Under the belief system of the Han Dynasty's ascension to immortality, it is not unusual to use a carriage, a deer cart or even a dragon car to act as a means of transportation, but why even the carp in the river is not spared, and what is the charm of the "fish cart" that appears repeatedly in the Murals of han tombs, which can become the top seat of the Han people's road to ascension to immortality?
01 Spirit Beast Pulls Cart
In the middle and late Warring States period, the idea of immortals was accompanied by people's fear of death and their desire for immortality. Chinese conception of the universe, a new component, the Fairyland (Immortal World), was also created at this time. When the Han people admitted that death was inevitable and immortality was impossible, they finally realized.
Therefore, combining the immortality of the soul with the ascension of the immortal after death, and planning an ideal kingdom for another form of life, the soul, it can eliminate the fear of death and achieve the eternity of life in a sense. As early as the early Western Han Dynasty, this form appeared in the form of paintings in the tomb of Mawangdui han in Changsha.
However, how to get to the illusory wonderland (Kunlun) is a big problem?
Kunlun Mountain is not easy to reach, it lives in the west pole, up to the sky, surrounded by hundreds of rivers, the abyss is extremely deep, uncrossable, the road is extremely far, not feasible. Therefore, if the ascended immortals want to go to Kunlun, they must use the spirit beast as the vehicle.
In the case that the Immortal Realm messengers were lazy not to pick up the lead, they gave all kinds of rare birds and beasts the opportunity to appear, and these originally living in the Immortal Realm were obviously the same as the pigeons who could recognize the way and the old horses could recognize the way, and they themselves had their own Immortal Realm positioning system.
1. Deer brand Shengxian car
Deer are auspicious immortal beasts, and many immortals in history prefer to ride deer. For example, Wei Shuqing in the "Biography of the Immortals", when he saw Emperor Wu of han, he was a faction of immortals: "Riding on floating clouds and driving white deer gathered in front of the palace." The Eastern Han Dynasty", "Zhang Gongshen Monument Song", also has the sentence "White Deer Xi from Xian, Youbei Yue Xi and Tiantong", which imitates the situation of mortals after death, driving three deer immortal cars to cruise the Immortal Mountains.
2. Crane brand Shengxian car
Needless to say, the crane is simple and pure, its body is flowing and elegant, and its voice is loud and unworldly, and there is "the crane singing in Jiugao, and the sound is in the wild." The crane sings in Jiugao, and the sound is heard in the sky", people have always believed that the crane symbolizes holiness and elegance.
In the Western Han Dynasty's "Biography of the Immortals", there is the story of the immortal prince Qiao riding a white crane. In the records, Prince Qiao Hao blew the sound of the phoenix, swam between Yiluo, was led by the Taoist priest Fuqiu Gong to the Song Mountain Xiuxian, and more than thirty years later, he stopped at the top of the Qiao Mountain by the White Crane and left a few days later.
3. Dragon brand Shengxian car
The dragon, this kind of divine beast has always been the most ideal seat, it can be powerful and small, it can be mysterious, it can enter the sea from heaven to earth, and there is no obstacle in the world, it is the seat of the gods and men. Qu Yuan, in his magnificent fantasies, expressed more than once the pleasure of ascending to heaven by dragon: "Donkey Jade is multiplied by Crane Xi, and it is headed towards Cangwu Xi." ”
Of course, the most famous is the story of the Yellow Emperor riding the dragon shengxian, "Ding is complete, there is a dragon hanging down to meet the Yellow Emperor." The Yellow Emperor rode on, and the harem of the group of subjects was more than seventy people from above, and the dragon was up. In addition, Xia Houqi also took a dragon to the heavenly court, and also stole Kagura and returned to the human world smoothly.
The most interesting thing is that in the tomb of the Eastern Han Dynasty in Jingbian, Shanxi, there are also various colorful pulling spirit beasts:
I don't know what kind of divine beast this is in the picture above, but looking at the pattern on the back, it is a bit like a turtle, taking a turtle to pull a car, going to wonderland is afraid to get the next life, right?
These four black birds, if I don't say they are geese, you will definitely think of them as crows. The implication of the "Book of Hongyan Biography" is that the geese also have the ability to identify directions.
This guy who looks like an alpaca is actually a rabbit. There is a turtle just appeared in front, here comes a rabbit, is it the fairies who also play the turtle and rabbit race? Of course, the most likely jade rabbit who is making medicine for the Queen Mother came out to run a single.
This person is even more incredible, others are rare birds and beasts, he directly rode the clouds to drive the fog, saying that this is more than the Ming Dynasty Wu Cheng'en imagined That Sun Wukong drove the clouds to the Heavenly Ling Xiao Treasure Hall, but it was more than fifteen hundred years earlier.
However, in the eyes of Sir Yang, these cars are still inferior to the koi swimming in the river!
02 River out of Kunlun
Emperor Han Wu of Qin was obsessed with immortality and took a similar action, that is, he wanted to go to the East China Sea to seek an overseas wonderland. In fact, in the eyes of the Han People, Wonderland and Kunlun are highly overlapping to some extent, and the Queen Mother of the West is the key to becoming an immortal.
Therefore, what we can see is that whether it is a Han portrait stone or a Han tomb mural, the destination of the fish car is to go to Kunlun and the Queen Mother. So, how to ensure that the immortals along the way do not deviate from the course? Four words - the river out of Kunlun!
"River out of Kunlun" comes from the "History of Dawan Lie", even if the Han Dynasty people know that the source of the Yellow River is not in the western region, but also to create a "volt stream" theory, the source of the river to the west, the purpose is to see the source of the river mountain, as can become an immortal Kunlun, so that the mountain is no longer illusory, the trace is difficult to find.
Therefore, since the river comes out of Kunlun, then as long as we follow the river, we will definitely reach the Kunlun Wonderland. In this way, it is not difficult to understand why fish carts are used. Of course, the most important point is that the environment of kunlun wonderland itself is too sinister, and the cloud of the Great Wild West Classic: "Kunlun Hill, under which there is a weak water abyss ring"
Weak water three thousand, not only is it difficult to drink a scoop, but also the hair is difficult to float, it is obviously impossible to swim, dive, etc., but this is not as easy as breathing for koi living in the water, which may also be another consideration of using fish carts.
Of course, riding the fish to ascend the immortal is not a big fuss, in the "Biography of the Immortals" recorded the story of the Qin Gao Cheng carp ascension immortal:
"Liexian Biography Qin Gao": "Qin Gao, weekend Zhao Ren, can drum the qin, for the Song Kang Wang Sheren, floating jizhou Zhuo County." Later, during the period with the disciples, he went into zhuoshui to get the dragon seed, and returned one day. At that time, the disciple waited by the water, and The qin gao guo came out by the carp. Stay in January and get back into the water. ”
It is precisely because the story of The Qin Gao riding the carp shengxian has been circulating, so the people of later generations have expressed their strong vision of becoming an immortal with the matter of the Qin Gao, such as the words of "Wenyuan Yinghua": "Willing to play the piano high and ride the fish into the waves", "Quan Tang Poetry" said: "Keep to the death and wait for the crane to come, and all the ways to take the fish".
Therefore, I am still envious of the ancients, even Shengxian has so many cars to choose from, while I only have bicycles.