Today is the twenty-third day of the lunar month, also known as the "Festival of sacrifice stoves". In the past, people regarded the twenty-third day of the waxing moon as the beginning of the annual festival, and many places called this day a "small year", and the most important thing on this day was the sacrifice stove. In the old days, almost every stove had a "stove prince" god seat.
The painter Han Yu, who is more than 90 years old, once wrote: "On the twenty-third day of the waxing moon, the king of the stove went to heaven, what did the heavens do?" Directly make a small report to God, people are not afraid, a few pieces of maltose can be dealt with. Every Spring Festival, I always have to pour out the portrait of the King of the Stove and paste it on the wall, I look at him, he looks at me, and thinks to myself, this is like the New Year. ”
Painting of the Year of the King of the Stove
Mr. Han Yu, a well-known painter, has always liked folk art, and he once wrote in an article: "The god position of the stove prince is one grade lower than that of the land lord, and there is not even a temple, he can only live in the stove house of the peasant household, and according to the current saying, he is not a cadre who leaves the production." The stove house in the countryside, smoky fire, the wall is black, only the two white faces of the stove king's grandmother above the stove door are particularly eye-catching, when eating around the pot table, I look at him, he looks at me. Vesta King God has small energy and can reach the heavens. 'Twenty-third of the waxing moon, the king of the stove went to heaven', what does the heavens do? Directly make a small report to God, people are not afraid, a few pieces of maltose can be dealt with. In the 1980s, I saw the long-lost Stove King at the annual collection in my hometown and spent one yuan to buy this 'unearthed cultural relic'. Every Spring Festival, I always have to put it upside down and paste it on the wall, I look at him, he looks at me, and thinks, This is like the New Year. ”
Painting of the Year of the King of Vesta
Stove King
Stove Jun, commonly known as the God of Stove, the King of Stove, the Duke of Stove, in Taoism, known as "Nine Heavens Of Si Ding Fu Dong Kitchen Tobacco Lord Bao Stove Protector House True Jun", referred to as "Si Ming Zhen Jun", is the god in Chinese mythology who is in charge of the kitchen and food, and has the function of supervising the good and evil of the people and preventing fire, most people think that he is male.
The 23rd day of the lunar month, also known as the "Festival of sacrifice stoves"
According to the Eastern Han Dynasty's "Five Classics of Tongyi", the surname of vesta god is Zhang List, the character Zi Guo; his female surname is Wang Mingbu, and the character Qing jie. The Tang Dynasty Duan Chengshi "Youyang Miscellaneous Tricks" also said: The name of the god of Vesta is Zhang Dan, the character Guo, the lady character Qingji, there are six daughters, all named Chaqia. Vesta is Zhang Dan, the most common folk saying.
But some people also say: In ancient times, a person's name was Zhang Zhou. Because he ate, drank, gambled and exhausted his family property, he sold his wife to another person as a wife, and he could not be used, and eventually became a beggar. One day begging to the head of a rich man's door, the woman's household. The woman recruited in order to give food, but unfortunately the master returned, and the master ordered his wife to boil water. Zhang Zhou was afraid that his master would misunderstand, and in order to protect his wife's honor, he rushed into the stove and burned to death. Every morning and evening, the wife set up an incense case sacrifice on the stove, and when the master asked, he lied that "people cook on the stove for a living, and if they do not respect the god of the stove, they will condemn them." The people in the vicinity followed suit and became the wind of worship to the god of Vesta.
Paintings of Grandpa Stove and Grandma King of Stove
But Vesta also has a female figure. According to Zhuangzi's "Nanhua Classic", "the stove has a bun", and Sima Biao of the Jin Dynasty explained that he was "dressed in red clothes and looked like a beautiful woman". Zaojun is an old mother on Kunlun Mountain, commonly known as "Kunlun Old Mother"; in the Taoist book "Jingzao Quanshu Stove King Jing", she is called "Yun seed fire old mother" or "fire seed old mother Yuanjun" ("Yuanjun" is the honorific title used by Taoist feudal immortals), and she has thirty-six gods under her command, such as the Five Emperors of the Five Emperors, the Great-Zao Ancestral Stove, the Stove Sun, the Fire General, and the Mother of the Fire God. As the saying goes, "the people take food as the sky", she is in charge of the diet of the world, specially supervises everything in the world for the heavenly court, and can also control the life and death of the family. Later generations probably felt that the image of the red-clad beauty was not stable, and later replaced it with the vesta god grandmother, and sat side by side with the stove king.
Because vesta monitors the good and evil of the world, and at the end of the year, he repays the heavenly court. At the end of the lunar year, on the day of sending the gods, people are very cautious to paste the image of the stove on the stove to worship, offering meat, sugar cakes, tea wine, fruits and so on. In the Tang Dynasty work "Records of the Age of Yuanxia", there is a record of "coating the stove with wine lees to make Si Ming (Stove Jun) drunk". Inheriting this custom, people in some areas, when offering stoves, also put sweets such as pastries, syrups, and powdered sugar on the mouth of the stove king's image, hoping that the stove king would not say bad things about his family at the Jade Emperor to avoid the punishment of heaven.
After the sacrifice, the image or the god's throne is removed, burned together with paper money, paper horses, etc., and sent to heaven, until the fourth day of the first lunar month to continue to monitor the human world.
Qing Dynasty Vesta painting
Origins evolved
According to the "Record of Customs and Lands" made by the famous Zhou Of the Jin Dynasty in the mainland, "On the night of the twenty-fourth day of the waxing moon, the stove is said to be the god of the stove the next day, and the white one year is one year old, so the first day is worshiped." ”
Fan Chengda of the Song Dynasty said in his "Poems on sacrifice to the stove": "In ancient times, on the twenty-fourth day of the month of La, the king of the stove wanted to say things to the heavens. The cloud car wind horse small stay, the family has cups and plates of abundant ceremonies. Pork head rotten hot pisces fresh, bean sand and pine powder bait balls. The boy offered his daughter to avoid, and the wine burned money stove Junxi. Sons of struggle Jun Mo Wen, cat dog horns Dirty Jun Mo Fu; Send the jun drunk to the gate of heaven, the long and short do not return to the clouds, and beg for the return of the city. ”
In the early and middle Qing Dynasties, the sacrificial stove was always the twenty-fourth day of the Waxing Moon. And at least until the Qianlong period, it was the twenty-fourth sacrifice of the Waxing Moon. Qing Jia Lu vol. 12 "December: Reading the Four Nights to Send the Stove": "The twenty-four nights of the month of the common call are the four nights of the Reading, which is the night to send the stove. "The Qing Dynasty Wild History Grand View • Qing Palace Testament" said that in the Qianlong Dynasty, every year on the night of the twenty-fourth day of the waxing moon, the god of the stove was worshipped at the Kunning Palace.
From the middle and late Qing Dynasty onwards, the emperor's family held a ceremony to sacrifice the heavens on the twenty-third day of the Waxing Moon, and in order to "save money", they also worshiped the King of the Stove by the way, so the northern regions mostly spent the Twenty-third Lunar Month in the Small Year. Most of the southern region still maintains the ancient tradition of the twenty-fourth lunar month.
Grandpa Stove and Grandma Stove King
The New Year painting of the Stove King belongs to a kind of god portrait painting, which should be attached next to the kitchen stove. In various parts of the mainland, there are many styles on the paintings. If you look closely at the statue of the King of the Stove, you will find that many cultural elements are in it.
In the statue of the King of the Stove, it is generally the right King of the Stove, the left is the Grandmother of the King of the Stove, and there is a couplet next to it, the upper link is: "The heavens say good things", the lower link is: "Return to the palace to descend auspiciously", or "The nether realm to ensure peace". There is also a horizontal batch on the top: "East Chef Si Ming", or "Head of the Family". This is generally related to the traditional Chinese custom of facing south with the door of the hall and the kitchen in the east. The four words of "East Kitchen Commander" tell the duty of the Stove King.
Festival stove new year painting
There are also two people next to The Stove King and the Stove King's grandmother, who are the staff under the Stove King, one of whom is holding a jar with the word "good" written on it, and the other person holding a jar with "evil" written on it. There were two more people below, one with a bamboo stick in his hand and one with a small ball in his hand. If you do a good deed, put the bamboo stick in a jar with the words "goodness" written on it. If you do something bad, give you the ball in a jar with "evil" written on it.
At the Chinese New Year's Eve, in the sound of firecrackers, people put on the new statue of the Stove King, which is "the nether realm to keep peace". In order to please the stove king, people are very thoughtful about the stove king, in addition to having a wife, there are staff at the bottom, and then you can see at the bottom, there are chickens, dogs, everything, because the dog is a nursing home, protecting the family. There was also a chicken, because there used to be no watch, no alarm clock, and the chicken was used to tell the time. In addition, the chicken also has a symbolic meaning, generally in the New Year paintings, the chicken, have auspicious, auspicious meaning. Further down, those two braziers, which are cornucopias, represent prosperity at home. In fact, there is no need for two, and it is enough for the Stove King and the Stove King's grandmother to use one. Sometimes it is also for balance, the stove king has one, but also consider giving the stove king grandmother to use one.
There are two kinds of stove king diagrams, one is called "sitting alone stove king", just the stove king alone.
Sit alone with the Stove King
But at home it is different, there is this kind of king and his wife together, this kind of circulation is the most widely spread in China. This also reflects a very special folk custom, there must be a stove king grandmother, there is a land master there is a land grandmother, all the way to the Jade Emperor, but also to the West Queen Mother, that is, the Queen Mother Niangniang. This is a kind of folk psychology, he always hopes, immortals, you don't have a lonely, no companion, give you a companion, don't let the immortals beat the bare stick, too lonely is not good. So it's two people. Russia is the country with the largest collection of Chinese New Year paintings, with more than 5,000 paintings, which began as early as 1840. In the St. Petersburg Municipal Library there is a 1901 collection of the stove king, the stove king has a wife, but also a little wife, which is particularly strange. This may also be polygamy in the Qing Dynasty.
The Painting of the Stove King is pasted next to the kitchen stove. This shows that the stove king is still a human firework that eats, which is different from other gods. When you worship other gods, you are specifically asked to burn incense. Stove King, Stove King Grandma sits on the stove top, your home smoke and fire, eat fragrant, drink spicy, or you live in poverty, eat chaff throat dish, the family pays attention to not pay attention to hygiene, Stove King can see it most clearly. So you really have money in your family, fake money, rich and poor, good and evil, and the king of stoves knows everything in his heart, so he is the god who cannot be offended, because he represents one of the most basic needs of life - to eat. Because the paintings of the stove king and the stove king's grandmother are always placed on the stove top, you see that the face of the stove king and the stove king's grandmother has been smoked enough, red, and at the end of the year, this painting is estimated to be impossible to see, and it is time to replace it with a new one. Therefore, we usually say "twenty-three sugar melon sticky", after the sticking is finished, tear it off, to burn, burned is "heaven says good things", because this burning, a light smoke will go up, it is equivalent to that day is "send the stove king", a "send" word, especially important, can not say that it is taken off and stuffed into the stove and burned, this is disrespectful to God, must go to the courtyard, hold a ceremony, sometimes there is an iron pot in the courtyard, put this stove king painting in the iron pot, but also sacrifice his horse. Two plates should be placed, one with water in it, and the other with very chopped grass, which was the horse that was sent to the heavens by the King of the Stove, and it had to be prepared, and the water and grass of the horse should also be prepared.
A painting of the New Year of the King of the Stove, leaving people with a solemn topic of folk culture, but also giving people a space for full imagination, which is the charm of folk culture.
(This article is a synthesis of Han Yu's article, the surging news materials, "Detailed Talk about the New Year Painting of the King of the Stove" and other materials.) ）