In many cities, why are there city god temples?
The temple, we all know what it is used for. It is an ancient place for offering sacrifices to gods, which is used for religious sacrifices. ? What kind of temple is the Chenghuang Temple? "Huang Cheng" can be traced back to Zhouyi? Taifeng: "When the city grows again, don't use teachers."
The "city" here refers to the city wall, and the "shovel" refers to the moat, which was also called the moat in ancient times. Therefore, the city god also means to guard the city moat. People in China have had the custom of praying for gods since ancient times, so the word "city god" has changed from its original meaning to the patron saint of the city.
Book of rites? The characteristics of the suburbs include: "The Emperor of Heaven has eight big wax", that is to say, the emperor of the twelfth lunar month will worship eight gods, the seventh of which is the water fairy. Zheng Xuan explained that water is a patent, mediocrity is a city god, and water mediocrity is a city god. It can be seen that the "water god" of the Zhou Dynasty is still a natural god. During the Three Kingdoms period, people began to offer sacrifices to the city god. However, at that time, the city god had no specific name and was also a natural god.
In the Tang Dynasty, with the rise of cities and the prosperity of commercial economy, the belief in the city god began to prevail. When many officials pray for the local area, they often go to worship the god of the city god. For example, the famous Han Yu, Du Mu, Wei Liangzai, Zhang Jiuling and others all went to worship the town god for the good weather and left relevant poems.
During this period, the city god itself changed. After the death of a minister and military commander, the city god changed from a natural god to a ghost. For example, the God enshrined in the Hangzhou City God Temple is Gotama, the son of Huang Qu, a Wu Shangshu; Pang Yu, the city god of Shaoxing, was the general manager of Yuezhou. The name of Ezhou City God is Jiao Ming ... It can be seen that the city god in all parts of the Tang Dynasty is a famous person with a surname, and is no longer a vague natural god.
At this time, the position of the city god also changed. They are not only the patron saint of the city, but also the ghost officials who are in charge of the birth, illness and death of the people. As a result, the people began to sacrifice to the Lord of the city god, in order to cross the undead, punish evil and promote good. After the Song Dynasty, the Chenghuang Temple became more crowded. In the Ming Dynasty, Zhu Yuanzhang, who was born in the market and was related to the land temple, praised Lord Huang Cheng to the extreme. From historical records to the present, Huang Cheng has been endowed with many legends. It is not only an object of worship, but also an evolutionary history of folk culture.