Before Wei Zhongxian died, why did people build dozens of ancestral temples for him?

Historical records of fish and sheep. Look at the fresh history

Author: Meng Xiao

In Shan Hai Jing Bei Shan Jing, it is said that there is a bird on Yushan Mountain, which looks like an ordinary crow, but if you distinguish it carefully, you will find that its head is mottled, its mouth is white and its claws are red. Because its chirping sounds like calling for "Jingwei", people use these two words to call it.

Jing Wei was originally Yan Di's little daughter named "Girl". That year, the girl went to the East China Sea to play and accidentally drowned in the sea. Although her body did not return to the shore, her soul condensed into a bird, holding branches and pebbles every day and vowing to fill the East China Sea.

Probably from the primitive society, our ancestors believed that even if our individual died, our body had disappeared and our soul was immortal. In order to let these wandering souls settle down, the ancestors used graves to claustrophobic them.

However, there are always some souls strong enough to break through obstacles and bring disaster to the world. It is said that Confucius lamented in those days: "Essence is one thing, wandering souls are a change." When essence meets qi, everything comes into being and the soul is free and changeable. Quoted from "Easy Cohesion")

In order to seek advantages and avoid disadvantages, our ancestors built a temple, where the deceased were enshrined, and three sacrifices were offered regularly, praying for their ancestors to eliminate disasters and reduce their blessings.

During the Zhou Zong period, there were ancestral temples at all levels from the emperor to the gentry: seven temples for emperors, five temples for princes, three temples for doctors and two temples for scholars, but there were no temples in Shu Ren.

#0 1 .

The Book of Songs Gan Tang says, "If you cover Gan Tang (fèi), you will call it Sobo (bá) if you don't cut it. Guy Gan Tang, don't lose. Tell Bob to rest. Gai Gan Tang, don't worship, Huber. " Pear trees are lush, so they don't need pruning. This used to be the hut where Zhao Bo lived. Litang trees are lush, so they don't need pruning or destruction. It used to be Zhao Bo's resting place. Litang trees are lush, so they don't need to be cut down or broken. This used to be where Zhao Bo stopped. )

Gan Tang is a poem of praise, which refers to Zhao. "Historical Records of Yan Zhaogong Family" said: "Zhao Gong's rule over the West has won great success for the people. Zhao Gong visited villages and towns, and there were Tang trees, so he was sentenced to prison. From Hou Bo to Shu Ren, everyone did their job, without any dereliction of duty. After Zhao Gong's death, people began to think about Zhao Gong's politics. Tang Huai didn't dare to cut down the tree, so he sang it and wrote the poem Gan Tang. "

Scholars of later generations felt the virtue of Zhao Gong, so they called the memorial action of local people building ancestral halls for officials "thinking of sending (sending) to Gan Tang".

Textual research on the Imperial Palace of Yu Cong, written by Zhao Yi, a scholar in Qing Dynasty: "Those who are left behind by officials but not established by the people have been built since Wen Weng and Zhu Yi." After the death of two officials, Wen Weng and Zhu Yi, the local people spontaneously set up shrines for them, which are recorded in relevant historical books.

"Biography of Han Shu Li Xun" says: "Wen Weng finally arrived in Shu, and the government and the people set up ancestral halls, and they sacrificed endlessly when they were old." Zhong Qing, Zhu Yi, died of illness easily, and his son said,' I am an official of Tongxiang, loved by the people, and will be buried in Tongxiang. Later generations are not as good at me as Tongxiang people. "When he died, his son was buried outside Xiguo, Tongxiang, and the people's fruit * * * set up a temple for the city, and the temple was dedicated to the age of 18, and it never stopped."

In addition to Wen Weng and Zhu Yi, Zhou Jia, Wang Huan and Xu Jing, the prefects of Lingling and Luoyang in the early Eastern Han Dynasty, were all loved by the people because of their good local governance, and "shrines were set up after death".

#02 .

Interestingly, the temple-building and sacrificial activities started from ancestor worship, and developed into a living temple in the later period, called "living shrine". "Shrine" means that people feel the merits of local officials, so they set up temples when they are alive.

According to Zhuangzi Zapian Geng Sangchu, Lu had an apprentice named Geng Sangchu who lived in the mountains. During his three years in charge of the local government, the villagers of Wei Leishan planned to build a shrine for him to celebrate his virtue. Zhao Yi believes that this is the bud of "new words".

According to the Biography of Shiwanjun in Historical Records, during the period of Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty, when Shi Qing was appointed as the prime minister of Qi, the local people of Qi built a "stone shrine" for him. Zhao Yi thinks that the stone shrine is the origin of the "birth shrine", while Professor Zhu Weizheng, a famous contemporary historian in China, thinks that at the end of the third century BC, Liu Bangli, an emperor from the Han Dynasty, set a precedent for the living to stand in the shrine like the dead. ("Making God" 360 years ago)

"Historical Records" said: "In two years, I marched eastward to Ji Xiang and entered the customs. I asked,' So what was the temple emperor like in the Qin Dynasty?' Right: "The four emperors have shrines in white, blue, yellow and Chi Di." Gaozu said:' I heard that there are five emperors in the sky, but there are actually four. "Why?" I don't know what it says. So Gaozu said,' I know what I know, but I have five things for me. Hei Di Temple was established, which is called North Temple. "

Liu Bang, the Emperor Gaozu with 72 moles on his leg, is said to have been born with a female dragon. For many years, he has been trying to find a suitable "emperor" for himself. People who followed him into Xianyang, except Bai, Qing and Huang, didn't know who the other emperor was. Liu Bang pondered for a moment and took the opportunity to say, "I know, that's when I made up the Five Emperors." In a short time, he sealed himself and set up a shrine.

According to the biography of Di in the New Tang Dynasty, in the first year of longevity (AD 692), Di was framed by Lai Junchen and demoted to Peng, and the local people built a shrine for him. Later, he moved to Weizhou as a secretariat, and the people of Weizhou set up a shrine for him. According to Zi Jian, Di Jinghui, the son of Di, joined the army as the Duke of Weizhou. Because of his greed and cruelty, he hurt one side, so the local people destroyed the ancestral temple of Di Renjie.

#03 .

Di Lianggong had two shrines when he was alive, and he was already a figure with infinite scenery. But by the end of the Ming dynasty, dozens of shrines had been built for one person all over the country. The figure who was worshipped to this extent was Wei Zhongxian, the leader of the eunuch party at that time.

Wei Zhongxian, a native of Suning County, Cangzhou City, Hebei Province, is a "hooligan, with less evil, less victory, and less suffering". He changed his name to Li Jinzhong and entered the palace as a eunuch.

In fact, this statement is open to question. Wei Zhongxian eunuch Liu Ruoyu's Miscellaneous History of the Ming Dynasty records that "Wei Zhongxian was originally named Li Jinzhong and died in Ningsu County. Father Wei Zhimin, mother Liu, wife Feng, daughter Wei married Yang. The sage has no children, the family is poor and self-sufficient, the wife is suitable for others, and people do not exist. "

At the end of the Ming Dynasty, many poor families, desperate, often castrated their sons or themselves so that they could eat and wear warm clothes in the palace. According to Liu Ruoyu, many unsuccessful eunuchs (commonly known as "Unknown White") had to go to temples with baths in Beijing to make a living by bathing eunuchs.

Wei Zhongxian entered the palace in the 17th year of Wanli (AD 1589). At this time, he was 2 1 year old and could not read. Because he is too old to study in the museum, "many people call him a fool." Once, he offended Qiu Chengyun, the tax supervisor in Sichuan, and was locked in an empty room. He fasted for three days and almost starved to death.

Later, Wang Cairen lacked an imperial secretary in charge of food, and Wei Zhongxian took this position with the help of a friend. When Wang Cairen gave birth to a prince, Wei Zhongxian took care of the baby part-time, which was the later apocalypse emperor Zhu Youxiao. This became an opportunity for his luck in this life.

1620 September, Zhu Youxiao became emperor. At the end of that year, 52-year-old Wei Zhongxian was promoted to Jian 'an eunuch, and he entered the palace from then on.

The so-called "eunuch" is to read the documents instead of the emperor and be responsible for approving the red reply on the throne. This job requires eunuchs to have a certain cultural accomplishment, and illiterate Wei Zhongxian is an anomaly.

#04 .

In June of the 6th year of the Apocalypse (A.D. 1626), Pan Ruzhen, the governor of Zhejiang Province, first played in the imperial court, requesting to build a shrine for Wei Zhongxian by the West Lake, calling it "diligent and loving the people", and the local people "sang and danced with joy, expressed their opinions and made great contributions".

Zhu Youxiao, Emperor Xizong, gladly obeyed, and personally named it Pude Temple. At Pan Ruzhen's initiative, bureaucrats all over the country rushed to follow suit, and for a time, shrines built for Wei Zhongxian mushroomed all over the country. According to experts' statistics, there are 70 temples (92 in one word) in Wei Zhongxian in just one year.

The Biography of Yan Dang in Ming Dynasty described this in detail:1In October 626, Xiao Shou built a temple in Nanjing.

In the first month of the second year, three health temples were built at the same time, namely, two Datong temples built by the governors Zhang Pu, Qin and Zhang Suyu of Xuanda University, and a Tiger Hill built by the governors Mao and Wang Xun in Yingtian.

In February, Yan Mingtai, Governor Shuntian and Inspector Ni Zaishan opened a shrine. During the same period, Zhang Pu, the governor of Xuanda, Wang Dian, the governor of Datong, and Zhang Zongzhi, the second shrine of Datong were also opened.

In March, Yan Mingtai, Ni and inspector Liang Menghuan built three new shrines in Xixiang Miyun, Changping and Tongzhou respectively. In the same month, He Zongsheng, the minister of Taibu Temple, built a temple in Fangshan.

In April, under the leadership of Yan Mingtai, Governor Yuan Chonghuan planned to build a temple in front of Qian Ning. At the same time, Zhang Pu, the commander-in-chief of Xuanda, Cao Erzhen, the governor of Shaanxi, and Li Kas, An Xun, built a temple on Wutai Mountain. ...

It is said that the construction cost of each shrine ranges from hundreds of thousands to tens of thousands. To this end, in addition to embezzling the state's fiscal revenue, officials also put their dirty hands into the pockets of the people.

The construction of the shrine needs a lot of land, so the forest is cut down. In order to build a shrine, Kaifengfu destroyed more than 2,000 houses at once.

Inside and outside Beijing, a number of temples have been built dozens of miles apart, dense and visible to each other. There is a shrine in the inner city east street, even occupying the imperial road dedicated to the emperor.

Zhu Tongmeng, the right deputy capital of Shi Yu, built a shrine in Yansui, and the roof exceeded the standard with glazed tiles allowed by the royal family. While the shrine was still under construction, Zhu Tongmeng suddenly met his mother's funeral, but he endured his grief and stayed at the construction site day and night, putting aside the funeral.

There is a shrine in Jizhou, where the gods are not only gilded, but also wear a crown dedicated to the emperor.

Something even more outrageous happened. In April of the seventh year of the Apocalypse, a imperial academy student named Lu Wanling even suggested that a Wei Zhongxian Temple be built on the west side of imperial academy, with Wei Zhongxian as the memorial place and Wei Fu as the memorial place.

While Wei Zhongxian Group was immersed in the God-making movement, in August of the seventh year of the Apocalypse, Zhu Youxiao, the first emperor of Zongshi, suddenly died, and Xinwang became a new generation of emperors.

Soon, the suggestion that Zhu Sanjun in Ye Si, imperial academy impeach Lu Wanling and Cao Dai, the supervisors, to build a shrine was purely verbal. Emperor Chongzhen immediately replied: "Go to the ground, Cao Yu is in prison."

Wei Zhongxian seemed to smell danger, and he panicked. Unexpectedly, an official with zero political sensitivity in Jiangxi sent a petition report, pleading with the court to allow him to build a "Lund Temple" in the local area to praise Wei Zhongxian's meritorious service. On the same day, Wei Zhongxian earnestly to the throne, proposed to build a shrine money to Liaodong as a salary. Chongzhen agreed.

Although he bowed his head, Emperor Chongzhen did not intend to let him go. 1 1 On the first day of the month, Chongzhen issued an imperial edict: "Wei Zhongxian sent Fengyang to guard the imperial tomb", which was reduced from the highest eunuch leader of the empire to the last minister. Wei Zhongxian couldn't bear the gap, so he committed suicide in the middle of the game.

Behind him, those shining temples were characterized as "reverse temples" and were sold. A huge god-making farce ended in the most unbearable way.

Fish and Sheep Historical Records This is an official WeChat account that looks good no matter how you look at it.