Nine frogs in Sun Moon Lake, Taiwan: What do nine big frogs mean?

In the past two days, the media reported that there was a severe drought in Taiwan Province, and even the famous Sun Moon Lake, because of the severe drought, the water level continued to drop. The "Nine Frogs", which should have been lurking in the pool, are all exposed to the water.

what do nine big frogs, one carrying the other, mean? What are their origins?

Many friends think that the "nine-frog statue" is a scenic spot in Sun Moon Lake. In fact, it's really not that complicated.

These nine giant frogs are neither places of interest nor historical sites, and they are not water animals. On the contrary, they are not special at all, and they are often criticized.

In 1999, Sun Moon Lake established a new session of Landscape Management Office, referred to as "Air Duct Office".

This unit is similar to our Tourism Bureau. At that time, in order to express congratulations and commemoration, the local artist Shen Zhengying was invited to make this bronze sculpture about four meters high-the nine-frog statue.

The reason for adopting the frog shape is that our ancient ancestors had a deep-rooted "frog worship".

Frogs have a big belly and croak, and every time they breed in a pond, there are hundreds of them. In the eyes of the ancients, this is a symbol of having children and endless offspring.

Among the unearthed cultural relics, there are frog totems, ranging from frog-patterned jars in Majiayao to jade frogs and seismographs in Liangzhu culture. The tomb of Wang CuO, the king of Sun Yat-sen State, unearthed in Shijiazhuang, Hebei Province, also found all kinds of small jade frogs with both form and spirit, which represent endless prayers.

This is the case with the "Nine Frogs Overlapping" in Sun Moon Lake. The nine big frogs have different postures and expressions, which are quite lively.

it's just that the bronze statue was just set up, and something big happened in the local area.

the "nine-frog statue" was set up in 1999, just that year, a strong earthquake of magnitude 7.6 occurred in Nantou, Taiwan Province province!

this earthquake happened strangely, and it is still a special case in the history of earthquakes until today.

generally speaking, Taiwan Province is located at the junction of Eurasia plate and Philippine Sea plate, and it is an earthquake-prone area. However, earthquakes in Taiwan Province mainly occur in eastern coastal areas such as Hualien and Yinan, and Nantou, where Sun Moon Lake is located, is located in the central mountain range, but it is not an earthquake-active area.

However, on September 21st, 1999, an earthquake with a magnitude of 7.6 on the Richter scale occurred in Nantou, with a focal depth of 8km, which caused a 15km-long fault zone on the surface.

The "September 21 Nantou Earthquake" was the biggest earthquake in Taiwan Province at the end of the 2th century. Cities and villages near the earthquake fault suffered catastrophic damage, and many places were razed to the ground, resulting in 2,321 deaths and more than 8, injuries.

I didn't expect that after this natural disaster, people pointed the root of the earthquake at the "Nine Frogs Stack" in Sun Moon Lake, saying that these nine giant frogs destroyed the local geomantic omen. There is even a local earthquake researcher named Sun in Taiwan Province, who vowed through Taiwan media that the level of earthquake activity in Nantou area has started to rise since nine bronze statues of frogs were laid on top of each other in Sun Moon Lake.

It's really an old teacher of Yin and Yang to associate the nine frogs with the earthquake, but it's just that this statement is easy to make people think blindly and confuse people for many years. So that in 213, when the earthquake occurred again in Nantou, many people ran to "smash frogs to get rid of the disaster" ...

At best, this "nine-frog statue" in Sun Moon Lake was a scenic spot device placed on the Shuifrog Head Trail, and a little residual heat was used as a hydrological measurement mark, and the water level was expressed by the number of frogs exposed to the water.

When the water is abundant, one or two frogs are usually exposed. It is not uncommon for nine frogs to come out together like this. In March 213, the spring rain didn't come, and the water level in Sun Moon Lake dropped by 4.5 meters, and nine frogs appeared in unison. This is not even once in ten years.

Taiwan Province is a rainy island, and there is a drought in Taiwan Province. It sounds illogical to put these two things together, doesn't it?

it's easy to understand with a little explanation.

The average annual rainfall in Taiwan Province is about 251mm, which is 2.6 times of the average annual rainfall in the world, ranking 12th and 13th in the world. Undoubtedly, Taiwan Province is a region with abundant rainfall.

However, Taiwan Province Island is long and narrow in the north and south, high in the east and low in the west, with a lot of rainfall and little rainfall storage, so that it will be dry in every year with little rainfall.

since there is little rainfall, why not build several reservoirs to store rain and prevent drought?

I don't know that either!

Just like the present situation, nine big frogs have come out in Sun Moon Lake due to drought. Shouldn't we build water conservancy projects, artificial rainfall and actively fight drought?

but people have to do something to pray for rain. Jam Hsiao is also puzzled by this situation ...

As the largest natural lake in Taiwan Province, Sun Moon Lake is the top stream of Chinese scenic spots.

Because there is the text "Sun Moon Lake" in the Chinese textbook of the second grade of primary school. Over the years, our Chinese textbooks have been repeatedly revised, such as Who is the cutest person, The Five Strong Men of Langya Mountain and Liu Hulan ... However, this Sun Moon Lake has never been moved, and it has been a compulsory course in primary school Chinese classes.

Because this lesson represents the feelings of the country and people towards Taiwan Province.

I hope Sun Moon Lake will come back soon and put the frogs back into the well ... No, put the frogs back into the water.

"In the early morning, there is a thin fog floating on the lake. The morning star on the horizon and the little lights on the mountain are faintly reflected in the lake. "

is the Sun Moon Lake in our collective memory.