In recent years, the popularity of short videos has greatly enriched people's entertainment life, i think you must have seen such a video: someone will write the word "poor" on the beach, Let the waves wash away the word "poor", and there is a way to write the word "poor" on a paper airplane or tied to a firecracker, and then release or light a firecracker. In fact, the Hakka people in ancient society had the custom of sending poor ghosts on the third day of the first month of the first month, hoping to send away all the poor luck of the year, and after sending the poor ghosts, they would immediately greet the arrival of the god of wealth.
First, the legend of sending poor ghosts
The legend of sending a poor ghost originally had to start with a person who could not fight with the poor eight rods. The Song Dynasty Chen Yuanliang's "Miscellaneous Records of the Years" quoted the "Wenzong Beiqing" as saying: "When Gaoxin was in the palace, a son was born in the palace, and he did not wear his clothes, and the palace was called a poor son. After that, he died in the first month of the first month, and was buried in the palace, which is called 'sending the poor son today'." This is to say that the Emperor of The Emperor gave birth to a buried child, although this child is a prince, he has a quirk, always likes to wear torn clothes, even if it is to give him new clothes, he also likes to wear clothes torn and wear, obviously a prince, but always dress himself like a poor ghost. Because of this, the people in the palace called him "poor son." Later, the poor man died in the first month, and when he was buried, everyone said "send the poor son". Over time, there is a custom of sending poor ghosts in the first month.
Boom
This is the most official and widely spread legend about the custom of sending poor ghosts. However, the Hakka have their own legend, and although the Hakka people in different regions will adapt this legend, the basic structure of the legend is the same. One version describes sending a poor ghost like this:
Once upon a time, there was a couple who were so poor that their husbands really couldn't help but let their wives remarry a foreigner. His wife originally wanted to help him, but she was afraid that her current husband would find out, so she hid the silver two in the rice cake and gave it to her ex-husband, and when the ex-husband crossed the river with the rice cake to go home, he had no money to pay the boat fare, so he paid the rice cake to the boatman. Not long after the ex-husband returned home, he was so poor that he found his ex-wife and hoped that she could help her, and the ex-wife told the ex-husband about the money hidden in the rice cake, and the ex-husband was surprised and gave the whole matter out. When his ex-wife heard this, she was very angry and scolded him: "You damn poor ghost! "Later, the poor ghost hid in the firewood room of his ex-wife's house and froze to death because of the cold. The ex-wife was afraid that others would find out that she was still in contact with her ex-husband, so she burned the firewood house and poured it into the river with ashes and ashes, and when others asked what she was doing, she replied: "I am sending poor ghosts!" So the custom spread.
The legend of the Taiwanese Hakka "sending poor ghosts" is basically similar to this legend, but the specific plot is somewhat different. In the story of the Hakka family in Taiwan, there is still a couple, and the difference is that the husband of the couple, Wu Zhifu, is a gambler, and he sold his wife Ah Xiu after losing. The plot of the back is basically consistent with the above story, Ah Xiu secretly hid the silver two in the bun to help Wu Zhifu, and Wu Zhifu gave the bun to the boatman. However, Wu Zhifu's method of death is different from the above legend. In this legend, Wu Zhifu was stabbed to death by the angry Ah Xiu with his hand, and after Wu Zhifu's death, Ah Xiu and her husband stuffed Wu Zhifu's body into a charcoal stove filled with garbage and straw on the third day of the first year, and wanted to take it to the suburbs to bury it, and set off firecrackers while walking. When people asked them what they were doing, they replied, "Sending poor ghosts!" ”
The Hakka legend of sending poor ghosts is obviously very different from the official legend, but it is interesting to read and has a certain educational significance.
Folk "poor ghost" image
Second, the ancients and the poor ghosts
Although the custom of sending poor ghosts is very popular among the Hakka, this custom was not created by the Hakka. During the Southern and Northern Dynasties, there were already records of the custom of "sending poor ghosts". The Records of the Jingchu Dynasty of the Liang Dynasty of the Southern and Northern Dynasties once recorded: "(The first month) sends the poor on an obscure day." ”
In the Tang Dynasty, poets who loved to write poetry also paid attention to the festival of sending poor ghosts. The Tang Dynasty poet Yao He once wrote "Three Songs for Sending The Poor on obscure days", one of which wrote: "Every year on this day, the liquor is poured into the street." Thousands of households look at thousands of doors, and no one does not send them to the poor. This poem describes the spectacular scene of sending poor ghosts in the first month that the poet saw, and almost every household did not send poor people, which shows that the custom of sending poor ghosts in the Tang Dynasty was very popular.
But is it really useful to send poor ghosts? Yao He then wrote: "Sending the poor to the poor, what is the desire of the mud?" "We send poor ghosts every year, but poor ghosts don't leave." This made Yao He feel very helpless, and he could only sigh: "Just send it in the air, and don't go out every year."
The great poet Han Yu also wrote a famous "Sending Poor Text", in which a physical poor ghost was fictionalized, and Han Yu talked to this poor ghost from the perspective of a master, which was interesting and hilarious to read. At the beginning of the article, Han Yu confessed that in the first month of the sixth year of Yuan He, the master asked the slaves to "tie willows as carts, tie grass to boats, carry the rice, tie the yoke of the cattle, and lead the sails to the tree", all of which were prepared for the poor ghosts, which can be seen to be very formal. After preparing these things, the slave said to these poor ghosts, "There will be a day when the smell is done." "I heard that you are leaving, everything is ready for you, you should still hurry up on the road, don't delay any longer."
The poor ghost's answer is also very interesting, it said to the owner of the article: "I have lived with my son for more than forty years, the son is a child, I am not stupid... I am the only one who protects ru, and everyone is suspicious. From the beginning to the end, he did not turn his back on you, and his heart was no different. "Probably means that I have been with you for forty years, have always been inseparable from you, others have disliked you, only I have protected you, I have never betrayed you, why do you want to drive me away today?"
Of course, it is not a good thing to be with the poor ghost, but the poor ghost himself may not realize it, and blame the owner in the article for being unkind. Han Yu's writing of this "Sending Poor Text" is obviously "carrying the tao in the text", and is not really describing the custom of sending poor ghosts, but this article reflects the popularity of the custom of sending poor ghosts in the Tang Dynasty.
Since then, the custom of sending poor ghosts has been passed down through the generations, and the Song Dynasty poet Lu You once wrote in "Over the East Village in the Rain" that "poor ghosts have spirits that can't linger, and the dead devils are powerful to the end", which is obviously complaining that poor ghosts always linger and make people upset. Yu Quyuan of the Qing Dynasty also recorded the words of the former dynasty in the "Tea Room Three Bills to Send Poor Ghosts", "Advise Lang Jun's little lady to send poor ghosts in the air". In the Ming and Qing dynasties, poor ghosts were also called poor gods in some places, and their specifications were obviously improved a lot.
Third, how to send poor ghosts?
The custom of sending poor ghosts is widely spread in many parts of the country, because the days and methods of sending poor ghosts are different because of different regions. The Qiongtai Zhi records that the Hainan region was sent Chinese New Year's Eve to the poor: "Chinese New Year's Eve, sweep away the filth and carry it with the broken buds, burn the lamp inside, and throw the dust-sweeping bamboo broom with it." On the day of Chinese New Year's Eve, the people of Hainan will wrap up some filthy things and throw them into the fire to burn, which is called "sending the poor."
In other places, there are also those who send poor ghosts on the fourth, fifth and sixth days of the first year. Huailai County, Hebei Province, is accustomed to sending poverty on the fourth day of the first year, and the way is more complicated than the way Hainan sends poverty. On the night of the fourth day of the first year, the people of Huailai County will sweep the dust under the bed in the room, the woman will use paper cuts to make a woman-like paper person, the paper person will hold a broom, carry a paper bag, and the paper bag will also be filled with dry food, this paper person will be called "sweeping Qing Niang" or "Five Poor Women", and after dawn, someone will shout on the street: "Send the five poor women!" "Then people will take out the five poor ladies who have been prepared for a long time and burn them." After burning, people also collect the ashes, which can be used for fertilization and prayers on rainy days.
Zhangbei County, Hebei Province, sent the poor on the fifth day of the first year, and there were also "five poor women" when sending the poor, but the five poor women here did not carry dry food, but the dust that was swept out, and the way to deal with the five poor women was not to burn, but to use firecrackers to fry.
Hakka people mostly send poor ghosts on the third day of the first year, on this day they generally do not go out to meet guests, Jiangxi Chongyi will be "the third day of the first year" this day is called "poor ghost day", do not put wine and do not treat guests. The way to send the poor is much the same as the previous discussion, the way to send the poor in Xingning County, Guangdong is to use a dustpan to pack filthy things, all the way to burn incense to the suburbs, Guangdong Ruyuan County's way of sending poverty is a little more luxurious, on this day people will not only use dustpans to remove filthy things, but also sprinkle paper money, cakes and oranges on the street to feed the poor ghosts. Instead of burning filthy things with fire, the poor ghosts in Taiwan's Taoyuan area will fill them with dustpans and other filthy things such as garbage, cover them with an old broom and put them at the intersection.
Although the way to send poor ghosts is slightly different in each region, in general, they clean up the filthy things in their homes, which is called "going poor to meet the rich". In some places, the Hakka family will send filthy things out on the third day of the first year to send poor ghosts, but on the second day of the first year, it is different, and on the second day of the first year, the Hakka family will sweep the floor as usual, but sweep from the outside of the house to the inside of the house, which is called sweeping the wealth in, which is just the opposite of "sending the poor".
The third day of the first year is also called "Triple Day" by the Hakka people, because the harmonic sound of "triple" in Hakka dialect is "raw worm", so avoid entering the vegetable garden to pick vegetables on this day. The Hakka people in some areas also say that the third day of the first year is the day when the rats marry their daughters, so they cannot light the lamp on this night, in the hope that they can fall to the death of the rats and make them cut off their children and grandchildren.
Hakka New Year customs
Wen Shijun said
The mainland is very rich in folklore about the festivals of the new year, and most of these customs are the experience and good expectations of the ancients in their long-term life and production practices. Although there is no basis for "sending poor ghosts", in the long history, it has a vigorous vitality, because behind it is the condensation of people's yearning for a better life in the future. Today, we inherit these traditional folk customs, in addition to psychological comfort, more because traditional folk customs have shaped our national character, cultivated our national feelings, and also allowed us to maintain reverence and identification with our ancestors. Therefore, the custom of "sending poor ghosts" is both an expectation and an expression of emotion, which is worth passing on to each and every one of us.
bibliography
Liu Shanqun: Hakka Etiquette, Fujian Education Publishing House, 1995.
Fang Xuejia: Hakka Folklore, South China University of Technology Press, 2006.
Chen Lina, "A Preliminary Study on the Custom of "Sending Poor Ghosts on the Third Day of the New Year" in Taiwanese Hakka", Journal of Wenzhou University, No. 4, 2012.
(Author: Haoran Wenshi Jingsu)
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