But there is no record of Nian beast in ancient books. The legend of Nian beast should be the result of the invention and creation of modern people, or the local legend of a certain place, which has become our national memory through modern communication.
However, the story of Nian beast is also based. Setting off firecrackers, hanging lanterns and posting Spring Festival couplets during the Spring Festival are actually activities to exorcise evil spirits and pray for blessings. Among them, setting off firecrackers was specially used to drive away mandrills in ancient times.
Mandrill, a monster with a long history, is recorded in Shan Hai Jing. There is a saying in The Classic of Mountains and Seas: "There is a giant in Jiangxi in the south, with long arms, hair all over his body and a reverse heel. People laugh and their lips cover their faces, so they run away. " Record.
"Nerve" also said: "There is someone in the mountains, ... called Shan Sao, with a white voice. People get scared when they try to use bamboo to catch fire and explode. It's hot and cold when you commit crimes. Although this is a human change, it is also a ghost and the like. It was found in the mountain where it is today. " In other words, the monster can become a person, but he is afraid of firecrackers. People can use firecrackers to drive away this monster.
Later, there were stories of mandrill in Strange Tales from a Lonely Studio and Notes of Yuewei Caotang. The image of the mandrill in the story is similar to that in Shan Hai Jing and Shen Yi Jing, but it is more ferocious and strange.
Moreover, from the folklore and reality, it is not because of fear of evil spirits, but because of good luck, so the method of exorcism is also used. It's like many people who don't believe in God or Buddhism at ordinary times, worshipping God before their children take the college entrance examination. Watch the wedding day, exorcise evil spirits and pray with local customs. They don't necessarily believe it, they just want to feel at ease. So we put up Spring Festival couplets and other blessing activities during the Spring Festival. What we want is peace of mind!
From the perspective of communication, the spread of Nian animals is related to the nature of Nian. The Nian beast we are afraid of is actually time.
In Shuo Wen Jie Zi, it is said that "the year is ripe." . In Er Ya, it is more detailed, as follows: "Xia is years old, Shang is years old, Zhou is years old and Tang Yu is years old." "According to Guo Pu, a Taoist priest in the Jin Dynasty, he commented:" At the age of 18, take the stars once; Sacrifice, take four seasons and one end; One year, take a mature grain; Pack it, put it in and start over. That is to say, in China, the essence of the ancient Chinese New Year is that the crops are ripe, the time is over, and people are old.
Let's go back to the legend. It is said that people are killed when they meet in the middle of the year, and they are killed when they meet in the middle of the year! In the past, Qin Huang and the emperor prayed for immortals, which added the legend of immortality to the world, but immortals were seen?
But we don't have to be too afraid of time. Einstein, who knows time best, once explained the theory of relativity like this. Let a man sit with a beautiful woman for an hour, and he will feel as if it has only been a minute; But if you let him sit on the hot stove for a minute, he will feel as if it has been more than an hour.
It happens to all of us at this time. When I was a child, I always felt that a year was too long, and the older I got, the shorter I got! Time seems to be getting faster.
So years, months, days and other time units are all a way to measure the outside world, but for us, it is a material and spiritual change.
Materially, our bodies age with time, and spiritually, our views change with time; Just like a few minutes ago, you may think that the story of Nian beast has a long history, but now you know that this is a short-lived legend, and this is the change of spirit.
At present, we can't completely control the physical changes, but we can completely control our own mental changes. Whether a person's spirit is getting better or worse depends on bearing.
Tolerance is the doctrine of Taoism. Taoism believes that the past should not forget the future, and this responsibility is macroscopic and everyone can see it.
This concept can explain the world better than Buddhist cause and effect. If we take the Buddhist causal theory as an example, the fire at the city gate will harm the fish in the pool, which is what the fish did in their last life. But fish don't have to have the concept of responsibility. Evil deeds are not like the seeds of Buddhism. Evil deeds will cause macro problems.
It is very similar to what scientists call a butterfly today. Scientists have a hypothesis that "a butterfly in the tropical rain forest of Amazon River basin in South America can cause a tornado in Texas within two weeks."
West Renye Fang said that during the avalanche, no snowflake felt responsible. This is especially true in reality. You use past cause and effect to explain many problems. If a drug addict may murder a stranger for gambling, what's wrong with the stranger? If we say that the victim did something bad in his last life, so he got this bad result in his life, this is to defend the murderer! So bearings can explain our world better than cause and effect.
Heaven is supreme, evil behavior will lead to commitment, and good behavior will also lead to commitment! In fact, many people are unhappy every Spring Festival, and many people are disappointed in themselves this year. However, we will hold many activities to exorcise evil spirits and pray for a hundred years of harmony with each other. These beautiful promises drive away the negative energy, help the frustrated to be happy, make them rise up in the coming year, make themselves happy, and lay a beautiful promise for the future.
So in essence, the essence of Nian beast is our fear of time and negative energy! We exorcise evil spirits and pray for good luck in the New Year. Every time we burn incense and worship Buddha for good luck, it is to drive away negative energy and let ourselves have a good state to meet the future.