April 8 (Lunar calendar: Leap February 18), 2023 Saturday | Dawnxisoul393art
Before our daughter was born, we went to the "Bride Pond" and "Mirror Pool" in the new territories many times. Today, the weather was fine. We went to "Bride Pool" and "Mirror Pool" with our little daughter for sketching and painting. Bride Pond and Mirror Pond were very dreamy and romantic places. It was located in the northwest of CW Freshwater Lake. It was one of the most famous scenic spots in Hong Kong Country Park, among which Bride Pond and Mirror Pond waterfalls were the most famous. There was a Bridal Pool Nature Education Road in the scenic spot. We could not only enjoy the Bride Pond and Mirror Pond waterfalls, but also know all kinds of animals and plants. There are beautiful waterfalls, dense shrubs and gurgling streams. The waterfall in Bride Pond was 15 meters high. The pool was big and deep. The pool water was clear to the bottom, showing a magnificent beauty. The valley downstream of Bride Pond was very wide and could accommodate thousands of tourists. It had become a summer resort for Hong Kong people.
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However, behind this seemingly beautiful place, there were creepy supernatural legends. It was said that a beautiful bride was full of joy on her wedding day, put on a beautiful red wedding dress, painted exquisite makeup, sat in the long-awaited sedan chair and embarked on the road to marriage. Little did I know that the road would not lead to happiness, but to the bride's death. On the way to her husband's house, a sedan chair bearer accidentally stepped empty under his feet and fell into the clear pool with the beautiful bride and the sedan chair. The name of bride pool came from this. It was said that because the bride is dressed in red, her resentment will not disappear after death. This place had also become a haunted place. When it rained heavily, people were often swept away by sudden flash floods. Many people once said that they saw several children playing under the bridge in Bride Pond. When they looked under the bridge, they didn't find any trace of the children.
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When people stood on the bridge again, they would see children playing under the bridge again and waved to them. At this time, if they wenr down rashly, they would be swept away by the water. It was said that red cars often have extremely tragic car accidents in Bridal Pool, the sedan chair wedding team was unwilling to leave and retaliated against other wedding teams here. When they saw the red car, they would think it was a wedding car, and then these wronged souls would make all kinds of strange events to make the car accident happened. The supernatural story of Hong Kong Bride Pond was widely spread in Hong Kong, and there was no way to verify whether it was true or false. Worried about similar accidents, the villagers built a Bride Bridge and a monument. The Mirror Pool was not far from the Bride Pool. It was said that its name was also related to the Bride Pool, after the bride drowned in the Bride Pool, the welcoming sedan chair team often appeared in the nearby pool. It was also said that a woman without shadow near the pool used the pool as a mirror to dress herself, so people call it Mirror Pool.
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The Mirror Pool waterfall in the deep valley was surrounded by trees. Compared with the Bride Pond waterfall, Compared to the waterfall at Bridal Pond, it had less of that wide feeling. However, in terms of the water potential of the waterfall itself, The Mirror Pool waterfall was more concentrated. According to a good friend who likes to travel to the countryside of Hong Kong on rainy days, if it rained, The Mirror Pool had plenty of water and white foam, which was quite a momentum. We like the waterfalls of the Bride Pool and the Mirror Pool very much. We like the magnificence of the Mirror Pool and the elegance of the Bride Pool. However, the legend of the Bridge Pool and Mirror Pool made us more interested in the tradition of the bride taking the sedan chair. The sedan chairs that greeted the bride in ancient times were often decorated with flowers, and as long as someone was carrying the wedding sedan to wander through the city, the people would know that a woman was getting married that day. Today, the ancient wedding sedan has become a gorgeous wedding car, but the set of rituals to greet the bride is still the same. Before the Tang Dynasty, the sedan chair belonged to the official exclusive transport, the common people were not qualified to use it, so, naturally, would not use the sedan chair to pick up the bride.
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Sedan chairs were first used to pick up the brides, mostly in the middle of the Northern Song Dynasty, and became a wedding custom in the Southern Song Dynasty. However, even so, many people still chose to pick up their brides by horse or carriage. Because the sedan chair cost more manpower, and its stability and comfort were also a problem. With a sedan to welcome the bride, became customary in the reign of the Qianlong emperor, and after, in the traditional marriage rituals, a sedan was the most indispensable props, which gave rise to a series of red tape, the entire wedding to welcome the festive atmosphere to the climax of the event. Even until the marriage is protected by law today, there are still many brides who think not to take the car is not officially married, this picks up the bride's car, as usual, dressed up with flowers, in fact, is a variation of the traditional sedan. With a sedan to welcome the bride's rituals, "sedan chair" this kind of transportation in life and officially left in the canonical record, was the late Tang Dynasty.
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Before this, both officials and ordinary people used horse-drawn carriages to welcome the brides when they got married. At the same time, the governments of the Tang and Song dynasties have issued a ban on the common people to take the sedan chair, and only allow the emperor and the emperor licensed by the high officials to use. From about the middle of the Northern Song Dynasty, it became the social fashion to pick up the bride in a sedan chair. In case of manpower saving, speed, and expense, the sedan chair was obviously less convenient than the carriage. How the transformation from carriage to sedan chair happened, it becomes an interesting issue. There was folklore known to the world: the Qing dynasty Qianlong 20 years, because of inspection of the Yellow River dike, the Qianlong emperor went out on a tour to a county. The Qianlong Emperor walking in faith visited the sages there, appreciated the style of folk, and inspected the countryside folk, high spirits. One day, Emperor Qianlong was standing in front of a pond outside the county courthouse, watching the lotus flowers opening in the pond and not feeling enchanted.
Just when Qianlong was intoxicated with poetry and painting, a welcoming team came up. The welcoming team was blowing and beating, with loud firecrackers, red colors, continuous laughter, and extraordinary excitement. It turned out that that day was the wedding day of the famous talented girl Miss Liu ruolian in the county. She happened to pass by the County Yamen and met Emperor Qianlong. Because it is not offensive for the emperor to stay here, the Yamen service ordered the wedding team to make way. Ruolin sat on the donkey and let herself make way, but she resolutely refused. The Yamen serviceman said loudly, "the emperor is here, and the little people's daughter will make way quickly." ruolian said calmly and confidently, "marriage is a big event only once in my life. Even if I really meet the current emperor, I won't make way." Emperor Qianlong heard these words and secretly said that he didn't expect such a personalized woman in a small county, He went up and said to the bride with a smile, "I'll make a couplet and you'll make a couplet. If your couplet is right, I'll send you to my husband's house in my sedan chair. What do you think?"
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Miss Liu is a famous talented woman in the local area. She asked Qianlong to work out a topic quickly. Emperor Qianlong blurted out, "Lotus in the pond, crazy butterflies insist on picking." Miss Liu immediately hit back: "Fairy in the picture, but crazy people are hard to find." Emperor Qianlong thought about it carefully and thought that although this pair is not perfect, it has a unique charm and is a good couplet. Emperor Qianlong lost this time, but he was unwilling to show weakness. So he said, "you are worthy of being a talented woman. This pair is quite right. Can you write a poem about the iron buffalo sculpture outside the yamen gate?" obviously, although Miss Liu is talented, she is so arrogant that the pair who just came out is actually satirizing Emperor Qianlong as a "madman", so she wants to humiliate the bride. Miss Liu pondered for a while and wrote a poem: "Kangxi ordered to cast an iron buffalo to prevent floods and keep the water in the town for decades. The wind blew hairlessly, the drizzle was falling, and there was sweat. The Grass River could not drink, but the cordless blackmail held her head up. The shepherd boy could not hold her strong, and she would stay forever for thousands of years."
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This poem is wonderful, which contains two meanings: how can the old buffalo, Kangxi left behind by the emperor, be shaken by the little old fellow? The meaning was to tell Emperor Qianlong that she was just a little woman. As Emperor Qianlong, she didn't have to see things like herself. As for the sentence "eternal residence for thousands of years" in this poem, it is obviously praising the dynasty at that time. Which emperor doesn't want to hear that his dynasty can last forever? After listening to this poem, Emperor Qianlong looked at Miss Liu with admiration and said, "the bride is extremely beautiful, refined, and talented. I didn't expect that I could gain so much from this tour. It's really worth knowing you." Emperor Qianlong ordered the eunuch to lift out his sedan chair and lift the curtain for the bride to get married. Emperor Qianlong also wrote the inscription "The big girl gets on the sedan chair once" and gave it to the bride as a congratulatory gift. Since then, whenever people marry a woman, the bride will take a sedan chair for good luck.
（Original by dawnxisoul393）
The "Bride's Pool" and "Mirror Pool" in the New Territories，Hong Kong
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