The legend of the Tengu eating the moon: Legend has it that in ancient times, there was a young man named "Mu Lian". He is a Buddha-loving person by nature and a kind-hearted person. He was very filial to his mother, but as a queen, Mulian's mother was violent by nature and had bad habits.
Once, Mulian’s mother suddenly had a sudden whim and came up with an evil idea: the monks should recite the Buddha’s name and become vegetarians. I want to play tricks on them, make them dizzy and eat dog meat. She ordered three hundred and sixty dog meat steamed buns to be made, saying they were vegetarian steamed buns, and she wanted to go to the temple to donate them. When Mulian found out about this, he persuaded his mother not to listen, and hurriedly sent someone to notify the abbot of the temple.
The abbot prepared 360 vegetarian steamed buns. Hidden in the sleeves of every monk's cassock. Mulian's mother came to Zhai and gave each monk a dog meat bun. When the monk was chanting Buddha's name before the meal, he exchanged the dog meat steamed bun with the plain steamed bun in his sleeve, and then ate it.
When Mulian's mother saw that all the monks had eaten her steamed buns, she clapped her hands and laughed and said, "The monk is dizzy today! The monk is eating dog meat steamed buns!" The abbot clasped his hands together and chanted repeatedly: "Amitabha, sin, sin!" Afterwards, 360 dog meat steamed buns were buried with soil behind the temple. When the Heavenly Jade Emperor found out about this, he was very angry. He sent Mulian's mother to the eighteenth level of hell and turned into a vicious dog, never to be reincarnated.
Mulian was a filial son, but he learned that his mother was sent to hell. He practiced day and night and finally became Ksitigarbha Bodhisattva . In order to save his mother, he used a tin staff to open the gate of hell. Mulian's mother and all the evil spirits escaped from hell and were reborn in the mortal world to cause chaos. The Jade Emperor was so angry that he ordered Maud Lian to descend to earth and become the Huangchao . Later, "Huang Chao killed eight million people". Legend has it that he came to collect these evil ghosts who escaped from hell.
Mulian's mother turned into a vicious dog. After escaping from hell, she hated the Jade Emperor very much, so she went to heaven to settle accounts with the Jade Emperor. She couldn't find the Jade Emperor in the sky, so she chased the sun and the moon, trying to devour them and turn the heaven and earth into a dark world. This vicious dog chased and chased day and night! When she caught up with the moon, she swallowed the moon in one gulp; when she chased the sun, she also gulped down the sun in one gulp.
However, the vicious dog that Mulian's mother turned into was most afraid of gongs, drums, and setting off firecrackers. The frightened vicious dog had to spit out the sun and moon that it had swallowed. After the sun and moon were rescued, they shined together again and started to move again. The evil dog was unwilling to catch up again, thus forming solar and lunar eclipses again and again in the sky. Folks call it " Tengu eats the sun" and "Tengu eats the moon". Until now, during solar and lunar eclipses, many urban and rural people still have the custom of beating gongs, drums, and setting off firecrackers to drive away the Tengu.
