Reading | Xie Tiankai: Inheriting innovative paradigms in chinese mythological studies: Commenting on Liu Qin's "Between the Sacred and the Secular"

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Professor Liu Qin's new book "Between the Sacred and the Secular: Examination of the Source of Chinese Toilet God" (hereinafter referred to as "Liu Book") is a pioneering work for the study of Chinese toilet gods. After the book was published, it received a lot of praise. Professor Min Dingqing of the College of Literature of South China Normal University praised: "This is the first research monograph on the Chinese toilet god in Hainei, which opens up a secret and fascinating 'new world', and also reveals a new research paradigm and possible space." ”

It is believed that there are two main ways to "expand the new":

First, the study of toilet gods has been lonely in Chinese academic circles for a long time, but foreign scholars such as Japan and South Korea have already taken the lead, and Professor Liu dares to break the academic "forbidden zone", look at the international community, and compete with the front.

Second, the study of toilet gods is extremely difficult. As the author says, the toilet god is a typical representative of the Chinese folk gods, showing secrecy, primitiveness, typicality and radiation. Because of this, the performance of the "toilet god" is extremely complicated: either there is a "god" but no "word", that is, the name of the toilet god can be circulated, but his miracles are not recorded; or there is a "word" without a "god", that is, there are rituals, mythological legends or folk taboos, etc., but the name and body of the god are vague. Professor Liu's courage to go against the wind, to overcome difficulties, to follow the academic path of inheritance and innovation, and to explore the internal mechanism of the emergence and evolution of the toilet god in the vast materials, which is really valuable.

The historical starting point is the starting point of logic. With a strong sense of problems and theoretical self-awareness, the author is knocking on the door of the chinese toilet god. "Talking about mythology, talking about toilet gods, and talking about Zigu all has a fundamental pre-topic problem, that is, the form of mythology. Was Zigu born in the Six Dynasties, or did it originate from the ancient cult of manure? To solve the problem, it is not only necessary to study zigu in the context of the 'toilet god', but also to grasp the thinking of the mythical 'system'. In excavating the cultural meaning of each toilet god, we break the current fragmented and simple interpretation routine, and strive to explore from the thinking of the ancients and the thinking of myths. In order to deeply explore the core of the toilet god culture, the author consciously uses phenomenological theory, suspends the judgment of existing understanding, and enters the context of the scene at that time by combing various materials to conduct an occurrenceal and constitutive research.

Not only that, in order to distinguish the occurrence and composition of myths, Liu Zhu, after analyzing the mythical forms of Xiao Bing, Liu Chenghuai, Chen Jianxian and others, innovatively constructed the theory of "mythical four states", and distinguished the toilet god into the original ecological toilet god, the re-ecological toilet god, the new ecological toilet god, and the ecological toilet god, which is the basic theoretical framework of the treatise. For example, taking the original ecological myth as the base point, grasp the occurrence, composition, development and evolution of the Chinese toilet god from a macroscopic point of view, delete the complex and simplify, outline the outline, and sort out the complicated Chinese toilet god data in an orderly manner.

From the three levels of argumentation of academic topics, from theory to literature, to archaeological materials, folklore and images, he consciously used the "four-fold evidence method" proposed by Ye Shuxian to explore the relationship between the Great Mother God, the manure god and the toilet god.

In addition, it is supplemented by the simple analysis of traditional Chinese scholarship, such as the original meaning of the word "abandoned" as "to give birth". He explains: "On the one hand, the birth of a child by a woman is reflected in the level of visual value, and the baby comes out of the birth gate like a process of excretion. This concept is also one of the important reasons for the myth of 'fecal and urine creation' worldwide. For another example, the words "dung" and "discard" in the oracle bone were carefully analyzed, and clues were also found, believing that the writing of the word "dung" was written in a broom, indicating that the shape of the filth was being swept away; a broom, indicating that the feces were collected and discarded with a hand-held spoon. And made a well-founded academic speculation - "It is very likely that the original 'dung' and 'discarded' characters are inextricably linked, or even the same word." Such research and analysis abound throughout the book, showing the author's profound knowledge of ancient literature.

Using poetry to prove history is a Chinese academic paradigm founded by scholars in the Republic of China, and it is also a good tradition for anthropological scholars. Regarding the mythological meaning of the "Book of Poetry, Daya And Shengmin", many scholars have discussed it. Xiao Bing's view is more representative: "The most famous outcast in our country is Zhou Ren, that is, Hou Ji. His deeds are mainly found in the Poems Daya Shengmin, Chu Ci Tianwen, and Shi Ji Zhou Benji. His mother, Jiang Yan, stepped on a large footprint (most likely a fossil footprint of a dinosaur), became pregnant through the so-called 'sympathetic sorcery', gave birth to Hou Ji, and passed through the "Birth of the Pass Lane, the Cow and Sheep Filibu word; the Birth of the Pinglin, will cut the Pinglin; the Birth of the Cold Ice, the Bird's Wings' Of the "Three Discards and Three Losses" totem test ceremony and gradually grew into the founding ancestor of the Zhou Dynasty, the inventor of agriculture and the god of crops. ”

However, on the cornerstone of the academic achievements of his predecessors, Professor Liu put forward his own new insight into the source of the "three discards and three harvests" of the "Shijing Daya Shengmin": "Three discards and three harvests" originated from the "fertile soil of blood sacrifice" of the original human sacrifice land of the Zhou people and the reward of the mother of the earth, and said that "the initial sacrifice (the object of abandonment) should be the child of the tribal leader, or the child of the great wizard, or the chief and the witch himself, in short, it is recognized as the best 'seed' or the child of the mother of the earth (the object of abandonment), which is dedicated to the god of the mother of the earth. The highest bribe' is also a condition for her protection and the gift of food, heirs. Later, ordinary people were used, and then people of low status were used later. This is followed by a series of substitutes, such as human blood, finger claws, hair, etc., or animals and livestock. ”

Combined with the common sense of agricultural culture, the author believes: "The fundamental reason for the use of blood for the gods of the earth is that blood represents life, so it is a great gift to sacrifice it to the earth that can spit out all things." Of course, objectively, after the blood and bones decay, they do fertilize the soil, so that the plants grow better. This is both a gift to the earth and the earliest 'fertilizer' of the earth with religious significance, which we may call the earliest 'dung'. In order to prove this point, the author from the vast literature of ancient China, the evidence is found and combed into a chain of evidence, and its argument is precisely the extension of "using poetry to prove history", and then skillfully uses the "four-fold evidence method":

The treatises involve many archaeological achievements, such as headhunting customs in cultures such as Hemudu, Banpo, Majiabang, Liangzhu, Longshan, and Shijiahe; toilet architecture in the ruins of Hemudu, Yangshao, Banpo, and Fengchiyuan Courtyard in Shaanxi; the tombs of Li Tun in Tongshan County, Jiangsu Province; the Han portrait stone tombs of Zhaozhai Brick and Tile Factory in Nanyang County, and the pottery toilet-shaped system in Han Dynasty pottery excavated in Guangzhou.

"The 'Fertile Land of Blood Sacrifice' naturally derives from the early belief in Mother Earth. More than 7,000 years ago, the custom of headhunting appeared in the Hemudu culture in the lower reaches of the Yangtze River, and later appeared in Majiabang, Liangzhu, Longshan, Shijiahe and other cultures. ”

It also recalls the human sacrifice in the "Song of the Gods" of the Turkish people today, and the sacrifice of the mother of the earth in the headhunting custom around the world.

Combined with the materials on human sacrifice in the oracle bones excavated by archaeology, and the "Bamboo Book Chronicle", "Zuo Zhuan", "Zhou Guan Dazongbo" in "Zhou Li Zhengyi", "Chu Ci • Summoning Souls", "Erya Shi tian" and other classics, the evolution and basic concepts of the "fertile soil of blood sacrifice" method were sorted out. Thus from the superficial structure of mythology, into the deep structure, to find its cultural code, to make the author's own assertions.

Zhang Shunhui, the founding scholar of modern Chinese philology, proposed that "distinguishing between chapters and academics, examining the source flow of mirrors" is the highest realm of scholarship. Wang Guowei once relied on the collection and printed copy of Luo Zhenyu, the compiler of oracle bone documents, painstakingly studied the divination and gained greatly. In February 1917, he wrote the first scientific paper of great significance since the excavation of the oracle bone, "The Examination of the First Prince and the First King" seen in yin Buci, and later wrote the "Continuation Examination". With these two papers, the historical value of oracle bones is recognized by the whole world, and oracle bone science has truly become a specialized and profound science. As a study of mythology, Liu Zhu consciously used oracle bone materials to conduct the study of toilet gods. This is related to liu Qin's ph.D. from Sichuan University, which is one of the important research centers of oracle osteology in New China, with Xu Zhongshu, Zhao Zhenduo, Liu Yuejin and others in the past.

Liu Zhu also used the classic book "Lao Tzu" to say: "There is a way under the heavens, but it is a horse with dung." The interpretation not only quotes the "History of Chinese Agricultural Science" of Zeng Xiongsheng, a modern person, but also quotes the "Huainanzi Lan Meditation Training" Gao Luan's note that "stop the horse is not to go, but to the dung, the dung field is also" as an example, and also supplemented by the dung collection portrait stone excavated from Guanzhuang Village in Mizhi County, Shaanxi Province. Finally, the Kangxi "Pengshui County Chronicle" volume 3 "Customs" is quoted: "(October), after finishing farming, cattle were herded in the mountains. Guangxu's "Qianjiang County Chronicle" Volume V "Customs" records: "In October, after the harvest was completed, the animals were released in the wild. ”

Liu Shu also shun and examines the most famous representative of the Chinese dung god, which was first seen in Jin Ganbao's "Search for God". It also involves the relevant customs of the wishful faith, such as sweeping gu, broom girl, broom girl, sweeping Qing niang, gray seven gu, Mao Niang, Mao Ren, poor god, five poor niang, Zhao Gongming and other common gods. Related folk customs include hitting the ash heap, beating the wish, getting the treasure, sending the poor (sending the five poor, breaking the five) and so on. And carefully distinguished from the original divinity of the toilet god Zigu that later deviated, as desired faith until late, it always maintained a close relationship with feces and dung sweeping. It is pointed out that in some places there are also taboos for dung sweeping, which also comes from the custom of faith as desired.

"Shanghang County Chronicle": "Folk Customs of the Year" records that on the second day of the first month, many people did not move their brooms, and the first three days of the first year began to sweep the floor, which is contained in the "Search for God", fearing that the god would be hurt as desired. Similar records are also found in the "Wujin, Yanghu County Hezhi", "Jiaxing County Chronicle", "Xi'an County Chronicle", etc., and have been passed down to this day. And pointed out that the taboo of dung sweeping, in fact, reflects the same psychology of seeking wealth. From the beginning of the new year, the dung soil is not removed, and on the fifth day of the first year, he goes to the countryside to take stones and returns, called "Debao", which is an example taken from the ming metabolism Zhaoshu "Five Miscellaneous Tricks" Volume II. This kind of festival custom of "taking the stone and returning to the cloud 'get the treasure'" is still passed down today. For example, every household in Chengdu, on the fifth day of the New Year, went to the river beach to pick up goose eggs, called picking up "yuanbao", which is also true.

It is precisely in the classification of the "four states of mythology", based on the combing of documentary materials, the use of archaeological materials, the use of Fang Zhi materials, and on this basis of academic reverie, inference, and the skillful use of the four-fold evidence method, from ancient to modern, from the middle to the outside, so vertical and horizontal, to say that the way of exposition, and the reading of this work is enlightening and interesting. In this way, the application of mythological theories and methods of Chinese scholars to academic practice is the main feature of Liu's academic paradigm. In the study of Chinese toilet god culture, whether in the study of diachronic and synchronicity, or in comparative research, Liu Zhu has taken a peek at and exposed the faith characteristics of Chinese folk gods and the fundamental force of Chinese culture throughout the process of argument. This is probably the main basis for the Triptych Bookstore to classify this work as a philosophical and living world.

【About the Author】

Xie Tiankai, a well-known book critic, is a professor at Chengdu Jincheng University.

Title: Between the Sacred and the Secular: The Origin of Chinese Toilet Gods

Author: Liu Qin

Publisher: Reading, Life, and New Knowledge Triptych Bookstore