Don't plant mulberry in front, willow behind, or clapping ghost in the courtyard

In old courtyards in northern rural areas, there's a saying passed down for who knows how many years: "Don't plant mulberry in front, don't plant willow behind, don't plant a clapping ghost in the courtyard."

The first two have straightforward reasons. Mulberry sounds like "funeral" (sang). Willow, the old folks say, is a yin tree; willows are stuck during Qingming, and people carry willow branches at funerals, so it doesn't have a good reputation. The usual explanation is that planting a mulberry tree in front of the house is unlucky, and planting a willow behind the house lets yin energy creep up from behind.

The one people remember most is the third line. "Clapping ghost" refers to the poplar tree: its leaves go shush-shush in the wind, like someone clapping hands. During the day it's just leaves rustling, but at night, when someone sleeps alone in the room and that sound from outside the window never stops, coming right from the middle of the courtyard, it feels different. The old folks say a tree like that planted in the courtyard means something is clapping at night, and the family can't sleep soundly.

Similar ones include the locust tree. The character for locust splits into wood on one side and ghost on the other, so many places don't allow locust trees in the courtyard, though no one minds them at the village entrance or roadside.

No one has ever verified which generation these sayings came down from. Some say it's actually just life experience: poplars grow fast with big roots, and if planted right in the middle of the courtyard, they can wreck the foundation within a few years; mulberries and willows attract bugs. Others disagree, saying that if such a rhyme has survived to today, someone must have suffered for it long ago.

So when renovating old houses, some families cut down that poplar in the courtyard before breaking ground, while others can't bear to and just leave it standing.

#Feng Shui #网络转载 #民间禁忌 #宅忌