In my childhood memories, every time the New Year is approaching, my family is always busy. My mother was in the kitchen with all kinds of New Year's goods, while my father was responsible for adding firewood to the stove and raising his salary. At that time, I always liked to sit on a small stool by the stove, watch the flames jump, listen to the crackling of wood, and feel the unique warmth and tranquility.
The god of the hearth, the kind-faced deity who was attached to the top of the stove, was always quietly watching over all this. He doesn't say a word, but he seems to be able to understand all the joys and sorrows of the world. I often wonder if he also feels the warmth and harmony of our family, and whether he is also silently blessing our family with safety and success.
In traditional Chinese customs, the "Stove Festival" on the 23rd or 24th day of the lunar month is a festival to worship the god of the stove. On this day, people will offer sweets, water, and other items on the stove to show respect and prayer to the god of the stove. Fan Chengda, a famous minister in the Southern Song Dynasty, has a poem "Sacrificial Stove Words", which is cloudy in the poem
According to ancient legends, on the twenty-fourth day of the lunar month, the stove king wants to say something.The "Begging for Profit and the Return of the City" here expresses people's greatest wish for the sacrificial stove. There are sayings among the people, such as "if you want to get rich, you must first respect the kitchen", "the king of the stove goes to heaven, and the family is prosperous".The cloud car wind horse is small and staying, and there is a forest panfeng ceremony at home.
The pig's head is rotten and the pisces are fresh, and the bean paste is loose and the bait is round.
Men drink and women to avoid, and drink and burn money.
Pizi struggles with Jun Meiwen, and cats and dogs are filthy.
Send the king drunk to the gate of heaven, build a long and short structure, and beg for the return of the city.
One of the most widely spread is "the heavens say good things, and the lower realms keep peace". I remember that when I was a child, I had to paste this small couplet on the stove every Chinese New Year. These proverbs express people's belief and reverence for the god of the hearth, believing that the god of the stove can bless the peace and prosperity of the family.
According to the record of "Jing Zao Quanshu", the god of the stove receives a family of incense and protects a family of Kangtai. Investigate the good and evil of a family, and play the merits of a family. Every Gengshen day, the Jade Emperor is played, and the end of the month is counted. Those who have a lot of merit, after three years, the heavens will descend on the blessed life; If there are too many, after three years, the heavens will fall.
In traditional Chinese culture, the god of the stove is one of the most common and ancient beliefs, from the general to the king, down to the common people, it can be said that he is the most closely related to human beings. He is not only a symbol of the god of cooking, but also a representative of the patron saint of the family.
The god of the hearth originated from man's primitive worship of the mysterious and sacred fire, and in evolutionary theory, the use of fire was an important sign of man's eventual separation from apes. From the understanding of fire, to the use of natural fire, to the control and management of fire, each stage has been of extraordinary significance to the history of human development.
The god of the stove is also known as the king of the stove, the king of the stove, or the father of the stove, the king of the stove, the star of the stove, etc. His full name is "Nine Heavens East Kitchen Si Ming Taiyi Yuan Emperor Dingfu Shan Tianzun". Regarding the original image of the god of the stove, there are different accounts in the books of the past dynasties.
Huainanzi said: "Emperor Yan made fire, and died as a stove." The "Original Meeting of Things" compiled by Wang Ji of the Qing Dynasty said: "The Yellow Emperor is the stove, and the death is the god of the stove." In the "Zhou Li", it is recorded: "The Zhuan clan has a son Rili, for Zhu Rong, and worships as the god of the stove." In the two records about Zhurong in the "Classic of Mountains and Seas", he is the queen of the Yellow Emperor and the queen of Emperor Yan. Maybe he inherited the "fire" from the Yan Emperor and continued the "stove" from the Yellow Emperor, so he may be worshiped as the god of the stove!
But in short, as early as the Shang Dynasty, the people have begun to worship the god of the stove, and in the Qin and Han dynasties, the god of the stove and the god of the door, the god of the well, the god of the toilet and the god of the middle slip are listed as one of the main five rituals, and these five gods are jointly responsible for the daily life of the family.
According to the Tang Dynasty Duan Chengshi's collection of notes "Youyang Miscellaneous Tales and Nuogao Ji", it is recorded that "the god of the stove is famous and beautiful. He is also surnamed Zhang List, and the word Zi Guo. Mrs. Qingji, there are six daughters, all of whom are named Cha (a sacrifice). often accused of white people in the sky on the moon and the sun".
According to folk rumors, Zhang Dan's wife is a virtuous and filial woman, but Zhang Shan empathized with him after making a fortune by chance and married a new love, so he abandoned his bad wife. Zhang Shan and his current wife spent all day looking for fun, so much so that they sat and ate empty, and finally the family wealth was exhausted, and they became beggars, and his current wife also left him.
Zhang Dan was exiled in another country, and when he was hungry and cold, and dying, he was rescued by a woman. When he woke up, he realized that the woman who had saved him was his ex-wife. He felt guilty and ashamed, so he committed suicide by plunging into the stove pit. The Jade Emperor knew about this and thought that his family was still ashamed and could be saved, so he named him the god of the stove.
The custom of sacrificing the stove of the moon began in the Han Dynasty, which is related to a legend of getting rich because of the sacrificial stove. According to the fourth volume of "Sou Shen Ji", when Emperor Xuan of the Han Dynasty, there was a person named Yin Zifang in Nanyang, who was "filial piety, good gratitude, and happy gifts." Once, he was cooking in the morning on the morning of the day, and the god of the stove was formed. Zifang bowed again and celebrated. There are yellow sheep in the family, because they are worshipped. Since then, he has become rich, with more than 700 acres of land, and he is subordinate to the horse, which is more than the state king. Zifang tasted and said: My children and grandchildren will be strong, and they will know (Zifang Sun) for the third generation, and then prosper, and the family will wait for four waits, and the shepherds will guard dozens. Therefore, the descendants taste the wax eye to worship the stove, and recommend the yellow sheep. According to this legend, the Chinese folk have since established the tradition of the Layue Ancestral Hall, and the belief that the god of the stove is in charge of the wealth of the family in the world has also become more deeply rooted in the hearts of the people.
Nowadays, in this fast-paced, high-tech modern society, people are increasingly seeking convenience and efficiency. Modern kitchen utensils such as induction cookers and microwave ovens have emerged one after another, making kitchens more and more clean and tidy. However, behind these shiny modern kitchen utensils, I always feel an inexplicable sense of loss. Those memories and nostalgia about the god of the stove seem to have faded away with the disappearance of the chimneys and firewood stoves of the old houses.