Architectural Culture of Guangzhou City God Temple

Guangzhou City God Temple crouched in the corner of the street, and has long since faded out of modern life, but once upon a time, it was the soul of the city. Not only the Lantern Festival in the first lunar month, the birthday of the city god, Tomb-Sweeping Day, July 15th and October 15th, but also the Han folk temple fairs held at other times are full of pilgrims and very lively. Chenghuang Temple is a charity, which often carries out charity with money, rice, medicine, clothes and coffins. Chenghuang Temple is a cottage court, which should uphold justice and resolve disputes. Chenghuang Temple is a big theater, which plays the joys and sorrows of loyal ministers, dutiful sons and virtuous women martyrs, entertains the people and educates them. Chenghuang Temple is also the last refuge of the poor, and homeless victims can get a meal and a night by luck. The City God Temple is also like a church. You can find protection and comfort here for ordinary people's weddings, ups and downs of honor and disgrace in officialdom, and profit and loss compensation in business. Not only will the new official be sworn in before the city god, but even the execution supervisor will burn incense around the city god temple after the execution, so that the city god can win the murders that may follow him ... The city god temple was once a place that the ancestors of the city could not avoid in life and spirit.

As an ancient folk belief of Han nationality, the worship of city god came into being with the city. Without cities, there would be no city god.

The original meaning of "city" is a high wall made of mud. Outside the high wall, dig a deep ditch. Those with water are "pools" and those without water are "along". Cities and cities constitute the safest protective barriers for the government and "citizens" in the cold weapon era. Therefore, as early as the Confucius era, on New Year's Eve, people would solemnly "La Worship Ba Shen", the seventh god in Ba Shen, that is, the god of the city. Because water is a shovel, and mediocrity is a city. In the spoken language of Guangzhou people, there is a saying that "water ghosts ascend to the city god" to describe a person's luck, but I don't know that the city god was originally a water ghost. The earliest recorded Chenghuang Temple is in Wuhu, Anhui Province. It was built by Sun Quan during the Three Kingdoms period, and it has been 1770 years.

During the Sui, Tang, Song and Yuan Dynasties, the worship of city gods was quite common. In Taiping Guangji, there is Wu's saying that "every county must have a city god", and there are also records about the city god of Guangzhou. Not only Du Fu, Han Yu, Zhang Jiuling, Du Mu, Li Shangyin, etc. They all left poems and songs to worship the city god, and even more, they staged many scenes in the Song and Yuan Dynasties and the Water Margin the legend of heroes inside and outside the city god temple.

However, when it comes to the contribution to the culture of the city god, the first people in ancient and modern times are Zhu Yuanzhang and Ming Taizu.

When Zhu Yuanzhang entered Nanjing, the dragon chair under his ass was not hot, which was convenient for the imperial edicts of that year (the first year of Hongwu) and the following year. He changed the chaotic situation of unclear names, unclear authorities and lax grades in various places in the past, wisely named the soldiers who died in battle as the Lord of the city god, strictly stipulated the four-level system of capital, government, state and county of the city god, and ordered the city god temples in various places not to worship other gods. Despite the post-war situation, he insisted on rebuilding the Town God Temple all over the country on a huge scale, just like the local government offices. He also prepared the banner of clothing according to the grade, and more than 0/000 city god temples have sprung up all over the country. Located at No.48, Zhong You Street, Zhongshan 4th Road, Guangzhou City God Temple is the product of this "city god wind", which was built in Hongwu for three years (1370).

As for why Zhu Yuanzhang was so keen on sealing the city god, many people explained that Zhu Yuanzhang was born in a land temple and had a bitter family background, so he had special respect for the boss of the land god, the city god. This statement is suspicious, even a little funny, because it is too grassroots. Just as Zhu Yuanzhang attributed Zhu's Taoist theory to "everyone is surnamed Zhu", he overestimated the petty bourgeoisie of this rebellious hero and greatly underestimated the political wisdom of a founding king.

In fact, the emperor himself made his relationship with Lord Huang Cheng very clear in his dialogue with Minister Song Lian: "I made Huang Cheng God awesome; If people are afraid, they dare not do anything. " This is the real idea of a politician. Since then, the official ideology of "making people afraid, making people afraid to do anything" has undoubtedly penetrated into the gods of Lord Huang Cheng, who was originally a folk belief, and formed the most core and wonderful part of Huang Cheng culture. From a simple local patron saint of a state and a county, it has gradually evolved into a national worship system that protects the country and benefits the people, punishes evil and promotes good, and manages the dead in the underworld. Lord Huang Cheng's position and treatment have changed, but his temper of being the master of the people and cutting off evil has not changed. The high-hanging plaques and couplets in the city god temples around the country clearly show this point. "Strict discipline", "integrity", "protecting the country and the people" and "selflessness in my place" are vivid descriptions of honest officials and virtuous ministers. Who can not admire them? In fact, all the city gods are full of admirable heroes and gentlemen, such as Huang Xie, Wen Tianxiang, Pang Yu, Yang Jiao, Fuzhou City God and Zhengzhou City God.

Under the pretext of the mouth of the Town God Temple, wake up the world and stick couplets on the pillars of the Town God Temple. Who can not be uneasy?

It's no use doing evil and burning incense,

If you have an upright heart, what's wrong with not worshiping me?

Be a good person, with peace of mind and stable dreams;

Do something good and learn from ghosts and gods.

Shi Yang III, it is up to you to accumulate good and evil;

Throughout the ages, who has been spared by the underworld?

The existence of ghosts and gods and the reality of retribution have always been a difficult proposition in China culture, which has always been based on Confucianism and indifferent to religion. However, these puzzling metaphysical questions became unquestionable in the lucidity of Lord Huang Cheng:

What hatred, what sin, what life, in order to keep you from reversing right and wrong for the rest of your life, you boast of your strength;

He made all the profits, sold all his fame and lost his conscience. Let us see that his prosperity will eventually rain.

In my impression, the couplets of Chenghuang Temple are usually more straightforward, more direct and more direct than those of Taoist temples, so they play a greater role in warning and education. In the feudal dynasty, it brought spiritual comfort to the people, imposed moral precepts on the dignitaries, and made the villains frightened; In the era of globalization, in the process of building a country ruled by law and a civilized society today, Lord Huang Cheng can still be sure and willing to make contributions. At least, no matter the dignitaries or the grassroots people, they can make up the lessons of good and evil in kindergartens in the incense of the Town God Temple and in the exhortation and reminder of the Town God-"Let people be afraid, let people be afraid to do it"-or that is the core spirit of the Town God culture and the urban reconstruction of Guangzhou.

Therefore, instead of arguing whether the puppet in Foshan ancestral temple is the original Guangzhou god, it is better to find out which immortals are enshrined in Guangzhou ancestral temple and which are the names of sages and heroes. Instead of lamenting the collapse of the temple and the ant disaster on the colonnade, it is better to clarify what kind of sustenance and pen and ink the ancestors left on the plaque colonnade; Instead of being complacent that the level of Guangzhou City God Temple is higher than that of Shanghai City God Temple, it is better to learn from Shanghai and see what the master of City God Temple can contribute to today's harmonious society-just a little, and ask the planners and builders who rebuilt Guangzhou City God Temple for advice. But if you have to turn around, you will be on the shore. Why do you realize your mistakes here?

-Chenghuangmiao Federation of Trade Unions

No one will go this way; I advise you not to do it.

-Chenghuang Temple in Lu Xian County, Sichuan Province

You coax you, I won't coax you; Is it true that people lack money?

-Shaanxi Qishan City God Temple

Mo Guangguang kowtowed; Ask yourself carefully.

-Chenghuang Temple in Enshi, Hubei Province

It's good to be here with a clear conscience; Evil is more terrible than my door.

-Chenghuang Temple in Jinzhou City, Liaoning Province

Snow bravado, white can occupy the countryside for a few days;

After a storm comes a calm, black has not covered the earth for a long time.

-Zheng Banqiao inscribed Xinghua Town God Temple.

Hurriedly suffer, a debt to make up;

Honest and patient, knocking at the door in the middle of the night is not surprising.

-Yuan Jiamo on Shiping Town God Temple in Yunnan

Come in and touch your heart, you might as well repent and move towards goodness;

Go out and do good deeds, why not light some candles to burn incense.

-Guanling Town God Temple in Guizhou

Ok, I don't need to kowtow, you take three steps back;

Yes, if you rap again, I will give you a whip.

-Tian Santi City God Temple

Don't be hypocritical, just say what you think;

Why is prayer in vain? I am a liar.

-Kim Tae handed over the title of Chenghuang Temple in Fengcheng, Anhui.

To be a good person, loyal ministers and dutiful sons have been rewarded since ancient times;

If you want to do something bad, please see how the big rape ends.

-Gao Hongkui's topic is the Town God Temple in Jiaozhou, Shandong Province.

Tears are sour, blood is salty, hands are spicy, mouth is sweet, and there is no pain in the world.

Gold, silver, white, red and black, you know, there is a blue sky above your head.

-Sichuan Fengdu Chenghuang Temple

Stand, what are you doing behind your back? How dare you lie to me?

Think about it, which one should I spare here? Turn around and don't hurt anyone.

-Guiyang Chenghuang Temple

The filial piety of all virtues comes first, regardless of their heart, there is no filial son in the cold door;

All evils first, no distractions, and the heart is not so perfect through the ages.

-The title of strong forest of Chenghuang Temple in Shenyang, Liaoning Province

One must have a conscience. On the fifteenth day of the first month, why do you burn incense and light candles?

If you do something unjust, be careful of my chains and steel forks in the middle of the night.

-Chenghuang Temple in Yingcheng, Hubei Province

No matter how lawless you are, how dare you come here?

I know I can forgive, so why not put down the butcher knife and turn around?

-Peng Yulin and Wu Kun in Hefei City God Temple.