In ancient China, there were many legends about gods and immortals, and for thousands of years, many gods and immortals were also worshipped in the folk. These gods and goddesses are various, including the god of love, the god of marriage, the god of sending children, the god of security at home, the god of Denko and the first prayer, the god of Fulu Shouki, the god of wealth, and the god of all walks of life. Many of these immortals involve sex. These phenomena cannot be explained only by feudal superstitions, but mainly express the people's prayers and yearning for a better life. In a class society, the more deeply many people suffer, the more they place their fate on the gods and the afterlife.
These beliefs, these legends, are also the accumulation of ancient cultures. Because it is mostly circulated in the folk and there is no correct history to follow, the starting date of circulation is difficult to check. However, its circulation spans mostly thousands of years, and it is constantly developing, supplementing, and modifying until the Ming, Qing, and even the present world.
1. The Ancestor of the Matchmaker
Nuwa is a female goddess widely and long-term worshipped by the Chinese people, and she is regarded as the creator god and the first ancestor god. Legend has it that Nuwa was able to incarnate all things, and her greatest achievement was to refine stones to replenish the heavens, and second, to create people by cutting earth.
Before creating man, Nuwa made chickens on the first day of the first month, dogs on the second day of the first month, sheep in the third month, pigs in the fourth year, cattle in the fifth month, and horses in the sixth month. In the seventh year of the first year, people began to be made of loess and water. Considering that people have to be successive from generation to generation, good and endless, so the marriage system was created, prompting men and women to combine to have children, so Nuwa became the first matchmaker, and was revered by later generations as a matchmaker, also known as "Gao Zhen", which is discussed in the second chapter of this book. The ceremony of worshipping this marriage god was very solemn, and the temple of Nüwa Niangniang or the temple of Gao Yu was built, and she was sacrificed with the highest etiquette of Taigao (pigs, cattle and sheep are all three animals). These temples are still preserved in Luoning, Shandong, Hejin, Shanxi, Andu, Jiangxi. The emergence of the goddess Nuwa reflects that marriage is centered on women in matriarchal clan society, and the matriarch controls the marriage of the whole clan.
2. Cowherd Weaver Girl
The story of the cowherd weaver girl is the first of the four major Chinese legends (the four major Chinese legends are "Cowherd Weaver Girl", "Chang'e Running Moon", "Meng Jiang Girl", "Liang Shanbo and Zhu Yingtai", all of which praise the sincere love of men and women). The cowherd and the weaver girl originally originated from the primitive belief in the worship of the stars, which was the deification and personification of the stars. There are many legends of gods in China that originate from this, such as the Twenty-Eight Houses, the Green Dragon, the White Tiger, the Suzaku, the Xuanwu, the KuiXing, and the Antarctic Old Man Star.
Niulang Star, also known as Niu Su, is one of the Twenty-Eight Lodges and the second of the Seven Houses of The Northern Xuanwu. Vega, also known as Tiansun, is in the west of the Milky Way, opposite the morning glory star in the east of the Milky Way. As early as the Book of Poetry, there is a record of the two stars of the cow girl, but there is no storyline, and it has been personified by the Han Dynasty:
Roundabout Morning Glory Star, Kyaukgyao River Han Girl.
Slim Maosu hand, Zaza lane machine.
……
After the Eastern Han Dynasty, the love story of the cowherd weaver girl was circulated in the folk. The gist is that The Weaver Girl is the granddaughter of the Jade Emperor, falls in love with the cowherd in the world, marries, loves very much, and has a son and a daughter. When the Jade Emperor noticed this, he sent the Queen Mother's mother, Niangniang, to escort the Weaver Girl back to the Heavenly Court for trial, and a loving couple was separated alive. Niu Lang was very sad, with the help of the old cow to catch up with the heavens, when he was about to catch up, the Queen Mother Niangnian pulled off the golden hairpin on her head, and the Tianhe appeared, and the Cowherd and the Weaver Girl were blocked by the Tianhe River, and only wept at the river. This moved the Jade Emperor, allowing them to meet at the Tianhe River on July 7 every year, when magpies built a bridge. Since then, the seventh day of the first month of July has become a folk festival, known as "Tangram Festival" and "Beggar's Festival". Girls and daughters-in-law are to wear needles and lead on this day and beg for cleverness and dexterity—begging the weaver girl for ingenuity and dexterity.
3. Luna
It is one of the most widely circulated gods and immortals in Chinese folklore. The moon god is also called moonlight lady, taiyin star lord, moon goddess, moonlight bodhisattva and so on. The worship of the moon god, which has a long history in China and is also a common phenomenon in all countries of the world, stems from the worship of celestial bodies in primitive beliefs. In the dark night, the moon brings light to people; the hazy moon color will make people have many reverie, and many beautiful and moving stories will be produced, and "Chang'e Running Moon" is one of the famous ones. Legend has it that Chang'e was Houyi's wife, Houyi offended the Heavenly Emperor for shooting for nine days, and relegated them to the human world, and later, Houyi got the elixir of the Queen Mother of the West, and Chang'e secretly ate it and ascended to heaven, living in the Moon Palace, and became the Lady of the Moon God. This is recorded in ancient books such as the Classic of Mountains and Seas and the Book of Searching for Gods.
Since then, the moon god has been more commonly worshipped by the people. When men and women in ancient China were in love, they swore an oath under the moon and prayed to the moon god. Some separated lovers also pray to the moon god for reunion.
There are many ethnic minorities in our country who also practice the custom of worshipping the moon. For example, the Miao people have the activity of "jumping the moon", and young men and women seek their sweethearts in the "jumping moon", pour out their admiration, and forever tie the same heart.
Fourth, the elderly under the moon
The old man under the moon is the god in charge of marriage in Chinese myths and legends, also known as "old man of the moon". Many places in China have the Moon Old Ancestral Hall, such as the Baiyun Nunnery under the Lonely Mountain of Hangzhou's West Lake, which has a moon old hall, and there is a pair of couplets hanging on both sides of the hall, which is popular among the population and the couplet:
May there be lovers in the world, and they will all become dependents;
It is destined for the past life, do not miss the marriage.
This is the reason why many people have worshipped the moon for thousands of years. In the fifty-seventh episode of "Dream of the Red Chamber", Aunt Xue said the following words to Daiyu and Baochao:
Since the ancient road: a thousand miles of marriage. There is an old man under the moon who manages the marriage, predestined, secretly only using a red wire to trip up the feet of these two people, with your two families separated by the sea, across the country, there is a world vendetta, and finally have the opportunity to be a couple. ...... If the old man under the moon does not use the red thread, he can no longer go to one place.
Many young men and women in ancient Chinese society believed in this statement. The old man under the moon gave them a beautiful vision; at the same time, the fatalistic ideas contained in it also made some parties to unhappy marriages suffer in silence.
As for the red thread, it later became a wedding ceremony, which was recorded in the Tang Dynasty. In the Song Dynasty, it gradually evolved into a "red scarf", and wu Zimu of the Song Dynasty recorded it in detail in the "Dream Liang Record Marriage". In the Qing Dynasty, it became a red veil or red cloth in the wedding, and the groom and bride "each held one end and led into the cave room". This custom of tying red threads, wearing red scarves or red cloth can still be seen in some Han and ethnic minority areas.
Fifth, the god of love
Under the oppression of feudal etiquette, many lovers could not become dependents, so they could only pray to the gods and immortals to ask for help, and this immortal was the god of love- the Great Sage of Sizhou.
Sizhou Dasheng spread in Guangdong and Fujian. There is a story about his production: there is a Luoyang River at the junction of The two counties of Hui'an and Jinjiang in Fujian Province, the water is turbulent, it is impossible to build a bridge, and after many generations of efforts, it has not been successful. One day, an old man rowed a boat with a beautiful girl in the heart of the river, and the old man announced that whoever threw the girl with money would marry the girl to whom. So countless people came to invest money, but the money fell into the river. After a few months of this, the bottom of the river was full of money and became the cornerstone of the bridge. In fact, this old man was changed by the land lord, and the girl was changed by Avalokiteshvara, and the purpose of doing so was to promote the construction of bridges.
However, just when this great work was about to be completed, a clever Sizhou man thought of a clever way to throw money at the girl. The old man told him to go to the pavilion to discuss the marriage. As soon as this Sizhou man sat down in the pavilion, he could not get up, and it turned out that his soul had been transformed into a Buddha in the Western Heavens by Guanyin Bodhisattva, and his body was still in the pavilion, becoming a sizhou saint worshipped by the people.
People say that sizhou dasheng is very understanding and sympathetic to the pursuit of a happy marriage of idiot men and women, as long as in the Sizhou great sage Buddha statue dug a little mud behind the head, secretly sprinkled on each other, the other party will not change their hearts, love, marriage will get a happy ending. But then, the back of the Buddha's head had to be repaired again and again.
6. Rejoice in God
The god of joy is the god of good luck. People always want to seek good fortune and avoid evil and pursue joy, so they must create a god of joy. Marriage is a great joy in life, so doing marriage is also called doing happy things. Of course, it is inseparable from the joy god, the old custom, the bride must sit in the direction where the god of joy is located, but where this direction is, you have to consult Mr. Yin and Yang.
Mr. Yin and Yang also has a set of sayings about the direction of the god of joy, which is included in the "Junji Dialectic Book Of Joy God" written during the Qianlong period of the Qing Dynasty:
The god of joy resides in The Komi Day, in the time of Yin;
Yi Geng Day is in Qianfang, which is at the time of The Beginning;
Prophecyn Riju KunFang, is in the Shen Shi;
Ding Ren's day is away from the square, it is at noon,
Pentadecium day in the Sunda square, is at the time of tatsumi.
After Mr. Yin and Yang deduced the direction of the god of joy, the bride's palanquin must be in that direction; after the bride gets on the palanquin, she must stop for a while, called "welcoming the god of joy", and then she can leave.
In the old days, there was also this custom in beijing brothels: at dawn on the day of the New Year's Day, prostitutes should pull up their good friends to go to the "Happy God Fang", that is, to find the direction where the Happy God is located, thinking that "if you meet the Happy God, you can make a year old; and if you can meet the white impermanent, you can beg for an inch of things, and you will return to the source of wealth."
The God of Joy has no special image, but is a complete replica of the God of Blessings, the Heavenly Official. Compared with other marriage customs and sexual customs, the custom of worshiping god seems to be more superstitious.
Seven, the bed god
The custom of sacrificing the bed god has a long history, and the Song Dynasty has popularized this custom. The Song Dynasty Yang Xunji's "Miscellaneous Songs for the Night" poem Yun: "Buy sugar to greet the emperor of the stove, drink water to worship the bed", that is, this refers to this. It is said that the bed god has a distinction between men and women, the bed woman covets the cup, and the bed is good for tea, so "to the wine to worship the bed mother, to the tea to worship the bed man", this is called male tea female wine. When offering sacrifices to the god of the bed, he places tea, wine, cakes and fruits in the bedroom and prays for "sleeping peacefully for the rest of his life." The time varies from place to place, some areas receive the god of Vesta in the Chinese New Year's Eve, and then worship the god of the bed; in some areas, the day after the first day of the first day, that is, the sixteenth day of the first lunar month, the god of the bed is sacrificed.
In the old days, there was also the custom of "installing beds" in some areas, that is, placing new beds in the cave room a few days before the wedding; its position should be determined according to the birthdays of both men and women, window directions, and divine positions, and should not be opposed to tables, cabinets, and cabinets. The bed should be carried out on an auspicious day. After settling the bed, visit the mother of the bed that night. In the Ming and Qing dynasties, there was a custom of worshipping the mother of the bed, and this was described in the Qing Dynasty novel "The Legend of the Awakening Marriage". The wedding prayer bed god is to hope that the newlyweds will be like glue and have a happy life.
VIII. The God of Harmony
In ancient times, the god of harmony had different meanings. "The Original Society of Things" Yun: "The god of harmony is the monk Han Shan and Shi Deya of Tiantai Mountain." The word "harmony" has the meaning of harmony and concentricity, harmony, and smoothness, and was first seen in the "Zhou Li Diguan", in the "media" sparse cloud: "make the media seek a woman, and merge the two surnames", which should be the correct solution of "harmony". Therefore, the original family and harmony of the god of harmony gradually evolved into the god of marriage and harmony, and from the original god with a smiling face and a drum and a stick, it evolved into two gods with a lotus and a hug. Holding the lotus because of the "lotus" and "harmony" sounds, the stick is also for this reason.
On the back wall of the Daxiong Treasure Hall of Suzhou Hanshan Temple, there are stone carvings of Hanshan mountain and freehand painting painted by the famous Painter Luo Ping of the Qing Dynasty. The hall next to the main hall enshrines a wooden carved golden body of Hanshan and a statue, one person holds a lotus, and the other person holds a stick, the shape is simple and lifelike.
In the eleventh year of Qing Yongzheng (1733 AD), the Hanshan Master of Tiantai was named "Hesheng" and the Shide Dashi was "Hesheng", so Hanshan and Shide were also made "Hehe Erxian". In the old days, there were often hanging and combining two immortal figures in the middle hall, taking the meaning of harmony and auspiciousness; and often hung at the time of marriage, symbolizing the love of husband and wife.
9. Children and grandchildren
"Many children and many blessings, full of children and grandchildren" is the traditional cultural mentality and pursuit of the past Chinese, in order to worship the Buddha, pray for heirs, many children and immortals have also come into being. There are many names for sending children and immortals, and they are generally called descendants and maidens. For example, in guangzhou's famous Temple of Prayer, the Golden Flower Temple, the main god is Madame Jinhua, and the appendages are Zhang Xian, Huatuo, Yuelao, Hua Wang, Peach Blossom Girl, Dou mu, etc., most of which are related to fertility; there are also twenty statues of milk goddesses, which are also related to fertility. The names of these twenty descendants are as follows:
Mrs. Hu freshens Mrs. Zhang
Teach Food Lady Liu's White Flower Lady Cao's
Raising Lady Tang's Blood Blade Lady Zhou
Lady Ning sent her son Lady Xie
Laughing Aunt Zhu's flower-cutting lady Wu
Lady Safflower Ye's little laughing aunt Huang's
Lady Ofe Sehana, Lady of the Sheep Blade
Lady Chen taught Lady Liang to drink
Mrs. Huang, Mrs. Koshibang, Mrs. Koshibaki
Flower lady Du sent flower lady Jiang
The so-called "flower" refers to the fetus and the baby. "White flower" refers to boys, and "red flower" refers to girls. "Turning flowers" refers to the conversion of women to men. There are many children and grandchildren here, and the division of labor is meticulous, from reincarnation, pregnancy, male and female, fetal preservation, to childbirth, parenting, and even eating, drinking, grooming, walking, going to disease, etc., so it is very popular and worshiped by people, especially women. As the Qing Daoguang Shi "Foshan Zhongyi Township Chronicle" volume 14 said: "The golden flower will flourish in the provincial capital of Henan, but there are very few in the township." But the woman believed in it. If there are twelve nurses in all parts of the Temple of Yama, and the woman who asks for a son enters the temple to pray, chooses the son held by the nurse, and ties it with a red rope, then entrusts the birth as her own son, and tries many tests. However, there are many years and deaths. ”
Taiwan's descendants are called Zhusheng Niangniang, and "Zhusheng" is in charge of the matter of childbirth. Originally from Fujian, Lady Linshui Chen was also regarded as the goddess of difficult childbirth for women. There are thirty-six bo-ancestors on both sides of the main deity in Fuzhou' Zhusheng Niangniang Temple, while the Zhusheng Niangniang Temple in Taiwan and other parts of Fujian is generally twelve. The descendants of the Descendants in the Tianjin Tianhou Palace are also very representative: the main god in the main hall is the Queen of Heaven, and on the left and right is her incarnation Niangniang, known as the Eye Niangniang, the Descendant Niangniang, the Slap Niangniang, the Spotted Niangniang, the Qianzi Niangniang, the Introducing Mother Niangniang, and the Nursing Mother Niangniang.
10. The God of Prostitutes
In the past, the gods worshipped by prostitutes had their own dedicated gods in addition to universal gods. The earliest prostitute god is said to be Guan Zhong, a great statesman in the Spring and Autumn Period. Ji Yun of the Qing Dynasty wrote in the Notes on Reading Wei Caotang: "The prostitutes are worshiped in Guanzhong, and the female Lu is three hundred." Regarding the matter of "Three Hundred Female Lu", the Warring States Policy and Eastern Zhou Ce Yun: "Seven cities in the Qi Huan Gong Palace, seven hundred female Lu, and the people of the country are not." The Ming Dynasty Xie Zhaozhe's "Five Miscellaneous Tricks" Yun: "The rule of the pipe is seven hundred for the female Lu, and the funds for her night union are requisitioned to support the military state." "Because Guan Zhong was the earliest initiator in the historical record to openly and on a large scale, he was worshipped by later generations of prostitutes as ancestors and gods.
In addition to Guan Zhong, ancient prostitutes also believed in the god of white eyebrows. The Ming dynasty Shen Defu said in the "Compilation of Wanli Ye" that the white-browed god had long hair and great looks, rode a horse and held a sword, and was slightly similar to Guan Gong's portrait, but his eyebrows were white and his eyes were red. The Kyoshi people refer to each other as "those with white eyebrows and red eyes" who are known as "those with white eyebrows and red eyes" will hate each other, and their indecency can be known. Xu Ke's "Qing Barnyard Bills" says that he is also called the demon god: the magic of the prostitute family, in the existence, the northern prostitutes, will offer the white eyebrow god, also known as the demon god, praying day and night. For thousands of years, prostitutes have been very respectful to the god of white eyebrows, "When you first recommend a pillow to a person, you will worship this god with Ai Feng (the old pig, referring to a prostitute), and then make love, and the two capitals of the north and the south will be the same." ”
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