The Spring Festival is on the fifteenth day of the first lunar month, which is the beginning. The so-called "one year begins, everything becomes more spring". As the first full moon night of the year, people have given them a happy and peaceful meaning since ancient times. China's festival culture is actually inseparable from nature worship and gods' worship, and the origin of the Lantern Festival is also the case. The Lantern Festival, also known as the "Shangyuan Festival", is directly related to the earliest Taoist god "Sanyuan Emperor", namely "the first-rank blessing heavenly official , the second-rank forgiveness of sins, and the third-rank relief water official ". And the Shangyuan Festival is the birthday of the Heavenly Official.
The statue of the Three Officials Emperor·Photo provided by the Internet
"Three Officials Emperor" and "Three Yuan Emperor" are basically the names of the two, and this was not the case at the beginning. Taoism was formed in the Eastern Han Dynasty, but before that people had the etiquette of worshiping "Heaven, Earth and Water", and thus formed the faith of gods of heaven, earth and water officials. Later, during the formation of Taoism, this phenomenon was absorbed and became the earliest god of Taoism. "The Three Kingdoms: Biography of Zhang Lu" records that the Taoist activities at that time had "made handwritten by the Three Officials" - writing the patient's name, convincing the sin, and making three connections, one of which was up to the sky, on the mountain, one of which was buried in the ground; the other was sinking in the water.
Three Officials Emperor and the statue of the blessing of the Heavenly Official
Zhang Lu is said to be the grandson of Zhang Daoling, the founder of Taoism. He was the third generation of Tianshi Master of the Five Doks of Rice Dao (later renamed Zhengyi Dao ) at that time. Therefore, from the social and cultural foundations formed by religion alone, the Three Officials Emperor should be a god earlier than the Three Qings, and it comes from the people's awe and gratitude for heaven, earth and water. There are different opinions about who the Three Officials Emperor is, different cultural systems. Among the ancient emperors above Confucianism, "Yao, Shun, and Yu" are the three officials of the ancient emperors. Among the folk gods and immortals, the three ministers of Tang Hong, Ge Yong and Zhou Wu during the Western Zhou Dynasty were the three officials, also known as the "Three Generals of the Tianmen". But these statements are not as good as the later "Sanyuan Emperor".
Blessing the statue of the Heavenly Official
In books about Taoist gods, the Three Officials Emperors have a more important position. According to the current system of gods, the Three Officials Emperors rank behind the "Three Pure Land, Four Imperial and Five Elders". In " Gods and Immortals of All Ages ", the origin of the Three Officials Emperor is " Yuanshi Tianzun Exhaust the Three Yuans". It is said that Yuanshi Tianzun first takes the nine qi of the Shiyang at the extreme of Taixu; then goes to the nine yang cave yang to obtain the seven qi of the Qingxu; and then takes the five qi of the Chenhao in the wind and lake of the cave yang. All of these are sucked into the mouth and combined into one place to form a spiritual body. Then, the three Yuanying babies are spit out at three different times. These three are the later "Three Yuan Emperors", and the date is recognized as "Shangyuan Festival, Zhongyuan Festival, Lower Yuan Festival ".
Yuanshi Tianzun transforms three yuan
Combining the three officials with three yuan comes from Kou Qianzhi reforming the Tianshi Tao. Since then, in order to highlight the importance of the three officials, the status of the clergy has been significantly improved and matched to become the "Emperor". The specific three officials are , the first-rank blessing of the heavenly official Ziwei Emperor, , the second-rank forgiveness of the sins of the land official Qingxu Emperor, , and the third-rank , the third-rank wise Xieshui Official Cave Yin Emperor, . On the 15th day of the first lunar month, the day when the blessing of the Heavenly Official Ziwei Emperor descended, and the punishment of the sins and blessings of others were determined, so it is also called " Heavenly Official Blessing ".
