Summer morning is really comfortable. The air is cool, dew is hanging on the grass (and on the spider web), a large character is written, and a piece of ancient text is read. Summer morning is really comfortable.
Most flowers have five petals, but the gardenia has six. The folk song goes:“The gardenia blooms with six petals.”The gardenia is coarse and large, with a white color, slightly green near the stem, and is extremely fragrant, so fragrant that it is almost unbearable. My hometown people say it is:“Touching the nose is fragrant”. The gardenia is coarse and large, and its fragrance is so strong that it can't be brushed away, so the literati do not choose it, thinking that its character is not high. The gardenia says:“Go to hell, I want to be fragrant like this,fragrant to the fullest, you motherf**ers can't control it!”
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PureLi Shan's "Butterfly on the Earthen Wall"
Vertical axis, paper, colored,115cm × 59cm
Currently housed in the Nanjing Museum
People often compare Gardenia and Magnolia. Suzhou girls sell flowers on the street, calling out in a coquettish voice:“Gardenia! Magnolia!”The Magnolia flowers are half open, delicate and tender, like ivory white, with a quiet and elegant fragrance, but a bit sweet and vulgar, preferred by the "Miss"of the Shanghai's third-class brothels, as it is said that Magnolia is especially fragrant on the pillow at night. I think the flowers on the pillow of the "Miss"are not as exciting as the flowers in the hair of the boatwoman.
The flowers of summer in the quiet are the jessamine. The morning glory is short-lived. It opens only when it is dewy in the morning and withers by noon. The okra is also short-lived. The petals are pale yellow, with a white center and a purple ring around the center. The wind blows the thin petals,looking pitiful.
The impatiens has single-petalled and double-petalled varieties. The double-petalled ones are like small peonies. The impatiens stem is thick and fleshy. The people of Hunan use it to make""stinky pickles"," which is not found in my hometown. Maize, dog tail grass, and motherwort all grow very vigorously. The pale bamboo leaves bloom small light blue flowers, like small butterflies, which are very beautiful. The leaves are slightly like bamboo leaves but softer.
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Wu Fu-zhi "Mandarin Duck Flower"
Colored on paper,91cm × 42cm
“Wan Ba Gou”is the苍耳. Because there are many small hooks on the small fruits of the knot, it will hang on the clothes when it touches it, and it is necessary to be careful to pick it off. Therefore, children call it“Wan Ba Gou”.
There is a kind of"ba gen cao"here, it grows close to the ground, it takes root in every crack, one plant spreads out and grows many roots, horizontal and vertical, covering a large area. And it is very tough, it can't be pulled apart. Very young children will sing:
Begonia;
Green grass;
Sing a song;
Listen to the dog.
***What is annoying is“Stinky Sesame”. Digging crickets and catching jinlingzi often gets one's trousers dirty. The smell is extremely pungent and difficult to get rid of.
Watermelon suspended by a rope in a well, cut open in the afternoon, a crisp sound, a burst of coolness, even the eyes feel cool. The whole world values“black seeds and red flesh”, but my hometown alone values“three whites”: white skin, white flesh, white seeds.“three whites” produced by Dongteng ***.
Watermelon varieties include: Niujiao Su, resembling a cow's horn, with a pale green rind, the flesh is dark green when peeled, the seeds are bright red, the taste is strong and the meat is crispy, also available in Beijing, known as“Yangjiao Honey”; Xiaoma Su, not too sweet but crispy, with a cucumber fragrance when chewed; Pear Melon, about the size of a fist, with white skin, white flesh, and a crispy texture with a pear-like aroma; there is a larger variety, with a skin color like a toad, not too sweet, but very“floury”, children call it“Nana Hum”, saying that grandma hums while eating.“Hum”.
Grasshopperwe call it“Chirping Insect”. Because it is strong and robust, not very good-looking, and especially in front of it adds a“Crude”character, it is called“Crude Chirping Insect”. This thing is good at chirping. Sometimes I get tired of its chirping, so I tap its cage, and it will chirp loudly:“Gua!——”Stop. It eats everything. It is said that eating chili makes it chirp more, so Ifeed it the hottest chili. In the morning, I pick the pumpkin flower (false flower) to feed it, just for its good looks. This thing bites. Sometimes when I hold the cage, it will bite your finger tip through the bamboo!
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Yuan·Xie Chufang, "Universal Business Chart", part
Silk, colored, 27.8cm × 352.9cm
British Museum Collection
There is a kind of cricket called the autumn singer, which comes out later, is smaller, and is a bright green all over, like glass. The autumn singer is kept in a round box made of牛 horn, with a piece of glass on the top. I can make such a horn box myself. The important thing is to get a piece of glass the right size. When the glass is put in a water box and cut with scissors, it does not break. The autumn singer is much more expensive than the hardy singer. If kept well, it can last through the winter.
Callipogon can be eaten. It must be three tails, with many eggs in the abdomen. Throw it into the fire of dry branches, and it will be cooked in a moment.The taste is very similar to shrimp.
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Qi Baishi's "The Cicada"
cicada There are three kinds of cicadas. One is“ sea slip”, ***, black in color, with a loud call. This is the King of Cicadas, with strong vitality. I once caught one and kept it in an old clock that had run out of power, and it lived for many days.“ du溜”, smaller in size, green with a hint of silver, looks *** and has a pleasant call:“ du溜—— du溜—— du溜”. One is called“ ji slip”, *** small, dark brown, and is also named for its call.
The cicada likes to live on the willow tree. The ancients often painted"The high willow with cicadas"，it is reasonable.
Beijing children use sticky poles to catch cicadas,——the bamboo pole is coated with glue. When we were young, we used spider webs. Choose a strong, long reed, bend one end into a triangle, tie it with a string, and when you see a big spider web, twist it, and the triangle is covered with spider webs, which is very sticky.Lookat a cicada, gentlycoverit, and the cicada's wings will bestuck.
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Qi Baishi's "Lotus Seed and Dragonfly" in detail
There are three kinds of dragonflies in my hometown.
A kind of great, with a dark green head and chest, and a black ring on the abdomen, and a pair of leather-like small round plates on both sides of the tail, is called"Green Bean Class". This thing is very dangerous, and its huge wings rubwith a rustling sound when flying. Or catch it and put it in the room, it will rush against the window glass.
A common kind of dragonfly, there are gray-blue and green ones. The dragonfly has a keen eyesight, but after dusk, its vision is a bit blurred. They rest motionless, and when you reach out from behind, you can catch them easily. There is a mischievous way to play with dragonflies: pluck a dog's tail grass, stick the grass stem into the dragonfly's butt, and when you let go, the dragonfly will fly away with the dog's tail tuft.
One is a red dragonfly. I don't know what principle, it is said to bethe horse of the Kitchen God.
There is also a pure black dragonfly, with a deep black body and wings, which we call the ghost dragonfly because it is a bit ghostly, also known as“Widow”。
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YuanXie Chufang's "Universal Business Chart" partial
RollSilkColored 27.8x352.9Centimeters
British Museum Collection
The mantis is the same as the praying mantis. The praying mantis is very beautiful. The head of the praying mantis canturn around in all directions. The wings of the praying mantis are tender green, and the color and vein pattern are very beautiful. Insects with beautiful wings, for praying mantis, for纺织娘.
Or ask: What do you mean by writing about these insects? Answer: I just hope that today's children can also play with these insects,and take an interest in nature.Nowadays, children are mostly brought up surrounded by electronic toys, which may not be a good thing.
Shh, the golden bell is climbing in the small glass box! It stops, eats two bites of food——the pear is cut into small dice. So it called,“Ding Ling Ling”……
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YuanXie Chufang's "Universal Business Chart" partial
Silk, colored, 27.8cm × 352.9cm
British Museum Collection
Take a cool.
Move a big bamboo bed into the courtyard,lay it down in any direction,lie down on it, feel comfortable all over, and the summer heat will disappear completely. Look at the moonlight. The moonlight is crystal clear and of five colors, changing constantly and very beautiful. There is a big blurred circle around the moon, which is called“wind ring”. There will be wind in the next few days.“the black pig has crossed the river”——the black clouds are crossing the Milky Way, and it is going to rain heavily.
Not until the dew came down did the railing of the bamboo bed get wet, and then I went back, by which time I was so sleepy that I could hardly keep my eyes open. I lay down on the vine pillow (we use vine or lacquered pillows in summer here) and soon fell asleep.
The chicken head millet is old, the new walnuts have come down, and summer is almost over.
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Lu Yanshao "Farmhouse under the West Tianmushan"
This text is an excerpt from the "Complete Works of Wang Zengqi": "Summer" and "Insects of Summer", with the title added by the editor.
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