The Last Taoist

My aunt's nine-year prophecy The Chinese Taoist culture has a long history and has a history of thousands of years. There are many masters. In the long river of time, how many records about Taoism have been lost in the dust of history or scattered in the folk countryside. The Taoism that was once glorious has now mostly become a tourist cultural attraction... There is such a Taoist priest, his life is legendary, tortuous, and more helpless. He has saved many people's lives, including me and my aunt. The story of the last Taoist priest: Zha Wenbin's life-a person introduced by a small story. Zha is a rare surname. The Hundred Family Surnames records it like this: Zha (Zha) is one of the Chinese surnames, ranking 397th in the Hundred Family Surnames. One is from the Jiang family, a descendant of Emperor Yan. In the Spring and Autumn Period, the son of Duke Qing of Qi was granted the title of "Zha". His descendants used the fief as their surname and became the surname "Zha". Later, Zha removed the radical "wood" and became the surname "Cha". The second is from the surname Mi. In the Spring and Autumn Period, the officials of the royal family of the Chu State were granted the title of Chayi, and their descendants took the name of the place as their surname. There is a village called Hongcun in the mountainous area of ​​western Zhejiang. There is a family surnamed Xu in the village. The man in charge is a carpenter who is good at carpentry work and is known as Xu Luban. The livelihood of his ancestors was to make coffins for other people. When it came to his generation, he naturally inherited the family business. Although he had a good skill, because he was in the business of dead people, few women from ordinary families would like him. After many twists and turns, he finally married a daughter-in-law in a neighboring village through a matchmaker. In that era, one thing was not well developed, which was contraception. In ten years, they gave birth to three daughters and two sons. With more people in the family, the expenses were high. After the couple discussed it, the daughter-in-law went for sterilization. Who is Xu Luban? It's my grandfather. After another ten years, I didn't expect that my grandmother was pregnant again. My grandfather didn't know whether to be happy or sad. Why could his daughter-in-law get pregnant even though she had been sterilized? The belly grew bigger day by day. After ten months of pregnancy, the baby was born. Grandpa never thought that he would have a daughter at the age of 40. He named the youngest daughter "Xiu", who is my aunt. That year was 1977. Grandpa was very happy to have a daughter in his old age. On the day of his daughter's full moon, he held a big banquet and the neighbors in the village came to congratulate him. In the midst of the celebration, a Taoist priest in a tattered Taoist robe and carrying a bag of eight trigrams passed by the Xu family. Someone with good intentions stopped the Taoist priest and suggested that the host family had just given birth to a daughter, so he asked the Taoist priest to calculate the fortune. The Taoist priest was straightforward. He came over to take a look at the baby in the swaddling clothes, counted with his fingers, and suddenly looked shocked. He called the male host Xu Luban into the inner room and whispered: "Master, you have a daughter, which is a happy thing, but I have something to say. I don't know if I should say it today?" Although my grandfather was a carpenter, he was also very reasonable. He smiled and said: "You, the Taoist priest, just say what you want to say. No matter whether you say it well or not, I will treat you to a glass of wine when the banquet starts!" The Taoist priest He glanced at Xu Luban and said, "Although your little daughter is beautiful, I'm afraid it will be difficult to raise her in the future." Grandpa was furious when he heard this. He just had a daughter, and you, a Taoist priest from nowhere, were talking nonsense here and saying such unlucky words. So he went up and pushed the Taoist priest: "You Taoist priest are too ungrateful. How can you talk nonsense like this?" The Taoist priest was originally in tattered clothes. After being pushed by Xu Luban, his clothes were torn. A copper lump fell out of his arms and rolled to the ground. The shouting inside startled my grandmother who was entertaining guests in the room. When she came over, she saw that a ragged Taoist priest was entangled with her husband. She went up to separate the two. My mother said that my grandmother was really a character. First, she scolded my grandfather for his rudeness without asking the reason, and then apologized to the Taoist priest, took out needle and thread to mend his old clothes, and insisted on staying for dinner. The Taoist priest couldn't refuse, so he sat down with everyone. After a few drinks, his face turned red, and he started to brag that he was the head of Maoshan and had great Taoist skills. Unexpectedly, he caused the guests to laugh... I don't know if the Taoist priest was drunk or something, but during the meal, everyone asked about the baby's fortune again, and he said again: "This little girl will have a short life, it will be very difficult to raise her, I'm afraid she will have trouble in the future." When everyone heard this, they thought, how dare you, a Taoist priest, say such nonsense? Especially my grandfather, the anger that had just been suppressed suddenly jumped up again, he ran into the house, took out an axe and was about to chop it, but fortunately he was stopped by everyone, so he cursed there. This time, my grandmother heard it clearly, and she couldn't help but feel embarrassed. She shouted at the Taoist priest, "Where did you come from, you wild Taoist priest? I treated you kindly, but you cursed my daughter like this! Get out of here!" The Taoist priest didn't want to be insulted like this, but he didn't get angry. He touched his chest, looked at the sky, glanced at everyone, and said, "Don't be angry, host. I'm telling the truth. You, a little girl, may not live past nine years old. If you are in trouble, you can come to Wulipu, An County to find me." After that, he bowed to everyone, turned around and left... Only the guests looked at each other in bewilderment and my grandfather's family groaned in anger. Although everyone advised not to take it seriously, it still left a shadow in the heart of my grandmother, who was a little superstitious. In the blink of an eye, it was nine years later. My aunt not only grew up healthy and smart, but also very beautiful, especially a pair of big watery eyes, which made adults very happy. Gradually, the people in my grandmother's family gradually forgot what the Taoist priest said nine years ago. In many places in the countryside, when someone dies, a big funeral is held, which is also called a happy funeral. All the people in the village have to go to help with the funeral. Everyone also has to drink a lot and eat a lot of meat. It is very lively, but there must be a dish that every family has, which is a portion of white tofu, so a white wedding is also called eating tofu rice. In the summer of 1986, the day I was born, an old man died in Hong Village. In that era of material scarcity, having a white wedding means that you can have a good meal. Grandpa and grandma took my aunt to eat tofu rice. During the meal, my aunt also ate a lot of oily food. After the banquet, the family of three took advantage of the bright stars in the sky to rush home. That family is two miles away from my grandmother's house. On the way, there is a reservoir that is about 300 meters long. When I was a child, I often sneaked to swim in that reservoir. Every time I was caught by my grandmother, I was beaten up, and I didn't tell her why... No one lives on that road. It only takes about ten minutes to walk these two miles, and I usually walk this road a lot. The moon and stars were particularly bright that night, illuminating the path with a pale white, and there was no need for a flashlight to illuminate it. In the countryside in summer, there is one thing that always attracts children, that is fireflies. My aunt was chasing the fireflies in front of her, laughing as she chased them. The insects flew forward flashing, and my aunt ran behind her. My grandpa and grandma were not far behind, looking at the children with a smile. Grandpa smoked a dry pipe and said to my grandmother: "Who said that my daughter is difficult to raise? This child has never had even a minor illness since she was born. I think that Taoist priest is a charlatan!" Grandma told my aunt to run slower, and soon they arrived home. When my aunt was little, she slept with my grandparents. When she grew up, she was arranged to sleep with her third sister. My grandpa had four daughters and two sons. My eldest aunt, eldest uncle and my mother had already started their own families. Only my third aunt, my youngest aunt and my youngest uncle were still at home. Before going to bed, my aunt told my third aunt about the delicious food they had at the banquet today, which made my third aunt very envious. Since the birth of my younger sister, my grandpa's family would try to leave the good things for my aunt. For example, when eating corn, my aunt always got the part near the head, and my third aunt always ate the half at the tail. But my aunt was indeed lovable. My third aunt washed her feet and carried her to bed. With my third aunt's company, my aunt fell asleep quickly, until a scream in the middle of the night broke the Xu family's peaceful life for nine years.