The Water-Carrying Bird
The Water-Carrying Bird: In Zhangjiajie there is a very strange bird that looks like a rooster, with red feathers and a red comb, and it can crow too. What makes it different from a rooster is that beneath its neck there is a small water pouch, similar to an African kangaroo. It usually lives in high mountain caves. When thirsty, it flies down to the stream to carry water. One pouch of water lasts five or six days. People...
This article has been compiled from historical materials on 'Zhangjiajie Tour Guide Network' (33519.com · Specialty Foods / Cuisine / Customs section). Prices, business hours, administrative divisions, and statistical data mentioned in the text may already be outdated. Before traveling, please refer to the latest announcements from merchants, scenic areas, and local competent authorities; the parts involving folk legends and folk customs are local historical and cultural anecdotes, provided for cultural reference.
The Water-Carrying Chicken
In Zhangjiajie there is a very strange bird. It looks like a rooster, with red feathers and a red comb, and it can crow too. What makes it different from a rooster is that beneath its neck there is a small water pouch, much like an African kangaroo. It usually lives in high mountain caves. When thirsty, it flies down to the stream to carry water — one pouchful lasts five or six days. People call it the "Water-Carrying Chicken."
Legend has it that long ago in Zhangjiajie there was a tea farmer named Shi Nan. Every spring and autumn, he would gather wild tea from the mountain gullies, carefully roast it, and then carry it to a tea shop in the far-off town of Jiuxi to trade for grain and salt. This tea boss monopolized the tea trade and was extremely stingy. He would always use the excuse that Shi Nan's tea was wild tea to drive down the price. If Shi Nan showed the slightest dissatisfaction, the tea boss would cut off his sales channel and leave him to starve.
One day, Shi Nan was picking tea at Huaxi when he suddenly saw a vicious hawk pursuing and attacking a phoenix, wounding it. In that critical moment, Shi Nan hurled his fir knife with a whoosh at the hawk and killed it. Seeing that the phoenix was wounded and could not fly, Shi Nan took pity on it and brought it home to care for. After careful nursing, the phoenix's wounds healed quickly. Shi Nan said to the phoenix: "Fly far away, and be careful that vicious birds don't hurt you again." He opened the cage and set it free. But that night, the phoenix flew back, singing sweet songs and dancing beautifully for Shi Nan. Shi Nan said: "All right, I'm all alone anyway. Let's keep each other company!"
The tea boss was a bird fancier. When he heard that Shi Nan had a phoenix that was very beautiful and could sing and dance, he came to demand it by force. He even threatened: "If you don't agree, I won't buy your tea anymore, and you can smash your rice bowl and drink the northwest wind!" Shi Nan still refused. The tea boss, without another word, seized both Shi Nan and the bird and took them away. He locked Shi Nan in the pounding room and put the phoenix in his gold-wire birdcage, demanding that it sing and dance for him every day. But the phoenix kept its beak tightly shut — it would not eat, drink, sing, or dance. One night, the phoenix used its beak to open the iron lock and flew out of the cage. It flew to the pounding room, where it saw Shi Nan bound hand and foot to a pillar. The phoenix carried water from the stream in its beak to quench Shi Nan's thirst. Shi Nan was deeply grateful and said: "Good friend, fly away quickly. If the tea boss finds out, he will not let you go." The phoenix nodded, spread its wings, and flew away.
The next day, when the tea boss discovered the phoenix was gone, he took it out on Shi Nan. He raised his whip and gave Shi Nan a vicious beating, then punished him by sending him to grow tea at Yaozi Stockade, requiring him to deliver fifty loads of tea a year!
Yaozi Stockade was surrounded on all sides by cliffs hundreds of zhang high. Never mind a person climbing up — even a monkey would need to be extremely careful to scale it! Shi Nan had no choice but to grit his teeth and go up. He understood that the tea boss did not really want him to grow tea, but to starve and thirst him to death on that lonely peak! Just then, with a whoosh, the phoenix suddenly flew to his side, and it spoke: "Shi Nan, Shi Nan, here are some tea seeds. Plant them on Yaozi Stockade." With that, it spat out several glistening golden tea seeds from its beak, then flapped its wings and flew away. The tea seeds were planted, and within a few days they broke through the soil and sprouted, putting out branches and leaves. Shi Nan was overjoyed. He was just about to start picking tea when a sudden dizziness came over him and he collapsed, because he had not had a single drop of water for days. Then, dimly, he saw the phoenix fly down from the sky again and drop a painting into the tea garden. The painting drifted and drifted until it landed on Shi Nan. On the painting was a bright red mountain chicken. With a cluck, it jumped out of the painting and said to Shi Nan: "Shi Nan, Shi Nan, the phoenix you saved is the bird king of the Hundred Birds Kingdom. To repay your life-saving
kindness, it has specially sent me to help you grow tea." With that, the mountain chicken flew down to Golden Whip Stream in one flap and brought Shi Nan a bagful of water. Shi Nan drank the water and revived. He looked at the mountain chicken — how beautiful it was! It had fire-red feathers, a bright red comb, and a red gourd hanging at its neck! Shi Nan liked it very much and gave it a name: "Water-Carrying Chicken." From then on, Shi Nan had a companion again. He worked from dawn to dusk, tending the tea garden every day, while the Water-Carrying Chicken caught insects for him and carried water. When he was tired, it would sing and dance for him. In the morning, it would even crow to wake him.
After Qingming Festival, Shi Nan once again carried a full load of tea to Jiuxi Town. The tea boss saw that Shi Nan had not died. Upon inquiring, he learned that Shi Nan had a treasure painting that could transform into a water-carrying chicken and had saved his life. So he sent men to Yaozi Stockade to seize the painting. Having obtained the treasure painting, the tea boss immediately hung it on the wall. He wanted to see with his own eyes how the water-carrying chicken flew out of the painting. As he watched and watched, sure enough, a bird flew out of the painting. It flew straight at the tea boss's face and clawed out one of his eyeballs. Then it spread its wings, flew out of the tea shop, singing all the way, and flew up to Yaozi Stockade. The tea boss was in such pain he squealed like a pig. In a rage, he burned the painting. From then on, the Water-Carrying Chicken could never return to the painting, so it settled down at Yaozi Stockade and multiplied its offspring, right up to the present day.