1, the first thing to say about the next yuan is ternary and three officials.
Xia Yuan is one of the "three elements", and the "Trinity" is a series of festivals originated from Taoism. Sanyuan Festival is the Lantern Festival on the fifteenth day of the first month, the Mid-Yuan Festival on the fifteenth day of July (called Bonihara Festival in Buddhism) and the Lower Yuan Festival on the fifteenth day of October.
The immortals who meet the three elements are celestial officials, local officials and water officials, which are collectively called "three officials". Sanyuanri is the birthday of Sanguan-on the fifteenth day of the first month, I will worship Tianguan; July 15, Zhongyuan, worshiping local officials; 10 15, went to Yuan Dynasty to pay homage to Shuiguan.
The god of the three officials can drive away disasters, but there are also differences. God bless the people, local officials forgive sins, and water officials release Eritrea.
The deeds and illustrations of san huang, the three officials, recorded in The Origin of Three Religions in Ming Dynasty.
These three officials are respected in Taoist immortal pedigree.
There are many Taoist immortals, and their ranking is very complicated. Sanqing and Yusi are the highest ranks, and san huang, the three officials, is not low in status, ranking in the upper middle class (60% or 70% higher than the immortal). The top immortals, such as Taishang Laojun and Jade Emperor, all know that the bottom immortals, such as Land Lord and Town God Lord, are closely related to people's lives and must be sacrificed frequently. On the contrary, it is a middle and high-level person like Sanguan, who is a little unable to get on, and his fame is not obvious today.
In the Qing Dynasty, the woodblock New Year picture "God of Heaven and Earth" in Yangjiabu, Shandong Province, which integrates Confucianism, Buddhism and Taoism, embodies the diversity of folk beliefs, and the three officials are located on the fourth floor. But the three officials are three important gods worshipped by Taoism at the beginning of its establishment. At the end of the Eastern Han Dynasty, Zhang Daoling, namely Zhang Tianshi, founded Wudou Mi Dao in Hemingshan near Chengdu, which is one of the original sects of Taoism.
At the same time, there is Taiping Road created by Zhang Jiao, the leader of the Yellow Scarf Uprising. However, ten months later, the Yellow Scarf Army was suppressed and Taiping Road disappeared. Wudou Midao gradually developed into authentic Taoism in Shi Tian and became the source of Taoism in China.
Zhang Tianshi, namely Zhang Daoling, is the founder of Taoism. People think he can protect his family and house. The belief in the Three Fairs is the main religious thought of Wudou Midao. Wudou Midao absorbed the folk natural worship of heaven, earth and water, deified it, and founded the three gods of heaven, earth and water, believing that the three functions connect ghosts and gods and dominate the destiny of mankind. At that time, wars were frequent and people lived in poverty. Wudou Midao set up ghost officials in religion, claiming to be able to cure diseases and save lives.
Zhang Daoling believes that diseases are caused by sin, so the treatment method is to write down the patient's name, the crime committed by the patient and the meaning of repentance. This document * * *, one on the mountain, one buried in the ground, one immersed in water, was given to the celestial officer, the local officer and the water officer respectively, expressing remorse to the three officials and praying for their well-being, which is called "Three Officials' Calligraphy".
As a reward, the patient's family members need to pay five buckets of rice, hence the name five buckets of rice road. Five bushels of rice in the Eastern Han Dynasty was equivalent to one person's five-day meal, which farmers could afford. When they get well, they can enter the Tao. In this way, the belief of five doors and three officials gradually spread.
3. The grand occasion of Sanyuan Festival in Tang Dynasty
Taoism flourished in the Tang Dynasty. The emperor of the Tang Dynasty recognized the old gentleman Gigi Lai as the second ancestor, and Tang Gaozong called him the emperor's father. Taoism became the state religion in the Tang Dynasty, and its political status was guaranteed by the state, which naturally developed greatly. Among the people in power and among the people, it was anti-Buddhism at that time.
Therefore, Sanyuan Festival became a series of festivals in the Tang Dynasty.
Taoism believes that the three officials and the great emperor test the good and evil of human sin in the lower bound of the Three Kingdoms. On this day, Taoists should bathe and change clothes, purify their bodies and minds, build altars for sacrifices, burn incense and worship, recite Taoist scriptures and pray for disaster relief. This set of rituals and prayers held on Sanyuanjie is called Sanyuanzhai. In addition to Sanyuan Zhai, other Taoist fasting instruments contained in the Six Classics of the Tang Dynasty, such as Jinzuo Zhai, Yuzuo Zhai, Huangzuo Zhai and Mingzhen Zhai, can also be held on Sanyuan Zhai.
It is necessary to hold various Taoist fasting instruments during the Three-element Festival, which is also the main reason why the Three-element Festival has a great influence in the Tang Dynasty. Therefore, Sanyuan Festival has become an anniversary Taoist festival and a national festival, which is equivalent to today's festival. During the Three-Yuan Festival, the emperor banned slaughter for three days in all parts of the world, and Taoist temples and fasting ceremonies continued everywhere.
4. Why is the next Lantern Festival forgotten?
As you can imagine, people love the San Yuan Festival not because of its religious significance, but because the celebration has already gone beyond the scope of religion.
The custom of burning lanterns was formed in January last year. A curfew was imposed on Chang 'an in Tang Dynasty, but lanterns were put on for three nights a few days before and after the Lantern Festival. "Thousands of doors are open, and all lights are on. I moved to the Imperial Capital in the middle of the first month." "I can't help but miss this jade." Both nobles and citizens walked out of the square door and watched all kinds of lanterns compete for beauty.
Mid-Autumn Festival is not only a Taoist festival, but also a Buddhist festival. Later, both Taoism and Buddhism held a ceremony to turn over the dead on this day, which coincided with the "filial piety" advocated by Confucianism, and Taoism, Buddhism and Confucianism merged here. The Mid-Autumn Festival soon changed from a religious festival in Taoist temples to a folk festival, and people held a grand memorial service on this day.
Only the next yuan festival has the least activities.
In other words, Shangyuan and Zhongyuan had already changed in the Tang Dynasty. They have gone beyond the scope of religion, joined many accepted festivals and customs, and become a folk festival. However, the next Yuan Festival is not integrated with people's lives, but exists as a Taoist festival, and of course there are few festivals.
Without the fusion of new elements and concrete tangible material entities as support, the next Lantern Festival will inevitably be forgotten by the general public and disappear into the traditional festival timeline of China.
5. The transformation of celestial officials in Ming and Qing Dynasties and the decline of local officials and water officials.
Not only has Xia Yuan been forgotten, but people's beliefs about these three officials have also developed in different ways.
When the three officials were founded, their responsibilities were partly the same, that is, to master the fortunes of the world and to be vivid-equivalent to the leaders of the supervision department of the Commission for Discipline Inspection and the organization department of selecting and distributing cadres today.
During the Ming and Qing Dynasties, with the development of Taoist secularization, the three officials were no longer the image of the "trinity" in the past.
Out of the duty of God to bless the people, the belief in heavenly officials has gradually become prominent and is the most common among the people. People regard Tianguan as a lucky god and draw New Year pictures during the Spring Festival. There are two common ways:
First, as a door god, he wears official clothes, robes and jade belts, holds wishful thinking, and is graceful and blessed the world.
Tianguan Door God in Mianzhu Woodblock New Year Pictures in Sichuan in Qing Dynasty
Second, as a lucky star, it is also known as Fu Lushou Samsung, together with Wenchang Emperor representing Lu and Antarctic Xianweng representing Shouxing.
The Woodblock New Year Picture of Shanghai Primary School in the Late Qing Dynasty "Three Lines of Fulu Hands"
As a result, in folk beliefs, the heavenly officials gradually separated from the three official emperors, and the three official teachings only highlighted the part where God blessed the people. The Mid-Autumn Festival of local officials was gradually occupied by Buddhism, and the activities of water officials in the Yuan Dynasty were not much, and the two officials gradually lost power. Tianguan was busy blessing others, and even the responsibility of the three officials to supervise good and evil on earth was transferred to other immortals. who is it? kitchen god
In front of the stove in every kitchen, there is an idol of the kitchen king. The kitchen god is regarded as the head of the family, the protector of the family, and supervises the merits and demerits of a family. After offering sacrifices to the stove every year, the kitchen god will report to the Jade Emperor. People hope that he will say more good things and worship the stove with honeydew melons. I hope his mouth will be sweeter. "Heaven says good, and it is auspicious to come down to earth."
6. Festival customs of the next Yuan Festival
Today, Lantern Festival is still a Taoist festival. Many Taoist temples, such as Baiyuan Temple in Beijing, Sanyuan Palace in Hengshan Mountain in Beiyue, and Mountain View in Linyi, Shandong Province, will hold the Next Yuan Festival on time to celebrate "Christmas Day in the first year of Yuan Dynasty". (You can search online for a very complete video of 20 19 Baiyunguan Xiayuanfa Meeting. You can read it yourself if you are interested. )
Among the people, there is also the custom of offering sacrifices to water officials in the Xia Dynasty. Since ancient times, China has prospered its country through agriculture, and water is related to the success or failure of agricultural production. Shuiguan is the Taoist god in charge of all water, and is in charge of all floods and droughts in the world. Shi Yu, Fengbo, tripterygium wilfordii, Dian Mu and wang lung all obeyed his orders. Where there is the Sanguan Temple, in the next Yuan Dynasty, people will naturally offer sacrifices to water officials.
In addition, there was another important activity among the people in the Yuan Dynasty, that is, offering sacrifices to the furnace god Taishang Laojun. Metal manufacturing craftsmen, including goldsmiths, silversmiths, coppersmith, blacksmith, tin smith, tinker, etc. , all regard the old gentleman as the grandfather of this industry, God. However, this activity has little to do with the water officer.
Today's next yuan festival still has no sense of existence among the people. However, if the water official helps Eritrea, it will be a disaster and suffering. When COVID-19 abused all over the world, going to the Taoist temple to attend the Buddhist ceremony in the Yuan Dynasty and pay homage to the water officials, whether utilitarian or not, can bring some psychological comfort to people. In addition, back to the original point, there is a cautious warning about the supervision function of Xiayuan Shuiguan, which deserves our reflection and deep thought.