We are accustomed to using the term "mother night fork" to describe tough women, and it is well known that "night fork" represents a formidable image, but few people know the origin of the term "night fork".
Contrary to what everyone understands, the night fork is not a demon, but an image in Brahmanism. According to Buddhism, the "Night Fork" is a dependent of the Northern Heavenly King Vishamon and is one of the eight tribes of the Heavenly Dragon. Strictly speaking, the night fork has two attributes: "man" and "god". It is said that the Night Fork, like the Rakshasa, was born from the soles of Brahma's feet.
However, the Night Fork is the opposite of the attitude of the Luocha towards humans, the Luocha treats people fiercely, and the Night Fork treats people kindly.
When Shakyamuni founded Buddhism, he followed the teachings of Brahmanism, taking many of the religion's images and incorporating them into Buddhist mythology. In Buddhist mythology, there is a good king named King Cili, whose life is very popular with the people. Under his wise leadership, the country prospered and the people were simple, the officials were dedicated to government affairs, and the people lived and worked in peace and contentment.
It is said that the virtue of King Cili has even heard of the ghosts and gods in the heavens. During this period, there were five more ghosts and gods named Night Forks, who specifically sucked human blood for energy. However, because the people of king Cili's country were simple and everyone did good deeds, they had good deeds on their bodies, and the evil ghosts and gods could not get close to these people. When the Night Forks came to this country, because they had no way to suck blood, they became extremely weak and dying, and could only wander around to survive.
One day, the Night Forks crawled down in front of King Cili and said to him, "We belong to the ghosts of the yin, and if there is no one to eat blood, our lives will be in danger." However, because you, the Great King, taught your people to be good, people have divine protectors, and we can't even get close, let alone suck blood. Now, the five of us are so hungry that we can't even walk, and if we continue like this, then we will only have our souls scattered. I have always heard that the king is kind and kind, so why don't you want to watch us ghosts and gods perish? ”
After saying that, the Night Forks fell to their knees and prostrated their heads repeatedly, crying bitterly. King Cili saw that they were all yellow-skinned and gaunt, and their hearts were soft, and he felt that these ghosts were very pitiful. Thinking about it, King Cili still couldn't tolerate them hurting his subjects, so King Cili decided to donate his blood to keep the Night Forks alive. Thinking of this, King Cili took out a sharp blade and cut five blood holes in his legs, and his legs were suddenly bleeding.
King Cili said to the Night Forks, "You have been hungry for a long time, so I will send you my blood, and I hope that you will be able to feed your stomach and be free from hunger." The Night Forks were on the verge of extinction, and originally just sought help from the King of Cili with the mentality of trying it out, but they didn't expect to really ask for fresh blood. So, with what little strength they had left, they crawled forward and climbed in front of King Cili. Some of the five night forks sucked directly with their mouths, and some took bowls to take the blood and drank it all.
After enjoying the fresh blood, the Night Forks instantly became energetic and energetic. These night forks filled their stomachs, not forgetting that all this was given by King Cili, so they still maintained a bowing posture and thanked King Cili: "We will never forget your life-saving grace, if you have any trouble, even if you mention it to us, we will go to the soup and go to the fire." ”
The kind King of Cili said, "If you have eaten enough and can live, I hope that you will be able to take vows and do good in the future." If you can do this, I will not waste my blood to you. In the future, if I am fortunate enough to practice and become a Buddha, I will definitely use mana to continue to help you get rid of samsara. After King Cili made this vow, the Night Forks left thankfully.
The King of Cili in this story is Shakyamuni before he became a Buddha. The five night forks who were rescued later became the five monks under Shakyamuni.
In addition, in the story of the Chinese Ming Dynasty classical mythological novel "Fengshen Yanyi", the patrol night fork under Ao Guang, the dragon king of the East China Sea, is the water house zhengshen hand-picked by the heavenly court, named "Li Geng". The original record: Because Nezha bathed in the Jiuwan River, he used the magic weapon to stir the waters of the East China Sea. The Dragon Palace caused an earthquake, the old Dragon King sent the Sea Night Fork to the shore to inspect, when he went forward to check the situation, there was a verbal altercation with Nezha, and the two fought, Nezha smashed the Night Fork to death with a Qiankun circle, the brain pulp burst out and died, and the soul of the Night Fork was killed and returned to the Divine Platform.
In the end, king Wu succeeded in cutting the silk, and after the end of the Great War of Conferring Gods, Jiang Ziya returned to the country to be a god, and entered the Heavenly Palace after sealing li geng as the god of the "Great Disaster Star".
Of course, the term "mother night fork" that we use is not derived from Buddhism, but from the Liaozhai Zhiyi.
In this zhiwei novel, there is a reference to a "night fork country", which is inhabited by a group of night forks. It is said that a merchant surnamed Xu came to this country by chance and married a mother in this country. Later, Xu returned to Middle-earth with his wife, and the common people were very frightened when they saw the terrible-looking mother Night Fork, and did not dare to approach the family at all.
Xu Shi knew that although his wife looked fierce, she was a kind person. So he patiently taught his wife the human language, making her more and more like a normal woman. Later, people found that this creature from the Night Fork Country was kind and gentle, and gradually accepted the mother Night Fork. The life of Xu and his mother Ye fork was very happy, and their son later became a heroic warrior.
It can be seen that the term "mother night fork" was not pejorative at first. However, when the word is used, people have ambiguity, making today's "mother night fork" a woman who everyone talks about.
Resources:
["Dafang Guangfo Huayan Sutra Brief Interpretation", "Fengshen Yanyi", "Liaozhai Zhiyi"]