What was the original name of Kitchen God?

"Kitchen God, originally surnamed Zhang, who lives in Zhanggezhuang, Shunyi", an old Beijing folk song, thinks that Kitchen God is from Beijing. In fact, similar legends are found in many places. Gao Wei, a folklorist, said: "Kitchen God is an artificial god, with no name or place of origin. It was only after the sacrifices in various places that many stories were gradually added, and the kitchen god had human characteristics such as gender, name and place of origin. "

Zaojun temple. Beijing News reporter Wang Ying photo

Origin of Kitchen God, worship of ancient Vulcan.

In traditional customs, the most important ceremony of the New Year is the kitchen sacrifice. The tradition of offering sacrifices to stoves has been around 3000 years, and the earliest written records can be found in the Book of Rites. Some modern scholars believe that the origin of sacrificial stoves is earlier than written records, because the worship of fire has been formed as early as the cave age.

The record of Kitchen God was first seen in The Book of Rites, which was written more than 2,000 years ago. According to the Book of Rites, the Zhou Dynasty set up "seven sacrifices" to worship the seven gods, including the kitchen god.

The worship of Kitchen God and the primitive worship of Vulcan are two sides. At first, there were two ways to concretize Kitchen God. One is that Vulcan is the kitchen god, including Yan Di's theory and Zhu Rong's theory. The two often coexist. Huainanzi records that "Emperor Yan lit a fire and died as a stove", but the same book also records that "Ng Wui and Zhu Rong were the fires of Gao Xin's family, and when they died, they were Vulcan and sacrificed in the stove". The latter statement, inherited from Mandarin, says, "Liv is the fire of Gao Xin's family, radiant and shining everywhere."

Another way is to regard the creator as a god. For example, the Yellow Emperor said, "Caishe" said, "The Yellow Emperor cooked and died as a kitchen god."

Is the ghost kitchen god a fortune teller or a fortune teller

Besides God, there are many different descriptions about the status of Kitchen God. The most typical thing is that the kitchen god is not a god but a ghost. For example, in Zhuangzi, Huan Gong asked, "Is there a ghost?" Zhuangzi was right, "Shen has shoes, and the stove has steamed buns." The ghost in the mud at the bottom of the water is called a shoe, and the ghost in the kitchen is called a bun. Some scholars textual research "Ji" is Zhuan Xu's son "Qiong Chan".

There are many sayings about kitchen ghosts. For example, "Historical Records of Xiaowu Benji" records that "Shaoweng's alchemy covered the night with Wang Fu and kitchen ghosts". Poets in the Tang Dynasty also used the word "kitchen ghost". For example, Lu Guimeng in the Tang Dynasty said in "Sacrificing the Kitchen" that "the kitchen ghost can make people's merits and demerits timely, and the sky is white". In Wang Anshi's "Showing the Contribution of Jiang Gong to the Kitchen Fire" in the Song Dynasty, he said: "The thugs didn't want to know clearly at first, how could the kitchen ghost get angry?"

There are many jokes about kitchen ghosts in Wang Anshi's poems. In fact, the kitchen god is in charge of fireworks, and the function of distinguishing good and evil from the sky has already appeared and spread among the people. Wang satirized Confucius in The Analects of Confucius. Why do some people say that "pro-Olympics is better than pro-cooking"? Wang Jia is a very powerful minister of Wei State. "Ao" is the "southwest corner of the room", where he is respected and often worships God. So the king asked why "county officials are not as good as current officials"? In the Song Dynasty, Zhu explained: "It is better to attach to the powerful minister than to the monarch.".

Confucius' answer is: "It's not like this. If you are convicted in heaven, what can you pray for? " We have sinned against heaven, and it's no use begging anyone. In other words, Confucius did not think that the kitchen god could decide people's fate.