Those who are familiar with the history of the early Ming Dynasty must know that Zhu Yuanzhang punished the "peeling of the grass" of the leather farm temple, and at least they will have some understanding of the discussion of whether he believes in history. Wang Shihua first published an article in "Historical Research" questioning the authenticity of "peeling the grass", and then Luo Yuanxin and Chen Xuelin wrote articles to refute their views. Luo Wen is good at detailed reasoning and argumentation based on data, while Chen Wen is good at excavating and examining historical materials. Although it is impossible to completely restore the truth of history, Luo and Chen have temporarily put an end to this controversy with their sophisticated arguments and conclusive historical evidence.
In the discussion, all three mentioned the Song Dynasty's Leather Farm Temple, which Wang Shihua used as evidence that the Leather Farm Temple was incompatible with the punishment of greed, while Luo Yuanxin pointed out that this was only the exclusion effect of the name on the viewer, so it was judged that there must be a falsehood, in fact, both are "matching the name", and the same name is only a coincidence. Chen Xuelin even wrote a separate article on the Leather Farm Temple of the Two Song Dynasties, and made a detailed investigation of the status of its geographical outlook and legends with his profound skill in historical materials.
Huang Yongnian also made a brief examination of the "Leather Farm Temple" when discussing the Yuan carved "New Red and White Spider Novel" because of the text of the "Leather Field Ming Ling Zhaohui Great King" in it, in addition, when the two medical historians investigated the history of the Yaowang Temple in Qizhou (now Anguo City, Hebei Province), they also mentioned the Leather Farm Temple of the Song Dynasty, and they mentioned the materials not quoted in Chen Xuelin's text, but their concern was in the Qizhou Yaowang Temple, so there was not much new in the understanding of the history of the Song Dynasty Leather Farm Temple.
Academic attention to the temple of the two Song Dynasties only stops here, except for Chen Xuelin, no one has discussed it as a special object, but only mentioned it slightly when it is mentioned in other studies. The Leather Farm Temple of the Song Dynasty is indeed a very small point, and Song historians often refer to it when discussing the history of the City of Tokyo in the Northern Song Dynasty. If it were not for the discussion between the Pichang Temple and the An Guo Yaowang Temple in the early Ming Dynasty, it would be difficult for it to enter the academic field, but in the former case, the discussion of the Pichang Temple in the Song Dynasty was only produced as a by-product of its research.
Chen Xuelin's research can be described as detailed, but there are still unseen materials and debatable points. He concluded that the history of the Song Dynasty Pichang Temple was "small and small", and although he also acknowledged that this case has certain significance, its role in "understanding the development of the Song Dynasty capital temples and the relationship between politics and religion" is "a trickle of help". The author also involved the Leather Farm Temple of the Song Dynasty in his research on the Yaowang Temple in Qizhou, and found that the previous generations of scholars did not fully understand this, and the excavation of its meaning was not very deep, so he tried to sort out the history of its origin and evolution.
First, the origin of the Northern Song Dynasty Leather Farm Temple
The records of the Temple of Pichang began in the Northern Song Dynasty, with the Song Dynasty, and the gods they worshipped were mostly called "Pichang Land" or "Pichang King". The "Song Huijiao" says: "The Temple of the Great King of the Pichang, the land temple of the Pichang in the first year of the JingGuo in the first year of Emperor Huizong's construction, was the marquis of Ling, and then the Ming Ling Zhaohui King. "The earliest record of the Pichang Temple should be the Northern Song Dynasty Zou Hao's "Daoxiang Collection" in the "Leather Farm Land Sealing Spirit Degrading Hou System":
The land of the pi field, the distinction between gods and men. It is said that if the Tao prevails over the world, then its effect will be to God, and it will not hurt people. God does not hurt anyone, but those who are difficult to heal in the place of healing can heal them in order to show their help. The salty rank is unscripted, wanton and outside, and within the capital, the spirit is degraded. Look at Hou Feng, Praise Ximei, Yilong Chuhui, to help Wuren.
This edict was not very conspicuous among the countless local gods sealed by the Song Dynasty, and even among the gods sealed by Emperor Huizong. In the Song Dynasty, the scope of the gods' conferral was very broad, as long as "there are spiritual responses, merits and deeds of the people, and the deeds are remarkable". In the first year of the Jianzhong Jingguo (1101), the Rebbe asked to standardize the process of conferring gods to curb the mixture of fish and dragons caused by arbitrary sealing, and Emperor Huizong of Song approved this proposal. But this does not seem to stop the pace of the Song Dynasty's conferring on gods, at least from the existing materials, there will be more gods in the future.
The Pichang Land God can only be regarded as one of the earliest to be enthroned in this trend of conferring gods that began during the reign of Emperor Huizong of Song, and the only peculiarity is that it is one of the few endemic gods who have been ordained and exist only in Tokyo. Previous studies have all started from the materials of the Southern Song Dynasty to investigate the initial sealing situation of the Pichang Temple, and it is inevitable that the origin of this sealing is vague and unclear, and there is no further questioning. In this text on the land of the sealed field, the god is regarded as "the difference between gods and men", and it is not clear.
However, another piece of material shows a completely different face of the god of the leather field. On November 22, the fourth year of Chongning (1105), Jingyuan Lujing asked for a knighthood for the Three Holy Temples of Pingxia City, which enshrined three lizards who defeated the thieves and relieved the siege of Pingxia. When arguing the legitimacy of conferring on deities such as the Dragon and Snake Spirit, Emperor Huizong of Song cited the example of the Pichang Temple, saying:
The temple god of the leather field is also a wall mirror, its quality or white and black, there are five legs, the disease Tuo Tuo is made for it, the incense is healed, and the cover saves the suffering of all the peoples to accumulate merit.
Compared to the identity of the leather field god in the various legendary versions that will be explored below, the term "wall mirror" is really surprising. However, the narrative scene in the "Song Huijiao" makes this material very credible, and it can be inferred from the quotation that Song Huizong came to him as if he was impressed by the gift of the leather field god. Then we must explore the image of the "wall mirror" in the eyes of the people at the time, in order to understand the divine construction of this deity.
The wall mirror is an insect that can be used in medicine. The wall mirror was mostly called "wall money" in the Materia Medica books at that time, and the Northern Song Dynasty Materia Medica's collection of works "Reconstructing The Government and The Alternate Materia Medica" (referred to as "Zhenghe Materia Medica") recorded:
Wall money, non-toxic. The main nasal speed and golden sores, the blood does not stop, the worm juice point sores and nose, but also treat the pheasant disease under the blood. Its worms on the money curtain, the main child vomited reverse, take two or seven boiled juice to drink. Insects are like spiders, white screens like money, between the dark walls, this native is called a wall cocoon.
This record is from the Tang Dynasty Chen Tibetan ware "Materia Medica Collection", and it is also the first record of "wall money" a medicine in the Chen Tibetan vessel. The way in which Materia Medica was compiled before the Ming Dynasty also determined that all subsequent Materia Medica books were based on this, until Li Shizhen's Compendium of Materia Medica added new content. "Wall money" can be medicated regardless of the insect body itself or the nest formed by its network, and the insect body itself is mostly applied externally. It is round, like money and mirror, which is the origin of its name.
However, "wall money" is the name when it is used as a drug, and when it is used as an insect, it is mostly called "wall mirror", and this "wall mirror" is a poisonous insect in the narrative - and it is different from "non-toxic" when it is used as a drug. The Taiping Guangji records that "the wall mirror poisons the person who dies", and points out that the method of distinguishing the bi mirror is "flattened, the five-legged one is" (which is similar to the description of The Song Huizong quoted above), and the treatment method after the insect bite - "mulberry wood ash juice, three degrees of boiling, take the juice, (adjust) alum as an ointment to apply sores".
This was also quoted in the "Alum Stone" of the Zhenghe Materia Medica, which was referenced by the "History of Scriptures", and appeared in later Materia Medica books. Since then, Materia Medica and Fangshu have often listed a separate item of "wall mirror bite" in various kinds of insect stings, which on the one hand indicates that wall mirror bites may be more common at that time; On the other hand—probably more because—the initial citations in the Zhenghe Materia Medica provide a model for future medical texts to refer to and transcribe.
From this we can associate the characteristics of the insect "wall mirror" with the divinity of the leather field god. The wall mirror is not a god, but only as a medicine can be used to treat nosebleeds, gold sores, hemorrhoids and other diseases that belong to the broad sense of "herring disease"; This is in line with the divinity identified by the "Leather Field God" in the edict text, "those who are difficult to cure the disease can be cured". However, the image of the wall mirror as a "poisonous insect" has been deliberately hidden. There seems to be such a paradox in the divinity of worms and snakes, and they generally have a negative social image.
Therefore, the legitimacy of their canonization is specifically raised and demonstrated, as long as they are "meritorious and people", regardless of origin, they can be conferred. Here, the medicinal properties of the wall mirror are built to form the divinity of the god of the leather field. Although the isolated evidence is always suspicious, according to the nature of the historical sources (Xu Song's Compilation of the Song Officials' Revisionist Book from the Yongle Canon), the narrative situation of the historical materials (Song Huizong mentioned the leather field god as an example when discussing other gods) and the high similarity between the characteristics of the wall mirror and the leather field divinity (the main treatment of malaria), the theory that the leather field god is the wall mirror has a high degree of credibility.
However, this image of the god of the leather field was not fixed, and in the official seal, it was still like other gods, who were able to be canonized because of the suffering of the salvation of the people. This is the general logic of official understanding that only such gods deserve to be canonized. In the process of the subsequent flow of various legends of the pichang god, the "wall mirror" has no trace at all, and if it were not for Song Huizong accidentally saying that he leaked his mouth, we may never know the original truth of the pichang temple.
Second, the two Song Pichang temples of the ground, sealing and legend
Chen Xuelin's discussion of the temple site of The Leather Farm based on the Southern Song Dynasty notes is still debatable, and it seems that there is a need to re-identify it. Based on Wang Lin's "Records of the Curse of The Swallow Wing" about the prayers of the disciples of the Examination Ceremony Department at the Pichang Temple, Mr. Chen discussed the issue of the geographical outlook of the Pichang Temple and the prayers of the disciples from the Three Temples of the Ceremonial Department, starting from the relationship between the Tribute Temple of the Ministry of Rites, the Kaibao Temple, and the Wanshou Temple. Although he clearly distinguished the different temples worshiped by the Northern Song Dynasty and the Southern Song Dynasty scholars when quoting the material of the YanYi Zhi Zhi Zhi, starting from the discussion of the Tribute Temple, he obviously confused the situation of the Northern Song Dynasty and the Southern Song Dynasty.
The "Yan Yi Curse" contains:
Those who try to be in the ceremonial department pray at the Temple of the Second Phase, and the Two Phases, Ziyou and Zixiaye. Ziyou is Wucheng Zai, Zixia hires the nations, and I don't know why I got the name of Xiang. Those who have tried the ceremony in this trip are all praying at the temple of the leather field, which is also the skin peeling house. In June of the first year of the Jianzhong Jingguo, it was rumored that the land of the leather farm, the main incurable disease, was enthroned as a spiritual gift. The present temple is in the Morning Hall of the Wanshou Temple, and the museum is adjacent to the Tribute Temple, and it is not known when the prayers of the scholars began, and why the museum was placed in the temple.
The above "Jingshi" is the Northern Song Dynasty Tokyo, and the capital is the Southern Song Dynasty Lin'an. The Northern Song Dynasty scholars who went to Beijing to take the exam prayed at the Erxiang Temple, and the Southern Song Dynasty scholars prayed at the Pichang Temple. This record is quite clear, and its so-called "present temple in the Wanshouguan ChenhuaGuan, the museum and the tribute courtyard are adjacent" must be describing the situation of the Southern Song Dynasty. However, Mr. Chen Xuelin immediately contacted the Northern Song Dynasty's Gongyuan Kaibao Temple, and his misunderstanding was that based on the granting of the land of the leather farm during the Jingguo period in the previous sentence, he believed that the next sentence also described the situation of the Northern Song Dynasty. Mr. Chen deduced from this misunderstanding that the location relationship between the Pichang Temple in Tokyo, the Xianrenfang, the Gongyuan Temple, the Kaibao Temple, and the Manjukan Temple must also be incorrect.
The situation of the Pichang Temple in Tokyo in the Northern Song Dynasty does not leave much record in the materials of the Northern Song Dynasty. The Southern Song Dynasty subliminal friends are the most aware of the flow of the Pichang Temple in the Northern Song Dynasty and the Southern Song Dynasty. He quotes a text from the Northern Song Dynasty Zhou Qiu that traces the origin of the Pichang Temple, which was most likely made in honor of the emperor's grant of the land of the Leather Farm, which records the earliest version of the existing legend of the Pichang Temple, and according to Wu Zimu's Mengliang Record, it also quotes a shorthand version of this text and titled "According to the Temple Carved Clouds", which is likely to be an inscription of the Pichang Temple on WuShan, Lin'an, Southern Song Dynasty.
Of course, the historical context of this leather farm temple is not a history of faith, and the story narrated by Zhou Qiu is said to come from the local elderly, which should be a popular local legend of the leather farm land. However, his statement that "I praise and praise the saints of song and praise" should not be true, before Emperor Huizong of Song, no Song Emperor had ever given a seal to the Temple of Pichang. In this legend, we have no trace of the "wall mirror", and the god of the leather field has been completely built into a shennong, and has the miracle of protecting the country and protecting the people, annihilating the Kou and helping the obedience.
The original identity and divinity of the leather field god has been completely elevated to an unprecedented (and in fact, "absolute queen") level. In the first month of the first year of Zhenghe (1111), a large-scale ancestral temple inventory activity was experienced in Kaifeng Province, banning the destruction of 1,038 shrines, abolishing a series of obscene shrines, and prohibiting military and civilians from erecting ancestral temples without permission. Later, in the suggestion of the secretary Supervisor He Zhitong on the detailed determination of the Ancestral Temple of the Nine Domains, he mentioned the original intention of this large-scale destruction of the ancestral temple, and there are no scriptures for the ancestral temples in many counties of Kaifeng Province.
Since then, among the large number of gods granted during the political and political years of the Song Hui Zhi Manuscript, no controversial gods such as insects and snakes have been seen, and the stories of Xiang's assistance in defending the city and annihilating Laikou are also quite common in the stories of the gods who have been crowned kings (as we will see later, the god of the leather field has been promoted to "king" during the Chongning years). Unlike the folklore we will examine later, the story of the gods in the official canon is less focused on the remarkable role of the gods in the country and the majority of the people than in folklore, which emphasizes the protection of a particular individual.
This pattern of miracle narrative can be seen in the granting of the gods during the political and political years, probably because the large-scale destruction of the shrine made the official more and more critical of the gods who were given the gifts, and more and more inclined to construct miracle stories of great significance. In fact, in He Zhitong's suggestion, the temples without titles have been divided into two categories: "remarkable meritorious martyrs" and "no other merits", although in practice there will be a situation in the middle, but the gods who are obviously "remarkable in merit" are more likely to be listed as worshippers.
The evolution of the legend of the god of the leather farm can be understood in this trend, from the insignificant "wall mirror", to a person who treats the disease, to the shennong who protects the country and the people, the increasing divine personality is more important in the political and political years, if it is not given before this trend, the leather farm temple may not be so lucky. However, this evolution is not an unscrupulous construction, but the appropriation and transformation of the original image of the gods, and in the case of the Pichang Temple, elements such as medicine and treatment have always existed in the theme of the legend.
References: "Studies on Tokyo in the Song Dynasty", "Song Hui To Be Compiled", "Taiping Guangji", "The God of Change"