Does Friar Sand make a head necklace?

In Wu Cheng'en's novels, Friar Sand first wore a nine-headed necklace instead of a rosary.

This point is clearly described in Chapter 22 of the novel. 1980 The Journey to the West, published by People's Literature Publishing House, has a painted image of Journey to the West on the front. The first page is the Four Saints, and the top left is the sand.

A monk with a burden on his shoulder, crescent shovel in his hand and a skeleton hanging around his neck, especially the skeleton in the middle was deliberately enlarged and highlighted. Why did Wu Cheng'en design such horrible props for Friar Sand? Recently, a paper by Kang Baocheng, a professor and doctoral supervisor at Sun Yat-sen University's Institute of Ancient Drama and Oral and Intangible Heritage of Humanity, finally revealed the mystery.

Before his conversion, the skeleton under Friar Sand was a witness of his cannibalism and a way for him to show off his achievements.

Kang Baocheng believes that the skeleton hanging under the sand monk is a witness that he eats the living raw, which is clearly explained in the novel. The eighth time, Friar Sand was surrendered by Guanyin Bodhisattva, and he was willing to convert to positive results. He volunteered: "I have eaten countless people here, and I always have to take Buddhist scriptures several times and eat them all." People who eat their heads throw quicksand to the bottom. This water, goose feathers can't float. Only the skeletons of nine Buddhist scriptures float on the water and can't sink any more. I thought it was a foreign object, so I put Saul in one place and used it to play in my spare time. "

According to Tang Sanzang's Poem of Learning from the Scriptures, the skeleton on the neck of the prototype shaman of Friar Sand is the predecessor of Master Sanzang. It is said that the Tang priest was eaten twice by the shaman god. In the Yuan Dynasty drama The Journey to the West, Shen Sha became a sand monk with nine skulls hanging around his neck. It is said that the Tang Priest was the "ninth monk" and was "eaten nine times" by the sand monk. In this way, hanging the skull around the neck is not the invention of the bodhisattva, but the capital for Friar Sand to show off his exploits.

This way of showing off military exploits with human skulls actually originated from ancient primitive tribes. According to anthropologists' research, primitive tribes all over the world generally have the custom of headhunting, cannibalism and human skull decoration. In primitive tribes in Africa, prisoners of war are often eaten, and skulls become a trophy to show off.

According to British anthropologist Haydn, among Australian aborigines, the human skull is a trophy and a symbol of courage. If a young man wants to get married, a girl without brains won't like it and can't find a wife.

When an enemy was killed, he cut off his head, put a rattan rope through his jawbone and took it home. The head is hung on the main pillar of the house for decoration, just like "a bunch of grapes or a bunch of onions".

The custom of headhunting is often associated with head worship. The Golden Branch by Fraser, a famous anthropologist, records the headhunting customs of primitive tribes in many places, and almost all people worship their heads as gods. For example, among the primitive tribes in West Africa, after the king died, his heart was to be eaten by the new king, but his head was consecrated as a sacred object. China also had headhunting custom in prehistoric times. Xingtian in Shan Hai Jing is a beheaded hero. According to historical records, until the Han Dynasty, there was a system in which the number of enemy heads captured was used as a certificate for military personnel to reward meritorious deeds. In Cai Yan's poem "Sorrow and Anger", "A horse hangs its head, a woman on horseback" is a true record of the northern ethnic minorities showing off their military exploits with their heads.

The description of Wu Cheng'en's skull necklace is not idle, but actually has deep Buddhist origin.

On the 22nd time of The Journey to the West, after Friar Sand converted, according to the instructions of the Bodhisattva, he took off nine skeletons hanging around his neck, put them on a rope, tied the red gourd of Guanyin Bodhisattva in the middle and put them in the river. The skeleton and the red gourd immediately turned into a boat, carrying the Tang Priest and others. When he reached the shore, Monkey collected the red gourd, and those skeletons immediately turned into nine evil winds, and soon disappeared. Liusha River is a weak water that goose feathers can't attack. Why can those skeletons, together with the gourd of Guanyin Bodhisattva, become treasure ships crossing the water?

Kang Baocheng said that the skull on Friar Sand's neck is not an ordinary skull, but the skull of a Taoist priest (Tang Priest). In tantric Buddhism, most of the statues of the deities such as King Kong, Ming Wang and Zushi have skull ornaments, some wear skull crowns, and some wear skull garlands (necklaces). For example, I'm afraid that King Kong is wearing 50 fresh heads and is covered with human bone beads. It is said that wearing a human skeleton symbolizes impermanence on the one hand, and defeats the devil and death on the other.

The skeleton decoration in Tibetan Secret comes from India. In the eighth century, the Tibetan vajra dance (or Qiangmu) founded by Master Lotus Peanut was originally marked by Indian tantric rituals. In Indian Buddhism, the skeletons of ordinary people and monks are completely different in value. The Buddhist scriptures of Sanzang in the Tang Dynasty and the Yuan Zaju of Journey to the West all say that the skeleton around the neck of Friar Sand is the predecessor of Tang Priest. This Tang Priest is not an ordinary monk, but a disciple reincarnated as Kim, an arhat who practiced for the tenth time. Eating a piece of his meat will make him immortal. Since the Tang Priest is covered with treasures, it is not difficult to understand that his predecessor's skull is in the shape of nine palaces, and the treasure gourd of the Bodhisattva is in the middle, so that he can successfully tide over the weak water.

The sand monk has been wearing a skeleton necklace, but it was only in the Yuan Dynasty that the skeleton necklace gradually became a rosary.

Kang Baocheng believes that in the seventh century, the tantric religion in India was not authentic. Later, the influence of tantric Buddhism not only developed rapidly in India, but also spread to China. It was not until the reign of Emperor Xuanzong of the Tang Dynasty that Tantric Buddhism spread in China, and it was not until the "three great scholars" (Mimita Buddha, King Kong Zhi and Bukong) successively translated Tantric classics and built mandala altars in various places. The image of Friar Sand in The Journey to the West, that is, the predecessor of the image of Friar Sand, the custodian of Tantric Buddhism, arose under this background.

According to Buddhist records, Shensha and Qiu Fu were originally the names of two evil spirits. By the time of the Tang Dynasty, they became one and became the guardians of the tantric Buddhism. In 839 AD, the Japanese monk Chang Xiao brought the statue of the middle-earth god King Sha to Japan. The deep sand idol he brought is