The Mid-Autumn Festival is a traditional festival in our country, on this day we will eat moon cakes, admire the moon, and often we will tell the story of Chang'e to children. Chang'e is a rare woman in our ancient mythology, and it is recorded in the Classic of Mountains and Seas that she is also called ChangYi, Chang xi or jiao'e, which means immortal beauty. There is a lot of mythological history about Chang'e, such as the Huainanzi, the Classic of Mountains and Seas, and the Guizang, of which the Records of Chang'e are the most widely circulated in the Classic of Mountains and Seas and the Book of Search for Gods.
Chang'e runs to the moon
According to the Classic of Mountains and Seas:
"When Yao was caught, the ten days came out at the same time, scorching the crops and killing the grass and trees, and the people had nothing to eat. Hedgehogs, chiseled teeth, nine babies, gales, sealed pigs, and snakes are all harmful to the people. Yao Nai made Yi Jie chisel his teeth in the wilderness of Huahua, killed nine babies on the fierce water, surrendered the wind to the Qingqiu Zeze, shot up and down to kill the hedgehogs, cut off the snakes in the cave court, and captured Xi Yu Sanglin. ”
Da Yi fought fiercely, and successively killed beasts such as hedgehogs, chiseled teeth, nine babies, gales, fengfeng, and snake repair, and was appreciated by Emperor Jun. Emperor Jun gave Dayi a treasure bow and sent him to rectify Qiankun, and at the same time, in order to make Dayi more grateful to himself, he also rewarded his beautiful concubine Chang'e to Dayi.
Emperor Jun has a very high status in the mythological lineage, is the great-grandson of the emperor, he had four concubines in his lifetime, the first was Jiang Yuan, after stepping on the footprints of giants, he sensed that he was left with his son Hou Ji, which was later the god of five grains; the second concubine was Jian Di, who gave birth to her son Qi, who was the ancestor of the merchants; the third concubine was Qingdu, and the son born was called Yao, a generation of Ming Jun of the Huaxia tribe; Chang'e was the youngest concubine of Emperor Jun, who had given birth to Emperor Jun, but unfortunately, this son died early.
However, the marriage between Chang'e and Dayi was not happy, and Dayi rarely returned home after fighting around, which made Chang'e stay alone in an empty house for many years, and her heart was very lonely. Just at this time, Dayi shot the son of Emperor Ri in the process of exorcising demons, so that the Sun God was degraded to the human world. In order to return to the Celestial Realm, he asked the Then Queen Mother of the West for the Immortal Medicine and secretly hid it in his home, a secret that only Chang'e knew.
This immortal medicine can not only obtain immortality, but also have the ability to soar, so Chang'e stole the magic medicine of Dayi and ran to the moon, and has been away from Dayi ever since. Why did Chang'e flee to the moon? According to the Book of Searching Gods:
"Yi please the medicine of no death in the West Queen Mother, and Chang'e steals it to run to the moon." In the future, there will be yellow in the basket. There is Huang Zhanzhi: 'Ji. Fly back to the sister, will go west alone. Every day is obscure, do not be afraid, do not be alarmed, and then dachang. 'Chang'e was entrusted to the moon for the toad.' ”
Before Chang'e decides whether to flee to the Moon Palace, she asks the wizard Huang Yu Huang a gua, which shows that her going to the Moon Palace is very auspicious, but she transforms into a toad in the process of ascending.
Does Houyi run to the moon?
After Chang'e escaped, Dayi was very distressed and his temperament changed greatly, at this time he took a fancy to Hebo's wife, so he charged Hebo with a crime, and shot him to death with an arrow, and took all of Hebo's wives for himself. At this time, Dayi abused violence, gradually lost the support of the people, and even his life became a problem. Later, Dayi made a living by teaching archery, but he took in an apprentice named Feng Meng, who was as cruel as Dayi, and because he could not learn Dayi's archery, he beat Dayi to death with a peach stick.
At that time, there was still a strange person living above the moon, that is, Wu Gang, who was punished by the master to cut down the laurel tree on the moon because he was learning immortality, but this laurel tree not only could not be cut down, but also continued to grow.
According to the "Seven Signatures of Yundi", "The name of the tree in the middle of the month is Qian Shu, a medicine king, and all eight trees are also in the middle of the month." The one who eats its leaves is the Jade Immortal. The body of the jade immortal is as deep as the water essence. ”
The laurel tree cut down by Wu Gang is a tree of life, which is said to be as high as 500 zhang, and is a "medicine king" tree that can cure all diseases. Wu Gang, on the other hand, cuts down the whole tree every day, then collects the leaves from the tree and gives Medicine to Chang'e.
Chang'e used a stone pestle every day to mash the leaves that Wu Gang had picked, hoping that the medicine made from these leaves would restore her appearance. But thousands of years have passed, Chang'e's body has not changed at all, this punishment is very cruel for a woman, if Chang'e knew that the Moon Palace is such a desolate and indifferent place, I think she will not steal The medicine of Dayi to hide here.
The real Luna Moon Elder is very interesting, he not only escapes from the moon, but also comes to the human world to match people and act as a red bride. Every day he took a red thread out of his pocket and tied it to young men and women whom he considered to be a good match, so that they could love each other and marry and have children.
After the death of Dayi, an imposter who called himself "Houyi" ran amok by borrowing the name of Dayi. However, there are also historical records that the real Dayi went to the Moon Palace with Chang'e, and what was left on the earth was a counterfeit, which also explained why Dayi's temperament changed greatly after Chang'e ran to the Moon Palace.
According to historian Zhu Dake, on the portrait brick of Nanyang in Henan Province unearthed in the 1950s, Chang'e can be seen transformed into a half-human, half-crocodile, and she is running to the moon, and a toad is welcoming her with its limbs open. Therefore, it is believed that both Da Yi and Chang'e ran to the Moon Palace.
Teacher Zhu believes that in ancient books, "Jade Rabbit" was originally recorded as "Gu Rabbit", and "Gu Rabbit" was derived from "Zhan Rabbit". This so-called "Zhan rabbit" is actually a misreading of the pronunciation of "toad", which is why in ancient mythological texts "jade rabbit" can be replaced with "toad". The jade rabbit in the Moon Palace is actually Houyi, and Chang'e has gradually turned into a toad because she runs to the moon.
As for why Chang'e has a crocodile tail, Teacher Zhu believes that Chinese mythology borrows from Egyptian Indian mythology, Houyi is actually the same god as Neit in ancient Egyptian mythology, his prototype is the body of the Eyu, in Egyptian mythology he is the god of hunting and war, coinciding with the identity of the Chinese Houyi. In the 1930s, Mr. Wen Yiduo, who was once in the Moon Palace, identified eleven theories as a toad in the Moon Palace, and this toad was the shape of the Houyi crocodile.
The real Houyi
"Yi" originally referred to a person who was good at shooting, and later generations often confused Chang'e's husband Dayi with the Poor Lord "Yi" of Dongyi during the Xia Dynasty, in fact, the two were a hundred years apart and had nothing to do with each other, and the reason why Houyi was recorded in history was because he participated in a coup d'état.
At this time, the throne had already passed from Di Yao to Shun, and then from Shun to Yu, who relayed the position to Bo Yi, but Bo Yi was overthrown by Yu's son who inspired a coup d'état. According to the "Bamboo Book Chronicle", "Yi was cursed by Hou Qi", and Bo Yi was killed by Qi. Xia Qi represented the Chinese civilization, while Boyi represented the Dongyi civilization, and although the two civilizations formed an alliance, they adhered to the tradition of alternating powers with each other. Yao of Huaxia wanted to pass the throne to Shun of Dongyi, and Shun of Dongyi also wanted to pass the throne to Yu of Huaxia, and it was logical that Zhang Yu wanted to pass the throne to Boyi of Dongyi, but Yu intended to make Qi's power bigger, so "Zen Concession" ended.
The Han Feizi records that "Shun forced Yao, Yu forced Shun, Tang Fangjie, Wu Wang, these four kings, and the people who killed their kings also." ”
Yao Shunyu's abdication was forced by the situation and had to be done as a last resort, there was no so-called Zen concession, and Bo Yi was killed by Xia Qi, just a reference to the convention.
However, Xia Qi was not a Ming Jun, and the Mozi Fei Le Records that "Qi Nai was overflowing with pleasure and pleasure, and was wilder than eating and drinking", eating and drinking all day long, and his son was even more than that, after his son Taikang ascended the throne, not only did he lose the support of Dongyi, but the Chinese people of the headquarters did not want to see him.
The "Fourth Year of Zuo Chuan Xianggong" records:
"In the past, there was the decline of the Xia Side, and hou Yi moved to poor stone, because the Xia people replaced the Xia government. He did not cultivate civility and fornicated with the original beast. Abandon Wuluo, Bo Bao, Xiong Jie, and Long Yuan and use Han Huan. Han Hun, the son of the Bo Ming clan also. After Bo Ming, he gave it up in the cold, and Yi Yi received it, and made it believe in it, thinking that it was his own. He who acts flatters on the inside and bribes on the outside, fools his people and Yu Yi in the fields, deceitfully takes his country from the outside, and serves him on the outside and salty on the inside. He will return to the field, and the family will kill and prosper in order to eat his son. ”
HouYi then successfully launched a coup d'état with some of the xia dynasty's people, and Houyi joined forces with the Luobo tribe along the Luoshui coast to successfully capture Taikang while Taikang came to Luoshui to hunt. Hou Yi also kept his promise and destroyed the Hebo tribe, the sworn enemy of the Luobo tribe, and at the same time took the children of the Hebo tribe for himself.
After the success of the Houyi coup, he ascended the throne on behalf of the Dongyi forces, but he was self-conscious, had no one in sight, and gradually lost the support of all ethnic groups. In his early years, HouYi took in a bad boy named Han Hun, who was good at flattery and was very appreciated by Hou Yi, so all the big and small affairs were entrusted to Han Hun to manage. Han Hun took the opportunity to monopolize power, supported Houyi to hunt back, commanded his samurai, and threw Houyi alive into a cauldron to cook.
The history of Chinese mythology, dating back to the legendary Chinese ancestor "Three Emperors and Five Emperors", to the Xia Dynasty, because this history is mixed with a lot of mythological components, and the myth also hides the real history. With the integration of cultures, it gradually entered the belief system and even the value system of the Chinese.