Introduction:
At present, the earliest and most complete information that can be traced back to [ signature poem] . What can be found is the signature poem at Sensoji Temple in Tokyo, Japan. comes from the Southern Song Dynasty "Cantonese Guanyin Spirit Sign" . The Tianzhu Temple near Nanjing City had been destroyed decades ago, and only the Tianzhu Temple Guanyin spiritual signature is still circulating in overseas temples...
And the earliest story about "Signing Poetry" is The Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms periods, The Former Shu is confronting the Later Tang Dynasty. Just when the situation was not good for the former, The Former Shu ruler Wang Yan wanted to change the fate of Shu's impending demise, so he set up a palace incense group and led the harem team to travel around the mountains and rivers, asking Gods and asking Buddhas.
From Taoist temple to Buddhist temple, from seeing photos to asking for visas, no matter what activities, he brought the empress dowagers and concubines in the harem to worship, and he also took a few girls to serve in the harem. In order to predict the national destiny, he personally went to the most famous Zhang Ezi Temple in Sichuan at that time, which was later the Wenchang Emperor Temple to draw lots.
In Wang Yan's time, Emperor Wenchang was also called Zhang Eizi. In Sichuan legend, it is a god related to the snake and equivalent to the incarnation of the snake god.
According to the reign of Emperor Renzong of Song Dynasty, the court appointed Zhang Erzi as Emperor Zitong, and later generations merged him with Zhang Yu, the king of Shu of the Eastern Jin Dynasty, to sacrifice to the same person. Because later generations often prayed to him for the smooth examination, Emperor Zitong slowly evolved into a god who protected the candidates, which is the Emperor Wenchang, which we are familiar with.
No matter what, Wang Yan went to the temple to draw lots for the national fortune and got the four words "The Defeat of Heaven" , and then he was destroyed. This story is one of the earliest stories of signing poems.
From this short story, we can know that had provided "draw lots" services in the temple at that time, and they could be used by both nobles and civilians. At that time, the attribute of the signed poem was not the four-line signed poem that is similar to the current Tang poetry, but mainly short sentences or four characters. When did
sign poems be used as tools for divination? Although the issue of
is very controversial, it traces the origin from the literature. In the Han Dynasty, , the existence of the sign has appeared in in "Shuowen Jiezi": "Sign is verification. One is sharp. It is stalking. It is from the sound of bamboo sticks." shows that the ancients used bamboo to make signs to divine, understand the will of God, and judge good or bad luck. The word "Sign" means that the results of divination are fulfilled and can confirm good or bad luck. So we can know that the ancients used lots to distinguish good and bad luck in very early, but the signs at that time may not contain any text.
So according to literature records, it may not be during the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms that there were signs with texts, and signing poems began to have more complex forms. There is a story in the "Yuhu Qinghua" of the Song Dynasty. There is a story described in :
Prime Minister Lu Duosun was born in Caonan. When he was young, his father took him to study in the Taoist temple in Yunyang. When he and other children were studying at an abandoned altar, they found that there was an ancient sign bucket on the altar. For fun, each of them drew a sign to test the good or bad luck. Lu Duosun said, "I can't read and can't understand." Then he took the sign back to his father to interpret it, which said, "I must come out of Zhongshu Hall because of the white sky and the white sky, and finally become a guest of Penghai." His father was very happy to read it, thinking that this sign was auspicious, so he saved the sign. Later, Lu Duosun became a prime minister and later lost power because he sent a small official named Zhao Bai to collude with King Zhao Tingmei of Qin. After the incident, Lu Duosun fled to the south. He happened to be fifty-two years old and passed away in Zhuya, which was exactly the same as what he predicted when he signed the poem.
Judging from this story, the signature poems of the Song Dynasty have appeared in the form of five-character poems, and the text is more elegant, imitating the form and subject of the Tang poems, and are placed in the temple as signatures for the masses to use for fortune and bad luck.
The gods’ spirits are related to the origin of the signing poem?
Another saying is that the signing poem comes from the "reducing pen" of the Sui, Tang and Five Dynasties, which is the spirit text directed by the gods.
The general situation is like this: a certain technology industry engineer is a talented person, but unfortunately he has no target.His mother was very worried, so she went to the temple to ask the gods to show their spirits. After the spirit body was possessed by the gods, she began to use a phoenix pen (the spirit pen, sometimes the gods used sedan bars, plates, brooms and other tools to express their will) to write the words or other symbols of the gods' instructions on the sand table to convey the gods' opinions. Of course, because everyone cannot understand the ghostly painting runes of the gods, they also need "Power Luan" or spirit reading personnel to interpret the will of the gods.
Chu Yong of the Song Dynasty mentioned in "Theory of Relieving Suspicion" that there are too many methods commonly known as the folk sayings. The more complex the rituals look, the more mysterious it becomes. The simpler the handwriting looks, the faster it is written. There are many people who are confused and blindly believe in it. This is actually just a trick of ghost painting talismans. Because some people make a living from this, they deliberately prevent others from knowing what they are writing, so as to serve as the spokesperson for the gods.
By the Ming Dynasty, the records of temple spiritual signs were more extensive. There were all kinds of events in life, whether you went out for an exam or did a business, or you could ask for a sign.
Xu Xiake and the story of signature
Like Xu Xiake, a well-known geographer and traveler in the Ming Dynasty, he has been traveling all his life. But traveling is not only charming, but also challenging. He encountered disasters many times in his life, and even robbers. The situation was critical, and Xu Xiake and his fellow villagers jumped ships and fled one after another. In the end, fellow villagers Ai Xingko was killed and his body had nowhere to be found.
Because I even felt that I had too much experience in encountering bandits, Xu Xiake was hesitant about the subsequent journey: Should I leave from Jingzhou palace, or from western Guangdong? again, because of encountering bandits, his travel expenses were stolen! Who should borrow money from and who will lend me? After leaving Jingzhou Prefecture, you can ask Uncle Kuizhi, who works in Jingzhou Prefecture for a loan fee. But it takes half a month to go to Jingzhou Prefecture City from now on. What if something happens?
As a result, Ai Xingke's body was found at this time! After asking, it turned out that Ai's younger brother went to the temple to ask for a visa. According to the signature poem, Ai Xingke's body was finally found by a pool. Xu Xiake has a great enlightenment: Current events are unpredictable, so let God make a judgment on my behalf! After asking for a visa, I received instructions to go from western Guangdong to a good time.
Xu Xiake handed the money borrowed from to the gods to the verdict, but the gods said: No one can borrow it! (Well...this is a matter of course.) Since then, whenever Xu Xiake loses his direction in life, he will ask for a letter to be decided by the gods.
"The Orthodox Daozang" compiled during the Zhengtong period of Emperor Yingzong of the Ming Dynasty, which contains earlier signing poems such as "The Lingxian of the Protecting the Country, Jiaji Jiangdong Wang", "The Spiritual Sign of the Four Saints and True Lords" . Judging from the catalog, the number of signatures was very unfixed at that time, and the format of the signature poems was not unified. What is more special is that Zi Tong (Wenchang signed poems) and Chenghuang signed poems at that time.
"The Orthodox Daozang" also mentioned the spiritual signature of the Four Saints True Lords, which was completed approximately after the Northern Song Dynasty, and there were 49 poems signed. The format of the signature poems is all four sentences and seven words, with "Sacred Idea" and explanation attached below. Each article of the interpretation explains the good and bad luck of the signature, and instructs those who seek the signature to seek blessings and avoid misfortunes. Those who seek the signature must first inform the Four Saints True Lords (i.e., the Great Marshal Tianpeng, the True Lord of the Deputy Marshal Tianyou, the True Lord of Yisheng Baode, and the True Lord of Zhenwu Lingying), and then ask for good and bad luck according to the signature.
: Speaking of , the true lord of Marshal Tianpeng, , reminds people of , Marshal Tianpeng, , Mr. Zhu Bajie, in "Journey to the West". In fact, Marshal Tianpeng was originally the star god of the Big Dipper. It was applied by the author of "Journey to the West", which led to everyone's misunderstanding that Marshal Tianpeng was Zhu Bajie. The chanting of the "Tianpeng Divine Mantra" was popular among the people during the Tang and Song dynasties, believing that it could ensure peace. Therefore, the poems signed by the Four Saints True Lords also reflect the influence of faith in the Tang and Song dynasties.
In the famous work "Dream of Red Mansions", it is also mentioned that the signing poem
Dream of Red Mansions is written in the first 101 of the writing that Wang Xifeng is seriously ill and often dreams of the dead Qin Keqing . For this reason, Fengjie specially went to Sanhua Temple to perform rituals. When she was drawing lots in the temple, she drew a lucky lottery:
went to the country and left her hometown for twenty years, and returned home in glory today.
After bees collect flowers and turn into honey, they will work hard for whom and whom are sweet for whom!
The pedestrian arrived, the news was late, and the lawsuit should be harmonious, so the marriage should be discussed again.
The coincidence of this poem surprised Wang Xifeng. In the 54th chapter, the storyteller invited by Jia Mu once told a story about Feng Qiuluan. The protagonist is a young man named Wang Xifeng. The story starts with him begging for a beautiful woman and ends after returning home in glory. The Jia family and Baoyu all thought that the signing poem was very good, only Xue Baochai thought that the signing poem seemed to have another hidden meaning, and later Wang Xifeng ended up as a tragedy.
One of the famous features of "Dream of Red Mansions" is that Cao Xueqin is good at using cryptic words and foreshadowings, using Luo Yin's works of the Tang Dynasty in the signature poem, which is used to allude to alleviate the end of Fengjie's mechanism and everything becomes empty. The original poem is as follows:
No matter the plain or the top of the mountain, the infinite scenery is occupied.
After picking flowers into honey, who will work hard for whom and who will be sweet for whom.
signed poems suggest the protagonists' future fate and alludes to Wang Xifeng's future ending. Although he is returning home in glory, he is sent back to his hometown by burying clothes.
After the Ming Dynasty, printing and paper were popular, and believers hoped to bring the gods' suggestions back to reference. In order to facilitate believers, the temple began to write the number of the signature poem on the signature, put it in the bamboo tube, and the believers slowly shook it out, and then compared the number to obtain the signature poem. The signature text was mostly integrated into one hundred integers, or sixty Jiazi numbers.
Conclusion: In addition to the signature text, modern poems signed are also accompanied by comprehensive analysis of Bagua, ancient stories, good and bad judgments, and inquiries (such as fame, business, marriage, etc.), which collects various Chinese studies such as " Yijing ", historical allusions and folk operas.
According to the records of signing poems, The ancients believed that as long as there was a situation in life that could not be decided by themselves, it would be right to ask for a sign. After all, no one knows which path is right.
In fact, the so-called divination and signature poems are mostly feudal superstitious activities in ancient times, and today it is more of a traditional culture. Although some proven poems have been recorded in historical documents, they are all just coincidences. Therefore, when it comes to signing poems, we do not necessarily have to ask for authenticity, just include them in traditional culture.
Reference materials:
"Orthodox Daozang"
"Shuowen Jiezi"
"Remove doubts"
"Yuhu Qinghua"
