In the classic "Journey to the West", there is such a very classic plot, that is, after Sun Wukong, who called himself "Qi Tian dasheng", defeated various heavenly soldiers and generals, Guanyin Bodhisattva recommended Erlang Shen to go and arrest him. Sun Wukong is proficient in the "Seventy-Two Changes", and erlang Shen is also good at the art of change, and the two began to compete in spells after fighting for more than three hundred rounds without winning or losing.
For this fight, the description of the original book is very vivid, and the classic 86 version of the TV series is also quite interesting. In general, after a series of changes, Erlang Divine Consciousness broke the land temple that Sun Wukong had become, and in the ensuing battle, he and the six brothers of Meishan and others jointly surrendered Sun Wukong, corresponding to the title of this time "Little Saint Shi Wei Descending great sage". Erlang God is so powerful and powerful, who is he, is there a historical prototype, and there are folk sayings about his surname Yang, surname Li, and surname Zhao, and what is his surname?
It should be noted that the ancient immortal system in China is not very strict, so it is very normal that different texts and different regions may have different statements about the same mythological figure. On this basis, we may wish to first look at the introduction of his identity background in "Journey to the West". When recommending the god Erlang, Guanyin Bodhisattva said to the Jade Emperor: "Your Majesty has ordered his nephew To manifest the holy Erlang Zhenjun, who now lives in Guanzhou Anduijiangkou and enjoys the incense below. In the past, he had vigorously cursed the six monsters, and there were the Meishan brothers and the twelve hundred grass-headed gods in front of the tent, and they had great supernatural powers. ”
From this passage of Guanyin Bodhisattva, we can get a lot of useful information, such as the erlang god was the nephew of the Jade Emperor and lived in the "Guanzhou Guanjiangkou", which is now the area of Dujiangyan in Sichuan. When it comes to Dujiangyan, a large-scale water conservancy project that is well-known at home and abroad, I believe many people will think of Li Bing, the Taishou of Shu County, who presided over the construction. In fact, a more mainstream theory means that the erlang god is Li Bing's son "Erlang".
According to the Song Huijiao, "In August of the eighth year of Emperor Renzong's reign, the Yongkang Army Guangji Wangmiao LangJun Shen was specially enthroned as the Marquis of Linghui and sent officials to pay tribute. The god is the second son of Li Bing, the King of The Spirit of the Guardian Country of Sichuan. In addition, Song Dynasty classics such as "Chronicle of Things" and "Chengdu Ancient and Modern Collection" also have records of "the Western Minli Guankou Erlang Shrine of the National City of Yuanfeng, the Prince of Guangji in Yongkang Daojiang County, the king is Qin Li Bingye, and the so-called Ice Second Son Lang Jun shenye", "Li Bing makes his son Erlang, as a three-stone man to zhen the river, the five-stone rhinoceros to be tired of water monsters, chiseled away from the mountain to avoid the harm of foaming water".
It seems that the Erlang God is indeed Li Bing's son "Erlang", so his surname should naturally follow his father's surname Li. However, the Legendary Novel of the Tang Dynasty, The Record of the Dragon City, has a different record. According to the book, zhao Yu, the Taishou of Jiazhou in Sichuan at the end of the Sui Dynasty, once studied in Qingcheng Mountain, and on a certain day in a certain year, when the dragons in the river rebelled, Zhao Yu entered the river with a knife to fight with him, and abandoned his official position after slaying the dragon. Since then, the river has flooded several times, and Zhao Yu has always "manifested" it in time to calm it down.
During the Zhenguan period, Emperor Taizong of Tang heard of this legend, so he ordered Zhao Yu to be named a "Great General of Divine Courage" and built a temple to worship him at the mouth of the Guanjiang River. After the Anshi Rebellion broke out, Tang Xuanzong fled to Shu and created Zhao Yu the King of Chicheng. However, compared with the "Li Erlang" recognized by the master of science Zhu Xi and others, the "Zhao Erlang" statement obviously lacks credibility.
Finally, let's look at the very widely circulated "Yang Erlang" saying. If you want to ask the name of the Erlang God, I believe that "Yang Jian" will be the answer for many people. In fact, this name is the original of the famous book "Fengshen Yanyi", and later spread to the world with the great influence of the novel. As mentioned above, the Erlang God in journey to the West is said to be the nephew of the Jade Emperor, but in fact, the Erlang God's surname Yang and the saying that he was related to the Jade Emperor all came from the Erlang Treasure Scroll published during the Ming Jiajing period.
According to the Erlang Treasure Scroll, the Third Daughter of the Jade Emperor (also known as the Younger Sister) Yunhua Fairy and the mortal Yang Tianyou, who was reincarnated by the Golden Boy, gave birth to Yang Erlang. Due to violating the Heavenly Rules, the Yuhua Fairy was immediately suppressed at the foot of the mountain, while Yang Erlang split the mountain to save her mother after receiving the guidance of the Queen Mother of the West. Nowadays, when it comes to splitting the mountain to save the mother, people often think of the myth "Baolian Lantern", and in that story, the Erlang god is precisely the uncle of the protagonist Shen Xiang, which shows that there should be a certain connection between the two works.
To sum up, the discussion of the background of the life of the god Erlang in ancient China can be described as divergent and inconsistent. Perhaps, we can combine the various statements, after all, no matter what kind of statement, the protagonist is the Erlang god who is sacrificed by the people. From the perspective of the source stream, the first people should sacrifice Li Erlang, as the son of Li Bing, who assisted his father in curing the floods in Shudi and won the love and respect of the people.
In the early years of the Tang Dynasty, Cui Lingqin's "Records of the Teachings" included the word "Erlang Shen", which is the earliest written record of him. With the popularity of various folk sayings, the Erlang god, who was originally quietly enshrined in the temple, gradually had different archetypes and was given different surnames. Even, his function has expanded from controlling floods to protecting the country, protecting children, protecting farmers, and so on, and even during the Ming Dynasty, people still worshiped him before bowing. In general, the Erlang God does have a historical prototype, that is, Li Bing's son. However, on the contrary, the surname Yang, which only appeared in the Ming Dynasty, has been widely accepted with the spread of various novels.