Tiger earth god

 

Tiger earth god

 

Sacrifice to gods is an important sacrificial activity during the Spring Festival. According to custom, there are too many gods in China. The main god worshiped during the Spring Festival is the Kitchen God, as well as the Earth God, the Five Gods of Wealth, and the Three Star Gods of Fortune, Fortune, and Shou.

Worshiping the Earth God during the Spring Festival is an important folk ritual activity. The tiger has a particularly close relationship with the earth god.

The legendary land god is an old man with white beard, white hair, pleasant smile and good fortune. He is dressed like a local official in ancient times. He wears a hat with two cloth whiskers hanging down from the brim of the hat. He usually wears ordinary casual clothes, has a round and plump face, slightly narrowed eyes, and a kind smile. He is kind-hearted, honest and helpful. Next to the statue of Tuigong God depicted based on this image, there will also be a tiger accompanying it. It is said that this tiger can also eliminate harm to the people and is called the Tiger God.

The God of the Earth, also known as "Earth God", "Earth God" and "Earth God", is one of the most common gods in folk belief. It is popular in Han areas and is also believed in by some ethnic minorities influenced by Han culture. The land god is a local patron god in folk belief. During the Republic of China (1949) and before, wherever Han people lived, the land god was worshiped. In traditional Chinese culture, offering sacrifices to the earth god means offering sacrifices to the earth. In modern times, it mostly means praying for blessings, ensuring peace, and ensuring harvests. However, the God of Earth is a lower-status deity among the Taoist gods.

In general folk beliefs, most gods have clear origins, but the origins of earth gods are many.

Legend has it that Zhang Fude, an official of the Zhou Dynasty, was born on February 2, the second year of King Wu of the Zhou Dynasty. He was smart and filial since he was a child. At the age of thirty-six, he became the chief tax collector of the court. He was an upright official, diligent and caring for the people, until the death of King Mu of the Zhou Dynasty in the third year of his life. When he was 102 years old, there was a poor family who built a stone house with four big stones to worship him. Soon, he turned from poverty to wealth. The people believed in God's blessing and jointly built a temple and worshiped him with a golden body. They named him and respected him as "Fu Fu". "The God of Righteousness", so businessmen often worship him in order to develop their business.

It is also said that Zhang Mingde (or Zhang Fude), a servant of a high-ranking official in the Zhou Dynasty, was sent to a distant place to serve as an official, leaving behind a young daughter at home. Zhang Mingde took his daughter to look for her father, but encountered a snowstorm on the way and took off his clothes to protect the master, so he froze to death on the way. When he was about to die, nine characters "Nantianmen Daxian Fu Zhengshen" appeared in the air, and he was given the title of a loyal servant. In memory of his loyalty, the superior built a temple to worship him. King Wu of Zhou was moved and said: "A person with such a heart can be called a doctor." Therefore, there are those who wear the prime minister's hat in the land.

After the Ming and Qing Dynasties, people began to use celebrities as their land. For example: the land enshrined by the Hanlin Academy and the Ministry of Civil Affairs in the Qing Dynasty was passed down to Han Yu, a great scholar in the Tang Dynasty. The Taixue area in Hangzhou was originally the hometown of Yue Fei, so Taixue worshiped Yue Fei as the god of the land. Nowadays, Tutu Mother-in-Law is often enshrined in Tutu Temple, and its custom dates back to the Southern Song Dynasty.

The God of the Earth is the God of Wealth worshiped by businessmen. On the second and sixteenth day of every month, people worship the God of the Earth, which is called "making a tooth" (or making teeth). The second day of the second lunar month is called "Tou Hao" and the 16th day of December is called "Wei Hao". In particular, Wei Ya merchants invite employees to have a "Wei Ya" banquet to thank their employees for their hard work over the past year.

The earth gods worshiped are all kind-faced old men with white beards and white hair. Sometimes they are accompanied by earth women, and sometimes they are just the earth gods. According to folklore, when the Jade Emperor appointed the Earth God to descend to earth, he asked him what his ambitions were. The Earth God hoped that everyone in the world would become rich and live a happy life. But the landlady opposed it. She believed that people in the world should be rich and poor, so that they could divide labor and cooperate to fulfill social functions.

The Earth God said: "Then, aren't poor people too pitiful?"

The landlady retorted: "If everyone becomes rich, who will help carry the sedan when our daughter gets married?"

The God of the Land had nothing to say, and therefore gave up the idea that "everyone would be happy". Only then did the world have the huge gap between rich and poor today. The world thinks that the Earth Goddess is selfish and an "evil woman" who refuses to worship her, but she highly respects the Earth God. However, it is also said that the landlady later changed her mind and allowed the rich to help the poor get rich. Therefore, some poor people did not forget to worship the land goddess when offering sacrifices to the earth god.

The main responsibility of the land god is to protect the peace and tranquility of the village, and to be in charge of the household registration of the deceased in the village. He is the administrative god of the underworld. Since the Eastern Jin Dynasty, with the gradual improvement of the feudal country's bureaucratic system from the central to the grassroots level, the land god has also evolved into the lowest level god in the Taoist hierarchy who can only manage the local area. Volume 5 of "Sou Shen Ji" of the Eastern Jin Dynasty states that Jiang Ziwen, a native of Guangling, died chasing a thief. After Sun Quan came to power in the Eastern Wu Dynasty, Jiang Ziwen appeared in Tao and said: "I should be the god of this land to bless the people." The blessing of the people here refers to the protection of the local families and homes in the hometown, the blessing of children and imports, the prosperity of the livestock, and the fairness of people. There is often a couplet in the Earth Temple in southern China that says: "My father-in-law is fair in his actions, and my mother-in-law speaks with sincerity and sincerity."

The earth god is a highly functional god. Generally speaking, the earth god is the guardian deity of the place, and is only the god of a village. The land god is the social god, and its origin is the reverence and gratitude of the people for the earth. The community is the smallest administrative unit of the place. According to legend, there are two social gods: one is Julong. The "Book of Rites·Sacrifice" records: "The Gonggong family dominated the nine states, and his son was called Hou Tu, who could reach thousands of nine states, so he was worshiped as the social god." One is Yu. It is said that he worked hard for the world and was entrusted to the god of Houtu after his death. The earth grows vegetation and grains and nourishes human beings, so it is regarded as a god of infinite power.

In ancient times, offering sacrifices to land was a major event of the year for everyone from princes and nobles to ordinary people. In the pre-Qin period, the social gods had a very high status, so the word "sheji" was usually used as a proxy for the country, and the sacrificial ceremony was also presided over by the emperor or the chief executive of each place. However, after the Han and Tang dynasties, the status of social gods declined, and sacrifices were not limited to one place. The reason was because "the land was too vast to be used for sacrifices, so the land was sealed as a society to repay the merits." Therefore, there are large shrines in mountain cemeteries everywhere. , these social altars later evolved into various earth temples.

The Tutu Temple, also known as Fude Temple and Bogong Temple, is a place (temple) where the people worship the "Lord God". Most of them are small buildings built spontaneously by the people. They are the most widely distributed sacrificial buildings and can be found in various parts of the countryside.

The birthday of the Earth God is the second day of February. In the old days, both officials and common people went to Tutu Temple to burn incense and worship. Nowadays, it is still very common to go to Tutu Temple to burn incense on the first day and half of the lunar month.

In Taiwan, the God of Earth has the power of the God of Wealth. Businessmen will worship the God of Earth on the second and sixteenth day of each month in the lunar calendar, which is called "making teeth". There is a custom of worshiping the earth god all over Taiwan. It is common for cemeteries dedicated to the earth god, as well as Taiwan, to have a "houtu stele" or a statue of the earth god for worship. In addition, there are large Tudigong temples in many areas, such as Jingfu Palace in Taipei City and the Tudigong Temple in Bingludi, Zhonghe City, Taipei County.

There is also a mini shrine in front of many small shops in Hong Kong to worship the Earth God. There are also similar shrines outside many homes, and incense is offered regularly every day. In addition, rural areas usually have a small earth temple to bless the entire village.