The legends and stories of the Zhongyuan Festival
It is said that after Cai Lun, from the Eastern Han Dynasty (25-220), invented papermaking, his business flourished and he made a lot of money. His brother Cai Mo and his sister-in-law Hui Niang were very envious. Hui Niang asked Cai Mo to also go and learn papermaking from Cai Lun. However, Cai Mo lacked perseverance and was not skilled enough, so he hurriedly opened his own paper shop. The paper he produced was of poor quality, and no one wanted to buy it. He and his wife were worried about the pile of paper.Finally, Hui Niang came up with a clever plan and whispered it into Cai Mo's ear. On that night, neighbors suddenly heard loud crying sounds from Cai Mo's house. When they came over to ask, they found out that Hui Niang had died the previous night. The next morning, Cai Mo cried desperately in front of the coffin of Hui Niang in front of the neighbors. As he cried, he burned paper. As he burned, suddenly he heard a sound from the coffin. After a while, he heard Hui Niang's voice calling, "Open the door, hurry up, I'm back." Everyone was stunned. Finally, they mustered the courage to open the coffin. Hui Niang jumped out and told the neighbors that after her death, she went to the underworld, where the King of Hell made her grind the mill. Because Cai Mo burned a lot of paper money for her, the little ghosts all competed to help her grind. She gave the money to the King of Hell, who then let her return. Cai Mo asked, "I didn't send you any money?" Hui Niang pointed to the burning fire and said, "That's the money! In the underworld, paper is used as money." Upon hearing this, Cai Mo immediately took two large bundles of paper to burn, saying that it would make the suffering of his parents in the underworld less.
The neighbors, seeing this, realized that paper money had such great use, so they each paid money to buy the paper made by Cai Mo. After the news spread, within a few days, all of Cai Mo's paper was sold out. Since the day when Hui Niang returned to life was the fifteenth day of the seventh lunar month, every year on this day, people burn incense and paper for their ancestors. This custom has been passed down until today.
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