Today, on the seventh day of the Lunar New Year, if the fifteenth day of the first lunar month is regarded as the Interpretation of the New Year, the seventh day of the New Year is halfway through. On the seventh day of the first lunar month, according to the Central Plains Han mythology Nuwa created man, the seventh day of the first lunar month is the birth day of man, so it is called "Human Day", "Human Festival", "Spring Victory", "Human Victory Festival".
The history and culture of each ethnic group are different, and the first thing is reflected in the mythology's interpretation of the appearance of heaven and earth and man. The myths and legends of the Manchurians and the Han people in the Central Plains are different, and they are also different from the Western saying that God created the heavens and the earth and all things and people, and some of the differences are still huge.
According to the Western God, he first created the heavens and the earth and all things, the sixth day created man, and the seventh day was the day of rest. According to the folklore of the Central Plains, it is Nuwa who created the five treasures and people, and there is no concept of God. The order created by Nuwa is one chicken, two dogs, three pigs, four sheep, five cattle, six horses, seven people, and eight grains, which means that the first seven days are human days. And there was no rest, and on the eighth day the valley was created.
The Han nationality in the Central Plains is an agrarian culture, and the creation of the Five Treasures, People and Valleys by Nuwa reflects the farming culture's observation of the world. The Western culture we are talking about, derived from the ancient myths and legends of the Jewish Hebrews, originated in the Middle East, which reflects the geographical and historical culture has its own characteristics.
The gap between the Central Plains Han chinese and the Western narrative is still very large. In the folk legends of the Central Plains, the seven are related to human life, and there is a custom of "seven seven" for the sacrifice of the deceased, which means that it is related to human life; the seventh day of the seventh month of the lunar calendar is called "Tanabata", which is also related to human life.
According to the folklore about the Khitan contained in the Liao Shi Li Zhi Liu Jiayi Xia( "The day of man, the day of the first month, one chicken, two dogs, three pigs, four sheep, five horses, six cattle, seven days for man." Its occupation, the sun is auspicious, and the yin is disaster. The customary pancakes are eaten in the court, which is called 'Kaoru Heaven'. ”
This shows that from the beginning of the Liao Dynasty, the Inner Asian peoples have the saying that the first seven days are the people's day, which is different from the order of the Central Plains legends, the Central Plains are five cattle and six horses, cattle play a big role in farming, while the horses in the Central Plains only play a transportation role, and the role of horses is not as good as that of cattle. The Inner Asian people are five horses and six cattle, because the Inner Asian peoples are all peoples on horseback, and putting the horse in front shows that the horse's status among the Inner Asian people is higher than that of the cattle. Moreover, the sub-peoples of this day have the custom of eating pancakes.
The Manchu version has its own version, the central plains are the creation of Nuwa and God, and the West is God who created all things and people. The earliest gods in Manchuria were goddesses, the two daughters of the gods, who refined thirty-three thousand three hundred and thirty-three small tories (divine mirrors), and threw the shining little tories into the sky, becoming countless stars in the sky. The sisters then took the ten red and large flames refined by the gods and shone them on the ground, and in ancient times these ten flames were like ten suns, roasting the people and all things on the ground could not stand it. A Baturu sharpshooter cut down a large tree to make a bow and made strings out of linden bark and rattan. Eight flames were shot down with arrows, and only two remained. The gods separated the two daughters, the older sister becoming "Shun" (sun) and the younger sister becoming "Biya" (moon).
There are many goddesses in Manchurian mythology, the order in which the goddess created the five treasures and people is one chicken, two ducks, three cats, four dogs, five pigs, six sheep, seven people, and there are a series of taboos, the first one taboo to kill chickens, the first two taboos to kill ducks, cats and dogs are always taboo not to kill, the first five taboos to kill pigs, the first six taboos to kill sheep. The article of Shi Lixue, an expert in Manchu folklore, said that the Manchus in northeast China still eat pancakes on the seventh day of the first lunar month, which is called "kaoru" and should be made in the courtyard to commemorate people's birthdays.
Regarding whether to create men or women first, most ethnic groups have the idea of male superiority and female inferiority, believing that men were created first and women were created first, and only Manchurian mythology believes that women were created first, and then men were created. Central Plains mythology, after the Pangu world, the earliest two Yuan gods, Fuxi is male, Nuwa is female, peeing and mud to create people, the earliest created four people are male, and later created women. Judging from the mythology of the Central Plains, it is that there are more men and fewer women, indicating that the male superiority and female superiority of the Central Plains are serious. The Western God first made Adam the man out of dust, and then drew a rib from Adam to make the woman Eve. Manchurian mythology is different from other peoples, the goddess used clay to first create a person who is a woman, and then a person, plus Soso (male genitalia), to become a man. Manchuria is probably the most inferior people in the world.
According to folklore, there are many taboos before the fifth day of the first year, before the fifth day of the first year, generally no longer cook, the first five is called broken five, so after the sixth day of the first year, there are no taboos, you can cook. There is also Manchu custom, the New Year between each other's doors and New Year's greetings, according to customs, the seventh day of the New Year is the last day of mutual visits to the New Year.
Author Fucha Chunbing
Manchu Culture Network original article.