Zhongyuan Festival is a traditional Chinese festival, which has a long history in China. Zhongyuan Festival is also called ghost festival. At the same time, Zhongyuan Festival is also called Yulan basin Festival by Buddhism. So are the Zhongyuan Festival, ghost festival and Yulan basin festival the same? The small edition of this article brings you the details of Zhongyuan Festival, ghost festival and Yulan basin Festival. Let's have a look.
It is generally believed that Zhongyuan Festival, also known as' Yulan basin Festival 'and' Ghost Festival '. In fact, there are great misunderstandings in this understanding. Ghost Festival, Zhongyuan Festival and Yulan basin Festival belong to folk beliefs, Taoism and Buddhism. The three are juxtaposed, rather than three different names of a festival.
In the folk belief of "Ghost Festival", the whole July of the lunar calendar should be "Ghost Festival". The king of hell opens the ghost door on the first day of July of the lunar calendar every year, releases the ghost to the sun for food and enjoys people's sacrifice. On the last day of July, the ghost door is closed again, and the ghosts have to return to the underworld.
The word "Zhongyuan" in Zhongyuan Festival originates from the ternary theory of Taoism and was officially fixed in the middle and late Tang Dynasty. Wang Jian, a poet of the middle Tang Dynasty, wrote in Gong CI: 'look at the Ramadan of the middle Yuan Dynasty and embroider a real face with gold thread.'
At the end of the Eastern Han Dynasty, Taoism had the theory of "three officials". In the Northern Wei Dynasty, Taoist Kou Qianzhi fabricated the myth of the three Yuan Festival. A man named Chen Zizhu married the three princesses of the Dragon King and gave birth to three brothers, heaven, earth and water, respectively, on the 15th of the first month, July and October. The Zhongyuan Festival is a day for local officials to forgive sins. On this day, Taoists chant scriptures and practice deeds, so as to get ten lonely souls and wild ghosts with three sacrifices and five fruits.
Therefore, the use of the word "Zhongyuan Festival" to refer to July 15 is actually the "underground palace forgiveness day". In folk popular letters, the ghosts sacrificed on this day are not only for their ancestors and relatives, but also lonely souls and wild ghosts.
However, before the formation of the Zhongyuan Festival, the 15th of July had already been expropriated by Buddhism. July in Buddhism was originally a happy month for Buddha, not a 'Ghost Festival'. From April 15 to July 15 every year, monks should settle down in the temple and have peace of mind and enlightenment. They are not allowed to go out. The first day of settling down is the end of summer, and the successful end is the solution of summer. On July 15, the monks were finally able to come out. Many monks practiced satisfactorily. The Buddha saw all this and was as happy as the monks, so it was called the "happy moon".
Why did the Yulan basin festival in July become a "Ghost Festival"
Yulan basin originally meant 'rescue upside down', that is, to save ghosts suffering in hell. The Buddhist Sutra "Yulan basin Sutra" was translated and introduced into China during the Western Jin Dynasty. There was a story of "Mulian saving his mother", which coincided with the still existing concept of filial piety at that time. Later, it was advocated by Xiao Yan, Emperor Liang Wu of the Southern Dynasty, who respected the theory of "three religions sharing the same origin", and designated it as a folk festival. At that time, its main function was to worship the Buddha. Only in the Song Dynasty did it change and develop into a ghost.