When stung, the god of thunder will be sacrificed. The picture shows the image of the thunder and lightning gods in the West Wei-285 cave of the Mogao Grottoes in Dunhuang
Author: Fang Yun
Wei Yingwu, a poet of the Tang Dynasty Landscape Pastoral School, walked in his hometown of Que Mo, saw the spring grass growing, the fine flowers spitting out the leaves, ploughing the land with cattle, and the farmer was busy with crops, and his heart touched and wrote this poem "Guan Tian Jia", the first four sentences are: "The light rain is new, and a thunder is startled." The Tian family was idle for a few days, and farming began from then on. "The poet extracts the characteristics of the beginning of the stinging thunder, the growth of all things in the light rain, and the beginning of the busy cultivation of the farmhouse.
Sting, the third of the twenty-four solar terms, the sun reaches 345° ecliptic longitude and intersects on March 5-6 in the Gregorian calendar. The Western Han Dynasty's "Great Dai Li Ji Xia Xiaozheng" said: "The first moon is stinged, and the words are stung." All things are shocked, and the earthquake is thunder, so it is called sting. It was the stinging that flew away. Here, "kai" means to open. In order to avoid the name of Liu Qi, the sixth emperor of the Han Dynasty, the Han Jing Emperor, "Qi Sting" was changed to "Shock Sting". In the Yuan Dynasty Wu Cheng's "Explanation of the Seventy-Two Waiting Collections of the Moon Order", it is stated: "The February Festival... All things are shocked, and the earthquake is thunder, so it is known that the sting is stung, and it is the sting that frightens and leaves. ”
In Xu Shen's Commentaries on the Interpretation of Texts, "sting" is interpreted as "hidden." Duan Yu's note reads: "The lodging of mortal insects is a sting." Interpretations of the word "sting" in other ancient texts, such as the "sting, jingye" in the Erya Shih-chan. "Neglected as "Hidden quiet place also." Another example is the "Dragon snake sting, to survive also" in the "Yi Zhi Ci". "Zuo Chuan Huan Five Years" of "Fan Qi, Qi Sting and Suburb" and so on. From these interpretations, it is not difficult for us to see the state of "dormancy" of all things and their expectation of that thunder in the budding.
A thunderclap called the dragon up
- The stinging Thor faith
The ancients believed that "the dragon is the length of a hundred insects", can "xingyun rain, benefit all things", it is dormant on the winter solstice of the first year, and the next February 2 lifts up into the sky and begins to rain in the clouds. Folk proverb cloud: "On the second of February, the dragon looked up." The ancestors observed that the sting was close to the lunar calendar "February 2nd", when all kinds of insects hibernating under the earth woke up. In the Classic of Mountains and Seas and the Great Wilderness of the East, it is written: "If drought is like a dragon, it will receive heavy rain." "Three Graves" also said: "Dragons are good at change, and can cause thunderstorms. For the materialization of kings. In the poem "Water Dragon Yin Shou Clan Father Ruitang is a Day Sting" by the Yuan Dynasty poet Wu Cun, the thunder of the sting is associated with the dragon: "At the beginning of the opening of the imperial household, a thunder called the dragon to rise." In an agrarian society, rain is the most important for agricultural production, and the right amount of rain at the right time can make the crops grow luxuriant and full of grains. As the Book of Poetry, Xiaoya Xinnanshan, says, "It is both superior and prosperous." Both frost is foot. Give birth to me a hundred valleys. The Ying Dragon, the "big worm" awakened by the thunder, became the first thunder god and rain god produced in China, and the "praying dragon god" also became a common folk rain prayer ceremony.
Wang Chong's "On the Dragon Void" said: "In the middle of summer, lightning strikes trees and breaks the room house, commonly known as the dragon in heaven." The dragon hides in the trees, between the houses. Lightning breaks the trees and breaks the house, then the dragon sees outside, and the dragon sees the thunder to ascend to heaven. "The real Thunder Dragon is the same kind, and the feelings are consistent." The Book of History and Feng Zen is called "a dragon with a beard, and the Yellow Emperor is greeted." The "dragon whiskers" here can be seen as the mutated form of countless tentacles of lightning. Because it is believed that dragons and snakes are the same as thunder and lightning, most of the thunder gods described by the ancients are "dragon bodies and human heads". In Chinese mythology, dragons and thunder and lightning are always inseparable, and folklore even equates dragons and snakes with thunder.
Wind, clouds, thunder, and electricity are usually the prelude to the rain of the dragon. In ancient times, due to the lack of understanding of the natural world by the ancestors, it was believed that thunder was dominated by the god of thunder, the duke of thunder, and the ancestor of thunder, so when they were stung, they would sacrifice the god of thunder. So what did the god of thunder worshipped by the ancestors look like? The description of the "god of thunder" in the Thirteenth Classic of Mountains and Seas and the Hai Nei Dong Jing is: "There is a thunder god in The Lei Ze, with a dragon body and a human head, and a drum in his belly." In Wuxi. Book 40 of the Zhou Li says, "Whoever beats a drum will be the day of enlightenment." Note: "Sting, Meng Chun also, the sting worm began to hear the thunder and move; the drum, the image taken; the drum, the drum with leather." "The ancestors believed that on the day of the sting, there was a thunder god in the heavenly court hitting the heavenly drum, and the stinging insects began to move, and the human world also used this time to cover the drum skin, which was a manifestation of the worship of the folk thunder god.
In different historical stages, the image of Thor has also been in the process of development and change, with different forms. Some believe that the god of thunder is a bird's beaked human body, a big god with wings, holding a hammer in one hand and combing many heavenly drums around the body with the other, emitting a rumbling thunder, as recorded in Wang Chong's "On Heng Lei Void" in the Eastern Han Dynasty: "The shape of Toure is like the shape of a drum." Some people believe that the god of thunder is the "fengshou lin god", such as in the "Youyang Miscellaneous Tricks · Previous Collection": "Pig head, two fingers each of the hands and feet, holding a red snake". There are also such as "shaped like six animals, head like a macaque", "Ruolishi's appearance", "big head ghost shape" and so on.
In the Ming and Qing dynasties, the image of the god of thunder gradually became unified. In the Qing Dynasty Huang Bolu's "Collection of Interpretations of the Truth", there is such a description of the god of thunder, which is said: "The god of thunder that is shaped by the present world is like a lux." Naked chest and abdomen, two wings on the back, three eyes on the forehead, a face as red as a monkey, a long and sharp jaw, feet like an eagle harrier, and claws are more powerful, the left hand holds the wedge, the right hand holds the hammer, as a desire to strike. From the top to the side, there are five drums hanging in a row, and the left foot is coiled with a drum, called the Sun Lei Gong Jiang Tianjun. The typical Thor face shape "the face is red as a monkey, the jaw is long and sharp", which is what modern people often call "Lei Gong Face" and "Lei Gong Mouth".
In the chapter on the worship of natural objects and natural forces in "Chinese Folk Beliefs", mr. Wu Bing'an, a folklorist, summarized the legends, rituals, customs and characteristics of the gods of various ethnic groups in the north and south of China and their symbolic meanings, and further pointed out that the divine duty of the god of thunder is to control the growth of all things and the punishment of heaven. Folk proverb cloud: "Spring thunder, all things are long", stinging followed by spring and rainy seasons, occupies a very important position in the agricultural sequence. In the old days, every household would put on the stickers of the god of thunder, put on offerings, or go to the temple to burn incense to pray for a year of good wind and rain. The Qing Dynasty Huang Ting's "Songjiang Bamboo Branch Words" can be proved, "This year, the stings are happy to hear the thunder, and the hundred grasses are striving for glory and water. Sunset City West Chaoguo Temple, have female companions into the incense back. ”
In addition, Thor is also a god who represents justice and drives away evil spirits and plagues. Professor Tian Zhaoyuan of East China Normal University once pointed out that the names of the two hospitals in Wuhan in 2020, "Leishen Mountain" and "Vulcan Mountain", are precisely with the help of mythological traditions, folk traditions, and strong spiritual forces in the medical tradition, activating the ancient cultural traditions, and inspiring everyone to boost their morale and fight the epidemic with the cultural spirit of the thunder god Vulcan. No matter how the image of the god of thunder evolves, in the minds of the people, he has always been a god of justice and encouragement, pinning on the good wishes of the working people of China to ward off evil, avoid disasters and pray for blessings.
The stung worm snake out
- The stinging deworming ritual
The naming of the twenty-four solar terms is mostly related to the climate and seasons, such as small summer, big cold, spring, summer solstice, etc., or the description of the state of crops, such as small full and mangs, and sting is the only one of the twenty-four solar terms named after the habits of animal insects. Judging from the glyph evolution of the word "sting", the bottom of the "sting" of the small seal is a coiled small snake, the "persistence" sound in the upper half is originally meant to be bound and not moving, and the ligature is "the insect hibernates, lying down and not moving", which vividly illustrates the dormant state of the insect from winter to early spring.
"Stung festival to smell the thunder, wake up the dormant overwintering insects." With the arrival of the stinging festival, the temperature rises rapidly, and all kinds of reptiles sleeping in the soil are gradually recovering and are about to enter the breeding stage. In order to achieve the purpose of obtaining high yields of farming, it is imperative to carry out spring turning, fertilization, pest control and afforestation before and after the sting. Among them, the object of insect repellent includes pests in the fields of labor production and ants in the houses in the living environment.
From the perspective of a hygienic and clean environment, the eggs have not yet hatched, or the larvae are still growing, which is the most suitable for killing. As recorded in the "Thousand Golden Moon Order": "On the day of the sting, take the lime grits outside the gate limit, but the insects and ants can be extinct." "The ancestors used lime to kill poisonous insects, or burned special odor plants such as wormwood and camphor leaves to smoke ants. Nowadays, the Changting and Qingliu areas of Fujian still retain the custom of "scattering ash" on the day of stinging, in addition to throwing lime to repel insects in the corners of the house, kitchens, cattle pens, pig pens, chicken coops and other places that are easy to breed reptiles, there are different meanings for throwing directions. For example, sprinkling in front of the door is "blocking the door to ward off disasters"; sprinkling in the courtyard, making circles of different sizes and symbolically placing some grains, called "Si Cang" to wish for a good year; sprinkling on the side of the well railing to call "lead the dragon back" to seek smooth wind and rain.
From south to north, Chinese folk customs and rituals of deworming can be described as varied, although they have a certain remnant of ancient sympathetic witchcraft, but they are also full of folk wisdom and appear interesting. Mainly concentrated in the following three categories:
The first is the way to deworm with food as a symbol. For example, in the Shandong region, when stinging, most of them light fires in the courtyard and burn pancakes in the open air, which is said to be able to "smoke and repel insects". In Shaanxi, you must eat fried beans, and the beans that have been soaked in water in advance make a sound when they are fried, just like the sound of insects on fire. There is also a custom of fried beans in the Jiangnan region, as stated in the Qing Dynasty Jiang Shiyong's "East Lake Bamboo Branch Words": "The ribbon-cutting flowers are hanging red towards the trees, and the apricot blossom village is rainy." The family is busy stung by the beans, and the little woman calls for stir-frying worms in front of the kitchen. "Here not only mentions the custom of stir-frying beans, but also mentions the custom of stinging the ribbon-cutting flowers and hanging red. In the north of Shanxi, it is necessary to eat pears on the day of stinging, and the "pear" is harmonized with "away", which is said to allow the insects to leave the crop field early and ensure a good harvest of crops. In the southern Fujian region, on the day of sting, it is necessary to cook hairy taro in a pot, commonly known as "stir-fried worms stir-fried toss" or "stewed rats".
The second is the use of tools as a symbol of insect repellent. For example, on the day of the sting, ningbo, Zhejiang Province, there is a "pest sweeping festival", farmers take broom tools and go out of their families to go to the field to "sweep the insects", and the mouth also chants to sweep the pests away, which means that all the pests that threaten the crops will be "swept away", and this ceremony will pray that the crops will not be harmed by pests and that there will be a good harvest in the coming year. Jiangsu and other places have the custom of "taking care of insect wax", on the eve of the sting, light a red candle for worshiping the gods and ancestors on the first day of the New Year, take pictures inside and out of the home, and chant "sting ant insects in the mouth, a shadow disappears", in order to drive away the stings hidden in the corners of the home. In Hunan and Jiangxi and other places, there is a custom of "popping and stinging", and the people set off firecrackers in the house, believing that the huge sound can frighten the stinging insects who have just woken up and have not yet recovered, and the sulfur also has the effect of killing poison. After the firing, there are also words in the mouth that read "sting, explosion of the worm's feet straight", so it is also called "sting worm".
The third is the use of symbols as a symbol of insect repellent. For example, the Enshi and Exi Tujia families in Hunan have a traditional festival "Shooting Worm Day", which is held the day before the sting. The Tujia family believes that every year when the sting comes, all kinds of pests that dormant in winter will be resurrected and will harm the crops, so on the eve of the sting, they will preemptively draw a bow and arrow shape on the ground with charcoal ash, which means "shoot out all the pests" to avoid insect plagues and seek a good harvest. In addition, it is also very common to drive away insect ants by sticking to paper cuts, stickers, drawing gourds and other stickers. For example, in Xingcheng, Liaoning Province, women will cut red paper for scissors to paste on the wall around the "second of February" and the sting, that is, the meaning of attracting dragons to drive insects; in the southeast region of Shanxi, people are accustomed to pasting gourds on the walls of houses to avoid hundreds of insects; in Xiangning, Shanxi, people will open the symbol to disgust the scorpion; in Shanghai, people will go to the "Snake King Temple" to ask for the snake king symbol.
In the Suzhou and Chang areas, a kind of "worm list" drawing stick, about two inches wide and one foot long red or yellow note, on which is written "worms, ants, cockroaches, spiders, snakes, scorpions, moths, geckos, bed bugs, termites, all insects are on the ground", and should be vertically pasted on the table, bed, chair, bed, box and other furniture. Guangxu Thirty Years (1904) "Chang Zhao Hezhi Manuscript" said, "On the second day, a white paper was written in the clouds: 'On the second of February, the insects and ants went straight into the ground. 'The seven characters of the insects are inverted, and the zhu pen is vertical, and the name is worm list. Stick to the foot of the table and the foot of the bed to avoid insects and ants." When posting the "Slug List", children also sing next to it: "Paste the Worm List, and the pests will die." ”
Peach blossoms bloom in Shu Brocade, eagles aging spring doves
- The phenology of the sting
"Flowers and wood pipes are seasonal, birdsong reports agricultural time". Stinging is the beginning of the month (February) of the dry branch calendar. 卯, "risk" also, the mid-spring moon, all things emerge from the ground; when the time comes, the yang rises, the temperature warms up, the spring thunder moves, the rain increases, and everything is full of vitality, so the moon is also the month when all things burst into energy, and the spring ploughing of the year begins. The proverb "When it comes to the festival of stinging, the cultivated land cannot rest." "Stinging through, Hoe Mai Mo relaxed." The sting gives the people a wake-up call for hard work, but at the same time, the sting stimulates the people's heartfelt praise and poetic yearning for the life of nature.
"Everything should vary." The wise ancestors observed the flowers, trees, birds and animals in nature, following the four seasons, and their activities were closely related to climate change. Song Wang Yinglin's "Jade Sea" said: "Five days is one wait, three waits are one breath, so one year old has twenty-four solar terms", natural organisms are affected by rhythm changes and the phenomenon of germination and growth occurs, alternating around at four o'clock in the year, phenology is trustworthy, so the Southern Dynasty Liang Jianwen Emperor issued such a sigh in "Late Spring Endowment": "The return of the time sequence, the passage of the sigh of phenology." ”
"One waits for Tao Shihua; the second waits for Cang Gengming; and the third waits for eagles to turn into doves." "Tao Shi Hua" refers to the peach of mid-spring, which is first seen in the "Lü's Spring and Autumn Mid-Spring Chronicle": "The Month of Mid-Spring, the First Rain, Tao Li Hua"; the "Li Ji Yue Ling", "Yi Zhou Shu Shi Xun", "Huainan Zi Shi Ze Xun" and so on also have many records of mid-spring peach blossoms. In the Book of Poetry, "The peach is dying, burning its glory." The son of Yu Gui, it is advisable to his room. "It also depicts people's vision of a happy and happy life for peach blossoms."
In Shanghai, the place to see peach blossoms is Longhua. In The Qing Dynasty Wang Tao's "Yingcheng Magazine", it was recorded that during the Xianfeng Xin Unitary Period, the Longhua area "planted peaches for the industry, and looked at Xiaming, such as You Wuling Yuanli". On July 14, 1874, the "Declaration" once contained the "Hunan Bamboo Branch Words": "Remotely refers to the shadow of the Pagoda of The Ridge, and walks all the way to Longhua." The peach tree is full of trees for just three days, not to burn incense to see the flowers. The depiction of the beautiful scenery of Longhua peach blossoms, as well as Shen Yuzhong's "Longhua Scene" in the Qing Dynasty: "In the majestic sunset of the ancient tower, the peach blossoms are thick in the clouds. Idle a piece of sleeping herbs, when the ear is deafening, come to the ancient temple clock. Wu Baotai's "You Longhua Looks at Peach Blossoms": "There are thousands of red peach blossoms, and the spring full of dragons is not false." Several times Liu Lang revisited here, laughing and moving from Yuandu. And Xiao Daoguan's "Longhua Town To See Peach Blossoms": "Longhua peach blossoms are fifteen miles, and peach blossoms are red, white, rose and purple." Tourists look at flowers and people, and horses are like dragon cars like water. "Going to Longhua and enjoying peach blossoms once became a well-known folk activity in Shanghai.
The Cang Geng in "Cang Geng Ming" is relatively unfamiliar to everyone, but when it comes to Yellow Oriole, it is well known to the public. This ancient ornamental bird has long been described, such as the "Dai Li Ji Xia Xiaozheng" once recorded: "There is Mingcang Geng. Cang Geng, Shang Geng also; Shang Geng, Long Stock also. It is also recorded in the "Book of Poetry, Fengfeng, and July": "The spring day carries the sun, and there is Mingcang Geng." Erya remembers: "Emperor, Yellow Bird." The "Poetry of Yishu" says: "Yellow warbler, or yellow chestnut; Youzhou called yellow duck, or yellow bird; a Canggeng, a Shanggeng." One yellow, one Chu que. With the rise of poetry and literature in the Tang Dynasty, Huang Li often sang as a song to Tuozhi, pinning on the Bixing of Acacia, such as gai Jiayun's "Yizhou Song" of the Tang Dynasty, "Playing yellow warblers, Mo Jiaozhi crying; when crying concubine dreams, do not get Liaoxi." And Song Wang Anshi's "Bodhisattva Man, Several Huts Idle near the Water" "What is the most concerned, huang li three or two sounds." "Wait, all full of sexual warmth.
"The eagle turns into a dove", and the eagle here is "the dove bird also, the genus of the partridge". "Spring Song Dove", dove, that is, the cuckoo of the present day. The "Chapter Turtle Sutra" said: "In the middle of spring, the forest is lush, the mouth is still soft, can not catch birds, stunned and hungry, so the name is called the dove." "The Royal System" says: "The dove turns into an eagle, and in autumn it also." This word eagle turned into a dove, and so did it in the spring. Fertility is exuberant. Therefore, the bird feels that the ears change. In addition to the admonition not to catch early spring birds, Confucius said: "Those who transform, return to the old form." Therefore, the eagle turns into a dove, and the dove turns into an eagle, and if a vole turns into a wreath, the wagtail turns into a vole. If the rotting grass is a firefly, the bird is a lice, and the knight is a clam, it is not self-evident, and it is not in the replica form. The philosophies hidden in these biological phenomena all reflect the patience, firmness and hope required between the initiation and transformation of life.
The stinging of the festival, the spirit of grass and trees, the budding of all things, all the shiny life that was conceived under the calm was finally awakened by spring thunder. Isn't the most important enlightenment given to people by stinging precisely to have the consciousness of life and the courage to grow?
(The author is Ph.D. in Folklore, East China Normal University, Lecturer, School of International Education, Shanghai University)
Source: Wen Wei Po