1. The origin of Laba porridge
The origin of Laba porridge began with the sacrifice to the god of agriculture at the end of the year by the emperor Tianzi in ancient China, which was called Tianzi Dala Ba, and Tianzi Dala Ba originated from the first generation of Yandi Shennong in ancient China as the first wax sacrifice to tell God.
1.Shennong's first wax sacrifice
The country is people-oriented, and food is the most important thing for the people. Diet is the fundamental need of people's life, and food comes from the development of agriculture. The rise of China's agriculture began with the invention of agricultural tools and the cultivation of five grains by the first generation of Yan Emperor Shennong in the Stone Year. The "Book of Changes" copula says: "Shennong's work, the wood is the coffin, the wood is the thunder, and the people are taught to cultivate the five grains." Lei is a farming tool, that is, a plow for turning fields. Lei is a plow handle, and the shovel is a plow shovel. When ploughing the fields, you can reap the grain. The so-called five grains, namely: rice, millet, millet, wheat and rice. "Mencius" on Teng Wengong: "Tree Art Grains" sentence, Zhao Qi's Note said: "Grains are rice, millet, millet, wheat and glutinous rice." Zizania latifolia is the general term for beans. After the grain harvest, the first generation of Yan Emperor Shennong's Year of the Stone started a wax sacrifice in December at the end of the year to tell God, and wished: "The soil is turned back (that is, it is returned) to its house, the water belongs to its valley, the insects do not work, and the vegetation belongs to its ze." The meaning of wax sacrifice is the meaning of Qingfeng harvest, and prayer is to pray for God's blessing. In the coming year, the weather will be favorable, the land will be fertile, insects will not work, disasters will not be born, and another good harvest will come. This is the wax sacrifice. Wax sound Zha (zhà), also called Cha (chà), is the name of the sacrifice to Saturnalia at the end of the year in ancient China, that is, it is called the sacrifice to Saturnalia every December in the lunar calendar. Wax also sounds like la, which is homophonic with wax. Therefore, the wax sacrifice is also called La Worship, and La Worship is another name for the wax sacrifice.
2. Tian Zi Da La Ba
There are eight aspects of wax sacrifice, which are called eight waxes or eight waxes. The Book of Rites "Special Sacrifice in the Suburbs" says: "Eight waxes are used to worship the four directions." Zheng Xuan's "Note" said: "There are eight kinds of wax: first, one is also; Division, two also; Agriculture, three also; The postal list is out of school, four also; Cat, tiger, five also; Fang, six also; Water Yong, seven also; Insects, eight also. " The Year of the Stone of Shennong, the first generation of Emperor Yan, created the foundation of establishing the country by agriculture in ancient China, and initiated a wax festival to tell God, forming the beginning of the year-end wax festival in ancient China. Wax sacrifice was an important event in ancient China. Therefore, as the head of a country, emperors or monarchs of past dynasties make wax sacrifices to worship the gods and pray every year in December of the lunar calendar, which is called the Great Wax Eight of the Emperor. "The Book of Rites" said: "The son of heaven is a big wax. Eosin began as wax. Wax also, cable also. In December, I gathered all things and sought for them. The sacrifice of wax is also increased by the Lord first and the priest, and the sacrifice to the gods is also increased. Farmers, postal workers, animals, etc., are extremely benevolent and righteous. Welcome the cat and feed the vole for it. Welcome the tiger and feed it. Therefore, welcome and sacrifice it. Sacrificial workshop and water agent, things also. Therefore, I wish:' the soil turns back to its house, the water belongs to its valley, the insects do nothing, and the vegetation belongs to its ze'. The skin is dressed in plain clothes and sacrificed. " In this paper, Yi's surname is Shennong's surname. To increase is to increase, which means to harvest crops. First increase, then teach the people to cultivate. Si Si, who is in charge of agriculture. Benevolence, repay it without ingratitude. Righteousness, credit will be repaid. Fang, dam. Used for storing water and blocking water. Water is a ditch, which is used to divert water and discharge water. Back to the word. Pige, made of white deerskin. Plain clothes are made of plain cloth.
The sacrifice of Eight Waxes, or the sacrifice of Eight Waxes, is to worship Eight Valley Stars. Eight-grain star is a rich and frugal star in the New Year. With regard to Bagu, Materia Medica says: "Bagu", and the Note says: "Millet, millet, rice, sorghum, grain, hemp, water chestnut and wheat." The Note of the Elephant Ode says: "Rice, millet, millet, barley, wheat, soybean, adzuki bean, millet and hemp." The word Bagu is also a star name. "History of the Song Dynasty" Tian Wenzhi said: "Eight valleys and eight stars, in Huagaixi, five cars north. Wu Mi said: The Lord is waiting for the new year, and the eight valleys are rich and frugal. One rice, two millet, three barley, four wheat, five soybeans, six adzuki beans, seven millet and eight hemp. " The Book of Jin "Tian Wenzhi" said: "Five cars and five stars, its west eight star is called eight valleys, and the main waiting year is eight valleys." According to the above text, the word "eight" of knowing the son of heaven's big wax eight is not taken casually, but has a specific meaning. That is, to worship the Eight Valley Star God.
3. The causes of Laba porridge
Laba porridge originated in ancient China. The content of the Great Wax Eight of the Emperor of Heaven includes two aspects. One is "gathering all things and seeking for them". The second is to pray and pray.
(1) about gathering all things. Ten thousand people, who talk a lot, don't really gather ten thousand kinds of goods, nor are they limited to eight kinds of fruits and vegetables. The word "eight" in Waba refers to the eight aspects of worshipping Eight Valley Stars and Eight Agricultural Gods, not eight kinds of fruits and vegetables. Cable, twisting, wax means cable. If you are a fan, you can offer it. That is, many kinds of fruits, vegetables and grains are mixed together, cooked into porridge, dedicated to the gods, and then eaten, called Laba porridge. Why is it cooked into porridge instead of dry rice? Because the wax sacrifice is to pray, the wax eight sacrifices and prayers are the wax eight wishes, which is Laba porridge. Laba porridge homophonic wax eight wishes. Then, why not write Wabazhu as Wabazhu but as Laba porridge? Namely: Why does wax become wax? Because at the end of December, the fruits, vegetables and grains sacrificed to the gods are all dry. Fruits, vegetables, grains, etc. harvested in a year will of course become dry things when they are placed in December, and dry things are called wax. Therefore, the wax porridge cooked with dried fruits and vegetables is called Laba porridge. The eight here means to worship Ba Shen, not eight kinds of fruits and vegetables. About the dry matter called wax. Dry things belong to the wax people in the son of heaven's home. Zhou Li Tian Guan La Ren said: "La Ren Zhang Gan Wu." Zheng Xuan's "Note" said: "Wax, small things are all dry." Therefore, dry matter is called wax. Wax sacrifice is made of dried fruits and vegetables cooked into porridge as a sacrifice. Therefore, the wax sacrifice is also called La Worship. That is, wax sacrifice is also called La Worship, and wax eight is also called Laba. The wax here means dry things, and it has not been linked with December. But La Worship was held in December, and its meaning is close to December.
4. La Worship Day-La Ri.
La Worship Day is held in December of the lunar calendar every year. So, when is it held every December in the lunar calendar? Shuowen: "After the Winter Solstice, there are three guards, and La Worship is a hundred gods." That is, La Worship is held on the third garrison day after the winter solstice every year in the lunar calendar. This day is called La Festival, or La Ri for short. Since the year-end December of the lunar calendar is the month of La Worship, the twelfth lunar month should be in the December of the lunar calendar. "Justice in Historical Records" says: "December is also the twelfth lunar month." However, the winter solstice is not a fixed day in the Chinese lunar calendar. Therefore, the third garrison day after the winter solstice is not a fixed day, and sometimes it falls into the first month of next year. This is not in line with the provisions of the lunar calendar to La Worship every December. What should we do? The best way is to fix the date of La Worship on a day in December of the lunar calendar every year. What day is it? Since La Worship of the son of heaven is called the son of heaven's big wax eight every year (to sacrifice the eight Saturnalia's eight-grain star), wax eight is also called Laba. Then, it is officially confirmed that the annual date of La Worship, La Ri, is the eighth day of the twelfth month of the lunar calendar. The Chronicle of Jingchu Years Old says: "The eighth day of December is the twelfth lunar month." This day is a fixed day, always in December and will not change, in line with the provisions of "December, La Ri also".
5. La Worship Moon-twelfth lunar month
Sacrificing the gods with dry things is called La Worship, and the month of La Worship is called the twelfth lunar month. The word la here means dry things, not the name of the month. In the era when Shuowen said, "After the Winter Solstice, there are three garrisons, and La Worship is full of gods", La Worship's days are sometimes in December at the end of the year, and sometimes in January of the following year. That is, the twelfth lunar month of La Worship is not a fixed month. Sometimes December is the twelfth lunar month, and sometimes the next January is the twelfth lunar month. The twelfth lunar month here means the month of La Worship, and it doesn't mean the name of the month. Later, the date of La Worship was set on the eighth day of December in the lunar calendar. As a result, La Worship Month is fixed in December every year. In this case, the twelfth lunar month of La Worship is fixed in the December of the lunar calendar every year. Although the twelfth lunar month here is fixed in the December of the lunar calendar every year, it still means the month of La Worship, not the name of the month. La Yinla (là), the name of December festival in ancient China, is called La Worship.
6. Determination of the name of the twelfth lunar month
At the end of each year, the emperors of ancient China sacrificed dry things to the Saturnalia. After Qin Shihuang unified China, Qin Shihuang, as the son of heaven, also made La Worship with dry things at the end of each year. La Worship is held in December of the lunar calendar every year, and it is called wax with dry things. Therefore, Qin Shihuang officially named the December of La Worship Moon as the twelfth lunar month and was confirmed. Namely: December is called twelfth month. The twelfth lunar month here is the name of the month, and the meaning of La Worship Moon is not clear, and the meaning of dry things is even more gone.
7. The origin of Laba porridge
Because in ancient China, the emperor of heaven and the monarch of the country used dry things to make La Worship in December every year to offer sacrifices to the gods. La Worship includes two aspects: one is sacrifice; The second is prayer. Sacrifice is to worship the eight-valley star god, offering it with dry things to express the meaning of Qingfeng harvest. Dry matter is called wax, and eight is the god of eight grains and stars, so it is called Laba. In terms of time, La Worship is held on the eighth day of the twelfth lunar month every year in the lunar calendar. The eighth day of the twelfth lunar month is also called Laba. Prayer is an important aspect of La Worship, which is to pray for good weather in the coming year and ensure a bumper agricultural harvest. Every year on the eighth day of the twelfth lunar month, dry things are sacrificed to the eight-valley star god, and prayers are made, which are called Laba wishes or wax eight wishes, and they are homophonic with porridge. So on the eighth day of the twelfth lunar month, dried fruits and vegetables are mixed together, cooked into porridge, and offered to the agricultural god to express the meaning of harvest in Qingfeng, and prayed. Laba porridge is used to homophone the meaning of Laba Zhu, which is the origin of Laba porridge. It means cooking porridge with dry things, offering sacrifices to the god of agriculture, praying and praying for blessing to celebrate the harvest.
2. Wrong statement about the origin of Laba porridge
Regarding the origin of Laba porridge, there is a misconception in the society that Laba porridge originated on the eighth day of December in the summer calendar, which was the day of Sakyamuni's enlightenment. Monks in Buddhist monasteries took fragrant valleys, fruits and vegetables, and cooked porridge for the Buddha, which was called Laba porridge, which meant the harvest of the Qing Dynasty. Linking the origin of Laba porridge with Sakyamuni's enlightenment. This connection is wrong. Monks in monasteries can offer Laba porridge to Buddha on the eighth day of the twelfth lunar month, but it does not mean that Laba porridge originated from Sakyamuni's enlightenment on the eighth day of the twelfth lunar month. First of all, in terms of time, December was called La, which began at the time of Qin Shihuang in China. Before that, the twelfth lunar month was not necessarily December, that is, December was not called La. Sakyamuni's enlightenment was in the Spring and Autumn Period of more than 550 BC, when wax was not called in December. How could porridge cooked on the eighth day of December be named Laba porridge? What is the meaning of the word la? What's more, ancient India used the Indian calendar instead of the summer calendar. The enlightenment day of Sakyamuni in the Indian calendar is not a fixed day in the summer calendar. How can Sakyamuni's enlightenment day be fixed on the eighth day of December in the summer calendar? Besides, what is the connection between Sakyamuni's enlightenment and celebrating the harvest? Therefore, it is wrong to say that the origin of Laba porridge began with Sakyamuni's enlightenment. Wu Zimu's "Dream of Liang Lu" said: "On the eighth day of December, the Dasha Temple was called Laba, and the monks set up five-flavored porridge for the Buddha, named Laba porridge." This is just that the monks in the temple also set up Laba porridge for the Buddha, not that Laba porridge originated from Sakyamuni. Laba porridge originated from Dalaba, the son of heaven in ancient China, that is, on the eighth day of the twelfth lunar month of the lunar calendar, dry things were used to worship the agricultural god and pray.