【Editor's Note】Folklore related to festivals and festivals has been passed down for thousands of years and contains the wisdom and culture of ancestors. In modern society, we are gradually drifting away from traditional folk customs, but at a certain moment, we will still be amazed by the names of the 24 solar terms such as Qingming and Guyu, and will be moved by the Lantern Festival's "flower market lights like day", and will go to our hometown from a distant hometown during the Spring Festival and Mid-Autumn Festival. Folklore is the memory of Chinese that flows in the blood.
At the beginning of the Year of the Tiger, The Paper, in cooperation with the Institute of Folklore of East China Normal University, launched a column on traditional folk festivals to introduce festivals that are very important in traditional Chinese culture and related folk customs, which have not disappeared and are still in our daily lives.
January 25 is the 23rd day of the lunar month, which is the traditional "little year".
If New Year's Day is the beginning of the New Year for Westerners, and the Spring Festival is the beginning of the New Year for The Chinese people, then the Small Year is the beginning of the "New Year" formed by many festivals.
"After a small year is a year." There is a slight difference between the dates of the "little year" between the north and the south, the 23rd lunar month in the north and the 24th of the waxing moon in the south. Although the dates are slightly different, the arrival of the traditional Small Year means that the Spring Festival, the largest festival in China, has officially kicked off. People should start sprinkling dust and prepare for the New Year. Of course, there is also the most important folk custom, which is "sending vesta".
Send Vesta Visual China Infographic
"Sugar melon sticky, drunken life"
The New Year is a festival full of secular fireworks, and I am afraid that it is also a favorite festival for children.
"On the day of the ascension of the stove king, there was a kind of sugar sold in the street, the size of a mandarin, and we also had this thing, but it was flat, like a thick little flapjack. That's the so-called 'gum tooth dumpling'. The original intention was to invite Zaojun to eat, sticking to his teeth, so that he could not adjust his mouth and learn his tongue, and said bad things to the Jade Emperor. The gods and ghosts we Chinese seem to be more honest than the living, so we must use such a tough method against the ghosts and gods, but the living people have no choice but to invite them to dinner. ”
In small years, there are candies such as "sugar melon" and "hemp sugar" for sale in the north and south of the river. This passage written by Lu Xun in 1926's "Sending Stove Day Manhua Pen" depicts the scene of the Small Year.
In folklore, Xiao Nian is the day when the Emperor of The Stove ascends to heaven, and on this day he returns to the Heavenly Court to report to the Jade Emperor on the situation on earth during this year. For this god who runs the family in secular society, everyone has feelings of awe, hoping that he "will say good things from heaven and ensure peace in the netherworld", but they can't help but orchestrate a few "gossips" about him, so that the image of Vesta is a little more "imperfect", but also a little more "grounded".
"Sugar melon sticky, drunk." This folk song reflects the custom of sacrificing stoves. "Sugar melon is similar to 'sealing fee.'" Bi Xuling, director of the Folklore and Intangible Cultural Heritage Research Office of the Institute of Literature of the Shanghai Academy of Social Sciences, introduced that in the process of offering maltose, there is a custom of offering maltose, and some places will coat the lees on the stove door. The sugar melon sticks to the mouth, the lees are drunk, and the role played is to make the stove god "say more good things" after going to heaven, at least "stick to the mouth", and can't say bad things.
"Maltose is extracted from starchy foods, and maltose is a luxury when eating is not necessarily full, and the same is true for wine. These things are very precious, so they are used to worship the gods, in fact, they are also 'bribing' the gods. This is folk thinking, maltose is very sticky, vesta god received the best bribe, the mouth is stuck and can not be opened, about the heavenly court, both embarrassed and unable to say bad words. Bi Xuling said.
Similarly, there is the "custom of burning horses and sending the stove king", in the process of sacrificing the stove, straw will be inserted into the stove horse and stove chicken, so that the stove king can ride to the sky. Fan Chengda's poem "Sacrifice to the Stove" mentions such a scene: "In ancient times, 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 family has cups and plates of abundant ceremonies. ”
"In the past, there were also cars for the stove king, but it was too slow, so it was eliminated, changed to a stove horse, and also prepared beans and other offerings for the stove horse to eat, the so-called 'a bowl of grass to a bowl of materials, a bowl of clear tea to drink horse milk'." Bi Xuling said.
As a god in charge of the human family, he will covet sweets, and he also needs to ride the "wind horse" offered by mortals to go to heaven, which makes the god of the stove king more "human fireworks" cuteness.
Vesta: The deity most closely connected to the world
"In Chinese imagination, the heavenly court and the human world are the same, and there are many shortcomings and parents who are short." Tian Zhaoyuan, a professor at East China Normal University, said that many people believe that the gods in Greek mythology have shortcomings and are very vivid, while the Chinese gods are very majestic, represented by Guanyin Bodhisattva, "but from the vesta god, it can be seen that the gods in Chinese mythology are not all majestic." Vesta embodies the highly living nature of Chinese mythology. ”
Vesta has many stories in addition to greed. In traditional New Year paintings, the god of Vesta sometimes sits alone, sometimes there is a "grandma of the king of the stove" on his side, and sometimes there is a woman on the left and right of the side, which is another folk story of the king of the stove.
In this folk tale, vesta himself is surnamed Zhang, he once abandoned his wife to marry another, the result was swept away the property and abandoned, when begging along the street, he met his ex-wife who had remarried very regretfully, so the Jade Emperor appointed him as the king of the stove, so that he could see the good or bad in the world.
"In Chinese mythology, the relationship between man and vesta is very close. On the one hand, people respected Vesta, and on the other hand, imagined him to be as flawed as a human being, so Vesta produced many variations in folk tales. Tian Zhaoyuan said that the original prototype of the god vesta was Emperor Yan or Zhu Rong, one of the "Three Emperors and Five Emperors", a combination of the fire god and the emperor, who incarnated as a god and managed thousands of households. Vesta belief reflects the inheritance of mainstream mythology, is a refuge from traditional Chinese mythology, and is a very important narrative.
However, vesta, as the "head of the family", is also the god who is most closely related to people, so he is given more life-like imagination. In this imagination, Vesta will also spend time, will regret, and is a "flawed figure". The relationship between Chinese and Vesta is also very delicate, and everyone summarizes the harvest of the year, prays for peace, and offers candy to the god, trying to please the god in a "bribe" way, sometimes respecting, sometimes seemingly disrespectful.
"It's because people think of Vesta as the manager of family life, so that he has the emotions of ordinary people, and there are stories like this." Tian Zhaoyuan laughed and said that the encounter of the god Vesta is also a warning to the world to some extent: "Don't spend the day and wine, don't marry two wives, people must be good." ”
On February 4, 2021, the 23rd day of the lunar month, Xiaonian, Yichang, Hubei Province, a citizen's house placed candy, fruits, peanuts, tea, and burned incense to worship the god vesta. Visual China Infographic
The stove disappears, how the god of Vesta is passed on in the city
The belief in Vesta is a reflection of the mainland people's pursuit of the dream of "more than enough food and clothing". Vesta's duty was initially to take charge of the fire and manage the diet, and later to be in charge of everything in the stewardship. In the old days, almost every stove had a "stove prince" god seat. People called this deity "Siddhi Bodhisattva" or "Vesta King's Decree". Stove was worshipped as the protector of the family.
Nowadays, in the vast rural areas, sending the king of the stove in the new year is still an important activity as a prelude to the opening of the Spring Festival. You Hongxia, an assistant researcher at the Institute of Folklore of the School of Social Development of East China Normal University, remembers that her mother, who lived in Jijiang, Chongqing, would still be busy with the stove every year, "Before the stove, we must clean up the pots and pans, and there are no water droplets in the pot." Non-leap years require 12 incense sticks, 12 pairs of candles, 12 bunches of long money (a kind of paper money), and if it is a leap year, 13 sets each. The offerings of the sacrificial stove include candy (sweet mouth), fruit, bean fruit, sacrificial tea (the ancient custom requires 12 cups, and one more cup in leap years), etc., and also to light the seven star lamps, that is, use a plate, filled with rapeseed oil, and place seven wicks to illuminate the way of the stove god to heaven. And when it comes to Chinese New Year's Eve, the most important thing is to "greet the god of Vesta" when the zero point arrives, and the king of Vesta returns to the throne, and the new year begins. As for the tradition of "women do not sacrifice the stove, men do not worship the moon", the people do not care, and the god of vesta probably does not care.
With the development of urbanization, the traditional stove disappeared, and the stove king gradually withdrew from the city's kitchen.
"Xiaonian is the beginning of China's largest festival, the Spring Festival, which is very important in the Spring Festival festival system, if the beginning is lost, the festival cultural inheritance will not be complete." Vesta is the representative of the gods in the home. He is not just a small god, but represents the protection of each family by the gods, from the small year 'sending the god of vesta' to the Chinese New Year's Eve 'welcoming the god of vesta', about a week before and after, and some places are longer. The first gong and drum representing the arrival of the Spring Festival was sounded by the god of Vesta, and he also appeared Chinese New Year's Eve the most solemn moment. Tian Zhaoyuan believes that although the traditional belief that "the heavens say good things and the netherworld guarantees peace" has weakened, the god vesta, as an important symbol of the Spring Festival, still has the value of existence. Through innovative vesta statues and publicity of small year culture, Vesta still has space in modern society.
"We all forget that Vesta was once the god of fire, Zhu Rong, and through the Mars rover Zhu Rong and the 'Vulcan Mountain' we remember this 'fire god' in Chinese mythology. But in fact, in the traditional mythological system, we have Zhu Rong stationed in our homes. With Vesta present, we have a sense of peace. ”
(This column cooperates with the Institute of Folklore of East China Normal University)