Before the Spring Festival, after the Laba Festival on the eighth day of the twelfth lunar month, we will usher in the lunar new year on the 23rd day of the twelfth lunar month. Many traditional customs and various sayings are also popular in China on the day of Xiaonian, among which the most interesting is the sacrifice to the kitchen god. Since ancient times, China has not only the custom of offering sacrifices to the kitchen god in the young year, but also spread a very interesting legend about offering sacrifices to the kitchen king. The small editor of this article will tell you about the stress and significance of sacrificing the kitchen god and the legend of the kitchen king.
The stress and moral of offering sacrifices to the kitchen god
The 23rd day of the twelfth lunar month, also known as "Xiaonian", is the day of folk sacrifice to stoves. It is said that every year on the 23rd of the twelfth lunar month, the kitchen god would go up to heaven to report the good and evil of the family to the Jade Emperor and let the Jade Emperor reward and punish them. Therefore, when delivering the stove, people put sugar ban, clean water, cooking beans and hay on the table in front of the statue of the kitchen king. The latter three are to prepare materials for the mount of the kitchen King's ascension to heaven. When offering sacrifices to the kitchen stove, you should melt Guandong sugar with fire and apply it on the mouth of the kitchen god. In this way, he can't speak ill of the Jade Emperor. There is a folk custom of "men don't worship the moon and women don't sacrifice to the kitchen stove". Therefore, sacrifice to the kitchen god is limited to men.
In addition, on the evening of new year's Eve, the kitchen king will come to the world with the gods for the new year. On that day, there must be a ceremony of "receiving the kitchen stove" and "receiving the God". When every family burns sedan chairs and horses, sprinkles three cups of wine and sends away the kitchen god, it's their turn to worship their ancestors.
Offering sacrifices to cookers is a custom that has a great influence and spread widely among the people in China. In the old days, almost every kitchen was equipped with the throne of "kitchen Lord". People call this God 'the Bodhisattva of life' or 'the kitchen king of life'. It is said that he is the 'King of the kitchen of the nine heavenly East' granted by the Jade Emperor. He is responsible for managing the kitchen fires of each family and is worshipped as the protective god of the family. Most of the kitchen god niches are located in the north or east of the kitchen, and the gods of the kitchen god are provided in the middle. People without a kitchen King's niche also pasted the statue directly on the wall. Some gods only draw the kitchen god, while others have two men and women. The goddess is called 'grandma kitchen King'. This is probably an imitation of the image of a human couple. Most of the statues of Kitchen God are also printed with the calendar of this year, with words such as "East kitchen commander", "human monitoring God" and "head of the family" to indicate the status of Kitchen God. The couplets of "Heaven's word is good, and the lower boundary is safe" are pasted on both sides to bless the peace of the whole family.
Origin of sacrificial stove
The custom of offering sacrifices to cookers has a long history. Zao Jun became a great God respected by the people in the Xia Dynasty. In the Analects of Confucius, which describes Kong Qiu's words and deeds in the spring and Autumn period, there are words that "it is better to be beautiful with Austria than with stove".
In the pre-Qin period, sacrificial kitchen is one of the "five sacrifices" (five sacrifices are the five gods of kitchen, door, line, household and Zhonglei. Zhonglei is the earth God. The other is door, well, household, kitchen and Zhonglei; or line, well, household, kitchen and Zhonglei). When offering sacrifices to the stove, a God should be set up and rich wine and food should be used as sacrifices. To display the tripod Zu, set the beans, welcome the corpse and so on. With obvious traces of primitive fetishism.
Legend of kitchen King
The 23 Kitchen God, also known as the kitchen king, kitchen king, kitchen Lord, kitchen father and kitchen mother, and Eastern kitchen life, is the God of food in ancient Chinese myths and legends. Zaojun himself had the theory of Emperor Yan and Zhu Rong in the early stage. Later, many statements were derived. After the Jin Dynasty, he was listed as the God of command to supervise the good and evil in the world. Since human beings broke away from eating meat and drinking blood and invented fire food, with the development of social production, stoves have gradually been closely related to human life. The worship of Kitchen God has become an important part of many worship activities. Therefore, in the book of rites & middot; sacrifice law, 'Wang Wei established seven sacrifices for the group's surname', that is, one sacrifice was' Zao ', while common scholars and common people established one sacrifice,' either establish a household or a Zao '.
In ancient China, there were sacrifices to the kitchen god. After the Wei and Jin Dynasties, the kitchen god had a name. Du Taiqing of Sui Dynasty quoted the book of kitchen stove in the book of jade candles, saying, 'Kitchen God, surnamed Su, name Ji Li, woman name Bo Jia'. Tang Lixian's annotation cited the miscellaneous five elements script, also known as' the kitchen god is famous for Zen, with the word Ziguo, yellow clothes, hair and coming out of the kitchen '. At the beginning, Kitchen God was a goddess, or an old woman, or a beautiful woman. There are many sayings. Jing Zao Quan Shu, which originated in the Qing Dynasty, said that Zao Jun's surname was Zhang, and his name was Zi Guo, which should be a male god. At present, the East chef ordered Dingfu Zaojun, a folk worship, is an old couple sitting side by side, or a man and two women sitting side by side, that is, a portrait of Zaojun and his wife.
After the prosperity of Taoism in China, the kitchen god was described as a female old mother through the theory of scriptures. " Manage people's houses. Twelve hours, good knowledge of human affairs. On the new moon's day of each month, people will record all good and evil and their merits and virtues, record their importance, play Cao in the sky in the middle of the night, and set their book '. Later, it developed into the saying of both Zaojun's grandfather and Zaojun's grandmother. In different regions, Zaojun and his wife are served by different candidates, accompanied by local popular folklore.
Folklore of Kitchen God: it is said that kitchen god is the supervisor sent by the Jade Emperor to each family. On the 23rd of the twelfth lunar month, he will go to heaven to report the good or evil deeds of the family to the Jade Emperor. After listening to this, the Jade Emperor handed over the good fortune and bad fortune that the family should get in the new year to the kitchen god. Therefore, on the 23rd day of the twelfth lunar month, when people "send the kitchen stove", they should provide sugar made of malt sugar and flour, paper horses made of bamboo strips and forage for feeding animals, so as to make the kitchen god sweet mouth, say good words and enter the palace to bring good fortune!