Cockscomb Flower Language and Legendary Stories Explained in Detail
Cockscomb flowers 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 desolation of autumn winds and people's moods grow increasingly melancholy, cockscomb flowers bloom like fire, with fiery red colors and dense clusters of blossoms. People therefore gave them the flower language of “eternal true love.” Let's take a look at the flower language and legends of cockscomb flowers!
Cockscomb Flower Language and Legends
Sincere and eternal love. Cockscomb flowers always have vibrant colors, especially from summer to autumn, when they are practically the representative of “autumn.” Because of their “fiery red and passionate” colors, they symbolize “sincere and eternal love.”
The Legend of the White Cockscomb
During the Ming Dynasty, there was another interesting legend. One day, the emperor wanted to test the literary talent of Hanlin Academician Xie Jin, so he asked him to compose a poem on the theme of the cockscomb flower. Xie Jin was of course not vague about it 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 flower that had been prepared in advance, and said to him with a smile: “This one is white.”
Seeing this, Xie Jin had a flash of inspiration and immediately changed his tune, chanting: “Why the light and pale makeup today? Only because at the fifth watch it greedily raced to announce the dawn, and to this day wears a head full of frost.” He very cleverly switched the red cockscomb flower he had just begun to praise into a white cockscomb flower. 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 at the foot of 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, the sound of a woman crying came from ahead. Shuangxi put down his firewood load 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. 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. Before the wedding, the groom 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 dressing, 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 became ill, and Shuangxi and his mother were so anxious they did not know what to do, asking after her several times a day. The girl would frown and say: “I want to drink some chicken soup.” When the mother and son heard this, one hurried to catch the chicken, and the other hurried to boil water. But the rooster ran and flew, and kept crowing toward the girl's room.
Shuangxi got angry and threw a clod of earth at the big rooster. The rooster flapped 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 gradually improved. One evening, the old woman went to bring her wheat kernel soup. Just as she lifted the door curtain, she saw a large centipede lying on the bed. She was so frightened that she gave an “Oh no” and fell back onto the ground, and the bowl was also broken. When the centipede heard the noise, it turned over and changed back into the girl's appearance, then jumped down from the bed. Just at that moment, Shuangxi came back. The girl was afraid the old woman would expose her true form, so she thought of a way to drive the old woman away. She promptly sat down on the ground and began to cry, saying as she cried: “Oh no, being a daughter-in-law is so hard! If I say one wrong thing, the bowl gets smashed. How am I supposed to live from now on!” She pretended to be about to leave.
Shuangxi hurriedly blocked her, and only after much coaxing did she stop making a scene. The old woman was so upset that she did not dare sleep all night. The next day, she found an opportunity to call Shuangxi into her room and told him everything that had happened that 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 saying bad things about me. I won't make things hard for you either.” After saying that, she pretended to jump into the river and ran out crying. Shuangxi could not bear to let go of this woman who knew how to act coquettishly and play on his feelings, so he hurriedly grabbed her. The girl said: “I gave you everything I had, and in the end it came to this!” She pretended to struggle outward. Shuangxi was so angry that he pointed at his mother: “Ah, you……”
When the girl saw that Shuangxi did not believe his mother's words, she pressured him, saying: “Your mother treats you well, or do I treat you well? Who can be with you for a lifetime? Say it, who do you want!” Shuangxi hurriedly said: “You, you.” When the old woman saw that her son had been bewitched, she left in tears. A few days later, the woman said to Shuangxi: “I've 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 quickly said: “Sure, sure!” After drinking their soup, the two of them walked together toward the ridge.
It turned out that the centipede spirit had taken form in a cave west of this ridge. It often turned into a beautiful woman to bewitch young men, and then killed them and drank their brains. The centipede spirit became a spirit precisely by eating young people's brains. Many young men were deceived and died at its hands. When the old woman was around, she stayed by Shuangxi's side all day, not leaving him for a moment, so the spirit did not dare act easily. That was why it tried every possible way to drive the old woman away.
At this time, they came to the ridge. Seeing that there was no one around, the centipede spirit spewed a stream of poisonous fire at Shuangxi. Shuangxi only felt dizzy and fell to the ground head over heels. Just as the centipede spirit was about to strike, there came a few “cluck cluck cluck” 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 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 large centipede and a dead big red rooster. Only then did he understand why the woman had been so frightened by the big rooster that she became ill. He buried the big rooster on the top of the mountain and wept bitterly. Later, in the place where the big rooster was buried, a flower grew. That flower looked exactly like a rooster's comb. From a distance, it looked like a red rooster standing there with its head high and chest out. People all said it had been transformed from the big red rooster. So they named that flower “cockscomb flower,” and also changed Centipede Ridge to Golden Rooster Ridge. It is said that even now, wherever there are cockscomb flowers, there are no centipedes.