China Ancient Security God

In the ancient geomantic omen of China, there were many gods related to it, and the four-valued Gongcao was one of them. Four-valued Gongcao is considered by Taoism to be four small gods on duty at year, month, day and hour. Gong Cao was originally the name of a human official. In Han Dynasty, Zhou County was the guardian and assistant, and had the titles of meritorious service and official. The main job is to investigate and record credit, and be responsible for credit letters. It was used by later generations and abolished in Ming Dynasty. When Taoist theorists were weaving heaven, they also provided this official position to the jade emperor and other senior gods. In the Journey to the West, the Monkey King made a scene of flat peach parties. After going against the sky, the jade emperor was furious. He sent Li Tianwang to lead the four heavenly kings, Prince Nezha, twenty-eight lodgers, nine obsidian star officials, twelve Chen Yuan, five parties to reveal the truth, and four values of meritorious deeds, and set a 18 tight encirclement to capture the demon monkey. Unexpectedly, the fierce battle of the four-value meritorious service fell behind, and the mountain soldiers will be defeated by the Monkey King. What credit is there to record? Later, Erlang God was invited to hold the Monkey King. Four-valued meritorious deeds are both heroes and patrons. During the Journey to the West, they revealed the truth with the protectors Galand, Liu Ding Liu Jia and Wu Fang, and were secretly protected by the Bodhisattva. In addition, they also act as heralds. When the Tang Priest and his disciples crossed Pingdingshan, they became the woodcutter on duty, tipped them off and told them to prepare in advance. The four-value kung fu on duty in the next month is the most tired, because he is on duty every day, and some are called duty kung fu. In classical novels, when writing about the practices of wizards and Taoist priests, they often say, "What is the merit of being on duty?" You must be on call, you can't be lazy, can you not be tired? Gong Cao keeps accounts, and Taoism naturally won't let them be idle. They claim that all the expressions of "ascending to heaven" in the world are "presented" after the burning of four-valued gongcao. Jin Pingmei wrote about the death of the Jade Emperor Temple in Ximen Qing. The Taoist priest laid down many documents, one of which was to let the messenger of Gong Cao "type official documents for three days". In A Dream of Red Mansions, after Qin Keqing's death, a grand funeral was held, and monks and Taoists had a similar procedure when chanting scriptures. "Jin Ping Mei" and "Dream of Red Mansions" are the true portrayal of social life in Ming and Qing Dynasties, and the Taoist belief and secular concept in the four merits can be seen here. Today, the school still retains the title of "duty student", only borrowing some functions of "duty student" and eliminating the color of feudal superstition.