a fish leaping over the dragon gate -- have passed a competitive examination(yú yuè lóng mén)

a fish leaping over the dragon gate -- have passed a competitive examination

Fish leaping over the dragon's gate, also known as "carp leaping over the dragon's gate" in ancient Chinese mythology, refers to the Yellow River carp leaping over the dragon's gate (< I > located in today's < / I > < I > Longmen Grottoes in Luoyang City, Henan Province < / I >), which will change into Jackie Chan. It refers to a successful career or a high status. From Xin's three Qinji.

Idiom explanation

Explanation: it refers to a successful career or a high status.

The origin of Idioms

[source] it is said in the records of Xin's three Qin Dynasties that "Hejin is a dragon gate, and Yu chisels the mountain to open the door, which is more than a mile wide. The Yellow River flows down from the middle, but the bank is not accessible to cars and horses. Every spring, there are yellow carp upstream, and those who have passed will turn into dragons. " Later, it was used as a metaphor for success or promotion. In the Tang Dynasty, Yuan Bi wrote the ode of yuyuelongmen. Ming Gaoming's "Pipa Ji · Nanpu bid farewell": "I hope the fish will turn into a dragon, Qingyun will get the road, Guizhi will break high and walk in the toad palace." "Outlaws of the marsh" the first three: "it is the end of life, Toad out of the shell, established a famous fish dragon."

Idioms and allusions

According to Yu Gong, the stone accumulation along the river leads to the Longmen. According to the records of famous mountains, "the river flows down the mountain, and the water waves rise and fall as if the mountain were boiling.". According to the annals of Hancheng County written by Qianlong of the Qing Dynasty, "both sides of the Strait are cut off from mountains and cliffs, and are relatively like a gate, but the dragon can cross, so it is called Longmen." "Longmen" is said to have been chiseled by Dayu during the flood control, also known as yumendu. As for "Yu chiseled the dragon's gate", the spring and Autumn Annals of the Lu family said: "Yu established himself, worked hard all over the world, made unremitting efforts day and night, connected the Dachuan, cleared the congestion, and chiseled the dragon's gate."

"Sancai tuhui" records: "there are two mountains standing on the wall, and the river comes out of it. The race is about 100 steps. The walls on both sides are cut off, and the shape is like a door, so it is called" Longmen ".

Legend

At the beginning of the 7th century, Yang Guang, the emperor of Sui Dynasty, changed the name of yique to "Longmen". After that, the legend of yique had a lot of new development and evolution. Among them, the story of "carp leaping over the dragon's gate" is a more representative one.

It is said that after Yu opened the yique, the current was fast. The carp swimming in the Yellow River of Mengjin went retrograde up the water of Luo and Yi. When they reached the Longmen of yique, the waves were surging and they wanted to turn over. The one who jumps is a dragon, but the one who can't jump leaves a black scar on his forehead. Therefore, Li Bai, the great poet of Tang Dynasty, wrote in his poem to Cui Shiyu: "the three foot carp of the Yellow River originally lived in Mengjin, but it didn't become a dragon when he ordered it. He came back with all the fish."

This story originated from the book of Sanqin quoted in volume 466 of Taiping Guangji, which says: "Longmen Mountain is in the boundary of Hedong. Yu cut off the mountain, and the gate was more than a mile wide. The Yellow River flows down from the middle, and there is no traffic on both sides Every spring season, there are yellow carp, from the sea and all rivers, competing for it. At the age of one year, only 72 people ascended the dragon's gate. When they first ascended the dragon's gate, clouds and rain followed, and the sky fire burned its tail and turned into a dragon. "

Since then, people often describe some kind of crossing posture as "carp leaping over the dragon's gate", but they don't know the fish growing in the Yi River. The famous one is Fangyu, which looks like a boat and eats sweetly. Therefore, Yang Jiezhi of the Northern Wei Dynasty wrote in Luoyang Jialan Ji: "Luoli Yifang is more expensive than cattle and sheep."

Scientific solution

In fact, modern science can solve the mystery of "carp leaping over the dragon's gate": the "carp" here is actually "tuna", or "Zhanyu", or "minnow" or "yellow croaker", that is, sturgeon. Sturgeon is a kind of river and sea migratory fish, with a body length of about two meters and a maximum length of more than five meters. Chinese sturgeon, Amur sturgeon and Yangtze sturgeon are rare animals in China. Because the ancient big carp was also named "Zhan", the ancients mixed "tuna Zhan" with big carp and said that "carp leaps over the dragon's gate".

Sturgeon to the dragon's gate is not to "jump Jackie Chan", but to reproduce. According to the book "Studies on biology and artificial propagation of Yangtze River sturgeon" written by Sichuan Yangtze River aquatic resources investigation group, sturgeon spawns "mostly in the upper reaches of rivers, where the water temperature is low, the flow velocity is large, the flow pattern is complex, and the river channel is wide and narrow with gravel sediment". The Longmen area at the junction of the two provinces has the above geomorphic characteristics, so it becomes an ideal place for sturgeon to gather and lay eggs.

"Longmen Red River" phenomenon is because the sturgeon before spawning male and female chase, often jump out of the water. Every spring, a large number of sturgeons swim back to Longmen cave to gather, and frequently jump two or three days before spawning. When the sturgeon leaped out of the water, its congested and reddened fins also came out of the water. At one time, thousands of big fish flipped on the river and looked red in the distance, so the scene of "Red River" appeared. Because of the abundance of fish, it can last for several miles and days, which forms the special phenomenon of "three days in the Red River" and "three miles in the Red River".

Bamboo annals is the work of the historian of Wei state in the late Warring States period. The record of "Longmen Red River" in the book shows that the myth of "carp leaping over Longmen" had not yet formed. The records of "fish turned into dragon" are mostly from the Han Dynasty classics, so the formation of fairy tales should be in the early years of the Western Han Dynasty, and may be related to the strengthening of the concept of dragon worship in the early Han Dynasty.

Discrimination of words

Idiom structure

Neutral idiom

Ancient idioms

Idiom usage

[example] as the saying goes, when a fish leaps over the dragon's gate, it becomes a dragon. (Lu Dian's Yu Shi in Song Dynasty)

Chinese PinYin : yú yuè lóng mén