"Zi Yue: Impermanence up and down, not evil." - "Yi Qian"
The legend of gods and ghosts is a part of the traditional culture of a country and a nation that cannot be ignored, or it can be said that it is the cultural crystallization nurtured in the long history of a country and a nation. Although for many people now, some myths and legends are absurd and mysterious, as a cultural symbol, it also has extraordinary symbolic significance.
In a country with an extremely long history, the number of myths and ghosts is innumerable. However, in the vast sea of legends of gods and ghosts, in addition to the visualization of images such as dragons, phoenixes and bells, most of the gods and ghosts are only written descriptions, and there is no image form. Even if some image forms exist, the versions are diverse and not uniform.
For example, the "black and white impermanence" that is widely spread in China may not be known to many people.
"Black and white impermanence"
For the vast majority of people, whenever black and white are impermanent, everyone will be the first to think of the image of a black and a white two ghosts. This may be because everyone has undergone the baptism of film and television dramas, and there is a subconscious reaction. However, if you think deeply about what impermanence is, it is not very clear.
In fact, the theory of impermanence is very early in China. In the Zhou Yi, there is a theory of impermanence up and down, and it can be seen from here that this theory of impermanence usually refers to the illusion of signs. This statement is reflected in both Buddhism and Taoism.
For example, in the Nirvana Sutra, there is a saying that "the body is impermanent, and the mind cannot be stopped." Obviously, in Buddhism, everything in the world is constantly flowing in the process of "becoming and dwelling in bad emptiness", impermanently abiding. In Taoism, there is also a similar saying that all birth and death in the world are impermanent, and the same is true of human life.
Therefore, once people are impermanent, everything is suspended, so that under the influence of traditional Chinese culture and the culture of gods and ghosts and legends, the theory of impermanence has become an elegy for human death. For example, the Jin Dynasty Fa Xian's "Records of the Buddha's Kingdom" has such a record: "Comrades traveled through various countries, or there were those who returned, or those who were impermanent. From this, it can be seen that the impermanent is a person who dies in a foreign land.
In this way, under the influence of the idea of impermanence of life, in the Legend of Chinese gods and ghosts, the yin and white impermanence of the underground government was gradually created. So, how did the "black and white impermanence" come about? In fact, although there is indeed no ancient empirical evidence for the origin of black and white impermanence, there are many legends in the wild history barnyard records and only blames.
origin
The evolution of the ghost messenger to the impermanence of black and white, in fact, the image is mostly evolved from the prototype of the story of the Eastern Jin Dynasty's "Search for God". For example, the late Tang Dynasty's "Youyang Miscellaneous Tricks Li Hezi" and the Qing Dynasty's "Zi Bu Shu" and so on. The black and white impermanence of such a ghost messenger has been formed.
Of course, the black and white impermanence is widely spread in the anecdote, and it is more popular with the public, but it actually comes from a pair of brothers. It is said that the two brothers, Fan Wushou and Xie Bi'an, were on errands at Yamen to hunt fast. One day, the two went out to handle the case together, and when they went to the bottom of the Nantai Bridge, they suddenly encountered rainy weather.
Xie Bi'an then asked Fan Wushou to wait under the bridge, and he returned to get the umbrella. But what was not expected was that Xie Bi'an had just left, and the heavy rain poured down, so that the river swelled. It is said that in this case, Fan Wushou should find a place to shelter from the rain, but in order not to lose his appointment with Xie Bi'an, he has been waiting under the bridge.
However, before Xie Bi'an returned, Fan Wushou was already submerged by the river because of his short stature, and eventually Fan Wushou died here. When Xie Bian returned and did not see Fan Wuxian's figure, he felt very guilty. Subsequently, Xie Bi'an also hanged himself under the bridge.
Xie Bian and Fan Wu were supposed to reincarnate after their deaths, but because Yin Tianzi was grateful for their brotherly spirit of credibility above life, he pardoned them for being a quick catcher for Yin. After that, Fan Wushou became black impermanence, and Xie Bian became white impermanence. Their duty has also become to hunt down evil spirits and to meet good ghosts and good spirits. In this way, black and white impermanence became the ghost of the underground government.
image
Of course, after black and white impermanence became the ghost of Yinji, how did it become the image of "one black and one white"? In fact, their image was influenced by Chinese Taoist culture. In Taoism, it is believed that people have three souls and seven spirits, and the soul is also divided into yin and yang. Among them, the female soul is yin and yang, and the male soul is yang and yin.
In Taoism, black and white are just the symbols of yin and yang. Thus, the impermanent color of black and white takes shape. In the Yongzheng period of the Qing Dynasty, after the appearance of the "Jade Calendar Treasure Banknote", there was a specific image record of black and white impermanence. Of course, although the image of black and white impermanence exists, they are not static.
For many people, presumably in the film and television dramas have seen the image of black and white impermanence, black impermanence in a black suit, wearing a black top hat, holding a chain and so on. Bai Wuchang is dressed in a white dress, wears a white top hat, and his tongue is extended long, and so on.
In addition, when most people think of or see the image of black and white impermanence, they will feel an inexplicable sense of fear, that is, the fear of life and death, but also the fear of evil. But with secularization and folkization, black and white impermanence has gradually been given more emotions, or some degree of change.
For example, in the "Bad Man Who Painted the Rivers and Lakes" that appeared a few years ago, the black and white impermanence in it was actually designed to be a rather charming brother and sister. Coupled with a deep understanding of the story behind the impermanence of black and white, and understanding the spirit represented by black and white impermanence, then you can let go of that fear.
It can be seen that with the development of the times and the change of people's concepts, people's image of black and white impermanence is also constantly changing. Its connotations and ideas seem to be constantly changing.
epilogue
The image of black and white impermanence will continue to evolve with the continuation of the times, and can endure with the development of the times, obviously because their image represents a spiritual sustenance for the cycle of life and death and the reward of good and punishment of evil in traditional Chinese culture.
Therefore, although black and white impermanence is a legend of gods and ghosts, it is not just pure feudal superstition. As part of the culture of gods and ghosts, their archetypes actually come from people's portrayals of reality. To some extent, some of the concepts of punishing evil and promoting good in people's hearts can be reflected in the image of black and white impermanence.
References: "The Book of the Buddha's Kingdom", "Youyang Miscellaneous Tricks", "Jade Calendar Treasure Banknote"
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