Gossip about Kitchen Sacrifice Culture

February 2, 2024, is the 23rd day of the twelfth lunar month in the Guimao year, which is known as the "Little Year". Xiaonian Kitchen Sacrifice is a long-standing folk custom in China, and has formed a rich and colorful culture of Xiaonian Kitchen Sacrifice in the course of thousands of years of development and evolution.

Dai Sheng of the Western Han Dynasty compiled the ritual works of the Han nationality before the Qin and Han Dynasties and compiled the Book of Rites · Yueling, which recorded that "the ritual of sacrificing the kitchen stove is set up in the kitchen stove path", and the kitchen stove path is the thing that carries the utensil beside the kitchen stove. It can be seen that sacrificial stoves were established before the Qin and Han Dynasties. In this regard, the Warring States Policy · Zhao Policy, compiled by Liu Xiang in the Western Han Dynasty, also recorded: "The recovery of the investigation is called the day of Wei Jun."

01

In the poem "Send the Kitchen" written by Luo Yin, a poet of the Tang Dynasty, there is a famous line that "a cup of tea and a wisp of smoke will make the Kitchen King and the Emperor ascend to the sky". It can be seen that the folk in our country had the ritual of offering sacrifices to the kitchen stove more than 2000 years ago, and it has been practiced through the ages. However, in ancient times, the dates of sacrificial offerings to the kitchen were different in different places. Since the reign of Emperor Yongzheng in the Qing Dynasty, every year on the 23rd day of the twelfth lunar month, the emperor would go to the Kunning Palace to worship the gods. In order to save money, the emperor also paid homage to the Kitchen God. Since then, the royal family and Baylor followed suit, offering sacrifices to stoves on the 23rd day of the twelfth lunar month, and gradually spread to the people. At this time, officials, businessmen or scholars who work outside should go home to have a family reunion before the Kitchen Sacrifice Day and eat their own cooking candy in order to pray for the Kitchen God and keep the whole family safe in the coming year.

Sending the Kitchen God is usually held at nightfall. The family first went to the kitchen, set up the table, offered incense to the Kitchen God in the shrine on the kitchen wall, and offered sugar gourds made of malt sugar and flour, and then placed paper horses made of bamboo strips on the edge and offered fodder for animals. Offering maltose to Kitchen God is to make him sweet. In some places, they also put sugar around the mouth of the Kitchen God, and said, "Speak more good words than bad words." This is to stop the Kitchen God from saying bad words by putting sugar in his mouth. There is also a record in the ancient book of the Tang Dynasty, The Chronicle of the Next Age of the Chariot, that "the kitchen god was intoxicated by painting lees on the stove". After painting the mouth of the Kitchen God with sugar, people will take off the statue and light it together with the paper horse, which means that the Kitchen God has ascended to heaven. In some places, sesame straw and pine branches are piled in the yard at night, and then the Kitchen God statue, which has been served for one year, is invited out of the shrine. Together with the paper horse and straw, it is ignited and burned. The yard is illuminated by the fire. At this time, the family bows around the fire. With strong horses and fodder, the Kitchen God will have a good journey back to heaven.

The custom of delivering cooking stoves is very common in the north and south of China. Mr. Lu Xun once wrote the poem "The Boxer delivers cooking stoves immediately": "A chicken gummed with tooth candy, and a piece of clothing is used to offer incense. There is nothing good in the home, so is there only a little yellow sheep." And he wrote in "Random Writing on the Day of Sending Cooking stoves" It was further recorded in an article that "On the day when Zao Jun ascended to heaven, there was still a kind of sugar on the street, the size of a citrus, and we also had it there, but it was flat, like a thick little pancake. That was the so-called 'glue tooth xing'. The original intention was to invite Zao Jun to eat it, stick his teeth, so that he could not talk and speak ill of the Jade Emperor."

The "Yellow Sheep" mentioned in Lu Xun's poems is a reference to the book of the Later Han Dynasty: The Legend of Yin Knowledge compiled by Fan Ye in the Southern Dynasty: "In the reign of Emperor Xuandi, the Yin people were extremely filial and benevolent. When they cooked in the morning in the sun, they saw the shape of the kitchen god, and then they worshipped and celebrated it again; when they had the Yellow Sheep, they had to worship it. Since it was already... until they knew the third generation, they became prosperous, so they often worship the kitchen in the sun and recommend the Yellow Sheep." When Yin saw the kitchen god, He killed the Mongolian gazelle and got lucky later. From then on, the custom of killing sheep to sacrifice to the stove has been handed down.

There is a folk custom that "men do not worship the moon and women do not worship the kitchen". It is said that the Kitchen God looks like a small white face, and is afraid of sacrificing the kitchen to women. However, among the folk gods in China, the Kitchen God is very old. As early as the Xia Dynasty, he was already a great god worshipped by the people. However, it is still unclear what the Kitchen God looks like. Someone said, "Kitchen God, dressed in red, looks like a beauty". It is also recorded that the Kitchen God is a red haired and fanged god. When the girl saw him, she was afraid that it was too late. How could she be suspected of being male or female? It can be seen that this is just a folk custom.

02

The 23rd day of the twelfth lunar month is the folk "Little New Year", and the 24th day of the twelfth lunar month is regarded as the day when the Kitchen God returns to the heaven to report his work. Therefore, every household should make a "sacrifice to the kitchen" on the evening of the "Little New Year", in order to make the Kitchen God "say good things from heaven and bring good luck from below".

The "Kitchen God" is said to be the "Kitchen Master of Nine Days", "Kitchen Master", "Kitchen Master", "Kitchen Master", "Kitchen Master", "Kitchen Master", "Kitchen Master", "Kitchen Master", "Kitchen Master" and "Kitchen Master" granted by the Jade Emperor. Although the custom of offering sacrifices to the Kitchen God had long existed in ancient China, it was not until the Wei and Jin dynasties that the Kitchen God got his name. The Jade Candle Treasure by Du Taiqing of the Sui Dynasty quoted the Kitchen Book as saying, "The Kitchen God, whose surname is Su, whose name is Ji Li, and whose wife is Bo Jia". Tang Lixian cited Miscellaneous Five Elements Calligraphy, which is also called "Kitchen God is called Zen, with the word Ziguo, dressed in yellow clothes and hair, coming out of the kitchen". Obviously, the Kitchen God was first a goddess. However, the Complete Book of Kitchen Worship in the Qing Dynasty said: "Kitchen God, whose surname is Zhang, name list, and character is Zi Guo, should be a male god." Now, the East Kitchen Master Dingfu Kitchen God, who is worshipped by the people, is an old couple sitting side by side, namely Kitchen God and Kitchen God Grandma.

It sounds good to invite the Kitchen God to eat candy when "sacrificing to the kitchen". The real intention is to stick the mouth of the Kitchen God with sugar made of malt to prevent him from gossiping with the Jade Emperor. Yuan Mei in the Qing Dynasty included in his Suiyuan Poetic Tales a poem called "Sending Kitchen" written by Xie Xueyong, a 12-year-old man, who described it vividly: "Suddenly, I heard the sound of firecrackers and books, and the rice was full of wine. Don't talk to the Jade Emperor about good and evil, and persuade you to eat more gum." A folk poem called "Kitchen Ballad" was written by someone, The original intention of people offering sacrifices to the kitchen is also clearly stated: "A plate of tea and a plate of kitchen sugar will send the Kitchen God to the sky. When the Heaven Palace sees the Jade Emperor, it is impossible to say anything inappropriate."

People attach great importance to sacrificing to the kitchen and the duty of the Kitchen God. The ancient book "The Complete Book of Kitchen Worship" summarized the responsibilities of the Kitchen King as "receiving incense from a family, protecting the health of a family, observing the good and evil of a family, and reporting the merits and demerits of a family". Fan Chengda, a poet of the Song Dynasty, vividly described the custom of sacrificing to the kitchen stove in his "Ci for sacrificing to the kitchen stove", which gives a person a sense of immersive experience: "It is said in ancient times that on the 24th day of the twelfth lunar month, the Kitchen God would like to talk to the sky. The cloud car and the wind horse linger, and the family has cups and plates to offer sacrifices. The pig's head is rotten and hot, the fish is fresh, and the bean paste, the sweet pine, and the powder bait group. The men drink and offer their daughters to avoid, and sprinkle wine and burn money to make the Kitchen God happy. Don't listen to your servant's struggle, and don't hate your cat and dog's horns; See you through the gate of heaven when you are drunk and full. Do not reply to the clouds when you are long and short. Beg for profit and return home. "

However, this is an act of noble family. As for the poor families, they are always in a precarious situation. They still can't afford to use the kitchen candy until the end of the year. They can't help but feel uneasy. But at the right time, do they always have to "express"? Ying Shao of the Han Dynasty wrote in "Custom Pass · Kitchen God" that the poor people's offerings to the kitchen are "food in the box, wine in the bottle", but his heart is fully expressed in a song: "Kitchen Lord, my surname is Zhang, a bowl of cold water with three sticks of incense. This year the boy has had a hard time, and next year he will invite you to eat sugar There was a plaint that he was full of experience but was down and out: "A bowl of soup poems, the Kitchen God will go to the sky today; if the Jade Emperor asks about human affairs, the articles in troubled times are not worth money." The poet complained, which was also exaggerated!

"Twenty three, sweet gourds are sticky, and the Kitchen God wants to go to heaven." Eating others' soft mouth, the Kitchen God can't reflect the real situation when he is stuck by sugar. Zhou Guangye, a poet of the Qing Dynasty, described the performance of the kitchen god who went to heaven after "eating and worshipping" in his poem "Sacrifice to the Kitchen God": "Gutang is used to worship the kitchen god and clean the spring plate, and it is not stopped in the sky at night. He plays the Jade Emperor to do good things, and hides the evil from others."

03

Cooking sugar is a kind of maltose. If you take it as a long candy stick, you can call it "Guandong sugar". If you draw it into a flat circle, you can call it "sugar melon" or "sugar cake". Put it outside in winter. Because of the cold weather, the candied melon is solidly solidified and there are some tiny pores inside. It tastes crisp, sweet and unique. However, the real Guandong Sugar is extremely hard and unbreakable. When eating it, you must use a kitchen knife to split it. The material is very heavy and fine. The taste is slightly sour. There is no honeycomb in the middle. Candied melons or sugar cakes can be divided into sesame and non sesame ones. The center is empty and the skin is less than half a centimeter thick. Although the sizes are different, they are still calculated by weight. Large candied melons weigh one or two jin, but few people buy them.

There is also a saying among the people in northern China that "seeing off dumplings with windward noodles". The Kitchen God will return to the heaven to report to work on the 24th day of December, so every family will make dumplings the day before to send the Kitchen God off. Beijing will also offer sacrifices to the Kitchen God and the Kitchen God's grandmother on the 23rd night. Ordinary people will put on a few kinds of fruit cakes, and the dainty people will also offer a bowl of lotus seed eight treasure rice steamed with glutinous rice. Some areas in Shandong pay attention to eating sticky cakes or flour flowers. The sticky cake is made of yellow rice, red dates, etc., which is sweet, strong and soft. The dough flower is made into various patterns after hair is made. It is especially delicious after steaming, but it is troublesome to make.

The custom of eating fried corn is also popular in the southeast of Shanxi Province. As a folk saying goes, "In the twenty third year, don't eat fried corn, but pour it in one pot at the beginning of the new year", people are used to sticking fried corn with maltose and freezing it into large pieces, so it tastes more crisp and sweet. In the south of China, the food customs of celebrating the Spring Festival are different ways of sacrificing to the kitchen. For example, people in Ningbo, Zhejiang Province, will hold a ceremony to "send the Kitchen God away" on the evening of the 23rd day of the twelfth lunar month, that is, they will place special food such as cooking fruits and glutinous rice balls in front of the Kitchen God statue, and use straw to tie horses or paper to fold horses to stir fry soybeans and clean water for them. Under the leadership of the elderly, the whole family will tell the Kitchen God what they want to report to the Jade Emperor, and he will convey it.

After the sacrificial ceremony, the statue of Kitchen God and his horse will be burned to show that the Kitchen God rode back to the heaven. In order to enable the Kitchen God to speak sweet words, the sacrificial fruits are all sweet food, mostly made into colorful puffed food, and there are sesame candies similar to sesame blossom. "If there is water at the age of, the custom varies from day to day." In Nanjing, Jiangsu Province, whether rich or poor, red date soup, yuan bao tang, burning incense candles, and setting off firecrackers are provided that night. It is commonly known as "sending the Kitchen God", that is, sending the Kitchen God to the Heaven to "say good things and keep peace".

Zha Yuanding, a poet of the Qing Dynasty, said in his poem, "I pay you to visit the kitchen overseas, and I am used to laughing at you in the long fast. Morning and evening meals come from hard work, and the ritual of pots and bottles is not unique from ancient to modern times. Bowing to the sky today, I bent to return to the imperial capital next year. But I wish the war in the southeast will be quiet, and the tea stove will be spread across the West Lake." Thousands of years of kitchen worship customs have long lost the superstition of worshiping gods and ghosts, and become a cultural symbol, It embodies people's expectations for a better life.