Cover news reporter Xu Yuyang
Spring, spring begins and is established also. In the folk festival, Li Chun is the first of the year, the new enlightenment of reincarnation, and the beginning of all things. The silent and closed winter has finally passed, and the wind and the warm spring are coming: the east wind thaws, the stings begin to vibrate, and the fish are negative on the ice.
The plan of the year is spring. From ancient times to the present, Lichun is a major festival in the mainland. Every spring, officials and people carry out large-scale spring celebrations and festivals. Who is it? Who is the sacrifice? Although there are different theories, the spring god Jumong must be the most mentioned ancient deity.
An ancient deity who "holds several positions"
The growth of grass and trees, the beginning of all things
Sentence (phonetic hook) Mang, also known as mangshen and wood god, is the god who dominates the growth of grass and trees and various life, and is also the god who dominates agricultural production, so it is also known as the god of spring.
Although Jurman is often referred to as the God of Spring, his "divine power" is far more than that. In the examination of many heirlooms and excavated documents, Jurman not only participated in the creation of the world and the creation of all things, but also managed the growth of grass and trees, in charge of spring, and was the guardian deity of the Orient. This combination of multiple identities also makes Jurman unique in folk mythology.
In the Chu Shu book previously unearthed in Changsha, the myth of the four seasons and the myth of creation circulated during the Warring States period were recorded: the heavens and the earth were chaotic, the water flowed, and the god Fuxi ordered his four sons to help govern the heavens and the earth, restore the order of the universe, and create new life. One of the sons, "Si Chun", has an image of a bird with a long human face and a short tail, and Fang Fang's eyes have no eyes, and scholars have verified that it is the folk "Spring God Sentence Mang".
The Classic of Mountains and Seas mentions: "The Eastern Sentence, the bird body and human face, ride two dragons." The Huainan Zi says, "The Extreme of the East... East to the sunrise, the land of the mallet, the field of green earth trees, the place of TaiHao and Jurmang. ”
"Harujin Juraman" in modern manga
From many early mythological texts, if you search for "Jurmang", you will find that he often appears in conjunction with the "East" orientation. For example, in the Classic of Mountains and Seas, the gods of the four directions are the Eastern Jurman, the Southern Zhurong, the Western Humiliation, and the Northern Yuqiang. They also correspond to the four seasons of spring, summer, autumn and winter. It is also the deity that guards the East.
In addition, Jurman is also a "wood god". Zheng Xuan of the Eastern Han Dynasty wrote annotated the Book of Rites, which read: "His emperor Jurman, the son of Emperor Shaohao, was a wooden official. The Eastern Han Dynasty Gao Luan's "Lü Shi Chunqiu" also said: "Jurman, the son of Shao Hao, Yue Zhong, the emperor of Samud, died as the god of muguan." Both of these materials say that Gu Mang's name is Zhong, and he is the official in charge of grass and trees.
What can be seen is that whether it is life, the East, the grass and trees, spring, all kinds of symbols are gathered in one, they do not exist independently, but are one and multi-faceted. In mainland folklore and mythology, the East itself symbolizes the germination of life, the growth of grass and trees is also related to life, the bud of everything, the beginning of all things, that is, spring.
Therefore, Jurman is called "Spring God", which is related to the imagery of life, grass and trees that are already present in the prototype of its mythology.
Chun Shen Sentence Mang "Fell off the Altar"
Become our collective memory
The search for the origins of Jurmang is obviously particularly complex, but in short, many scholars believe that it is related to the totems of some eastern tribes on the mainland in ancient times. When the Eastern tribe and the Huaxia tribe were fused, the totem of this human-faced bird body was blended with the totem "dragon" of the Huaxia tribe, resulting in a new totem of "multiplying two dragons" in Jumang.
The ceremony of "welcoming spring" is performed on Spring Day, which has a history of about 3,000 years. The most important of these is the sacrifice of the god of spring. At the beginning of spring, Tianzi personally led the princes to the eastern suburbs to welcome the spring and pray for a good harvest. After returning, he also rewarded the courtiers, distributed relief to the people, and encouraged Nongsang.
The Book of the Later Han Dynasty records that during the Eastern Han Dynasty, "Yingchun" said: "On the day of the establishment of spring, yingchun was in the eastern suburbs, and the Qing Emperor was sacrificed." The riding clothes are all green. The song "Qingyang", the dance of the Eight Dances "Cloud Warp". "Here we are talking about the official sacrifice of The Sentence Mang.
Of course, the Book of the Later Han Dynasty also mentions the scene of the Spring Festival ceremony in the county outside Luoyang. The gist of it is that in the spring, everyone dresses up and performs sacrifices on the east side of the town. Choose a boy wearing a green scarf and green clothes and hide in the wild first. When the ritual people were finished, he stepped out of the grass and pretended to be the "spring god". When the people prostrate, the boys enjoy the sacrifice on behalf of the gods.
"Spring God Sentence Mang" in modern illustration
Thousands of years of Chinese history, ancient texts have many records of the activities of "sacrificing Sentence Mang" on the spring day. However, with the folk activity of "unearthing cattle to send cold air" to the day of spring, "whipping spring cattle to welcome spring" was widely established in the mainland, and the sacrifice of the "spring god Jurman" gradually faded.
For example, when Su Shi wrote the Lichun Sacrifice Text, there was the "Lichun Sacrifice Earth Cow Blessing Text", which also offered the "Earth Cow", which said that "dare to tell the god of Gou Mang", which is obviously already a belief and hope for the Spring God Gu Mang.
In addition, some scholars mentioned that in the Southern Song Dynasty, there were two more important customs and folklore classics, one was Wu Zimu's "Dream Liang Record" and the other was the elaborate "Wulin Old Things". Both books have a detailed account of "Li Chun", but neither of them has left a single word about Jurmang.
From the Song Dynasty to the Ming and Qing dynasties, the name "Jurmang" no longer appeared in folk activities, and was replaced by a more "persuasion of farmers" and more folkloric "folk gods" based on the god of mang. This may also be related to the rapid development of mainland agriculture and the gradual budding of the commercial economy, so that many "immortal figures" have fallen to the "altar" in the more secular Song, Yuan, Ming, and Qing dynasties.
To this day, we have rarely really seen the spring festival activities related to the "Spring God Sentence Mang", but as an ancient god that exists in the collective memory of the people on the mainland, his vigorous image of life is still our best praise for spring.