What is the name of the Stove Lord?

"The Kitchen God, whose original surname is Zhang, lives in Zhanggezhuang, Shunyi" is an old Beijing folk song. It is believed that the Kitchen God is a native of Beijing. In fact, similar legends exist in many places. Folklore scholar Gao Wei said: "The Kitchen God was originally a man-made god. He had no name or place of origin. Only later when sacrifices were offered in various places, many stories were slowly added, and the Kitchen God had human characteristics such as gender, name, and place of origin. Characteristics.”

Zaojun Temple. Photo by Beijing News reporter Wang Ying

The origin of the Kitchen God and the worship of the ancient fire god

In traditional customs, the most important ritual of the New Year is the kitchen sacrifice. The tradition of worshiping stoves has been around for about 3,000 years, and the earliest written record can be found in the "Book of Rites". Some modern scholars believe that the origins of sacrificial furnaces predate written records, because the worship of fire was formed as early as the cave age.

The Kitchen God was first recorded in the Book of Rites, which was written more than 2,000 years ago. "Book of Rites" records that the Zhou Dynasty set up "Seven Sacrifice" to worship seven gods, including the Kitchen God.

The worship of the Kitchen God and the primitive worship of the Fire God are two sides. There were initially two ways to materialize the Kitchen God. One was to use the God of Fire as the Kitchen God, such as You Yanshuo, Zhu Rongshuo, etc. Both often exist simultaneously. "Huainanzi" records that "Emperor Yan made fire, and when he died, it was the stove." However, the same book also recorded that "Wu Hui and Zhu Rong were the fire of Gao Xin's family. When they died, they were the gods of fire and were worshiped in the stove." The latter saying, inherited from Mandarin, says "Liv is the fire of the Gaoxin family, extremely radiant and shining in all directions."

Another way is to regard the Creator as God. For example, Huangdi said, "Wubenhui" said: "The Yellow Emperor built the stove and died as the stove god."

It’s a ghost. Can the Kitchen God tell fortunes or tell fortunes?

In addition to God, there are many different descriptions of the status of the Kitchen God. The most typical one is that the Kitchen God is not a god but a ghost. For example, in "Zhuangzi", Duke Huan asked: "Are there ghosts?" Zhuangzi was right, "There are shoes in the sink, and steamed buns in the stove." It means "The ghosts in the mud at the bottom of the water are called shoes, and the ghosts in the stove are called steamed buns." "Some scholars have verified that the "hair bun" is Zhuan Xu's son "Qiong Chan".

There are many theories about kitchen ghosts. For example, "Historical Records: The Benji of Xiaowu" records that "the young man made alchemy to cover the king's talisman and the cooking ghost at night". Poets of the Tang Dynasty also used the term "cooking ghost". For example, Lu Guimeng of the Tang Dynasty said in "Jie Chu Ji" that "the cooking ghost can make people's merits and demerits timely, and the sky will be white." Wang Anshi of the Song Dynasty said in "Exhibiting Jiang Gong's Contribution to the Kitchen Fire": "The knife and axe-hand didn't want to kill people at first, how can the cooking ghost be angry?"

There are many jokes about the cooking ghost in Wang Anshi's poems. In fact, the Kitchen God is in charge of fireworks, and his function of distinguishing good from evil has long appeared and spread among the people. Wang satirized Confucius in The Analects. Why do some people say that "it's better to flatter Austria than to flatter the kitchen"? Wang Jia was a very powerful minister in the Wei state, and "Ao" was the "southwest corner of the room" where he was respected and often served God. So what Wang asked was why "county officials are not as good as current officials"? Zhu of the Song Dynasty explained: "It is better to rely on powerful ministers than to rely on the monarch."

Confucius's answer was: "That's not the case. If you are found guilty in heaven, you can pray for anything." If you have offended God, it is useless to pray to anyone. In other words, Confucius did not believe that the Kitchen God could determine people's fate.