Shigandang is a similar stone tablet in front of the door or on the wall of people in the past. It is usually written "Taishan Shigandang" to ward off evil spirits and protect the house.
I have some information about its origin and story:
Although Shi Gandang is not listed as a door god, he still carries the hope of peace in the door, prohibiting ghosts and evil, and guarding in front of the door.
The "Complete Book of Abolition of Superstition" published in the 1920s talked about one thing: There was an American who could barely read Chinese characters and had heard of Mount Tai. When he traveled to China, he saw the words "Taishan Stone Can Be Dang" on a wall in the Shandong countryside. He pointed at the wall and asked the person accompanying him: "Is that a stone from Mount Tai?" The other person burst out laughing.
What are you laughing at? It seems that there is a pronunciation problem with the five characters "Taishan Shi Gandang". Reading: Taishan Shi Gan Dang, right; Taishan Shi Gan Dang, wrong. The American knew the Taishan stone but did not know how to build it, so he raised a ridiculous question.
Shi Gandang is one of the most influential folk traditional living and architectural customs in my country. Shi Gandang is also called Taishan Shi Gandang. The title "Taishan" is similar to the sentence structure of "The Romance of the Three Kingdoms" in which Guan Yu calls "Jiezhou Guan Yu". The first three characters must not be misunderstood as "Jiezhou Pass" for the gate tower of the city wall.
Since the Tang and Song Dynasties, small stone tablets with the words "Shi Gandang" and "Taishan Shi Gandang" have often been erected at the gates of mansions, or the stones have been embedded in the walls to ward off ghosts and avoid disasters. Folks regard Shi Gan as a god to ward off bad luck. As stated in the "Surname Yuan Zhuji" of the Ming Dynasty, "people must engrave their aspirations and write their surnames on stone to protect people's residences."
The Tang Dynasty Shi Gandang stele has been recorded. Yu Yue of the Qing Dynasty's "Cha Xiangshi Renewal Notes": Song Wang Xiangzhi's "Yudi Monument Notes": Xinghua Army has a stone to serve as a monument. Note: During the Qingli period, Zhang Wei slaughtered Kamata and re-established the county government, and received a stone inscription. The article says: "Shi Gandang can suppress hundreds of ghosts, be weary of disasters, bring good fortune to officials, and make the people prosperous, with flourishing customs and rituals. In the fifth year of Dali of the Tang Dynasty, the county magistrate Zheng Yazhi wrote." Today, people use stele tablets to write "Shi Gandang" "Three words stand on the door, it's so windy." According to this, the stone carvings with the three characters "Shi Gandang" began in the Tang Dynasty.
The county officials of the Song Dynasty built the county government office and excavated the "Shi Gandang" carved stone, which has the inscription of the Tang Dynasty. Based on this, Yu Yue believes that the Qing Dynasty custom of using stone gates as gates is a legacy of the Tang Dynasty.
Shi Gan is a folk belief, and its origin is in the stone worship in ancient times. The custom of burying stones to guard the house was before Shi Gandang. For example, Yu Xin's "Ode to a Small Country" in the Northern and Southern Dynasties said: "The god of the house is buried in stones. He is tired of the mountain spirit and looks in the mirror." On the basis of burying stones to ward off evil spirits, the custom has changed. Adding decorations, engraving and drawing shapes, and attaching various legends, all of them revolve around one center, that is: superimposing symbols with "divine power" on that stone to the maximum extent possible.
As for the origin of Shi Gandang, there is a folk legend that Jiang Taigong conferred many gods, but in the end he forgot his name and named himself Taishan Shi Gandang. During the Tang and Song Dynasties, Jiang Taigong was regarded as the King of Wu Cheng, and he was the same as King Kong Sheng of Wenxuan. After the Ming Dynasty, although Guan Yu became the King of Wusheng, Jiang Taigong was still very influential among the people. There are many legends and stories, and there is already the saying "Jiang Taigong is here" Therefore, the gods abdicated." To say that Shi Gandang is the incarnation of Jiang Taigong is to exaggerate the folk belief that Shi Gandang wards off evil spirits.
The stone borrows the "power of the tiger", not only to express the image of the tiger on the stone, but also to exaggerate the mystery through the choice of the date of stone carving and the time of standing of the stone. The widely circulated "Lu Ban Jing" in the old days preached this: Anyone who dares to cut stones must choose Jiachen, Bingchen, Xuchen, Gengchen, Renchen, Jiayin, Bingyin, Xuyin, Gengyin, Renyin after the winter solstice. , these ten days are dragon and tiger days, which are auspicious. On New Year's Eve, three slices of raw meat are sacrificed to him. During the new year of Zhengyin, he stands at the head of the door and is not allowed to be seen by outsiders. Anyone who comes to rush through the alleyway should use this stone to fight.
The twelve zodiac signs Chen belongs to the dragon and Yin belongs to the tiger, so there is a saying of "Dragon and Tiger Day" carving stones. Xinzheng is the first day of the new year. In ancient times, the first month was the month of Jianyin in the lunar calendar, which was the month of the tiger.
As for the collaboration between "Tai Shan" and "Shi Gan Dang", there are two levels of content. First, the towering Mount Tai is the only one among the five mountains. In ancient times, it was said that it is the mountain that reaches the sky and the earth. Emperors from all over the world also went to worship it.
With Mount Tai as his example, wouldn't Shi Gandang be even more invincible? Secondly, it advertises Mount Tai and provides the angle of the mountain, from which we can view the "stone" of the stone, and the viewpoint is perfect. Why don't you choose the East China Sea and the Yellow River for the prestige of the mighty stone, or the Nine-layer Sky Han, but choose the word "Taishan" to write the banner? The stone comes out of the mountain. This "mountain" is more closely related to that "stone". Regarding this, footnotes can be made on the animistic concept of primitive ancestors and the worship of spiritual objects by the ancients. From rough stone tools to fine stone tools, stone tools have enabled primitive people to continuously increase their ability to survive against nature. The stone becomes a spiritual object. Reflected in myths and legends, the female snails who repaired the sky refined five-color stones to make materials for repairing the sky, and the jingwei who filled the sea carried wood and stones to bury the East China Sea. The worship of stones has given rise to stone daring and the custom of burying stones to guard houses. During the Southern and Northern Dynasties, Yu Xin's "Ode to a Small Country" said: "To build a house, bury stones." Zong Mao's "Records of the Years of Jingchu": "On the evening of December, dig up the four corners of the house and bury a big stone in each corner to build a house." Became a magical creature. As for Shi Gandang, the god was created because of the stone. There is a named "Shi General" whose surname is "Shi" because it is originally a stone.
Shi Gandang was worshiped as a god, and his duties expanded from defending people's houses. "Tea Xiangshi Congchao" records the local customs in Qilu during the Qing Dynasty. There was a stone carving of "Taishan Shigandang" at the entrance of the alley. It was said that he would go to other people's homes to treat diseases at dusk, so "General Shi" was also called "Doctor Shi". There is another legend: During the Kangxi period of the Qing Dynasty, in Xuwen County, Guangdong, the magistrate died soon after taking office, and this happened for several consecutive terms. When Huang came to take office, he asked a Feng Shui master to look at it and said that the shadow of the pagoda fell on the seat of the magistrate. All his predecessors died due to the pressure of the shadow of the pagoda. Huangzhi County carved a stone tablet "Taishan Stone Gandang" and erected it in front of the county government office to block the shadow of the tower. If it can be said that "the main entrance of a house is in line with the alleys, bridges and roads" and the standing stone is a kind of face-to-face resistance, then Huang's standing stone resists the shadow of the tower, and the function of the stone has developed from a plane to a three-dimensional one.
Because Shi Gandang was named "Taishan", he was even said to be the father of the gods of Mount Tai. There is a Bixia Temple on Mount Tai, dedicated to Bixia Yuanjun, the owner of Mount Tai. People also call her Taishan Old Mother. Regarding the origin of Bixia Yuanjun, it is said that she is the sister of the Jade Emperor, and folk legend also says that she is the daughter of poor farmer Shi Gandang: she is kind-hearted, goes to the mountains to chop firewood, and often helps an old lady who is alone. The old lady said that she was a fairy who descended to earth, and asked her to dig out the wooden fish buried by King Chai under the largest pine tree in Mount Tai, and bury an embroidered shoe three feet under the wooden fish. The Jade Emperor wanted to select the oldest person on Mount Tai among the gods and make him the Lord of Mount Tai. King Chai proved his qualifications with the wooden fish buried under the tree. Shi Gandang's daughter defeated King Chai with the embroidered shoes buried under the wooden fish and was named Bixia Yuanjun. Although this legendary story is about Bixia Yuanjun, Shi Gandang and Shi Gandang are both "father and daughter". The relationship between the two is just like the rising water and the height of the boat - Bixia Yuanjun is as high as the Lord God of Mount Tai, and the height of the boat is due to the rise of the water. The rising water reflects Shi Gandang's supernatural power.
The above information is a bit long, but I still recommend that you read it. Because it contains a lot of our traditional folk culture knowledge, we as Chinese should know some of it.