Why do Chinese believe in Guan Gong?

Learn from Guan Gong, practice great fortune, worship Guan Gong, and form a good relationship

Just look at the distribution of China's Guandi Temple: from Heilongjiang to Taiwan and Hainan Island, from the coast of the East China Sea to Lhasa, Tibet, Guandi Temple can be found everywhere. If it is extended overseas, in the "Chinese character cultural circle" of Japan, South Korea, Vietnam, Singapore and even overseas Chinese settlements, there are also relevant imperial temples, and the scale is not small. The ancients had a saying: "Shandong Wen sage, Shanxi Wu sage." "Wen Shengren refers to Confucius, and Wu Shengren refers to Guan Gong, both of which go hand in hand, and are both known for their virtues, which shows the status of Guan Gong in folk beliefs." In China and Southeast Asia, Guan Gong is also revered as the patron saint of commerce, regarded as the "god of martial wealth", ranking first among the gods of wealth and wealth. In civil society, Guan Gong is used as a place where village protectors and family protectors abound.

Chinese folk believe in polytheism, and before the multitude of gods were not solidified in their divinity, most of them were only passed down in the form of faith in the folk. Folk belief is the basis of god-making activities, but also the soul of Guan Gong worship, without faith, there will be no many gods appearing in the lives of the people, and there will not be so many Guan Gong temples and Guan Gong ancestral halls appearing in various regions and ethnic groups.

The folk god-making movement is not a product of a time and a place, but has undergone a long historical process. This historical process has many foreshadowings and can only be completed in an atmosphere of faith. The greatest influence in the Guan Gong faith and the God-making movement was the Romance of the Three Kingdoms. However, as far as the process of writing the "Romance of the Three Kingdoms" is concerned, it was not created by Luo Guanzhong alone, and his creative materials came from the following aspects: folklore, gossip, drama creation, barnyard official yeshi, and Chen Shou's "Romance of the Three Kingdoms". "Romance of the Three Kingdoms" is based on these materials processed and created, but the character image and ideas expressed in "Romance of the Three Kingdoms" provide opportunities for the folk god-making movement. However, what exactly contributed to Guan Gong's rise from a warlord to the altar is a question worth exploring.

Guan Gong's evolution from man to god

Guan Gong has many titles in the folk, Guan Laoye, Guan Di, Guan Wang, Guan Ye, Guan Sheng, Guan Fuzi and so on. He was originally a Shu Han warlord during the Three Kingdoms period, surnamed Guan, given the name Yu, and the character Yunchang, a native of Changping Village, Xie County, Yuncheng, Shanxi. The history books record: Guan Yu died in Benzhuo County. He formed an alliance with Liu Bei and Zhang Fei taoyuan and assisted Liu Bei in establishing the Shu state regime. In the twenty-fourth year of Jian'an (219 AD), he was captured and killed after losing the war with Sun Quan.

After Guan Yu died, he did not immediately become a god. In a sense, Guan Gong's enlightenment is not initiated by the people like the ordinary folk god-making process, but by the upper echelons. In the fifth year of Jian'an (200 AD), Guan Yu was given the title of "Marquis of Hanshouting", and after his death, he was posthumously honored as "Marquis of Zhuangmiao" by the later lord Liu Chan. According to the ancient custom, all those who have made meritorious achievements in history, if they receive a gift after death, must build a shrine to sacrifice. However, from about Wei to Tang, although there were seals, Guan Yu's influence on the people was not too large. Tang Shi may be seen in the legend, called Guan Sanlang, a stream of ghosts. At the end of the Tang Dynasty, Fan Xi's "Yunxi Friendship Discussion" Yun: "The former Shu general Guan Yu guarded Jingzhou, and Jingzhou had a jade spring shrine, and the world was called the four absolute realms. Or it is said that this ghost helped the work of civil engineering, and the shrine was called the god Sanlang. Saburo is also Known as Sekisaburo. "It shows that before and after the Tang Dynasty, there were already sacrifices to Guan Gong. By the middle of the Song Dynasty, the situation was very different because Taoism included Guan Gong in its own divine lineage, and the Guan Gong faith continued to heat up. In the Ming Dynasty, especially after the "Romance of the Three Kingdoms" appeared at the end of the Yuan Dynasty and the beginning of the Ming Dynasty, the influence of Guan Gong's faith expanded, and Guan Yu's image of loyalty and righteousness went deep into the official and folk. In the forty-second year of the Ming Dynasty (1614 AD), Emperor Shenzong Zhu Yijun not only made Guan Yu emperor, but also made him "Emperor Of the Three Realms Voldemort Emperor Weiyuan Zhen Tianzun Guansheng Emperor", and was honored as the god of protecting the country and the people. In the first year of qing shunzhi (1644 AD), Guan Yu was named "Emperor Wuguansheng of Zhongyi Shen". When the Kangxi Emperor of the Qing Dynasty traveled west through Xiezhou, he paid homage to the Guandi Temple and personally wrote the plaque "Yi Bing Qiankun". The Yongzheng Emperor posthumously honored Guan Yu's grandfather and father as dukes. Qianlong, Jiaqing, and Daoguang successively increased the titles of Guan Yu, and finally became "Ren Yong Wei Xian, Protector of the Country, Protecting the People, Sincere Appeasement, Yi Zan Xuande Zhongyi Shen Wu Guan Sheng Emperor". The core of the ruling class's recognition of Guan Yu's spirit is also the moral code that can be reached by the people, and it is ultimately due to the value orientation of Guan Gong's image - "loyalty and righteousness". "Zhongyi", as the consensus of the official and the people on the value orientation, makes Guan Gong a symbol and carrier, and pins too many demands on the official and the people. Only God can carry so many demands.

Ritual sacrifices were at the heart of Emperor Guan's faith

From the birth of Guan Gong to his death, folk associations are rich and colorful, such as the legend of "grinding knife rain", why Guan Gong's face is red, and so on. Through figurative narration, these folklore express the public's evaluation of Guan Gong's deeds, and also play a role in promoting the spread of Guan Gong's deeds.

After Guan Gong became a god, the construction of the Guan Di Temple to worship Guan Gong became a major part of traditional Chinese culture, and its activities became closely related to people's lives. A Guandi temple is a display of customs and folk sentiments; a statue of Guan Gong is a moral model and spiritual sustenance for tens of millions of people.

There must be sacrifices in temples, and sacrifices must have corresponding time and sacrifice rituals, and sacrifice rituals have always been the core of Guandi's beliefs. Sacrifices are divided into folk and official ceremonies. Folk sacrifices express the people's belief and eagerness, relatively loose, as long as there is a demand, you can go to the temple anytime and anywhere to burn incense and worship. Official worship is a large-scale sacrifice and is relatively formal. Since Guan Yu was crowned by successive emperors, the sacrifice of Guan Gong has risen to the position of national ceremony. According to the "Guandi Zhi Ritual Code": "During the Ming Jiajing period, the Dingjing Shi Ceremony, on the thirteenth day of May of each year, met the birthday of Emperor Guan, and sent Taichang officials to perform rituals with cattle one, sheep one, pig one, fruit five, and one bow. The four Meng and the twilight of the year, the officials are sacrificed, and the state is told of major events. Where there is a sacrifice, please send officials to perform the ritual in advance. "In the late Qing Dynasty, the ceremony of worshipping Emperor Guan reached its peak. In the third year of Xianfeng (1853), emperor Guan's official navel was listed as a "middle ceremony", and the sacrifice was to "perform three kneeling and nine kowtows, music six songs, and dance eight, such as imperial temple ceremonies".

At present, the rituals of sacrifice have been very vague, and both the folk and official rituals are not very clear, and the standardization, solemnity and seriousness of the sacrifice ceremonies have been lost. In particular, the transformation of serious rituals into official cultural festivals, the Guandi Temple seems to have become a space for cultural entertainment, cultural performances and trade negotiations.

Guan Gong Beliefs and Intangible Cultural Heritage Protection

Guangong culture is a big culture. At present, Shanxi Xiezhou Guan Gong Folk Letter has entered the list of national intangible cultural heritage. When it comes to the protection of Guan Gong culture, I think we should start from three aspects.

First, the ritual of rebuilding the Guan Gong faith should be resumed. Society is developing, and it is impossible to restore the ancient rituals today, but the folk faith is not a general intangible cultural heritage, and the ritual culture is its indispensable content. Therefore, as a Guangong culture, if the palace and temple sacrifice ceremony has disappeared, there is no need to force it, but the folk sacrifice ceremony must be protected.

Second, it is necessary to protect the ecological environment of the folk public belief. Civil society has preserved many customs of the Guan Gong faith, in what way these customs are passed on, and fieldwork is done to record them as a reference for protection. Otherwise, just rebuilding the Guandi Temple would make no sense. If it is considered combined with tourism, it is more important to pay attention to the connotation of Guan Gong culture, so that this culture can be shared by tourists.

Third, it is necessary to protect the folk legend of Guan Gong. The legends of Guan Gong in the whole country are vast and must be collected carefully through fieldwork.