Stove Lord and Stove Lord’s Grandma

 

Stove Lord and Stove Lord’s Grandma

 

The origin of Kitchen King has a long history. Among the gods of the Chinese nation, the Kitchen God is the oldest. As far back as the Xia Dynasty, the Kitchen God was already a great god revered by the people.

According to Kong Yingda Shu in the ritual chapter of the ancient book "Book of Rites": "The Zhuanxu family had a son named Li, who was named Zhu Rong and was worshiped as the kitchen god."

"Zhuangzi" Dasheng chapter also records: "The stove has a bun." Sima Biao commented: "The stove god is dressed in red and looks like a beautiful woman."

"Baopuzi" also records in the micro-declaration chapter: "On a night when the moon is dim, the Kitchen God also goes to heaven to whiten people's sins."

These records are probably the source of worship to the Kitchen God. Also, it may be said that the Kitchen God is the "Suiren clan" who drills wood to make fire; or it is said to be the "Fire Officer" of the Shennong clan; or it is said to be "Sujili" who "the Yellow Emperor makes the stove".

But the most widely circulated is the beautiful folk legend of Stove God and Stove God’s grandmother.

According to legend, in ancient times, there was a man Zhang Lang in the Central Plains who married his wife Guo Dingxiang.

This Zhang Lang is lazy and unwilling to work hard. Zhang Lang had neither read any books nor had any family background, but he wanted to make a fortune and gain both fame and fortune. Finally, when he saw several peers in the village going out to work or do business and making money back home, he felt very unconvinced. He thought he was smarter than others, so Zhang Lang decided to go out to do business.

Zhang Lang went around selling small daily necessities such as cloth, needlework and thread, and later some tableware and kitchen utensils. It should be said that it is very hard work, but with no results, it is still a waste of time.

Zhang Lang went out to do business, but there was no news after he left.

Zhang Lang's wife Guo Dingxiang has beautiful features, looks like a fairy, has a gentle temperament, eats fast and chants Buddha's name, and is willing to give charity. Everyone envied Zhang Lang for having a virtuous wife, and the couple had a deep relationship. After Zhang Lang left, the burden of family life fell on his wife Ding Xiang. Ding Xiang worked hard to support her family and buried her parents-in-law who passed away one after another.

Lilac is not only beautiful, but also a good housekeeper. She grows cotton, spins thread, and weaves cloth; grows mulberry, raises silkworms, and weaves brocade, and is good at everything. She always wakes up at midnight and sleeps in the middle of the night. She lives in windy weather and rainy weather, and lives frugally. With her efforts, the family business quickly prospered, and the Zhang family became a well-known wealthy family.

One day, Zhang Lang suddenly went home. Zhang Lang was very surprised to see the large and small stores of grain in his home, as well as countless gold and silver treasures. It turns out that his wife Ding Xiang is a well-known housekeeper. Thinking about returning home empty-handed, I couldn't help but feel ashamed.

However, Ding Xiang comforted him not to worry about the past. As long as the couple loved each other, good days were ahead. The couple's life was indeed prosperous, happy and enviable by everyone.

Unexpectedly, after the Zhang family became rich, Zhang Lang forgot his roots. He began to be greedy for pleasure, idle around all day, and did not do his job properly. He also liked to indulge in women, and liked the new but disliked the old.

Zhang Lang either drank flower wine or played mahjong all day long, and had long forgotten about lilac. Invited by several friends, he went to Zuihua House and met Li Haitang, a prostitute.

Although Li Haitang is pretty, he is cunning and lazy. She kept taking money from Zhang Lang to cheat him into eating and drinking. When Zhang Lang ran out of money, he took the money earned from Lilac.

Li Haitang was still very jealous of Ding Xiang, so she indulged her brother-in-law and called a group of gangsters, who often came to Zhang's house to embarrass Ding Xiang and made the family restless. Later, Li Haitang simply forced Zhang Lang to divorce Ding Xiang.

Zhang Lang was very hesitant. Without Lilac, how would this family survive?

Li Haitang's brother-in-law knew some words, so he said to Zhang Lang: "The great sage Confucius once said that seven kinds of women are not worthy of being wives, that is, those who are disobedient to their parents, those who cannot give birth to sons, those who are promiscuous, and those who are jealous. , disabled, thieves and gossips. Confucius used this as an excuse to divorce his wife. Confucius’s son also divorced his wife, and Confucius’s son’s son also divorced his wife. It can be said to be a model of divorce for three generations. Your current wife Ding Xiang has not given birth to a son or a daughter for you. Isn’t this the end of your family? There is a reason for you to divorce your wife. Sage Confucius could do this, so why can’t you?"

At this time, Li Haitang came to disturb the situation again. She patted her belly and said, "I'm pregnant. If you don't officially marry me, how will I behave in the future? Do you want me to kill the child in my belly? That's The seed you saved!"

Li Haitang's belly is getting bigger and bigger, and she can tell the truth. Zhang Lang thought to himself, that is indeed my seed. Therefore, under the influence of Confucius' seven theories on divorce, Zhang Lang divorced his first wife in the name of Guo Dingxiang's infertility. He officially married prostitute Li Haitang. Li Haitang's brother-in-law is in charge of the family business. He still eats, drinks, has fun and spends money like water all day long.

After Guo Dingxiang was divorced, she had to leave the Zhang family in tears. An old cow pulled a broken cart without any purpose and pulled Lilac to a hut in the mountains, stopped and stopped moving forward.

At this time, an old woman came out of the hut and said to Lilac: "Girl, you don't have to worry, this will be your home from now on."

Ding Xiang got help from the old woman, and this place became Ding Xiang's destination.

Dingxiang and the old woman depended on each other, and she was still very hardworking. She worked hard and took care of the old woman with all her heart. One day, Ding Xiang came to the wilderness, and she suddenly remembered everything at home. She muttered: "My chickens fly with me, and my dogs follow me." Unexpectedly, the chickens she had raised at Zhang Lang's house Then the dogs came.

Ding Xiang then read again: "Follow me the food in the house, and the gold and silver treasures." As soon as she finished speaking, her wish came true.

From then on, Guo Dingxiang settled down in this small mountain and soon lived a life of prosperity and wealth again, but she never remarried.

Besides, since Zhang Lang divorced Guo Dingxiang, he and Li Haitang had nothing to do but eat, drink and have fun all day long. In less than two years, they sold out all their wealth. Most of the family wealth was actually taken away by Li Haitang and her brother-in-law. Li Haitang also abandoned Zhang Lang and flew away.

Zhang Lang became desperate and had to beg on the streets.

On a snowy day with a biting north wind, Zhang Lang was begging and lost in the mountains and forests. Suddenly he saw a house not far away, so he moved his steps and came to the door of this house. By this time, he was so hungry that he had difficulty walking and standing unsteadily. At this time, an old woman opened the door. Seeing how pitiful he was, she helped him into the kitchen, brought him delicious food, and gave him a hearty meal.

Zhang Lang listened to the old woman praising her mistress for being smart, kind and charitable. Unfortunately, she had bad luck and is still alone until now. Zhang Lang admired this hostess very much and really wanted to thank her in person.

Just at this time, the hostess came to the yard, and the old woman hurriedly told Zhang Lang: "Look, my master is here."

Zhang Lang saw the hostess, wearing a golden crown and gorgeous clothes, with a kind face. He kowtowed and saluted, and shouted continuously: "Auntie, auntie, thank you for saving my life!"

The hostess didn't answer, just handed Zhang Lang a bowl of noodles.

Zhang Lang suddenly ate the hairpin and lotus leaf jewelry from when he married Ding Xiang from the noodles handed to him by the hostess, and then he realized that the hostess was his divorced wife Ding Xiang.

At this time, Zhang Lang looked up and took a closer look. The hostess standing in front of him turned out to be his wife Guo Dingxiang, whom he abandoned two years ago. He was ashamed and unspeakable, and had nowhere to hide, but he had nowhere to hide, and there was no place to hide, so he finally had to get into the stove.

Guo Dingxiang saw it and hurriedly followed him. Ding Xiang came to the kitchen and hurriedly wanted to pull Zhang Lang out of the kitchen belly. Poor Zhang Lang was burned alive.

When the kind-hearted Ding Xiang saw this scene, she was filled with grief and anger, and she couldn't bear to live.

That day was the twenty-third day of the twelfth lunar month. From then on, Ding Xiang would always sacrifice her ex-husband Zhang Lang in front of the stove on this day.

What Dingxiang didn't expect was that all the sacrifices Dingxiang provided to Zhang Lang were eaten by the Kitchen King.

It turns out that the Stove Lord is a lazy wild ghost. He is a scheming monkey kidnapper who stole the fairy peaches from the Monkey King's Huaguo Mountain. As a result, his leg was broken by the Monkey King and he was kicked out of the Huaguo Mountain.

The kidnapping monkey hides in the wild during the day, and in the middle of the night, it goes to the kitchens of people's homes to steal food. Neither the "land god" nor the "door god" can control him.

When the Monkey King was making trouble in the Heavenly Palace, the Kidnapping Monkey took the opportunity to find the Taibai Venus and often reported the Monkey King's movements. Taibai Jinxing petitioned the Jade Emperor to help the kidnapper monkey and arranged for him to be the Kitchen God in people's homes, so that he could eat leftover soup and rice on the pot table.

However, it didn't take long for the wild ghost kidnapper monkey to be dissatisfied, so he sent out a message to scare the people: "I will go to heaven to report to the Jade Emperor on the 23rd of the twelfth lunar month and report to him what you said and did during the year." As for who is good and who is bad, it’s up to me.”

In order to prevent the Stove Lord from speaking ill of the Jade Emperor when he went to heaven, people offered two pieces of tofu and a piece of sugar on the pot table that night to make the Stove Lord eat softly and sweetly, so that he could look good in front of the Jade Emperor. Say nice things.

However, the common people still looked down upon him, and every day on the 23rd day of the twelfth lunar month, they would cook a pot of rotten noodles as an offering to him. This was to humiliate him, but they were also afraid of him, for fear that the abducted monkey would stir up trouble in front of the Jade Emperor, so they did not Don't dare to neglect him too much.

The kidnapped monkey accidentally broke into Ding Xiang's kitchen. When he learned that Ding Xiang was rich, he wanted to dominate the kitchen by himself. So the kidnapper monkey drove Zhang Lang out, who was burned to death in the stove's belly.

After Zhang Lang was driven out of Dingxiang's kitchen belly, the big temple didn't dare to keep him, and the small temple couldn't take him in. Zhang Lang's soul could only wander around.

One time, the Jade Emperor visited the lower world and met Zhang Lang's wandering spirit. Thinking that Zhang Lang could recognize his mistakes, he gave him the title of Kitchen King. Let him take charge of delivering messages to the human world and to heaven.

What about the abductor monkey? The Jade Emperor didn't do him a favor either, and made him responsible for supervising the fires in the human world.

Let's say that Guo Dingxiang became depressed and unhappy after she buried her ex-husband Zhang Lang, and passed away soon.

After the Jade Emperor learned of this, considering Guo Dingxiang's character during his lifetime, he named Guo Dingxiang the Kitchen Goddess and asked her to assist the Stove Lord Zhang Lang in doing good deeds for the people. I especially hope that Ding Xiang can use her ability to be diligent and thrifty in housekeeping to help people run their homes well. People respect the Kitchen Goddess very much, and in some places she is also called the "housekeeper woman" or "housekeeper woman".

Since Zhang Lang became the Stove Lord, he would go to heaven once a year to report to the Jade Emperor on the 23rd day of the twelfth lunar month the good and evil deeds of various families he had collected in the world. The Jade Emperor would then promote good and punish evil to protect the world. Peace.

When the people learned that Zhang Lang had become the Stove King, they were filled with awe and fear when they thought of Zhang Lang's life. They were also worried that Zhang Lang would be like a kidnapping monkey, making trouble in front of the Jade Emperor. So on the 23rd of the twelfth lunar month, when the people presented the stove to him, they While kowtowing and saluting the Stove King, he would also chatter: "Kitchen Lord, Stove Lord, God says good things, and the lower world will be safe." He also stuffed candy into his mouth and touched the candy around his mouth, hoping that he would speak sweetly. , Don’t talk nonsense in front of the Jade Emperor.

After Zhang Lang became the Stove King, he realized his mistakes and corrected them, so he never ate any of the candies offered to him by the people.

With the help of Ding Xiang, the Kitchen King Zhang Lang changed his past behavior, became upright, honest and dedicated to the public, eradicated evil and helped the poor, and did many good things for the people. In the area under his jurisdiction, people began to live a peaceful life.

But there will always be some civil disputes in this world. As the official kitchen king who was in charge of people's dietary life, in order to resolve the differences among the people, he thought of a way and issued a general order to the people on the 23rd of the twelfth lunar month, calling on every household to make steamed buns on this night. In some places, it is called "Stove cake".

The stove cake is rolled in sugar, which is very sweet. The Kitchen King asked the people to present stove cakes to each other when offering sacrifices to the stove, to show that relatives and friends should live in harmony and friendship. He did not ask the people to sacrifice sugar to him, but hoped that the people would give it to each other as a sign of harmony and sweetness. This day later actually became a friendship day for the harmony and unity of the Chinese nation.

Under the Kitchen King's call, the people naturally responded one after another, and civil disputes were greatly reduced. In order to commemorate him, people still make steamed buns every family on the night of the 23rd of the twelfth lunar month and give them to each other. Over time, "Zao Cake" has formed the characteristics of "Zao Sacrifice" passed down from generation to generation.

However, the people still continued the tradition and did not forget to sacrifice sugar, but the meaning was to wish the Kitchen God a sweet life and no longer worry that the Kitchen God would speak ill of themselves in front of the Jade Emperor.