(This picture is designed by Fucha Maolin)
Time flies so fast, tomorrow is the twenty-third day of the Waxing Moon, that is, the small year of the Manchurians.
At present, many places of Manchurian cultural activities, usually do not engage in much, but generally will hold the golden festival and small year, the gold festival is the Manchurian people's family celebration, so the Manchurians everywhere must celebrate. In addition to the Manchurian National Celebration Golden Festival, the most Manchurian national festival is the Little Year.
Now Xiaonian is a sacrifice to the god Vesta, and in the past it was believed that the god of Vesta was the head of the family. But when it comes to Manchurian history, the sacrifice of the god Vesta should originate from the worship of the fire god in ancient Manchuria.
(Paper cut of the Manchurian Fire Goddess)
The following paragraph is quoted from the article "Shamanic Culture and Chinese Civilization" provided by Wang Songlin and Tian Jiaxun, which was published on our Manchu Culture Network:
It was finally burned into a monster with tiger eyes, tiger ears, leopard heads, leopard whiskers, badger bodies, eagle claws, and lynx tails. She traveled through the clouds of fire on all fours, spewing flames from her huge mouths, driving away ice and snow, chasing away the cold, galloping like lightning, illuminating the mountains, sending fire to the earth and mankind, and inviting spring. This fire-stealing goddess is the god of Tuoyalaha, who is revered in Manchu shamanism. To this day, people still say that the thunder in the sky is that the thunder god Sislin is roaring to ask the wind god to return his wife!
The origin of this Manchu myth is quite ancient. Because its manuscripts have been shelved and buried for a long time, and oral legends are incomplete, they have never been known to the world.
Another Manchu fire myth is the story of "Toa'en Duli" told by manchu storyteller Fu Yingren: Legend has it that in ancient times, there was no fire in the human world, and fire was planted in the sky. Every autumn, the god Abukain travels to the human world and brings the heavenly fire to the human world to hold the Heavenly Fire Assembly. On this day, people can enjoy the warmth and happiness of the fire to the fullest. After this day, when Abdecairn returned to the Celestial Realm, he still brought all the fire seeds back to the Heavenly Palace. The people of the earth asked to leave the fire to the human world, but the gods always refused. In this way, the human world spent an unknown number of generations without fire. One year, during the Heavenly Fire Assembly, a young boy was born in the tribe, and his mother named him "Toa" (Manchu for "fire"). When this child grows up, he is smart and brave, and he is superior in force. The gods took a fancy to this heroic boy, and because his name was Toa, they took him to heaven and asked him to take care of the Heavenly Fire Vault. Toa is not used to life in heaven and misses his hometown day and night. He also envied that there was fire in the heavens, so he thought about how to "steal a gourd fire", bring it to the earth, and teach people to use fire. In the first grade, when Toa borrowed to follow AbuCain to the human world to hold a heavenly fire assembly, he secretly hid a gourd fire on the tip of a large elm tree, brought the fire to the human world, and he also taught the villagers the method of fire, so there was lighting at night and warmth in winter. Due to the secret of the voles, Toa was captured by the gods and returned to the upper realm, and was severely punished by hanging a large tree upside down. Abdecairn retrieved the Heavenly Fire from the human world and sent a vole to take care of the Heavenly Fire Vault. Later, the white magpie and the black magpie flew to the celestial realm and used their wits to lure away the old eagles who were watching the orchard to steal the red fruit. Toa eats the red fruit, automatically loosens, and also increases strength, can fly and jump, and will be invisible. He flew to the Heavenly Fire Vault and stole a gourd fire seed to scatter in the human world while the voles were asleep. Furious at the news, the gods once again withdrew the fire and grabbed Toa and threw him into the heavenly prison. Toa once again gets the help of the Black Magpie (the White Magpie was eaten by the demon when he last rescued him), and the Iron Bull God comes to the rescue and fights with the gods to avoid death, and is sent by Abu Kaen Duli to fight the stone to repair the Heavenly Palace, but what he never forgets is to steal the Heavenly Fire to the human world. Toa stealthily stole a gourd heavenly fire, just "every day when hitting stones, find some white stones, and secretly put the heavenly fire into the stones little by little." "When the gods sent him to the human world to transport stones to the cultivation palace, Toa took the opportunity to transport the stones containing fire to the human world together, and told the people about the fire hidden in the stone. People picked up the white stone and hit it hard, and sure enough, they hit Mars, and since then people have used fire again. But toa, who delivered fire to the earth, still did the hard work of stoneding in heaven. In order to thank Toa, the human world worshipped him as the god of fire and sacrificed him twice in spring and autumn.
These two vivid Manchu myths illustrate the Manchu version of the Promethean mythological story.
In the Manchurian shamanic sacrifices, there is a special sacrifice to the fire god.
Manchurian fire sacrifices are generally interconnected with willow tree sacrifices, and before the fire sacrifices, the old shaman priests must first choose the "sacred tree" (usually the willow tree or elm tree), build a fire sacrifice camp near the "sacred tree", and place the prepared sacrifices around the sacred tree one by one. After a trumpet, the shaman led the tribesmen to prostrate themselves in turn in front of the "sacred tree".
The Manchu word for "Foto", translated into Chinese, means "willow tree" or "willow tree". According to the Manchu folklore expert Fucha Chenfeng: Because willow wood is particularly easy to survive, they take willow as the god, take willow as their ancestor, take willow as their mother, worship it, regard it as a god, regard it as a god, and hope that their descendants can have tenacious vitality like willow trees, no matter what kind of harsh conditions can survive. Foto is a willow pole about 1.5 meters long, strung with bracts (that is, the core of the corn cob), and on the bracts and rice bones is a ball of cut paper of five colors, the five-color paper represents the five elements of the source of all things, that is, "gold", "wood", "water", "fire", "earth", under the paper ball floats a circle of colorful paper strips, about 0.3 meters long. It is said that the bract rice bone represents the, and the tangled ball of colorful paper is to represent the descendants, a ball of paper wraps the bract bone, and the colorful note floats under it, indicating that the Manchus hope for their children and grandchildren, generation after generation, and pass on endlessly. The father and mother who preside over the sacrifice and go to the grave to insert a Buddhist trust are just pinning their hopes on the fathers and ancestors, blessing the prosperity of future generations, and the generations of children and grandchildren, generations of reproduction, and endless transmission.
The shaman worships the god of fire and recites the word of the god of fire in Manchu, and the crowd echoes it. After the end of the fire, the people will use small pots and small pots to pick up charcoal from the altar of fire and bring it back to their homes as a "constant fire" and keep it carefully so that it will not be extinguished.
Not only the Manchus, but also the Tunguska- Manchurian peoples worship the gods of fire and willow. These ancient shamanic beliefs, which later evolved gradually, became the twenty-third day of the waxing moon to worship the god Vesta.
Author Fucha Chunbing
Produced by the original article of manchu culture network.