Fortune-telling at the Old Town God Temple in Weinan

Fortune-telling at the Old Town God Temple in Weinan

There is a saying: Where there is an ancient city, there is a temple, and where there is a temple, there is a city god temple-this seems to be an iron law in ancient China.

As the name implies, the Town God Temple is a temple dedicated to the Lord of the Town God. But from the source, the word "city god" originally refers to the city wall and moat to protect people's personal safety (see "Shuo Wen Jie Zi": a city to fill the people; Luckily, there is no water in the city. The earliest City God Temple was found in Wuhu City God Temple built in the second year of Wu Chiwu in the Three Kingdoms (239). After the Song Dynasty, the city god began to personify and became the god of guarding the city respected by Taoism. To put it bluntly, it is the patron saint of a place and the local official of the underworld. In the second year of Hongwu in Ming Dynasty (A.D. 1369), Zhu Yuanzhang issued a letter to deity, and strictly stipulated the level of deity, which was divided into four levels: capital, government and county. As a result, city god temples have sprung up all over the country.

In the second year of Zhu Yuanzhang's imperial edict (1370, the third year of Ming Hongwu), Zhengding City God Temple came into being. This temple, which covers an area of 32,000 square meters and has a building area of 26,000 square meters, faces south. The buildings on the central axis are the stage, the dry bridge, the archway, the mountain gate, the main hall and the back bedroom in turn from south to north. On both sides are the East Hall and the West Hall, the supporting rooms around the main hall, and the ancillary buildings on the two wings of the back bedroom. The whole building complex is large in scale, magnificent in momentum, rigorous in layout and clear in priority.

Since its completion, Fucheng huang temple has been the center of Taoist activities in Zhengding. Since the 15th year of Hongwu since Ming Dynasty (1382), the officials in charge of Taoist affairs-Duji Daoji and Duji, and the Daohui Daohui Daohui established by the county government have all lived in the Town God Temple and presided over local Taoist affairs, which shows the importance of the Town God Temple in those days. Therefore, when the "Four Old Houses" were destroyed in 1966, the Town God Temple was taken as the key object, the statues were destroyed and the temple was used for other purposes. By the time of cultural relics survey in 1980s, there were only two buildings left in the temple, which were then called Qian Dian and Houdian. Unfortunately, the last two temples were not saved.

In 20 17, the pattern restoration project of Zhengding City God Temple was listed as one of the 24 projects to restore and enhance the style of Zhengding ancient city. 20 19 10 rebuilt a brand-new city god temple on the original site.

Seen from the inside out, this "brand-new" replica of an ancient building is of good workmanship and can be regarded as "high imitation".

If you have been to Zhengding City God Temple, I wonder if you have noticed that there is a big abacus hanging behind the mountain gate-this is the "finishing touch" of the City God Temple!

This huge abacus has an iron shelf, and the words "not counting by people" are engraved on the beam ... What's the mystery? It turns out that the abacus is the standard of the city god temple, and every city god temple has it. According to legend, Lord Huang Cheng is the chief official of the underworld. When trying a case, he will use an abacus to calculate the right and wrong of the deceased. Whenever Lord Huang Cheng goes out to visit the temple, he always takes this big abacus with him.

Since it is the "finishing touch" of the Town God Temple, many Town God temples make a fuss about the "cleverness" of abacus and publicize the faith of the Town God. Simply put, it is called "asking yourself", which urges people to ask themselves. What's more complicated is a series of warnings, such as "people have thousands of calculations, only one day, and they always make mistakes when they conspire to calculate backwards", "multiplication and division are clear, and you are unhappy" and "do whatever you want, and it will be clear when it expires"-these warnings are closely related to the theme of "calculation", suggesting that people's good deeds and evil deeds will get corresponding results because of the causal cycle. In other words, a person has an account all his life. When he is buried, Lord Huang Cheng will make the general ledger. A person's life, no matter how many people are "calculated" or how many things are skillfully done, will naturally be "clearly understood" and "not calculated" when it expires.

As Zhu Yuanzhang, the founding father of the Ming Dynasty, said, "I set up the God of the Town God to make people know and fear it. If people are afraid, they dare not do anything. " These warnings about the abacus of the city god temple can be said to be in the same strain as the "city god belief", which is not only intriguing, but also has a long aftertaste.

In the future, you must carefully observe the big abacus when you travel to the city god temples.