Peace and prosperity in ancient China were indeed short-lived and rare. Decades of chaos and treatment. Separated for a long time, then separated. And this flickering old star is an excellent symbol of this turbulent situation. But just one symbol is not enough. Ancient people's observation of astronomical phenomena and astrology has a strong practical and utilitarian purpose. So where is the practical value of the Antarctic old man star? Perhaps it lies in his status as an elderly person and his ability to carry an important ethical value-that is, respecting the elderly and filial piety.
During the reign of Emperor Hanming in East China, he presided over the ceremony of worshipping the birthday girl. He personally offered sacrifices and read a eulogy. At the same time, a special banquet was arranged for all the old people. Looking around the world, anyone over 70 years old, whether noble or civilian, is eligible to be the guest of Emperor Han Ming. After the banquet, the emperor also presented wine and meat, Gu Mi and a beautifully made walking stick.
This great event was recorded in the Book of Rites of Han Dynasty, and it was a great initiative of Emperor Han Ming to commend the longevity stars in the sky and the elderly on earth.
Historical Records, Zen Buddhism, Shouxing Temple, Suoyin Shouxing, in which the old star of the South Pole is covered to make the world safe, so the temple uses it to pray for longevity: Song Loujian's four poems, Rose Collection, depict leaves and say, "Add pine and bamboo as the birthday star, I would like to die." Later, it was compared to people living long. Fiona Fang's answer to the poem "The Birthday of the Reform Movement of 1898" in "The Continuation of Tongjiang" is: "Every birthday is celebrated by guests, and the birthday girl is sent by neighbors."
Respecting the elderly is the embodiment of good nature. Emperor Han Ming took this opportunity to show his virtue of respecting the elderly, which is undoubtedly a political show that won the hearts of the people. Not only did he advocate it, but Emperor Han Ming also granted privileges to the elderly. The scepter issued at the banquet is proof.
The king's staff, also called the pigeon's staff, is because the top of the staff is a statue of a turtledove bird. The emperor gave the old man a pigeon stick. It is said that because pigeons are a kind of bird that won't choke to death, it may mean that they want the elderly to eat healthily and live a long and healthy life. So what privilege does this crutch represent?
198 1 year, a number of Han bamboo slips were discovered in Wuwei, Gansu province, in which a number of criminal cases were recorded, and several of them involved privileged elderly people holding wands. The first one is about a man from Wang Xing, a civilian in Runan. He beat an old man with a stick, was later beheaded and dumped his body in a downtown area. The second is about a junior official at the grassroots level in the Han Dynasty who detained an old man without authorization because he was suspected of breaking the law. Although he was not beaten, he was publicly executed and beheaded. Judging from the judgment results of these two cases, they all show intentional bias towards the old man with sticks. In other commercial laws of Han Dynasty recorded in bamboo slips, we also found that the old people with sticks also had incomparable advantages in business: in the imperial edict issued by Emperor Chengdi of Han Dynasty in 32 BC, it was stipulated that elderly couples without children were allowed to operate alcohol business, and all of them were tax-free. Businessmen who voluntarily take care of the lonely elderly can also get tax-free treatment, and they can open stores to sell alcohol without paying taxes. Throughout the Han dynasty literature, similar imperial edicts are recorded from time to time. Why can you have privileges when you are old, and why does the Han government strictly legislate to enforce respect for the elderly and filial piety?
This is because respecting the elderly is not only a virtue, but also the filial piety ethics derived from it is the foundation of the feudal dynasty. The core of filial piety is obedience to patriarchy. In the relationship between heaven and earth and five elements advocated by Confucianism, the relationship between monarch and minister is equivalent to that between father and son. Therefore, advocating filial piety is actually praising the character of loyal subjects.
Since the Antarctic Old Man undertakes such an important educational task, it is not surprising that ancient astrologers say that he is the birthday star related to the rise and fall of national luck. But the strong political color made him deviate from the original meaning of praying for a long life. Ordinary people are more concerned about how to live forever. Therefore, Taoism provides a solution by shaping a long-lived successful practitioner.
The legend of Peng Zu, the birthday girl
Pengshan Town, Meishan City, Sichuan Province is the hometown of Peng Zu recorded in Huayang National Records. For Pengshan people, the birthday girl in the sky is Peng Zu on earth, because he keeps the highest longevity record-767 years old. This statement comes from Ge Hong's Taoist book The Legend of Immortals in the Eastern Jin Dynasty.
767 is not credible, but Peng Zu seems to exist in history. Historical Records of Chu Family records his distinguished family background. He is the grandson of Zhuan Xu, one of the five emperors. From Xia Dynasty to Shang Dynasty, children lived for nearly 800 years. The story about his longevity has been circulated as early as the Qin and Han Dynasties. Qu Yuan mentioned him in his long poem Tian Wen, and Confucius and Zhuang Zhou also regarded him as a model of longevity in their own works.
Although Peng Zu is not a star official in the sky, people are convinced that he has mastered a set of methods of keeping in good health and is a successful person who achieves immortality through practice in real life. That's why people combine him with the birthday boy.
Can live to be 767 years old. What is this life-saving regimen? According to Zhuangzi Deliberately, Peng Zushou is a good candidate to learn from the old, to learn from the new, to spread the bear, and to guide the way. What about the bear that is guided by the bird's stretching?
The so-called bear sutra refers to imitating the climbing action of bears, and the so-called bird stretching refers to imitating the posture of birds, especially cranes, spreading their wings and leading their necks. Therefore, Peng Zu's pull-up technique is actually a kind of fitness gymnastics that imitates the body movements of animals.
Pre-Qin Taoism believed that heaven and earth were immortal and eternal. It is a great virtue for heaven and earth to turn everything into life. People think that heaven is kind, and it should teach people the art of longevity while giving life. But later, people were immersed in the superficial happiness brought by various material desires and utilitarianism, so they gradually lost their longevity instinct. But there is a remedy, and that is to learn from animals in nature.
Imitating a bear is because it can hibernate for several months without eating. Health experts think it is because it is familiar with the art of eating gas and avoiding food. The reason why I imitated the crane seems to be that I took a fancy to his elegance and freedom when I was in the air; Maybe people should be as carefree as cranes when they imagine that they will live forever.
Since Wei and Jin Dynasties, the theory of Taoist health preservation has gradually formed a system. There are dozens of Peng Zu's works, including Peng Zu's Toning Heaven Classic, Peng Zu's Theory of Keeping Healthy and Toning Heaven, and Peng Zu's Toning Heaven Emergency Prescription. In addition to guiding qigong, alchemy, traditional Chinese medicine and other theories of health preservation and treatment, it also involves cooking and eating, room surgery and so on.
Taoist classics have long talked about these two physiological needs, "food, color and sex", which are considered to be the innate desires of human beings. Contrary to the attitude that Confucianism regards it as a scourge, Peng Zu's way of keeping in good health does not shy away from talking about color change, and regards it as an important cultivation content.
By eating, I mean eating and cooking. In the past, the chef world regarded Peng Zu as a granddaddy. Every year, on Peng Zu's birthday, the national culinary masters gather in Pengzu Temple outside the East Gate of Xuzhou to pay tribute to Peng Zu's grandfather. Because Peng Zu was the first foodie and skilled chef on record. As early as in Qu Yuan's Tian Wen, it was mentioned that Peng Zu prepared wild chicken soup for Yao Di.
Peng Zu's superb cooking can actually cure anorexia, so the idea of eating a healthy and long life is easily accepted by people.
Dietary cooking was immediately incorporated into the theory of health preservation, supplemented by guidance for fitness. Imitating the body movements of long-lived animals can live forever, and there is a more direct way to eat. So so-called longevity animals such as turtles, deer and turtles have become longevity tonics. By guiding gymnastics and cooking delicious food, we can achieve the goal of fitness and longevity.
Then, why is room surgery also regarded as an important part of health theory? This is because the ancients attached men and women to heaven and earth, and heaven and earth handed over and transformed everything, and men and women joined hands to carry on the family line, so sexual intercourse between men and women was a way to imitate the harmony between heaven and earth. According to the Taoist theory of keeping in good health, house art is also a method of cultivating immortals.
Legend of the image of the birthday girl
Due to the integration of the Taoist concept of health preservation, the image of the longevity has also changed accordingly. The most prominent thing is his huge forehead. This is a mural of Yongle Palace in Shanxi, which may be the oldest image of the birthday girl. Among thousands of immortals in Yongle Palace, we can recognize him at a glance because he has a super brain.
There are many speculations about the origin of the brain portal. Some people think that the forehead comes from the phenomenon of youthfulness, and the elderly and children are similar in many physical characteristics. For example, newborn babies have less hair, and so do old people. Moreover, if you have less hair, you will naturally have a big forehead.
The forehead of the birthday girl is also closely related to the image of longevity shaped by ancient health preservation. For example, the red-crowned crane's head bulges very high. Another example is longevity peach, which was specially offered at the flat peach meeting of the Queen Mother. Legend has it that it blooms for 3,000 years, but bears fruit for 3,000 years, and becomes immortal immediately after eating it. Perhaps it is precisely because of the fusion and superposition of these longevity images that the forehead of the birthday girl is finally created.
The change of the crutch of the birthday girl shows the weakening of its political education function. The king's scepter carved with turtledoves, which originally symbolized privilege, was replaced by a mahogany cane. It is said that peach wood can get rid of diseases, strengthen the body and prolong life.
The folklore of the Han nationality is that there is a place where evil spirits live in the northeast of the earth, and there is a door called the gate of all ghosts to keep evil spirits out. It is said that this door was made of peach wood by the Emperor of Heaven. For safety reasons, two peach trees were planted in front of the door to ward off evil spirits. Interestingly, modern scientific research has found that the juice of peach trees does contain some special ingredients that inhibit the growth of bacteria. In the past, Chinese medicine also used peach branches blindly. People thought that the peach branches were facing the northeast, that is, towards the gate of hell, and the drug effect was the best. The scepter, which used to symbolize privilege, has now become a longevity mascot for the birthday boy to get rid of illness and strengthen his body.
The local legend of the birthday girl
Shouxing Street in Changsha, Hunan Province is named after a large-scale Shouxing Temple. According to local records, Shouxing Temple was built here as early as the Tang Dynasty and lasted until the Republic of China. It is said that incense is very popular, and many people come here to burn incense and pray for the blessing of the birthday girl.
Walking more than 100 miles south, you can reach the real blessed land of longevity-Mount Hengshan in Nanyue, which is often mentioned in couplets. During the Tang and Song Dynasties, there were no fewer than ten manjuji, and the existing Wanshou Pavilion was a relic of the Song Dynasty.
However, the god worshipped by Mount Hengshan in ancient Nanyue was not the immortal star, but the immortal emperor in Antarctica. This Nanyue Temple, built in the Tang Dynasty, was specially built for him. The gods of the five mountains in the southeast and northwest all evolved from the worship of natural mountain gods. The so-called longevity of Antarctic longevity may also come from the ancient people's imagination of the southern climate. The birthday girl's position in the sky happens to be in the south, so it is easy for her to hear her burning incense to show her piety.
In the folklore of the Han nationality in later generations, the immortal emperor of the Antarctic and the old star of the Antarctic are often confused, perhaps because both names have the concept of the South Pole, which is close to longevity. In the genealogy of Taoist immortals, the status of these two immortals is much higher than that of Peng Zu. Although Peng Zu has a long life, he is a historical figure, not as noble as the Antarctic emperor and the Antarctic old man.
Therefore, when it comes to longevity, Antarctic old age or Antarctic fairy Weng is the most famous.
Since the Yuan and Ming Dynasties, the ranks of Taoist immortals have been growing, and it is necessary for immortals to bless immortality. For example, the Great Antarctic, the Southern Beidou, the Zodiac Salvation King, the 36-day plough, and the 60-life core tablet Jiazi God. , all have the function of blessing longevity. Uncontrolled creation of gods leads to decentralization of power, which greatly weakens the divinity of the birthday girl. The Ming government ordered the cancellation of the national system of offering sacrifices to the birthday girl since Qin and Han Dynasties. The birthday girl completely removed the political color, strode into the Han people, and became the most secular fairy in ancient China.
In the past, people in pengshan county always hung up the portrait of the birthday girl when celebrating the old people's birthdays. Although asking God to come down to earth is often a mere formality, it is real that the birthday party can win the happiness of the elderly. Family reunion, children and grandchildren, but also enjoy wine and food, enjoy family happiness. Such a scene is a family ceremony to express filial piety and affection, and the portrait of the birthday girl is an indispensable auspicious symbol.
The custom of celebrating birthdays was not popular at first, which may stem from a simple concept: because people think their birthdays are actually Mother's Good Friday. Remember the kindness of parents, which is out of harmony with the festive atmosphere of birthday. It was not until the Ming and Qing Dynasties that the custom of celebrating the birthday of the elderly gradually rose. Several unprecedented events in the prosperous period of Kanggan made the birthday customs of Han people flourish. The most luxurious birthday party in history is a thousand banquets hosted by Emperor Qianlong. This year, Qianlong was 74 years old, and he had five generations of great-grandchildren, claiming to be the ancient emperor and a perfect old man. He sent a letter, on behalf of more than 6,000 people, inviting people over 60 to the Forbidden City for their birthdays.
This painting called "Wanshou Festival" depicts the grand occasion at that time. Old people were invited to dinner with the help of their families, all over the streets of Beijing.
Since the Qing Dynasty, it has become a routine to celebrate the birthday of the elderly. And gradually formed a complex etiquette ostentation and extravagance, some old rules have been inherited to this day.
For example, the principle of birthday age is generally an integer life, that is, 40, 50, 60. However, since the 1970s, there have been a lot of sayings. 77 is also called Happy Birthday, because the abbreviation of Happy Birthday is 77 when Lian Bi opened it, and 88 is also called Mi Shou, which is also a word opening statement.
This is because there are very few people over 70 years old, and one more sentence gives the old people another chance to have a family reunion and make them happy. After you 100 years old, do it every year, and do it with great fanfare. This is a sign of filial piety for children, hoping to bring more happiness to the elderly. Attaching importance to family ties, respecting the old and loving the young are important components of China's traditional morality. Birthday ceremony is the externalized form of this virtue.
Although the birthday girl no longer has majestic divinity, it has been passed down from generation to generation because of the needs of the folk ethical life of the Han nationality.