In "Dream of the Red Chamber", Xi Xue is the big man in front of Jia Baoyu. One day, Bao Yu returned to Daiyun Xuan after eating wine, took the tea that Xi Xue had brought, ate half a bowl, and suddenly remembered a bowl of maple dew tea brewed in the morning. This tea was "brewed three or four times before it was outstanding", Baoyu intended to keep it, but taught Xi Xue to take it to Baoyu's wet nurse Grandma Li to drink.
Baoyu had been disgusted with Grandma Li for a long time, smashed the teacup to pieces, and immediately returned to Jia Mu, throwing Grandma Li and Xi Xue out. Later, Aunt Li wanted to eat the crisp cheese left for the attackers, but was stopped by the servants, and scolded the attackers, "Flower Demon Fox Charming", believing that Baoyu threw him and Xi Xue out, and it was the raiders who provoked and instigated them. Under this plot, the Troll left a mysterious comment:
"Xi Xue to the Prison Temple Fang is the main text... Yu only saw that once when he was transcribed, he was lost with the borrowers who waited for five or six drafts, and sighed."
Above_ San rangtang version of "Dream of the Red Chamber"
The criticism of the prison temple also appears several times in "Dream of the Red Chamber". For example, in the twenty-sixth time, "The prison temple has a big text of Xi Xue and Hongyu, but it is lost without a manuscript, sighing"; the twenty-seventh time, Wang Xifeng asks Hongyu to learn from her "the matter of eyebrow height and eyebrows, in and out of the upper and lower sizes", and there is a comment next to it: "And it is the original intention of the heart, see you back in the prison temple".
Due to the loss of the manuscript of "Dream of the Red Chamber" after 80 times. What the story of the "Prison Temple" is unknown. Some red scholars believe that the prison temple here is a reference to the "Yue (嶽) Temple" and is a mountain temple. However, the more mainstream view is that the "prison temple" is the temple of the prison god, the god of prison, which deals with the anecdote that Jia Fu raided the family and the family was convicted and imprisoned. After the prosperity of flowers and brocade, the mansion has become a cloud of smoke. In the prison temple inside the deep prison, I don't know how to stage a story that makes people sigh.
The story of the prison temple in "Dream of the Red Chamber" has been lost, but the ins and outs of the prison god and the prison temple in the old days are still available.
Above_ Gao Tao (2220 BC – 2113 BC), Yan surname (繇姓), Gao surname, ming sui, character Tingjian
Who is the God of Hell
Most of the gods in the Chinese tradition are real characters from ancient historical books. Heroic sages were revered by the people and were worshipped as gods after death. The position of prison god is also held by historical and cultural celebrities, but the prison god has also changed several times.
The first prison god was Gao Tao, the judge of Yao Shun in ancient legends. According to legend, Gao Tao created the earliest judicial system in China (Five Punishments and Five Religions). "Ming Punishment teaches and transforms all the people." China's prisons were also invented by him. "First Aid" has a cloud "Gao Tao built a prison, the law also existed.".
As the inventor of the prison, from the Han Dynasty onwards, Gao Tao deservedly been worshipped as the god of prison. According to the "Later Han Shu Fan Huan Biography", more than two hundred people, including the Eastern Han Dynasty sage Fan Huan, were arrested and imprisoned because of the "disaster of the party", and the jailers asked them to worship the prison god Gao Tao, and Fan Huan said: "Gao Tao is a sage, a direct subject of ancient times. If he knew I hadn't sinned, he would appeal to God for me, and if I was really guilty, what was the point of worship? Therefore, these two hundred political prisoners did not sacrifice Gao Tao.
About Gao Tao, there is also a legend of the badger breaking the prison. The badger is a unicorn beast that can distinguish between good and evil and loyalty. Whenever there is a non-resolution, the gao tao trial will ask the badger to come out, and the badger will use the horn to touch the offender. Therefore, in the prison temple, the side of the Gao pottery statue will also draw a badger, and after the prisoner sacrifices the Gao tao, he will also touch the horn of the badger, so that this divine beast that can distinguish between right and wrong can help him wash away his grievances.
Above_ Xiao He (?) –193 BC), a native of Fengyi, Pei Commandery (沛郡, in modern Feng County, Xuzhou, Jiangsu Province).
But after the Song Dynasty, there was another prison god, that is, Xiao He in the Three Masters of the Early Han Dynasty. The Southern Song Dynasty Hongmai's "Jianyi Zhi" contains that "there is a temple in Yihuang County, and it is said that he served Xiao Xiangguo, and he did not know where to start" Yao Zongyi's "Changshu Private Zhi" of the Ming Dynasty" "Xiao Wang, the land of Yi, is also enshrined in the county prison".
The reason why Xiao He became a prison god is that he formulated the "Nine Chapters of Law", an important one in the history of China's legal system, and is respected by the judicial circles; second, because before he rebelled with Liu Bang, he and Cao Shan and others were small officials who had managed judicial prisons in Pei County, and they were great figures who came out of the grass-roots level of prison administration and justice and were admired by front-line prison cadres and policemen; third, because Xiao He was arrested by Liu Bang and squatted in prison for a while because of self-defilement and corruption, and was a great figure who had been imprisoned and accepted by prisoners.
Above_ Ahmed
At the end of the Ming Dynasty, in the southern Fujian-Guangdong region, there was another prison god named YaMi (nai). According to legend, Ya Xie was a jailer in Zengcheng County, Guangdong Province, who was simple and kind, and had a kind heart. One year, during the Spring Festival, the city is reunited, and only the prisoners in the prison cannot be reunited with their families. Aku was very sympathetic to the prisoners, so she said to them, "Today I will let you go back for the New Year, but you will make an agreement with me that you must come back after the New Year." I will let you out privately, and whether you will come back or not, I will be questioned. But I still want to let you go, and you must promise me to come back after the end of the year. ”
At the end of the year, the prisoners kept their promises and returned to the prison one by one. Yami finished counting the heads and said "Zenya" in a word. After that, he crossed his legs and "died quickly". So the people wept and prayed, "bathing in his body and adding lacquer", and when the court heard about it, they made him the god of prison.
Above_ Prison Temple
By the Qing Dynasty, the prison gods had become more numerous and chaotic. The original Gao Tao and Xiao He still have sacrifices, but they also enshrine other kinds of gods. And different places have their own characteristics. In the Qing Dynasty Pu Qingshi's "Ti Prison Trivia", the prison temple also worships related gongs, dragon gods, and door gods, as well as the king of Yan Luo and the bodhisattva in the Buddhist scriptures, the Taiyi Zhenren in Taoism, the plague god, and so on. It is already difficult to say who the God of Hell is.
Take the Peking opera "Yutang Spring", before Su Sanqi was dissolved, it was "Xiao Wangtang" to bid farewell to the prison god, then the prison god here is naturally Xiao He, but Hongdong County is the hometown of Gao Tao, and the locals think that the prison god should be Gao Tao.
In fact, the gods of Chinese faith are mostly ambiguous and practical, and the prison god is the same as many other folk gods, who is it? It doesn't matter if it's not clear, as long as it brings tangible benefits.
Above_ Ancient prisoners
The meaning of the prison god faith
The first is the "establishment of a religion in Shinto", which shows the sanctity of the regime
The feudal rulers used religion to give their regime and the sanctity of the ruling order. Let the gods become the supporting force of secular politics. The emperor said that he was the Son of Heaven and a true dragon, and that he was afraid to deify himself to strengthen his authority.
Since the Qin Dynasty, China has established a complete and complex centralized system. Prisons were tools of the state's dictatorship, a violent machine, and an important cornerstone for maintaining feudal rule. The prison is guarded and protected by a prison god, which is the place of the gods, and it is a way to put the state apparatus in the cloak of the sacred, highlighting the majesty of the imperial power and the legal power.
Above_ Ancient prisons
The second is to pay tribute to the deeds of the sages, guide values, and standardize behavior
Xiao He or Gao Tao are all sages related to prisons. Yang Qingkun, a well-known sociologist, said: "Any culture, whether simple or complex, will develop a way to commemorate those who are virtuous or dedicated to serving the public good, and people will honor those who have died in the line of duty in a special way." Its purpose is to guide future generations to follow the example of the pursuit of noble character and to support the orientation of cultural values. ”
Inside the prison, by offering tributes to Gao Tao, Xiao He, and Ya Wei, the purpose is to make Xu officials and jailers take them as moral models, follow Confucian etiquette and feudal laws, be loyal to the king and "benevolent", and under the guidance of the sages, do a good job as a screw in the ruling institutions of China and Russia.
Above_ The jailer escorting the prisoner
The third is to give spiritual comfort to prisoners
In prisons, not only do the jailers worship the prison gods, but the prisoners also worship the prison gods and provide spiritual comfort to themselves. In "Yutang Spring", when Su San was relieved, he asked Chonggong Dao to let her worship the prison god before going on the road. She first sang a few words" bowed out of the tiger head prison, and fell to his knees in front of the prison temple." I hope that Grandpa will bless me more, and I Sanlang will be glorified as soon as possible", and then asked the prison god to let her live to reunite with Sanlang: "I am here, kneel in front of the temple, and see the ceremony again; honor the lord, the prison god, listen carefully to the slave; bless the slave, meet again with Sanlang; when you are born, build the temple, and then shape the golden face."
Prisoners worship the prison god and also have the rule of three prayers: worship when they come, pray for forgiveness, and if there is a grievance, they can sink their grievances; when they leave, they pray, hoping to go to a new life, and never come back; worship during the New Year's Festival, hoping to get out of prison as soon as possible and reunite with their families. There are also death row inmates who also have to pay homage before being sentenced, Song Jiang and Dai Zong in "Water Margin" are to be be beheaded, and they were also detained in front of the statue of the prison god, "each with a bowl of long rest, never say goodbye to wine."
Author: Big Lion Correction/Editor: Lilith
Resources:
[1] "A Brief Discussion on the Relationship between Law and Religion in the Phenomenon of Prison Temples in China", Cao Huilin, Jinyang Academic Journal, 2015.2
[2] "A Preliminary Study on the Belief in the Prison God", Gong Zhenyu, Journal of North University of China (Social Science Edition), 2012.2
The text was created by the History University Hall team, and the picture originated from the Internet and the copyright belongs to the original author