Where is Zhong Kui from?

Zhong Kui is an exorcist in China folklore. According to folklore, he was from Zhong Nanshan in the early Tang Dynasty. He was born with a leopard head and leopard eyes, a tough face and an ugly face. However, he is a brilliant and knowledgeable romantic figure, always upright and not afraid of evil. When Emperor Xuanzong ascended the throne, he went to Chang 'an to take the exam. Zhong Kui wrote five articles "Waiting for a Banquet in Yingzhou", which was praised as a "wizard" by the examiner and was the first in Gong Shi. However, in the imperial examination, the traitor Qilu was repeatedly slandered for judging people by their appearances, thus losing the position of the top scholar. In a rage, Zhong Kui hit his head on the temple pillar and died, shaking with one hand and one hand. So Dezong named Zhong Kui as the "exorcist" and traveled all over the world to "exorcise evil spirits"; And buried with the official position of champion. Legend has it that a child stole Yang Guifei's purple sachet and the jade emperor of Tang Dynasty in his sleep and ran around the temple. GREAT GHOST caught the child and ate him. GREAT GHOST is extremely ugly, wearing a tattered gauze hat, a blue robe, a horn belt and a pair of boots. He claimed to be the last scholar in Zhong Nanshan, and was killed at the steps because he failed in the imperial examination. He said to Tang, "I swear to your majesty to eliminate evil in the world." Tang Ming woke up and became ill. After his recovery, Wu Daozi, the painter of imperial edict, drew a picture of Zhong Kui catching ghosts according to his dream and reported it to the world to drive away evil spirits. With a stroke of Wu Daozi's pen, it turned out that Wu Daozi had the same dream, so he "seemed to see it" and did it overnight.

People used to hang pictures of Zhong Kui on New Year's Eve, but now they also paint Zhong Kui on Dragon Boat Festival, either as gifts or by themselves. This change originated in the twenty-second year of Qianlong, because many people died of the plague. In desperation, Zhong Kui had to be invited out to catch ghosts, which became a custom year after year.

Over the years, Zhong Kui, the exorcist, has been enduring for a long time. Mr. Qi Gong's "Zhong Kui Riding a Donkey" is humorous and full of sense of the times. Fang Cheng, a cartoonist, painted a portrait of Zhong Kui: Zhong Kui slept on the ground with his boots and hats neat, his hands sleeved in his robe and a stone as a pillow, and wrote a five-character poem: "Wake up in the morning in spring, and snore scares the birds. There are too many ghosts on earth, and Zhong Kui is exhausted. " This fable is extremely profound. Xu Zhou, a young Beijing painter, painted a picture album of Zhong Kui, and Monta gave me one. Zhong Kui in the photo album is very vivid and resonates with many founding fathers-"This is indispensable". It seems that modern people need Zhong Kui more.

According to the story "Zhong Kui Marries a Sister", he was a poor scholar in the Tang Dynasty. He read a lot of poems and books since he was a child, and his talent was outstanding. However, he is extremely ugly and does not have the charming and elegant temperament of a scholar. It is because of this ugly appearance that he was discriminated against in the imperial examination room.

Zhong Kui with extraordinary talent, all the way through, the palace exam. However, the Emperor of the Tang Dynasty could not tolerate Zhong Kui's ugliness. With a stroke of his pen, he jokingly cancelled his admission. Ten years of hard study at a cold window vanished in an instant. Zhong Kui, with a strong character, chose death. ...

The earliest version of this story can be found in A Bitan Lake in Meng Xi written by naturalist Shen Kuo, which is slightly different from today's story.

Shortly after the unjust case in the examination room, Tang was seriously ill, and he was always harassed by imps in his dreams and couldn't sleep well. Late one night, he dreamed that a child sneaked into the palace, stole his beloved musical instrument and screamed in the palace. Just when he was upset, Tang suddenly saw a blue figure falling from the sky. Grab the child, tear it open and swallow it. Don woke up and the strange disease was cured. Recall that the man in blue in the dream is the ugly scholar Zhong Kui. So I asked the painter to draw a statue of Zhong Kui and hang it inside and outside the palace to ward off evil spirits and keep peace. From then on, Zhong Kui was famous for catching ghosts.

Since the Northern Song Dynasty, almost all Zhong Kui stories are similar to this.

So how true is this story that has been circulating for nearly a thousand years?

Let's start with Zhong Kui.

We looked up the historical documents of the Tang Dynasty, but we couldn't find the name Zhong Kui in all the official documents of the Tang Dynasty. There is no word-for-word record of similar injustice in the examination room.

There are many anecdotes about Li Longji, the emperor of the Tang Dynasty. However, there is no story that Zhong Kui appeared in his dream to treat Tang Huangming. More importantly, examining the development history of the imperial examination system, it is impossible for the Tang Dynasty to preside over the imperial examination. Because the imperial examination system was founded by Song Taizu and Zhao Kuangyin more than one hundred years later.

In this way, the story of Zhong Kui and his becoming a god after his death was probably invented after the Song Dynasty. But there is at least one truth in this story, that is, in the era of Emperor Tang Ming, Zhong Kui was already a famous ghost catcher.

There is such a poem in "The Whole Tang Poetry", which is called "Thanks for Zhong Xiang and Calendar". The author is a prime minister of the Tang Dynasty, whose name is Zhang Yue. In the poem, I thank the emperor for giving me the Zhong Kui statue and calendar. Later great poet Liu Yuxi also wrote similar poems. From these Tang poems, we can easily see that Zhong Kui, as a god, was already very famous in the Tang Dynasty, and hanging the statue of Zhong Kui became a popular custom in the upper class.

However, there is no explanation of Zhong Kui's life experience and how he got to the altar.

This may be the reason why people invented the story of Zhong Kui becoming a god after the Song Dynasty: Zhong Kui in the Song Dynasty was as famous as the Tang Dynasty, but people could not explain his origin. Judging from the poems handed down and the portraits of Zhong Kui, this custom appeared as early as the Tang and Ming Dynasties. So people introduced the legendary Tang Huangming, and made up stories about Zhong Kui's scholar status and his appearance after his death to explain the origin of Zhong Kui.

So what is the statue of Zhong Kui that Emperor Tang Ming gave to the minister?

Why did the Song Dynasty use this as a basis to judge Zhong Kui's identity as a scholar?

Can you find out the real origin of Zhong Kui from that idol?

According to records, Wu Daozi, a painter in the Tang Dynasty, was the first master who was good at Zhong Kui's painting. Although his painting of Zhong Kui has been lost, some people have seen it in the imperial palace of the Northern Song Dynasty. Guo, a connoisseur of the Northern Song Dynasty, described in detail the original statue of Zhong Kui he saw in Wu Daozi. Guo wrote in "Pictures and Experiences" Volume VI "Recent Events":

"Yesterday, Wu Daozi drew Zhong Kui, wearing a blue shirt, with one foot and one waist and one hair, catching ghosts with his left hand and distinguishing ghosts with his right hand. The handwriting is thick and the painting is excellent. "

The blue word "blue shirt" is synonymous with "rags", which means rags, that is, rags. "Waist water" means that there is water on the belt, which is a wooden ritual vessel held by the minister when he goes to court. "shawl and hair" is an instrument to describe his Confucian identity and poverty. Judging from the description of Zhong Kui's paintings by Guo, an appraiser of calligraphy and painting in the Northern Song Dynasty, Zhong Kui is indeed an ugly scholar who was born in poverty.

This is the earliest existing portrait of Zhong Kui, and it is the work of Shi Ke, a figure painter of the Five Dynasties. Zhong Kui's image comes down in one continuous line, and he has always been a poor scholar.

It seems that from the early portraits, there is still no clue to the real origin of Zhong Kui.

Perhaps we have overlooked an important aspect, that is, the image of Zhong Kui among the people.

If you want to know the real origin of Zhong Kui, you should turn your attention to the people. However, in the historical documents of the Tang Dynasty, the record of Zhong Kui, a folk image, is blank.

1900, Dunhuang. A Taoist priest of Wang Xing came across a reference to Zhong Kui in a scripture written in the Tang Dynasty. The article is called "New Year's Eve".

At a ceremony called Nuo, Zhong Kui wore leopard skin with silver forehead and steel head, and his whole body was dyed with vermilion. Lead a hundred thousand jungle monsters and catch wandering ghosts everywhere.

It seems that another kind of Zhong Kui appeared among the people in the Tang Dynasty, which is quite different from the popular literati image in the upper class. What kind of ceremony is Nuo, and what role does Zhong Kui play in it? Is his birth closely related to this ceremony?

You can see the records about Nuo when you open the Book of the New Tang Dynasty.

The Book of Rites of the New Tang Dynasty records in detail the Nuo ceremonies held in the palace. According to the Book of Rites, although the names of ceremonies are all Nuo, there are obvious differences between Nuo in the palace and exorcism in Dunhuang and Zhong Kui. First of all, the scale is different. Secondly, Fang is the leader of Nuo dance in national ceremonies, not Zhong Kui in Dunhuang exorcism.

Why are the same Nuo in the Tang Dynasty so different? This is because in the Tang Dynasty, there were indeed two kinds of Nuo; One is officially sponsored, called palace furniture or national furniture, and the other is popular among the people, called township furniture.

This difference existed not only in the Tang Dynasty, but also in the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period.

The Exorcism Map of Zhong Kui unearthed in Dunhuang is the earliest document that records Zhong Kui's appearance in Nuo ceremonies. From the description of some customs and poems after the Tang Dynasty, Zhong Kui can only be seen in rural Nuo.

Fortunately, we can still see this ancient rural furniture ceremony. Shidongkou Village, Pingxiang City, Jiangxi Province is famous for its Nuo dance. The villagers believe that their ancestors were Zhongyuan people who moved here in the Tang Dynasty. Nuo dance was brought from the Central Plains at that time and passed down from generation to generation today.

The most active role in Nuo dance is Zhong Kui. Because of his frequent appearances and absolute leading role, people sometimes refer to Nuo dance as Zhong Kui. Slightly different from the Nuo ceremony in the Tang Dynasty, Zhong Kui here is no longer dressed in leopard skin, but dressed as a deputy governor, and his 100,000 jungle monsters are also simplified to four deputy governors. But his role in the ceremony has not changed. He is still catching ghosts.

After the ceremony began, the Nuo dancers immediately adopted this footwork. And this footwork exposed Zhong Kui's true identity. This gait has a resounding name, Yubu, which is Dayu's gait.

One thousand seven hundred years ago, Ge Hong, a Taoist scholar in Jin Dynasty, recorded this kind of footwork in Bao Puzi. Legend has it that Dayu was injured in both legs when he was managing water, so he could only walk with broken steps. However, people are grateful for his good deeds in water control, which are not regarded as defects, but as sacred evidence because they are different.

Then the origin of Zhong Kui's adoption of this footwork can be inferred as follows: Dayu lived in a clan society, and clan leaders often served as wizards. Therefore, the sacrificial ceremony he presided over was unique because of this special footwork. Later wizards followed this footwork and called it Yubu, not only to commemorate Dayu, but also to increase the mystery of the ceremony.

Does this speculation make sense? At least one thing is certain, that is, Zhong Kui Nuo dance is an ancient witchcraft activity, and it really originated very early, even before the legendary Dayu era, which can be traced back to the Neolithic Age. Judging from the patterns on early rock paintings, stone carvings and pottery, as early as the birth of civilization, there was a ritual of offering sacrifices to gods with witchcraft, which was probably accompanied by Nuo dance.

So was Zhong Kui born at that time?

The investigation of Zhong Kui's mask may provide us with some help. Mask is an indispensable prop in Zhong Kui Nuo dance popular among ethnic groups, and it also plays an important role in early Nuo ceremonies.

The importance of masks in Nuo dance ceremonies can still be seen today. After the ceremony, people put the masks back in place and burned incense to worship. As usual, the host of the ceremony will have a lyric to express his gratitude and praise. People are full of respect for these wooden masks as always.

Because the masks of dancing in Zhong Kui are similar to those in Shang and Zhou Dynasties, there is a hypothesis about the origin of Zhong Kui: as early as Shang and Zhou Dynasties, Zhong Kui appeared. Zhong Kui's name probably comes from a famous wizard at that time.

Some scholars have verified that there was a legend about the famous wizard Zhong You in the Shang Dynasty, that is, three or four thousand years ago. His best spell is asking for rain, and every time he comes forward to preside over the ceremony of asking for rain, it is the most effective, so people use his name to refer to the position of wizard. However, Zhong You and Zhong You have similar pronunciations, and were mistakenly recorded as Zhong You in the process of circulation. This is the first statement about the origin of Zhong Kui.

But Pingxiang people have a completely different view. They say that Zhong Kui is a big club for washing clothes. Beating clothes with peach sticks to clean up filth is really related to Zhong Kui's evil spirits.

In the brick paintings of the Han Dynasty, we can really see many warriors waving sticks. This is a big stick in the murals of the Western Han Tomb in Luoyang. But why is the stick called Zhong Kui instead of a stick?

Three hundred years ago, Gu, a great scholar in the late Ming and early Qing Dynasties, made an interesting textual research on the pronunciation of Chinese characters. Gu believes that in exegetics, the pronunciation of the word "Zhong Kui" is reversed, that is, the initials of the bell are spelled with the finals of the item-called "chasing". The so-called vertebra means big stick in ancient Chinese.

In addition, Zhong Kui's word "Zhong Kui" is an ancient surname, which is rare now. The origin of this surname is also closely related to the stick. According to historical records, there were seven families of adherents in the Yin Dynasty, namely, Tao, Shi, Fan, Shu, Hunger and Zhong Kui. Their surnames come from their specialty-making pottery by Dow. Fan Shi makes fences, while the Zhong Kui family specializes in making wooden sticks and mallets.

From this point of view, we can infer that a long time ago, the host of the Nuo dance ceremony was a wizard with a big stick. The big stick in his hand is called Zhong Kui, also called Vertebra. Wizards frequently use Zhong Kui as a ghost to exorcise evil spirits. Over time, people thought that the stick had magical power, and then thought that the name Zhong Kui also implied good luck, and even took the word Zhong Kui as the name. For example, during the Northern and Southern Dynasties, some names included the word Zhong Kui, such as Joe Zhong Kui, which meant good luck and exorcism. By the Tang Dynasty, people had long forgotten Zhong Kui's original identity as a club body and mistook him for an ancient ghost killer named Zhong Kui. The custom of hanging the statue of Zhong Kui, which is popular in the upper class, adds fuel to the fire, and Zhong Kui's fame is increasing day by day.

In the Song Dynasty, people couldn't verify the origin of this great god in the Tang Dynasty, so they invented his scholar status and tragic experience of unjust death, and interpreted a period of gratitude and resentment between Tang and Zhong Kui. In this way, a big wooden stick became a man, stepped onto the altar and became a respected god. Such a blundering experience can be regarded as a great spectacle in the history of ancient god-making.