Lu Southwest "Little Year" and "Please Vesta God"
Text/Ma Xuemin
A few days ago, I accompanied the provincial folklore experts to visit Li Yongliang, a well-known collector of Caozhou woodblock prints, and Teacher Li gave me a few pieces of the woodblock New Year paintings he had just engraved and printed, "Stove Jun", commonly known as "Old Stove Master", three-color overprinting, but also remembered the childhood "Please Stove God".
As soon as the lunar year passed, the people in the village began to be busy for the New Year, and the old man was always indispensable to a big thing "please stove god" while rushing to the surrounding market. Hou Baolin and Guo Qiru's cross-talk "Please Buddha Shrine" is about this matter, what please ah, is to buy, do not spend money is not to give.
Rural people on the set of "please vesta god" is exquisite, generally do it personally, can not let neighbors or outsiders carry it, let alone let the children to do the work. Take money "please stove god" can not say "buy" but say "please", this may be the elderly out of respect and avoidance of the "stove king".
There are generally two types of colors in our stove wangye's paintings, with red and without red, also known as "red stove" and "green stove". "Red stove" is generally suitable for most families; "green stove", also known as "vegetarian stove", is mostly used for the elderly in the family who died less than three years ago, which is clearly divided in the rural areas of southwest Lu, if you make a mistake, people will say that you are not filial piety, jokes you do not know.
I remember when I was in elementary school, I followed my mother, and I didn't rush to the Puji and White Tiger Set to "please vesta", sometimes in order to save "5 cents", my mother and others rubbed their lips and bargained, so they carefully put the invited "vesta" in the "eight pockets", and every thing they bought was moved, for fear of pressing or soiling the "vesta".
I vividly remember that in the 1983 "Little Year" episode, my mother sold 3 bags of corn and bought me a "big hat", saying that I was in the fifth grade, and I did not have a decent dress, and Bought meat, cabbage, snacks, candles, firecrackers and so on. When I got home, I found that I had forgotten "Please Vesta" and "God". My mother asked me to go back to this big thing, and Qian Dingwan told me not to say "buy", and I also found two "pot shoots" (a kind of utensils made of straw and straw to place dumplings and other items) from home, and found two small sticks, and let me put the "Vesta God" invited by the set in the middle of the two "pot shoots", and the two ends were tied with ropes and pressed, and the family was carried. The purpose is to fear that I will rot or fold "Vesta".
I went to the Lee Lou Ji for a circle and saw several red, red, green and green "Vesta God" New Year paintings in my hands at the head of Osumi.
Only to see that "Stove King and Stove King Grandmother" has many characters on the screen and is arranged in an orderly manner. At the top are four large words "Head of the Family". The eight immortals are arranged on both sides in the form of couplets. The middle screen is divided into two parts. The first half is an annual calendar, and the strings of money on the two cash trees bend the branches, and the strings of money are slowly falling. Under the cash cow, there is a cornucopia full of gold and silver jewelry, giving people endless expectations and dreams. The patron saint smiled as if to welcome the people who received the money and collected the treasure. The lower part is relatively solemn, Zhang Zaojun sits in the middle, and the two ladies are seated on both sides. With his eyes wide open, he observed the family's every move, followed the two gods left and right, held the "good pot" and "evil pot" in his hand, kept the family's behavior record in the jar at any time, and reported to the Jade Emperor God after the total at the end of the year. Below, to the left and right, are the servants of the stove, holding tea and waiting, and the dogs and cats in the middle below surround the burning brazier.
"How much is it to buy two?" I asked.
"Little students, respect the old stove master and the Jade Emperor, you can't say buy, you have to say please," an old man replied.
"So, how much is it to invite an old stove master and an old god?" I asked again.
"Can't say money, little friend," replied the old man.
"Don't say money, then you send me two!"
"That's not okay, I sent a family piece of 5 hair," the old man said, "today are twenty-three, look at the almost scattered, if you please a stove a day, I will give you a god of wealth, do not want money!" ”
I smiled in my heart and paid him one dollar and two dimes "please" three.
According to her mother, she pressed three woodblock new year paintings such as "Vesta God" between two "pot shoots", bought a sugar gourd for a dime, and jumped home.
Three miles of dirt road, it didn't take half an hour to get home. My mother helped me tie up the "pot shoot", found that there was nothing inside, and asked me what was wrong? I was amazed, "Vesta" let me go back! I explained again and again that it might have been lost on the road, and my mother was adamantly unconvinced, because it was as if she had seen the "relic" of the sugar gourd on my lips.
My mother, who was cooking dinner on the fire, complained to me that in a little while I would have to sacrifice the stove, but how should I live without a "stove god"?
When drinking soup, the second uncle of the neighborhood came to my house with a bunch of things, saying that he had found the "vesta god" I had lost on the way. What a coincidence!
Decades have passed, and when it comes to the "little year", I will think of this matter, and often remind myself that I must do things steadily and steadily, and I cannot be sloppy.
Matsuri (the 23rd day of the lunar month), commonly known as "Xiao Nian", is a traditional custom that has a great influence on Chinese folk and is widely spread, and it is said that the name of the King of The Stove appeared in the Warring States period. Childhood "Jing" The beginning of the year is from the "Jing" festival stove.
Today, it seems that the reason why I look forward to the sacrificial stove is not only because I can eat a piece of sweet and toothless sacrificial stove candy that night, but more importantly, the mainland Spring Festival generally kicks off from the sacrificial stove, once the sacrificial stove has passed, we are all like looking forward to the stars and the moon, looking forward to the arrival of the new year, nothing, the key is to be able to eat the good things we like and wear new clothes.
In the old days, almost every stove had a "stove prince" god seat. People call this god "Stove King's Order", and legend has it that he was the "Nine Heavens Eastern Chef Commandery King" of the Jade Emperor, who was responsible for managing the stove fires of each family, and was worshipped as the protector of the family. Most of the shrines are located on the north or east side of the stove house, and the statue of the king of the stove is provided in the middle. There are no people who have a shrine, and there are also people who have statues of gods directly attached to the wall. Some gods depict only one king of the stove, and some have two men and two men, and the goddess is called "the grandmother of the king of the stove". Vesta is the most representative and popular god with the broadest mass base in China, and it pins on the chinese working people a good wish to ward off evil spirits and eliminate disasters and welcome good fortune.
King Stove has been staying at home since the Chinese New Year's Eve of the previous year to protect and supervise the family, and on the twenty-third day of the 23rd month of the month, King Stove will ascend to heaven to report the good or evil deeds of the family to the Jade Emperor in heaven, and the ceremony of sending the god stove is called "sacrificial stove", "stove delivery" or "resignation stove". According to the report of the Emperor of the Stove, the Jade Emperor handed over the fate of the family's auspicious misfortune in the new year to the hands of the Emperor of the Stove. Therefore, for the family, the report of the stove prince really has a major stake.
I remember that when I was a child, the "sacrificial stove" began mostly at dusk and night on the twenty-third day of the Waxing Moon.
After lunch that day, I began to beg my mother to teach the "bamboo horse" to sacrifice to the god of Vesta, and then I slowly learned some, so I began to learn to tie it myself, find a few sorghum poles, split off the outer skin, and expose the "grid block", use the "grid block" as the body of the horse, use the straw straw to make the horse's legs, and often it was only in the afternoon that it was turned into a "bamboo horse", saying that the "bamboo horse" was actually all made of sorghum poles, without a little bamboo composition.
When it was dark, they drank the soup early, the family first went to the stove room, set up the table, and the mother paid homage to the king of the stove set in the shrine on the stove wall, and offered rectangular sugar strips made of sesame sugar and noodles. I cut a few sticks of millet stalk forage with a knife, added some soybeans to shengsheng, and then respectfully placed it in front of the "bamboo horse" and let it enjoy it, so that I could take the stove king to heaven. And use the stove sugar to offer to the stove king, is to make his old man sweet mouth, more good words. There are strong horses, there is hay, all the way to the wind and safety, the sugar melon offered is sweet and sweet, please say good words to the Jade Emperor.
The old family members often spread sugar around the mouth of the stove king, and while applying it, they said, "Say more good things, don't say bad things." This is to plug the mouth of the stove king with sugar and tell him not to say bad things.
After the sacrifice of the vesta god, the statue of the vesta god pasted on the north wall of the kitchen was removed and burned, which was to send the vesta god to the heavenly palace, and the old family called this "sending the god". In the Tang Dynasty work "Records of the Age of Yuanxia", there is a record of "using lees to paint on the stove to make Si Ming (The King of the Stove) drunk". It means that after the people painted the mouth of the king of the stove with sugar, they removed the idol and ascended to heaven with paper and smoke.
Mr. Lu Xun has a poem on the sacrifice of the stove: "Gengzi sends the stove to the matter" poem: A chicken gum tooth candy, a canon for the clove incense. There are no long things in the house, and there are few yellow sheep.
"The sacrificial stove is not sacrificed, the whole family comes." This sentence means that the whole family of the matsuri must participate, and if you think about it, this is a solemn and exquisite thing. The countryside has formed a custom and a habit, that is, the family goes out, the twenty-third time of the lunar calendar does not go home, and the old people in the family do not sacrifice the stove. I don't know what the reason is, a few years ago I worked in the city, usually very late to go home for the New Year, my mother often did not sacrifice the stove for several years, but cleaned the stove king's place clean.
It has been more than thirty years since leaving his hometown, in the city, there is no rural pot stove, nor is there any exquisite attention to the stove god, but every twenty-third night of the Waxing Moon, the lover always has to light candles on the kitchen stove, put various offerings, and sincerely say some thanksgiving and thanks to the god of Vesta, and the words of greeting the old and welcoming the new, greeting the gods of the stove in this form.
We maintained this custom until the courtyard was demolished in 2016, and later moved to the upper floor of the community and no longer sacrificed stoves. But although the old man is old, she will never forget the customs. To this day, the custom of sacrificing stoves is still continued, every year into the Waxing Moon, I remember to invite the "Stove King", sometimes run a few miles to catch the market, just to invite a "Stove God", when the stove is pasted with the image of the old stove, offer a plate of sesame sugar made by a small workshop in the countryside, every year, the heart is at ease, but there is no "bamboo horse" I have tied, nor the grass I cut. Every year at the festival, the old man always leaves the best expectations for his sons, daughters and grandchildren.
If I am all right on the twenty-third day of the lunar month this year, I will definitely drive back to my hometown to accompany the old man in the low, gray kitchen to sacrifice the stove, after all, more than 40 years have passed.
Today, the economy has developed, life is richer, there are more people suffering from the "three highs", there are fewer people who love to eat sugar, and the longing mood and joyful feeling of childhood sacrifice are gone, but the good memories will always remain in the heart.
About the Author:
Ma Xuemin is a member of the Chinese Prose Literature Association, the Shandong Provincial Prose Literature Association, and the Heze Writers Association. Graduated from Shandong Normal University, he was the editor-in-chief of today's Development Zone Newspaper, an organ newspaper of the Working Committee of the Heze Development Zone of the Communist Party of China. He is the author of more than ten books, including "Chunhua Qiushi" and "History of Heze Development Zone". His works have been published in Contemporary Essays, Qilu Evening News, Heze Daily, etc. In 2021, Qilu Evening News Qilu One Point "Qingwei Supplement Contracted Writer" and the winner of the first "Qingwei Prose Award".
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