Actually, Zhong Kui is not a person's name, but a fungus's name. Li Shizhen's Compendium of Materia Medica, Servicemen and Zhong Kui in the Ming Dynasty: "Er Ya said:' Zhong Kui, the name of bacteria. "Test Gong Ji" Note: "Zhong Kui, shiina also." Bacteria are in the shape of vertebrae, and vertebrae are in the shape of bacteria, so they are called the same. It's common to draw a god holding a vertebra to hit a ghost, so it's also called Zhong Kui. Because of Zhong Kui's biography, someone said that he was not the top scholar and would talk about ghosts. It became a story, but I don't know its truth. "Zhong Kui originated in Zhong Kui, which is the name of a plant and belongs to a fungus. The spine is a tool for beating utensils and can be used as a weapon. So someone borrowed its homonym and invented a Zhong Kui with a sunflower in his hand. Because the story is about catching evil spirits, it conforms to people's psychology, so it is popular. In this way, the fungus sunflower becomes; The name of a plant became the name of a ghost-hunting hero after Zhong Kui caught ghosts.
It used to be New Year's Eve when Han people hung pictures of Zhong Kui. However, nowadays, they paint Zhong Kui on the Dragon Boat Festival, or give it to others, or hang it themselves. This change originated in the 22nd year of Qianlong (1757), when many people died because of the plague. In desperation, Zhong Kui had to be invited out to catch ghosts by force, and it became a custom year after year.
Over the years, Zhong Kui, the exorcist, has been enduring for a long time. Mr. Qi Gong's "Zhong Kui Riding a Donkey" is humorous and full of sense of the times. Fang Cheng, a cartoonist, painted a portrait of Zhong Kui: Zhong Kui slept on the ground with his boots and hats neat, his hands sleeved in his robe and a stone as a pillow, and wrote a five-character poem: "Wake up in the morning in spring, and snore scares the birds. There are too many ghosts on earth, and Zhong Kui is exhausted. " This fable is extremely profound. Xu Zhou, a young Beijing painter, painted a picture album of Zhong Kui, and Monta gave me one. Zhong Kui in the photo album is very vivid, and has been repeatedly chanted by many founding fathers-"This is indispensable". It seems that modern people need Zhong Kui more.
According to the story "Zhong Kui Marries a Sister", he was a poor scholar in the Tang Dynasty. He read a lot of poems and books since he was a child, and his talent was outstanding. However, he is extremely ugly and does not have the charming and elegant temperament of a scholar. It is because of this ugly appearance that he was discriminated against in the imperial examination room.
Zhong Kui with extraordinary talent, all the way through, the palace exam. However, the Emperor of the Tang Dynasty could not tolerate Zhong Kui's ugliness. With a stroke of his pen, he jokingly cancelled his admission. Ten years of hard study at a cold window vanished in an instant. Zhong Kui, with a strong character, chose death. ...
The earliest version of this story can be found in Shen Kuo's Supplement to the Story of Meng Xi in the Song Dynasty, which is slightly different from today's story.
Shortly after the unjust case in the examination room, Tang was seriously ill, and he was always harassed by imps in his dreams and couldn't sleep well. Late one night, he dreamed that a child sneaked into the palace, stole his beloved musical instrument and screamed in the palace. Just when he was upset, Tang suddenly saw a blue figure falling from the sky. Grab the child, tear it open and swallow it. Don woke up and the strange disease was cured. Recall that the man in blue in the dream is the ugly scholar Zhong Kui. So I asked the painter to draw a statue of Zhong Kui and hang it inside and outside the palace to ward off evil spirits and keep peace. From then on, Zhong Kui was famous for catching ghosts.
Since the Northern Song Dynasty, almost all Zhong Kui stories are similar to this. So how true is this story that has been circulating for nearly a thousand years? Let's start with Zhong Kui.
We looked up the historical documents of the Tang Dynasty, but we couldn't find the name Zhong Kui in all the official documents of the Tang Dynasty. There is no word-for-word record of similar injustice in the examination room.
There are many anecdotes about Li Longji, the emperor of the Tang Dynasty. However, there is no story that Zhong Kui appeared in his dream to treat Tang Huangming. More importantly, examining the development history of the imperial examination system, it is impossible for the Tang Dynasty to preside over the imperial examination. Because the imperial examination system was founded by Song Taizu and Zhao Kuangyin more than one hundred years later.
In this way, the story of Zhong Kui and his becoming a god after his death was probably invented after the Song Dynasty. But there is at least one truth in this story, that is, in the era of Emperor Tang Ming, Zhong Kui was already a famous ghost catcher.
There is such a poem in "The Whole Tang Poetry", which is called "Thanks for Zhong Xiang and Calendar". The author is a prime minister of the Tang Dynasty, whose name is Zhang Yue. In the poem, I thank the emperor for giving me the Zhong Kui statue and calendar. Later great poet Liu Yuxi also wrote similar poems. From these Tang poems, we can easily see that Zhong Kui, as a god, was already very famous in the Tang Dynasty, and hanging the statue of Zhong Kui became a popular custom in the upper class.
However, there is no explanation of Zhong Kui's life experience and how he stepped onto the altar.
This may be the reason why people invented the story of Zhong Kui becoming a god after the Song Dynasty: Zhong Kui in the Song Dynasty was as famous as the Tang Dynasty, but people could not explain his origin. Judging from the poems handed down and the portraits of Zhong Kui, this custom appeared as early as the Tang and Ming Dynasties. So people introduced the legendary Tang Huangming, and made up stories about Zhong Kui's scholar status and his appearance after his death to explain the origin of Zhong Kui.
So what is the statue of Zhong Kui that Emperor Tang Ming gave to the minister? Why did the Song Dynasty use this as a basis to judge Zhong Kui's identity as a scholar? Can you find out the real origin of Zhong Kui from that idol?
According to records, Wu Daozi, a painter in the Tang Dynasty, was the first master who was good at Zhong Kui's painting. Although the Zhong Kui he painted has been lost, some people have seen it in the imperial palace of the Northern Song Dynasty. Guo, a connoisseur of the Northern Song Dynasty, described in detail the original statue of Zhong Kui he saw in Wu Daozi. Guo wrote in "Recent Events, Volume 6": "In the past, Wu Daozi painted Zhong Kui, dressed in a blue coat, with leather armor, eyes and waist. He catches ghosts with his left hand and distinguishes ghost eyes with his right. The handwriting is thick and the painting is excellent. "
The blue word "blue shirt" is synonymous with "in rags", which means in rags, that is, in rags. "Waist water" means that there is water on the belt, which is a wooden ritual vessel held by the minister when he goes to court. "shawl and hair" is an instrument to describe his Confucian identity and poverty. Judging from the description of Zhong Kui's paintings by Guo, an appraiser of calligraphy and painting in the Northern Song Dynasty, Zhong Kui is indeed an ugly scholar who was born in poverty.
This is the earliest existing portrait of Zhong Kui, and it is the work of Shi Ke, a figure painter of the Five Dynasties. Zhong Kui's image comes down in one continuous line, and he has always been a poor scholar.
It seems that from the early portraits, there is still no clue to the real origin of Zhong Kui.
Perhaps we have overlooked an important aspect, that is, the image of Zhong Kui in the Han civil society.
If you want to know the real origin of Zhong Kui, you should turn your attention to the Han people. However, in the historical documents of the Tang Dynasty, there is no record of the image of Zhong Kui among the Han people.
1900, Dunhuang. A Taoist priest of Wang Xing came across a reference to Zhong Kui in a scripture written in the Tang Dynasty. The title of the article is Exorcism in Zhong Kui on New Year's Eve. At a ceremony called Nuo, Zhong Kui wore leopard skin with silver forehead and steel head, and his whole body was dyed with vermilion. Lead a hundred thousand jungle monsters and catch wandering ghosts everywhere.
It seems that there is another kind of Zhong Kui among the Han people in the Tang Dynasty, which is quite different from the popular scholar image in the upper class. What kind of ceremony is Nuo, and what role does Zhong Kui play in it? Is his birth closely related to this ceremony?
You can see the records about Nuo when you open the Book of the New Tang Dynasty. The Book of Rites of the New Tang Dynasty records in detail the Nuo ceremonies held in the palace. According to the Book of Rites, although the names of ceremonies are all Nuo, there are obvious differences between Nuo in the palace and exorcism in Dunhuang and Zhong Kui. First of all, the scale is different. Secondly, Fang is the leader of Nuo dance in national ceremonies, not Zhong Kui in Dunhuang exorcism.
Why are the same Nuo in the Tang Dynasty so different? This is because in the Tang Dynasty, there were indeed two kinds of Nuo; One is officially hosted by Gong Nuo, and the other is popular among Han people called Xiang Nuo.
This difference existed not only in the Tang Dynasty, but also in the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period.
The Exorcism Map of Zhong Kui unearthed in Dunhuang is the earliest document that records Zhong Kui's appearance in Nuo ceremonies. From the description of some customs and poems after the Tang Dynasty, Zhong Kui can only be seen in rural Nuo.
Fortunately, we can still see this ancient rural furniture ceremony. Shidongkou Village, Pingxiang City, Jiangxi Province is famous for its Nuo dance. The villagers believe that their ancestors were Zhongyuan people who moved here in the Tang Dynasty. Nuo dance was brought from the Central Plains at that time and passed down from generation to generation today.
The most active role in Nuo dance is Zhong Kui. Because of his frequent appearances and absolute leading role, people sometimes refer to Nuo dance as Zhong Kui. Slightly different from the Nuo ceremony in the Tang Dynasty, Zhong Kui here is no longer dressed in leopard skin, but dressed as a deputy governor, and his 100,000 jungle monsters are also simplified to four deputy governors. But his role in the ceremony has not changed. He is still catching ghosts.
After the ceremony began, the Nuo dancers immediately adopted this footwork. And this footwork exposed Zhong Kui's true identity. This gait has a resounding name, Yubu, which is Dayu's gait.
One thousand seven hundred years ago, Ge Hong, a Taoist scholar in Jin Dynasty, recorded this kind of footwork in Bao Puzi. Legend has it that Dayu was injured in both legs when he was managing water, so he could only walk with broken steps. However, people are grateful for his good deeds in water control, which are not regarded as defects, but as sacred evidence because they are different.
Then the origin of Zhong Kui's adoption of this footwork can be inferred as follows: Dayu lived in a clan society, and clan leaders often served as wizards. Therefore, the sacrificial ceremony he presided over was unique because of this special footwork. Later wizards followed this footwork and called it Yubu, not only to commemorate Dayu, but also to increase the mystery of the ceremony.
Does this speculation make sense? At least one thing is certain, that is, Zhong Kui Nuo dance is an ancient witchcraft activity, and it really originated very early, even before the legendary Dayu era, which can be traced back to the Neolithic Age. Judging from the patterns on early rock paintings, stone carvings and pottery, as early as the birth of civilization, there was a ritual of offering sacrifices to gods with witchcraft, which was probably accompanied by Nuo dance. The investigation of Zhong Kui's mask may provide us with some help. Mask is an indispensable prop in Zhong Kui Nuo dance popular among ethnic groups, and it also plays an important role in early Nuo ceremonies.
The importance of masks in Nuo dance ceremonies can still be seen today. After the ceremony, people put the masks back in place and burned incense to worship. As usual, the host of the ceremony will have a lyric to express his gratitude and praise. People are full of respect for these wooden masks as always.
Because the masks of dancing Zhong Kui are similar in ceremony to those of Shang and Zhou Dynasties, there is a hypothesis about the origin of Zhong Kui: as early as Shang and Zhou Dynasties, Zhong Kui appeared. Zhong Kui's name probably comes from a famous wizard at that time.
Some scholars have verified that there was a legend about the famous wizard Zhong You in the Shang Dynasty, that is, three or four thousand years ago. His best spell is asking for rain, and every time he comes forward to preside over the ceremony of asking for rain, it is the most effective, so people use his name to refer to the position of wizard. However, Zhong You and Zhong You have similar pronunciations, and were mistakenly recorded as Zhong You in the process of circulation. This is the first statement about the origin of Zhong Kui.
But Pingxiang people have a completely different view. They say that Zhong Kui is a big club for washing clothes. Beating clothes with peach sticks to clean up filth is really related to Zhong Kui's evil spirits.
In the brick paintings of the Han Dynasty, we can really see many warriors waving sticks. This is a big stick in the murals of the Western Han Tomb in Luoyang. But why is the stick called Zhong Kui instead of a stick?
Three hundred years ago, Gu, a great scholar in the late Ming and early Qing Dynasties, made an interesting textual research on the pronunciation of Chinese characters. Gu believes that in exegetics, the pronunciation of the word "Zhong Kui" is reversed, that is, the initials of the bell are spelled with the finals of the item-called "chasing". The so-called vertebra means big stick in ancient Chinese.
In addition, Zhong Kui's word "Zhong Kui" is an ancient surname, which is rare now. The origin of this surname is also closely related to the stick. According to historical records, there are seven families of Yin adherents, namely, Tao, Shi, Fan, Shu, Hunger and Zhong Kui. Their surnames come from their specialty-making pottery by Dow. Fan Shi makes fences, while the Zhong Kui family specializes in making wooden sticks and mallets.
From this point of view, we can infer that a long time ago, the host of the Nuo dance ceremony was a wizard with a big stick. The big stick in his hand is called Zhong Kui, also called Vertebra. Wizards frequently use Zhong Kui as a ghost to exorcise evil spirits. Over time, people thought that the stick had magical power, and then thought that the name Zhong Kui also implied good luck, and even took the word Zhong Kui as the name. For example, during the Northern and Southern Dynasties, some names included the word Zhong Kui, such as Joe Zhong Kui, which meant good luck and exorcism. By the Tang Dynasty, people had long forgotten Zhong Kui's original identity as a club body and mistook him for an ancient ghost killer named Zhong Kui. The custom of hanging the statue of Zhong Kui, which is popular in the upper class, adds fuel to the fire, and Zhong Kui's fame is increasing day by day.
In the Song Dynasty, people couldn't verify the origin of this great god in the Tang Dynasty, so they invented his scholar status and tragic experience of unjust death, and interpreted a period of gratitude and resentment between Tang and Zhong Kui. In this way, a big wooden stick became a man, stepped onto the altar and became a respected god. Such a blundering experience can be regarded as a great spectacle in the history of ancient god-making. Zhong Kui is the most common role in the folk beliefs of the Han nationality in China. Sticking the door is a door god to ward off evil spirits, and hanging nave is a charm to ward off evil spirits. It appears in Nuo ceremonies as a warrior who unifies ghosts and gods and slays demons, from which various Zhong Kui plays and Zhong Kui pictures are derived. Even in Compendium of Materia Medica, Zhong Kui's "secret recipe" for dystocia and malaria was included. According to China's "Folklore" magazine, in the 1990s, some people even asked wizards to hold the so-called "Town Zhong Kui" ceremony to catch ghosts and exorcise demons and keep their homes safe (Shi Hanru and Yang's "Town Zhong Kui").
For ordinary people, stories such as "Zhong Kui playing ghosts" are almost household names. Zhong Kui's belief has a profound and extensive influence on the Han people. But this is only one aspect of the problem. On the other hand, I'm afraid that Zhong Kui, a fairies, can't be explained clearly by ordinary people. In fact, this issue has been debated by many scholars since the Tang Dynasty. In recent years, with the rise of folk culture, issues such as the origin and evolution of Zhong Kui's beliefs have been raised, and many scholars have expressed their own views and different opinions. So far, there is no conclusion.
At present, the earliest known record about Zhong Kui is the History of Tang Yi written by Tang Dynasty: During the Kaiyuan period (765,438+03-7465,438+0), a kid in Xuanzong of Tang Dynasty dreamed of stealing embroidered sachets from the Jade Emperor and Yang Guifei. Xuanzong was furious and was about to send warriors to exorcise ghosts when he saw a GREAT GHOST running into the temple. This ghost is covered in hair and looks terrible. He wore a horn belt on his head, a blue robe, a leather coat on his feet, and bare arms. When he reached out his hand, he grabbed the child, gouged out his eyes and swallowed it. Xuanzong is very scary. who is it? GREAT GHOST saluted Xuanzong, claiming to be Zhong Kui of Zhong Nanshan. During the reign of Emperor Gaozu Wude, he died because he went to Chang 'an to touch the steps in front of the temple and was ashamed to return home. Fortunately, Gaozu gave him a green robe to be buried with him. He was deeply touched and vowed to rid the Tang Dynasty of evil spirits. After Tang Xuanzong woke up, his illness soon recovered. Xuanzong ordered painter Wu Daozi to paint a portrait of Zhong Kui according to what he saw in his dream. As shown in the picture, Xuanzong approved in the painting: "The coffin should be a dream, and the disease should be completely paralyzed. Martyrs should be rewarded for exorcism; Because the pictures are different, it means that the company can be driven away at the end of the year, so it is appropriate to get to know it again, which can ward off evil spirits and is conducive to evil spirits. Still tell the world, I will inform the Committee. " On the orders of our company, we engraved Wu Daozi's "Zhong Kui Gui Tu", which was widely awarded to the world and let the world know the great power of Zhong Kui.
Zhao Lu was a scholar in Huichang, Tang Wuzong for three years (843). It has been over 100 years since the Kaiyuan era, so what he said may not be true. However, it is a practice since the Tang Dynasty that the emperor gave the portrait of Zhong Kui to the minister as a New Year gift. For example, Zhang Shuo, a celebrity in the early years of Kaiyuan, and Liu Yuxi later, Xie Cizhong's portraits, calendars and other works were handed down from generation to generation. In addition, people also found the Exorcism of Zhong Kui New Year's Eve written in the Dunhuang suicide note, which is the evidence that Zhong Kui played a leading role in exorcism. All this shows that Zhong Kui belief has become the fashion of the whole society since the prosperous Tang Dynasty at the latest. So some people estimate that the origin of Zhong Kui's story may be earlier than that of the Tang Dynasty.
In the heat flow of folk beliefs in Zhong Kui, Shen Kuo in the Northern Song Dynasty first questioned the story that Zhong Kui dreamed of Xuanzong in the Tang Dynasty: during the Huang Dynasty (1049- 1054), an ancient tomb was found in Shangyuan County, Jinling, which was the tomb of Mrs. Zheng, the mother of Zongxi, a general in the Southern Song Dynasty. According to the inscription, Zongxi exists. In addition, there will be Li Zhong Kui in the later Wei Dynasty, Joe Zhong Kui and Yang Zhong Kui in the Sui Dynasty. Because I know that "the name of Zhong Kui has never been far away, and Kaiyuan has never started" (Volume 3 of Meng Qian Bu Bi Tan). In Ming Dynasty, Lang Ying, Hu Yinglin and others followed his theory, but their conclusions were different. Lang Ying believes that Zhong Kui's prototype is Yao Xuan, a Northern Dynasty man. His real name is Zhong Kui, and the word "ugly" is a myth. Because of his expression of "evil spirits", the story of catching ghosts was attached to later talents. Hu Yinglin pointed out that the legend of Zhong Kui catching ghosts was "built before the Six Dynasties", so Yao Xuan named Zhong Kui to ward off evil spirits. There were many people named Zhong Kui in the Northern and Southern Dynasties, which may be based on this.
Yang Shen in the Ming Dynasty and Gu and Zhao Yi in the Qing Dynasty believed that the so-called Zhong Kui evolved from "Zhong Kui" according to the data in Li Zhoukao. In the dialect, there are some sayings such as "three feet long, Zhong Kui is the first" and "Qi people call the vertebra Zhong Kui". "Zhong Kui" is a sharp weapon-vertebra, and "Da Gui" is a sacrificial ceremony for ancient emperors. The upper end is shaped like a vertebra, so the cloud "Da Gui and Zhong Kui are the first". Qi people speak slowly, dragging the pronunciation of "vertebra" into two syllables, and it becomes "Zhong Kui". The ancients regarded the spine as a sharp weapon for fighting, so the Biography of Ma Rong in the Later Han Dynasty described it as "the axe of Zhong Kui". "Cover the ancients to chase ghosts with vertebrae, and listen if they are surprised" (Rizhilu, Volume 32). In the Northern and Southern Dynasties, many people named Zhong Kui or Zhong Kui in the hope that all ghosts would be intimidated like Zhong Kui. Zhong Kui was a weapon used by the ancients to stab ghosts, which eventually became a personalized "Zhong Kui" in the Tang Dynasty. In recent years, with a large number of documents unearthed in Qin and Han dynasties, it is popular to kill ghosts with vertebrae in ancient times. For example, in Qin bamboo slips "Japanese Book", people are entangled in mourning ghosts, but they can "stab the peach and knock on the heart, but they don't come"; The silk book "Fifty-two Diseases Prescriptions" in the Western Han Dynasty also recorded the magic of using iron vertebrae to kill ghosts and treat diseases. Therefore, some people think that Gu's explanation of the origin of Zhong Kui is credible.
Today, both Chang and Ma Yong have written about Zhong You and expressed their own opinions, but their arguments have not generally broken away from the pattern of the Ming and Qing Dynasties. Only He Xin and Wang Zhengshu don't say anything new.
He Xin thinks that Zhong Kui is a person's name, which has nothing to do with the so-called "vertebra" or "Zhong Kui". Zhong Kui's prototype is Wu Xiang's puppet in Shang Tang, and Zhong You, Gui Zhong and Zhong Lei in Shangshu, Zuozhuan and Xunzi. Businessmen deal with ghosts, all political officials are wizards, and secondary officials are wizards and exorcists. After that, the mask is also; You must wear a mask to exorcise ghosts. There are many shapes of masks, which have produced many legends of songs. Zhong Guo evolved into a homophonic Zhong Guo, a strange snake in mythology, and then evolved from Zhong Guo into the "Xiong Guo" (Tian Wen) of nine giant snakes, the fascinating "Xiong Bo" (the book of etiquette in the later Han Dynasty), and even the lost text of Shan Hai Jing. What's more, from a real person who exorcises ghosts and witches to a monster Zhong Kui, the more complicated the deformation, the farther away from the truth, but it also left traces: the ancients often used words to explain their names, and Zhong Kui's Sui was a combination of "nine heroic poems", but "nine heroic poems" were used.
Some people agree with this statement, but some people question it, thinking that businessmen are haunted, not chasing ghosts. Besides, they have never heard of Zhong Zhong or Zhong Zhong's ghost-chasing performance.
Wang Zhengshu believes that Zhong Kui and his concept of exorcising ghosts and evil spirits in past dynasties actually originated from ancient witchcraft, and he got it from the first generation of worship ceremony in Zhu Rong. In ancient history, there were names such as Chongli, Return to China and Ju Mang. In the legend, Ju Mang was portrayed as a person with a special mission and special appearance. One of his missions was to occupy a witch position, which was recorded in the historian "Official Book". In Shang Dynasty, Zhong You was named after his duties. In fact, Zhong You has returned to the tone of "emphasizing Lebanon". As for "Zhong Kui", it refers to a vertebral body. Because Li Zhong's feather crown was taken from this shape when he was engaged in witchcraft activities, Shang people agreed that it was a symbol of witchcraft. In Shang Dynasty, the official position was surname, so the family formed by Zhong Guo was also called "Zhong Kui's". In the Zhou Dynasty, this religious group was renamed "Fang". Fang Xiang's name, like Zhong Kui's, comes from the costume of the ancient wizard's head. The difference is that "Zhong Kui" comes from the feather crest and "Fang Xiang" comes from the mask. This square-centered custom of exorcising ghosts has been followed up to the Tang Dynasty. What's more, Zhong You, Zhong Kui and Fang, from the ancient witch-returning to the Shang and Zhou Dynasties, are all prototypes of Zhong Kui, and they are in the same strain in nature and appellation (textual research by Zhong Kui).
Compared with He Xin's view, this view has something in common, but it only traces the source of Zhong Kui back to Li. However, some people think that Li Zhonghe and Ju Mang are all images in myths and legends, which may not be confirmed by printing. What's more, if self-esteem comes down to the same strain as Zhong Guo, Zhong Kui and Fang Xiang, why is there no record of Zhong Kui family in Han and Jin literature, and it was not until the Southern and Northern Dynasties that many Zhong Kui, Zhong Kui and Zhong Kui suddenly appeared? This blank interruption that lasted for hundreds of years is really difficult to explain.
Looking at the opinions of the ancients and sages, it should be said that they all have their own reasons, and so do the skeptics. The origin of Zhong Kui is still a big mystery in the history of China folk culture. Zhong Kui stood at the crossroads-looking for evil everywhere.
Zhong Kui opens a restaurant-ghosts don't come to the door.
Zhong Kui marries his sister-fooling around (getting married)
The bell on the wall-nonsense (painting)
Zhong Kui was cheated-obsessed with ghosts.
The child saw the image of Zhong Kui-frightening.
Zhong Kui burps-there's a ghost in his stomach.