Why is Jiang Ziya deified?

Why is Jiang Ziya deified? Why didn't Jiang Ziya seal himself? After reading the list of gods, I'm afraid many people have the same doubts as me.

Jiang Ziya sealed so many gods, but he didn't leave a place for himself, which is puzzling.

A widely circulated saying is that Jiang Ziya secretly reserved the position of the Jade Emperor for himself, but one of his disciples named "Zhang Youren" guessed Jiang Ziya's selfishness in advance and hid it under the deity of Jiang Ziya. Jiang Ziya sealed the deity, but not the jade emperor, so a fairy asked, why not seal the jade emperor? Who should be the Jade Emperor? Jiang Ziya said, "Don't worry, there are naturally people." At this time, "Zhang Youren" hiding under the stage jumped out and said, "Thank you, Premier, Zhang Youren is here!" . Jiang Ziya had no choice but to seal the position of the Jade Emperor to "Zhang Youren", and Jiang Ziya himself did not have the throne.

Naturally, these legends and speculations are based on the hearts of "people" and the stomachs of "gods". Every mortal wants to honor his ancestors and strive to become a master, so he guesses Jiang Ziya's thoughts. This is obviously a misunderstanding. With Jiang Ziya's IQ, people will never regard him as dirty and selfish as a scumbag. He understands that moral integrity is admirable. If he doesn't stand up, he will naturally live in the heart of every ordinary person. Later, when people build houses and install beams, they always hang a banner "Jiang Taigong abdicates here" on the back wall, and finally make a shrine in the middle of the roof, which is for Jiang Taigong. The real purpose of this is to pray for peace, because all the gods are sealed by Jiang Ziya, and Jiang Taigong dare not run wild here, so the house is safe.

In fact, although the legend of Jiang Ziya sealing the Jade Emperor is a misunderstanding, it also tells the truth that Jiang Ziya is selfish. So, what is Jiang Ziya's selfishness?

When the Buddha ordered Jiang Ziya to go down the mountain, he said to him, "You were born with a bad life, so it is difficult to become an immortal. You can only get the blessing of the world: cook as much soup as you can, and the room around you will flourish. You and I will help the wise Lord go down the mountain. As a leader, you won't waste your 40 years of mountain practice. This is not the place where you have lived for a long time. You can pack up and go down the mountain early. "

The sentence "Blessed on earth" tells the truth, which was originally a gold medal from Zhou Wenwang to Jiang Ziya. In fact, beheading in public is a strategy set by Jiang Ziya and Zhou Wenwang, just like Zhao Kuangyin's "A glass of wine to relieve soldiers' worries" and Zhu Yuanzhang's "Burning the Celebration Building", all of which are aimed at relieving the powerful forces experienced in the war from threatening the dynasty's rule. The generals who survived the Shang and Zhou wars were all elites who could recruit good fighters, and their existence was extremely unfavorable to the rule of the Zhou Dynasty. Maybe one day, the court and ministers, ministers and ministers fought again, and the rule of the Zhou Dynasty was unstable. Therefore, Jiang Ziya and Zhou Wenwang set up a list of gods that can justify themselves, killing people and letting future generations take it for granted.

In this way, you may still have the same questions as me. How can Jiang Ziya and Zhou Wenwang let these generals die willingly?

As we all know, due to the harsh natural conditions in primitive times, people's mode of production is extremely backward. In order to maintain and prolong their lives, people are eager to get comfort from many unexplained phenomena in nature, so they worship and fantasize about many phenomena and various creatures in nature, which leads to myths. The image of God is naturally imagined by people, such as clairvoyant, clairaudient and superhuman Nezha, which is either exaggerated or made out of nothing. There is also the legend of pipa essence, which was returned to its original form by Jiang Ziya: it turned out to be a pipa player, not as fantastic as the legend. Of course, Jiang Ziya also learned a lesson from the Pipa Essence incident, leaked the details of others, and was retaliated by the other side. Jiang Ziya, who learned from a pit, certainly wouldn't do anything wrong to expose others. But doing things according to what others say. When you say you have three heads and six arms, I'll take you as three heads and six arms, but don't let others see you: it's also a nose and two eyes. Now, the government has officially created an image of you with three heads and six arms, so that people all over the world believe that you have three heads and six arms. If you can't stand in front of people alive, then you can only die.

The stable development of the Zhou Dynasty for so many years is closely related to the deification of Jiang Ziya. Whether objective or subjective, Jiang Ziya's deity has at least played the following roles:

First: pacify people.

War is cruel. After the war, how to get people to resume production is a big problem to be solved urgently. The Americans won the Gulf War, but so far they have not been able to get out of the quagmire of the Gulf. In this regard, George W. Bush should really consult Taigong and his old people and learn the psychotherapy invented by Taigong (unfortunately, this psychotherapy is often applied to medicine later, and politicians can't understand it).

Some people say that Jiang Ziya's apotheosis is boundless, but he is only right about a small part. There is merit, but why did Jiang Ziya seal many people who helped Zhou Wang? Even sealed "willing to be a traitor before death, confusing the Lord, defeating the country and destroying the king, stealing life; Fei Lian and Loy, who only know how to steal treasures to honor themselves, are the gods of ice collapse, and the theory of rewarding merit cannot be explained.

The emergence of myth is no different from primitive religious belief, which gives primitive people essential hope and spiritual strength, helps them overcome the harsh living environment at that time, urges them to think positively and develops their brains to a certain extent. Although the image of God is their fantasy, it is their own ideal state, which plays an exemplary role and makes them constantly pursue and make progress. Even with advanced technology, many people, including many scientists, are keen on UFOs and even believe in the existence of alien civilization. There is also the legend of "the end of the world". Why do so many people spread it and so many people believe it? When people can't solve things by themselves, they always hope that a supernatural outside world will always uphold justice. The legend of our ancestors is also like this: in ancient times, people lived in a highly developed civilized country (with nine heads of wheat ears), and people were used to pampering themselves, so that their morality was corrupted (a lady gave her son pancakes as a urine pad), which offended heaven and destroyed the world with water. Only ancestors and grandmothers escaped this robbery. ......

One of the reasons for Jiang Ziya's deity is to conform to people's heart and comfort the soul. Those who faithfully serve the country and give their lives for Marco Polo are not "good people are not rewarded" but "destiny takes a hand", such as Huang Tianhua, Huang and Wen. It is extremely important for a person and a minister to make up for it with loyalty. Loyalty and compassion are also the result of bad luck, such as fighting; And those treacherous court officials, such as Fei Lian, Loy, Fei Zhong and wandering souls, are all arranged by God, and "treacherous court officials die." ...

In this way, the relatives of the dead in the war, whether friends or enemies, of course believe that King Wu is an army of righteousness, and the crusade against Zhou Wang is well known. Now that the war is over, everyone can live and work in peace and contentment.

Back in the Gulf War, the United States made up excuses, but so far it has not found weapons of mass destruction in Iraq. Attacking other countries has no human rights, Saddam was finally executed, and others have no right to live. How can you talk about human rights? Look at Jiang Taigong's treatment of the son of heaven in Zhou Wang: after Zhou Wang's death (self-immolation, not homicide), he was named the Xi Star of Heaven by Jiang Ziya and went to heaven.

Second, unify thoughts and lay the foundation for the trend of China's context.

Throughout the ancient history of China, it can be said to be a mythical history. China has many nationalities, different opinions, wide beliefs and different respects. This is not conducive to the rule of the Zhou Dynasty.

Through the worship of gods, Jiang Ziya unified the spiritual beliefs of different nationalities and tribes under his own plan, established a whole set of social order, and divided the whole universe into three realms: God is the highest, followed by immortals, while living in human settlements, the underworld is the lowest. Throughout Chinese and foreign myths and legends, we can't escape this model.

Jiang Ziya's cleverness is unprecedented. Only Jiang Ziya can come up with the idea of straight-hook fishing, which not only achieves the effect of promoting his own advertisements, but also expresses his values of "taking the straight and not seeking the middle". Jiang Ziya's great wisdom persuaded Xibohou (Zhou Wenwang) to condescend.

According to folklore, Xibohou personally pulled Jiang Ziya out with a wooden cart to show sincerity and respect? In the valley on the road, the climbing belt of the car was broken, and Xibohou sat down to rest. Jiang Ziya asked the duke if he remembered how many steps he had taken. Xibohou said he was sweating like a pig. How can he count? Jiang Ziya then said to Xibohou: You pull me 808 steps, and I will protect you 808 years. Xibohou quickly stood up and said that he would continue to pull. Jiang Ziya shook his head and said that it was a foregone conclusion that the cat was leaked.

Later, you're done, the Zhou Dynasty was established, and Jiang Ziya left his last words before he died. He didn't want to be buried after he died. He hung the coffin on the gate. In case of war in the future, as long as he turns the big head of the coffin around and makes his head face there, things will calm down. This method has been passed down from generation to generation and is really effective. Then one day, a group of princes had a whim to see what was in the coffin hanging on the city gate. They asked their men to take down the coffin and open it. As a result, a group of pigeons flew out of the waiting and flew west in all directions. Before long, the Zhou Dynasty perished.

Disturbance led to chaos in the world. The demise of the Zhou Dynasty is not the so-called fate of Taoism, but the need of social progress. Later, social development had an impact on the old order in Jiang Ziya. Later princes and ministers of Zhou Dynasty had doubts about Jiang Ziya's theory and had their own ideas. Only later, a hundred schools of thought contended, and no one could perfect his theory, and the controversy continued. Later, a hundred schools of thought contended, which made the history of China enter the Warring States Period.