After Pangu opened the sky, the sun, moon and stars began to appear in the heavenly dome, but the sky was high and the earth was far away, the sky was cold and frozen, the human world was frozen, and there were four or five people who died of freezing due to the cold ice season. The Emperor's Furen clan could not bear to see the depth of the suffering in the human world, so they brought heavenly fire to the human world, and people could warm and cook, and enjoy the heavenly life. In honor of this god, posterity called him "Emperor Flint".
Emperor Yan of Yan, Emperor Yan of Yan, Zhu Rong, Zhu Rong, zhu Rong, the head of the minotaur, was extremely powerful, often drove a fire wheeler to patrol the sky, and was named the god of fire after his death, because he was in charge of the southern land and sky, also known as the Red Emperor.
The Emperor of the North, who was narrow-minded and often selfish, ordered the sun, moon, and stars to tend to the northern heavenly dome, causing a riot, the most dissatisfied of which was the joint work of the water gods. Gonggong and Zhu Rong fought for three days and three nights, lost and fled, and in a rage, they bumped into the Heavenly Pillar Buzhou Mountain.
In the early days, the human world was actually a state of mixed human beings, and if people encountered problems that could not be solved in the human world, they would climb to the top of Kunlun and enter the heavenly realm from the Pillar of Heaven to seek revenge for themselves.
After gonggong knocked down Mount Buzhou, Huan Huan became even more tyrannical and arbitrary, and simply rallied Tianzhu Mountain to the ground with a sharp axe, cutting off the communication between people and heaven. Since then, people can no longer directly enter the Heavenly Palace, and can only rely on the gods and immortals stationed in the human world to convey the greeting of blessings.
Emperor Huan had a son named Li, who ruled the south since the only passage between the human world and the celestial realm was cut off, and was also a god who conveyed news between the gods and the human world. At the end of each year, heaven and earth recall the clergy and earth immortals stationed in various parts of the earth to investigate the situation in the human world.
As a microphone between the human world and the gods, Li is highly respected by people, and will always send rich gifts before he reports to heaven, one is to express sincere gratitude and gratitude for the care of the past year; the other is to please him, say more good things when he goes to heaven, and pray for the wind and rain in the coming year, and the peace of the country and the people.
From the Son of Heaven to the common man, he must be good to him. After his death, Li was enthroned as the god of Vesta and was in charge of the communication between heavenly fire and human heaven. Thus he became the most gracious god on earth. It is rumored that he likes to make small reports, so everyone dares not offend him, and they are even more jealous of him.
All of the above are legends. According to historical records, the custom of sacrificing stoves should have originated from the worship of "fire" as early as to commemorate the great invention of fire by mankind. Later, after the change of times, because the stove is the closest place to the fire, it became a memorial to the god of the stove.
Because of the mixture of the legends of the passage between the descendants and the heavenly people, it became a scene of the god vesta's heavenly words and immortal sacrifices.
The earliest fire gods were the Fu Ren clan, and later yandi and zhurong. The custom of sacrificial stoves has a long history and has become a common folk sacrifice activity in the Han Dynasty. Zheng Xuan of the Han Dynasty said in his commentary on the Book of Rites and Notations: "(Vesta) dwells in the human world, and si cha is small, and the accuser is also." ”
It seems that at that time, the vesta god had already had the problem of making a small report in heaven. And because Emperor Wu of Han advocated the Taoist art of health maintenance in his later years, he admired a Taoist monk named Li Shaojun and obeyed his words. Li Shaojun told him that there are two key ways to achieve immortality: the first is to cut through the valley, and the second is to sacrifice the stove king, let him say more good things to the gods, and maybe he will also get the elixir of immortality, that is, to do great luck with half the effort, which is simply a shortcut to speed up the ascension to immortality ("History of Filial Piety and Martial Benji": "It is sometimes Li Shaojun who also uses the ancestral stove, the valley road, but the old fang to see the upper and respected").
In the book "Zhuangzi", Vesta is a beautiful woman with high bun and red clothes. (Zhuangzi Dasheng: "The stove has a bun.") Sima Biao commented: "Bun, vesta god, dressed in red, shaped like a beautiful woman." ”）
Because of the transmission of information between the person in charge of vesta and the gods, it is also called "Si Ming", and the officials responsible for sacrificing the heavens and observing the celestial signs in ancient times are also called Si Ming, and the great Si Ming, which often appears in film and television dramas, is actually doing this thing, equivalent to the high priest. In the Song Dynasty documentary essay "Tokyo Dream Record", it is described: "The people of the capital are prepared to eat wine and fruit to send to the gods, and the lees are smeared on the stove door, which is called drunkenness." ”
The Southern Song Dynasty poet Fan Chengda has the "Sacrifice Stove Words" cloud:
According to ancient legend, on the twenty-fourth day of the lunar month, the king of the stove wanted to say something to the heavens.
The cloud car wind horse small stay, the cup and plate in the home are abundant.
Pig's head is rotten and cooked double fish fresh, bean sand and pine powder bait ball.
The boy offered his daughter to avoid, and the wine burned money stove Junxi.