The Three Corpse Gods and the Ash-Sweeping Day

 

The Three Corpse Gods and the Ash-Sweeping Day

 

According to Chinese folk custom, after the Stove Festival is held, preparations for the New Year begin formally. Every year from the 23rd day of the twelfth lunar month to New Year's Eve, Chinese folk call this period "Spring Welcome Day", also known as "Ashes Sweeping Day". Sweeping dust is the year-end cleaning, which is called "house sweeping" in the north and "dusting" in the south. Sweeping dust before the Spring Festival is a traditional Chinese habit. Every Spring Festival comes, every household has to clean the environment, wash all kinds of utensils, remove and wash bedding and curtains, sweep the Liulv courtyard, dust away dirt and cobwebs, and dredge open ditches and ditches. From north to south, everywhere is filled with the atmosphere of joyful hygiene and cleanliness to welcome the New Year.

So, how did this custom of sweeping dust come into being?

Interestingly, there is a rather strange story about the origin of dust sweeping in ancient times. Legend has it that the ancients believed that there was a three-corpse god attached to each person's body. Like a shadow, he followed the person's whereabouts and was inseparable.

The "Three Corpse Gods" are called "gods" worshiped in the human body in Taoism. According to the "Tai Shang Three Corpses Zhong Jing": "The upper corpse is named Peng Guo, and it is in the human head; the middle corpse is named Peng Zhi, and it is in the human belly; the lower corpse is named Peng Jiao, and it is in the human foot." It is also said that every time Geng Shen is born, On that day, they went to heaven to report human sins to the Emperor of Heaven; but as long as people stayed up all night on this night, they could avoid it, which was called "Shou Geng Shen".

 

Being able to follow all the people in the world and report their every move to the Jade Emperor in a timely manner is what the Jade Emperor needs most. The Jade Emperor has always been suspicious by nature and always feels that someone is trying to seize his power, murder him, or want to occupy him. His world, his wealth. In fact, all emperors have the Jade Emperor's paranoia.

The Jade Emperor had a jade mirror. He sat in the Golden Palace every day, always holding the jade mirror in his hand, and peering into the jade mirror at every move of human beings. Just like those autocratic dictators setting up surveillance cameras and sending various spies everywhere.

Therefore, although the Jade Emperor is regarded as the emperor of heaven, the Chinese people do not buy his fault and will always publicly scold the Jade Emperor. Gods such as Sun Wukong, Nezha, and the Eight Immortals have all openly opposed the Jade Emperor.

The Jade Emperor liked to listen to small reports, which gave rise to people, gods, and ghosts who liked to make small reports.

One of them is the flatterer Da Jinya. Among the three corpse gods, he belongs to the upper corpse. He often gets into people's heads to cause trouble, making people have wild thoughts and fascination. The middle corpse is the gluttonous king of drowning ghosts. He eats and drinks well. It also has a belly full of bad water, so it likes to hide in people's stomachs. We usually say that someone has a belly full of bad water, full of evil ideas, etc. This is caused by the drowning greedy king getting into people's stomachs to cause trouble; the abductor monkey is because he has been The Monkey King broke his leg and walked with a stagger. What he saw with his eyes was always different, so he loved to speak ill of people behind their backs. The crippled monkey could only be used as a corpse. , always spoiled at the hands of others.

The Three Corpse Gods had mastered the Jade Emperor's tendency to create conflicts, so they continued to cause trouble and harmed many people, including gods.

The kidnapping monkey who had been the Kitchen King for a while was transferred by the Jade Emperor to be in charge of the supervision and management of human kitchen stoves in the Heavenly Court. His position seemed slightly higher than before, but in fact he did not have much power. The only person who could control him was the Heavenly Court Stove. Your Majesty, the Heavenly Stove Lord can sit on an equal footing with the Taishang Laojun. He is the high official in charge of the fireworks in the human world. The kidnapper monkey was both dissatisfied with the Kitchen Lord and dissatisfied that the Kitchen Lord had taken his place. Especially when he saw that the people had to welcome the Kitchen Lord every year and also offered sacrifices and food and drinks, he felt jealous and became more and more intense. .

The kidnapper monkey then colluded with the flatterer Golden Tooth and the drowned ghost King Greedy to form a kingdom of three ghosts, also known as the "Three Corpse Gods".

The Kitchen God's mission is to uphold the sentiments of the people below, but he never speaks ill of the people in front of the Jade Emperor. The reason is very simple. The people were afraid of the punishment of the Emperor of Heaven, so they bribed the Kitchen God and paid hush money.

The three corpse gods united to complain to the Jade Emperor about the Kitchen God. They said to the Jade Emperor: "The Kitchen God is trying to win over the people and wants to replace you as the Jade Emperor."

The Jade Emperor was very angry, so he blamed the Kitchen God: "Why do you always speak ill of me behind my back? You know, there are too many people in the world who say bad things about you, and it is I who have given you everything!"

The Kitchen God smiled and said: "If 99% of the people in the world say bad things about me, I won't care, because what hundreds of people say is not as good as what you say. I don't know whether you are right or not." What do I think? If you don’t have an opinion, why should I care what others say?”

The Jade Emperor was dumbfounded. But he still asked: "Then let me ask you, I sent you to the human world to be the Kitchen King so that you can report their every word and deed in a timely manner. Why don't you report the people saying bad things about me behind my back?"

The Kitchen God argued with reason: "Can you blame me? Everyone knows that you sent me down to earth to monitor their every move. Who among them would say bad things about you in front of me?"

The Jade Emperor was speechless. At this time, the Kitchen God said to him: "Someone has reported to you that I want to usurp the throne of the Emperor of Heaven. Hey, you can ask the gods, who would take orders from a person who is only in charge of the kitchen in the human world? Who would? Do you believe this nonsense?”

The Jade Emperor no longer questioned the Kitchen God, he knew he was in the wrong.

The Three Corpse Gods are all flatterers and gossips. They often spread rumors and cause trouble in front of the Jade Emperor. Seeing that they failed to defeat the Kitchen God this time, they all described the human world as ugly. Over time, in the Jade Emperor's impression, the human world was simply a dirty world full of sin, and there were people everywhere who deliberately wanted to go against him.

Once, the three corpse gods secretly reported that the world was cursing the Emperor of Heaven and wanted to rebel against the Heavenly Court. The Three Corpse Gods said that the people were going to rebel. The Jade Emperor was furious and issued an edict to quickly find out the chaos in the world. Anyone who resented the gods or disrespected the gods would have their crimes written under the eaves. Then let the spider build a web to cover it as a mark.

The Jade Emperor also ordered Wang Lingguan to go down to the realm on New Year's Eve. Anyone who met a family with a spider web mark would be killed without leaving a single person alive.

The Jade Emperor also ordered the three corpse gods to go to the human world to investigate and deal with it seriously. Seeing that this plan was about to succeed, the three corpse gods were very happy, so they took the opportunity to fly down to the mortal world. Regardless of the crime, they viciously marked spider webs on the eaves and corners of each house, so that Wang Lingguan could see it with his own eyes when he came to inspect the human world. Report to the Jade Emperor, and then kill all the people who support the Stove Lord.

While the three corpse gods were doing evil, the Stove Lord of Heaven discovered their whereabouts, which shocked him. The Kitchen Lord in Heaven hurriedly called the Kitchen Lords sent to the human world to discuss countermeasures.

The Kitchen Lord in Heaven said: "You are all Kitchen Lords, and your responsibility is to protect the people. Now that the Three Corpse Gods are doing evil, you must seriously come up with countermeasures and not let the people suffer."

After the Kitchen God returned to the world, he was so depressed at this time that he really couldn't think of anything to do. At this time, Kitchen God's grandma walked up to him with a broom and said: "What's so difficult about this? You can tell every household to clean up before New Year's Eve and sweep away those cobwebs. Wouldn't everything be fine?"

Yes, this is a wonderful idea.

The Stove Lord immediately informed the people: From the day when the stove is delivered on the 23rd of the twelfth lunar month to the day when the stove is received on New Year's Eve, every household must clean the house and prepare for the Jade Emperor and the gods to come to earth for inspection. If a household is not clean, the Kitchen God will refuse to enter the house and cut off the fireworks of that household.

The common people respected the Stove Lord and Stove Grandma very much, so they all followed the Stove Lord's instructions before he ascended to heaven, sweeping the dust, brushing away the cobwebs, cleaning the doors and windows, and making their homes look brand new.

When Wang Lingguan went down to inspect the world on New Year's Eve, he found that the windows of every house were bright and clean, the lights were bright, people were reunited and happy, and the world was extremely beautiful.

Wang Lingguan couldn't find any sign of bad deeds with spider webs, and felt very strange, so he rushed back to heaven and reported the truth to the Jade Emperor about the peace and happiness in the world and praying for a happy new year.

After hearing this, the Jade Emperor was furious and issued an edict to imprison the three corpse gods. He ordered that they should be slapped three hundred times and imprisoned forever in the heavenly prison.

Thanks to the timely notification of this catastrophe by the Heavenly Lord Zao, and the rescue by the Lord Zao and Zao Nai, the people were spared the disaster. In order to express gratitude to the Stove Lord for helping people eliminate disasters and blessing Zhang Xiang, the people always start sweeping the dust after delivering the stove, and they are busy until New Year's Eve.

The custom of "dusting and sweeping the house on the twenty-fourth day of the twelfth lunar month" actually has a long history. According to "Lu's Spring and Autumn Annals", my country had the custom of sweeping dust during the Spring Festival in the era of Yao and Shun. According to folklore: because "dust" and "chen" are homophonic, sweeping dust in the New Year means "removing the old and spreading the new", and its purpose is to sweep away all "poor luck" and "bad luck". This custom also entrusts people with their desire to destroy the old and establish the new and to say goodbye to the old and usher in the new. So it has been passed down to this day.