he has the skill of catching snakes, only four of his ten fingers remain, and the remaining six were forced to be amputated by snakebites.
Some snake nemesis are mentioned in the Chi Wei story, such as the praying mantis snake catcher in Liaozhai Zhi Wei, and the flying centipede killed the beautiful snake that Lu Xun talked about. According to the "Taiping Guangji", Yushi Du Wei once went to South Vietnam and saw a large snake several feet long on the way, followed by a small turtle. The large snake climbed up the pine tree by the side of the road and glared down at the turtle. The turtle raised its head, two green smoke came out of its nose, the head of the large snake shattered, and it fell off the tree and died.
A man named Jin Siweng went into Fenglong Mountain in Jingxian County to collect medicine, and saw a white snake more than three feet long. The white snake seemed to be dodging something and climbed a large tree. A moment later a toad jumped up, the size of a plate, earthy yellow. The toad came under the tree and looked up, and the white snake hung its head and died.
According to the "Lang Huan Ji", a man was bitten by a snake, swollen and painful, and miserable. A child appeared and said, "Rub two knives against each other in the water and drink the water." The child turned into a gecko and burrowed into the hole in the wall. The man did so and healed immediately. Hence calling the gecko a snake doctor.
There are also many stories of snake demons, and "Yi Jianzhi" says that there was a scholar in Guangzhou who lived in the temple and studied hard, and did not rest until the third change every day. One night, a beautiful woman in a red dress and green sleeves came from outside, claiming to be from a famous family, unfortunately fell into the dust, and admired the elegance of the scholar and came to defect. The scholar was very happy, left her behind, and agreed to grow old together. The woman is articulate, has a flexible temperament, is good at singing and dancing, and the scholar is very obsessed, not only abandoning her studies, but also becoming trance-like. A few months later, the woman became pregnant.
One day a friend came to visit and saw him in a weak spirit, describing his withering, and asked why. After learning the reason, the friend said: "In common sense, it must be a demon, there is a Master Liu in the city who has superb magic power, and you should go to him to seek advice." "On that day, the scholar and his friend went to the mage, who used a basin of water as a mirror, and the image of a giant python appeared inside. The mage handed him a talisman.
At night, the scholar took out the talisman and showed it to the woman, and said, "I see, you are a snake spirit." The woman was silent and turned into a large snake and snaked away, followed by a small snake. The scholar changed his residence, and the woman never appeared again.
It is also said that there are snake demons in the mountains in the northwest of Hengshan County, and they often turn into women to confuse the monks there. In the eleventh year of Shaoxing, the monk Miaoyin did not resist the temptation to share a room with her, and the next day it was as cold as ice from the waist down, and died a few days later. The monk Zuyuan went into the mountains to cut firewood for five days and did not return, and everyone found him in a cave. The entrance is small, but the inside is large. Zuyuan said that a woman kept him here and brought him fruit every day. Zu Yuan was confused for more than a month before he came to his senses.
It is said in the "Youming Lu" that after Zhuge Changmin became an official, he often jumped up at night, as if fighting with people. My friend Mao Xiuzhi happened to live with him, saw his abnormality, and asked in surprise. Zhuge Changmin said: "There is a black and thin monster, with unclear hands and feet, very strong, and has fought many times without distinction between victory and defeat. And Mao Xiuzhi saw nothing.
The snake's head often poked out of the pillar of Zhuge Changmin's bedroom, and he retracted it by cutting the snake's head with a knife, and then leaned out again after a while. He ordered the pillar to be wrapped in thick paper, and there was a rumbling sound in the paper, as if something was rubbing.