Legendary Allusions of Daqikong Bridge

The legend of Daqikong Bridge

According to folklore of the Buyi people, the first person to fund the construction of the bridge was a widow. Her husband died young, the family had a large fortune, and all seven of her children died in infancy. She was alone and extremely sad. One day when she went to the market, she met an old woman in ragged clothes and as thin as a piece of wood. She was sitting by the Mengtang River well catching fleas. Her clothes were ragged and dirty. She wanted to drink cold water from the well, but when she saw this man at the well, she didn't want to go. But at that time, the sun was blazing, and I was unbearably thirsty, so I went to the well to get a handful of water to drink. When the old woman saw the widow coming to the well to drink water, she reached out and asked for two pence. The widow was originally a stingy miser, with a fortune in her family but nothing to give away. Just because after her husband and children died, she lived alone and felt bored. At the same time, she also regarded money and rice lightly. For this reason, the old woman stretched out her hand. Although it was dark and dirty, she felt that it was easy to stretch out her hand but difficult to withdraw it, so she gave the old woman three pennies indifferently. Finally, she thought that she had never seen this old woman before, could it be...? Just give her a little more money and ask her to buy some good food and clothing. So she knelt down and said to the old woman: "My life is also miserable, but I have a little more money, and you have no money. I am rich, childless, and lonely. What can I do with more money?" What's the use? I'll give you the handle, help you with some food and clothing, and accumulate some kindness!" She gave the old woman the money, and then turned around and went on the road. When she left the well and came to the road, she heard someone say: "Wanshan, Wanshan!" When she looked back, the old woman was no longer at the well. At this time, she knelt down and kowtowed to the sky, kowtowing and said, "Old god, please give me some advice! I must do it if I have the strength. But I ask the gods to help me, and I will reward you when the thing is done!" From then on, she did more. Do good deeds and beg for good results. One day when she was going to catch up with Wang Meng, the Zhangjiang River and the Daming River (the Mengtang River) were swollen. Women from the Yao ethnic group in Guangxi came to catch up. When they were crossing the Daming River, seven women lined up in a line, holding hands and forming a team with each other. He crossed the river safely and went ashore to go to the market. He was smiling and extremely happy. There was another man who was wading alone when the water came over him. He hit a few fishes and fell into the water. Fortunately, he knew how to swim and was saved from annihilation. Otherwise, he would have been in danger of losing his life. After she returned home, she recalled and thought about these things alone in the middle of the night, and what happened during the day appeared before her eyes one by one. After much thought, she decided to sell her property and farmland and build a large seven-hole stone bridge at the safe crossing point for seven Yao women on the Daming River to fulfill her long-cherished wish of "all good deeds" guided by the old god. The next day, she felt that even though she had sold off all her family property and farmland, it was still difficult to raise funds. She went to contact widows whose basic situation was similar to hers and mobilized them to raise funds to build the "Wanshan" Bridge. The hard work paid off, and with the secret help of the gods, six widows also agreed to help. She and herself had seven widows. They discussed building a large stone bridge with seven holes to facilitate future generations to walk. The span of the bridge holes was also smaller and stronger. It also represented the seven Yao women holding hands to wade across the river and the widows of seven families. If you build this bridge together, your merit will be divided into seven equal parts, your virtue will be accumulated into seven equal parts, and you will have seven famous families. After the matter was agreed upon, she posted an advertisement for the sale of her property and farmland, and searched around to recruit highly skilled masons to design and construct the property.

Unforeseen circumstances may occur. During the construction of the bridge, a python spirit in the river caused mischief. The water rose many times and flooded the bridge. The construction materials were destroyed and washed away many times, causing unpredictable losses and destroy. As a result, all her family property and farmland were sold off. The support of the widows of the other six families was also exhausted, and there was very little left after the property was sold off. Seeing that it was difficult to pay the cost of construction of the big seven-hole bridge, at this extremely difficult moment, the old woman, the fairy, came to inspect the widows' repair work on the bridge. When the widows learned that the old immortal had arrived, they quickly went to the Mengtang Well where they had met the immortal and asked for advice from the immortal. The fairy told them to go home and dig "ancient cellars" (silver buried by their predecessors) in the backyard, and said, "Go on and do it safely, I will help you!" At this point, the fairy disappeared again. They went home, prepared lights, dug hoes, and went to the backyard where the gods had directed them to dig late at night. After digging a few times, I came across a large stone slab. When I uncovered the stone slab, there were several large vats of dusty silver underneath. They moved back to their residence overnight without anyone noticing. With the money to pay wages, the work of Dashiqiao, which was about to stop, increased the number of craftsmen and started working hard. At the same time, the immortal secretly taught the python spirit in the black hole at the source of the Ming River a lesson, not allowing it to flood again, causing flooding and washing away every tree and stone on the bridge. The python spirit was secretly tamed by the gods, and the bridge construction project went smoothly.

Soon after the bridge was built, the widows spent all their money again, leaving only a few ingots of silver to build a monument and named it "Wanshan Bridge".

The natural chasm became a road, and the people in Guizhou and Guangxi were very happy. In the year when the Daqikong Bridge was built, young people and girls from the Yao and Buyi ethnic groups would sit on the stone railings on both sides of the bridge and sing songs day and night, either praising the merits of building the Daqikong Bridge or praising the beauty of the Daqikong Bridge. Occasionally sing about the feelings of the person you love. The song echoed in the Da Ming River Valley and resounded through the sky. Passers-by were also overjoyed, and everyone praised the beauty of the Big Seven-hole Bridge.

However, there are also a very small number of people with ulterior motives and malicious intentions who spread rumors to confuse the public and slander them, saying: "The widows' farmland and property have all been sold off. How can they still have any money? The silver they got must be I got it from selling the kiln.” (It was actually an ancient cellar (treasure) dug by the gods). He also framed him for trumped-up charges and complained to the python spirit many times, asking the python spirit to come out and destroy the bridge to punish the widows who built the bridge. After hearing the evil words, the python spirit also wanted to destroy the Da Qikong Bridge immediately. However, it recalled the fairy's lesson of whipping with golden bamboo roots. It was very timid and did not dare to act rashly. He hides in a deep black hole every day, isolated from the things outside the cave.

Until Guangxu of the Qing Dynasty, the slander spread everywhere. Good things don't go out, and bad words spread thousands of miles. The false accusations made by the evildoers spread more and more, until many civilians became suspicious. The whereabouts of the widows' money was unknown, and the government ignored the evildoers' remarks without questioning or replying. The widows were also hard-pressed to tell the difference. They said that the gods had guided them to dig up the silver in the ancient cellar, but no one believed it. The evil people have repeatedly asked the boa constrictor spirit to send floods and destroy the bridge. The boa constrictor spirit is originally a vicious person. He does no good deeds and only a few bad deeds, so he brazens the world and does not care about the crime. He listens to the evil people's words and follows the evil wind. When the hole came out, there was a great flood, which destroyed one hole in the seven-hole bridge as a punishment to the widows. When the bridge collapsed, the widows lost all their money and savings and could no longer afford the wages to repair it. The government is also corrupt, does not make decisions for the people, refutes rumors and establishes justice, allowing the evil to destroy the Wanshan Bridge. The good deeds of the widows were ruined, and they cried bitterly. The good-hearted people also complained and complained, which alarmed the gods. The god pretended to be an old man with a white beard and went to the site to investigate and demonstrate. Widows are all good people, but their hearts have been hurt by evil people. Evil people are like python spirits. They continue to do evil regardless of the consequences and cannot be tolerated. So the python spirit was mercilessly whipped to death by the gods with golden bamboo roots. For this reason, now there is only wind in the Demonic Wind Cave without the python spirits causing trouble. The widows built the bridge for good reason, and it became a good story among the people. The government did not investigate the people's sentiments and did not uphold justice, so good people were wronged. The gods punished him to repair the one-hole bridge that was washed away by the flood caused by the python. The county magistrate was incompetent, so the city government donated money to build it. After the bridge was repaired, it was renamed Shuangxi Bridge. So far, the bridge has been safe and sound for hundreds of years because there has been no python spirit to do evil.