Prose about Zhong Kui dancing to the Dragon Boat Festival

Straighten the black gauze, smooth the red robe; take a deep breath, shrug your shoulders, straighten your chest, lift your buttocks; stomp your soap boots with a height of five inches, and there is a thunderous sound in the sonorous drumbeat. The challenge: "Wow ah ah -" he danced swayingly to the center of the red duvet filled with fireworks. Under the spotlight, a painted face is ferocious yet charming, powerful yet gentle.

"Run——", the long sword at his waist was unsheathed, Zhong Kui opened his pair of upside-down triangle golden eyes, and glared through the heavy fog, with the cold light of the sword in his hand. This vast land shrouded in dark clouds.

The fifth day of May is the day with the strongest yang energy of the year. This should be the day that the demons in the three realms fear the most. Zhong Kui felt slightly proud, his long sleeves fluttering in the strong wind. Suddenly, he saw the black bat fluttering arrogantly around him. This ugly thing, neither a bird nor a beast, made him feel a little worried. Turning around, a wretched kid immediately offered me a handkerchief with a flattering smile. Zhong Kui sighed secretly. He hated them, but he couldn't live without them. For example, that smelly bat, in the dark, relied on its sense of direction to find evil.

He suddenly felt weak and tired: he doubted whether his own strength could really resist the omnipresent evil. He felt a burst of pain, just like the unforgettable pain he felt when he hit the stone steps in the Golden Palace of the Human World. Unconsciously, he touched his forehead, and his hand was covered with blood-red paint.

On the fifth day of May, vegetation first belongs. If different textures appear at different times, then the twenty-four hours of this day must be full of juice and spicy.

This is the festival most closely associated with traditional Chinese medicine. "Artemisia", "Calamus" and "Realgar", when these medicinal names are put together, the word "Dragon Boat Festival" will almost immediately pop up in the minds of Chinese people.

Customs of the Dragon Boat Festival vary from place to place, but for thousands of years, most places have hung mugwort and calamus on the door, drank realgar wine, and sprinkled realgar water. These medicines actually have different effects: like mugwort, which is called moxa leaf in medicine books, its functions are to warm the menstruation and stop bleeding, dissipate cold and relieve pain. It can be pounded into strips and burned to inject heat into the human body, which can warm the qi and blood and penetrate the body. meridians; calamus can open up the mind and calm the mind, remove dampness and harmonize the stomach, and can be used for symptoms such as confusion, chest and abdominal distension and tightness; while realgar can detoxify and kill insects, and is often used externally to treat carbuncles, scabies, insect venom and snake bites. At first glance, these herbs don’t have much in common, and they seem like they shouldn’t appear together. However, upon closer inspection, they still have medicinal properties and have specific smells: mugwort and calamus have strong fragrances; Even the mineral realgar has a turbid aroma similar to garlic. Most smelly plants contain volatile oils. Modern medical research has found that the volatile oils of mugwort and calamus are both antibacterial. When mixed with realgar and smoked, they are effective against Staphylococcus aureus, Escherichia coli, Pseudomonas aeruginosa, Typhoid Paratyphi, etc. , all have obvious killing effects.

The ancients did not have modern chemical knowledge, and general knowledge of medicines was obtained from experience, and some also came from mysterious senses. Like calamus, also known as water sword grass, because the leaves are long and narrow, with a ridge in the center, which looks like a sword, and it should be able to ward off evil spirits; it is also tenacious in vitality, almost "not wanting to lose its color, not even an inch of soil", so it has been regarded as a god very early on. Medicine, such as "The Book of Immortals" calls it: "the elite of water plants, the elixir of gods". There are legends in the past dynasties that taking calamus can lead to immortality and even immortality. Since realgar was adopted by alchemists, its efficacy has become more and more miraculous. Ancient books record: "(realgar) can kill hundreds of poisons, ward off hundreds of evil spirits, and control poisonous poisons. Ghosts and gods who wear it do not dare to approach. When they enter the mountains and forests, tigers and wolves will ambush them. "Poisons in the river dare not harm it." In folklore, just a bowl of realgar wine caused the thousand-year-old white snake to take the shape of a snake. Moxa is one of the oldest medicines. The ancients believed that moxa can cure all kinds of diseases, and the older it gets, the more effective it becomes. "Mencius" used the metaphor "If you are sick for seven years, ask for moxa for three years" to describe if you are not prepared at ordinary times. By the time it happens, it's too late.

From this point of view, these three medicines all have extraordinary origins and extraordinary medicinal power. The ancients singled out these three flavors among thousands of medicines and used them solemnly on the Dragon Boat Festival. Is there any profound meaning in them?

Take a deep breath of the medicinal fragrance that permeates the Dragon Boat Festival, and you can vaguely smell a mysterious smell from ancient times.

There are many theories about the origin of the Dragon Boat Festival, such as commemorating Qu Yuan, commemorating Wu Zixu, commemorating the filial daughter Cao E, Wu and Yue national totem worship, etc., but the earliest one with the greatest influence in history may be Evil Sun said.

The Dragon Boat Festival has not been an auspicious day for a long time, and can even be said to be a dangerous time.

As early as the pre-Qin Dynasty, May was regarded as an evil month. "Book of Rites" records: "It is the month, the day is getting longer, the yin and yang are competing, and life and death are divided." It means that May enters the summer solstice, and the summer solstice is the longest daytime of the year. From then on, it turns from prosperity to decline, so this is In the month when the battle between Yin and Yang is most intense, living things and dead things are equally divided, that is, the probability of life and death is equal to half. According to the Ganzhi calendar, May belongs to the noon month, and naturally the noon day in the noon month is the worst of evils. For the convenience of calculation, people gradually regard the fifth day as the noon day, although the two are sometimes not the same day according to the calendar.

In a nutshell, May 5th is the yang month and yang day in the minds of the ancients, so it is also called Duanyang, which means that the yang is extremely prosperous and is inconsistent with the way of coordination and harmony, so it is a An ominous day.

There are many unlucky records about this month and this day in ancient books. For example, "Customs" says that everything will not go well in this month: "Building a house in May will make people bald", "If you arrive at the official position in May, you will be bald." "I won't move until I avoid it" - from then on, I can no longer think about being promoted, I can only wait to be dismissed. In addition, it is said that children born on May 5th are very terrible: "It is said that children born on May 5th will harm the father and daughter, and the mother will be harmed." "Mother, you cannot lift me." Over the past thousands of years, countless babies who were unfortunate enough to be reborn in May were strangled in their infancy by fearful parents. But there are also many fish that slipped through the net and left their footprints in history. For example, the famous Meng Changjun during the Warring States Period was secretly raised by his mother behind her husband's back; Wang Zhene, the famous general of the Eastern Jin Dynasty, was also born on this day, and his parents were supposed to He gave it away - which shows that this vulgar custom has not declined in the Wei, Jin, Southern and Northern Dynasties - but his grandfather, Wang Meng, a former important minister of the Qin Dynasty, had a unique vision. When he saw it, he said that the child was extraordinary, so he kept him uneasily. He came down, but he had a grudge after all, so he named him Zhen evil.

The two words "suppress evil" represent people's fear of the Dragon Boat Festival and their hope for a safe passage over thousands of years. But how to suppress the "evil" of the Dragon Boat Festival?

People use the same theory to devise some ways to avoid evil deduced from the Yin-Yang and Five Elements. For example, Chinese customs tie five-colored silk threads on their arms on the Dragon Boat Festival, which is called "long-lasting evil". "Fate Thread" (wars were frequent after the Wei and Jin Dynasties, so this kind of silk thread had an additional function and was also called "border evasion"); or hanging five-color peach charms, it is said that this can also ward off evil spirits.

But the two qi of yin and yang are after all so subtle that they cannot be seen or touched. No matter how tragic the battle is, it is difficult for ordinary people to feel it. In addition to the mystery, the common people have their own Dragon Boat Festival evil that the common people understand: the plague of poisonous insects.

The fifth month of the lunar calendar is the beginning of the hot weather. The scorpion and poisonous insects squirming amidst the thunder of the Waking of Insects have become fully fledged after a spring of growth; and with the heat of the summer, some pestilence has also descended on the world, and with the weather Hot food is perishable and has also led to many intestinal diseases. In ancient times when the medical level was low, how to adapt to the summer climate was indeed a test for human health, especially for children with weak immunity. The passive method is to escape, such as "hiding from the Dragon Boat Festival": On the Dragon Boat Festival, parents take their children to their grandmother's house to hide in order to avoid bad luck. This custom still exists in many places today. But wherever you go, the Dragon Boat Festival is everywhere, and avoiding it is nothing more than psychological comfort. People also have practical ways to reduce poisoning: that is to carry out large-scale cleaning and sweeping, killing poison and ward off evil spirits on the Dragon Boat Festival.

So mugwort, calamus, and realgar were selected. These have strong smells—people want to believe that they are righteousness that can ward off impurities—and the ancient magical medicines have become the magic weapon to spend the Dragon Boat Festival safely. .

The custom of using medicine to ward off plague evils has a long history. According to legend, it is recorded in "Xia Xiaozheng", the almanac of the Xia Dynasty: "It is the month to store medicine and use wormwood to remove poisonous gases."

In short, for thousands of years, on the Dragon Boat Festival, people's most important task is to take various measures, whether reasonable or unreasonable, effective or ineffective, to ward off bad luck - to suppress evil.

People always hope that the power to protect themselves can be stronger. The thin and easy-to-break silk threads don't seem to have much magical effect. After all, realgar calamus and the like are just a few common traditional Chinese medicines. For the sake of safety, on the Dragon Boat Festival, the gods who protect the common people finally descended to earth under the pious prayers of the people.

According to historical data, as late as the Northern Song Dynasty, there was a custom of posting Tianshi Talisman, Five Thunder Talisman and other charms on the Dragon Boat Festival; various statues of Zhang Tianshi were also made, some made of clay, and some made of moxa. The head is made of garlic, the fist is made of garlic, and there are also those made of calamus, etc., which are hung on the lintel to suppress evil.

The Heavenly Master needed magical weapons and mounts, so the ancient calamus and mugwort were also included: the calamus leaves were cut into sword shapes, the calamus roots were carved into dragons, the mugwort leaves were woven into tigers, and even the realgar was added. As a task, draw the word "王" on the child's forehead, which symbolizes the blessing of the Heavenly Master Tiger.

There are various folk beliefs. Taoist Zhang Tianshi is not the only patron saint of the Dragon Boat Festival. He also has the Buddhist protector Wei Tuo and even the much older Jiang Taigong. But if you want to choose the most authoritative god for the Dragon Boat Festival, or the image spokesperson of the Dragon Boat Festival, these people have to step aside consciously, leaving a wide space to welcome a rising god——

To be more precise, he is a ghost, a ghost famous for catching ghosts.

Zhong Kui.

Legend has it that Zhong Kui was a native of the Tang Dynasty and his native place was Zhongnan Mountain.

Song Dynasty Shen Kuo's "Mengxi Bi Tan" and Ming Dynasty's "Tianzhong Ji" recorded in "Tang Yishi" are the earliest mentions of Zhong Kui in history. Emperor Xuanzong of the Yuntang Dynasty fell ill once, and it was said to be falciparum malaria. The imperial doctor had been working hard for many days, but there was no improvement. One night, Xuanzong fell into a deep sleep and dreamed that a little ghost had stolen Yang Guifei's purple sachet and his own jade flute. He was about to get angry when a big ghost came proudly and grabbed the thief. Without saying a word, he dug it up first. The eyes came out and he tore them apart and started chewing. Xuanzong asked him who he was, and the big ghost replied: "Zhong Kui, a Jinshi from Zhongnan, was unable to perform well and died on the palace steps. I swear to rid the world of evildoers for your majesty!" After Xuanzong woke up, he suddenly recovered from his illness. So he ordered Wu Daozi to paint a portrait of Zhong Kui. After the painting was completed, he stared at it for a long time and said, "Did you have the same dream as me? How can it look like this?" So he hung the statue of Zhong Kui above the palace gate to ward off evil spirits, and carved it on it. Printing and printing were rewarded to ministers, and later it became a custom to issue them to ministers together with the almanac for the coming year at the end of each year. From then on, Zhong Kui became famous all over the world. At first, he was a door god, and then his status became higher and higher. From the Ming Dynasty, he gradually entered the hall and entered the house. During every year and festival, he was worshiped in the central hall to ward off evil spirits. On the Dragon Boat Festival, he was duty-bound to suppress evil and seek good fortune.

Wu Daozi’s original painting has long since disappeared. According to people who were lucky enough to see the original painting, Zhong Kui in Wu’s painting has such a dignified appearance: “Ragged clothes, only one foot wearing a boot, blind, and on his belt Wearing a Wat tablet, wearing a turban and disheveled hair (Guo Ruoxu's "Pictures and Information" of the Song Dynasty) "The painting was fixed in one stroke. From then on, Zhong Kui's portrait was firmly engraved in the world's impression with its strange and ugly characteristics, like thousands of people. For hundreds of years, everyone has had the same dream and seen Zhong Kui's true form.

But where did Zhong Kui, who was just a ghost himself, get his magic power? How could he make even the mighty Celestial Master and Wei Tuo quietly take a back seat?

Is it possible to scare away ghosts with just an ugly face?

Good people in the past have researched the origin of Zhong Kui, who was born in the Tang Dynasty. Although the conclusions are not the same, they all tend to believe that the name Zhong Kui has actually existed for a long time. For example, Hu Yinglin of the Ming Dynasty said: "The name Zhong Kui has been around since before the Six Dynasties, and it has been spreading for a long time." Others found that many people were named "Zhong Kui" or "Zhong Kui" in the Southern and Northern Dynasties. To ward off evil spirits. Following the clues of this homophony, Ming scholars Yang Shen, Gu Yanwu and others came to a conclusion: Zhong Kui is the vertebrae that chased away ghosts in ancient times!

"Zhongkui" was mentioned as early as "Zhou Li", and the commentary explained: "Zhongkui, Vertebrae." Vertebrae is the big mallet used to beat ghosts in ancient exorcism rituals. Mostly peach wood. The textual research is very strong. From a phonological point of view, the word "Zhongkui" or "Zhongkui" when pronounced fast and backward, is exactly the word "vertebral column"!

In this way, Zhong Kui’s prototype should be a big mahogany mallet.

Of course, there are other explanations. For example, it may be the evolution of the main character, the great god "Fang Xiang" in the ancient Nuo rituals to worship rice and drive away plague. It can be seen from some Nuo operas that have been handed down to this day that the Nuo masks are all carved with extremely evil designs, which can also explain the origin of Zhong Kui's ugly appearance.

From this perspective, Zhong Kui, who evolved from a ghost-busting magic weapon or an ancient god, should indeed have thousands of years of magical power, far more powerful than Zhang Tianshi Jiang Taigong.

But the problem is that these researches were all deduced by later generations of scholars after Zhong Kui became popular. The common people do not understand it. The Zhong Kui in their minds cannot be connected with the ancient divine power. After all, what is Zhong Kui's magical power that they trust? Where does it come from?

Or another question: From ancient times to the prosperous period of the Tang Dynasty, there were thousands of years in between. Why did Zhong Kui, as a personal god, have to hide behind the scenes for so long before suddenly appearing?

Since Wu Daozi, Zhong Kui has been one of the favorite themes of painters of all ages. There are many masterpieces handed down from generation to generation, and a special type of "Zhong Kui painting" has been formed. Zhong Kui appears in various forms in the painting, but most of them wear gauze hats or turbans and long gowns, a literati outfit. The deeds of Zhong Kui attached to it by later generations, including the three existing novels about Zhong Kui from the Ming and Qing Dynasties, further developed Zhong Kui's original words and portrayed him as a failed imperial examination. It is said that Zhong Kui was originally a talented person and the top scholar in high school, but the emperor was mortal and was frightened by his evil appearance during the palace examination, so he wrote off his qualifications. Zhong Kui was so sad and angry that he died in front of the emperor. .

Many of Zhong Kui's paintings were simply titled "Zhong Jinshi".

This fierce god with a terrifying appearance, powerful magic, and the ability to frighten the world's ghosts and monsters, turned out to be a talented scholar -

And he was a suicidal scholar who failed miserably in the world!

Many people may find this a bit unbelievable, but in a sense it can be said that the root of Zhong Kui's supernatural powers probably comes from the word "文".

To be more precise, it comes from the word "文" supported by the word "黄".

In the final analysis, Zhong Kui was welcomed into the world by a dream of Emperor Xuanzong of the Tang Dynasty. The world under the control of this romantic emperor has unprecedented peace and prosperity, and is at the pinnacle of the entire ancient society. Compared with the troubled emperors, separatist emperors, and empty-headed emperors who often struggled to save their own lives in the previous few hundred years, the latter is far superior. Unattainable authority and holiness. Although Xuanzong led his dynasty to decline soon afterwards, after all, the general trend of history from then on was that imperial power became more and more concentrated. This trend is reflected in the people, that is, the concept of the emperor's golden words is becoming more and more popular among the people. Anyone can be reborn after being canonized by the emperor. What's more, Zhong Kui showed his unique skill of eating ghosts as soon as he appeared on the stage. In the novel "The Legend of Killing Ghosts", Zhong Kui was named the master of exorcism by the emperor, and he immediately transformed from an unjust ghost into a revered god who even the King of Hell had to "come down to greet" him.

But throughout the ages, countless gods have been canonized by emperors. Why can Zhong Kui, an illusory ghost who only appears in dreams, become one of the most trusted and beloved gods among the people?

The emperor only provided a title, but the people who neatly dressed Zhong Kui in official robes, gauze hats, and jade belts and swords were literati from past dynasties. They were so enthusiastic about dressing up Zhong Kui. It must have been the words Zhong Kui said when he came out that deeply shocked their hearts: "Zhong Kui, the Jinshi of Zhongnan, failed to succeed in his exams and died on the steps of the palace!" It turns out that this brother Zhong is also a gentleman of mine. , and he is also an unlucky man with a bad luck!