What are the flower meanings and legends of the cockscomb? Latest summary
Cockscombs are mostly red and shaped like a rooster's comb, hence the name cockscomb. They grow in autumn. When the passion of summer is replaced by the bleak autumn wind and people's moods grow increasingly melancholy, the cockscomb blooms like fire, with fiery red colors and clusters of blossoms. People therefore give it the flower meaning of “true love forever.” Now let's take a look at the flower meanings and legends of the cockscomb!
Cockscomb flower meanings and legends
Sincere and eternal love. Cockscombs always have vibrant colors, especially from summer to autumn, and are almost the representative of “autumn.” Because of their “fiery red, passionate” colors, they symbolize “sincere and eternal love.”
The legend of the white cockscomb
In the Ming Dynasty there was also an interesting legend. One day, the emperor wanted to test the literary talent of the Hanlin Academy scholar Xie Jin, so he asked him to compose a poem on the theme of the cockscomb. Xie Jin was of course not vague, and blurted out: “The cockscomb is dyed with rouge…” But just as the words left his mouth, the emperor suddenly took from his sleeve a white cockscomb he had prepared long ago, and said to him with a smile: “This one is white.”
Seeing this, Xie Jin had a quick inspiration and immediately changed his tune and chanted: “Why is it lightly made up today? Only because at the fifth watch it greedily crows the dawn, and to this day wears frost all over its head.” He very cleverly changed the red cockscomb he had just begun to praise into a white cockscomb. The emperor and everyone present could not help but admire Xie Jin's quick wit and talent.
The legend of the red cockscomb
Long ago, in the Funiu Mountains there was a Centipede Ridge, and below the ridge lived a family surnamed Zhang. The old man had passed away early, and the mother and son depended on each other. Seeing that her son had grown to twenty-seven or twenty-eight years old and still had not settled a marriage, the mother was very anxious. One day, her son Shuangxi went up the mountain to cut firewood. When he came back, it was already late, and the hazy moonlight shone on the mountain path. Suddenly, a woman's crying came from ahead. Shuangxi put down his firewood bundle and went forward to look. It turned out to be a beautiful girl of seventeen or eighteen, sitting on a stone by the roadside weeping.
Shuangxi thought that it was already so late and the girl was still sitting there, so she must have some difficulty, and he hurried over to ask. The girl stopped crying, looked at Shuangxi, and said: “My parents found me a husband's family and coveted many things from them, but before the wedding the son-in-law died of anger. I went to mourn him, and on the way back I got lost here. Please be kind and save me.” Shuangxi was an honest man, so he brought the girl home. When his mother saw her son bring back a girl, and the girl shyly kept calling her mother, she was so happy she did not know what to say.
The next day, the girl got up early, finished washing and combing, and was just about to go to the kitchen to help her mother-in-law cook, when unexpectedly a big red rooster behind her, with its neck feathers standing on end, crowed and pounced at her. She was startled and hurriedly hid behind her mother-in-law. Shuangxi picked up a stick and struck the rooster hard, and the rooster flapped away. The girl then fell ill, and Shuangxi and his mother were so anxious they did not know what to do, asking her several times a day. The girl frowned and said: “I want to drink some chicken soup.” When the mother and son heard this, one busied himself catching the chicken and the other busied herself boiling water, but who knew that the rooster ran and flew, and facing the girl's room, crowed.
Shuangxi got angry and threw a clod of earth at the big rooster. The rooster fluttered a few times on the ground, then struggled and ran toward the back mountain. The big rooster flew away and never came back, and the girl's illness also slowly improved. One night, the old woman went to bring her wheat kernel soup. Just as she lifted the door curtain, she saw a big centipede lying on the bed. She was so frightened that she cried “Ai ya” and fell back onto the ground, and the bowl also broke. When the centipede heard the noise, it turned over and changed back into the girl's appearance, then jumped down from the bed. Just then, Shuangxi came back. The girl was afraid the old woman would expose her true form, so she thought of a way to force the old woman away. She sat down on the ground and began to cry, saying as she cried: “Ai ya, being a daughter-in-law is so hard! If one word is wrong, the bowl is smashed. How am I supposed to live from now on!” She said this and pretended she was about to leave.
Shuangxi hurriedly blocked her, and only after coaxing her left and right did she stop making a scene. The old woman was so upset that she did not dare sleep for a whole night. The next day, she found an opportunity to call Shuangxi into her room and told him everything that had happened during the night. Just as she was speaking, the girl came back. As soon as she entered the room she knew the matter had been exposed, and with a roll of her eyes a plan came to mind. She said to Shuangxi: “I know your mother dislikes me and is speaking ill of me, and I will not make things hard for you.” With that, she pretended to jump into the river and ran out crying. Shuangxi could not bear to part with this woman who knew how to act spoiled and stir his feelings, and hurriedly pulled her back. The girl said: “I have given you everything of mine, and in the end I have fallen to this point!” As she spoke she pretended to struggle outward. Shuangxi was so angry that he pointed at his mother: “Ai, you…”
When the girl saw that Shuangxi did not believe his mother's words, she forced him to say: “Your mother treats you well or I treat you well? Who can stay with you for a lifetime? Say who you want!” Shuangxi hurriedly said: “You, you.” When the old woman saw that her son had been bewitched, she left in tears. A few more days passed, and the woman said to Shuangxi: “I have been out for so many days. Tonight I want to go back and take a look. Will you see me part of the way?” Shuangxi hurriedly said: “All right, all right!” After drinking soup, the two of them walked together toward the ridge.
It turned out that the centipede spirit had become a spirit in a cave west of this ridge. It often turned into a beautiful woman to bewitch young people, and then treated them to death and drank their brains. The centipede spirit had become a spirit precisely by eating young people's brains. Many young people were deceived and died at its hands. When the old woman was there, she stayed by her son's side all day, so it did not dare act easily, and therefore it tried every means to force the old woman away.
At this time, they came to the ridge. Seeing that there was no one around, the centipede spirit sprayed a stream of poisonous fire at Shuangxi. Shuangxi only felt dizzy, and fell to the ground head over heels. The centipede spirit was just about to strike when it heard several “ge ge ge” sounds. The big red rooster, no one knew from where, spread open its sharp beak and pecked at the centipede spirit. The centipede spirit rolled on the spot and revealed its true form, baring its fangs and brandishing its claws as it came forward. They fought back and forth until nearly dawn, when the big rooster finally pecked a hole in the centipede spirit's head, and the centipede spirit rolled a few times and died. But the big rooster also fell to the ground and died of exhaustion.
At dawn, Shuangxi woke up and saw beside him a dead big centipede and a dead big red rooster. Only then did he understand why the woman had been frightened into illness when she saw the big rooster. He buried the big rooster on the top of the mountain and cried bitterly. Later, in the place where the big rooster was buried, a flower grew. That flower looked exactly like a rooster's comb, and from a distance it looked like a red rooster standing there with its head raised and chest out. People all said it had been transformed from the big red rooster. So they named that flower “cockscomb,” and also changed Centipede Ridge to Golden Rooster Ridge. It is said that even now, wherever there are cockscombs, there are no centipedes.