Why give red eggs on birthdays

Various opinions on the distribution of red eggs

Distributing red eggs dyed with pigment to friends and relatives is a way of expressing festivities prevailing all over the country, and it is often used in marriages, births, full-moon births, birthday celebrations for the elderly, and various other joyous occasions to show congratulations and good fortune.

There are many folk legends about red eggs, and the most widely circulated is the story of "Liu Bei's Recruitment". According to legend, during the Three Kingdoms period, Zhou Yu, the governor of the Eastern Wu, wanted to use a fake marriage, the real detention of the scheme to hold Liu Bei, claiming back Jingzhou. Zhuge Liang recognized this scheme and ordered Zhao Yun to bring a large number of red-dyed eggs to escort his lord Liu Bei to Jiangdong to get married. When the bridegroom arrived at Dong Wu, he gave red eggs to everyone, saying that Liu Bei and Princess Sun Shangxiang were getting married, and that if they ate the red eggs, they would be happy together, and that they would be able to let Mrs. Wu hold their grandchildren next year. The people were so impressed by the news that they spread the news of the marriage between Sun and Liu to every household. When the news reached the palace, Mrs. Wu was overjoyed and ordered Sun Quan to organize a wedding ceremony for Liu Bei and Sun Shangxiang immediately. Sun Quan had no choice but to make the marriage a real one, which led to Zhou Yu's "losing his wife and his army" ending. Since then, the custom of sharing red eggs in marriage has become popular in the south of the Yangtze River.

In fact, the custom of sharing red eggs is also found in many ethnic minorities, and is not only popular in the Jiangnan area. On the contrary, there are not many records of red eggs in the customary materials before the Qing Dynasty. In this way, the origin of the custom of red eggs and its changes have become an open question.

Some people believe that the custom of red eggs is a product of the myth of oviposition. When the ancestors traced the opening of heaven and earth, the birth of the gods, and the origin of mankind in their fantasies, they attributed it to the work of the "egg". For example, in the Three Kingdoms period, Xu Shing wrote the story of Pangu's opening of heaven and earth: "Heaven and earth were as chaotic as a chicken's egg, and Pangu was born in it. At the age of 18,000 years, heaven and earth were opened up, with Yang clearing up for heaven and Yin turbid for earth. Pangu in which one day nine changes, God in the sky, the Holy in the ground ......" and the "Records of the Historical Records" about the origin of the merchants: the Ancient State's daughter Jian Di "see the Xuan bird aborted its eggs, Jian Di to take the swallowed, because of the birth of the pregnancy of the Chee", the Chee is the originator of the merchants; The origin of the Qin people: Zhuan Xu's granddaughter of the female Xiu weaving silk, "Xuan bird fell eggs, female Xiu swallowed, giving birth to the son of Daye", Daye is the originator of the Qin people. In addition, the ancient song of the Miao people in Guizhou also recorded the mother "gave birth to twelve eggs, one of which gave birth to human beings," the legend. It is this reverence for the "egg", so that the egg evolved into a hundred end to be prosperous, thriving meaning of good luck.

Investigating the custom of red eggs from the point of view of mascot, we can find that this social and cultural phenomenon is not a blank slate in the customary data records. Such as the Southern Dynasty Liang zongmu "Jingchu chronicles" recorded a "skeleton chicken" custom, note cloud: "the ancient great family, food called painting eggs. Nowadays, they are still dyed with blue and white colors, and still carve them, pay each other, or place them on the plate and chopping board." At the same time and cited the "tube": "carve eggs cooked boil (yuè, with soup boiled things)." It can be seen, "skeleton chicken" or painting eggs, is dyed and painted color on the eggs, each other gift cooking, and this style as early as the pre-Qin era has been formed, its meaning is as the "Guan Zi" cloud: "so the hair of the accumulation of hidden, scattered all things." Yang Xianzhi "Luoyang Galan Records" in the Northern Wei Dynasty Hetian Wang Yuan Chen said to people, "Jin Shi Chong, is a common name, but can pheasant head fox armpit, painting eggs carving salary, not to mention my Wei heavenly king, not for wastefulness"; Sung Chen Yuanliang "times and years" Volume 15, cited in "Yechenzhong Records", there is also a "Cold Food Day, the common painting chicken to pay each other! "The record shows that this custom has been preserved in the folklore, and gradually evolved into a variety of celebratory occasions can be used to paint eggs to give each other, the color is also slowly reduced to a single most rendering the meaning of the celebration of the red. Until now, carving eggs painting eggs is still a folk crafts, which can also be for the red egg was born out of the egg myth of general auspicious objects to provide evidence.

And some people think that the myth of oviposition is not enough to make a reasonable explanation of the general concept of "egg" to the specific egg, and thus analyze it from the perspective of totem worship. This theory is based on the Hemudu, Liangzhu, Majiayao culture in the image of the bird pattern, pointed out that the ancient so-called "Xuanbird", including the phoenix, which later became one of the representative totems of the Chinese nation, are undomesticated prototype of the chicken as the prototype. The masters of the Majiayao culture had always used the long-tailed pheasant as their totem, and its offshoot, the Sanmiao, was also known for its respect for the "ke pheasant". Similarly, the female cultivator who swallowed the egg in the Records of the Grand Historian (《史记-秦本纪》), and whose descendant Dalian "is a bird common clan", Sima Qian wrote that "Dalian's descendants, Ri Mengyou and Zhongyan, have a bird's body and speak human language", and Zhang Shoujie said: "The body is a bird, but it can speak human language. And the cloud mouth and hands and feet like a bird." Therefore, it is known that the Qin people also take the pheasant as a totem. To the "Hou Han Shu - East Yi biography", the Xuan bird or phoenix bird totem directly into the chicken laying eggs, eggs laying people. For example, the king of the northern barbarians Soli traveled, and when he returned, he found that his concubine was pregnant. Servant Ji said, "Some days ago I saw a cloud in the sky, as big as an egg, descending on me, so I became pregnant." Later she gave birth to a boy. Also, the Classic of Mountains and Seas - The Great Desert South Classic writes, "There is a country of egg people, and all its people give birth to eggs." All of this reveals the historical information that the red egg custom is actually a remnant of the ancestral people's concept of chicken totem.

And some people believe that the custom of red eggs is the legacy of the primitive society of human reproduction worship culture, the egg can incubate chickens, so people eat eggs will be able to give birth to a child, so the ancients every "chicken" instead of the egg, but very few "son" refers to the duck eggs, bird eggs or snake eggs. The egg is a very important element in the life of the human body. This kind of thinking based on the understanding of the function of the egg can be deduced from a series of specific behaviors. For example, in the old days, when a girl got married in Fuyang, Guangdong Province, her mother's family would send the bride twelve eggs, and after the bride paid homage to her ancestors, the master of ceremonies would put the eggs from the waist of her pants, and then roll them out from her trouser legs, which is self-evidently a symbolic and expressive meaning of this behavior. Another example is the Zhuang young men and women by the "song Wei" after love, they will both hold red-dyed cooked eggs, touch each other, such as the male side of the egg first cracked shell to the female side to eat, and vice versa, the male side of the first to eat. This action, also has a hen hatching eggs, eggs broken out of the simulation of the nature of the chick. Another example, the white young women in Yunnan Heqing area, every spring plowing before more than one to Duo Mei Township River River hot water ponds begging for education, begging for education in the hands of two boiled red eggs, to the hot water pond to bathe, and with the red egg roll rubbing the body, after returning home to share the red eggs with their husbands. Similar folklore of sharing red eggs with husband and wife also exists in the social life of some other ethnic groups. From the application occasions of the current red egg custom, most of them are related to praying for heirs or the joy of birth, which is the most reasonable if explained by the viewpoint of reproduction worship of the ancestors. In addition, the "son" of "chicken" is the same as the "son" of "heir", and the "egg" of "egg" is the same as the "egg" of "heir", and the "egg" of "heir" is the same as the "egg" of "heir". "egg" and the birth of the "birth" harmony, and even "egg" has become a common name for male **, which not only reveals the connotations of the cult of reproduction, but also fully in line with Chinese people The first is the "Lucky Charms", which is a Chinese word for "luck," and the second is the "Lucky Charms.

So, itself has the function of hatching the child interest of the egg, why should be dyed red? In this regard, the "fertility cult" also made different from the "egg myth" so-called red as the color of celebration, and that this is the first people of the blood worship concept of inheritance.

In ancient times, mankind could not bear children. Over time, there was only one woman left on the earth - Plant Zu. She knew that once she died, the human race on the earth was extinct, and she wept with sadness at the thought.

The sound of her weeping attracted the King of Men and the Queen of Men. They told Planting Fathers to lie down naked in their crotches. A stream of hot water flowed out of the crotch of the King of Men and the Queen of Men. Plant Zu fell asleep in the warm water. When she woke up, she found two red eggs in her hands. She ate the red eggs and gave birth to a child. From then on, people imitated the way of Planting Ancestor in order to beg for children (Zhang Hongyu, "Reproduction Worship and its Reproductive Worship Culture" in Guo Feng, Vol. 2, No. 3).

This legend clearly implies that the hot water in the crotch seam suggests women's menstrual blood, and the two eggs suggest men's double ***. Menstrual blood stains the ***, and this is probably how primitive man recognized the causes of reproduction. "It is understood that some of the clan tribes which are still in the stage of primitive society in recent times believe that the color red represents blood and is the source of life and the host of the soul" (Guo Moruo, ed., Chinese Historical Manuscripts, Book I, Shanghai People's Publishing House, 1976 edition, p. 31). This is precisely the same lineage of thinking as the worship of menstrual blood.

Additionally, there are those who believe that the custom of red eggs originated in the use of witchcraft and medicine to ward off evil spirits and avoid disasters. Ancient people to chicken for the long of the birds, with the role of suppressing demons, such as the "Spring and Autumn Games Doo Shu" cloud "Yu Heng star essence scattered as chicken", "Spring and Autumn Explanation of the Dictionary" cloud "chicken for the accumulation of yang, the south of the image of the fire yang essence of the inflammation of the upper, so the sun out of the chicken," and so on, reflecting the ancient understanding of the divinity of the chicken. All of these reflect the ancient knowledge of the divinity of the chicken. Chicken from the egg, the egg by the chicken, the egg also has a divine nature is a matter of course. Jin Zhou "land and wind record" in the "first day, when the raw swallow chicken a son, called refining form"; "Jing Chu chronicle" in the first day of the first month "drink peach soup ...... service 'but ghost pills ', each into a chicken"; "Refinement of the chapter" cloud "the first day of the first month, swallowing chicken, red beans, each of the seven, to avoid the plague gas", these customs alongside the eggs, peach soup, red beans, "but the ghost pills", etc., were used by the ancients to avoid disasters, but also for the purpose of refining the shape of the first day of the first month, the first day of the first month. In these customs, peach soup, red beans, and "but ghost pills" are all treasures used by ancient people to avoid disasters and welcome good luck. Witch doctor with the same source, so the ancient prescription, often added to the egg, such as the Han Zhang Zhongjing prescription records: "years of bad gas in the person, unfortunately will die, take soybean two seven, chicken, white hemp seeds, and wine swallowed." Obviously, the egg has the magical effect of suppressing evil and avoiding disasters.

Old folk also prevailed in the custom of divination with eggs, such as writing some words on the eggshell, fire to make the egg burst, to see the egg white flow out of the stick in which word; the egg hit in the bowl of water to see the yolk on behalf of the sun, moon and stars on the position of the small bubbles of the position of whether the uniformity; piercing the egg, the view of the liquid dispersed in the ground in the shape of the shape presented; will be boiled and split in half and remove the yolk, to see the egg white left behind the shadow of the black spot! ...... In addition, there are also ways to make the egg stand up by reciting incantations or asking questions, rolling the egg back and forth on the patient's body and head, and then putting it into a pot to cook and ask the diviner to check it. This kind of divination is called "chicken divination" and "chicken egg divination" ("Panyu Miscellany").

All of this is a reflection of the ancient concept that eggs are divine. The ancients also thought that in all cases of celebration, there will be demonic disturbances; or some specific festivals and hours, there will be plague invasion. So eat eggs to prevent, is an indispensable custom. From Jin Zhou's "Record of Customs and Lands", Liang Zong Security Hours of the Southern Dynasty "Jing Chu Yearly Record", "Refinement Part" and other ancient books in the first day of the service chicken, to the popularity of the Central Plains and Southwest of some regions of the "March 3, eat eggs" style, as well as all over the urban and rural areas of the north and south of the wedding eve to let the newcomers to share a red egg tradition, can be speculated that the custom of the red egg is actually by the egg! The witchcraft to ward off evil spirits is deduced.

Strictly speaking, all the above views lack direct historical evidence. Therefore, how the custom of sharing red eggs was formed, such as the first chicken or the first egg problem, it is difficult to have a final conclusion.