In "Journey to the West", Guanyin Bodhisattva went to Chang'an to find a sutra collector, and temporarily lived in the home of which guardian deity? What kind of person can become the patron saint of a city or a land? In "Water Margin", Master Li said that Li Kui looked like a little ghost in the Land Temple, so why are there judges and little ghosts in the Land Temple? In "Journey to the West", who of the four masters and apprentices looks like the King of the Stove?
In Greek mythology, some important city-states often had their own patron saints, such as Athens' patron saint Athena, and the patron saint of Athens was Ticius, and the patron saint of the Farrion area on the outskirts of Athens was the hero Fareros. In addition, some families have their own family patron saints, and so on. Similarly, in ancient Chinese folk beliefs, there were similar city-states, villages, and family guardians.
It is generally believed that the main body of traditional Chinese culture is Confucianism, Buddhism, and Taoism, but in fact, there is a "fourth space" in folklore, that is, folk beliefs. In the daily life of the people, every step is inseparable from the worship of various immortals, and often seek "multiple insurances", such as "Fulu Shou Xi Cai" and "full-time" immortals related to the imperial examination, such as Kuixing, Wenchang and other aspects, people also believe in some spatial "regional" protection gods. People think that a city has a city god, is the guardian spirit of the city; one side of the land has a land public, responsible for protecting the peace of the village, and so on.
The eighth time in the Journey to the West, it is written that Guanyin was entrusted with the purpose of Chang'an:
He and Muzha left here and came all the way east, and within a day they arrived at the Tang Dynasty of Chang'an. Gathering the fog and collecting the clouds, the masters and disciples turned into two scabies wandering monks and entered Chang'an City, not even feeling the night. Walking to the side of Dashi Street, I saw a land shrine, and the two of them went straight in, scaring the land into panicking, and the ghost soldiers were afraid to fight, knowing that it was a bodhisattva, and prostrating their heads to enter. The land rushed to report to the gods of the city god, the sheling, and the temples of Manchang'an, all of whom knew that they were bodhisattvas, and said, "Bodhisattva, forgive the gods for the sin of delay. The bodhisattva said, "You must not leak the news." At the behest of the Buddha, I have come here to seek out the sutra takers. Borrow your temple, live for a few days, and return when you visit the real monk. "The gods returned to their places and drove a piece of land to the City God Temple to live temporarily, and his masters and disciples hid their true form.
Guanyin Bodhisattva went to Chang'an and temporarily lived in the Land Temple, while the land went to the City God to live temporarily.
Qing Dynasty missionary painting, City God. There are bull heads around the city god, and there is white impermanence under the steps, which shows that the city god is not only the protector of the yang city, but also the manager of the ghost.
City God
The word city god originally referred to the moat that defended the city, and later became the title of the guardian deity of the city. The city god is not a god, but a priesthood. In the Qing Dynasty Zhao Yi's "Examination of the Fallen Cong", there is a "City God" article, which gives a detailed introduction to the development of the City God faith: the City God faith began in the Six Dynasties, and after the Tang and Song Dynasties, it was universally sacrificed. City gods are like county chiefs in the world, according to the size of the city level, divided into different levels, such as the capital city god at the level of the provincial capital city, the city god at the city level, and the county god at the county level, and so on.
The thirty-seventh time in the Journey to the West, it is written that when the Tang monk arrived at Baolin Temple, the ghost of King Wuji Guozhen gave him a dream to avenge him, saying that his brothers killed him, pushed him into the well, changed into his appearance, and sat on his jiangshan. The king said that the monster was "very powerful, the officials were familiar with each other, the capital city god often drank with him, and the sea dragon king was close to him", and the capital city god was mentioned here. On the fifty-sixth occasion, Sun Wukong killed several robbers, and Tang Monk was dissatisfied, chanting to the corpses of the robbers, saying that their souls were going to file a complaint, so they went to sue Sun Wukong, and Sun Dasheng also said to the robbers' graves:
As far as you go there to sue, my old sun is not afraid: the Jade Emperor recognizes me, and the Heavenly King follows me; the twenty-eight houses are afraid of me, and the Nine Obsidian Officials are afraid of me; the capital city of Fuxian kneels on me, and dongyue Tianqi frightens me; the tenth generation of Yan Jun has been a servant with me, and the five road gods have been born with me; no matter the Three Realms and Five Divisions, the Ten Directions and The Lords are all deeply familiar with me, and they will go with you to sue!
Late Qing Dynasty Zhou Peichun painting, City God Ye. The inscription on the picture reads: "This is the city god master, holding a Buddhist cloth in his hand, and the military and civilians offer sacrifices during the Qingming Dynasty." ”
The city god of the prefecture is mentioned here, and the city god is juxtaposed with Dongyue Tian, because the city god is not only the protector of the Yang city, but also the administrator of the ghost, which is similar to the duties of the Emperor of Dongyue. In the Journey to the West, it is said that Tang Monk's father, Chen Guangrui, was killed by Liu Hong and thrown into the river, and the body was found by the Dragon King's patrolling the sea, and the Dragon King wanted to ask what was going on, so he "sent the night fork path to the city of Hongzhou and the land to throw it, to take xiucai's soul and save his life." The city god and the land summoned the little devil to deliver Chen Guangrui's soul to the night fork." There is a city god temple in Xi'an, which was built during the reign of Zhu Yuanzhang, of which the city god is located in the middle of the main hall, and on both sides are judges, bull heads, horse noodles, black and white impermanence, etc., which reflects the duty of the city god to manage ghosts. It can be seen that although "Journey to the West" is a novel, it often has a realistic folklore basis.
What kind of person can be a city god? There is an article "Kao Chenghuang" in "Liaozhai Zhiyi", writing that when the two shows were alive, they were suddenly arrested one day to take the exam in a place, and when they got to that place, they saw many examiners, but they didn't know each other, and only recognized Guan Laoye. The exam question is "one person and two people, there is no heart and no heart", one of the shows did well, the answer is: "Have the heart for good, although good is not rewarded; no heart is evil, although evil is not punished." This means that some people deliberately do good deeds, and although they have done good deeds, they should not be rewarded; some people have accidentally done bad things, and although they have done bad things, they should not be punished. After the examiners read his answer, they all praised him, so they wanted him to be the city god of a certain city. After this show learned about it, he was shocked, crying and begging that his family had an old mother to take care of, and after investigation, it turned out that he still had nine years of Yangshou, so after Guan Guan's old master Kai'en, he lived in the human world for nine years, and finally went to work as a city god in a certain place.
"Kao Chenghuang", Qing Dynasty lithograph "Liaozhai Zhi Yi Tu Yong". Chenghuang also has to pass the examination to select.
In the concept of the ancients, if you want to be a city god, you must die. As the patron saint of a city-state, the city god must be judged justly and strictly. Talented and upright people can become city gods through examinations after death, in addition, historical sages or Confucian models can also be selected as city gods, such as Suzhou city god for the Warring States of Chunshen Jun Huang Xie, Hangzhou city god for Wen Tianxiang, Liuzhou city god for Liu Zongyuan, Nanchang city god for irrigation, and so on. The city gods in various regions can also be replaced, and the Ming Dynasty Feng Yingjing's "Moon Order Broad Meaning" says that Wen Tianxiang once did the city god of Beijing, and a person surnamed Bai did the city god of Suzhou, and the city god of Hangzhou has recently changed people, "The names of the city gods in the world are different." It is said that the Yan capital Chenghuang is Wen Chengxiang, Suzhou Chenghuang is surnamed Bai, Hangzhou Chenghuang is hu zongzhi, and recently more Zhou Yushi".
In some areas, Chenghuang Grandpa also has an "old partner" - Chenghuang Grandma. This is somewhat similar to people's folk belief in the land public, before the Song Dynasty there was only the land public, and after the Song Dynasty, there was a land wife.
Land God
The land public belief originated from the worship of the "god of society" in ancient times. The "Commentary on the Interpretation of Words" says: "Society, the landlord also." The Zhou Li says: "Twenty-five houses are for the community, and each tree is suitable for its soil." "Before the Qin and Han Dynasties, the status of the gods of the society was extremely high, but from about the beginning of the Southern and Northern Dynasties, the status of the land gods became more and more humble. During the Ming and Qing dynasties, people often believed that the land gong was the guardian deity of the countryside or suburbs, the most basic earth immortal, and because it was most closely related to people's lives, the land temple was also the most common. In "Journey to the West", when Sun Wukong and Erlang Shen fought, the temple that Sun Wukong changed was the Land Temple.
The Qing dynasty painted "Journey to the West", and Sun Wukong became a land temple.
In "Journey to the West", there are also many appearances of land gods, such as the land of the special area guardian god, such as the land of peach orchards and the land of flame mountains. There is a land to send a letter to Sun Wukong to help, such as when he encounters a red child, Sun Wukong will call out the nearby mountain gods and land, and the gods will introduce him: "Tell the great sage, this mountain is called to be the number one mountain in the six hundred miles." I am ten miles and one mountain god, ten miles and one land, a total of thirty mountain gods, thirty land. There are also lands that make trouble with Sun Wukong, such as in che chi country, Sun Wukong and Tiger Force Immortal beheaded each other, when Sun Wukong's head fell on the ground, Tiger Force Immortal secretly called out the land and said to him: "Pull the head of the person, wait for me to win the monk, play the king, and you build the small ancestral hall as a big temple, and the clay statue is changed into a golden body." As a result, the land really listened to him, and fortunately, Sun Wukong would change seventy-two and conjure up another head.
In Journey to the West, the land is a humble little god, but there is a broad religious base in the folk, and the land temple and the land public belief are extremely common in the countryside. This is because the land god is not only the guardian deity of the place, as the saying goes, "the spirit of the land, then the tiger and leopard do not enter", but also one of the gods of wealth, which stems from the concept that the earth can produce gold and wealth. Not only that, people also call the land a righteous god, and he can manage all the things that are examined, blessed, and auspicious. In addition, the people also believe that after a person dies, he must first report to the Land Temple, so the Land Temple has the responsibility of being in charge of life and death.
In "Water Margin", Song Jiang and others saw Li Shishi, "Li Shishi asked: 'Who is this Han?' Just like the little ghost in the temple of the land to the judge. The crowd laughed. Li Kui did not have to say it. Song Jiang replied, "This is Xiao Li, a child born at home." Master Li compared Li Kui to a little ghost in the Land Temple. There are also judges and little ghosts in the Land Temple, which on the one hand reflects the folk belief that the Land Temple has the duty of managing life and death, and on the other hand, it also reflects the folk worship of the gods and ghosts of the underworld. Except for a few areas, judges and kings of Yama generally did not have special temples for worship, and some judges were arranged in the land temple, and some kings of Yama shared incense with Chenghuang or Emperor Dongyue.
Late Qing Dynasty Zhou Peichun painting, land lord. The inscription on the picture reads: "This is the land lord, on crutches, and everyone offers it." ”
Who can be the god of the land? In the Jin Dynasty Gan Bao's "Search for God", it is said that a self-proclaimed land god named "Jiang Ziwen" is probably the earliest land god. Later, people who had meritorious service to the local area were often worshipped as land gods or land gods after their deaths, such as Yue Fei was regarded as the land god in the Taixue area of Hangzhou, Han Yu was regarded as the land god in the Area of Hanlin Temple in the Qing Dynasty, and so on. After the death of the local villagers, they were worshipped as land, the so-called "old and righteous people in the countryside died", and so on. There are also some lands that are often named randomly, such as garden land and young seedling land.
In general, the development of the image of the land god has a historical evolution, initially directly to the earth sacrifice, later with mounds, stones, trees, stakes represented, and finally evolved into a person, represented in human form. Heaven and Earth Mother, the land gives birth to all things, so the land god was originally a woman, and the houtu niangniang who also developed from the society god was a woman. Probably because of the influence of the worldly gentry culture, one side of the land is often presided over by a male elder with prestige, so the land god becomes an old man with white eyebrows and a white beard.
Stove King
In the folk belief in the god of space area, in addition to the land god of one side, a city has the guardian deity of a city, and the family has the "head of the family", that is, the king of the stove. Legend has it that the earliest vesta god was The Yan Emperor, huainanzi said: "The Yan emperor made fire, and died as a stove." Later, there were different people who became vesta gods, such as the Southern Dynasty "Jingchu Chronicle" said that the vesta god was called Su Jili, the Tang Dynasty "Youyang Miscellaneous Tricks" said that the vesta god name Kui, like a beautiful woman, and said that the vesta god was surnamed Zhang List, the character Guo, and so on.
Late Qing Dynasty Zhou Peichun painting, Stove King. The inscription on the picture reads: "This is the King of the Stove, and everyone offers it." ”
The sacrifice to vesta should be very early. The Analects of the Eight Nobles records: "Instead of flattering the O, it is better to be flattered by the stove." "Ao" is a sacrifice of noble status, and although the "stove" is not as high as the "Ao", the god of the stove is in charge of food and has real power, so one day Wang Sun Jia asked Confucius whether it is better to please the "stove" of the matter than to please the honorable "Ao", which is what we later called "county officials are not as good as the current management". Confucius thought that this was not right, if you offended the heavens, there was no place to pray, "otherwise, if you are guilty of heaven, you will have nothing to pray", and if you offend the "boss", what is the use of you respecting your subordinates. In the folklore of later generations, the king of the stove is not only the god of vesta in charge of the fire stove, the protector of the family, but also the supervising god sent down from heaven, responsible for recording the deeds of his family for a year. Every year, on a certain day, he will go to heaven to report on the situation of this family, and people of course hope that he can "say good things in heaven and ensure peace in the netherworld", so from the perspective of this belief in future generations, people should indeed "flatter the stove".
Painted by the Qing Dynasty, the picture of the King of the Stove was sent. The inscription on the figure reads: "This picture of the Chinese stove is sent to the stove on December 23 every year." ......”
Unlike other gods, people regarded King Stove as "their own person" and could joke with him. According to folk customs, the stove is sacrificed every year on the twenty-third day of the lunar month (twenty-four or twenty-five in some areas). Folk proverb: "On the twenty-third day of the waxing moon, the sugar melon is sticky." "People often stick sugar to the stove on this day, and sacrifice the king of the stove, hoping to stick maltose to his mouth and prevent him from talking nonsense." In "Journey to the West", the sand monk probably had a very dark face and looked very much like the king of the stove, so the eighty-eighth time, everyone arrived at the Yuhua King's Mansion, and all the officials shouted after seeing the sand monk: "Stove King!" Stove Jun! "Here, Sun Wukong, Pig Eight Precepts, and Sha Monk took three princes as apprentices.
The stove prince is also hierarchical, there is a stove prince in the family, and there is a place to manage the chief stove prince of each household. The Soap King's Temple in Beijing (originally called the Zao Jun Temple) was dedicated to the King of The Stove during the Ming and Qing dynasties, and there is still a stele that records the origin of the King of the Stove:
The saying of vesta is found in Zhuangzi. And the Mengxia sacrifice stove, the ritual scripture has clear text. The origin of the cover stove is old! The land of folk kitchens, for example, set up a god's seat. Honorable Knows: Eastern Chef Si Ming. The month of three volts, the rate of three gods. At the end of the year, it is fed with livestock mash, commonly known as: drunkenness. In the first month, it is greeted, and the porridge drum is eaten, and the poet writes every chapter, and the special shrine is que Ruye.
In the Qing Dynasty, Dong Yu painted "Yellow Sheep Ancestral Stove". The Book of Later Han records that when Emperor Xuan of Han was emperor, a man named Yin Zifang saw the god vesta and killed the yellow sheep to sacrifice the god of vesta, and since then he has had good luck. As a result, the custom of killing yellow sheep and sacrificing stoves was handed down. Lu Xun has a poem: "Only chicken gum tooth candy, canonical clothes for petal incense." If there is no long thing in the house, is there only one yellow sheep? ”
In short, in Western Greek mythology, there is its city-state patron saint, while in Chinese folk beliefs, the city-state patron saint is often "multiple insurance", from a city, a side of the earth, to a family has a god responsible for blessing. At home, in addition to these regional patron saints, people can also offer guan erye, paste the bell and door gods, or engrave "Jiang Taigong is here", and so on. Although some of these folk beliefs originate from feudal superstitions, they have deeply influenced ancient architecture, painting, literature and customs, and they are also a symbolic basis for examining local culture.
(This article is excerpted from "China in symbols", with deletions, the title is prepared by the editor, originally titled "City God, Land Gong and Stove Prince: Regional Guardian Deity")