Help me introduce the story about Kitchen God.

Brief introduction of Kitchen God: Zuo Zongshen

Kitchen God, also known as Kitchen King, Kitchen King, Kitchen God, Chef and Chef in the East, is the god of catering in ancient Chinese myths and legends. After the Jin Dynasty, it was listed as a god who supervised the good and evil on earth. With the development of social production, since humans broke away from eating animals and drinking blood and invented fire food, stoves have gradually become closely related to human life. The worship of Kitchen God has become an important part of many worship activities. Therefore, in the Book of Rites Sacrifice Law, "Wang made seven sacrifices", that is, one sacrifice was a "stove", while Shu Ren made a sacrifice, "or set up a household or a stove".

In ancient China, there were activities of offering sacrifices to the Kitchen God. After Wei and Jin Dynasties, Kitchen God had a name. Sui Du Taiqing's Collection of Jade Candles quoted the Kitchen Book as saying, "Kitchen God, surnamed Su, has a lucky name, but her female name is unfortunate". [Edit this paragraph] The full name of the mythical kitchen god is "the kitchen god who commands the nine spirits of the East Kitchen", commonly known as "the kitchen king", or "the chef king", "the king of Paul", "the smoker who has been cooking in the East Kitchen for nine days", "the house god" or "the kitchen king". In the north, he is known as the "Kitchen God" and Luan Men is honored as the three benefactors. The origin of the Kitchen God was very early, and the Shang Dynasty began to offer sacrifices among the people. Zhou Li, the son of Xu Suo, was regarded as the Kitchen God. Before Qin and Han Dynasties, it was listed as one of the five major sacrifices. This peaceful kitchen god is in charge of the family with five gods, namely, Door God, Kitchen God, Ce Shen God and Liu Zhong God, and is respected by people. Besides being responsible for people's diet and giving them convenience in life, the Kitchen God is also an official sent by the Jade Emperor to inspect a family of good and evil. Kitchen God accompanied the two gods, holding a "good jar" and a "bad jar", recording the family's behavior in the jar at any time, and then reporting it to the Jade Emperor God after the end of the year. 1February 24th is the day when Kitchen God passed away and God told the Jade Emperor's family what they had done in the past year, so every household should "send Kitchen God". There are also different classes in the period of offering thanks to cooking stoves. As for when to thank the stove, there are so-called "three officials", "four people" and "Deng" among the people. "Officials" refer to officials, gentry and powerful people who are used to giving thanks by cooking stoves on 23rd. "Min" refers to ordinary people, who will give up cooking stoves on the 24th of a year. "Deng Jia" refers to people on the water, and they will be held on the 25th of a year. But most people will choose 23-year-old Xie Zao, hoping that it will be more expensive and take its meaning. Generally, some sweet and sticky things, such as honeydew melon, glutinous rice balls, maltose and pig blood cake, are used as gifts for Kitchen God. In short, the purpose of using these sticky and sweet things is to shut the kitchen god up and let him say good things after he returns to heaven. The so-called "eat well and speak well" and "pass on the good things to the sky and put the bad things aside". In addition, sticking to the mouth of Kitchen God makes it difficult for him to speak ill. Some people use distiller's grains to paint the kitchen god, which is called "the meaning of drunkenness is not wine", which means to make the kitchen god drunk and make him dizzy, so as not to make a few small reports. Therefore, the kitchen god symbolizes the meaning of praying for good luck and avoiding disaster. When offering sacrifices to Zhao Jun, offering offerings, burning incense and worshipping, and then drinking wine for the first time. At this time, you should sincerely pray to Zao Jun, and then enter the wine for the second time. After drinking for the third time, the old statue of Zao Jun was torn off and burned with armor, war horse and money, which meant to send Zao Jun to heaven and the ceremony was successfully completed. Burning a horse with paper paste is to make a mount for the kitchen god. You should prepare some soybeans and hay as dry food and forage for the kitchen god and the horse to travel long distances. In addition, I have to burn incense and kowtow, grab a few handfuls of straw ash in the stove pit, spread it on the ground in front of the stove, and mumble, "Heaven is kind, and you can go back to the palace safely." The purpose is to pray for the Kitchen God to report all kinds of good things to the Jade Emperor God in one year, and not to speak ill of them. After seeing off the gods, don't forget to bring them back on the fourth day of the first month (New Year's Eve). This is called "taking care of the kitchen" or "taking care of the gods". The ceremony of picking up the kitchen god is very simple. Just stick a new god on the kitchen stove. [Edit this paragraph] Kitchen God image

Is the Kitchen God a man or a woman? In ancient times, there were different opinions. Confucian classics generally regard Kitchen God as an old woman or a beautiful woman. Tang Lixian quoted the Miscellaneous Five Elements Book and also said that "the kitchen god is Zen, the word Guo, dressed in yellow clothes, wearing hair, and going out to the kitchen." About the Qing Dynasty's "Jing Zao Quan Shu", it is said that the chef's surname is Zhang, the name list and the word Guo, and he is a male god. At present, the East Chef, who is worshipped by the people, ordered Fu Zaojun to sit side by side with an old couple or a man and two women, that is, the portrait of Zao Jun and his wife. Nowadays, the paper horse regarded by the people as the commander and director of the East Kitchen is often a portrait of an old couple sitting side by side, that is, Mr. Kitchen and his wife. It seems that the Chinese people are afraid of the loneliness of the male kitchen god, and they have another grandmother of the kitchen king to worship, which fully embodies the spirit of "people-oriented". [Edit this paragraph] The history of believing in Kitchen God China is a country with many gods. Among the many gods that people believed in ancient China, Kitchen God had the highest position among the people. There is a folk proverb "three sacrifices to the stove, four sweeps the house ...", which means offering sacrifices to the stove god on the 23rd of the twelfth lunar month. Kitchen God, commonly known as Kitchen God, Kitchen God and Kitchen God, is a kind of deity worship developed from primitive fire worship. Primitive people learned to use fire in the long-term struggle with nature and became one of the natural worship of primitive people. In the life of primitive clans living in groups, the fire that never goes out is their stove, so in primitive people, Vulcan and Kitchen God are the same. However, since the kitchen god came into being, his duty has nothing to do with fire or kitchen fire. He is the supervisor sent by the Emperor of Heaven to various families and the head of the family. He is responsible for supervising the merits and demerits of a family and reporting to the Heaven regularly, thus gaining the admiration of ordinary people.

As early as the Spring and Autumn Period, there was a saying that "flattering the Olympics is better than a stove". When Confucius explained to his disciples why people were "attracted by the stove", he pointed out: "Otherwise, they will be condemned by heaven and have nothing to pray for." (See the Analects of Confucius, Eight-legged essay) That is to say, if you don't please Kitchen God, he will tell God your evil deeds. Because people can't communicate with the gods, the gods can only let the kitchen gods talk nonsense, and mortals "have nothing to pray for." God will punish you for what the Kitchen God tells you. Ge Hong's Bao Puzi Wei Zhi said: "On a moonlit night, Kitchen God also accused the white man of being guilty. Great grasp of discipline. Ji Zhe, three hundred days. The small one counts. Counting, one hundred days. " In other words, whoever offends the Kitchen God will live 300 days less seriously and live less 100 days slightly. Imagine that it is really terrible to lose hundreds of days of life for no reason.

The early Kitchen God originated from people's natural worship of fire. Before the Qin Dynasty, the sacrificial furnace had become one of the "Seven Sacrifices" in the national sacrificial ceremony. In the Han dynasty, the kitchen stove was listed as one of the "five sacrifices" of doctors, and the kitchen god was also personified and given new functions. The Taiping Magnolia Volume 186 quoted Huainan Wanbi Book as saying: "The kitchen god died in darkness, and the man in white was guilty." Zheng Xuan's annotation "The Book of Rites" also said: "(Kitchen God) lives in the world, and the inspector tells it when he is young." This shows that, at least in the Han Dynasty, Kitchen God has become a fault god who reports to Heaven and speaks ill of people.

Therefore, if people want to pray for blessings and eliminate disasters, they must be respectful to the kitchen god. For example, don't burn incense in the kitchen, don't hit the kitchen, don't put knives and axes on the kitchen, don't complain, cry, shout and sing in front of the kitchen, don't send dirty things into the kitchen to burn, and so on. Every year on the 23rd or 24th of the twelfth lunar month, when the Kitchen God wants to ascend to heaven to report the situation for one year, people will offer sacrifices to the Kitchen God, which is called offering sacrifices to the Kitchen God. Maltose and wine are essential when offering sacrifices to the kitchen stove. Wine makes the kitchen god get carried away and dizzy. Maltose is sweet and sticky. Stick it on the mouth of the kitchen god. Once the kitchen god has a sweet mouth, it is not good to speak ill, but only good words. Secondly, maltose sticks to your mouth, and you can't open your mouth if you want to speak ill. You can only say it vaguely. The common people also used the experience of "taking someone's hand short and eating someone's mouth soft" when offering sacrifices to the kitchen god. In Song Dynasty, Fan Chengda's poem "Sacrificing a Kitchen Stove" said: "In ancient times, there was a twelfth lunar month, and the owner of the kitchen talked to the sky, and there were cups and plates at home. The pig's head is cooked, the fish is fresh, and the bait with bean paste and Gan Song powder is round. When a man asks his daughter to avoid it, he drinks and burns money. I don't know what your servant is arguing about. Pigs and dogs are angry with you. I'll send you to Tianmen to get drunk and never return to Yuntou for a long time, begging for profit. " This is not a sacrifice to the stove, but a gift to the kitchen god.

In ancient times, regardless of status, the kitchen god was respectful from the palace, ministers and ordinary people. According to relevant data, on the 23rd day of the twelfth lunar month, as usual, the Qing emperor made a big sacrifice to the kitchen god in Kunning Palace, and at the same time installed the god of heaven and earth. The emperor made nine obeisances before the god to welcome the New Year and celebrate the New Year. On the day of offering sacrifices to the furnace, Kunning Palace set up a confession case, placed a sacred card, placed incense in front of the sacred card, and set up a stove and a mattress in the hall. Like the people, Zhao Jun had to seal his mouth with sticky sugar before reporting to the Heaven to prevent him from talking nonsense in front of the Jade Emperor. When offering sacrifices to the stove, the palace supervisor asked the emperor to burn incense and salute in front of the Buddha statues and kitchen gods in Kunning Palace. After the ceremony, the palace supervisor invited the queen to salute the kitchen god and other gods in turn.

The worship of Kitchen God, from the early hope of happiness to the later hope of avoiding disaster, reflects that ancient people are at a loss about their own destiny, and can only entrust all kinds of good and bad fortune they encounter to God, while the taboo of Kitchen God against complaining, saying strange things and complaining is used by rulers and becomes a tool to bind people's hearts. Nowadays, with the development and continuous progress of society, the custom of offering sacrifices to stoves has gradually faded, and it is bound to gradually leave people's lives.