The master enshrined in the Xiaowan Hall of Dawan Village is Marshal Zhao. His face is iron-black and bronze-black, with wide-open tiger eyes and clear distinction between black and white. He bared his teeth, held two whips in his hands, and stepped on a tiger. He was majestic and intimidating. According to folklore, he was upright, saved people, and was particularly good at curing sores and boils.
Marshal Zhao’s real name was Zhao Caitang. He was an official in the underworld and was responsible for local tax and grain payments. Because he is loyal to his job, strict in enforcing the law, and selfless, not only the common people are very afraid of him, but even the bureaucratic bullies are afraid of him. Every year at the end of the year, Zhao Caitang is like a fierce spirit, coming to your door to collect food and debts, and expose people as being used as a scapegoat. At that time, if a child cried loudly, an adult would just say: "Zhao Caitang is here!" and the child would stop immediately
On the 30th of the twelfth lunar month, the north wind howled and the sky was freezing. Zhao Caitang faced the heavy snow and walked through the snow to a poor mountain village to collect food funds. He walked with difficulty to a farmhouse and heard an old couple talking outside the door. The old man said: "It has been snowing continuously these days, and I can't sell the firewood I chopped. Today is the new year, and Mr. Zhao will come to our house to press for debts. What should we do?" The wife sighed and said: " There is nothing we can do, let's just leave it to fate!" Zhao Caitang opened the door and walked in. The old couple hurriedly knelt down and begged for mercy. Zhao Caitang helped them up and said, "I have heard about your situation outside the door. I know that you are lonely and helpless, so I will just pay the food payment for you." The old couple burst into tears of gratitude and hurriedly carried the stool to serve them. Tea and invite Zhao Caitang to stay at home for the night. Seeing that it was getting dark, Zhao Caitang agreed to stay.
At night, the old couple put the guests to sleep in their own beds, and they slept in front of the wok stove. The wife quietly said to the old man: "What shall we serve to entertain the guests tomorrow morning?" The old man thought for a long time before saying: "Kill that old chicken!" After that, the two of them were silent. At this time, Zhao Caitang heard the old hen in the thatched house say to the fourteen chicks: "My poor children, the master will kill me to entertain the guests tomorrow morning. Without mother, you will have to Learn to take care of each other, and remember: forage at sunrise and sleep at sunset, and you must not bully the lame brother. ' After that, the mother hen and her children hugged each other and cried loudly. The judge didn't know what happened. Zhao Caitang was the incarnation of Hui Juehui Brahma, who was in the sky. He could understand the language of various animals. This situation made him even a hard-hearted person feel compassion for him. When the old master slaughtered the chicken with a knife in the morning, he tried his best to stop it and lied: "Old man, you don't know, I don't eat meat, I only eat three kinds of vegetables."
When the old man heard that Mr. Zhao didn’t eat chicken, he took a hoe and went to look for wild vegetables in the ice and snow. But there was no green in the snow. After searching for a long time, he found two bamboo shoots in a bamboo forest. He happily took them home and asked the old woman to make fragrant dry-fried shredded bamboo shoots for the guests. He respectfully I respectfully invite Zhao Caitang to eat. As soon as Zhao Caitang stretched out his chopsticks to pick up the vegetables, he heard a "clucking" sound. The old hen flapped its wings and flew up to the table, pulling down a pot of dry-fried bamboo shoots and falling to the ground. The old hen was like a hungry wolf fighting for food, and she pecked at it hurriedly. Pecking, pecking, suddenly the cock's comb turned black, foaming at the mouth, and it fell to the ground dead.
Zhao Caitang saw something fishy, ??so he asked the old man to interrogate him: Where did you dig these bamboo shoots? Take me to see them. "Lao Xin was so frightened when he saw this scene. He took Zhao Caitang to the place where he was digging bamboo shoots in fear. Look, ah! He saw two poisonous snakes coiled around the place where he was digging bamboo shoots, and hot poisonous gas was coming out. . Zhao Caitang didn’t say anything, but he knew in his heart: “This is God’s will, the cycle of cause and effect. Because I saved the hen, it repaid the favor and saved my life. " He was full of emotions. From this point of view, it is better to do good deeds and accumulate virtue. Why did he have to do so many unjust things in order to complete the task of collecting food and paying taxes?
Zhao Caitang said goodbye to the old man. , arrived at the ferry, ready to catch the first ferry home. He had just stepped on the board with his front foot, but before his back foot could catch up, he moved his front foot back. Why? Because he heard a bird chirping: “It’s difficult to transition from pretending to eat the three sense organs.
" He knew clearly that the bird was talking about him, because in the morning, in order to stop the old man from killing the chicken, he had pretended to eat Sanguansu, but how did the bird know? Mo=-. He suddenly understood that this bird was The incarnation of the old hen. Just when he was wondering why the old hen wouldn't let him make the transition, a strong wind suddenly blew up and huge waves swept the ferry boat into the rough waves. He was the only one standing on the shore. .
The shocking facts strengthened Zhao Caitang's determination to abandon evil and do good. Instead of going home, he went to the opposite place, and he wanted to become a monk in the mountains behind.
But he said that there was an enlightened monk on the mountain behind, and he planned to come to his temple to become a monk today, so he ordered all the monks in the temple to prepare their own dry food for three days, and then just wait for Zhao Caitang to arrive. When Zhao Caitang came to be his disciple, he said: "There is a rule in our temple. Anyone who accepts a disciple must fast for three days in the entire temple. New disciples must go hungry. One person must carry water and chop firewood for hundreds of people in the temple." , work for three days, and wait until everyone has cooked the food for the fourth morning. Then we can eat together and officially become apprentices. "Zhao Caitang agreed wholeheartedly, without saying a word, and started working seriously.
At dawn on the fourth day, following the master's instructions, Zhao Caitang endured three days of hunger and fatigue, walking in the dark He went to a nunnery far away to pray for fire and came back to cook. He staggered forward and suddenly saw a pair of big green eyes in the forest in front of him. When he took a closer look, it turned out to be a large white-fronted insect squatting. On the way, the big insect shook its body at him, waved its claws, and curled its tongue. It seemed that it was already impatient and wanted to swallow him up immediately. But instead of being afraid, Zhao Caitang stepped forward to meet him. As he walked, he said to the big insect: "Please don't eat me now, because I have to make breakfast for hundreds of people in the whole temple." They have been hungry for three days like me. If you eat me now, they will starve to death too. Why don't you let me go first and wait until I prepare breakfast for them? It won't be too late to come back and give myself to you. "It is strange to say and to say that the tiger seems to understand human nature. Although the tiger looked at it for a long time, it still made way for Zhao Caitang to walk towards the nunnery.
But it is said that Zhao Caitang left the nunnery from After begging for fire, he returned to the temple and cooked a meal. Sure enough, he returned to the road where the big insect was squatting. He weakly said to the big insect: "Now, you can eat me." "However, the big insect didn't seem to be in a hurry now. Instead, he walked leisurely. At this time, Zhao Caitang was already dying. He used his last strength to say: "Please eat me. Anyway, I have returned. If you don't go, I'd better feed you instead of dying in the wilderness... After saying that, I passed out.
When Zhao Caitang woke up, he found that he had been carried to Nantianmen by a tiger, and a ferocious monster appeared in front of him. The monster took out three packets of poison and said to Zhao Caitang: "Put these three packets of poison into a folk well. I will let you live." Zhao Caitang thought, "How can I, Zhao Caitang, be greedy for life and afraid of death?" ?How could you do such an evil thing?" He took the poison and swallowed it without hesitation. After a while, the poison took effect, Zhao Caitang's face turned black and he died.
It turns out that the tiger was transformed by the Taoist monk, and the monster was the incarnation of the Jade Emperor. In order to test Zhao Caitang's determination to do good, they designed these plans. Seeing that Zhao Caitang's heart to do good is as solid as a rock. , the Jade Emperor appointed Zhao Caitang as "Marshal Zhao of Zhengyixuantan", who went to the mortal world to sit in the palace and specially treated sores and boils for the people.
As for how Marshal Zhao later took the elixir for Zhang Tianshi to guard the Xuan Altar, he could change endlessly, and later became the first Chinese folk god of wealth in "The Romance of the Gods", that is a story for another day.