How to write the religious tablet?

Correctly write the format and requirements for tablets

Nowadays, many people cannot write tablets. Because modern people have lost traditional Chinese culture, many people write tablets in irregular formats. Another point is that when writing tablets, many people are not respectful and write random scribbles.

First of all, let’s talk about the requirements for writing tablets. The Taoists should know that writing memorial tablets is to establish a place for these ghosts and gods. If the Taoists do not write tablets for the ghosts and gods, they will not be able to enter the large or small Taoist temples. Whether it is a chanting hall or a temple, there are Dharma protectors, so they cannot come in casually. For example, the Taoist preachers are here to teach the Dharma, the Taoist priests are here to pray to the Buddha, and the Taoists are here to take refuge in the underworld. There are Dharma protectors guarding the door, and the ghosts and gods are wandering outside, so anxious that they can't come in. There are also Dharma protectors at the scene where the Taoists are assisting with the chanting, so ghosts and ghosts cannot come in. How can they get in? Write tablets for them. The tablet is their passport, their position.

Xiao Dao has talked about this issue many times in his "Experience Report on Assisting Mindfulness". For example, there is an example: a lonely ghost saw the Taoist monks helping him chant, but he couldn't get in because the protector was very strict. Just like in the human world, the Dharma Protector sneaked in without even noticing. After he slipped in, if the Dharma Protector saw him, he would be kicked out. The Dharma Protector was very strict, so this lonely ghost hid. Later, he hid in the kitchen and happened to meet lay people from Xiaodao who were going in to wash their hands. He made a request, "Xiaodao is a lonely ghost. When I saw the chanting here, I really wanted to come in and follow it, but there is no place in Xiaodao. Please help." The layman from the small Taoist community said, "Okay. But it's too late to write a memorial tablet for you now. The small Taoist community has a memorial tablet for all living beings in the Dharma Realm. You can stand there." As soon as the layman said hello, the Dharma Protector knew that it was his. Location, the Dharma Protector will not rush.

The Dharma Protector protects the Dharma of the Taoists. Just like if the Taoists hold a meeting here, there are security guards guarding the door outside. People who enter must have tickets and passes. If Xiaodao's relatives and friends come and don't have a pass, Xiaodao goes to the door and says hello to the security guard, "This is Xiaodao's friend, this is Xiaodao's relative, let him in." The security guard will let him in. If you don't say hello, others won't let you in. The principle is the same, so writing the tablet is very important. This is the first point.

The second point is to be respectful when writing tablets. Taoists should be respectful to ghosts and gods. When writing memorial tablets, they cannot write homophones or variant characters. Every word of the name must be written accurately and cannot be replaced by other words. If you make a mistake, ghosts and gods will not be able to enter. Therefore, when we help people write memorial tablets, they must ask for accurate names. Chinese characters are very complicated and there are many homophones, so we have to be careful. When family members provide names, they don’t understand and don’t pay attention. But we have to pay attention, and we must ask each word clearly. .

Secondly, writing must be neat. Some people write cursive calligraphy and write the tablets in random places. This is not acceptable. What to do? Use block letters and write stroke by stroke. This is one. The other one cannot be altered. During the writing process, if you make a mistake, Xiaodao has seen many tablets. After making a mistake, take a pen and make an ink pimple, smear it and then write. This is not allowed, no scribbling, no scratching. What should I do if I make a mistake? Stack it up respectfully and take another one to rewrite. You must know this. It's not okay for Taoists to be disrespectful to ghosts and gods, as they will not benefit from it. If you write randomly, the Dharma Protector will not be able to see it clearly, so that's not okay.

As we all know, tablets are the passports of ghosts and gods. In addition to writing the name of the deceased, Yangshang is also written, and Yangshang refers to the Taoist Yangshang people. When writing about Master Yang, the title must correspond to the relationship between the deceased and the deceased. For example, if the deceased is the mother, named Yang Shufang, then the person in Yangshang should be the son or daughter. If we don’t write about Master Yang, it would be very troublesome to write about Yang Shufang alone. When we arrived at the ghost path, the ghost king mentioned Yang Shufang, and a large group of Yang Shufang came. Which one should he mention? Because there are so many people with the same name and surname, it would be very troublesome not to write Yangshangren. If you write about Yang Shangren, it will be different. But there is another problem here. For example, Yang Shufang’s son is called Li Jie. Among the one hundred Yang Shufangs, there may be five Yang Shufangs whose sons are all named Li Jie, and the sons also have the same name. This is troublesome. What to do about this? Therefore, two lines of words should be written behind the tablet: one line should write the year, month, day, and time; the other line should write the death, that is, the year, month, day, and time of death. hour. After writing it like this, when you go to the Ghost King, you won't mention the wrong person.

My friends, China is a country with ancient civilization. Ancient Chinese culture was very particular about writing, but now people no longer have it. Xiaodao has read the tablets written by many people, and I can tell at a glance that these people don't understand. For example, when a son writes a memorial tablet for his mother, he writes Yang Shufang and Li Suzhen directly, but it won’t work, it won’t work, and he may not be able to come. Furthermore, I see many tombstones in cemeteries on the trail now, including those who carved tombstones, and I don’t know much about them now. It is a mistake to write "dead father" directly on the tombstone, or "father". Some people directly write about their deceased father, which is also a mistake, at least it is disrespectful to the father.

Let me tell you, the writing on the memorial tablet and the writing on the tombstone should be clear to others. People will know without asking whether the parents, parents-in-law, or elders of the deceased are still alive. You know the tombstone. After a woman dies, people can tell by looking at the tablet that the deceased's husband is still alive, whether she has any grandchildren, and whether her parents are still alive. How many people understand now?

Many people nowadays don’t understand. It’s very simple to directly write the spiritual position of someone’s deceased father and it doesn’t explain the problem. Even if you go to the ghost king, you will cause a lot of trouble for the ghost king. If he can't be found, you simply don't look for him. So sometimes even though the tablet is written, it has no effect. Xiaodao will now give you a brief introduction to the writing of tablets, which everyone should remember. If you have the opportunity, it is best to buy a book published by the Taoist chanting group, called "Simple and Quick Emancipation Manual". These four books are bound together. This book is circulated in large quantities by the small Taoist chanting groups. At the back of this book, there is the writing format of the memorial tablet. You can take a look at it yourself. Today Xiaodao will give you a simple explanation according to this format.

According to the Chinese way of writing since ancient times, after the death of parents, one cannot write about parents or call them parents again. When they were alive, they were called parents. After their death, their father was called Kao and their mother was called heir. Kao and his wife, Kao is his father and his wife is his mother. When your father has passed away, you cannot say "dead father". That would be the greatest disrespect to your father. You must call him "Xian Kao" or "Xian Kao".

If the memorial tablet is first examined at the beginning, outsiders will know at a glance that this is the memorial tablet erected by the son after his father died. But there are still elderly people in his family, that is, the deceased also has his father and mother. At least one person is still there, or his father and mother are gone, but his father-in-law and mother-in-law are still alive. Why do you say this? Because as long as one of the parents and elders is still alive in the world, he has the elders around, and if he dies, he can only be asked to go first. He left first, and took the first step. In this family, he cannot be seen yet, so he is called "Xian".

If his parents, father-in-law, mother-in-law, and elders are gone. In addition to no elders, and he also has grandchildren, then he is the oldest person in the family. How to write? Just write "show", show the show. He has the most distinguished status in the family and is called Xiankao. If there are no grandchildren, he cannot be called "Xian", but can only be called "Xian". This is what the Taoists must know.

The same goes for women. The concubine is the mother, and the deceased is also the deceased, as well as the parents-in-law and parents. At least one elder is still alive and is called the concubine. The same goes for Xian Hei and Xian Kao. If the elder is gone and there are grandchildren, it can be called "Xian".

The difference between Xian and Xian is that there must be no elders, and there must be grandchildren. There are no elders above, and there must be grandchildren below oneself, in order to be called "Xian", otherwise it is called "Xian", male and female. All the same.

People don’t understand etiquette these days. They all say so and so about their father. That’s wrong. As a son, what qualifications do you have to call your father by his name outside? It is a big taboo for a son to call his father by his name outside. This son is absolutely unfilial and does not understand the most basic rules. This is a big taboo in ancient Chinese culture. But if someone from outside comes and asks, "What is your father's name?" If someone asks, you have to answer, and it would be disrespectful not to answer. To answer my father's question, Xiaodao's father, when the son calls his father's name, let me first mention a taboo. It is taboo for Xiaodao to mention his father's name, but he has to say it. What should he do if he has to say it? First bow your head to the other person and say a taboo word before your father's name. For example, Xiaodao's father's surname is Cheng, and his name is Cheng Zhizhong. If Xiaodao mentions Xiaodao's father's name, and Xiaodao's father's surname is Cheng, which means he is loyal, he should say this. When people hear that your father's surname is Cheng, he is called Zhizhong. This is why. This taboo is sandwiched in the middle and not mentioned as a name. It means that the son is humble and respectful to his father. There must be a taboo in the middle, and this is still the case when writing tablets.

When writing a memorial tablet, write it first and test it first, or test it explicitly. For example, write the tablet of Xiaodao's father: Xiaodao's father's surname is Cheng. If there is a grandfather above the Xiaodao, or there is an old man in the family, and there is an old man above him, Xiaodao's father will be called Xiankao. His surname is Cheng and his name is Zhizhong. When writing the tablet, you should write "公" under Cheng, Cheng Gong. This "Gong" is his honorific title. Now let’s talk about the taboo, let’s talk about the name, taboo is Zhizhong, and the ruler of the mansion is born in the lotus position of the west. This is very complete. The full name is: First, let’s examine Cheng Gong’s taboo, which is the loyal ruler of the mansion and is born in the lotus position of the west. If there are no elders and Xiaodao's father is the highest-ranking person in the family, then he should write: Xian Kao Cheng Gong's taboo Zhi Zhongfu Jun was born in the lotus position of the west. Father's way of writing is relatively simple.

The writing method of mother’s tablet is more complicated than that of father’s. Take Trail Mother, for example. Xiaodao's mother's surname is Du, Xiaodao's father's surname is Cheng, and Xiaodao's mother's name is Du Xiuzhen. When Xiaodao's mother passed away, Xiaodao's grandparents and grandparents were gone. Moreover, when Xiaodao's mother passed away, Xiaodao's father had also passed away. Therefore, when Xiaodao wrote the memorial tablet to Xiaodao's mother, he could call her the heir. You can't talk about Du Xiuzhen below the heir apparent. It would be wrong to mention Du Xiuzhen as the heir apparent. How to call it? Her maiden name is Du, because she married Xiaodao's father. According to traditional Chinese practice, when marrying a chicken, follow the chicken, and when marrying a dog, follow the dog. So after she got married, her surname was Cheng, and her surname was not Du. You should understand this.

When writing Xiaodao’s mother’s surname, how do you write it? Her surname is Cheng, and she also needs to write her maiden name. That is the name of the concubine Cheng Mu. Because she gave birth to a son in the Cheng family, she is the mother of the Cheng family's son. Her maiden name is at the end, but her full name cannot be called Cheng Du. She can be called Cheng Dushi when she is alive, but she cannot be called Cheng Dushi after death, otherwise she will not be found in the underworld. She also needs to write her name, but her name cannot be written directly. If it is wrong to write Du Xiuzhen, why? She has married into the Cheng family. Her maiden name is the name given by her parents. What will her name be when she lives as a human being after marriage? Her name is Cheng Dushi. But it's not enough to just write "Cheng Du" on the tablet. It's hard to find her in the underworld. You have to find out her name when she was a child, because people have files in the underworld.

That’s why Cheng’s mother should be written as Du Ruren. Ruren means child. Next, write "boudoir name", which is the name of the girl when she was a girl. Her maiden name is Xiuzhen, so it is complete. That is to say, she is now married to the Cheng family and has given birth to a child. She is the mother whose surname is Cheng. Her maiden name is Du. When she was a child, her name was Xiuzhen. It is still called this way in Hong Kong and Taiwan. What's it called? My name is Cheng Du Xiuzhen.

Here, women have one more rule than men. What's one more rule? If the deceased meets the conditions for being recognized as an heir and her husband is no longer around, she will not be called "Ruren" but "Tairuren".

Because when Xiaodao's mother passed away, Xiaodao's grandparents and grandparents were gone, and Xiaodao's father died before Xiaodao's mother, so Xiaodao's mother was not called "Ruren" but "Tairuren". As soon as people saw Tai Ruren, they knew that the husband of the deceased was no longer there, the elders above him were no longer there, and he already had grandchildren. Therefore, the full name of Xiaodao’s mother’s tablet is: The lotus tablet of Xiuzhen, the mother-in-law of Xianyi Cheng, Tairu, whose maiden name was Xiuzhen. Writing the tablet in this way is complete and people can understand it at a glance. Therefore, this tablet makes people feel respectful at first sight. This is the writing format of the mother's tablet.