Zhong Kui is the most familiar character in China's folk belief in gods. Sticking the door is a door god to ward off evil spirits, and hanging nave is a charm to ward off evil spirits. It appears in Nuo ceremonies as a warrior who unifies ghosts and gods and slays demons, from which various Zhong Kui plays and Zhong Kui pictures are derived. Even in Compendium of Materia Medica, Zhong Kui's "secret recipe" for dystocia and malaria was included. According to China's "Folklore" magazine, in the 1990s, some people even asked wizards to hold the so-called "Town Zhong Kui" ceremony to catch ghosts and exorcise demons and keep their homes safe (Shi Hanru and Yang's "Town Zhong Kui").
For ordinary people, stories such as "Zhong Kui playing ghosts" are almost household names. Zhong Kui's belief has a profound and extensive influence among the people. But this is only one aspect of the problem. On the other hand, the origin of Zhong Kui, a well-connected fairy, is probably not clear to ordinary people. In fact, this issue has been debated by many scholars since the Tang Dynasty. In recent years, with the rise of folk culture, issues such as the origin and evolution of Zhong Kui's beliefs have been raised, and many scholars have expressed their own views and different opinions. So far, there is no conclusion.
At present, the earliest known record about Zhong Kui is the History of Tang Yi written by Tang Dynasty: During the Kaiyuan period (765,438+03-7465,438+0), a kid in Xuanzong of Tang Dynasty dreamed of stealing embroidered sachets from the Jade Emperor and Yang Guifei. Xuanzong was furious and was about to send warriors to exorcise ghosts when he saw a GREAT GHOST running into the temple. This ghost is covered in hair and looks terrible. He wore a horn belt on his head, a blue robe, a leather coat on his feet, and bare arms. When he reached out his hand, he grabbed the child, gouged out his eyes and swallowed it. Xuanzong is very scary. who is it? GREAT GHOST saluted Xuanzong, claiming to be Zhong Kui of Zhong Nanshan. During the reign of Emperor Gaozu Wude, he died because he went to Chang 'an to touch the steps in front of the temple and was ashamed to return home. Fortunately, Gaozu gave him a green robe to be buried with him. He was deeply touched and vowed to rid the Tang Dynasty of evil spirits. After Tang Xuanzong woke up, his illness soon recovered. Xuanzong ordered painter Wu Daozi to paint a portrait of Zhong Kui according to what he saw in his dream. As shown in the picture, Xuanzong approved in the painting: "The coffin should be a dream, and the disease should be completely paralyzed. Martyrs should be rewarded for exorcism; Because the pictures are different, it shows that there are divisions that can be driven away at the end of the year, so it is appropriate to get to know each other again, which can ward off evil spirits and is conducive to evil spirits. Still tell the world, I will inform the Committee. " On the orders of our company, we engraved Wu Daozi's "Zhong Kui Gui Tu", which was widely awarded to the world and let the world know the great power of Zhong Kui.
Zhao Lu was a scholar in Huichang, Tang Wuzong for three years (843). It has been over 100 years since the Kaiyuan era, so what he said may not be true. However, it is a practice since the Tang Dynasty that the emperor gave the portrait of Zhong Kui to the minister as a New Year gift. For example, Zhang Shuo, a celebrity in the early years of Kaiyuan, and Liu Yuxi later, Xie Cizhong's portraits, calendars and other works were handed down from generation to generation. In addition, people also found the Exorcism of Zhong Kui New Year's Eve written in the Dunhuang suicide note, which is the evidence that Zhong Kui played a leading role in exorcism. All this shows that Zhong Kui belief has become the fashion of the whole society since the prosperous Tang Dynasty at the latest. So some people estimate that the origin of Zhong Kui's story may be earlier than that of the Tang Dynasty.
In the heat flow of folk beliefs in Zhong Kui, Shen Kuo in the Northern Song Dynasty first questioned the story that Zhong Kui dreamed of Xuanzong in the Tang Dynasty: during the Huang Dynasty (1049- 1054), an ancient tomb was found in Shangyuan County, Jinling, which was the tomb of Mrs. Zheng, the mother of Zongxi, a general in the Southern Song Dynasty. According to the inscription, Zongxi exists. In addition, there will be Li Zhong Kui in the later Wei Dynasty, Joe Zhong Kui and Yang Zhong Kui in the Sui Dynasty. Because I know that "the name of Zhong Kui has never been far away, and Kaiyuan has never started" (Volume 3 of Meng Qian Bu Bi Tan). In Ming Dynasty, Lang Ying, Hu Yinglin and others followed his theory, but their conclusions were different. Lang Ying believes that Zhong Kui's prototype is Yao Xuan, a Northern Dynasty man. His real name is Zhong Kui, and the word "ugly" is a myth. Because of his expression of "evil spirits", the story of catching ghosts was attached to later talents. Hu Yinglin pointed out that the legend of Zhong Kui catching ghosts was "built before the Six Dynasties", so Yao Xuan named Zhong Kui to ward off evil spirits. There were many people named Zhong Kui in the Northern and Southern Dynasties, which may be based on this.
Yang Shen in the Ming Dynasty and Gu and Zhao Yi in the Qing Dynasty believed that the so-called Zhong Kui evolved from "Zhong Kui" according to the data in Li Zhoukao. In the dialect, there are some sayings such as "three feet long, Zhong Kui is the first" and "Qi people call the vertebra Zhong Kui". "Zhong Kui" is a sharp weapon-vertebra, and "Da Gui" is a sacrificial ceremony for ancient emperors. The upper end is shaped like a vertebra, so the cloud "Da Gui and Zhong Kui are the first". Qi people speak slowly, dragging the pronunciation of "vertebra" into two syllables, and it becomes "Zhong Kui". The ancients regarded the spine as a sharp weapon for fighting, so the Biography of Ma Rong in the Later Han Dynasty described it as "the axe of Zhong Kui". "Cover the ancients to chase ghosts with vertebrae, and listen if they are surprised" (Rizhilu, Volume 32). In the Northern and Southern Dynasties, many people named Zhong Kui or Zhong Kui in the hope that all ghosts would be intimidated like Zhong Kui. Zhong Kui was a weapon used by the ancients to stab ghosts, which eventually became a personalized "Zhong Kui" in the Tang Dynasty. In recent years, with a large number of documents unearthed in Qin and Han dynasties, it is popular to kill ghosts with vertebrae in ancient times. For example, in Qin bamboo slips "Japanese Book", people are entangled in mourning ghosts, but they can "stab the peach and knock on the heart, but they don't come"; The silk book "Fifty-two Diseases Prescriptions" in the Western Han Dynasty also recorded the magic of using iron vertebrae to kill ghosts and treat diseases. Therefore, some people think that Gu's explanation of the origin of Zhong Kui is credible.
Today, both Chang and Ma Yong have written about Zhong You and expressed their own opinions, but their arguments have not generally broken away from the pattern of the Ming and Qing Dynasties. Only He Xin and Wang Zhengshu don't say anything new.
He Xin thinks that Zhong Kui is a person's name, which has nothing to do with the so-called "vertebra" or "Zhong Kui". Zhong Kui's prototype is Wu Xiang's puppet in Shang Tang, and Zhong You, Gui Zhong and Zhong Lei in Shangshu, Zuozhuan and Xunzi. Businessmen deal with ghosts, all political officials are wizards, and secondary officials are wizards and exorcists. After that, the mask is also; You must wear a mask to exorcise ghosts. There are many shapes of masks, which have produced many legends of songs. Zhong Guo evolved into a homophonic Zhong Guo, a strange snake in mythology, and then evolved from Zhong Guo into the "Xiong Guo" (Tian Wen) of nine giant snakes, the fascinating "Xiong Bo" (the book of etiquette in the later Han Dynasty), and even the lost text of Shan Hai Jing. What's more, from a real person who exorcises ghosts and witches to a monster Zhong Kui, the more complicated the deformation, the farther away from the truth, but it also left traces: the ancients often used words to explain their names, and Zhong Kui's Sui was a combination of "nine heroic poems", but "nine heroic poems" were used.
Some people agree with this statement, but some people question it, thinking that businessmen are haunted, not chasing ghosts. Besides, they have never heard of Zhong Zhong or Zhong Zhong's ghost-chasing performance.
Wang Zhengshu believes that Zhong Kui and his concept of exorcising ghosts and evil spirits in past dynasties actually originated from ancient witchcraft, and he got it from the first generation of worship ceremony in Zhu Rong. In ancient history, there were names such as Chongli, Return to China and Ju Mang. In the legend, Ju Mang was portrayed as a person with a special mission and special appearance. One of his missions was to occupy a witch position, which was recorded in the historian "Official Book". In Shang Dynasty, Zhong You was named after his duties. In fact, Zhong You has returned to the tone of "emphasizing Lebanon". As for "Zhong Kui", it refers to a vertebral body. Because Li Zhong's feather crown was taken from this shape when he was engaged in witchcraft activities, Shang people agreed that it was a symbol of witchcraft. In Shang Dynasty, the official position was surname, so the family formed by Zhong Guo was also called "Zhong Kui's". In the Zhou Dynasty, this religious group was renamed "Fang". Fang Xiang's name, like Zhong Kui's, comes from the costume of the ancient wizard's head. The difference is that "Zhong Kui" comes from the feather crest and "Fang Xiang" comes from the mask. This square-centered custom of exorcising ghosts has been followed up to the Tang Dynasty. What's more, Zhong You, Zhong Kui and Fang, from the ancient witch-returning to the Shang and Zhou Dynasties, are all prototypes of Zhong Kui, and they are in the same strain in nature and appellation (textual research by Zhong Kui).
Compared with He Xin's view, this view has something in common, but it only traces the source of Zhong Kui back to Li. However, some people think that Li Zhonghe and Ju Mang are all images in myths and legends, which may not be confirmed by printing. What's more, if self-esteem comes down to the same strain as Zhong Guo, Zhong Kui and Fang Xiang, why is there no record of Zhong Kui family in Han and Jin literature, and it was not until the Southern and Northern Dynasties that many Zhong Kui, Zhong Kui and Zhong Kui suddenly appeared? This blank interruption that lasted for hundreds of years is really difficult to explain.
Looking at the opinions of the ancients and sages, it should be said that they all have their own reasons, and so do the skeptics. The origin of Zhong Kui is still a big mystery in the history of China folk culture.
At the junction of Shaanxi and Hubei, there is a legend about Tang Xuanzang.
According to legend, Tang Priest's father took his family to work in Hubei by boat. The ship arrived at the junction of Shaanxi and Hubei (today's Lantian Township). Liu Hong, a robber from Wujiadu, robbed the property of Tang Priest and pushed Tang Priest's father into the Han River. Seeing that Tang Priest's mother was very attractive, he had a bad heart. He took Tang Priest's mother to the hut as his wife. At this time, Tang Priest's mother was pregnant. For the sake of the children, his mother endured humiliation and agreed to the bandit's request.
Six months later, the Tang Priest was born. His mother bit off one of her son's toes, wrapped the child in a cloth and found a wooden basin to put the child in. She quietly put the wooden basin into the Han River.
At the same time, in a temple in Ankang, the old host dreamed that Guanyin Bodhisattva had a dream and said that a holy monk was coming and there was a great disaster to save. The next day, the old master asked the young monk to look outside the door. I saw a flock of ducks gathered in a wooden basin on a calm river. The bathtub was quickly salvaged and there was a beautiful boy in it. Held a grand celebration and adopted the boy. The boy is very clever, and he is happy to follow his master to recite the scriptures and Buddha from an early age.
Eighteen years later, the bandit Liu Hong was killed and Tang Priest's mother escaped. She made a hundred pairs of shoes day and night and came to the temple in Ankang. She wants to send shoes to the monk, but she has a request that the monk should be barefoot and she should put on her shoes herself. Ninety-nine pairs of shoes have been worn away. When I reached the hundredth pair, I found that the little monk's toes were missing. His mother was in tears, so she took out a toe and put it on the missing toe of the young monk, just fine. Mother and son cried bitterly. ......
It is said that Tang Priest's father was not drowned, but was rescued. He lives in Baihe, and Chen is his descendant. Later, Tang Priest went to find his father, passed by Lantian, and was attracted by the girl in Daughter Mountain. ......
This story is circulated here. Up to now, Liuhongzhai and Daughter Mountain in Lantian, Hubei are all there, facing Wujiadu in Lantian, Shaanxi across the river.