In 2016, a mobile game called "Onmyoji" swept the country and brought a Japanese celebrity to everyone, this person is the famous Onmyoji Abe Haruaki in Japanese history.
As a figure at the forefront of science and superstition during the Heian period, Abe Harumi was sought after and trusted by countless aristocrats, and after his death, people began to deify the figure, telling his life story as if it were myths and legends.
However, the story that really happened to Abe Harumaki is more like a counterattack article by a big male protagonist than a myth and legend.
Today we will talk about who this deified Great Onmyoji is!
1. Abe Harumi's life experience has been deified
Abe Harumaki was born in 921 A.D., this era is placed in China, that is, at the end of the Five Dynasties, it is the time to set things right, while Japan is in the Heian period, on the surface it is full of flowers, but the internal aristocratic power is encroaching on each other.
Abe Harumi is the ancestor of the Tuyumen family, it can be said that he created a particularly remarkable family, but Abe Haruaki's own background is not high, and even in history, his birthplace has been stamped with an "unknown" red stamp.
In the earliest albums, it is believed that Haruaki Abe was born on Cat Island at the foot of Mount Tsukuba in Hitachi Province, but in other biographies, there is a record that Haruaki Abe was born in Sanuki Province.
But time has been pushed to modern times, and the city of Osaka, Japan, is also vying for the title of Abe Haruaki's birthplace, and even erected a stone monument with "Abe Haruaki's birthplace and inheritance" to emphasize its orthodox status.
Therefore, the world has no way of knowing where Abe was born.
As for the question of origin, it is explained in the existing information "Kojiki" that Abe Harumi is a descendant of Emperor Xiaoyuan's prince Ohiko, specifically, Abe Harumi is the 11th grandson of Ohiko.
In this version of the legend, Abe Harumi is supposed to have been born into a prominent family, but his family background has declined by the time his father's generation comes, which explains why Abe's official position was not obvious at first.
Abe's father was an official in charge of the emperor's meals, and when it comes to his mother, the story begins to get confusing.
Abe Qingming has a title, that is, the son of the white fox, because in many legends about him, Abe Qingming's mother is a nine-tailed fox demon called "Ge Ye", this nine-tailed fox practices in the mountains and forests all the year round, and has strong spiritual power, so as soon as Abe Qingming was born, he inherited his mother's ability.
According to this legend, many people believe that the so-called nine-tailed fox demon should be a wandering girl, that is, a witch who traveled all over Japan, after Abe Harumi was born, she followed her mother to learn witchcraft, coupled with her talent and intelligence, so she mastered powerful skills.
However, when modern scholars study Abe, they believe that his mother is just an ordinary person with a low status, and it is even very likely that she is a mountain dweller living in the mountains.
Born in a remote mountain village, he was often accompanied by nature and studied the stars in the sky, so it is no wonder that Abe Haruaki became an astronomer of his time.
Abe Haruaki did not succeed until he was 40 years old, and there is no record of his growth from childhood to middle age, and even the only surviving portrait in the world is only a portrait of him in middle age, so many people believe that it was Abe Haruaki who thought that his background was not obvious, so he covered up his mother's information.
In any case, Abe's mother must be an ordinary person, so there is no record in history.
Second, as an onmyoji, Abe Qingming has only eliminated demons once in his life
As a deified figure, in the eyes of the world, although Abe Harumi works in government agencies, his job is astrology, divination, and some people even think that he is a demon slayer.
In a large number of legends, the onmyoji can operate the Shikigami, and Abe Harumi is even more powerful, he can even drive Shikigami to help him do things, from housework to sacrifice ceremonies, Abe Harumi has let his Shikigami do it.
Legend has it that he has twelve gods, and these twelve gods actually come from the twenty-eight stars in China!
For example, when someone questioned whether he could drive Shikigami, he directly pinched a leaf and asked his Shikigami to kill a frog on the edge of the pond, and when the leaf fell on the frog, the whole frog instantly collapsed and died.
There is even a legend that because Abe Harumi's wife was afraid of the appearance of these Shikigami, in order to prevent Shikigami from scaring his wife, Abe Harumi often suppressed these Shikigami under the bridge, and this bridge is the passage connecting the human world and the underworld.
And the legend about Abe Harumi's demon removal is even more shocking.
Legend has it that Daji was a nine-tailed fox during the Yin Shang period, and when King Wu was fighting, Daji took the opportunity to escape to India, became the Indian demon concubine Huayangtian, and was driven to Japan by the Indians, under the pseudonym Tamamo, and became the favorite concubine of Emperor Toba.
In this story, when Daji became Tamamo, she no longer needed to parasitize on a woman's body, her mana was so powerful that she could directly transform into a human form, and she absorbed the essence of Emperor Toba, causing the emperor to suffer from a strange disease.
Abe Harumi secretly investigated, and finally found the true body of Tamamo, and after a fight with Tamamo, although she killed Tamamo's body, her obsession and ambition turned into a killing stone, waiting for the opportunity for revenge all the time.
This story is naturally fake, not to mention whether the monster thing is true or false, you must know that when Emperor Toba was on the throne, Abe Harumi had died for many years.
So, as a great onmyoji, what is Abe Harumi's daily work?
In fact, Abe Harumi's daily work is divination and sacrifice, which has nothing to do with the so-called spiritual power, but needs to master people's hearts and some astronomical knowledge.
It is precisely by relying on these two skills that do not need to use spiritual power at all that Abe Qingming was able to rise step by step from the four doctors of astronomy, and finally ascended to the peak of the Onmyoji, making the people at that time "do not know the source of the scriptures, but know the clear and clear father".
In the early years of Abe Harumi, although there is no detailed record in the history books, it can be known that he first followed the onmyoji Kamo Tadayuki to learn the onmyo-way in his early years, and later received the appreciation of Kamo Baoxian, and officially started the study of astronomical way.
At the age of 40, Harumaki Abe began to appear on the stage of history as a bachelor of astronomy, but he entered politics as an onmyoji.
During the reign of Emperor Tsuneko, there was a solar eclipse, and he was familiar with astronomy, so he naturally knew that this was a normal natural phenomenon, but the emperor didn't know, so he went to "seal" this tengu demon according to the request of the crown prince, so to speak, through this incident, he was deeply trusted by Emperor Hiroshi and the crown prince.
Since then, the nobles began to respect this onmyoji, the emperor wanted to give way, let the onmyoji divination calculate the specific abdication time, the minister's wife gave birth to a child and asked him to come to the sacrifice to protect the smooth birth, the official residence of the Taizheng government entered the snake, the pigeon also asked him to come to divination, it can be said that as an onmyoji, Abe Harumi is either on the road of divination, or on the way of sacrifice.
Relying on his insight into people's hearts and understanding of astronomy, Abe Harumi rose all the way up, and he served in important positions such as Doctor Sakyo and Granary Temple, relying on the trust of successive emperors and Fujiwara Michicho, as well as his strong work ability, he became an insurmountable peak in the Onmyoji of the Heian period.
When he was alive, his influence was once higher than that of the emperor, for example, in 1001 AD, the emperor's mother died, as a figure at the level of the empress dowager, after her death, the emperor naturally asked the whole country to stop the annual New Year's memorial ceremony held by the people, in order to show respect.
But Abe Harumi didn't care about this, and still held a memorial ceremony in his private house, and the sound caused the surrounding people to ignore the emperor's order and start the festival mode one after another.
It can be seen that even Abe Harumi cannot avoid arrogance due to his high position.
3. Onmyoji is also a flesh-and-blood person
As a figure who exists in history, Abe Harumi naturally also has his own private life, and here, I have to mention the father and son of Baoxian.
The father and son refer to the father and son of Kamo Tadayuki and Kamo Hoxian, the former is Abe Haruaki's master, and the latter is Abe Haruaki's close friend.
Japan was heavily influenced by Buddhism, and in order to fight Buddhism, the Japanese imperial family and other religions united to create the position of Onmyoshi to eliminate demons and defend the Tao after absorbing the five elements of Yin and Yang in China.
After several generations of development, the Onmyoji has directly become the exclusive domain of some families, and they believe that the strength of an Onmyoji is mainly related to the amount of spiritual power, and the amount of this spiritual power is completely up to them, so it is not an exaggeration to say that the Japanese Onmyoji is hereditary.
He Mao Tadayuki can take a fancy to Abe Harumi and teach him the Yin and Yang Tao and the Astronomical Dao, it can be said that it is completely his luck, if it is not for He Mao Tadayuki to support Abe Harumi, this great onmyoji is likely to become a nameless existence in history.
And Kamo Hoken also became a friend of life and death with Abe Harumi, Abe Harumi studied astronomy, and Kamo Hoxian studied the theory of the calendar, in "The Tale of the Past and Present" it was written that these two brothers often stayed together to exchange and learn, and the Kamo family and the Abe family became the ancestors of the Japanese Onmyoji.
However, the friendship between the Kamo family and the Abe family did not seem to last, and after the glorious birth of Kamo Hosen's son, Kamo Koshi, this one directly regarded Abe Harumi as a competitor.
In "Mido Kohaku" and "The Tale of Eika", Kamo Kotsu and Abe Harumi are often invited to the house by Fujiwara Michicho to divinate together, and it is still difficult to tell what the relationship between the two is.
But fortunately, Abe Qingming also has a friend, named Yuan Boya, who was born in the royal family, but does not love power, but loves music, it can be said that he is not an onmyoji, and Abe Qingming has no intersection of interests, it is precisely because of this that the two can become close friends.
In addition to friends, Abe Harumi also has two powerful opponents, Master Zhide and Ashiya Michimitsu, both of whom are folk onmyoji, and the relationship with Abe Harumi can be said to be very bad.
Especially Ashiya Mitsumichi, because he served Fujiwara Michigan's political opponent Fujiwara Hidemitsu, so he had conflicts with Abe Harumi more than once, and was finally exiled because of the failure of the fight.
And Abe Harumi's wife is named Pear Blossom, this one is often involved in the book "Golden Crow Jade Rabbit Collection" in the story, in a variety of versions, Ashiya Mandao wanted to get this book, so he colluded with Pear Blossom to murder Abe Harumi, and here it is also related to Abe Harumaki being able to come back to life, especially visible, the story should not be true.
In his lifetime, he not only perfected the astronomical calendar, but also wrote countless books.