There is Linzi County in Shandong Province, and so, in its southern side, in the village of Xindianzhen, on the eastern edge there is a small temple. In that temple there is a statue of a beautiful eighteen-year-old girl. The people called her Lu-gu - the Goddess of the Furnace, which is why the temple is called the temple of the Goddess of the Furnace. This is what the legend tells about the brave Lu-gu.
I don’t even know under what dynasty, in what era, the blacksmith Zhang lived near Xindianzhen. He had nothing, only a large hammer and strong, dexterous hands. They fed him. The blacksmith was poor, but kind. His fellow villagers loved him and called him Teacher Zhang.
The blacksmith lost his family early, as they say, halfway through the journey. Many years ago his wife died, he grieved as if half the sky had fallen on him. Where can such a poor man get money to marry a second time? He only has hands that feed him. So the blacksmith lived as a bob.
He lived with his daughter, nicknamed Zheng-zhu. All the worries are on him: to earn money, to look after the household, and to raise his daughter - to replace her mother. Whether long or short, my daughter turned seventeen years old. She blossomed, well, like a flower in the garden.
And this is what unexpectedly happened.
The village of Jinlinzhen lay to the west of Xindianzhen, to the north of it the Phoenix Mountain - Fenghuangshan - rose, truly a treasury. They mined heavy black stones from that mountain and melted them into iron in a smelting furnace - you won’t find anything better in the whole world. So they called that mountain Iron. But at that time, when the blacksmith lived, no one knew about these stones from Phoenix Mountain. They lay there in grief, and people did not touch them. But one day an amazing event happened. From that day it all began.
One night, a flame suddenly broke out on Phoenix Mountain, and from that flame a huge bull appeared, a zhang long, and more than eight chi tall. He didn’t eat the grass that grew on the mountain, he rushed straight to the fields.
Day and night the bull tramples the crops; in a day he tramples thirty mu, in two - sixty. The peasants became alarmed, began to think about how to help the trouble, and said:
- The bull will trample all our crops, we will eat the cold wind in winter!
Old men and women say:
- It was the heavenly ruler who sent punishment on us for our sins, for the fact that we do evil. We need to humble ourselves and ask the iron bull nicely so that it doesn’t destroy us.
They bought the best meat, slaughtered a chicken, and placed eight cups of fatty fish and meat on four trays. They knelt down in front of the bull and begged for mercy. But the bull doesn’t listen; he still tramples the crops day and night.
The young guys get angry, clench their fists and say:
- What do you think: the bull is holy, the unholy one is to grab it, and that’s all.
The guys gathered at once, took large sickles, sharp carpenter's axes, and well, they chopped the bull, sparks flew in all directions. The young men's hands became sore, their knives became dull, and, as they say, even a hair fell from an iron bull.
They asked the bull in a good way - it didn’t help, they tried to take it by force - nothing worked either. People became sad. Some advise going to the city and filing a complaint with the chief of the district, others say: this is useless, since the people have not overcome the evil force, the chief will certainly not be able to cope!
Afterwards we decided to go to the district and ask for help. Several people were chosen peacefully and sent to the Linzixian Yamen with a complaint.
Wu Tian-li was the head of the district at that time. He has only one concern: rank and wealth, he doesn’t even remember about the people. He heard about the iron bull and thought: “Here’s a chance to gain glory.” He consulted with the officials and issued a decree: the blacksmiths of the entire district must subdue the iron bull in five days. And whoever decides to shirk will be punished to the fullest extent.
That decree reached Teacher Zhang and the other blacksmiths; they did not dare to contradict, they abandoned everything they were doing, and began to think about how to pacify the iron bull. They decided to build a large smelting furnace and drive a bull into it.
For five days, five nights the flames raged, and not a hair fell from the iron bull. The head of the district, as they say, did not figure out where the blue, where the red, where the black, where the white, ordered to give the blacksmiths forty sticks each. Then he chose the two most skillful ones, added five more days to their sentence, and threatened to tear off their heads if they did not subdue the bull.
When Zheng-zhu heard about the boss’s order, a weight fell like a stone on her heart. The father does not leave the smelting furnace either day or night. She brought him the food and looked at it: the faces of the masters were gloomy, no one had touched the food. The girl came up to the stove and looked in: there was an iron bull standing in the stove, so scary, shaking its head, black smoke pouring out of its mouth. The girl thinks: “Now trouble has befallen the peasants. If they don’t pacify him, not only will their father be deprived of their lives, all the blacksmiths will be deprived of their lives, the bull will trample all the crops, people will have nothing to eat.”
Here Zheng-zhu remembered how her little grandmother told her about a girl who threw herself into a furnace to help people melt iron, and thought: “And I wouldn’t spare my life, just to defeat a bull, at least I wouldn’t die in vain.”
The girl untied the ribbon she used to tie her socks around her ankle and threw it on the bull's horn. What a wonder! The horn turned red and instantly melted. Zheng-zhu saw this, clenched her teeth, contrived, jumped into the oven, no one had time to hold her. The blacksmiths rushed to the furnace, but it was too late: the flames were raging, and Zheng-zhu stood, holding tightly to the bull. Not a minute passed - the bull melted, well, like a snowball in the sun, went limp and fell. The flames have died down. There was neither a girl nor a bull in the oven; metal, red as fire, filled it all.
Teacher Zhang is grieving for his beloved daughter, he’s so heartbroken that he can’t even tell, and the blacksmiths are crying, shedding tears: they feel sorry for the brave girl.
The head of the district heard that the people were freed from trouble, that the obedient daughter did not spare her life to save her father, and decided to take credit for this. He jumped on his horse and rushed to Xindianzhen. He walked up to the stove and looked inside. Then black smoke poured from the stove straight into the boss’s face. The boss jumped back and fell on his back. The guards rushed to him, lifted him up, and looked - the chief had no eyes, the black smoke had eaten them away. And the molten metal, like red fire, little by little turned into a large iron bar.
People did not forget young Zheng-zhu, who saved them with her death. In memory of her, a temple was built, a statue was installed in the temple and she was nicknamed Lu-gu - Goddess of the Furnace. On a holiday, be it winter or summer, spring or autumn, people come to the temple to worship the Goddess of the Furnace.
At the entrance to the temple, two boards hang, on them is written: “Glory to the one who boldly jumped into the fire to save people!”
Translated from Russian · original on wisdomlib.ru