Next Essay on Teochew Festivals and Folklore

The festival of the earth god is a kind of community festival. The Chaoshan people call this kind of festival as "Ying Daolaoji".

This kind of festival originated from the land worship, which led to the creation of the earth god. The god of the land was called "She" by the ancients, but the Chaoshan people called him "Dugong" or "Bugong". The worship of the god of the land is of two kinds. One is out of the worship of the land that one cultivates, as a reward for the grains that grow on the land and provide food for the people; the other is out of the worship of the land that one settles on, as a thanksgiving for the land that builds up the township and protects the people's peace of mind. This was already the case in the ancient times. In the oracle bone inscriptions of the Shang Dynasty, there was a divination question of "whether to pray to the land god of the state for a good year" (Ex. 4-17-3); in recent years, a sacrificial site centered on a standing stone was excavated at the site of the Shang Dynasty Worker's Castle in Zhengzhou, which archaeologists said was a relic of sacrificing to the god of the land during the construction of the city (Pei Mingshang, "The Layout of the King's Castle of Zhengzhou in the Shang Dynasty and Its Cultural Connotation"). . In Chaoshan, the worship of Bogong still retains both of these natures. The above mentioned June 26th cited from Gongsheng belongs to the former nature. The fact that the Chaoshan people built houses and created villages by first worshipping Bogong belongs to the latter nature, while the worship of Bogong in springtime in the villages is of both natures. For example, Puning County Records:

(February) Spring Society Day, the farmers in each township with incense and silk, wine, food, and rate their townships to worship the God of the soil, to pray for grain. Sacrifice, gather and drink at the side of the god, said "do social". Nan'ao County Records" also contains:

(February) the second day, the streets of the community, door-to-door convergence of money, slaughtering animals and performances, the race when the realm of the earth God, called "spring prayers".

Spring worship of the gods, both the prayers for a bumper crop, but also the tranquility of the territory of the hope. In the lowest level of Chaoshan society, the god of the society is mostly Bogong.

Ying Daolaoji was developed from Bogong's worship in the village.

The sacrifice of the god of society in the countryside was originally only a religious ceremony, but later, as some form of social organization emerged in the process of sacrifice, the society sacrifice itself began to have other functions, a development that had already appeared in the North and South Dynasties.

Social day, the four neighbors and the combination, will be the community livestock mash, for the house under the tree, the first sacrifice to the gods, and then supper its yesterday.

It can be seen that during the Liang Dynasty, on the day of the social festival, the neighbors would contribute money to the purchase of livestock and wine offerings, first sacrificed to the gods of the earth, and then gathered together for a meal. In addition to paying tribute to the gods, the social festival also served the purpose of enhancing the unity of the neighbors and strengthening the governance of the countryside. Thus, with the development of history, in the process of integration and expansion of the community, there arose a mix of social worship and temple worship, i.e., in an enlarged community, a certain temple assumed the function of a social altar. A particular deity enshrined in this temple became the god of the community, which the Chaoshan people called "the Great Master".

There are many names of the Grand Masters in Chaoshan. Among them, there are the gods that entered the imperial court regulations, such as Chenghuang, Guan, Mazu, etc.; there are Buddhist and Taoist gods, such as Nangji Daidi, Xuantian God, Lv Zu, etc.; and there are more miscellaneous deities created by the people, such as the King of the Three Hills, the Holy King of the Anjis, the Holy Worker of the Shuangzhongs, the Master of the Rain Immortal, the Master of the Narcissus, the Master of the Dragon's Tail, the Mother of Pearls, and so on. In a relatively independent community, the various lords were organized in a hierarchical system according to the size of their worship areas. In the countryside, each community has its own uncle, and the whole village has its own grand master; in some places, several neighboring villages are closely related for administrative or economic reasons, and there are also several villages that have their own grand masters. In the town, the streets and lanes each have a worship of the Bogong, the neighborhoods have *** rituals of the Grand Master, and on top of that, there is the whole town *** rituals of the Grand Master. These Bogong, the old man's sacrifice, but also retained the ancient gods on the spring prayers of the legacy of the time concentrated in the beginning of the lunar calendar, so the Chaoshan has a "camp God is, February" of the proverb?

Ying Shen's ying is a Shantou dialect word, in this phrase, it retains the ancient meaning of back around ("Han Shu Yan Note") and boundary ("Wen Xuan Xue Note"). The reason for calling the sacrifice to the gods "Ying Daolaoji" is that the process of the sacrifice involves the ritual of the earth god traveling around the land and settling the territory. According to the common saying of the Chaoshan people, there are two kinds of "ying lao zhi", namely, the civil ying and the military ying. In the most grass-roots community, the practice of Wenying is after the sacrificial ceremony. After the ceremony, the master is invited to a palanquin, carried by selected soldiers and led by ceremonial drums and music, to patrol every alley in the community, and then parade around the boundary of the community to return to the God's factory. The practice of wuying is generally only practiced in rural communities. After the ritual, the idol is tied tightly to the palanquin with a red cloth and prepared for a sprint. The camping of the god begins, and bonfires are lit at the head of each alley. The strong men lift up the statue of the god, run to the bonfire, lift the seat of the god to their heads, jump over the fire, and run through the alleys. After running through the alleys of the village, they ran out of the field and carried the lord to the village boundary and returned to the god factory. The Chaoshan people call this practice "walking the lord" - the Chaoshan word for "walking" means "running", which is also a dialect word that retains its ancient meaning. Whether it is a civil or a military camp, its original meaning is to purify the earth and drive away evil spirits. However, this religious ceremony actually serves the function of rectifying community order and strengthening community governance for each community.

On the days of the great lords of the battalion, a play is performed to honor the gods. The ceremonial procession for the Grand Master's tour consists of flags, colorful scenery, lions, songs and dances, big gongs and drums, and a tide band, each of which is not fixed. Although the size of the ceremonial procession may vary greatly due to the specific conditions of the community, they all fully demonstrate the nature of the ornamental and recreational activities. Thus, the Square Township of this earth God's sacrifice, no doubt become a community festival

In the first month of visiting friends and relatives, I heard that the fourth day of the first month is a good day, there are several children have been fifteen years of age in the family have chosen this day to give the child "out of the garden". I am a poor family child, fifteen years old that year my parents did not give me out of a garden to play, and did not teach me what is called "out of the garden", just whenever passing through the ancient city of Xima Road always feel every day in the festival like, because this long and narrow street I do not know when it became a wedding supplies, "out of the garden! "with the goods of the specialty street. Red through a street, what time through are a red, bright, bright, look at the heart also feel bright, really interesting. Until now there is what do not understand the thing can be on a net ferry ferry, I just understand this "out of the garden" was our Chaoshan earth people to their own children to do a rite of passage.

Rumor has it that "out of the garden"

In the old days, Teochew folklore, children (some places are limited to boys) full of fifteen years old, to be held "out of the garden" ceremony to worship the gods of the in-laws, said goodbye to childhood has been adult.

Due to the vastness of our country, there is a difference between cold and warmth, and is a multi-ethnic country, customs are very different, depending on the age of adulthood is also different. Generally, the man is twenty years old (wearing a crown), the woman is fifteen years old (insert maturity) for adult. In Yunnan Province, Ningbo County, the Mosuo people are in the thirteen-year-old (wearing pants, wearing a skirt) when the rite of passage.

China's folk worship God (some places called "mother-in-law"), the south than the north, and has a long history. Song Yang Chuanji "New Year's Eve" said: "buy sugar to welcome Zaodi, drink water to worship the bed". The God of the flowers, that is, the God of the flowers, because the incense burner is placed in the sleep beside the foot of the bed, also known as the "foot of the bed," but also because only until the child is fifteen years old, so it is also known as the "fifteen-year-old God". The birth of a child's family more than to put in-laws, every year on the seventh day of the seventh month of the lunar calendar in-laws birthday, to do gifts for worship.

The tide custom for the child rituals in-laws and held "out of the garden" ceremony, there are two meanings: to the in-laws is a kind of prayer for the children's safe growth; out of the garden is a sign of the child's adulthood. The parents entrusted their children to the protection of the Flower Goddess and the Flower Mother for the sake of their children's safety, so they also called their children "Flower Boys", which is the origin of the term "out of the garden".

Out of the garden ceremony, according to "Teochew Customs" records:

In the garden on that day, to do five bowls of food (counting a duck, a bowl of crabs, a bowl of liver, a bowl of fish, a bowl of eggs and a bowl of incense and candles, silver paper food, etc., placed in the bed to worship the in-laws. The children out of the garden, to wear a new set of blue clothes and a new pair of red leather show, to worship the in-laws, worship after the family did a lot of food, which must be a special do a pig liver fried onion dishes (onion resonance Cong, said to eat to be clever. Author's note), told him or her to sit at a table facing south to eat, eat, do the mother to run to his or her side of the recitation of the secret: "Anu is sitting in the north to the south, Anu has become an adult.

However, the ceremony out of the garden in the tide of different practices around the genus. Such as the month of May, some selected in May, the goods have to three animals and fruits, dish bowl is six bowls, twelve bowls ranging, the form is not the same.

As for the prototype of the in-laws is who? The local saying is different. Chaoshan is generally believed to be the Tang Dynasty Fenyang County Lord Guo Yu Yi (with nine brothers and eight sons and eight daughters) and his wife. For example, in the west wing of the front yard of the Temple of the City God in Rao Ping County, there are a group of children, including the Flower Lady and the Flower Lady, who are rumored to be Mr. and Mrs. Kuo.

According to the "full image of China's three hundred gods? Bed God", according to the "full image of China's three hundred gods", the in-laws are the couple of Zhou Wenwang. In Beijing, Chaoyangmen outside the main courtyard of the Dongyue Temple in the West Hall (Guangshi Hall), the worship of the nine heavenly supervisors of life Mingsu Zhenjun and nine heavenly Weifang Shengmu Yuanjun that is. The male and female archetypes of the king and wife said, is to take their more than, also from the "Feudal Deities" 14 contained, said Ji Chang had 99 sons, and then adopted Lei Zhenzi in Yanshan, make up the number of a hundred sons. But the time of the book "Fengshen", it can be seen that this is from the Ming Dynasty

These are two of the more extensive and grand Teochew festival customs I hope to help you

This is the first time that I've seen the "Fengshen" book, and I've seen the "Fengshen" book.