The late Qing Dynasty poet Zhang Chaoyong has a poem "Worship the Rabbit God", the poem is like this:
Worship the rabbit god
[Qing] Zhang Chaoyong
The Gui Hall of the Toad Palace is clean and dust-free, and the paper-cut ball is like a full wheel of the moon.
Don't have ignorant children, burn incense and worship the rabbit god.
The poet Zhang Chaoyong used this poem to describe a group of children worshipping the moon rabbit god on the night of the Mid-Autumn Festival.
Mid-Autumn Festival moon viewing eat moon cake
The first sentence of this poem uses "pure and dustless" to write the clarity of the Mid-Autumn Moon, which is very expressive. The second sentence introduces the moon festival in the backyard of the family on the night of the Mid-Autumn Festival, when people cut paper like a full moon to make offerings. "Full Moon" is also a supplement to the first sentence. The last two sentences write about the scene when worshipping the moon, and only choose to write the scene of the children worshiping the rabbit god. The use of "other" means that the children worship the moon, which is outside the ranks of women. The children's "ignorance" also came to join in the fun, they had heard stories about Chang'e and Jade Rabbit in the Moon Palace when they were young, and they loved it. Therefore, incense is burned to worship the rabbit god to express his love for the white rabbit in the moon palace.
Mid-Autumn Festival
Zhang Chaoyong's poem is vividly worded, as if it makes people see a group of naïve and childish children gathered together to worship the moon, which is quite interesting.
The rabbit god mentioned in this poem seems to be a misuse of the traditional toy rabbit in old Beijing, which originated in the late Ming and early Qing dynasties, a kind of moon worship clay doll, which is made of mud to make the image of the jade rabbit, wearing human clothes and sitting, and children kneeling down to worship. Later, in the late Qing Dynasty, it became a common children's toy.
The old Beijing toy rabbit is based on the jade rabbit in the middle of the moon
The rabbit god, but not from the moon jade rabbit, he is a very special local god in Fujian, China, it is said that this god specializes in the feelings of the same sex in the world, is a veritable comrade protection god.
In ancient China, because of the backwardness of science and technology, the wind of folk belief is very strong, people from all walks of life will worship the protective god of their own industry, such as the protective god of commerce is Zhao Gongming, the protector god of the paper industry is Cai Lun, the protective god of the pottery industry is Fan Li, the protective god of the salt industry is The Taoist Ge Hong, the protective god of the wine industry is Du Kang, the protector god of the slaughter industry is Zhang Fei, the protector god of the pharmaceutical industry is Sun Simiao, the protector god of the medical industry is Huatuo, and so on, and even the legal Qinglou industry in feudal society is enshrined in its own protective god Guan Zhong. This cannot but be said to be one of the great wonders of our folklore.
Zhao Gongming, the god of martial wealth
What is even more incredible is that even the men engaged in the wind and moon industry, known as xiaoguan in the Ming Dynasty and Xianggong in the Qing Dynasty, also have their own protective gods, such as King Yin Shangyun, who lost his country because of his love for himself, Wei Linggong in the Spring and Autumn Period who loved men's style, and Hu Tianbao, a local small god in Fujian, who were worshipped as the gods of comrades, and folkly known as rabbit gods.
Interior view of the Taiwan Rabbit Temple
The Qing Dynasty liang Shaoren's "Essays on the Two Autumn Rain Temples" has an interesting record that says:
Outside the Qingtai Gate in Hangzhou, Zhejiang Province, temples are sometimes moved, and thieves often go to worship; there is a Songjiang Temple in Jining, Shandong, and robbers often go to worship; there is a temple of the King of Lu in Ji County, Henan, and people with the habit of Longyang love to go; the Weiling Gong Temple in Anhui and the Hu Tianbao Temple in Fujian are all ancestors who are engaged in the work of "Longyang Jun" and worship.
The story of the King of Sui and the Duke of Wei Linggong is more familiar to everyone, so I will not be verbose, so let's talk about the origin of this Local Rabbit God Hu Tianbao in Fujian.
Cover of the comic strip "The King and the King"
According to the Qing Dynasty literary scholar Yuan Ming's "Zi Bu Shu. The Rabbit God records:
The rabbit god Hu Tianbao was originally an obsessive child in his previous life, when it was the beginning of the love dou, it just so happened that the local government sent a young and beautiful inspector Yushi, and Hu Tianbao fell in love with the other party at the first sight of The Imperial History. Every time lord Yushi ascended to the temple, he would definitely run to sneak a peek. Inspector Yushi soon found him, very suspicious but not easy to say, and the secretary around him did not dare to tell. Inspector Yushi went to inspect other places, and this Hu Tianbao also followed, and once again secretly ran to the toilet to peek at the adult. When the adult found out, he was very angry and asked him what was going on, at first he refused to say, and then he was tortured before he honestly confessed: "You are too handsome, let people fall in love at first sight, I know that the laurel tree in the sky cannot let the birds on the ground inhabit, but still the spirit is fluttering, and I unconsciously do such a rude thing to the adult." Inspector Yushi's face turned pale when he heard this, and he ordered his men to beat him to death.
A month later, Hu Tianbao told the villagers a dream: "I offended the adults because of my indecent behavior, and I have more than enough to die, but after all, I am a piece of delusion, not malicious and harmful, and the officials of the prefectural government think that I am a more funny person, so they canonize me as a rabbit god, specializing in human same-sex feelings." You can build a temple for me and burn incense, and I will bless you. ”
Qing Dynasty literary scholar Yuan Ming
Yuan Ming's imitation of the Six Dynasties Zhiwei short story collection "Zi Bu Shu"
During the Qing Dynasty, Fujian was very popular among men to worship the "Brother Qi", that is, adult men often looked for young men to be brothers, so everyone believed it to be true, donated money to build a temple, and sure enough, the magic was incomparable, and since then Hu Tianbao has become the protector god of comrades. From this note novel, it can also be seen that the attitude toward homosexuality in the Qing Dynasty was not a harsh punishment, but only an easy ridicule.
The belief in the rabbit god, which belongs to a kind of folk obscenity, has now faded from people's vision, and its records are only preserved in the Qing Dynasty notebook novels.
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Stills from "Rabbit God Gets Married"
All the men and women who eat and drink in the world inevitably have to face emotional troubles, people in the face of lost love, marriage crisis and other issues, they love to ask God, since the person in charge of the marriage between men and women already has an old man under the moon, then the Ming and Qing people have created a rabbit god is not surprising. It is said that now in Taiwan, there is a very small rabbit temple, and what is more exaggerated is that in 2010, there was also a divine drama called "Rabbit God Marriage", whose plot is also quite dog blood, and I have to admire the imagination of the screenwriter.