The legend of pasting the word "福"

 

Chapter 4 Exorcism

 

The legend of pasting the word "福"

 

Before the Lunar New Year, all parts of China are full of festive atmosphere. Posting the New Year red is the biggest priority for Chinese people during the Spring Festival. Pasting New Year red is a traditional Chinese New Year custom. It reflects the customs and beliefs of the people, adds to the festive atmosphere, and expresses people's good expectations for the new year and new life.

Pasting New Year's red is the collective name for pasting Spring couplets, door gods, New Year pictures, blessing characters, horizontal batches, window grilles, etc. Since these are red festive elements posted during the New Year, they are collectively called "posting New Year's red".

There is a popular saying among the people that "On the twenty-sixth day of the twelfth lunar month, the meat is cut for the New Year": "On the twenty-sixth day of the twelfth lunar month, the pigs are killed and the meat is cut off" or "The twenty-sixth lunar month, the meat is cut off", which means that on this day, the meat is mainly prepared for the New Year. Therefore, it is called "New Year Meat". In some local villages, this day is a big market day. People from the villages around the market go to the market to buy New Year goods. Cigarettes, wine, fish, meat, firecrackers and gifts for visiting relatives are also indispensable. The flavor of the New Year has gradually begun. It became thicker. In the past, the lives of ordinary people in some places were relatively poor. They finally looked forward to the Chinese New Year, and the laborers at home began to kill pigs. Those who did not raise pigs would go to the market to cut a piece of meat and take it home. Therefore, the 20th day of the twelfth lunar month Six stewed pork is also known as "the twenty-sixth day of the twelfth lunar month, killing pigs and cutting new year's meat".

According to traditional folk customs, people should intensively bathe and wash clothes during these two days to get rid of the bad luck of the year and prepare for the coming New Year. As the saying goes: taking a bath on the 26th of the twelfth lunar month is "to wash away fortune and fortune", and "on the 27th, to wash away guilt and illness".

There is a New Year's ballad in some places in the north: "On the twenty-eighth day of the twelfth lunar month, make cakes, steamed buns and applique flowers" or "On the twenty-eighth day, make noodles." The so-called decals refer to New Year pictures, Spring Festival couplets, window grilles and various Spring Festival decorations. There is a saying in Guangdong: "On the 28th day of the twelfth lunar month, wash away the filth", which means that on the 28th day of the twelfth lunar month, the whole family should stay at home to clean up and put up Nianhong (huishun) to welcome the new year.

During the Spring Festival, people in many areas like to paste various paper cuts on their windows: window grilles. Window grilles not only enhance the festive atmosphere, but also bring people beautiful enjoyment, integrating decoration, appreciation and practicality.

Hanging money has a long history. Because the name contains the word "money", hanging them under the eaves in front of the door indicates that wealth will roll in in the new year.

During the Spring Festival, every household in some places pastes large and small inverted "福" characters on their doors, walls and lintels. It is a long-standing folk custom to paste the word "福" upside down during the Spring Festival, which is homophonic to "福 has arrived".

During the Spring Festival, every household will paste the word "福" (福), large and small, on their doors, walls and lintels. Posting the word "福" during the Spring Festival is a long-standing folk custom in my country. According to "Meng Liang Lu" records: "On New Year's Day, we shop for department stores, paint door-god peach charms, and welcome the Spring Festival..."; "Every family of scholars and common people, big or small, sweeps the door, removes dust, cleans the courtyard, and The door god hangs a bell, nails peach charms, puts up spring signs, and offers sacrifices to the ancestors."

The current meaning of the word "福" is "happiness", but in the past it meant "blessing" and "luck". Posting the word "福" during the Spring Festival, whether now or in the past, expresses people's yearning for a happy life and their wishes for a better future.

Legend has it that the folk custom of posting "blessings" began when Jiang Taigong was enthroned as a god. The gods and goddesses from all walks of life were well assigned, and Jiang Taigong's ugly and vulgar wife also reached out to ask for the throne. Jiang Taigong was helpless, so he named her the "God of Poor" and stipulated that she could not go anywhere where the word "Fu" was posted. As a result, the common people posted "blessings" on their homes and set off firecrackers to drive away this unpopular "god of poverty".

In order to more fully reflect this yearning and wish, people simply paste the word "福" upside down, which means "happiness has fallen" and "blessing has arrived". There is also a folk legend about the word "福" being pasted upside down.

Zhu Zhang, Taizu of the Ming Dynasty, used the word "福" as a secret sign to prepare for murder. The kind-hearted Queen Ma decided to avoid the tragedy of killing, so she ordered everyone in the city to put a label with the character "福" on their doors before dawn. Naturally, no one dared to disobey Queen Ma's will, so everyone put a label with the character "福" on their doors. One of the families was illiterate and actually pasted the word "福" upside down.

On the next day, the emperor sent someone to check the streets and found that every family had pasted the stickers with the character "福", and one family had the character "福" upside down. The emperor was furious after hearing the report, and immediately ordered the imperial guards to kill the entire family.

When Empress Ma realized what happened, she hurriedly said to Zhu Yuanzhang, "that family knew you are coming today, so they deliberately turned the label with the character "福" upside down. Doesn't that mean "luck arrives"?"

As soon as the emperor heard the truth, he ordered the people to be released, and the catastrophe was finally eliminated. From then on, people began to paste the character "福" upside down, firstly to bring good luck, and secondly to commemorate Queen Ma.

There is also a legend that on the eve of the Spring Festival that year, the chief steward of Prince Gong’s Mansion in the Qing Dynasty wrote several big words of “福” as usual and asked people to paste them on the gate of the palace. There was a servant who was illiterate and pasted the word "福" upside down. Prince Gong Fujin was very angry and wanted to punish him with a whip. But the chief steward was an eloquent person and hurriedly knelt down and stated: "I have often heard people say that Prince Gong lives a long life and is blessed with great fortune. Now the great fortune has really arrived. This is a sign of joy."

When Prince Gong heard this, he thought it was reasonable and thought: "No wonder the passers-by said that Prince Gong was blessed. He said auspicious words a thousand times and gained thousands of gold and silver. An unlearned slave would never have thought of such a move!" Rewarding the housekeeper and servant fifty taels of silver each, this is really a blessing in disguise!

Many people think that the word "福" should be pasted upside down, which means "luck arrives". In fact, this is a "mouthpiece" that makes mistakes. In traditional folk customs, there are only three situations where "blessings" can be pasted upside down: first, someone's family encountered a catastrophic disaster last year, and they will post it upside down in order to reverse their luck; second, it can be posted on toilets, footbaths, spittoons, and trash cans. The word "福" is pasted upside down, which means pouring out bad things; the third case is just to get "favor".

But there is also the word "blessing" that must not be reversed, and that is Kangxi's imperial pen - the best blessing in the world.

In 1673 AD, Kangxi "asked for blessings and longevity" for his grandmother, the Empress Dowager Xiaozhuang, and wrote the "blessing of longevity" that shocked the ancient and modern times. The only blessing of "five blessings in one" and "luck and longevity in one". Xiaozhuang "asks for blessings and gathers blessings", while Kangxi "sends blessings and gets blessings", so this blessing is called "the most efficacious blessing in the world". The blessing is topped with the seal "Treasure of Kangxi's Royal Brushstrokes", which means "good luck is at hand and good fortune is shining brightly"...

Emperor Kangxi of the Qing Dynasty loved calligraphy throughout his life, but rarely wrote inscriptions. Therefore, Kangxi's imperial pen was the least popular among all the emperors' pen and ink. This is why there is a saying that "one word of Kangxi is worth a thousand pieces of gold". Legend has it that only three words have been handed down from Kangxi's life: "Wuwei" and "Fu".

  "Inaction" is now in the Forbidden City, and "The Best Blessing in the World" is on the monument with the word "福" in Prince Gong's Mansion in Beijing. Legend has it that Emperor Kangxi lost his mother when he was young and was raised by the Empress Dowager Xiaozhuang. However, during the heyday of Kangxi, the Empress Dowager Xiaozhuang fell seriously ill. Kangxi was eager to save his grandmother, and he translated his filial piety into his writing style. He created the combined character "Fu and Shou" that shocked the ancient and modern times. He then recruited skilled craftsmen from all over the world to carve it on a large bluestone, and carried the stele with the word "福" on his back to the Hall of Prayer for Good Harvests. Sacrifice to the gods. In order to show his filial piety, Emperor Kangxi knelt on the monument with the character "福" and prayed. God had a spirit, and Empress Dowager Xiaozhuang miraculously recovered. Emperor Kangxi took the monument with the character "福" back to the palace and enshrined it in the Buddhist pavilion.

After Qianlong succeeded to the throne, he bestowed "the greatest blessing in the world" on his favorite minister Heshen. Heshen ordered thousands of Taihu stones to be transported and built into a giant dragon in the back garden of his residence. The location of this dragon Just on the dragon vein of the capital, he hid the "best blessing in the world" in the dragon's cave and worshiped it carefully.

Since the reform and opening up, the State Administration of Cultural Heritage has repaired the stele with the word "福" and designated it as one of the "Three Wonders of China" cultural relics. Many overseas celebrities came here to pray for blessings and to honor their elders with hanging scroll rubbings. Foreign heads of state visiting China also came to admire "the best blessing in the world". The inscription of the "Fu" stele has also become one of the national gifts, given to distinguished guests at home and abroad, and the gospel of China has spread widely since then.

However, due to the use of herbs during rubbings, if not restricted, the stele will be completely weathered over time. Therefore, the relevant national departments have sealed the stele with a glass cover and banned rubbings. Looking at the word "福" written by Emperor Kangxi himself, it is strong and powerful. The stroke in the upper right corner looks like the word "many", the lower part is the word "田", and the right radical is very similar to the word "shou", so this The word "福" also contains the profound meaning of "many children, many talents, many clothes, many fields, many blessings and longevity". What is even more precious is that the seal of Kangxi's imperial seal is engraved directly on the top of the stele to express blessings. This is unmatched by other historical monuments, so the word "Fu" cannot be pasted upside down.

According to legend, whoever can bring back this "best blessing in the world" to the elderly at home will definitely be able to bring blessings and longevity to the elderly. There is still a certain amount of emphasis on the word "福" after you invite it back. You must hang it out on New Year's Eve, clean your hands and offer incense every day, and touch the word "福" with your hands at night, from bottom to top. The higher you touch, the longer you will live. On the fifteenth day of the first lunar month, you must put it away and hide it deeply. This is called "touching the year to increase blessings and longevity." It can only be hung out on the Dragon Boat Festival, Mid-Autumn Festival, Double Ninth Festival, Winter Solstice, and New Year's Eve in the coming year.

Speaking of the word "福", in fact, there were different structures of the word "福" on the bronze inscriptions of the Shang and Zhou Dynasties more than 3,000 years ago. Later, with the emergence of ancient seal script, small seal script, official script, cursive script, regular script, running script and other fonts, more and more calligraphy with the word "福" became more and more artistic. "" focuses on various ways of writing the word "福", which is breathtaking. "Hundred Blessings Picture" has two forms: one is a special-shaped pattern based on seal script, which is the circular pattern of the word "福" that has been circulated among the people for a long time. The font shape is steady, uniform, dignified, and extremely interesting. and charm; one is a rectangular pattern composed of hundreds of different writing methods of Zhen, Cao, Li and Zhuan. The word "福" is not only an object used by people to pray for peace and good luck, but also reflects the breadth, depth and various changes of Chinese calligraphy.

In addition, paper-cutting is also one of the artistic forms of the word "福". The works of the ancients have no longer survived due to their long history, but there are many modern masterpieces.

In addition to the word "福" written or cut on paper, the characters "福" on some buildings are often artistically processed by people who yearn for happiness. In the old days, when some wealthy families in the north wrote and engraved large-scale blessing characters on their screen walls, they changed the radical "shi" into a dog's head, which was called "dog-head blessing". In private houses in Shaoxing, Zhejiang, especially in rural areas, people in the old days especially liked to write large "福" characters on the corners of the gables on both sides, with white walls and black characters, which were particularly eye-catching from a distance. Some paint the entire gable black with bituminous coal mixed with glue, leaving the word "福" in white to make it more prominent. This authentic folk custom is full of rich local flavor. The word "福" written on the wall often has vivid and changeable glyphs, which is very interesting.

Some draw two bats on the left and right corners of the word "福", which means "blessings everywhere"; some pattern the word "福" and combine it with auspicious patterns such as deer heads, longevity star heads or peaches, which is very interesting and interesting. Artistic, embodies people's pursuit and yearning for happiness, wealth and longevity. On the ancient wall of a Zhong family in Bailu Village, Bailu Township, Gan County, Jiangxi Province, a pattern of the word "福" left over from the Ming and Qing Dynasties is preserved. The figure is a square rectangle, about 100 cm long and 75 cm wide. It is engraved in the center of the screen wall in front of the main hall. The whole picture is written with strong force and smoothness, showing the word "福" written neatly and flexibly. The upper left part of the character depicts a "turning deer" with a bat spreading its wings below.

According to the Hakka transliteration, "deer" means fortune; "bat" means blessing to the people. It means "blessings and wealth are connected, and wealth lasts forever"; the upper right part of the character depicts the head and neck of a crane and auspicious clouds in the sky, followed by a neatly crafted word "田". The crane in the sky symbolizes longevity, and the character "田" However, it represents multiple meanings such as fields, land, farming, etc. Its unchanged glyph reflects people's yearning for and dependence on land ownership. Looking at the whole picture, it is not difficult to remind people of the world's desire for a happy life such as "good fortune starts from the edge of the field, longevity rises from the ground, and when you have a good fortune, you never forget farming."

Folks also use the word "Fu" to make various patterns in detail, such as longevity stars, longevity peaches, carps jumping over dragon gates, good harvests, dragons and phoenixes, etc. In the past, there was a folk saying that "on the twenty-fourth day of the twelfth lunar month, every family wrote the word "福". In the past, the word "福" was mostly handwritten, but now it is sold in markets and shops.