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The historical origin of the Yuan Festival on July 15

author:Diligence and service
The historical origin of the Yuan Festival on July 15

Every year on the fifteenth day of the seventh month of the lunar calendar, it is the Zhongyuan Ghost Festival. Legend has it that on this day, the ghost door was opened, and people worshiped ancestors to summon their souls and burned paper to pray for blessings.

The origin of the Zhongyuan Festival, the so-called Ghost Festival, is related to the belief of the ancient Chinese Ghost Emperor. The ruler of hell in folk tradition is Emperor Dongyue. After the introduction of Buddhism, Jizo King Bodhisattva became the supreme deity of hell, and his vow of "hell is not empty, vow not to become a Buddha" resounded throughout the Nine Heavens and Ten Halls. The ruler of the Taoist underworld was Fengdu the Great.

In the "True Spirit Position Karma Map" written by Maoshan Ancestor Tao Hongjing, Emperor Fengdu is the seventh-level main god. Its formation and evolution has gone through a long process. In the classic "Classic of Mountains and Seas", there is a saying of the ghost country, "There is a ghost country in the north." In the midst of the vicissitudes, there is the mountain of Dushuo, there is a large peach tree, its qupan is three thousand miles, and the northeast between its branches is called the Ghost Gate, and the ghosts are in and out. There are two gods on it, one is called Shendi, the other is called Yu Lei, and the Lord reads and leads all ghosts. Later, the gods and YuLei evolved into door gods, but there is no doubt that these two gods were one of the prototypes of The Great Fengdu.

The historical origin of the Yuan Festival on July 15

After the Classic of Mountains and Seas, the idea of the Lord of Hell has been evolving. Of particular note is the claim of Ge Hong, a famous Taoist priest of the Eastern Jin Dynasty. He said that his teacher Bao Liang "was an underground master, with a real person who had hidden the mountain, and for five hundred years, he was a Kun bing waiter." "Cai Yulei is the Eastern Ghost Emperor and rules Taoqiu Mountain." Zhang Heng and Yang Yun were the Ghost Emperors of the North, ruling Luo Fengshan. Du Ziren is the Southern Ghost Emperor, ruling Luofu Mountain, leading qiang barbarian ghosts. Zhou Qi and Ji Kang were the central ghost emperors and ruled the Calf Mountain. Zhao Wenhe and Wang Zhenren were Western ghost emperors who ruled Mount Tsukasa. ”

There are ghost emperors in the east, west, south, and north, and cultural celebrities such as Zhang Heng and Ji Kang have also become ghost emperors.

Of course, the emergence of Emperor Fengdu is directly related to the development of Taoism. The Wudou Rice Sect founded by Zhang Tianshi has its Taoist methods of fu zhen and alchemy, and the core belief is the worship of the "three officials" in addition to Taishang Laojun. When believers fall ill, they must first turn themselves in and then treat them with the "Three Officials Handwriting." Wudou Rice Road has the saying that "the heavenly officials bless, the earth officials forgive sins, and the water officials relieve the evil". On July 15, the Lord of zhongyuan palace, Erpin Qi, pardoned the sinful official Emperor Qingxu, and on this day came out of the world together to abstain from sin and blessing. It can be seen that Emperor Diguan is the predecessor of Emperor Fengdu.

The Taoist scriptures say that The name of Emperor Fengdu was Yan Qingjia, who was the Emperor of Yan in the ancient times, the lord of the ghosts and gods, and the place of residence was in the northern Luofeng Mountain, so The Fengdu Emperor was also known as the Northern Emperor at the beginning. Luofeng Mountain is in the northern yandi, the mountain is 2,600 miles high, and the week is 30,000 miles. Above and below it there is a ghost shrine room. There are six palaces on the mountain, the first palace is named The Heavenly Palace of the Absolute Yin, with the second eastward, the second palace is named Taixu ShuShi Zong Tiangong, the third palace is named Ming Chen's Wucheng Heavenly Palace, the fourth palace is named Tianzhao Sin Qi Heavenly Palace, the fifth palace is named Zongling Seven Non-Heavenly Palace, and the sixth palace is named Dare Si Lian Wan Repeated Heavenly Palace. The Six Heavenly Palaces are the rule of the six heavenly gods.

Why is the legendary sacred mountain in the north moved down to Fengdu in the southwest? It actually stemmed from a beautiful misunderstanding. Fan Cheng of the Southern Song Dynasty had a poetic cloud: "Wang Fangping, the immortal, who succeeds him in the yin immortal." The stone furnace Dan qi is often bright at night, and the favor is wanbaisen thousand years old. The gorge mountain is forced to be the Min River, and the ancient inscription of the Cave Palace Fudi. The cloud has the Northern Yin God Imperial Court, and the Taiyin Black Thin Prisoner Ghost Spirit. "It turned out that the two famous immortal kings in ancient times, Fang Ping and Yin Changsheng, had cultivated into immortals at Pingdu Mountain in Fengdu.

The historical origin of the Yuan Festival on July 15

Pingdu Mountain is one of the seventy-two blessed places of Taoism, and it is suitable for the Immortal Cave House. Yin Changsheng and Wang Fangping successively cultivated into immortals in Pingdu Mountain, and the sun soared. Later, people mistakenly pronounced the two surnames as "King of Yin", so they were falsely rumored to be "King of Hades". Fengdu thus became the legendary Yin Cao Prefecture.

The TaishangDong Xuan Lingbao Sanyuan Yujing Xuandu Great Dedication Sutra says: "On the fifteenth of July, the day of the Middle Yuan, the earth officials checked, searched for the human world, distinguished good and evil, the heavens and saints, the Puyi Palace, the Jian Ding disaster, the biography of people and ghosts, the prisoners of hungry ghosts, all of them were collected at the moment." With its daily work Xuandu is greatly dedicated to Yujing Mountain, picking flowers and fruits, rare and exotic things, building treasure covers, eating and drinking, and offering to the saints. The Taoist priests preached the Sutra day and night, the Ten Great Sages, the Qi Yong Ling, and the prisoners were full of hungry ghosts, free from suffering, and returned to the people. ”

Cautiously pursue the far away, and the people's morality returns to the thick.

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