Liu Hai Plays the Golden Toad —— The Story of Ancient Money

Among the ancient folk coins, there is a kind of coin called "immortal Buddha God" by Quanjia, and "Liu Hai plays the golden toad" is one of them. The money is 60 mm in diameter and 3 mm in thickness. This is a lot of money. On the front is a lively teenager, wearing a double bun and clutching his stomach. He fished out a golden toad from the reeds in the pond with a fishing rod. Toad is big, with bulging eyes, lifelike and struggling. Teenagers (that is, bangs) hold the fishing rod with their arms raised high, twist their heads and hips, pull the rod hard, and the fishing rod bends under the load. The layout of the whole picture is well-balanced, the pen is concise and lively, and it is full of interest. On the back of the money is a widely circulated Taoist spell-thunder kills ghosts (see photo).

This money is cast by people for good luck and exorcism. Taoist priests can suppress it, and people can hang town houses, and so on.

What happened to Liu Hai's fishing for golden toad? What is the relationship between Liu Hai's story and Taoism?

In the history of our country, there are indeed bangs. His real name is Cao Liu, a native of Yanshan (now Wanping) in the Five Dynasties. At that time, Yan Di belonged to Liao country. Cao Liu was a scholar in Liao country when he was young, and became the prime minister of Shouguang in his fifties. One day, a Taoist priest outside the mansion asked to see him. After the meeting, the Taoist priest borrowed a sum of money and ten eggs from Cao Liu. Then ten eggs stand on the money eye one by one, and the string of eggs is tottering. Cao Liu said in horror, "How dangerous it is! How dangerous! " The Taoist priest said, "You hold a lot of power and occupy a high position. You have reached a dangerous position. Are you still stubborn? " Deeply moved, Cao Liu decided to give up his official position and all his wealth and go to Huashan to practice with Taoist Chen Tuan. Chen Tuan nicknamed Cao Cao "the sea toad". And that egg catcher is the immortal Han Zhongli.

After becoming a monk, Cao Liu devoted himself to research and practice hard, and finally became a Taoist. He is the author of "Song of the Sea Toad Returning to Dan" and "The Truth" (both included in the Taoist Collection). Therefore, it is regarded as one of the five northern ancestors by Taoism.

Liu Haichan's dramatic process of becoming a monk, his achievements in penance and his important position in the northern and southern schools of Taoism have become more and more famous since the Song and Yuan Dynasties. Yuan Shizu named him "a real gentleman with sober understanding and great understanding", and there are more and more legends.

Among many legends, the most popular one is the legend of "Liu Hai scattering money". Due to numerous legends, it is inevitable to romanticize Cao Liu's scattered money into a story of "Liu Haichan's scattered money", and then into "Liu Haixi's golden cicada" and so on.

The story of "Liu Hai plays the golden toad" was formed very early, which was recorded by Sok Li, a poet in the Song Dynasty, in the sequel to the Natural History. Liu Haichan is the "frog fairy" in Yan Hui's "The Diagram of the Two Immortals of the Frog Iron Monster" in the Yuan Dynasty. In the Ming Dynasty, Liu Haichan was among them.

During the Ming and Qing Dynasties and the Republic of China, most folk New Year pictures in northern China depicted Liu Haichan as two lucky boys dancing with a pile of money, "Lishi Xian Guan". Many contemporary painters have also painted the story of "Liu Hai as a golden toad". In some local operas in China, there are also plays such as "Liu Hai Beats Toad" and "Liu Hai Chops firewood".

Interestingly, Liu Haichan was in his fifties when he became a monk, but in many literary works, he was always an innocent, lively and lovely child image. What's going on here? This story originated in the Kangxi period of the Qing Dynasty. This is a story about a wealthy family named Yi Bei in Suzhou. One day, a young man named "Po" came to the door and said that he had come to be a servant. On the fifteenth day of the first month, he took the young master to the streets to watch the lights and didn't come back until midnight, which worried the young master. I didn't know until I asked. Po thought Suzhou lights were not good-looking and went to Fuzhou. The owner didn't believe it, and thought: How can you travel thousands of miles in two or three hours? However, the location and scene of young master's theory is indeed Fujian, and the fresh litchi in his hand is also produced in Fujian. A few months later, Po fished out a three-legged toad from his master's well, tied it with colored ropes and carried it away. Everyone knows that Po was originally transformed by the immortal Liu Haichan. So Xiao Bao became the image of Liu Haichan in later paintings.

There is not only a kind of folk coin with the theme of golden toad in Liu Hai's drama, but also several other shapes. Occasionally seen in some ancient money houses or postal currency markets today, it was cast in the Ming and Qing Dynasties or the Republic of China and spread this beautiful fairy tale in the form of folk coins.