About land
About the land
History records:
The land god originated from the ancient "social god" and is the god who manages a small piece of the ground. The Biography of the Ram notes: "The community is also the master of the land." Han Yingshao's "Winds and Meaning • Sacrifice Code" quoted "Xiao Jingwei" and said: "The community is the master of the land, and the land is vast and cannot be respected everywhere. Therefore, the sealing of the earth is sacrificed for the society and repaying the merits." Qing Zhai Hao's "Tongxi Editor • Gods and Ghosts": "Today, all the gods of the society call for the land."
According to the "Record of Rites and Sacrifice Law": "The king's surname is a group to establish a society, the princes set up a society for the people to establish a Japanese national society, the princes to establish a society called the Hou Society, and the group of doctors are called the summer society." It can be seen that there was a hierarchy of sacrificing land gods at that time. Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty regarded the "post-earth emperor's land" as the highest god of the land, and all places still worshipped the god of the land.
The first person to be called Land Lord was Jiang Ziwen in the Han Dynasty. According to Volume 5 of Search Gods, "Jiang Ziwen is also from Guangling. ... At the end of the Han Dynasty, he was a lieutenant and chased the thief to the foot of Zhongshan. The thief injured his forehead. Because of the easing of the bondage, he died in an instant. At the beginning of Wu Xianzhu, his old official saw Wen Yudao, rode the white horse, held the white feather, and served as if he had been his life. Those who saw it were shocked to leave. Wen chased it and said, 'I should be the god of this land for the people. You can declare the people to set up an ancestral temple for me. No, there will be a big blame.' ... So the envoy appointed Ziwen as the Marquis of Zhongdu, ... and changed his name to Jiang Shan for the establishment of the temple hall. Since then, land gods in various places have gradually been appointed since the death of the local meritorious people, and there are land gods everywhere.
According to Zhao Yi's "Yu Cong Examination" in the Qing Dynasty, Shen Yu is the land god of Xijing Temple in Niao Town, Huzhou, and Yue Fei is the land god of Lin'an Taiyue. Zhao Yi, a native of the Qing Dynasty, said in the Records of Mingshan County that the land gods are different and have a variety of names, including garden land, green seedling land, as well as immortal land (sahrining the family hall), temple god land, etc.
The identity evolution and legend of the land:
In ancient times, the worship of land and the worship of the emperor of heaven are of great significance. Sacrifice to the land is a major event in a year from the princes and nobles to the common people. In the pre-Qin period, the status of the social gods was extremely high, so the word "she Ji" was usually used as a substitute for the country, and the sacrificial ceremony was also presided over by the emperor or local administrators. According to ancient books, the social god had no name at the beginning. Later, it slowly evolved and there was a specific identity. There are two social gods that were originally handed down: one is a dragon, and the Book of Rites and Sacrifice Law records: "The Gonggong clan dominates Kyushu, and his son is called Houtu and can be thousands of Kyushu, so he sacrifices as a society." One is Yu. It is said that he worked hard in the world and sacrificed to the god of the later earth after his death. The earth grows vegetation and grains and nurtures human beings, so it is regarded as a god of infinite power. After the Eastern Jin Dynasty, the people took the officials who did good or integrity as the god of the land. Laozi Heaven and Earth Ghosts and God Catalogue says, "Beijing Shishe God, the righteous minister of heaven, left yin and right yang, surnamed Huang Ming Chong. This is also a native of Liyang, Jiujiang, Yangzhou. Ten thousand stones, the lord of the world's famous mountain gods, and all the ministers follow him. After the Ming and Qing Dynasties, the people mostly used celebrities as the land of all parties. For example, the land worshipped by the Hanlin Academy and the Ministry of officials in the Qing Dynasty is said to be Han Yu, a great literati in the Tang Dynasty. The area of Hangzhou Taixue was originally the hometown of Yue Fei, so Taixue regarded Yue Fei as the god of land.
related information:
In ancient China, people often called the land god in the temple at the entrance of the village "social god", so how did the name social god come from? In ancient times, there were large and small villages. How big are the villages that can set up temples to worship the land gods? What is the jurisdiction of the land gods?
According to ancient books, there were rituals and customs of Fengtu sacrificial societies in ancient China. Because the land contains all things, and raises all things, and grows grain to raise the people, the Chinese people have always respected heaven and worshipped the land. According to the Biography of Ritual, "The country is based on the people, and the people take food as the sky. Therefore, the founding of the country and the people first ordered to establish a society. There are many vast areas and valleys, and they cannot be sacrificed all over the country. Therefore, in the city, an altar is set up to worship it." The note of the Sacrifice Law of the Book of Rites said: "Bao Shi and concubines below the doctor live in groups, and more than 100 families have to establish a society." Hanshu • Wuxingzhi is also known as "the old system, 25 families are one society". It can be seen that the so-called society is the smallest administrative unit in the local area. Chinese ancestors "reserved land and cannot be respected everywhere, so they sealed the land for the society and sacrificed it in return for their merit." Therefore, the land god worshipped in the temple as a unit is also called the "social god".
The priesthood of the land public:
There are many theories about the priesthood of land princes and landlady. According to ancient books, after the Eastern Jin Dynasty, with the gradual improvement of the bureaucratic system from the central to the grassroots level in feudal countries, the land gods have also evolved into a hierarchy in the Taoist hierarchy, and retreated into the lowest-level small gods who manage the local area. For example, the fifth volume of Search for Gods said that Jiang Ziwen, a native of Guangling, died for chasing thieves. Later, Jiang Ziwen became the god of the land and said, "I should be the god of the land for this." The "For the people" referred to here refers to the protection of the safety of the local houses in the township, the import of the six animals, the prosperity of the six animals, and the justice for the people. In ancient times, people regarded the continuation of incense as a major event in the family, so people respected the land prince and the land woman. They often went to the land temple to worship and prayed the land man and the land woman to send their children and blessings. If a family has added Ding in the past year, they will have to carry the statues of the land owner and the land woman to visit the village during the Spring Festival in the second year. On the one hand, they will express the joy of adding Ding, and on the other hand, they will thank the land owner and the land woman for their family. In addition, in the folk, in addition to wandering gods, they will also set up light wine on the day of the Lantern Festival. Because of the homophony of "ding", "lighting" means "addingding", so lighting wine is set up to celebrate.
But there is also another saying that the landlord and the landlord are in charge of the administration of the prefecture. In addition to protecting the peace and tranquility of the countryside, they are also subordinate to the city king and are in charge of the household registration of the deceased in the countryside. In many areas of the Han nationality, there is a custom that everyone is born with a "temple king land" - that is, the land temple, which is similar to everyone's place of origin. After a person dies, when a Taoist priest does a transcendent ceremony, he will go to his land temple for sacrifice activities. Or the family members of the newly deceased go to the land temple and report the name, birthday and other information of the deceased, so as to ask the land god to guide the way for the deceased. For example, there is a custom called "reporting the land" in Chaoshan area. If someone in the family dies, they must go to the land temple to report the funeral. The elders in the village held white lanterns and led the male descendants of the deceased to wear filial piety to the temple to report their death. At the temple, the elder took out the Nian Geng post and reported to the statue: "Born from the ground, die from the ground, and read it to the master." In this way, the dead are reported to the land god, and the land god leads him on the road of reincarnation.