Peach is an ordinary fruit. When did it become the fruit of longevity? Tracing back to the history that peaches became the fruit of longevity can be traced back to the Warring States, Qin and Han Dynasties, and longevity became a difficult problem that people have been pursuing in that period. In order to prolong life, ancient people racked their brains to come up with various ways and methods, among which taking fairy medicine is the most common way, and peaches, as people's favorite fruit, are also included in the fairy medicine list. In the long history since then, this cultural image has been carried forward step by step and eventually became a symbol of world longevity.
Peach can be an elixir, or it comes from the legend that Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty sought immortality. For example, The Legend of Hanwu said, "The Queen Mother of the West fell to the Emperor's Palace on July 7th and ordered the maid to fetch peaches. In a short time, seven peaches, the size of an egg and the shape of a round You Lan, were put in a jade plate and showed to the Queen Mother. The queen mother gave five to the emperor and two to herself. " The same story, in The Story of Hanwu, tells that Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty ate a peach and left the peach pit to plant it. The Queen Mother of the West said, "This peach has been married for 3,000 years, and it was not planted in the soil." The story of 1 was later described as "a flower in 3,000 years, a fruit in 3,000 years, and a ripe fruit in 3,000 years". It is also the birthday girl, just like the "Wan Nianzao" in The Story of the Cave.
Perhaps because of this allusion, peaches have been included in fairy tales since then. For example, "Peaceful Magnolia" quoted "Fairy Biography" as saying, "Take the peach gum as the high autumn male, and the fairy is also." Nervously, he said, "There is a tree in the northeast, which is fifty feet high. Its leaves are eight feet long and four feet wide. It is called a peach. His son is three feet two inches in diameter and has a small and narrow nucleus, which makes people live longer. " "Notes" says: "It's too late to go to Fusang for 50,000 miles. It is very cold underground, surrounded by peach trees, and its flowers are blue and black. Long live. " The Kampong Mountain here is the same as the Mount Kumgang mentioned in Cave Tale. The cave story produces jujube, which is called the Queen Mother of the West, and it is also "the mountain is close to the blue sea, and it bears a fruit every ten thousand years." It can be seen that as long as it is a fairy fruit, its growth period is very long, at least 10 thousand years. Perhaps people at that time thought that a fruit would take 10 thousand years to mature, so people who ate such fruit could naturally live forever. This is the simplest and simplest understanding.
However, why does an ordinary fruit become an elixir of life? Is it just because the Queen Mother of the West rules immortality? Judging from the documents recorded in the Han Dynasty, peach trees seem to be more related to exorcism. For example, Taiping Yulan quoted Dian Lun as saying: "Peach is the essence of five trees, so it is disgusting to hide evil spirits. The essence of peach, born in the gate of hell, makes a hundred ghosts. Therefore, the Taoren people hate it today, and this fairy wood is also. " "Dream Book" said, "Peach as a precaution is unknown. Those who dream of peaches are also officials. " "Shennongjing" said, "Jade peach, if served, will live forever. You can't take it early, you can take it on the day of death, and you won't die. " Perhaps for this reason, it is said that during the Spring and Autumn Period when Confucius lived, he used to bathe the dead with peach soup. For example, Wang Su's Notes on Mourning for the Past said: "The ancestors carried their father, and Confucius said,' Wouldn't it be better to set up three peach soups? Ai Lu realized that this custom originated from Wei, and because people who died with hatred used three kinds of peach soup, he didn't accept Confucius' advice. It can be seen that peach's evil spirits may be used for bathing at first, which can remove bad taste, and later extended to ward off evil spirits. The typical role of exorcism is the story of peach trees in Dushuo Mountain. For example, "Taiping Yu Lan" quoted Han Jiuyi as saying: "Shan Hai Jing said: Shuoshan is in the middle of the East China Sea. There is a big peach on the mountain, which bends three thousand miles. In the northeast, ghosts come and go. There are two gods in the world, one is Shen Tu, and the other is Lei Yu. God guides all ghosts. Evil spirits hold reed ropes and eat tigers. The Yellow Emperor set up a Ren Tao at the entrance and painted Shen Tu, Lei Yu, tigers and reeds to exorcise ghosts. " Lun Heng said, "In ancient times, there were two people, shentu and Lei Yu, and Kundi. They were born with ghosts. Living on Dushuo Mountain in the East China Sea, standing under a peach tree, reading hundreds of ghosts. Ghosts cause trouble, tea and Lei Yu tie reeds and eat tigers. "4. The story in the Pass is similar to that in the Classic of Mountains and Seas, except that Lei Yu, the goddess, is a brother and specializes in judging ghosts here. "So the magistrate decorated the peach man with wax on New Year's Eve, hung up the reed rope and handed the tiger to the door. "This is a well-known story about peach trees and evil spirits. But the story only says that the northeast of Peach Tree is a distribution center for ghosts, and there are special gods to ward off evil spirits, and how to deal with evil spirits after they are killed. As for the role of peach trees in exorcism, I won't say much. " The Classic of Materia Medica says: "Peach is on the tree, but it doesn't kill ghosts. "Specifically, peaches can kill ghosts. But this kind of peach is called "owl peach". What is Momo is unknown. The story about Dushuo Mountain later evolved into a living custom, that is, hanging peaches on the door can ward off evil spirits, which is also the source of the later "peach symbol".
The purpose of the ancients to ward off evil spirits is to ensure safety, especially the safety of dead bodies. Because, according to the ancients, the death of a person is only the departure of the soul outside the body, and the soul can finally come back. If the body is gone when the soul comes back, it can't be resurrected, and there is no way to live. Therefore, it ensures that the body is not infringed, that is, it guarantees the foundation of regeneration. Therefore, exorcism is the basis of immortality, which makes peach trees have the function of resisting ghosts and exorcism, and also means immortality.
Longevity is a wish throughout the ages. Peach has become an indispensable item in the birthday celebration, from the bronze inscription "Mei Shou Wu Boundless" to the birthday celebration in the period of Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty, and then to the flat peach party in the novel The Journey to the West in the Ming Dynasty. The origin of the combination of peaches and birthdays may have originated in the Western Han Dynasty. For example, Yang Xiong wrote in Ganquan Fu: "I want the Queen Mother of the West to live happily, but I want to be a beautiful girl instead of Fu Fei." It may be the wishful thinking of Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty, or it may be the flattery of Yang Xiong. However, it is very likely that this statement led to the birth of customs such as offering peaches on birthdays. Because, according to the legend of "Hanwu Story" or "Hanwu Biography", when the Queen Mother of the West came to visit Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty, she brought an important gift of Xiantao. Dong Fangshuo, an official around Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty, overheard the secret about Xiantao and was regarded as a "thief" by the Queen Mother of the West. However, this indecent nickname has greatly enhanced the scenic spots in Dong Fangshuo by peeping at Xian Xian Xian Xiantao, so that the image of Dong Fangshuo is often added in later birthday paintings to imply that people can steal his longevity.
Perhaps because of the introduction of Buddhism, the development of Taoism, the expansion of people's belief channels and other reasons, the preaching of becoming immortal by day has gradually faded out of the world's sight, because Buddhism opposes the concept of becoming immortal in an instant, and believes that if you want to be super-living, you must be reincarnated after death and cannot be divorced from the real society. In this way, the road to becoming a fairy alive has been washed away, and nothing you eat can guarantee immortality. Xiantao, once described as a lifelike queen mother of the West, finally fell for nine days after changing its shape, and became an orchard in the sky, which was monopolized by the queen mother of the West. Through the legend of the Ming Dynasty, it became a well-known story of "making trouble in heaven". Xiantao has also entered people's field of vision and human society in the form of flat peaches, and has become an important food for birthdays.
Influenced by The Journey to the West, Lu Xiong, a native of Kunshan in the early Qing Dynasty, wrote a biography of immortals, which described the flat peach banquet again. This Jiangsu countryman, who was 70 or 80 years later than Wu Cheng'en, incorporated the legend of the Western Queen Mother when describing the Queen Mother, saying that she "lives in Yaochi, which is west of the East, also known as Xichi. The queen mother is also called Ximu. " North of Yaochi, "There are three halls. In the middle is a temple called Taohua. ..... Its peach trees are in the south of Xichi, which is 80 meters high. As the saying goes, a flat peach gives birth to a son every ten thousand years. ..... Flat peach, eat one longevity and Tianqi, if three can be super robbed. The Queen Mother of the West held a banquet on the day when the peaches were ripe, and invited all the Buddhas and Bodhisattvas, Taozu Tianzun and Shendaxian. All other immortals, immortals scattered in the cave on the island, and the 28-night bullfighting palace are not allowed to enter. Dong Fangshuo, the star of the year, steals food every time. " The Legend of the Fairy completely imitates The Journey to the West, embedding the characters in The Journey to the West into the story, but also adding the plot of Dong Fangshuo stealing peaches. The addition of this plot is not only related to the legend of Emperor Wu of Han Dynasty, but also related to the legend of birth in Ming and Qing Dynasties.
It is precisely because of the frequent birthday celebrations since the Ming Dynasty and the spread of The Journey to the West that there was a very strong Xiantao atmosphere in the early years of the Qing Dynasty. Yong Zhengdi personally designed the patterns of porcelain, among which the pastel peach-patterned porcelain in Yongzheng and Qianlong periods, as a birthday sample, had an important influence on the whole society. As a symbol of auspiciousness, the peach blossom pattern has been widely recognized by the society. This recognition made the immortal Xiantao return to the people again, but people no longer tried to get the real peach, but conceptualized and symbolized it, made it into a birthday symbol, carved it, burned it into porcelain, painted it into pictures, kneaded it into dough sculptures, embroidered it into birthday ornaments and so on. , into this world. As a fairy medicine, peach has also entered the spiritual world from the material "medicinal material" and become the most popular birthday theme, galloping in the world of folk art and spreading in family life, which may be unexpected by the immortal alchemists who concocted Xiantao in Qin, Han, Wei and Jin Dynasties.
From striving for immortality by all means, to finally confirming taking Xiantao fairy medicine, and finally becoming an intangible cultural symbol, the changes and variations of peaches in human society have never been separated from nostalgia and nostalgia for a better life, which is also the most popular reason for peaches as a fruit, because history has given it many people's information, ideals and sustenance, which has enabled it to carry countless beautiful cultures.