Legends about ghosts and monsters have existed since ancient times, and people imagine that after death, the soul will be transformed into ghosts after death, so the images of ghosts are mostly terrifying and hateful, and people are afraid of fear, so there are gods who specialize in catching evil ghosts.
In ancient Chinese mythology, there have been ghost-catching gods and goddesses throughout the ages, who bravely hunted ghosts, protected the people, and were sacrificed to gods, the most famous of which were Zongbu, Zhiguo, Shendi, Yulei, and Zhong Kui.
1. The god Zongbu - the ghost king transformed after the death of Da Yi
Speaking of Dayi, it is the Yi in the "Houyi Shooting Day" that we often hear, and the descendants have confused the monarch of the poor country in the Xia Dynasty with the "Houyi" of the Poor Country in the Xia Dynasty with the "Yi" of the Divine Archer and Chang'e in the DiYao Period.
In ancient mythology, Dayi is a god of heaven, under the instructions of the Heavenly Emperor to help people in the human world, and later shot nine harmful Jin Wu, but JinWu is the son of the Heavenly Emperor, so Dayi was punished and could not return to the Celestial Realm, and could only stay in the human world to live and die of old age and illness, and later Dayi asked the Queen Mother of the West for the immortal medicine, but was stolen by Chang'e and flew to the Moon Palace.
In the human world, Dayi not only shot and killed nine golden wu, but also eliminated many fierce beasts in the human world, such as hedgehogs, chiseled teeth, nine babies, gales, fengfeng, snake repair, and so on. Later, Dayi grew old and took in an apprentice, Fengmeng, but Fengmeng was a treacherous villain, and after learning all the skills of Dayi, he sneaked in with a peach stick and beat Dayi to death.
After The death of Dayi, the people believe that he helped mankind as a god, but he was abandoned by the gods, and finally died at the hands of human beings, which was really unjust, and people worshipped him as the god of Zongbu, hoping that Dayi could continue to guard the people after death, and the god of Zongbu was the leader of the ghosts after death, equivalent to the first king of Pluto, ruling over all ghosts in the world and not letting evil ghosts harm people.
The Zongbu god incarnated after the death of Dayi is the earliest god who catches ghosts, and before Dayi was born, he shot up for ten days and cursed demons, and the Zongbu god he incarnated after death was naturally fierce and abnormal, and every household sacrificed him on the sacrifice of the disaster, praying that the whole family would not be harmed by ghosts and evils.
2. Rukuo - a god-man who eats evil spirits
In Chinese mythology, there is also a god who catches ghosts, that is, the ruler Guo from the "Classic of Mountains and Seas", which records that the "Divine Anomaly Classic, Southeast Wild Classic" records:
There are people in the southeast, walking around the world, seven feet long, and the abdominal circumference is as long as it is. The head is worn with the head of the chicken father, the vermilion belt, the red snake around the forehead, and the tail is closed to the head. Without drinking or eating, he swallowed three thousand evil spirits and swallowed three hundred. This man eats ghosts and dew as pulp. His name is Ru guo, a food cult.
This means that there is a god-man in the southeast of the earth, who is traveling under the heavens, and his height is seven zhang, and his waist circumference is also seven zhang, like a giant like a barrel. This giant also has a lot of personality, he wears a rooster helmet, a red coat and white belt, a red snake wrapped around the forehead, and the snake's tail snake head is closed on the top of the head, this giant is the ruler. The image of Shakugu is very much in line with the image of the ancient gods, similar to the giant gods of gonggong, Zhu Rong, and Quaofu.
Father Kwa is also a giant god of the Yandi clan
And Ru Guo's favorite is to devour evil ghosts, swallow three thousand evil ghosts in the morning, and at night there are three hundred evil ghosts to be supper, such as swallowing dates, never chewing, he eats ghosts, takes dew as drinking, known as Yellow Father swallows evil gods, and finally, Because there are too many ghosts to eat, ten thousand ghosts struggle in the abdomen, and finally die underground and become Jizo.
I think that The Ruler Guo may be the Houtu clan in the Ancient Heavenly Gods, and in the ancient mythology, the Hou Tu is the son of gonggong and the descendant of the Yan Emperor of the Shennong clan, and the Ruler Guo is the Yan Emperor's lineage, so there is the power of "Zhou Xing Tianxia", and the Yan Emperor Yimu is in charge of the southern twelve thousand miles of land in the ancient mythology. After the Gonggong clan was defeated by The Emperor Ofe, Emperor Hou tu appointed Hou Tu as the official of the TuZheng ( 土正官 ) , in charge of the Land Society , responsible for leveling the land and channeling the river , and Hou Tu was later known as the "King of Youdu", the original King of hades, and as the Ruler of the Hou Tu clan, he was naturally able to devour evil spirits. As for the final transformation of The Shakuku into Jizo, it is impossible to verify whether it is the Buddhist Jizo King Bodhisattva.
3. Shēn shū, yù lǜ ] – the earliest door god and later the ghost emperor
These two should be said together, because these two have always appeared together, and the earliest source is also the Classic of Mountains and Seas and the Overseas Classic:
There are mountains in the East China Sea, known as Duso. There is a big peach tree on it, three thousand miles. There is a gate in the northeast, known as the Ghost Gate, and the gathering of all ghosts. The Heavenly Emperor made the gods and men guard it, one god, one Yu Lei, and the Lord read and led all the ghosts. If a ghost harms a man, he will bind it with a reed rope, shoot a peach arc, and throw a tiger to eat it.
From this narrative, it can be seen that Shendi and Yulei were sent by the Heavenly Emperor in ancient times to guard the ghost gate, commanding ten thousand ghosts, and natural gods and Yulei were good at catching ghosts, and if evil ghosts came out to harass the people, Shendi and Yulei went to ambush and tied them up and fed them to tigers. In order to drive away ghosts and avoid evil spirits, the Yellow Emperor of Xuanyuan ordered people to use peach wood to make human figures of shendi and Yulei and put them on the door, and later painted the statues of shendi, Yulei and tigers on the door, which have been passed down to this day, and chinese folk call them door gods, which is the earliest door god, and the saying that peach wood wards off evil spirits also originates from this.
Later, after the founding of Taoism, with the ghost god system of the Hades Underground Palace, the Taoist Heavenly Master Ge Hong regarded Shendi and YuLei as the Eastern Ghost Emperors of the Five Directions: In the Taoist system of the Underworld, the supreme ruler of the Hades Underground Mansion was the Emperor of the Underworld, and under them were the Five Ghost Emperors and the Ten Heavenly Kings of Yan. Among the five ghost emperors, led by Dongfang, it can be seen that the two gods of Shendi and Yulei have become ghost emperors in the underworld because of their strong ghost catching skills.
4. Zhong Kui - the most famous ghost catcher
In Chinese mythology, the most famous ghost-catching master is probably Zhong Kui, who can be said to be the most famous celestial master in the field of ghost-catching, and his prominent position is mainly attributed to The Tang Ming Emperor Li Longji.
Legend has it that Zhong Kui was originally a native of Zhongnan Mountain, and was talented when he was young. During the Tang Wude years, he went to the capital to take the exam, but he was defeated because of his ugly appearance, so he was ashamed and angry and crashed into the side of the temple wall, and Tang Gaozu heard about it and gave him a red official robe for burial.
In the Kaiyuan period, according to legend, after Tang Xuanzong Li Longji returned from the Lishan School, he was ill for a long time, dreaming that a little ghost stole treasures from the palace, Tang Xuanzong called for someone to arrest him, only to see a big-looking red-clad man grab the little ghost, pluck out his eyeballs, and eat it. The Great Han claimed that "Zhong Kuiye, the emperor of the Southern JinShi, died because he could not lift well, touched the steps of the temple, and was buried with a red robe, and swore to remove the wasted demons in the world." The emperor woke up from his dream and was immediately cured. Therefore, Tang Xuanzong ordered Wu Daozi to make a painting of the scene of Zhong Kui catching ghosts in his dream and hang it in the palace to avoid evil and town demons.
Later, under the strong admiration of Li Longji, Zhong Kui determined the status of ghost-catching heavenly master, and later Taoism incorporated Zhong Kui into the god system of the Hades Underground Mansion, and sealed Zhong Kui as a judge who exorcised ghosts and exorcised evil, and named him "Blessed Town House Saint Jun", and the King of Yan even assigned him two assistants, Named Yiwen and Wu, two assistants, Han Wei and Negative Qu Er, and also let the little ghost who guarded the bridge turn into a bat, serve as a guide for Zhong Kui, and jointly hunt down ghosts in the world.
Zhong Kui also became one of the door gods, zhong kui statue attached to the portal to ward off ghosts and exorcise evil spirits, hanging in the middle hall to dispel evil spirits, Zhong Kui also often appeared in The Yi yi is a fierce general who kills demons, and even Li Shizhen's "Compendium of Materia Medica" also contains the "secret recipe" of using Zhong Kui to burn ash with water or with other medicinal noodles to make pills to treat diseases.
Fifth, the closing remarks - who will be the strongest ghost catcher
Among the ghost-catching gods of the past, the god Zongbu was incarnated after the death of the ancient god Dayi, the ruler Guo was the ancient giant god of heaven, the god Di and Yu Lei were the ghost emperors of the underworld, and Zhong Kui was the ghost-catching heavenly master.
Because I think that the deeds of Shendi and Yulei catching ghosts are more than those of Zongbu, and it is also a party ghost emperor whose status is higher than that of Zhong Kui in the hades, as the door god is also Zhong Kui's predecessor, the ability to catch ghosts is also higher than that of Zhi Guo, because ShenDi and Yu Lei feed tigers after catching ghosts, and although Zhi Guo eats a lot of ghosts, he finally "has indigestion" and is "propped up" by ten thousand ghosts.
So on the whole, I think that among the ghosts-catching gods, the gods are the strongest.
Personal concept, do not like it, do not scold!
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The story of Dayi can be viewed by clicking on the link:
"Houyi Shooting Day: The God who fights the strongest and the saddest in the end"