"Tian Huang Huang, Di Huang Huang, My Family Has a Night-Crying Boy", That Paper at the Intersection

Older generations have probably all seen a piece of yellow paper pasted on utility poles or walls at street intersections, with these words written on it:

"Tian Huang Huang, Di Huang Huang, my family has a night-crying boy. Passing gentlemen, recite three times, and sleep soundly until dawn."

This is for when a baby at home cries all night and no amount of coaxing helps; the adults have no choice, so they write a note and post it at the intersection, asking passersby to recite it three times, so the child can fall asleep. In some places, the mother herself must go out, recite those lines by the roadside, and then return home.

Why ask passersby to recite it? The belief is that a child crying at night was frightened by something, or lost a bit of their soul, so many people need to recite to drive away the "unclean things" and call the soul back. Similar ideas include "calling the soul" and "recovering from fright": taking the child's clothes and shouting their name at the doorway, over and over, calling them home.

This custom exists in both the north and the south; some places write it on red paper, others on yellow paper.

Modern doctors have another explanation for infant night crying: newborn sleep is inherently irregular, and colic, hunger, wet diapers, being too hot or too cold, or otitis media can all make a baby cry incessantly. Most babies improve gradually after three or four months. If nothing works and it's accompanied by fever or refusal to nurse, you should see a doctor.

Such notes are rarely seen nowadays, though a few years ago, netizens still photographed some in residential compounds.

#Folklore #网络转载