Life, death and worship of ghosts and gods - a preliminary study on rural funerals and folk rituals in Western Sichuan
M Village, Ya'an City, Sichuan Province is a typical Western Sichuan style. It has a strong flavor of Western Sichuan life, because it also belongs to Mountainous areas retain many traditional customs. There are many cultural and historical preservations here, such as the Xiaojie Archway, the century-old courtyard, clan culture, etc. Of course, many traditional folk rituals for praying for blessings and eliminating disasters are also retained here, as well as unique funeral customs.
Praying for life - to pass the pass
At some bridgeheads or road intersections in M ??Village, we often see bows, arrows and talismans made of branches, some of which are still peeled. There were spells written on the branches, ashes from burned paper, and bowls.
These all come from a custom, that is, passing the pass. Passes are some disasters that children will encounter and need to be resolved. In traditional culture, a person's birth date determines his or her life destiny. A child will have thirty-six levels and seventy-two evils. Such as General Arrow, Short Life Pass, Night Cry Pass, Water and Fire Pass, etc. Different passes have different evil requirements and different taboos, which need to be resolved before a person's life can be safe. These are all related to ghosts and gods. Therefore, if the child is not doing well, the parents will ask a Taoist priest to preside over the passing ceremony. The Taoist priest has the ancestral seal. Without this seal, ghosts and gods will not recognize it. Relatives and friends will also be invited to help cook and burn incense.
In the customs clearance ceremony, the Taoist priest first writes the talisman paper, the tablets of the five emperors and the five directions, writes the good deeds, prepares the incense and candle paper, and the ceremony begins.
First of all, the Taoist priest will recite scriptures, which is actually similar to rapping. He will first introduce himself to his family, explain his identity, and then invite gods. First, he will invite various great gods, such as Taishang Laojun, and four The Great Heavenly King, the twenty-eight constellations, etc., and then various local gods, such as Taibai Venus, all the way to the Kitchen God and the earth. All the gods and goddesses are in place, and then the Jade Emperor, Queen Mother, etc. are invited to take their places. This is "inviting the gods".
After asking the gods, they began to inform the gods about what rituals they would perform this time and what official evil spirits they would pass. Ask the Jade Emperor to make arrangements, some to avoid and some to practice. Mainly to worship the Kitchen God, the Fangliang God, in short, all the gods in the home. General Fan asked his uncle to hold bows and arrows made from tree branches and talismans to burn incense and worship the gods according to the directions calculated according to the birth date. This is also called "sending a substitute", and then bowed to the first person he met passing by. As godfather. Then capture the ghosts that cry at night, cut them flat with the wood that has been burnt, and use cinnabar to use the "fire stick, the fire stick, the five thunder gods in the sky." Send them as divine generals to capture the ghosts that cry at night, kill them without letting them go, and be as urgent as the law. "Edict" is written on firewood and placed on the bedside of the child at night. Men are on the left and women are on the right. Don't be alarmed or it will not work. Tomorrow morning, the treasure candle will be sent out to the double intersection outside the gate.
After the evil spirits were resolved, the gods began to be sent away again. This is the "gift of gifting the gods". The ritual is completed. In this process, without the great seal of the ancestral Taoist priests, the gods and gods cannot be mobilized and dispatched.
All kinds of evil spirits are all the disasters that a person may encounter in his life, such as sword injuries, car accidents, and children crying at night. In short, there are all kinds of misfortunes or disasters that people can encounter. Different kinds of evil spirits are different. Although the specific rituals may increase or decrease, the method of asking gods to resolve them remains unchanged.
The good blessings of life and the health of life all depend on the blessings of ghosts and gods. Only by worshiping gods and calming them can we survive all hardships.
In addition, there are actually levels of ghosts and gods. The levels of ghosts and gods are actually set according to the levels of the underworld. There is an emperor in the underworld, there is the Jade Emperor in the world of ghosts and gods, there is the Medicine King for those who are sick, and there are land gods for those who farm. , Wenchang has the fame, there are also the heavenly army and heavenly generals, the twenty-eight constellations govern the seasons, and the city god is guarding the city. In short, people imagine that the world of ghosts and gods is the same as the earth, and that it is dominated by the world of ghosts and gods, and the earth cannot solve it. Seeking solutions from the world of ghosts and gods. People's wishes for life and good wishes are all hoped to ensure peace by paying respect to ghosts and gods. Officially because of the uncertainty of the future, changes in world affairs, and irresistible natural mysterious phenomena, people have deepened this worship.
Death is for a better life - funeral culture
The funeral culture in M ??village is very unique, which is rare. When I first came to M Village, I found many tombs made of stone carvings, which were completely different from those in my hometown. Later, I learned that "some people live there" and "some people don't live there". This kind of stone outer coffin is called "Shengji"
It turns out that local custom is that a person has to build two houses in his life, usually a new house for his children and grandchildren, and his own "old house". M Village retains many traditional customs, and of course it also retains the traditional Feng Shui location concepts of Yin and Yang houses.
The principles of Feng Shui location selection for Yin Houses and Yang Houses are similar. Generally speaking, there is a bright hall in front, a backing behind, a green dragon on the left, a white tiger on the right, and a table mountain. Your "old house" is the tomb where you will be buried after your death. Usually when you are 50 or 60 years old, you will prepare to build it. Of course, building an "old house" is the same as building a new house to live in. Those with money can build it better, while those without money can build it in average. If everyone else practices it, but if you don't practice it, you seem to be worse than others. Sometimes this becomes a comparison, and some people even practice it for their whole family. This is quite normal in the geographical area of ??M Village. No one is taboo about it. Whoever repairs it means that he is rich and doing well in life. Moreover, if the Yin Mansion is repaired in a good place, it will be beneficial to future generations and protect them. Feng shui masters in the south all practice Yang Gong Feng Shui. According to the horoscope of the owner's birth date and the five elements and eight trigrams of geography, the so-called four major situations:
Yi Bing crosses Xu, Xu is the storehouse of Yinwu Xuhuo Bureau;
Xin Renhui Chen, Chen is the treasury of Shen Zichen Water Bureau.
The bullfight Na Ding Geng, Chou is the treasury of Siyou Chou Jin Bureau;
The golden sheep collects Guijia, but it is not the treasury of Haimao Weimu Bureau.
These four major situations all involve emperors and generals. When you come down, you need to observe the sand and water, and then look for the dragon and point its acupoints. It is nothing more than figuring out the ins and outs. Lailong means that the Chinese dragon vein is Kunlun Mountain, and the others are branch veins. Where does the dragon vein come from, where does it go, and then find a good location. This ensures prosperity for future generations.
After someone in M ??Village dies, the soul-breaking cannon must be fired, so that the surrounding neighbors will come to help. Then the funeral preparations began. Put on old clothes, burn the clothes, bedding and other things used by the deceased before his death, and then bury him in the coffin. In the afternoon, a Taoist priest is invited to determine the burial day. It is usually the third day. The next day, the filial son went to the whole village to invite people to help, but he had to kneel down to invite people. This was to correct the sins of the deceased. Without this kneeling ceremony, no one would go, and if relatives and friends came to help that day, they had to do it for others. Kneel down to show respect and gratitude. At the same time, the Taoist priest was invited to start performing rituals, and other relatives and neighbors began to prepare banquets and other things. This Taoist priest is not suitable for just anyone, it must be passed down from the ancestors and have a seal, otherwise the underworld will not recognize it. The Taoist priests and the gong and drum men they brought with them began to set up the mourning hall and prepare for the ranking of the five emperors and immortals in the five directions. The general process is to open the altar, Taishang, Zhengyi, open the way, accompany the spirit, tonight, night, worship, ten kings, soul wandering, hell, circle the board, recite the Buddha's name, burn the watch, change the silk, make an offering, and inscribe.
The Taoist priest in charge of the altar will complete these rituals one by one. You can imagine that after a person dies, his soul will enter the underworld and be reincarnated as a human being, but there are many lonely ghosts around. There are unjust ghosts, starving ghosts, fire ghosts, hanged ghosts, hanged ghosts, etc., who will immediately come out to find trouble for this soul. At this time, the Taoist priest in charge of the altar took the seal, recited the Taishang Zhengyi Curse Ghost Sutra, and explained to everyone This soul has no sins, so don't look for trouble, otherwise all the ghosts will be annihilated by chanting the incantation. Or dispatch the gods to kill the troublemaking ghosts, this is Taishang and Zhengyi. After all the ghosts were scared away, the Taoist priest opened the way and took the souls to the underworld. At this time, funeral songs are also sung to express sorrowful feelings and comfort the living. By the way, Taoist priests will recite family and guest sacrifices to the deceased. After tonight, after singing tonight, the soul will continue to go to the underworld.
After offering sacrifices in the morning, relatives and neighbors used to bring paper money, but now they don’t do this and all give money as gifts. The soul has passed through ten Yama Halls. At this time, relatives will come to see them off. If they want to burn paper, they have to give money to the Taoist priest and ask him to take the talisman paper with them. They will do it on the way, and then they will circle around the coffin a few times. Mr. Taoist priest Lead it, otherwise you won't be able to see the soul off. At this time, we must also worship the Five Emperors of the Five Directions, so that the deceased can reach it smoothly no matter which way he takes. At each checkpoint, money must be burned to give to the policemen on the road to the underworld, and the Taoist priests must pay attention to it, so that they can pass smoothly. This is Lose money and avoid disaster, spend money to ensure safety. Then they began to recite the Buddha's name. After the recitation, everyone used roosters to sacrifice the Dulong who was carrying the coffin to ensure that the coffin did not fall to the ground and entered the tomb smoothly. Dulong is a piece of wood. The coffin is usually tied to it and carried by eight male villagers. If the cemetery is too far away, bamboo poles will be used to prop it up and rest. You can also change people. Push the wooden coffin into the stone coffin and put in the chickens and ducks whose zodiac signs match the five elements. The filial son knelt down and kowtowed to everyone, and then burned a wreath. This meant that the deceased had a new home and lived in a new home. Then the filial son takes the spirit home to make offerings, which is the first offering. The next step is to burn Qi. After Wu Qi, they officially enter the underworld, obtain the qualification to live in the underworld, and wait for reincarnation.
First of all, when the soul of the dead enters the underworld, people imagine the underworld as another world.
The underworld is also called hell. Hell is the place where people go after death. Hell is the prison in the world. The policemen and policemen are bulls and horses and all the little ghosts. The jailers can also eat and drink, and so can the little ghosts. Only money can make the ghosts grind, so in order to Let the dead souls enter the underworld smoothly, and take care of them to avoid suffering. The world of ghosts and gods is also a reflection of the real world. Therefore, many supernatural novels in the Ming and Qing Dynasties satirized reality. This is the case with "Journey to the West" and "The Romance of the Gods".
Bury the deceased to a new address, and then take the spirit home to bless the living. At the same time, the living also imagines that the deceased will live with them, and will also bless other people. To some extent, the deceased also He became a god, this is the ancestor god. The living will make offerings to the souls of the deceased to express their condolences and remembrance of the deceased. After burning Wuqi, the souls of the dead should leave and go back to where they live. Do not stay at home to avoid harming strangers. On important holidays, strangers will also burn talismans to visit the souls of the dead. During the Chinese New Year, we also go to the graves to visit and pay homage. In Shaanxi, on New Year's Eve, "ancestors", that is, those who have passed away, are brought back for reunion, and then they are worshiped by their tribesmen, and finally sent away.
Death is for a better life. The advance preparation of Shengji is also to live a better life, and the location of the tomb is also to protect the prosperity of future generations. The deceased left the world of the world but stayed in the underworld to better protect their descendants. Although the deceased died, they just changed places. In the villages of the old society, the tombs were far away from the villages, so there were settlements of living people and settlements of ancestors. There is Ancestral Tomb Mountain in M ??Village. Living people can bring back the dead to ensure that the mysterious power will protect them. The souls of the dead have become ancestral gods.
Although people in M ??village are not taboo about having a birthplace while alive, people who are sick are very taboo about attending funerals, and cannot even pass by the homes of people who are mourning, for fear of offending evil spirits.
Funerals are more important in the eyes of villagers and should be treated with caution. Even if you don't invite them, you won't be able to do anything good, and you won't be invited to do anything white. White matters require more help from everyone, and carrying the coffin requires special labor, so kneeling down to invite people is also a sign of respect for others.
So life and death are just switching from one world to another, the living continue to live a better life, and the dead continue to bless the living. After death, you can go to hell, ascend to heaven, or be reincarnated. This is the dominance of ghosts and gods. Ghosts and gods control people's destiny.
Conclusion
Whether it is a ritual ceremony or a funeral, it is a ritual of life and death, including blessings for life and sustenance for death. Life avoids death, but death protects life. Regardless of life or death, all people worship ghosts and gods. With worship of ghosts and gods, there is also reverence. When you enter the underworld after death, the type of torture you undergo, whether you enter the oil pan, use a guillotine, or go to the mountain of knives, are all determined by your sins during your lifetime. Therefore, if you want to avoid entering hell after death, do more good deeds while you are alive. Do good deeds, accumulate virtue and do good deeds. This is the culture of life and death, and it also brings comfort and hope to the living. In recent times, due to the destruction of traditional customs and the influence of modernization, more villagers remain at the level of utilitarian worship. If they cannot solve problems or seek psychological comfort, they will seek help from ghosts and gods. The Taoist priests I have met make a living by doing Buddhist rituals, and I also know some Taoist priests who frankly admit that most of them seek comfort in their hearts. It should be noted that the worship of ghosts and gods is indeed still educating most people and affecting the behavior and habits of most villagers.
Evening of March 22, 2017
October
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