Devil's practice manual

The original text was published in China Heritage No.04, 20 16.

Since ancient times, people have firmly believed that they can live forever and become immortal as soon as possible through cultivation. But you know what? Demons also need to practice. However, the purpose of their practice is not only to live forever, but also to practice in a variety of ways. From wild monsters to names in heaven; From the inability to fight back to the magical power, it is not easy to practice the wooden bridge all the way. So, what cultivation method did the monster adopt and what tests did it pass?

"Zuo Zhuan Gong Xuan Fifteen Years" records that "the sky is a disaster, the earth is a demon, people are chaotic, and chaos is a demon disaster." This means that all kinds of abnormal phenomena in nature and human society can be classified as demons. No wonder there are so many monsters.

Interestingly, most monsters who first came into contact with humans had low mana. Conflict with people, exposed in minutes, either die or run away. Ge Hong's Biography of the Immortal Luan Ba in the Eastern Jin Dynasty recorded a story of a fairy chasing a demon thousands of miles away and destroying it. Luan Ba heard that a "god" lived in the temple of Lushan Mountain and often talked with people in the curtain. Luan Ba was very curious, so he made a special trip to Lushan Mountain to find out. "God" heard that Luan Ba was coming, so he kept silent and fled without a trace. Luan Ba knew he was a demon, so he came after him.

The goblin ran to Qi, became a handsome young man, was favored by Qi Taishou, and became the door-to-door son-in-law of Qi Taishou. I thought I could live a quiet life, but I didn't expect Luanba to find a place. I must meet this son-in-law. The demon was weak in heart and refused to come out to meet each other. Luanba gave the satrap a paper spell. When I saw the charm, I showed my true colors. It turned out to be a gorilla monster. The gorilla monster didn't hurt anyone, but Luanba cut off its head in the spirit of eliminating all evils. Orangutans are vulnerable to Taoism.

Luan Ba, after all, is a master in the Tao, but the demon enemy can make sense. But even ordinary people can show their skills when they suddenly meet a demon. In the story of Qi Xie in Liu Song Dynasty, a man named Lv Si and his wife lived in a ruined temple in Guobu Mountain. Ruth woke up in the middle of the night and suddenly found her wife missing. Ruth got up to look for it. She saw a hall appear out of thin air, with an official in a black hat sitting in the middle. As soon as Ruth came in, officials rushed forward to fight. At this time, Ruth only had a knife in her hand. He swung it and cut it, looked around and killed more than 100 "people". After these people fell to the ground and died, they became dead foxes. Look at the hall again, it is actually an ancient tomb, which hides a group of robbed women. On her own, Lv Si not only rescued her wife, but also destroyed a demon nest.

In the concept of the ancients, cats can easily cultivate into demons. This picture depicts the process of cat demon's cultivation: when the moon is full in the middle of the night, the cat crouches on the eaves, opens its mouth to the moon and absorbs the essence of moonlight. Over time, the good cat will mutate into a monster. Feeling the essence of heaven and earth is a necessary condition to become a demon. Cartography/Sugizawa

In addition to fighting people, the newborn monster is also threatened by natural enemies. In the Eastern Jin Dynasty, Gambao's Book of Searching for the Gods (Volume 18) said, "The devil avoids dogs, and there is no one in a hundred years; A thousand years old, can't say goodbye. " This means that foxes are naturally afraid of dogs, even hundreds of years old foxes are afraid of dogs. The hundred-year-old fox must have turned into a monster, but he is still afraid of dogs and needs to continue to practice. The longer you practice, the higher your road will be, and the Millennium fox demon will no longer be afraid of dogs.

Demon cultivation can not only solve the threat of natural enemies, but also have greater benefits. Guo Pu of the Six Dynasties mentioned a kind of "Tianhu" in The Tale of the Metaphysics. It is said that it can speak in the name of heaven. Not only can a mage with low mana fail it, but no matter how powerful he is, he can't kill it if he catches it, and he can only stick to it. More importantly, you can be among the immortals and enjoy fireworks. The 30,000-year-old fox gang recorded in Guang Yi Ji Sun Qiangjia in the Tang Dynasty is a member of the immortals and came by colorful clouds. I heard that his fox offspring were bullied by Taoist priests, and even beat Taoist priests with a hundred sticks.

There are so many benefits after successful cultivation that monsters are not tempted. However, the devil's cultivation pays attention to the ladder. For "everything", whether animals or utensils, we must first become monsters, and then we can soar through cultivation.

To be a monster, you have to endure for a long time first, and there is no shortcut. By the Han dynasty, the concept of "old things become fine" was deeply rooted in the hearts of the people. Wang Chong of the Eastern Han Dynasty discussed the origin of the monster in the article On Balance and Determining Ghosts: "An old man with a husband and things is good at being a man, not old, and shows changes and looks like a man." Wang Chong believes that if the utensils are used for a long time, they will be contaminated with the essence of heaven and earth. Essence will disturb the essence of things, and then change qualitatively and become monsters. In the Eastern Jin Dynasty, Ge Hong traced this concept back to Confucius in Searching for the Gods, saying, "Demons build their roots and rely on their things. The qi is chaotic, but the external things change. " In addition to concentration, the decline of aging objects also provides the possibility of variation.

In addition to artifacts, people think that animals and plants can also mutate into demons under the action of time. Guo Pu said in Xuanzhong Ji that the juice leaves of a century-old tree are as red as blood; A thousand-year-old tree, its gas field can be turned into a blue sheep; Long live the tree, aura is a green cow, and it can travel all over the world. Compared with plants, animals spend the same time and get more obvious results. A 300-year-old mouse can predict good and bad luck and know things thousands of miles away.

In addition to being long enough, Taoism believes that the basic condition for everything to be refined is to have seven senses. Seven orifices are seven holes in the body. The essence of the five zang-organs reaches seven orifices, and whether the five zang-organs are healthy or not can be reflected from the changes of the seven orifices. At the same time, the seven senses are also the medium of communication between biology and nature. Therefore, the essence of heaven and earth, through seven orifices into things, into a demon. This may be difficult to break an inanimate object. So the artifact can't be a monster? The answer is yes. However, the artifact demon has another way of practicing.

"Notes on Filial Piety in Yuewei Caotang" says that "anything that is too small and resembles a human can be transformed into a living thing for a long time", which means that as long as it resembles a human, it can be transformed into a living thing for a long time. Han Zhong, the hero of the article, tells a story: when he was in Jingde County, a colleague paid a craftsman 120 silver to be a woman. I saw the woman lifelike, lifelike. This colleague took the woman who gave birth home to relieve boredom. Who knows, a few days later, the servants found an unknown woman in the yard. Later, when they look closely, active women look just like the women they created. This kind of object has taken the shape of a creature, and it is more natural to become a monster.

In addition to vivid images and exquisite utensils, you can also use external forces to contaminate the essence from creatures. In primitive witchcraft, people think that people have a specific connection with their lost hair and nails. Everything in a person carries the essence of the original owner. Among them, bright red and warm human blood is considered as the source of essence and the best choice. Ji Xiaolan said that he had heard a legend that a vulture became sperm after being polluted by human blood: "I tasted it, and the bird came home late, and it was getting dark. I saw a small whirlwind wrapped in something, sparkling and spinning like a wheel. That is a bare pen with slight blood on the tube. There is a confession of Niu Tianxi in the novels of the Ming Dynasty, saying that everything can be bewitched by the blood of Geng Shenri. This is a possibility. "

If there is no chance to be contaminated with human blood, objects that are often in contact with people can also be refined. The eighth volume of Yuewei Caotang Notes records the story of a box of tooth carvings playing secretly. Ji Xiaolan's screen friends collected a box of secret scripts of tooth carving and put it as a treasure in the box next to the pillow. One day, the play disappeared. I searched all over the room, but I still couldn't find it. Ji Xiaolan commented that this kind of secret play of tooth carving is often between pillows, which absorbs the essence of people and becomes a demon over time. However, most artifact demon spells are very low and harmless to people. After they are tempered, how to practice and how to fly is still unknown.

The picture above shows the scene in Strange Tales from a Lonely Studio where Yu Jing breaks a spider web to rescue a girl in green. The "girl in green" that Yu Jiing met was changed by a green bee. Although she can be turned into a girl with a clear sky and a scholar's lover, because the devil didn't practice well, she was entangled in cobwebs. Photo courtesy/National Library

Compared with the obscurity of artifact cultivation into magic, the road of animal cultivation into magic is much broader Of course, there are some incredible premises for the cultivation of beasts and demons. Take the fox as an example. Compared with scorpions and centipedes, which are ugly in appearance and often appear in their original forms, foxes have greater advantages. It is not only attractive in appearance, but also can talk to people, so it has a greater chance of success.

The enlightenment of the Eight Immortals written by the Taoist priest of Qing Dynasty also puts forward another premise-seeing life. In the Eight Immortals' Enlightenment, the old immortal said such a sincere sentence to the Rat Monster: "I pity you for practicing for thousands of years, not only did you not achieve positive results, but even your human body could not be changed." It's all because you were born too low to see the real fairy. Now you don't have to live a life of digging, you can be a guard boy in my abode of fairies and immortals, so that you can slowly get some real tricks and pass on some spells, and you can be thoroughly remoulded and become a man first. It will not take one or two thousand years to become a fairy body. "

As for the animal monsters, the fairy stories of past dynasties are mostly influenced by religion, and two cultivation methods are pointed out: either following Buddhism or cultivating into immortals. There are essential differences between these two training methods.

As far as Buddhism is concerned, whether you become a Buddha depends on one thought. The story of Baizhang Huaihai, a famous Zen monk in Hongzhou, is recorded in Volume III of the History of Zen, saying that a wild fox, inspired by Huaihai, had an epiphany and made a positive result. There are countless monsters who have become Buddhists by listening to and chanting scriptures in the strange novels of past dynasties. It is recorded in Huhai News, Yi Jian Xu Zhizhi that a parrot listened to monks chanting scriptures all the year round, which was influenced and became a relic after his death.

Unlike Buddhism, Taoism refers to immortals, which originated from monasticism. Practice is practice, and Taoism believes that practice is not as simple as an idea. But Taoism also has a relative shortcut, that is, taking Dan medicine. Ge Hong, a Taoist scholar in the Eastern Jin Dynasty, observed that the wonderful characteristics of cinnabar and gold are the treasures of immortals. The longer cinnabar is burned, the more changes it can produce; On the contrary, the nature of gold is very stable. No matter how you burn it, it won't be refined. If it is buried underground, it will be immortal. If people take the elixir made of cinnabar and gold, they can live forever and achieve the effect that "those who take gold live as long as gold and those who take jade live as long as jade".

Therefore, in mystery novels, monsters practice according to the method of taking Dan. If animals are lucky enough to taste Dan medicine, they will prosper. The most famous example is the story of "chickens and dogs ascend to heaven": Ge Hong's "Biography of Immortal Liu An" records that "when people dispersed for eight days, the remaining medicine was placed in court, and chickens and dogs pecked all the way". Legend has it that Liu Andan, the king of Huainan, became immortal, and chickens and dogs ate dregs and soared.

The picture above shows the scene of A Xian in Liao Zhai. Xishan suspected that slim and weak Axian had been changed by rats, so he raised a cat to test the truth. In the eyes of the cat, where can Ah Xian hide? Xian was unhappy and finally drifted away. The monster is still very uncomfortable when he meets his former natural enemies. Photo courtesy/National Library

But some monsters cannot become immortals without the help of experts. In Hua Yao Biography, a work featuring a fox demon, the male fox in South China wanted to become an immortal, but he didn't endure penance, took an crooked path and was killed. After that, the male fox really stayed with him and prayed for the rescue of the sword fairy. After the guidance of Jian Xian, he was reincarnated, became an all-rounder in civil and military affairs, and put down the rebellion. After all, the male fox became an outstanding talent under the inspiration of the sword fairy.

If there is no Dan medicine to eat and no expert advice, how can the devil practice? Don't worry, there are many ways to think about God. Sima Chengzhen, a Taoist priest in the Tang Dynasty, explained "thinking about existence" in Tianzangzi: "Existence is the existence of my god; I just miss me. " Thinking is to close your eyes and meditate on the existence of gods in your body and the cultivation spells that appear. It's a bit like meditation. The fox in Tai Ping Guang Ji Yao Ji Kun said, "I am a fox who went to heaven. My first point is in the grave. Because of my knowledge, I have a glimpse of the star of the heavenly man and admire it. " I hate that I can't fly, so I want to pay attention to God. Suddenly I couldn't feel it flying out, so I climbed into the sky. "This wild fox lives in a deserted grave hole, because there is a small hole in the hole, and he can see the stars of Tianhe, so he concentrates on watching the stars every day, and finally gets the word, and unconsciously flies out, driving clouds out of thin air and flying to Tianhe.

The cultivation methods mentioned above are all decent ways, but it takes a long time, and many monsters don't have the patience. Therefore, people give monsters another quick and effective way to cultivate them-digging to make up for them. However, if this method is not careful, it will be "natural" and "easy to enter witchcraft."

Picking and mending originated from Taoist inner alchemy. Taoist inner alchemy is divided into two factions: the north and the south, and the south has two factions: single cultivation and double cultivation. The double cultivation school believes that the cultivation of inner elixir is to obtain the essence of men and women, cultivate the body of pure yang, and become a flying fairy. Emperor Jiajing of the Ming Dynasty knew this well. According to Shen Defu's Wanli Wild Collection, Shao Hetao, a Taoist priest trusted by Emperor Jiajing, presented the prescription of "Hongmei" to the emperor. This prescription is made from the menstrual blood of a virgin's first menstruation, and it is as red as cinnabar. In order to live forever, Emperor Jiajing recruited a large number of virgins and used them to make elixirs. Poor ladies-in-waiting should keep their bodies "clean" and not eat anything, but eat mulberries and drink dew. The little maids were miserable and plotted to strangle the emperor's "Renyin Palace Change".

The imagination of the underworld is an impression of the human world, and the art of mining and manicure naturally plays a role in the underworld. There are some stories in the novels of the Ming Dynasty that the fox recommended her pillow mat.

There was such a fox in the legend of the fox in the Ming Dynasty. Turned into a beautiful woman, cultivated the art of nourishing yin and nourishing yang, hollowed out the body of Zhou Gongzi, and made Zhou Gongzi pale and emaciated. However, this fox spirit is very dissatisfied. He thinks he is "weak during sex and feels that he can't do whatever he wants". He plausibly accused: "It is too weak and useless, not durable enough, giving up halfway, and trying in vain. If all men in the world are like this, when can I become an immortal? "

This technique of absorbing yang and nourishing yin is not only heresy, but also counterproductive once it is implemented carelessly. In Yan Guang's Variation, a legendary novel collection in the Ming Dynasty, there was a fox who only absorbed the essence of the sun for hundreds of years, but only the essence of Yang, and was able to cultivate into an immortal. She took a fancy to Wang Sheng, so she became a beautiful woman and made love to Wang Sheng every night. Who knows, Fox Fairy got pregnant. After being born, he died under the peak tower, and hundreds of years of practice fell short.

Fox demon knows the risk of deviance. The Notes of Yuewei Caotang records a confession of fox demon's cultivation of immortality: "Anyone who practices fox spirit cultivates immortality. ..... The second time, the cultivation of skills into Motome, temptation and bewitch, essence and tonic, internal and external cooperation, can also become an elixir. However, if you adopt less, you will not succeed. It's selfish to adopt more. If you don't make a thousand mistakes, there will be a natural punishment. If you do, I dare not. " The fox spirit was careful and finally achieved the Tao. How many fox spirits fell down inexplicably on this road of seeking immortality?

Sometimes, just to show your talent and raise your proud tail, let the practice come to an abrupt end. In the process of searching for gods, a thousand-year-old fox interrupted the road of practice.

There is a thousand-year-old fox in front of Yan Zhaowang's grave. It is good friends with the Hua Biao in front of the grave. One day, Zhang Hua, a politician and writer in the Western Jin Dynasty, passed Yan Zhaowang's tomb. The fox became a scholar and wanted to meet Zhang Hua. He confidently asked Hua Biao, "Can I meet Zhang Sikong with my talent?" Huabiao said, "I think you'd better forget it." Your talent is really high, but I'm afraid Zhang is too small to tolerate. If you don't get it, you won't come back. On the contrary, you will implicate my brother. The fox refused to listen and insisted on seeing Zhang Hua. Zhang Hua thought highly of him when he saw that he was "charming, as white as jade, with Rong Zhi acting skills and full of expectations for life". But on second thought, such a handsome scholar is either a ghost or a fox. Finally, Zhang Huapa sent someone to take out China's watch from the grave, lit it and shone it on the scholar. The fox immediately revealed its true colors. The fox who wants to show off not only ruined thousands of years of practice, but also harmed his friends-is this a demon or a person?

In The Story of the Mystery, Guo Pu described a clear road to immortality for the fox demon: "At the age of fifty, the fox can become a woman. A hundred years old is a beauty and a witch; Or for a husband, with a woman. Being able to know foreign affairs thousands of miles away and being good at charm make people confused and ignorant. Chitose is connected with Tiantong and is a tiger. " Spend countless hours just to cultivate immortality; Even if I am lucky enough to be a woman, a beautiful woman, the incarnation of a witch, to know thousands of miles of westernization, and even to be a Tian Hu in the sky, my troubles will be less than when I am a fox. In this way, monsters still live a quiet "demon life", so don't expect too much from the celestial world.

From the cultivation process of monsters, we can find that the cultivation theory and method of monsters are parallel and synchronous with the cultivation theory based on Taoist thought. The conclusion may be simple: monsters are the spiritual products created by human beings, not the real existence of this world. Then the devil's training manual is second to none.