Shejitan was originally xingguo temple in Yanjing City in Liao and Jin Dynasties, but it was renamed Changshou xingguo temple in Yuan Dynasty. In the 19th year of Yongle in Ming Dynasty, it was converted into a national altar, where the emperors of Ming and Qing Dynasties offered sacrifices to the gods of land and grains.
According to legend, the god of Taixu, whose name is Taming Dragon, is the first 1 1 descendant of Shennong. He can distinguish the soil and was once an official of Zheng Tu. Later, people respectfully called him Hou Di. The name of Tai Chi God has been abandoned. After cattle and sheep were abandoned in the suburbs, they were fed with milk, and birds used feathers to keep out the cold, so they were named abandoned children. Abandoning his childhood love for planting wild seeds, he taught people how to cultivate them after getting the fruits. The spread of this myth has added a pious mood to those who come to the altar to offer sacrifices. It turns out that only in spring and autumn do people come to the altar to offer sacrifices. Later, in case of fire, flood, solar eclipse and natural disasters, ceremonies were also held here.
Social altars in ming and qing dynasties. The most solemn sacrifice of ancient emperors and generals was the country. "Biography of the White Tiger" said: "People don't stand on the ground, and the valley doesn't eat. Vast territory and abundant resources, we can't worship the whole world, and we can't make sacrifices one by one. So seal the soil as a sign of respect. The grain is so long that it is also sealed and sacrificed. " This country god and millet god are actually a feldspar and a long wood buried in the center of the country altar. Later, "country" became a symbol of the country.
When offering sacrifices to the country, there are two "agricultural experts" who are deeply loved by people in the coordination between the country god and the millet god. The god of Xiangtai Society is called Julong, the eleventh grandson of Shennong. He is a "geologist" and a "soil scientist". He can distinguish the nature of soil and grow various crops. After the death of Zhuan Xu, an official of "Zheng Tu" in the Levin era, people remembered him and respected him as the afterlife. The god of eating too much rice called abandonment, and he was an "agronomist" who was proficient in farming in ancient times. Legend has it that the abandoned baby's mother is Tai's daughter Jiang Yuan. On an outing, she found a big footprint on the ground, so she tried to step on it with her own feet and compare the size. But as soon as I set foot on it, it was as if I was touched by something mentally. When I came back, I was pregnant and gave birth to a boy. People looked down on the fatherless child and abandoned him in the suburbs. But cattle and sheep raised him, and the birds in the sky warmed him. People brought him back and named him an outcast. I gave up my love for agriculture at an early age. When I play games, I always sow wild grains in the fields. Later, when the fruit was ripe, it was bigger and fatter, sweeter and more fragrant than the wild one. He taught people to plant, and their lives were guaranteed. He encouraged people to engage in agricultural labor and create a richer life. To this day, in Jiwangshan, wenxi county, Shanxi, there is still a kind of five-color stone, some like wheat grains, some like mung beans ... Legend has it that it is made by discarding the remaining seeds. People call these stones "five grain stones".
The social altar set up by the emperor in the capital is called Taishe, and the social altars set up in counties and counties all over the country are called Shehe. The capital was sacrificed by the emperor, and the counties were sacrificed by the county officials sent by the emperor. Therefore, all provinces and counties in China have social altars of different sizes.
During the Ming and Qing dynasties, the social altar stood north and south, with three main doors in the north, and the main door had the Euphorbia Gate. There is a sacrificial temple to the south of Jimen, and a social altar to the south.
When the emperor offered sacrifices to the country, he concentrated the "traditional gods" all over the country on the altar. In the center of the altar loess, there is a soil niche one or two feet square, and a stone pillar three feet six inches long and one foot six inches square is buried in the niche. Every winter solstice and summer solstice, the emperor will come here to worship the owner of the club and the owner of the millet. If the two altars offer sacrifices separately, the altar offering sacrifices to Taishe Society is called the social altar, and there are wooden pillars buried in the niche, which are the same size as the stone pillars, and are called the owner of millet. Under normal circumstances, only the owner of the society is used instead of the owner of the millet when offering sacrifices together. But sometimes the owner of the club and the owner of Xiaomi are buried in an earthen niche. Because wood and stone are buried together in a niche, it seems that husband and wife are buried together. When the wooden pillar decays, it needs to be replaced with a new one. People laughed and said that Taishe was going to get a new one. Later, when Emperor Qianlong learned about this matter, he felt that it was not serious to make fun of the master, so he ordered the cancellation of the master and only one master was used.
It turns out that in ancient times, everyone could make sacrifices to the country to show special respect for land and food. Festivals at that time were also very simple and primitive. Only when the memorial ceremony is held, sweep the floor for the altar and put a handful of soil and a sorghum root, and the ceremony is over. Later it evolved into a "civil society" and a land temple.