May 12, 2019 is the bathing Buddha Festival, which is the birthday of Buddha and the most important day for Buddhism and believers. So how did the bathing Buddha Festival come from? This article brings you the origin and origin of the bathing Buddha Festival. Let's have a look.
The origin of the bathing Buddha Festival
The bathing Buddha Festival on the eighth day of the fourth lunar month is a traditional folk festival of the Han nationality, also known as the 'Buddha's birthday'.
The eighth day of April is the birth day of the Buddha. The reason why it is also called "bathing Buddha Festival" is said to be related to the miracle when the Buddha was born. According to Buddhist scriptures, more than 3000 years ago, there was a small country in the north of India called yingpila. King Jingfan and princess moye are wise and kind, and are deeply loved by the people. The drawback is that they have no children, and the succession to the throne has become a problem. The wise Princess advised the king to accept another funeral concubine, but king Jingfan resolutely refused. When Mrs. Moyer was nearly 40, one night, she suddenly dreamed that the lamp burning Buddha escorted the Buddha from heaven and sent the Buddha into her abdomen. Therefore, Mrs. Moyer was pregnant. On the day when she was nearly ten months pregnant, she was accompanied by a maid in waiting and was ready to go back to her mother's house for childbirth. When they passed the Lumbini garden outside the city, the lady got off her sedan chair and walked into the garden on a whim. When she walked under the worry free tree, she suddenly became pregnant. Her wife climbed with her right hand, and a baby boy with a full face was born from under her right rib. He was Shiying Muni, who later became the Buddha. Surprisingly, after the baby was born, he took seven steps to the four directions. His right hand pointed to the sky and his left hand pointed to the earth, saying, 'I am the only one in heaven and earth.' The lotus flower is born step by step, which indicates the wish to become a monk and universal living beings in the future. The move shocked the four sides, so the heavenly women scattered flowers in the sky, angels played music, and Kowloon spit water to bathe the prince.
The custom of bathing Buddha originated from India and evolved from a religious ceremony of seeking blessings and eliminating disasters. Bathing Buddha Festival is the biggest festival of Buddhism. On this day, the temple will hold a bathing Buddha Dharma meeting. In the main hall, a water basin is used to worship the statue of the Prince (the birth statue of Shibian Muni). The monks and believers in the temple bathe the statue of the Buddha with sausages as a commemoration of the birth of the Buddha. The statue of the prince is a standing statue of a boy several feet high, with his right hand pointing to the sky and his left hand pointing to the earth. The custom of bathing Buddha was handed down to Chinese temples around the Eastern Han Dynasty. As the habit of the Han nationality is still left, most of the prince statues in temples in the Han nationality areas of China point to the sky with their left hand and to the earth with their right hand. About the northern and Southern Dynasties, the bathing Buddha Festival has been widely popular among Chinese people.
In the Song Dynasty, the scale of Chinese bathing Buddha society was very grand. As for the situation of the bathing Buddha at that time, the Tokyo Menghua record said: "on the eighth Buddha's birthday in April, each of the top ten monasteries has a bathing Buddha Festival, fried incense, medicine and sugar water, which is known as the daily custom Buddha water." People believe that drinking the holy water of the Buddha can cure diseases and prolong life. The old stories of Wulin also said: "April 8 is the Buddha's birthday. There are bathing Buddha meetings in various monasteries. Monks and nuns store bronze statues in small pots, soaked in sugar water, covered with flower sheds, Rao pull out and greet each other. They go to the rich room of Di Di and water them with small structures in order to make profits." This means that the temple uses the name of bathing Buddha to make fortune and collect money.
With the bathing Buddha Festival, a variety of Buddhist activities will be held on the eighth day of April, such as charity meeting, bonding, releasing, eating black rice and so on. Good society. It is also called vegetarian meeting, which is called Shantai, where monks invite good men and women to attend vegetarian meeting on the eighth day of April. About ten days before the bath Buddha Festival, the monk's invitation letter has been sent to every Shantai. Each of Shantai who attended the meeting had to bring 200 Wen to make money (known as printing money), just like eating wedding wine and sending gifts now. This meal is not vegetarian. In addition to noodles, there are meat dishes and wine. As both men and women attended the meeting, and there were also Kabuki advocates sitting with them, the participants were very enthusiastic.
Bond. The Chinese people are a nation that attaches great importance to fate. In the Kunqu Opera "the legend of the White Snake", in the play "swimming in the lake and borrowing an umbrella", Zhouzi sang when crossing the boat with Xu Xian, Bai Niangzi and Xiao Qing: "I love the West Lake most. On February day, the boat is accompanied by a gentle wind and rain. Ten generations of people come to cross the boat and a hundred generations of people come to sleep together." This shows that Chinese people regard life together as a precious fate. And fate can be cultivated. Giving up fate beans is a way. According to the records of the imperial scenery, in the Ming Dynasty, when people usually recited the Buddha, they picked up a bean. The more they chanted the Buddha, the more they picked up the bean. On the bathing Buddha Day, all the beans picked in the past year, whether green beans or soybeans, are boiled into salted beans and given to others, called Jieyuan beans. Those who are sent to the beans have to turn around and recite the Buddha according to the method of twisting the beans, count one bean, and then eat the counted beans. " If a woman doesn't see her husband and aunt as gentle, and a cricket and concubine are rejected by the Lord and grandma, she blames herself and says, "she didn't give up beans in her previous life and didn't get popular." Thus, it can be seen that on the Chinese folk bathing Buddha Festival, he gave up beans and formed a bond with people in the next life. Not only that, the practice of counting Buddha beans is also linked with bonding and longevity. In the 71st episode of a dream of Red Mansions, the words of Jia Mu's 80th birthday picking Buddha beans and accumulating longevity appeared. Jia's mother said to Sister Feng, 'you two are here to help the masters and choose Buddha beans for me. You also accumulate longevity. Your sisters and precious jade have chosen before. Now I ask you to choose. Don't say I'm partial. "
Release. In order to celebrate the Buddha's birthday, good men and women also held a release meeting on the bathing Buddha Festival. The practice of releasing life began as early as the Song Dynasty and continues to this day. The old stories of Wulin said: "on April 8, the West Lake held a release meeting. The boat bow was very prosperous, just like a small boat in spring, bidding for the release of turtles, fish, snails and mussels."
Eat black rice. Since the yuan and Ming Dynasties, there has been a custom of eating black rice in temples and folk on the bathing Buddha Festival. Black rice is made by soaking glutinous rice in black tree leaves, soaking it for a few hours, taking it out and cooking it. According to folk legend, on Buddha's birthday, people in the western regions worshipped him with black millet rice. After this custom was introduced into China, it became a folk custom. Black rice is black, shiny, fragrant and delicious. Jiangnan Rural Areas love to eat it in summer. It is said that after eating black rice, you can dispel wind and poison and don't even bite mosquitoes. In addition to Buddhism, it is also said that the custom of eating black rice in the beginning of summer is related to the funeral of sun in the Warring States period. According to legend, Pang Juan was jealous of yin and designed to dig out the knee bone of his classmate sun amine to cripple him.
In order to cheat sun's book of war, Pang Juan pretended to care for sun's funeral and supported sun's funeral with good tea and rice. The process of this matter was known by the old jailer who served sun mo. he secretly told sun funeral that sun funeral realized Pang Juan's insidious and vicious.
In order to frustrate Pang Juan's plot and protect himself, sun funeral deliberately pretended to be crazy and burned all the written war books. Pang Juan had doubts in her heart and was dragged into the pigsty. Who knows, before long, sun's funeral went to sleep with a pig trough. Since then, sun funeral did not eat or drink, and was crazy. The old jailer was very worried when he saw that he was losing weight day by day. His wife knew and said: soak the glutinous rice with black tree leaves, cook it into rice and pinch it into a ball. The color of rice balls and pig dung can not only hide Pang Juan, but also save sun's funeral. In this way, pangjuan gradually relaxed the custody of sun's funeral. Later, Tian Ji of the state of Qi sent someone to rescue sun's funeral. Sun Mo finally took revenge and shot Pang Juan. It is said that sun funeral ate black rice for the first time in the summer of the lunar calendar. In order to commemorate the outstanding militarist, the folk gradually formed the custom of eating black rice at the beginning of the summer.
The bathing Buddha festival was originally the largest festival of Buddhism. With the gradual integration of Buddhism and Chinese traditional culture, the bathing Buddha festival gradually went beyond the high walls of Buddhist temples and became a common folk custom.
Historical origin of bathing Buddha Festival
It began in the Eastern Han Dynasty
The bathing Buddha Festival, which falls on the eighth day of April of the lunar calendar every year, is an important festival for Chinese Buddhists to commemorate the birth of Shakyamuni Buddha, also known as Buddha's birthday festival, guanfo society, Longhua society, Huayan society, etc. Chinese history records that the Buddha's birthday was in the 24th year of King Zhao of Zhou Dynasty (1027 BC). When Sakyamuni was born from the rib of Mrs. moye, he pointed to the sky and the ground with one hand and said, "heaven and the world are unique." So the earth shook and Kowloon spit water to bathe it. Therefore, Buddhists of all nationalities in various countries usually commemorate the birth of Buddha by bathing Buddha.
In 1027 and the 8th day of the fourth month of the Chinese lunar calendar BC, the Buddha was born in northern India, and heaven Kowloon vomits perfume to bathe the prince. Therefore, allusion is one of the important contents of celebration: perfume bathing Buddha. Therefore, bathing Buddha Festival is also known as Buddha birthday.
On the eighth day of the fourth lunar month, the Buddha's birthday was only held in temples in the Eastern Han Dynasty and spread to the people in the Wei, Jin, southern and Northern Dynasties.
It flourished in the Tang Dynasty
Buddha's light shines all over Chang'an, eating fast, chanting scriptures and building temples and nunneries.
Lay men and women give more alms; For good luck in the next life.
It is said that Sakyamuni's birthday falls on the eighth day of April in the lunar calendar. The Buddhist temple often chants scriptures on this day and washes the birth image of Sakyamuni's Prince with various incense and water; Commemorating the birth of Buddha is called bathing Buddha Festival. Buddhist belief in the Tang Dynasty was very prosperous, and Chang'an had more good men and women than charity today.
Song Ming still
The tradition of bathing Buddha still existed in the song and Ming Dynasties. "Tokyo dream records": "on the Buddha's birthday on April 8, each of the top ten Zen temples has a bath Buddha fasting meeting, fried incense, medicine and sugar water, which is called bath Buddha water." "An examination of the past news in the sun": "monks in the capital often record their numbers in beans. On April 8, when the Buddha was born, the boiled beans were sprinkled with salt and invited people to eat on the road. It is still along its old way. "