The origin of the birth of nine princes

There are two schools of thought about the origin of the Nine Emperors: Taoist Nine Emperors and Han Folk Nine Emperors. The Nine Emperors School of Taoism originated from the worship of stars. The "Nine Emperors" was originally the product of the Han people worshiping the stars, which was related to the Big Dipper, which was used to point out the direction and draw up the calendar at night. The wisdom of the ancients believed that Beidou had nine planets, which were connected with astronomical research. The seven stars scattered in the northern sky-Shu Tian, Tian Xuan, Tianqi, Tianquan, Yuheng, Kaiyang and Ursa Major-are collectively referred to as plough in Taoism and Ursa Major in the west.

The widely circulated Taoist saying that "Nan Dou is reborn and Beidou is dead" makes Beidou a "god" in charge of life and death. Worship to mother is the process of personification of the Big Dipper.

Legend has it that Beidou nine planets is the son of Dou Mu. Dou Mu, also known as Lady Ziguang, was originally the princess of Zhou Yu, Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty. My wife is taking a bath in the lotus pond, and suddenly she feels that nine lotus flowers are transformed into nine children. The eldest son is the emperor, the second is the emperor Wei Zi, and the rest are Wolf-greedy, Giant Gate, Lucun, Wen Qu, Lian Zhen, Wu Qu and Pojun. Worship the mother and nine emperors is a process in which the ancients believed in the Big Dipper and personified the King of the Big Dipper.

The folk Nine Emperors School of Han nationality originated from various historical legends circulating in Southeast Asia. There was only one of the nine emperors, but the statue was replaced by a censer. There are several different versions of the legend of the Nine Emperors.

& lt legend 1. Nine emperors in ancient times >

The Nine Emperors are nine characters in the ancient legends of China-Fuxi, Shennong, Huangdi, Shao Hao, Zhuan Xu, Gaozu, Yao, Shun and Yu.

& lt Legend has it that nine emperors in the Qin Dynasty were revolutionary martyrs >

Before Guangwu Uprising, Chen Sheng, nine sworn heroes, planned an uprising against the Qin Dynasty. When the opportunity came, they were killed by Qin Jun, their heads were taken away, and their bodies were abandoned. The people took pity on their righteous deeds and privately put their bodies in nine clay pots and let them drift to the sea. A few years later, the Han Dynasty rose, and the remains of nine urns floated back to their original places. It's strange that martyrs don't have names and surnames. The local people cleaned up the wreckage and buried it properly, and built a temple for the martyrs. The latter nine people showed their saints and protected the people, and the local officials complied with the public opinion and applied to the court for the title of "Lord", thus evolving into "Nine Emperors".

& lt Legend 3: Five Ancestors of Hong Men and White Ingot Incense Burner >

The legendary five ancestors of Shaolin in Hong Men were hunted down by Qing soldiers for their anti-Qing and Ming restoration activities. After defecting to Zheng Chenggong, they were sent to Fujian, Guangdong and Guangxi to publicize the revolution. When I arrived in Putian, I was taken in by Jiulianshan Shaolin Temple to practice martial arts. Later, I learned that Shaolin Temple was burned by Qing soldiers. After they escaped, they lived in Gao Xi Temple in Shicheng County, Huizhou City, Guangdong Province. One day, something floated in the nearby river, which was a white gold ingot incense burner. The word "don't understand" is engraved on the bottom of the furnace, and it says "52 kg, 13 Liang". Chen Jinnan, one of Hong Men's ancestors, knew that the four words on the bottom of the furnace were the code word for "Liu Hanwen", which meant "fighting against the Qing Dynasty and regaining sight". "Fifty-two Jin, thirteen Liang" means "five lakes, Nanjing, two Beijing and thirteen provinces. . . . . "The incense burner, an important prop of this story, is consistent with the custom of worshipping only incense burners in the belief of the Nine Emperors.

& lt Legend 4: Wan Yunlong, the leader of Hong Men Heaven and Earth Society;

There is a widely circulated legend in Anbang, Kuala Lumpur, that the celebration of the Nine Emperors is to offer sacrifices to Wan Yunlong, the founder of Hong Men Heaven and Earth Society. 1734, Wan Yunlong fought with the Qing soldiers and died in Changsha, Hunan on the 9th of September in Yongzheng year of Qing Dynasty. The remaining men fled to Hainan Island, and the defeated troops fled to Siam by water and were forced to settle in Penang.

Some remnants of the Red Gate Society later settled in Anbang. On the surface, they made a living by farming, but secretly they formed a secret association, which led patriots and * * * to help fight against the Qing Dynasty and regain their sight.

On one occasion, the police raided the scene and asked the reason for the opening ceremony (also known as the opening ceremony). The leader said that he would worship God here and pray for peace. The police saw that although there were signs of worship, there was no statue of God, so they asked why. Everyone was speechless for a moment, and suddenly one of the leaders was in a hurry and pointed to an incense burner in front of him and said, This is the god we worship. Looking at the smoke from the incense burner, the police asked suspiciously: Is the incense burner a god? What kind of god is he? One person casually replied: His name is Nine Emperors. No one knew the story of Nine Emperors, but the police believed it and gave up. Since then, Chinese in Kuala Lumpur have used incense burners as shrines to worship the Nine Emperors.

& lt legend 5. Ming Taizu Ninth Generation Sun Wanglu >

This is the most historic legend. The ninth son of the ninth generation, Wang Tan, is also the Nine Kings, commonly known as the Nine Kings, also known as the King of Lu. A group of Ming officials held Lu as emperor in Shaoxing, and were later chased by Qing soldiers. King Lu defected to Zheng Chenggong and lived in Jinmen. Legend has it that Zheng Chenggong was rude to King Lu and drowned him. His subordinates hated Zheng Chenggong, so they came to Hainan and built a temple to worship him. Because the nine princes sank to the bottom of the sea and had no body, they only made gods, not idols. Legend has it that the ninth day of September is the prince's birthday. That morning, a censer floated from the water to the sea to meet King Lu.

1959 revealed the fact that an ancient tomb was found in Kinmen Island. The stone tablet in the tomb records that King Lu died of asthma, not persecution, and the truth came out.

& lt Legend Six, Wang Ye Zheng Chenggong >

During the Qing Dynasty, anti-Qing martyrs held high the banner of anti-Qing and restoring sight, and Zheng Chenggong secretly convened heroes from all walks of life in Zhang Quan, Fujian to discuss the plan of restoring sight in the "Doumu Palace" along the coast. Under the guise of the birthday of the gods in the palace, they recruited soldiers in the palace for nine consecutive days, held high the banner of "Nine Emperors" as a call, "meaning to save the land of the Ming Dynasty", and wrote the sun and the moon (that is, the Ming Dynasty) on the left and right sides of the icon of Queen Doum.

On the last night of the eighth month of the lunar calendar, Zheng Chenggong greeted the monarch at sea to take charge of the overall situation. Zheng Chenggong was wanted by the imperial court. Therefore, from disembarking to the Golden Palace, he needs to use a sunshade to avoid exposure. At midnight on the ninth day of the ninth lunar month, Zheng Chenggong was sent to the sea to appeal to charities in other places to prepare a "king's boat" and provide all daily necessities and food. The uprising finally failed with heavy casualties.

To commemorate the historical sites of Wang Ye Zheng Chenggong and other martyrs, villagers in Zhang Quan pay homage to Wang Ye and many national heroes who died every year from the last day of August to the ninth day of September.

Traditional customs and habits, nine emperors incense spread to Nanyang, according to legend, it should have a history of more than 300 years.

Several main steps of the Nine Emperors' belief ceremony in Doumu Palace are reflected, such as "welcoming the gods", "inviting water", "sending the gods back to the sea" and "sailing the king".

Which is earlier, legend or ceremony? It is hard to say whether the legend was invented to match the ceremony, or whether punishment became a ceremony because of the legend. The mutual cooperation of ceremonies and legends has found a certain basis for the spread of faith, and also put a strong mystery on faith activities. Comments:

The belief in the Nine Emperors was originally the Beidou belief, which is the oldest star worship in China tradition.

The Nine Emperors refer to the ancient gods "Gouchen Emperor" and "Arctic Han Emperor" with the same taste as the Jade Emperor, and the Hungry Wolf, Jumen, Lucun, Wen Qu, Lian Zhen, Wu Qu and Pojun of the Big Dipper.

Because the history of China people's view of Beidou can be traced back to the 30th century BC to the 40th century BC, the ancient Beidou constellation observed by China people is nine planets; Later, it was said that the Beidou constellation is seven bright and two dark. Besides the seven stars, there are two dark stars: the auxiliary star and the Bi star. On the contrary, Taoism later explained that these two dark stars were actually two stars of Gou Chen and Wei Zi.

As a matter of fact, the Temple Fair of Nine Emperors and vegetarian food, which are popular all over Malaysia in September of the lunar calendar every year, originated from the custom of Taoist priests holding ritual fights and gatherings in China since the Han Dynasty. The birthday of the Nine Emperors includes collective sacrifice and worship activities, which is the southward migration of Beidou to worship the customs.

Beidou belief is the most important worship of natural stars in China. Because Beidou is a constellation that rotates once a day in the sky of China, people also divide it into one day 12 rotation stages according to Beidou's rotation, and create a time measuring method for observing Beidou 12 hours.

It is also found that the Beidou bucket handle will point in different directions in the sky according to the time of many different stages in 1 year; Whenever stars appear at dusk, the direction pointed by bucket handle of Beidou will fall in a certain direction, but the stars in the sky will also shift according to the direction pointed by bucket handle in different seasons.

So people turned according to the direction of Beidou bucket handle, and found that bucket handle has 24 directions to refer to, so people had the "Twenty-four Mountains" China compass.

Moreover, every time the barrel handle points to one side for a period of time, there will be climate change on the ground, which will affect farming; So the ancients came to the conclusion that the direction of bucket handle indicated the climate change of the 24 solar terms, which caused the differences among spring, summer, autumn and winter.

Therefore, the ancients had an idiom "the stars turn" to describe the passage of time and the changes of the world.

At night, the ancients used Beidou to indicate the direction. The outermost two stars on the Beidou bucket are connected in a straight line, and there are 1 star at the four-fold extension. No matter how the Beidou revolves around it, it is still. This star is the North Star. It is always in the north.

Therefore, no matter what time or season, you can use Beidou to find the direction; If you don't know the time and season, you can also look at Beidou to infer the time and season. People can find the position of the North Star according to the Beidou, and they can recognize all directions as long as they find the North. People measure the correct position of the ground according to their understanding of the seasons and the bucket handle finger of Beidou.

In Chinese mainland, which is dominated by agriculture and sparsely populated, observing the changes of Beidou in the sky can "predict" people's understanding of climate change and traffic trends and become the highest and most standard indicator of agriculture and traffic.

Whenever the Beidou changes, the stars in the sky, yin and yang on the ground, climate and human feelings will also change. Therefore, people think that Beidou manages the climate of the stars and also affects people's life span, thus changing all kinds of geomantic numerology evolved in the name of the nine planets of Beidou. People believe that worshipping Beidou can be used as a way to eliminate disasters, solve problems and increase happiness and longevity.

According to the Taoist Beidou classic, the birthday of the Ninth Emperor of Beidou is from the first day of September to the ninth day of September every year. For nine days in a row, worshipping the stars of the Big Dipper can help people eliminate disasters and live longer. 1) The origin of the Nine Emperors, explained in the Taoist book The Big Dipper, is an incarnation story of a god.

According to scripture records, Long Hanwang had 1 concubine, and in the past, he made a wish to give birth to his son "Gan Kun". One day, the princess bathed in the Golden Lotus Pond and was induced to give birth to nine lotuses. The lotuses became nine sons and nine emperors.

2) According to the teaching of Yanshengjing, the core memorial of life, the Yin Qi Buddha in the early Yuan Dynasty became a doom. The brahmin spirit of bad luck has been transformed into nine emperors. Therefore, the Nine Emperors are innate gods.

Anyone who serves the Nine Emperors must respect the mother of the Nine Emperors. The place where he serves the mother of the Nine Emperors is called "Doum Hall" or "Doum Palace", but it is not often called "Nine Emperors" as the official hall.

3) There is also an anthropomorphic legend among the Han people about the origin of the Nine Emperors, which holds that they are righteous people who were killed because they resisted violence or failed to protect the emperor, or leaders of maritime forces who were beheaded by the government.

Around Nanyang, there are some temples of the Nine Emperors, where the ceremony of welcoming the gods is to welcome the seawater back to the altar at the seaside. During the celebration, some people wear leucorrhea or hemp belts with their hands, as if in mourning.

The popularity of legends may be related to the early association of the party. In the early years, the socialist party organized societies and held ceremonies under the guise of the birthday of the Ninth Emperor. The ceremony of honoring the Nine Emperors included the ceremony of transcending the loyal soul, and the Hui people's Party may also take this opportunity to commemorate the martyrs of the righteous teacher who fought against violence at sea, thus producing legends.