The knowledge of history, archaeology and legend behind folk culture is far richer than what we know. China's rich history and culture have left countless folk cultures. Today, we will discuss a kind of wood "peach wood" which is well known to women and children in China folk culture.
Of course, the topic of peach wood to ward off evil spirits is obviously not a new topic, but the author draws a conclusion from various discussion topics that this topic is still a controversial topic, so the author ends this controversial topic with some historical materials, myths and legends and archaeological arguments.
As for mahogany, it first appeared in the myths and legends of the Yellow Emperor. This legend tells a story in general. During the period of the Yellow Emperor, there was a mountain in the sea called Dushuo Mountain. There is a big peach tree with branches and leaves stretching for three thousand miles on the mountain. There is a "ghost gate" in the northeast corner of the peach tree for ghosts to come in and out. On both sides of this ghost gate, there are two gatekeepers, Shen Tu and Lei Yu (keeper version 1.0). These two are mainly responsible for catching evil spirits among these ghosts. When the Yellow Emperor saw it, he followed suit and stood on both sides of the door with mahogany sculptures to guard it. As time went on, this method of guarding with mahogany statues began to turn to mahogany to exorcise evil spirits.
Of course, such a legend alone can't make the saying of peach tree exorcism popular, so there are more blessings about peach tree exorcism, and through these blessings, peach tree can sit firmly on the throne of exorcism. ? Blessing 1. Taomu killed Hou Yi. He is definitely the undisputed hero who saved the people from fire and water in Chinese myths and legends. However, such a great hero who can shoot in the sky for nine days and kill people in the next place finally died at the hands of his apprentice, and the weapon his apprentice used to kill him was the "peach stick", which is why the "divine power" of peach wood was killed again.
Blessing 2. Blessing of Japanese Books Unearthed from Qin Bamboo Slips in a Sleeping Tiger Land. Attention! This is a law-related book issued after the Qin Dynasty unified China, not other books. This book records many ways to exorcise evil spirits with peach wood (peach wood exorcism has risen to the legal level), and its original content is as follows:
1, the ghost will attack people for no reason. Once you win the bid, you need to use mahogany as a bow, thorns as an arrow, and chicken feathers as an arrow feather, and then fire at the thorn ghost to solve it.
2. If you are haunted by ghosts, then people will become pale, have no thoughts about tea and rice, and keep company with cleanliness. At this time, you should keep beating the patient's heart with thorns and peach sticks, so that the ghost will not come again.
3. Once it is found that the livestock speak human words, it must be the "wind-blown qi". At this time, you need to point the peach stick at the livestock, then take off your shoes and punch it again, so that you can drive it away.
These three records are enough to show that mahogany has become a household name in the Qin Dynasty!
However, these myths and legends and historical records only explain the time and evolution of peach wood exorcism, and do not explain why peach wood has this function. Next, we will analyze and demonstrate peach wood to ward off evil spirits according to archaeological knowledge.
First of all, the conclusion that China people like red is affirmative. On festivals or festive days, people in China will display festive occasions with lanterns and colorful decorations, and the "color" in decorative lanterns and colorful decorations refers to the red color in a sense. It is because of China people's love for red that the word "China Red" came into being. But when it comes to red, we must talk about the totem worship or belief of the primitive sun and fire of the Chinese nation. There are too many cultural relics to prove the topic of fire and sun worship in primitive society. When people worship the sun and fire, they gradually find that the sun and fire have one thing in common, that is, their color-red, so the worship of red began to appear.
Secondly, when the worship and love of red appeared in primitive society, red played a unique role. They were used for medical treatment, sacrifice and funeral. So the red object gradually has the function of ward off evil spirits.
Finally, the first list of red objects to ward off evil spirits:
TOP 1, cinnabar, as the earliest red raw material used by human beings, was widely used in prehistoric culture and later sacrifices and tombs, so that many unearthed cultural relics contained cinnabar Qin. Later, cinnabar became one of the magic weapons of Taoism to ward off evil spirits and was used to write spells;
TOP2, mahogany, mahogany as wood, its wood color is red, easy to obtain materials, hard wood, and the flowers of peach trees are red, coupled with the blessings of many myths and legends, it has become an "evil wood" in wood.