the gods of min

  I grew up in the mountainous area of ​​northwestern Fujian, and the first deity I heard about was probably the mountain spirit and wood monster. When we were young, we went into the mountains to collect firewood and mushrooms. The adults told us that if we heard someone call our name, we must not answer. Once you answer, the soul will follow the mountain ghost. In the mountains, we didn’t call out the names of our companions, we all called “Hey-hey-“, so as not to let the mountain ghosts listen. The voice of the mountain ghost can also be distinguished. It is said that there is no tail sound, just like the ghost has no shadow.

   The most impressive mountain spirit is Shi Bogong. Everywhere in the valley shouted, causing a long echo, and the villagers said that it was Shi Bogong who was learning to speak. Shi Bogong often plays pranks, likes Tibetans, hides animals, hides things, but seems to be afraid of metal sounds. Whoever goes missing in the mountains is probably hidden by Uncle Shi. People in the village hold pine lights, beat gongs and slap the washbasin, and go into the mountains to look for Uncle Shi to ask for help…

  Shi Bogong is missing the record, I read the book and thought it was similar to a mandrill. “Tang Yun” said: “Mandrills, one-legged ghosts, come out of Tingzhou.” Tingzhou is near my hometown. The novel “Yijian Zhi” written by Hong Mai of Song Dynasty tells the stories of many Fujian mountain spirit wood monsters, including Mandrill, Shandu and Muke, all of which he calls Wutongshen. In the Song Dynasty, there were many Wutong temples in the northwest of Fujian. I think that Shi Bogong is considered to be the most primitive and grass-roots kind of nature worship.

  Totem Ruins: Witness of Fujian Ethnic Integration

   Fujian is known for its many gods. But how many gods are there? I haven’t seen statistics. According to Mr. Lin Guoping’s estimate, there are more than 1,000 kinds of gods in Fujian folk beliefs. As for the palaces and temples in Fujian, there is an incomplete figure. According to the research report of the Ethnic and Religious Committee of the FJ Provincial Political Consultative Conference in 2002, there are 25,102 places for folk belief activities of more than 10 square meters in the province. In addition, there are tens of thousands of small Earth temples and humble shrines are not counted.

  Sun, moon, mountains and rivers, water, fire, wood, stone, wind, rain and thunder and lightning, in the eyes of ancient Fujian people, all hide a mysterious spirit. This is actually the animism that early humans believed in, which is what academics call primitive religion. The sun god, the moon goddess, the mountain ghost, the water god, the dragon king, the fire officer, the wind lion god, the earth god, the plant and animal spirits all have the ability to harm or protect human beings, and they are worthy of people’s prayers and sacrifices. This is nature worship. Nature worship stems from people’s ignorance and fear of mysterious things. In history, with the development of knowledge and rationality, the mysteries of nature have been solved one by one, and the worship of nature has embarked on a road of no return.

   Fujian preserves many relics of nature worship, which is because Fujian was very late in civilization. It is generally believed that the earliest inhabitants of Fujian were the Min people. At the end of the Spring and Autumn Period, when King Huai of Chu destroyed the Yue Kingdom, some Yue people fled into Fujian and merged to form a new ethnic group, the Minyue people. In the early Western Han Dynasty, the Minyue people established a Minyue country. In 110 BC, Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty destroyed the Minyue Kingdom and moved the Minyue people north to the Jianghuai area. As for the Han people entering Fujian on a large scale, it was a matter after the Jin Dynasty. In the late Tang and Five Dynasties, Han immigrants increased in large numbers and became the main ethnic group.

  The ancient southern peoples were very superstitious in ghosts and gods. “Han Geographical Records” said that the Yue people “believed in witches and ghosts, and paid great attention to prostitution”. The Yue witches of the Western Han Dynasty were famous all over the world, and they once caused a **** storm in the court, which was called the scourge of witchcraft. We lack specific information on the natural worship of Minyue people, but Xu Shen’s “Shuowen Jiezi” said: “Min, Southeast Yue, snake species.” It can be seen that they regard themselves as descendants of snakes, and use snakes as totem symbols.

  Totem worship is a kind of nature worship. Although all things have animism, they are still close to each other. For the people who gather, fish and hunt, animal worship is the most developed, and certain animals that are closely related to their lives are often worshipped as totems and their ancestors. The Han people regard themselves as the descendants of the dragon, while the ancient Fujian people in the mountains and forests regard themselves as the descendants of the snake. We can still find several traces of ancestor totem worship from the popular nature worship in Fujian, and see the process of ethnic integration in ancient Fujian.

   Let’s talk about snake worship first. The Snake King Temple in Fujian is most famous for Fuqingtang in Zhanghuban, Nanping. Fuqingtang, also known as Liangong Temple and Snake King Temple, is located by the Minjiang River and enshrines the snake **** Master Liangong. I thought that the Lord of the Snake King Temple was enshrining a large python, but when I saw it at the scene, it turned out to be three human gods in python robes, and the snake gods have been personified. Legend has it that Master Lian was a boa constrictor. He cultivated in Gutian and became an immortal. One year, there was a plague in Zhanghuban. The villagers prayed to him. Memorial Temple. Ming Xie Zaihang’s “Changxi Suoyu” recorded this: “Above the water mouth there is a place named Zhuchuanban (now Zhanghuban), and there is a Temple of the King of Snakes. There are hundreds of snakes in the temple. There is a race between the gods in summer and autumn. The big one either wraps around people’s waists or heads, and competes.” It can be seen that there are quite a few origins. Today, the people of Zhanghuban still celebrate the Snake King Festival on the seventh day of the seventh lunar month every year. Adults and children have a snake in their hands and follow the snake god’s sedan chair. Snake worship has also influenced other folk customs in Zhanghuban, such as the Lantern Festival with snake lanterns.

  Zhanghu Lake is an important town in the middle reaches of the Minjiang River. Due to the construction of the Shuikou Power Station, the whole town was moved to a higher place, and the Snake King Temple was also relocated to its current location in 1992. When I went at a wrong time, the person in charge of the Snake King Temple pointed me to an empty snake cage, saying that the snakes were kept in NP City and would be returned in early July. On the contrary, the roof of the Snake King Temple is full of snake decorations, and a swirling snake protrudes from every corner of the high eaves.

   Opposite the Snake King Temple, across the vast Minjiang River, it belongs to Xikou Village, Zhanghu Town, and there is a Frog Temple. We drove around from the Shuikou Power Station and embarked on a long abandoned sandy road. We suffered a lot and arrived at Xikou after more than two hours. Looking at it at night, the Frog Temple is located in the center of a large pond by the Min River, surrounded by water on three sides, and the temple is lit with lights. Similar to the Snake King Temple, the Frog Temple was relocated and rebuilt at the end of the last century. The main worship is not the frog, but the black-faced frog **** Zhang Shengjun. Legend has it that Zhang Shengjun was a native of Yongtai County. In his early years, he made a living by repairing **** handles, known as “Zhang **** handles”. In front of the temple is a quaint stone-carved frog statue, which is said to be a relic from the late Ming and early Qing dynasties, adding a little weirdness to this humble temple.

  In ancient Fujian books, there are many records of the worship of the frog god. The Qing Dynasty Shi Hongbao’s “Min Miscellaneous Notes” describes a frog **** who accidentally broke into the Yamen of Guangxian County. He also said that the frog **** likes to drink soju and likes to watch plays. The Zhanghu Frog Temple is actually a remnant of frog worship widely popular in the ancient Minjiang River basin. Today, every year on July 21, on the birthday of Zhang Shengjun, Xikou Village will hold a trip to the frog god. At that time, a frog with a green back and a white belly and seven black dots on the back of the head will accompany the frog **** on a parade.

  The snake worship and frog worship in Zhanghu have aroused the interest of the academic circles. Obviously, they originated from the totem worship of the two major ethnic groups in Fujian. Many scholars believe that the Hokkien people use snakes as totem symbols. The Yue people are the people who invented rice and believe in the frog **** related to agriculture.

  After the Min people and the Yue people, the third major ethnic group to move into Fujian on a large scale is the Han people. There are a large number of dragon king temples all over the country to show their totem symbols. We are already familiar with them, so I won’t go into details here.

  After the Tang and Song Dynasties, Fujian moved into the fourth important ethnic group, the She nationality, bringing dog worship. The She people worship dogs because their ancestor Panhu was originally a five-color-haired dog of Emperor Gaoxin. I have seen a comic strip depicting the origin of the She nationality in Ninghua, also known as the “Dog King Picture”. Legend has it that when the ancient Quanrong invaded, Emperor Gaoxin issued an edict that if the king of Quanrong could be killed, he would betroth the three princesses to him. As a result, the emperor’s dog named Panhu entered the enemy’s camp at night, bit off King Fan’s head, became the consort, and gave birth to the She nationality. Dog worship in Fujian is mainly popular among She people. They strictly forbid killing dogs and do not eat dog meat.

   Faith is a strange thing, stronger than blood. You can see that the Min and Yue people have disappeared, but their totem worship has survived for more than 2,000 years and has been inherited by another nation. Those Zhanghu people who participated in the snake charmer at the Snake King Festival did not realize that a group of distant strangers had selected this animal for them from all things. They are the adopted sons of faith.

  Protoss Evolution: Gods who hide their tails

  Ancient Fujian, with deep mountains and dense forests, is full of beasts and poisonous insects. There are hurricanes and tsunamis along the coast, and the living environment is very harsh. This situation deepens people’s reliance on faith. Minyue people are animists, all things are gods. Later, the northern Han people who entered Fujian failed to change their customs, but fell in love with the culture of witchcraft, ancient trees, strange rocks, mountains and water monsters, plagues and ghosts, and more believers. This phenomenon continued until the end of the Qing Dynasty. During the Daoguang period, Zhou Kai’s “Xiamen Zhi Customs” was still sneering at Hokkien people’s random creation of gods: “The better Wu is, the better the ghost, it has a long history… Evil and monster work, stone lions are silently called masters, big trees stand for no reason, and puppets stand for no reason. Drifting and picking up, the wind of ancient coffins, guessing gods and doubting immortals, singing Baihe. Wine and meat fragrant paper, men and women are mad.”

  There are strange and chaotic gods in Fujian, and the worship of the **** of plague is the most developed, and its evolution process is also very interesting.

  Plague worship belongs to primitive religion and can be classified as elf worship or ghost worship. The ancients referred to various acute infectious diseases as plagues, and believed that plagues started because plague ghosts were haunting the human body, and the cure was to invite witches to drive away plague ghosts. The problem is that the skills of witchcraft are not reassuring, and after repeated failures, people think that the plague ghost is particularly powerful, and then change their strategy and start to please and bribe the plague ghost, and respect it and go elsewhere. The plague ghost then became the plague god.

   Mr. Xu Xiaowang believes that the five gods of plague, popular in Fuzhou, evolved from the gods of five powers. Wutongshen is a collection of mountain spirits and wood monsters in the mountains. In Fuzhou, it was originally the five monsters of water monkeys, water birds, clams, perch, and water frogs. From strange to emperor, animal gods have evolved into human gods, but the statues are still terrifyingly shaped. The Five Emperors are the prominent gods in Fuzhou. In the spring of 1642, a plague broke out in Fuzhou, and the activity of welcoming the gods lasted for half a year, which shows its grand occasion. Guo Baiyang, a modern scholar, said: “Fuzhou worships the five emperors the most.”

   Prostitution is a severe accusation, equivalent to our cult today, to demolish ancestral temples. Confucianism has always opposed prostitution. We know that Confucius respected ghosts and gods and stayed away, and there is also a sentence in “Zhuzi Yulei”, “To be a state and county, you must go to a prostitution temple”. After the Western Han Dynasty exclusively respected Confucianism, the culture of the Central Plains gradually became rationalized. They believed that the worship of ghosts and gods in the south was ignorant and backward, and used political and cultural power to suppress and ban them. According to the concept of setting up religion in Shinto, the court of the Northern Song Dynasty incorporated the folk gods into the sacrificial code and managed them. For the righteous gods and good gods who made contributions to the country and the locality, they were confirmed by commendation and imperial seals. For example, Guan Gong, City God, Mazu, etc.; all the ghosts and gods that have not been included in the sacrificial code, especially the worship of primitive elves that have a wide range of influence in the south, such as the five power gods who teach lewdness and thievery, the poison of evil people’s tricks, and the evil **** of plague, all of which are officially swept away for prostitution. on the roster.

  In order to escape the government’s attack, after the Tang and Song Dynasties, the natural gods in Fujian have been personified. Think about it, what a Confucianist would feel when he saw an old snake or a frog on the altar, and all the people worshipped and worshipped it below! It is easy for scholars to accept the personification of the snake king and the frog god, and to give people the image, character and morality.

Although the    Wutongshen was changed to the Five Emperors, but due to the wide range of believers and overexposure, the details were exposed by sharp-eyed people, and the local officials suppressed them mercilessly. There is a Wusheng Temple on Fujian Street near the Confucian Temple in Fuzhou. Because it was renamed Mawang Temple, it was lucky to escape the catastrophe in history. However, due to the renovation of the old city, most of it has been demolished. When I went to interview, I walked back and forth at the door, and I never thought that this broken wooden house was the once famous Wudi Temple. A woman enthusiastically helped us open the door and said, “The gods here are very spiritual. If someone is sick, they come to worship, and they will be healed right away.”

  I didn’t see the Five Emperors. On the desolate shrine, there was only a silver-bearded old man with a ruddy face and a folding fan. Guo Chenhui, the person in charge of the Mawang Temple, told me later that it was Lord Ma, the general government of the five emperors; the statues of the five emperors had been lost; it is said that Lord Ma was an imperial physician and was sent by the emperor to Fuzhou to treat the plague. In the temple, he became the chief administrator of the Five Emperors. In this way, Ma Wangye is a righteous **** who benefits the village. Obviously, the temple Zhu at that time just regarded Ma Wangye as the guise of the Five Emperors.

  The **** of plague in southern Fujian is called Wangye, and the sacrificial activities are more ceremonious than in Fuzhou. Taking the God of Plague as an example, the Fuzhou area is basically a paper-pulled human and horse ship and sent to the river and sea; the southern Fujian area often uses real ships, which are burned or sent into the sea. A few years ago, Hongjian Village, Longhai City burned the king boat. I saw a four-to-five-meter-long wooden boat full of paper-wrapped gods, guards of honor and daily necessities. Burn the fire.

  The best built by Wang Chuan is the Fumei Palace in Quanzhou. It is said to be two or three feet long. Not only are there gods and people working on paper, but also live chickens and sheep, firewood, rice, oil and salt, which are extremely luxurious. Fumei Palace once sent more than 100 sturdy royal ships down the Jinjiang River, often safely drifting across the strait, picked up by Taiwan residents, and erected in temples for worship. The spirits of Fujian were introduced to Taiwan, usually in the form of avatars and incense sharing. Only the worship of Wang Ye also separated the spirits through the unique method of drifting. I have seen a document that in Taiwan, the number of palaces and temples dedicated to princes ranks first, surpassing the Temple of the Earth and the Temple of Mazu.

  I went to see the Fumei Palace, and unexpectedly found that it was a very small palace temple, which was burnt by smoke for a long time, enshrining Taifu Xiao and 24 princes. Mrs. Xiao’s name is Xiao Wangzhi, with a black face, long beard, and a dignified appearance. He was a real person in history. He was a minister of the Western Han Dynasty. He was known for his integrity and integrity, and he became the commander of all princes here. The 24 princes under his command are all kind and upright. In fact, the Hokkien people do not regard the prince as the **** of plague, but as the **** who manages the ghosts of the plague department, which is similar to the prince of Ma in Fuzhou. In short, the God of Plague has also achieved positive results in southern Fujian. Perhaps because of this reason, the worship of the prince finally escaped the blows of the officials of the past dynasties, and still has a large number of believers today.

   From Wutong Temple to Wudi Temple and Mawang Temple, and Plague Temple to Wangye Mansion, it reflects the tenacious transformation of Fujian’s nature worship under the pressure of political power representing northern culture. After repeated transformations, the natural gods got rid of their lowly origins, and the evil ghosts eventually evolved into righteous gods, getting closer and closer to the values ​​of Confucianism.

  The evolution of the Monkey King Temple in Fuzhou is the most dramatic. With the help of popular culture, the Monkey King completed the transformation from an animal **** to a personal god, and became a Buddha on the spot along with Sun Wukong. No one dared to say that Qitian Mansion was a prostitute.

   As early as the Tang and Song Dynasties, there were legends of monkey spirits and the worship of monkey kings in all parts of central Fujian, and they were finally summarized as the Great Sage of Danxia. According to “Mindu Don’t Remember”, the great sage of Danxia is a monkey spirit with red hair all over the body. Ape Cave. After the reformation of the Great Sage Danxia, ​​he has cultivated boundless mana, and showed his holiness to protect the people. “There are Qitianfu in urban and rural areas, which is commonly known as the Monkey King Temple.” Some scholars believe that the Monkey King Danxia of Fuzhou is the Monkey King in “Journey to the West”. prototype.

  Since the popularity of “Journey to the West”, Monkey King temples around the world have remodeled the Great Sage of Danxia according to the image of Sun Wukong, offering sacrifices to fight and defeat the Buddha. In the Qitian Mansion in the Huhuo Alley in the Water Department of Fuzhou, the Monkey King sat upright after becoming a Buddha, his eyes were wide open, his eyes were not changed, and his aura was terrifying. The Monkey King in Qitianfu, Min’an Town, Fuzhou also fought over the Buddha, with a dignified appearance and bright golden light, but the statue is shaped like a pointed-mouthed monkey cheeks, and looks like a restless hozen, with the words “Huaguoshan” and “Water Curtain Cave” written on both sides.

   This is a very interesting phenomenon: the monkey king worship in Fujian once inspired “Journey to the West”, and in turn, the popularity of “Journey to the West” changed the monkey king worship in Fujian. Now, it is not easy to find a Danxia Temple that has nothing to do with Sun Wukong. After the Song and Yuan Dynasties, Neo-Confucianism changed the direction of Fujian culture, the gods were forced to evolve, and the gods of nature hid their tails. Sometimes we are simply confused by their past and present.

  The Age of Gods: The Birth of Gods in Central Fujian

  During the Tang and Song dynasties, the Han people became the main ethnic group in Fujian. Just after the cultural integration was completed, their creativity exploded vigorously, and their performance in the field of belief was the creation of a large number of gods. Some of the gods who have a greater influence today are mostly in this period of their lives. At that time, people’s evaluation of Fujian’s customs was similar to that of the Minyue people in the Qin and Han dynasties. Liu Yuxi, a poet in the mid-Tang Dynasty, commented on Fujian: “Fujian is blessed with the sea, and its people are fierce and vulgar.” “Geography of Song History” talks about the folk customs of Fujian Road, saying that “the people believe in ghosts and worship.” A ghostly rain.

   However, Han immigrants also improved the level of Bamin’s creation of gods, and most of them were personality gods. In that era of crazy creation of gods, all Taoist priests who were good at catching ghosts, Zen masters with excellent spells, witch doctors who hung pots to save the world, sages who benefited the village, and even strange people who behaved strangely might have a tablet and burn incense after death. Prayers. Once the prayer is answered, it is immediately reported as a miracle, attracting more believers and incense. After the number of believers increased, there was the capital to build shrines and temples to collect spiritual deeds, thereby attracting more believers. It has been passed down from generation to generation, and it has been passed down to this day.

   The founders of various places are most likely to be worshipped as gods. Chen Yuanguang of the Tang Dynasty founded Zhangzhou because he led the crowd to quell the rebellion of the barbarians, and was honored as the Holy King of Kaizhang. King Shenzhi, the King of Fujian, laid the foundation of Fujian’s economy and humanities. He is known as the “King of Fujian” and the “Ancestor of the Eight Fujian People”. He is the founding ancestor of all Fujian. In northern Fujian, Mrs. Lian was praised as the “mother of the whole city” and the goddess of protecting the city because she saved Jianzhou (now Jianou) from the massacre of the city. This is a way for people to commemorate the former sages who contributed to the locality.

Buddhism in central Fujian also entered its heyday at this time. In the background of witchcraft culture, some famous Zen masters not only often subdued demons and demons for the people, but also prayed for sunshine, rain, healed diseases, sent children, etc. in order to prove the boundlessness of Buddhism. In secular activities, he showed his talents and became a secular god. There are many examples in this regard, such as the Patriarch of Sanping in Peace, the Patriarch of Qingshui in Anxi, the Dingguang Ancient Buddha in Western Fujian, the Koubing Ancient Buddha in Wuyi Mountain and so on.

   However, what people worship the most is the sorcery that can manifest and cast out ghosts. Local chronicles record many cases of witches being worshipped after their death. Mazu, Emperor Baosheng, and Lady Linshui, the three most influential gods in Fujian, all belonged to the witches and the like during their lifetimes.

   Linshui Lady Chen Jinggu is the biggest religion in the Minjiang River Basin. I searched for her relics in Cangshan, Fuzhou. He was born in the underground crossing, and there is a small and exquisite Fuzhou-style building that was rebuilt after the relocation. There is an ancient Longquan well in the yard. The facade of Tating Niangnaizu Temple is small and old, and the door is tightly closed. I turned to Shangdu Longtan Corner. The place where Chen Jingu prayed for the rain in Linhe was quite cramped. It was just a small temple dedicated to Guanyin of the South China Sea, the Queen Mother Chen of Linshui and her master Lushan Xu Zhenjun, and the Minjiang River outside the window was green. I was thinking that Mrs. Linshui’s ancestral temple should not be so small. I looked up and saw a majestic palace on the mountainside across the street, so I went up the stairs. It turned out that this was the newly built palace where Chen Jingu prayed for the rain. The hall is wide open and the statues are tall. In addition to the Empress Dowager Chen, Guanyin, and Xu Zhenjun, many gods of the Linshui system are also enshrined, such as Lin Jiuniang, Li Sanniang, Tiger Mother, White Chicken Milk, and Danxia Dasheng.

  In the Song and Yuan Dynasties, Chen Jinggu was just an ordinary god. According to the Ming Wanli “Gutian County Chronicle”, we know that she was born in a family of witches in the Tang Dynasty. She was also a witch. She married Liu Qi from Gutian. She suffered an abortion because of praying for rain. Women’s pain in childbirth. In the Qing Dynasty, myths such as “Jin’an Yizhi”, “The Biography of Chen Jinggu”, “The Legend of Lin Leveling Demon” and other myths appeared, re-interpreting her deeds before and after her death. According to the more influential “Mindu Bieji” record: Guanyin Danzhixue incarnated as Chen Jinggu. He was born on the fifteenth day of the first lunar month in 904, and ran away from home at the age of 16. He entered Lushan at the bottom of the Minjiang River to learn spells, and all methods were refined. , but did not learn the art of helping the fetus to save labor. When Yicheng returned, Chen Jinggu showed her skills and swept away the demons and ghosts in Fuzhou. At the age of 24, she was pregnant and went home. Her brother Chen Shouyuan prayed for rain in the Minwang Palace. He was beheaded and cried for help from his sister. Chen Jinggu had no choice but to pray for rain. After Chen Jingu became a god, she repeatedly performed miracles, leading her 36 aunts to exorcise ghosts and demons, and rescue women and children from distress.

   Mrs. Linshui is a very distinctive deity, specializing in childcare and childcare, and protecting women and children. Its believers are mainly concentrated in the dialect areas of Fuzhou and East Fujian. Due to its radiation, there are also many Linshui palaces in northern Fujian and southern Zhejiang. Fuzhou immigrants brought the belief of Mrs. Linshui to Taiwan and overseas.

  The most influential deity in southern Fujian is Baosheng the Great. There are two ancestral palaces of Emperor Baosheng, both on the north bank of the estuary of the Jiulong River, the Tzu Chi West Palace in Longhai Baijiao and the Tzu Chi East Palace in Xiamen Qingjiao. Baijiao and Qingjiao, the streets of the two villages are now completely connected, but they belong to Zhangzhou and Xiamen respectively. The battle of the Ancestral Palace has been raging for a thousand years.

Emperor Baosheng’s name is Wu Ben (one said Kuo). According to the “Tzu Chi Palace” written by Yang Zhi, a scholar in the Southern Song Dynasty, Wu Ben was from Qingjiao in the Northern Song Dynasty. His father was Wu Tong and his mother was Huang. He was born in 979. On March 15th, died on the second day of May in 1036, at the age of 57. Wu Ben did not like to play since he was a child, did not eat meat, and did not marry a wife. When he became an adult, he hung a pot to help the world. He was highly skilled in medicine and regarded as a magical doctor from far and near. After his death, he was sacrificed by the villagers.

   In southern Fujian, Wu Ben is commonly known as Tzu Chi Master, Wu Master, Dao Gong, Baosheng Emperor, etc. The title of Baosheng Emperor came from the Ming Dynasty. It is said that Wu Zhenzhen healed the breast disease of Mingcheng Zuwen, so he was awarded the imperial title. Mr. Zheng Zhenman’s article “The Examination of the Great Emperor Baosheng” believes that the title is likely to be fabricated by future generations. Although it is made up, it is very precise, because Wu Zhenren specializes in curing diseases and saving people, and is well-known as the **** of medicine. Fujian in the Song Dynasty, swampy mountains and forests, where bacteria and poisonous insects breed, is a place where people can smell a miasma, and there is a shortage of doctors and medicines. During the Ming and Qing Dynasties, immigrants from southern Fujian brought the statue of Wu Zhenren into Taiwan, which became a weapon for local people to deal with malaria. In recent years, every year on the birthday of the gods, many incense groups from both sides of the Taiwan Strait came to the two Tzu Chi ancestral palaces to visit their ancestors. The ceremony was grand and the scene was grand and spectacular.

  In Qingjiao East Palace, I saw the famous Baosheng Emperor medicine swab. The swabs are divided into medical, surgical and pediatric, and are hidden in separate cupboards. A piece of small paper, pink or beige, printed with three or four kinds of medicines, their amounts and how to take them. My father is a retired old Chinese medicine practitioner. I showed him the medicine swab from Tzu Chi East Palace. His opinion is that the medicine has little taste and light dosage. Even if it is taken wrongly, there is no big problem. He also thinks that the medicine swab is very professional. , pay attention to the monarch, ministers and envoys; he does not understand the names of some medicines, and probably uses local herbal medicines.

  There are hundreds of local gods in Fujian, and most of them only affect a small area. This is mainly caused by the fragmentation of Fujian’s geography and language. In western Fujian, northern Fujian and other mountainous areas, transportation is inconvenient, there are many dialects, and it is not easy to spread, and there are few gods in several counties. The coastal areas of southern Fujian, Puxian and Fuzhou have flat terrain and a wide area of ​​dialect coverage, which has produced many cross-county deities with a wide range of believers. In addition, the main deities in Fujian are concentrated in the coastal areas of southeastern Fujian, which are also related to culture and economy. Compared with northern Fujian, southeastern Fujian is relatively late in development and relatively prosperous, and the funds to promote the spread of beliefs are relatively abundant.

   The extremes of the things are reversed. In the late period of the creation of gods, the Fujian school represented by Zhu Xi was born in northern Fujian, also known as Neo-Confucianism. The academic origin of Fujian School comes from Northern Luo School, collectively known as Cheng-Zhu School. As a rational trend of thought produced in Fujian, Neo-Confucianism dealt a fatal blow to the culture of Ba Fujian witchcraft and ended the era of creation of gods in Fujian.

  Humanity and Warmth: The Tragic Comedy of God and the Queen

  There is a Lingji Palace in Qingpu Village, Qingkou Town, Minhouhou, which is the ancestral palace of Er Xu Zhenren. Not many people know about it.

  Lingji Palace is located in the village, but it is hard to find, and the alleys are narrow and crooked, which cannot be opened to traffic. The three characters “Golden Aomen” are inscribed on the forehead of the mountain gate, and the couplets on both sides are: “If you want to see the BJ Emperor’s Palace, first look at the Qingpu Lingji Palace.” What a big tone! The wooden imperial pavilion on the right is slightly inclined, but it is majestic and authentic in Ming Dynasty style. The tall stone stele and the incomplete tortoises are magnificent and magnificent. The inscription on the stele was written by Chengzu of the Ming Dynasty, and the first assistant of the cabinet is Jie Jin Shudan, which is really a rare boutique.

   On the other hand, the Lingji Palace boasted by the couplet is quite shabby. The palace is made of blue bricks and has a simple modern style. According to records, it was rebuilt in 1940. The hall is quite spacious, but there are too many beams and columns, which makes it a bit petty. The front hall is a stage, and the back hall is a row of three shrines. In the middle of the forehead is the inscription “The Royal Seal of Hong En God”. On the shrine sits the brothers Xu Zhizheng and Xu Zhizhen in dragon robes. The two gods are living in seclusion in a noisy village in Minhou County, which I always feel is a bit nondescript.

  Many deeds of the gods are made up, but the real Erxu was really named a god.

  Xu Zhizheng and Xu Zhizhen were generals of the Southern Tang Dynasty of the Five Dynasties, and they led their divisions into Fujian, and they did not commit any crimes in autumn, so people offered sacrifices to them. In the Song and Yuan dynasties, they were just ordinary local gods. In the early Ming Dynasty, the Taoist priests of Lingji Palace cured Ming Chengzu’s illness with immortal medicine. The emperor was very grateful and ordered the reconstruction of Minhou Lingji Palace. He also built a larger-scale Lingji Palace in BJ, so that he could worship it from time to time. Since then, several generations of Ming emperors have also worshiped Er Xu Zhenren and continued to add titles. In 1486, Emperor Xianzong of Ming Dynasty named Er Xu Zhenren as “Golden Que God” and “Jade Que God”, reaching the peak. In 1488, under the strong opposition of the cabinet ministers, the title of “God” was removed, and he was still the real king. Er Xu Zhenren only stayed in the seat of “God” for two years, and he was too busy to be warm.

   After talking about God, talk about the queen.

   Mazu, also known as Tianfei, Tianhou, Putian people. It is said that Puxian has a smaller population than Hokkien and Mindong, and has fewer believers, but Mazu stands out and has won widespread belief in Fujian. I have seen Tianhou Palace in Pucheng and Ninghua, which shows that she is also popular in northern Fujian and western Fujian.

The earliest extant text to record the deeds of Mazu is undoubtedly the “Reconstruction of the Shunji Temple at Shengdun Temple” by Liao Pengfei, a special play named Jinshi in 1150. The text says: God) surnamed Lin, from Meizhou Island, at the beginning, with When a witch is doing things, it can predict people’s good and bad luck; after he passed away, everyone builds a temple on this island.” It can be seen that Mazu was only a witch on Meizhou Island who could predict bad and good fortune. After her death, a small temple was set up to worship. In 1190, she was consecrated as Concubine Linghui because of her miraculous relief from drought, which was the highest title given to her by the Song Dynasty. Song Dynasty Mazu was very ordinary, and did not even establish authority in his own professional field – sailing. As China’s leading port, QZ Shipping Division prays to the king of Tongyuan in Jiuri Mountain twice a year in spring and winter. It can be seen that King Tongyuan was the most prominent sea **** in the Song Dynasty.

  The turning point appeared in the Yuan Dynasty. In 1281, due to the merits of escorting water transport, Kublai Khan, the ancestor of the Yuan Dynasty, conferred the goddess of Meizhou as “the concubine of Ming Yingtian for protecting the country”. She has changed from an ordinary mortal **** to a **** of heaven, governing the gods and monsters of the four seas, and established the exclusive status of the protector of the sea. The rulers of the Qing Dynasty were very friendly to Mazu, and they were awarded 15 times in total. In the seventh year of Xianfeng, Mazu received a posthumous title of 64 characters, exhausting all the good words. The full text is as follows:

Protecting the country and protecting the people, the wonderful spirit, Zhao Ying, Hongren, Puji, blessings, and blessings to the people, sincere gratitude to Xian Fuxian, praise to Shun Chui, kindness, Anlan, Li Yunze, Qin Haiyu, Tianbo, Xuanhui, Yanqing, Jingyang, Xizhi, Zhou Depu, Weicao, Taizhenwu God of Suijiang

  The most important of the honorary seals in the Qing Dynasty was that in 1684, after the pacification of Taiwan, Shi Lang asked Mazu to be named Mazu. Kangxi was happy and generously gave away the title of “Queen of Heaven”. Tian Fei is God’s second wife, and Tian Hou is God’s right match, which means that Mazu has been promoted to the same level as God. Mazu’s godhead has reached its limit.

  As Mazu’s status became more and more noble and its influence was expanding, efforts to deify Mazu also began, and successive generations continued to add to it and pieced together a complete biography of Mazu. At the end of the Ming Dynasty, there was a consensus on Mazu’s life: her name was Lin Mo Niang, the daughter of Lin Yuan, who was the inspector of the Putian capital. She was born on March 23, 960 in the old calendar. Soaring Sun, at the age of 28. Buddhism and Taoism also began to compete for Mazu. At the end of the Ming Dynasty, “Tianfei Xianshenglu” came forward to reconcile, and narrated the birth of Tianfei according to the Buddhist system, saying that Tianfei’s mother dreamed of Guanyin giving her pills, and she became pregnant; in order to make up for Taoism It is said that when the young girl of Tianfei was wearing makeup in the well, a goddess came out of the well with a pair of bronze talismans for her, and when she was 13 years old, an old Taoist priest came to teach the mysterious method. It can be seen that the birth of Tianfei is of course the manifestation of Guanyin, but she is learning Taoism. Confucianism rejected Mazu for a long time, and it was not until the Qing Dynasty that Mazu was enthroned as the queen of heaven, and the attitude changed. Putian scholar Chen Chiyang wrote an article “The Facts of Filial Daughter”, focusing on Lin’s behavior of saving his father and burying his brother, and treating Tianfei as a filial daughter.

Mazu is the **** of seafaring. In the Ming and Qing dynasties, Mazu belief was brought to all parts of the coast by Fujian sailors. In Taiwan, Mazu is the most widely believed deity. In modern times, the wave of immigrants mainly from coastal residents of Fujian and Guangdong spread the belief of Mazu to Southeast Asia. countries, even America and Europe. It can be said that wherever there are Chinese settlements, there is Mazu belief.

  I went to Meizhou Island in early 2005, which is a small island with an area of ​​14 square kilometers. The ferry departs every hour. On the island, the stone statue of Mazu is tall and majestic, the acacia tree and the pine forest are rustling, and the temples are magnificent and built on the mountain. I saw women in one-colored safflower clothes with cloth bags embroidered with “Mazu bless peace” on their shoulders, coming to palaces and temples one after another, kneeling diligently in front of the statues, and offering incense devoutly. On the ferry back on the return journey, I met a group of incense sticks from Taiwan. Everyone wore yellow clothes and badges, and some of them were holding a little Mazu tightly in their arms. I asked if I invited Mazu back?

   “I asked for it a long time ago, and now let Mazu go back to her mother’s house.”

   “How often?”

   “Every year. I’ve been back three or four times. She’ll be homesick too.”

  I think in the eyes of believers, Mazu is too human, like an ordinary human woman.

   Among the gods in Fujian, Er Xu Zhenren received the highest imperial title, followed by Mazu. One emperor and one queen have different fates. Er Xu Zhenren was only favored by the Ming imperial family, and did not have a broad base of believers. Once the dynasty changed, the Qing imperial family lost interest in them and declined rapidly. The goddess of Meizhou is merciful and fraternal, and is close to the people at the bottom. Her functions in navigation and rescue are combined with the splendid marine culture of Fujian. With the help of the ruler, she has become a popular star **** at home and abroad.

   Take a look at the magnificent Tianhou Ancestral Temple on Meizhou Island, and then look at the dilapidated residence of God in Lingji Palace.

   Between Gods and Men: The Glory of the Creator

  There are many local gods in Fujian, and the context is complex, so it is very difficult to describe. Fortunately, Mr. Xu Xiaowang’s “Origins of Folk Beliefs in Fujian” and Mr. Lin Guoping’s “Fujian Folk Beliefs” have already been sorted out. Many materials and opinions in this article are quoted from these two books. I would like to express my thanks! Now I look up from my desk and ponder some of the questions that haunt my mind.

   The first emotion is that the ancient Fujian people, whether they are Minyue people or Han immigrants in the Middle Ages, how close their relationship with the gods is! We say that out of weakness and ignorance, they made gods. However, what a heroic name the God Maker is. They opened their fresh, naive eyes, looked for the figure of the gods from all things, and acted as soon as they got something. According to the “Bamin Tongzhi”, the Lingjin Temple in Lianjiang County, commonly known as the Pumice King Temple, is just because people see a stone floating on the water and go with the flow, “the people are different, so they set up the temple”. I remember my own experience. One year, I picked up a pumice stone from out of town, put it in the washbasin, and showed it to my family. They figured out that it was a special volcanic stone. I don’t know where to throw it.

  Scientific reason is the natural enemy of nature worship. As knowledge increases, the world becomes more and more objectified, and we gradually lose the ability to create gods – we occasionally create gods, like soap bubbles, which always burst in an instant. This is clearly an improvement, and humanity has become more confident and stronger. At the same time, we became more lonely and alone.

What is   God? It is the miracle, the most incredible meaning in things, the self-contemplation of the spirit. People without gods spend their whole lives prostrate on the ground, subject to various constraints of the real environment, and their spiritual world is narrow. Once they accepted the gods, the spiritual dimension was erected, the world had height, and they began to think about things higher than the sky and farther than death. Religion can turn a loose nation into a steel knife. Think of the Hebrews, who have been wandering in the world for thousands of years and finally returned to their place by faith; think of the Arabs, who knows where they were six centuries ago? But the Prophet Muhammad brought them together and has since become one of the protagonists of world history.

  The same is true of the Hokkien people. When Zheng Chenggong led his disciples from southern Fujian on an expedition to Taiwan, the people from Baijiao went to the Tzu Chi Palace to pray, and they invited a statue of the Great Emperor Baosheng to be placed on a warship, and they went on the expedition across the sea. Zhangquan people always go to the protector of their hometown to ask for some incense ash before they go to the Nanyang, and carry it with them. People praise the Hokkien people for their ability to sail and go farther than other ethnic groups. That is because they have the protection of the sea god. No matter where they go, the gods of their hometown are with them.

   Reading the early development history of Taiwan, I can feel the vivid relationship between the gods and the believers. The place where Hui’an immigrants gather to worship Qingshan Gong, Anxi people worship Qingshui Patriarch, Nan’an people worship Guangze Zunwang, Pinghe people worship Sanping Patriarch, Tongan people worship Baosheng Emperor, Fuzhou people worship Linshui Lady, Hakka people worship Dingguang Ancient Buddha… Look at them The gods, they understand the ancestral origin of these immigrants. Once the migrants from various counties fought, the two sides waved the banners of their respective protection gods and charged into battle. Tong’an people and Nan’an people fight each other, that is, Baosheng Emperor and Guangze Zunwang confrontation; Zhangzhou people and Hakka people conflict, that is, Kaizhang Shengwang and Dingguang ancient Buddha stalemate; of course, civil reconciliation also means the handshake of the gods. In that era, the people and the gods were immersed in each other, depended on each other for life and death, and walked through the dark history together.

  The gods are a controversial legacy left to us by the ancients. In any case, I am still grateful to have so many gods accompanying our nation along the way. Many gods are still active today, comforting the hearts of millions of people. I stayed in the Tianhou Palace, Tzu Chi Palace, and Linshui Palace, where the green smoke filled the air and the fragrance filled the air. I feel that no matter how humble, ignorant, and fearful those god-makers were in the beginning, their creations are indeed radiant, even illuminating us a thousand years later.

   What glory is there to create a **** beyond our lives?

   April 13, 2009