Late Qing dynasty Taoist house to ward off evil spirits hanging sign, the front is a tiger, the reverse side is a child
When I was a child, every Qingming ancestors, always puzzled: the offerings are so rich, that the ghost also have to eat, but a few meals a year, the ghost will not be hungry? If a ghost dies of hunger, it will become the square of the ghost?
Then I looked up the Qing dynasty notebooks “Ear Food Record”, one of them, the perfect answer to my hundred thousand questions.
It says that a new ghost, so hungry that his soul was wrapped in bones, went to ask an old ghost what could be done to fill his stomach. When the old ghost saw that he came empty-handed, he didn’t know much about ghosts, so he fooled him and said, “It’s not easy to get enough to eat, here’s the deal, there’s a woodcutter who cuts wood all day long on the end of the mountain, it’s very hard, you go to carry his load, he will definitely sacrifice you.
The new ghost believed, floated to the end of the mountain, found the woodcutter, possessed him on the woodcutter, helped him for several days to pick wood, but the woodcutter did not know. The new ghost got anxious and thought, “I don’t keep a diary, I can’t keep doing good deeds without leaving a name, I have to think of a way.
It just so happened that the woodcutter had picked half of the road and was tired, so he left his pick and sat on the side of the road to rest. When the new ghost saw the opportunity, he picked up his load and left. The woodcutter was wiping sweat, suddenly saw that the firewood burden like their own feet in the air to move, the soul of the soul, pull out his legs and run. Seeing this, the new ghost picked up the firewood and chased after him. The woodcutter thought he had cut the wood to the tree demon, so he burned the wood outside his home with a fire.
The new ghost still can not get food, hungry and tired, went back to the old ghost, said you tease me. The old ghost laughed, a joke ha don’t mind, so of course you can’t get food, today is the Qingming, there is a family over the mountain ancestral sacrifice, come with me, there is meat to eat.
The new ghost once again chose to believe the old ghost, followed him to the other side of the mountain, indeed, there is a large family is ancestor worship, the grave full of wine and meat and fruit. At that moment, a ghost came out through the grave and saw his children and grandchildren, separated by the yin and yang, just crying and not interested in enjoying the offerings.
The new ghost really can’t stand it, regardless of the three or seven, pulled a chicken leg and gnaw. I did not think, just the first bite, out of nowhere another evil ghost, a choke him throat, but also tied him up and hanged on the tree, and then those offerings to other lonely ghosts to eat, but not to the new ghost, angry he grabbed food.
When the ghosts finished eating, the evil ghost also used the whip to beat the new ghost a few times before letting him down. The old ghost, who brought the new ghost, was long gone.
Poor new ghost, he couldn’t eat the meat and got a beating. However, the beating also made him realize that there is no difference between the yin and the yang. Humph, others have children and grandchildren, do not I have? The first time to dream to his son, said your father has become a hungry ghost, you boy, do not hurry to get me some food.
The son woke up crying and rushed to prepare the sacrifice. But the family is too poor, can’t do anything for a while, but also ordinary porridge, rice, vegetables, the new ghost is very hungry and not picky, at least finally full meal.
After that, when the new ghost was hungry, he entrusted his dream to his son. Three or four times, his son also got suspicious, how my father and other people’s father is different, after death, but also frequently ask for food, so hungry, it is not the old ghost next door to do things, right? Since then, the new ghost and how to dream, the son no longer care about him.
The new ghost had no choice, and then looked at other ghosts, except for the Qingming and winter solstice, usually have little opportunity to eat, but not very hungry, puzzled, so he asked the ghost leader directly in charge of him, why other ghosts do not eat not hungry, I do not eat hungry. The ghost leader said, you should die, this is retribution, who told you to live when the extreme appetite, family assets are eaten up by you, so although you died, the stomach and intestines are still alive, of course, hunger full of.
The new ghost finally understood and begged the ghost leader, saying I regretted it, could you also kill my intestines, so that I would not eat or be hungry like other ghosts. The ghost leader said, “You have not finished your retribution, no way.
The more the new ghost thought about it, the more he hated himself, and had no face to see the ghost, so he simply shut himself in the tomb and never came out again, thinking that I would starve to death again, so I would not have to suffer from hunger.
After a short time, it was really alive – oh no, it was deadly starved to death, and entered another space, becoming a child (jiàn).
I didn’t expect that after becoming a kind of “desperate” person, I would be even more hungry. This is completely desperate, and went back to the netherworld to scare ghosts, to see if they can mix some food.
One day, the Ciong gradually came to realize: I have used all the tricks, hunger is still never ending, why bother yourself again, anyway, is a Ciong, and then die where else to die. With this thought, a golden light suddenly appeared in front of his eyes and a bodhisattva flicked his finger at him, and he found himself back in the grave, “reborn” as a ghost.
The feeling of being a ghost again was much more comfortable than when he was a ghost. The new ghost thought, “So be it, after all, being a ghost is happier than being a zombie.
From then on, he spent all day in the closed grave thinking about his life, and gradually he no longer felt unbearable hunger. If there is an afterlife, he will practice minimalism.
I don’t know how long it took, but his immediate ghost leader finally came to him and said, “If you are so remorseful, your retribution is over and you can be a human again. But in your previous life, you killed too many people and enjoyed all your blessings, so in your next life, you can only eat leftovers to fill your stomach.”
The ghost leader finished a finger, swoosh, the ghost has been reborn in a beggar’s home in the east of the river.
Others reincarnation, they have forgotten the previous life, but the beggar has always remembered. He begged for food in the eastern part of the river, only the elements, not meat. He told his story and warned the world that ghosts are more than people, and more than ghosts, ghosts in the underworld, not all can be reincarnated as people, and not all will turn into a child, the transformation between human ghosts and child, mainly depends on the awareness.
This story is called the “beggar of Hedong”, when first read, really let people up. It turns out that people die, all the organs of the body failure and death, the intestines and stomach, of course, so only a few meals a year, the stomach will not be hungry. But since someone died with a mouth left, someone died with a stomach left, those who lived a life of extravagant food, people die stomach does not die, do not eat, of course, will also be hungry.
Another eye-opener is that when people die, it’s not all over. Do ghosts in addition to waiting for the number of reincarnation, there is a possibility, is to die once again, into the wild.
This is not a fabrication of the “Ear Food Record”, the North and South dynasties, Liu Yiqing (also the author of “The New Story of the World”) of the “You Ming Record” has the following record: “people die as a ghost, ghosts die as a death, a death as a death as a death, a death as a death as a death, a death as a Yi.”
It seems that matter is not extinguished and neither is the soul, so the transformation between matter and soul is endless, not to mention ghosts. There is also the “Yi” and “Yei” after the “Tao Te Ching” of Laozi: “To see is not to see is to be known as Yi, to hear is not to be known as Xi.” The commentary of Ha Shang Gong says: “No color is called Yi, no sound is called Xi.”
That is to say, after the death of the tale, it is transformed into the soundless “Hsi”; after the death of Hsi, it is transformed into the colorless “Yi”. The “color” here is the same as the “color” of “color is emptiness” in the Heart Sutra, that is, the meaning of form and existence. No sound and no color, that is the absolute emptiness, not to mention eating, nothing is needed.
Therefore, there is no need to worry about the 20-year term of the cemetery, when it expires, if there is no money to renew it, we will automatically go offline from the underworld, and die a few more times, to be a teahouse to do Xiyi, what space is not needed.
Besides, there is one more benefit of being an actor, ghosts are afraid.
Pu Songling’s “Liaozhai Zhiyi” has a “chapter a end”, which explains: “people die as ghosts, ghosts die as a good. The fear of ghosts, as if the fear of ghosts.”
It is such a simple and crude logic.
The Tang Dynasty Duan Cheng-style “Youyang Miscellaneous Banquets”, in the “sequel to Volume IV – derogatory error” also said: “the common good on the door to draw the head of the tiger, the book of the word “Cai Zhu”, said the name of the ghost of the Yin knife, can also rest malaria.”
During the Tang Dynasty, it was customary to draw a tiger’s head on the door and write the word “tiger” on it, saying that it was the name of a ghost in the underworld that became a ghost after death and could prevent the plague.
See, our ancestors have long had a cure for the epidemic, as long as the revival of this traditional culture, a “tiger” on the door, better than a “new crown vaccination model family”.
In other words, it is better to have a “Miao Miao Miao” together than to have a “Miao Miao Miao” together.
The above shows that people are afraid of ghosts, and ghosts are afraid of the subtle, so people are invincible to the subtle.
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