Tujia Folk Beliefs and Culture — Worship of the Xiangwang Tianzi (Part 2)
"Before the Statue of Xiangwang Tianzi" tells the story of a statue of Xiangwang Tianzi that wards off evil. A schoolteacher's wife hanged herself and became an evil ghost. She came to the teacher's school, and since he did not know she was dead, he let her stay. She gradually grew familiar with the students and offered to walk them home. The first time she escorted a student home, that student...
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"Before the Statue of Xiang Wang Tianzi" tells a story about a statue of Xiang Wang Tianzi suppressing evil. The wife of a schoolteacher hanged herself and died, becoming an evil ghost. She came to the schoolteacher's school; the teacher, not knowing his wife was dead, let her stay at the school. She gradually became familiar with the students and offered to escort them home. The first time, she escorted one student home, and that student never came to school again; the second and third students she escorted likewise never returned. The fourth time, as she was again escorting a student home, the suspicious teacher followed behind, wanting to see what was really going on. When they reached a secluded place, the wife suddenly turned into a monster with a green face and long fangs and lunged at the student walking ahead. The teacher immediately understood the reason for the three students' disappearance and shouted sternly, "Don't do it!" The monster was startled, its grip loosened, and the student seized the chance to run away. The monster turned its head and lunged at the teacher. The teacher fled in panic, with the monster in hot pursuit. There was a Xiang Wang temple by the roadside, and the teacher ducked inside, with the monster chasing in after him. The teacher hid behind the statue of Xiang Wang Tianzi. When the monster came up to the statue, it suddenly let out a miserable scream and collapsed to the ground, unable to move. Peering out from behind the statue, the teacher saw only a human skeleton lying on the ground. This legend is meant to show that Xiang Wang Tianzi can suppress evil and eliminate demons, forcing ghosts to reveal their true form and perish on their own.
"Xiang Wang Tianzi Saves from Fire" tells a story about Xiang Wang Tianzi manifesting his divinity to spare a family from a fire disaster. Legend has it that on a high mountain in Changyang lived an old man of the Xiang clan. Through generations of hard work, he had finally built a house of fir-bark with three main rooms, three extended rooms, and one side room, with a threshing floor in front and a well beside it—truly a fine homestead. On the shrine in the main hall was enshrined the tablet of "Xiang Wang Tianzi, the Great Emperor of Mingchuan." One day, the side room of the old man's house caught fire. Neighbors rushed over to help put out the fire, but the master of the house was nowhere to be seen. When people pushed open the main door, they saw the old man of the Xiang clan kowtowing to Xiang Wang Tianzi and praying for protection. The fire blazed ever more fiercely, so people pushed the old man out the main door and continued fighting the fire. But the water in the well was soon used up, and the fire was still not extinguished. At the moment of utmost crisis, a white-bearded old man appeared. He said to everyone, "Why not use the water in the well?" Everyone said, "The water in the well was used up long ago." "Where there are people, there is water!" said the white-haired old man, and clasping his hands together, he chanted, "Come, all of you! Come, all of you!" As soon as the words left his mouth, the well was full to the brim, and the fire was finally put out. After the fire was extinguished, people turned to look for the white-haired old man, but he was nowhere to be seen. Later, people realized that the white-haired old man was the incarnation of Xiang Wang Tianzi.
Secondly, Xiang Wang Tianzi could also bestow blessings on descendants and bring all kinds of benefits to later generations. "Praying for Rain" tells a story about Xiang Wang Tianzi sending rain to end a drought. Legend has it that one year a great drought struck Changyang, and the local people went to the Xiang Wang Temple and the Yu Wang Temple to pray for rain. They carried out the two statues of Xiang Wang Tianzi and Yu Wang and placed them on a table, then inserted two wooden poles crosswise under the tabletop and bound them into a stretcher, and draped umbrellas and straw rain capes over the statues of Xiang Wang Tianzi and Yu Wang. People carried the statues through the streets in procession, followed by those beating drums and gongs, firing blunderbusses, setting off firecrackers, and burning incense and paper—all along the way, gongs and drums resounded, blunderbusses and firecrackers roared, and incense smoke curled in the air. The procession went from house to house burning incense and paper, and along the way they sang rain-praying songs. On the seventh day, rain indeed fell. Later, when another great drought occurred, people used another method to pray for rain: they tied a black dog to a door plank and carried it in procession, firing blunderbusses and cannons and beating gongs and drums along the way, letting people mock it. But after a whole day of procession, not a drop of rain fell. Fortunately, Xiang Wang Tianzi and Yu Wang saw it from the heavens, and they laughed until tears came to their eyes; these tears fell to the ground, and it began to rain.
The legend "Xiang Wang Bestows a Wife on the Ancestor of the Qin Clan" tells how Xiang Wang Tianzi worked magic to act as the Old Man Under the Moon and find a wife for the ancestor of the Qin clan. Long ago there was a Qin ancestor, Lord Yanmei, who had reached middle age without marrying. One night, he dreamed that Xiang Wang Tianzi summoned him, bestowed on him a flowered umbrella, and ordered him not to look back when returning. When he got home, the flowered umbrella suddenly turned into a beautiful woman, who became his wife. When he woke up, he realized it had been a dream. But Lord Yanmei soon did take a wife, and so he believed the dream had indeed been efficacious.
Legends of Xiang Wang Tianzi benefiting the human world are often also closely tied to local scenery and objects, and thus the worship of Xiang Wang Tianzi was passed down through the ages in materialized form. For example, "Xiang Wang Bridge" tells of the origin of Xiang Wang Bridge, which brings in the tale of Xiang Wang Tianzi manifesting his divinity. In Ziqiu, Changyang, there was a Xiang Wang Temple to the east and one to the west, with Xiang Wang Shoal to the south and Xiang Wang Bridge and Xiang Wang Cave to the north (this was probably the main area of Xiang Wang Tianzi's activities). Legend has it that in those years Xiang Wang Tianzi led the Ba clan to this place and lived in a cave at Ziqiu, going out at dawn and returning at dusk, making a living by hunting and fishing. One day, Xiang Wang blew a high-pitched horn, and the Qingjiang River immediately rose to Paoma Stream, and the people on both sides of the stream valley were cut off by the water. An old man wanted to cross the stream to gather herbs and save a patient, but the water was deep and the waves swift, making passage impossible. When Xiang Wang Tianzi saw this, he lashed with his whip a stalactite in the cave shaped like a male lion. After three lashes, the lion-shaped stalactite leaped out of the cave, jumped into Paoma Stream, and stood motionless in the water. Xiang Wang Tianzi told the old herb-gatherer to cross over on the stone lion's back. Later, Xiang Wang Tianzi blew his horn again, and the stone lion shook itself and turned into a stone bridge, which people called Xiang Wang Bridge.
Legend has it that there was also a Xiang Wang Bridge over Xiufeng Stream in Changyang. It is said that this bridge was built with the help of Xiang Wang, and so it was called Xiang Wang Bridge. In the Tang Dynasty there was an alchemist named Li Zai. Seeing that there was no bridge over Xiufeng Stream, he invited several stonemasons to build one. But the bridge would be erected by day and collapse at night, and even the broken stones used to build it would vanish without a trace. In this way, the bridge was built thirty-two times in succession, and it was never successfully completed. One night, after the bridge had once again been erected, the alchemist came to the riverbank and hid behind a huge rock to see what was going on. He saw a white-bearded old man walk over, holding five bricks in his hand, and hand them to the alchemist, saying, "I see you are very determined to build the bridge, so I give you five bricks. In a moment, when you see five cage piglets crawl out of the water, throw the bricks at them, and the piglets will disappear, and the bridge will never collapse again." The alchemist asked who the old man was, and the old man said he was Xiang Wang Tianzi, and then suddenly vanished. After a while, indeed five cage piglets came out and rooted at the bridge, and the alchemist threw the bricks at them. In the blink of an eye, the piglets vanished without a trace, and from then on the bridge never collapsed again. Because the building of the bridge had received the help of Xiang Wang Tianzi, people named it "Xiang Wang Bridge."
The legend "Sheep Stone Shoal" tells a story about Xiang Wang Tianzi punishing evil and aiding the weak. Long ago, an old man named Zhou lived on Longjiao Mountain. He had lost his wife early and lived with his daughter by raising sheep. One year, a plague struck the goats, and more than a hundred sheep nearly all died, leaving father and daughter extremely anxious. At this time, a white-bearded old man appeared, holding a cracked bowl in his right hand and waving a broken fan in his left, and said, "Don't worry. I have a way to let you have sheep to sell every day and never worry about food or clothing." The white-bearded old man threw the cracked bowl toward the riverbank; it spun several times and turned into a large sheep pen, in which plump, large sheep leaped about lively. The white-bearded old man said to old man Zhou, "From now on, lead the big sheep away to sell, and keep the small ones in the pen to grow." Then he vanished. From then on, father and daughter no longer had to feed them, and every day they had sheep to lead to market to sell, and their days grew richer and richer. When the rich man Li of Gucangping saw old man Zhou growing rich, he brought a gang of henchmen to his door and said, "The sheep you raise have been eating the wheat sprouts of our Gucangping. You must compensate for this loss; otherwise, that pen of sheep will be taken as collateral." At this point the white-bearded old man appeared again. He fanned a few times with his broken fan, and the sheep pen and rich man Li and his men sank to the bottom of the river. Now, in times of drought, when the river water recedes, one can still see stone sheep with heads raised and tails up emerging from the water! From then on people called this place Sheep Stone Shoal, and it is said that the white-bearded old man was Xiang Wang Tianzi.
It is said that Xiang Wang Tianzi could also bless people with abundant harvests. In fact, this was one of the important purposes of people's sacrifices to Xiang Wang Tianzi. "Xiang Wang Tianzi Ate Up the Pig's Head" says: One year on the twenty-ninth day of the twelfth lunar month, the two brothers Li Silin took a cooked pig's head to offer to Xiang Wang Tianzi. Halfway there, they heard someone say, "You two brothers are sincere. The pig's head is hard to carry, so just leave it here." When he finished speaking, the pig's head disappeared. When they got home, they said that Xiang Wang Tianzi had eaten up the pig's head. The family had no choice but to slaughter another pig and send its head to the Xiang Wang Temple. They believed that in the coming year Xiang Wang Tianzi would surely bless them with a good harvest.
The legends of Xiang Wang Tianzi are an organic part of the worship of Xiang Wang Tianzi and can serve to transmit and explain that worship. However, with the progress of Tujia civilization, the worship of Xiang Wang Tianzi gradually faded and disappeared, yet the legends of Xiang Wang Tianzi could still be passed down from generation to generation, because in addition to expressing people's religious sentiments, they also praise the ethnic heroes who in Tujia history invented the earthen boat, opened up territory, taught the people farming, and advanced the course of social and historical development in the Tujia region, and they display the Tujia ethnic spirit of martial valor and enterprising drive.
IV. Rituals for Sacrificing to Xiang Wang Tianzi
The Ba people worshipped the white tiger totem and believed that after Lin Jun died his soul returned to the totem, so they sacrificed to Lin Jun—Xiang Wang Tianzi—with the ritual of sacrificing to the white tiger. The ritual of sacrificing to the white tiger was to offer humans to the tiger; transformed into the ritual of sacrificing to Xiang Wang Tianzi, it became human sacrifice, that is, "human offering." This is what the "Book of the Later Han: The Man Tribes of Ba Commandery and Nan Commandery" says: "When Lin Jun died, his soul became a white tiger. Because the tiger drank human blood, the Ba clan sacrificed humans to it."
In Tujia history, the custom of killing people to sacrifice to Xiang Wang Tianzi was long prevalent and was only banned in recent times. Materials collected by Yang Run of the United Front Work Department of the Xianfeng County Party Committee in western Hubei say: "The Tian clan set up a White Tiger Spirit Hall in their main room. In the earliest times, they sacrificed humans; beforehand they would buy a little beggar (under 12 years old), and when fulfilling a vow they would kill him to sacrifice to the White Tiger, showing their devotion to the White Tiger. Once, the clan leader's son violated a taboo and a human-head vow had to be fulfilled, so a child was bought and made to sleep with his own child. Late at night, when the wizard entered the room, he mistakenly seized the clan leader's son and killed him. The whole clan was terrified, fearing that their own children might meet the same fate in the future, so they asked the wizard to set up an incense table and divine before the great deity whether an ox could be substituted for a human. The great deity permitted the use of an ox to fulfill the vow, and from then on human sacrifice was changed to animal sacrifice." In the Song Dynasty, "human sacrifice" began to be explicitly banned by the imperial court. The "History of Song: Basic Annals" records: "On the jisi day of the eighth month of the first year of Chunhua (990), the killing of humans to sacrifice to ghosts was banned in Sichuan, the Three Gorges, Lingnan, and Hunan; counties were to investigate and arrest offenders, and those who reported them were to be rewarded." The areas where human sacrifice was banned included precisely the Tujia region.
After the practice of "human sacrifice" was banned, it was transformed into "animal sacrifice" or the "head-cutting" ritual.
"Animal sacrifice" was the slaughter of livestock (originally mainly large livestock—oxen) to replace human sacrifice to Xiang Wang Tianzi, and was called "fulfilling the ox vow," "fulfilling the ox-head vow," or "fulfilling the ox-bodhisattva vow." Oxen were important tools of agricultural production, and killing oxen for sacrifice caused enormous harm to agriculture, so later it was changed to sacrificing sheep. Since the totem was the white tiger, white sheep were considered the finest offering. The "Proclamation" included in the "Old Gazetteer of Cili County" contains content banning animal sacrifice, revealing that sacrificial slaughter underwent a process of evolution from killing oxen to killing sheep. "The prefectural districts were all formerly governed by native officials, and their people are Tujia; the Miao households number only one in ten... 1. Killing livestock and drinking blood should be strictly prohibited. According to old local customs, whenever there was illness or death, oxen and horses must be killed to sacrifice to ghosts, or when there were unresolved disputes, oxen were also killed and blood drunk. Recently, in accordance with the strict prohibition on slaughtering plow oxen, people have begun to use sheep instead... Moreover, the Tujia people are poor and suffering; every sacrifice ruins their family resources, leading them to reckless wrongdoing, and this should all be prohibited together." Sheep sacrifice is found throughout the local gazetteers of the Tujia region.
The handwritten and printed edition of the "Yongshun Prefecture Gazetteer" from the twenty-eighth year of the Qianlong reign of the Qing Dynasty (1763) records: "In the third month, white sheep are killed, drums and reed pipes are played, and ghosts are sacrificed to... On the eighteenth day of the fourth month and the night of the fifteenth day of the seventh month, ancestors are sacrificed, and the Popo Temple is also worshipped."
The edition of the "Baojing County Gazetteer" from the tenth year of the Tongzhi reign of the Qing Dynasty (1871) records: "On the third day of the third month, the local custom is to gather, kill sheep, and sacrifice to ghosts... On the twenty-eighth day of the twelfth month, the day for sacrificing to ancestors: ghosts are worshipped, and the sound of chickens and dogs is forbidden."
The Qing Tongzhi "Revised General Gazetteer of Yang Directly Subordinate Prefecture" records: In Pengshui, "the most efficacious of the deities is called the Sheep Vow; an altar is set up in the open field, and a sheep is killed to sacrifice. The sheep's head is reverently offered to ask about fortune and misfortune."
The printed edition of the "Yongshun County Gazetteer" from the fifty-eighth year of the Qianlong reign of the Qing Dynasty (1793) records: "Every year in the third month, white sheep are killed, and drums and reed pipes are played to sacrifice to ghosts... On the night of the twenty-eighth day of the twelfth month, ancestors are sacrificed, called sacrificing to ghosts, and the sound of cats and dogs is forbidden."
"Head-cutting" was a ritual performed by the Tujia ritual master. In the Tujia "fulfilling the Xianggong vow," there was this "head-cutting" ritual. "Xianggong" refers to Xiang Wang Tianzi, but it had already been corrupted into three deities, namely the three Xianggong—red face, black face, and painted face. Fulfilling the Xianggong vow required one day and two nights, and one of the ritual segments was called "head-cutting," in which the presiding Tujia ritual master cut a bloody gash on his own head with a pig-butchering knife and let the blood drip onto paper money made of Qingming paper, which was then hung up and burned. The "head-cutting" ritual required "seeing red," and only then was it believed that the vow had "landed." According to a Tujia ritual master in western Hubei: "In fulfilling this vow, people originally killed humans to sacrifice to the deity; it was originally called the 'human-head vow.'" Later, because killing people was too cruel, it was changed by "the Old Lord's imperial decree" to the Tujia ritual master cutting his own head, using the ritual master's blood to symbolize human sacrifice. Among Tujia in some places, the Xianggong vow was fulfilled three times in two years, and those with good family circumstances could also fulfill it once a year, but when a boy was born, a vow definitely had to be fulfilled. Local Tujia believed that the Xianggong vow was the ancestral vow, also called the descendants' vow; this was ancestral tradition, and sons and grandsons had to pass it down from generation to generation. It can thus be seen that what was sacrificed to with the "head-cutting" ritual was precisely the Tujia ancestral deity Xiang Wang Tianzi.
From "human sacrifice" to Xiang Wang Tianzi to "animal sacrifice" and "head-cutting" sacrifice, this reflects the evolution of Tujia customs from savagery to civilization. These sacrificial rituals, which come down in one continuous line, can also be collectively called "blood sacrifice." In sacrificing to Xiang Wang Tianzi, in addition to "blood sacrifice," some other sacrificial rituals were also performed in coordination, such as singing the "Tima" divine songs and climbing the knife ladder.