Repentance means avoidance, and evil means fierceness and badness. To ward off evil spirits is a symbol of remembering historical lessons and avoiding repeating the same mistakes. Broadly speaking, the folk use of fire, water, soldiers, cars, etc. can all be called evil spirits.
Exorcism originated from the terrible symbol in primitive religion, and it is the object of taboo, as opposed to totem. Different tribes have different backgrounds, and the objects of totem and taboo are also different.
In Shang and Zhou Dynasties, gluttonous ornamentation was widely used in bronze ritual vessels, and it was a common evil spirit. Legend has it that gluttony is a beast, greedy and vicious, and it died before cannibalism. Shang Dynasty and Western Zhou Dynasty took this as a taboo and cast its patterns on the surface of bronze ritual vessels. When offering sacrifices, the bottom is burned with charcoal, and the top is cooked with hot water, so that it is tortured as a punishment.
During the Eastern Han Dynasty, turtles were often used to ward off evil spirits, and turtle-shaped stoves, turtle-shaped pots and other cultural relics have also been seen in this world. Legend has it that the tortoise is one of the nine sons of the dragon. The dragon gave birth to nine sons, and none of them became Jackie Chan. What is particularly embarrassing is that one of them turned out to be a turtle, a "turtle son". In order to show the punishment for "turtle son" and "turtle calf", the Han people made them suffer greatly, or baked them in utensils, or let them carry monuments to show their repression. In the Leitai Han Tomb, eight stone turtles were placed at the four corners of two coffins, which meant "repression" and expressed the anger of the owner of the Leitai Han Tomb to the unworthy descendants. The scene was tantamount to swearing.
Yue Fei, a famous anti-gold star in the Southern Song Dynasty, was a national hero, but was framed by Qin Gui and his wife, and died on a trumped-up charge. In the moon powder, Qin Gui and his wife were used to ward off evil spirits, and a statue was cast next to the moon powder as a memorial.
Modern exorcism not only retains tradition, but also tends to be diversified. In northeast China, Japanese combat knives are often used to ward off evil spirits. A Japanese combat knife with good appearance, fine craftsmanship and blood has always been particularly favored by collectors, and the market price is often over 10,000. The Japanese combat knives that killed my compatriots are hung high above the hall to show that they will never forget and express the courage and martial spirit of the people in Northeast China.
2. God beast to ward off evil spirits
To ward off evil spirits, southerners call them brave, also known as Tianlu. It is a kind of god beast in ancient myths and legends of China. It has the head of a dragon, the body of a horse and the feet of a lion. It is shaped like a lion, has a gray coat and can fly. Fierce and mighty, responsible for patrolling the sky to prevent monsters, plagues and diseases from disturbing the heaven. In ancient times, people often used bravery as the name of the army. It has a mouth without anus, can swallow everything without diarrhea, can make a fortune, can only enter but can't leave, and has special magical powers. Now many people in China wear jade, which is the reason.
Han and Wei jade ward off evil spirits
To ward off evil spirits on jade articles, the earliest works seen today are from the Han and Wei Dynasties to the Southern and Northern Dynasties. Typical representative works of this period are as follows:
So far, three jade articles have been unearthed in the ruins and tombs of the Han Dynasty to ward off evil spirits. Two of them were unearthed in 1966 Ling Wei site of the Western Han Dynasty in Xianyang City, Shaanxi Province. One of them is 2.5 cm high and 5.8 cm long. Carved into a circle, with a single horn in the middle of the head, whiskers under the chin, a tail hanging to the ground, feathers on both sides of the abdomen, and some original jade remains on the surface. The other one is 7 cm long and 5.4 cm high, in the same form as the above one. It is also a circular sculpture, just looking straight ahead and crawling before grabbing something. Another jade artifact to ward off evil spirits was unearthed from the Han Tomb in Yidong, Baoji City, Shaanxi Province 1978. It is tall, with a height of18.5cm and a body length of18cm. Its shape is similar to the two unearthed from Ling Wei site in the Western Han Dynasty, except that there is a cylindrical nest at the back, a square nest at the back of the head, and circles and short parallel lines are engraved on the head and body. In addition, in addition to the above three unearthed jade articles to ward off evil spirits, amber, beeswax and stones are also commonly used in tombs in the Eastern Han Dynasty and the Wei, Jin, Southern and Northern Dynasties to ward off evil spirits, and some sculptures to ward off evil spirits in front of tombs in the Wei, Jin and Southern Dynasties are also used as town tombs.
From the Han Dynasty to the Wei, Jin, Southern and Northern Dynasties, there are still a number of jades unearthed or handed down in the early years. Among them, there are four exquisite pieces in Beijing Palace Museum, one in Taipei Palace Museum and some lost cultural relics. The shape of the above-mentioned vessels is very close to that of the three unearthed vessels, except that they have double horns, and some of them are engraved on the vessels in the form of patterns. Among them, a kind of exorcism water hidden in the Palace Museum in Beijing is particularly special. In addition to the whole instrument is a pair of horns to ward off evil spirits, it also crawls between its chest and abdomen to ward off evil spirits, and the latter is its son.
From the analysis of nearly ten pieces of jade used to ward off evil spirits in the Han, Wei, Southern and Northern Dynasties, it can be seen that jade used to ward off evil spirits in this period has the following conditions and characteristics:
(1) Two jade articles unearthed from the Mausoleum of the Western Han Dynasty to ward off evil spirits are the earliest relics in scientific archaeological excavations so far, indicating that jade articles, as a form of ward off evil spirits, began in the middle of the Western Han Dynasty at the latest.
(2) The jades of this period were used to ward off evil spirits except for some decorative patterns on utensils. As far as the mainstream is concerned, they are all round carvings, and the vessels are mainly used as evil spirits, vessel seats and practical vessels.
(3) Although none of the jade exorcism forms in this period are the same, their * * * characteristics are various. It combines the lion's head and lion's body, rhinoceros horn or two-horned beast, sheep beard, bird's wing and Tiger Claw, which fully shows its fierce, extraordinary and magical power.
There may be two reasons why jade can ward off evil spirits in this period: one may represent different beasts, for example, some ancient books say that double-horned ones are evil spirits, and one-horned ones are peach plates or deer, horns and tails. But some books are completely contrary to the above, saying that one-horned people ward off evil spirits and two-horned people are other beasts. Another possibility is that one-horned or two-horned is not a beast with different expressions, but is related to the generations in the morning and evening. For example, among the musical instruments recorded here, the one-sided horn is generally earlier and the one-sided horn is later. So what is appropriate can only be confirmed by more scientific data in the future. Until the exact reason is fully understood, it is temporarily called exorcism.
Jade ward off evil spirits in Qing dynasty
Jade to ward off evil spirits was rare from the Tang Dynasty, and reappeared in a new form in the middle of the Qing Dynasty, especially during the Qianlong period of the Qing Dynasty. For example, I once saw a jade exorcist in the middle of Qing Dynasty, including vertical carving, engraving relief and line carving. The sub-line and three exorcism devices of different sizes are combined into one. Every evil animal has two horns, a tooth ridge on its back, a naked body without feathers and wings, a pair of horns on its head and a beard under its chin, all of which are different in size and shape and lifelike. Similar to ward off evil spirits, you can also see those who regard its shape as an antique vessel.
Throughout the Qing dynasty to ward off evil spirits, there are the following situations:
① The materials used to ward off evil spirits in this period were all Hotan high-quality jade, with smooth and polished surface, which was also convenient to preserve the original color of jade skin, but the overall air was not as simple, elegant and majestic as that in the Han and Wei Dynasties.
② The specific forms of jade to ward off evil spirits in this period, such as double horns, sheep whiskers and animal bodies, have been preserved, but we know that it has a continuation and inheritance relationship with the previous period.
(3) There is also an obvious change and difference between jade articles in this period to ward off evil spirits, which is mainly manifested in the rare unicorn (also called "horned tail" according to this period), which has no feather wings in the abdomen, teeth ridges on the back, hooves and feet, etc.
In order to ward off evil spirits, the names of god beasts are often recorded in Han and Tang dynasties and later ancient books. The original excerpt is as follows:
"Ten Kingdoms": "Juyaozhou has the ability to ward off evil spirits and is also a deer." "Anxiety": "Shoot evil spirits" to ward off evil spirits and eliminate group fierceness. "Yan Shigu's Note:" Shooting rays and exorcising evil spirits are all animal names. "There are different opinions about the shape of evil spirits. Most people think it is a winged animal like a lion, with one horn or two. This is consistent with the shape of the stone to ward off evil spirits in 2005, and it is attached to the tomb of the Six Dynasties today. Its function, as the name implies, is mainly to ward off evil spirits.
To ward off evil spirits is a legendary beast. As the saying goes, Yan Shigu Notes & gt "Archery to ward off evil spirits is the name of the beast", which is similar to Tianlu. & lt& lt Ten States >> As the saying goes, "There are deer in Juzhou to ward off evil spirits" Ouyang Xiu in Song Dynasty & gt 1: "There is a tomb of the Han clan in the north of Nanyang County, Zhengzhou, and there are two stone beasts next to Tongbei, one is called Tianlu (Lu) and the other is called evil spirits." The Han Dynasty was their most popular period. It seems that Tianlu (deer) and exorcism are both incarnations of a god beast.
In ancient times, the natural main task of exorcism was to perform the duty of guarding, which is also the reason why people always exchange new peaches for old symbols in the Spring Festival of later generations. Therefore, in the Eastern Han Dynasty, the shinto of emperors' palaces and tombs often put this thing in the town. The shapes of winged beasts such as exorcism, feathered man and winged beast in the Han Dynasty are similar, which all reflect the sculpture artistic expression of the idea of ascending immortals in the Eastern Han Dynasty. After the Tang Dynasty, this winged beast to ward off evil spirits became more common, followed by sculpture art focusing on lions.