Zan was originally a banner erected by warriors or military commanders to boast about their achievements on the battlefield, but it has been adopted by Buddhism since ancient times to show that Buddha and Bodhisattva have turned evil. "Vimalakīrti Jing Zhu" said: "If you defeat the foreign invaders, the flag will win, and the Dojo will also show victory by lowering the devil." At the same time, because hairpin is a weed that represents Buddha and Bodhisattva to subdue evil spirits, it is considered as a blessing to subdue evil spirits and prolong life. Volume 11 of the Awakening Sutra says: "I am also a yellow flag today, hanging on the brake, and I have been blessed with eight hardships and ten buddhas." The coffin can be what you want and can prove Bodhi. This shows the benefits of building banners and supporting banners.
According to various records, as early as the end of the 6th century, it was used as a sacrificial vessel for Buddhism in China. The flag consists of a triangular flag head, a lower part of the flag head, a rectangular flag body, flag bearers hanging left and right, and flag feet at the lower part of the flag body. The material is cloth (silk, twill, etc. ), silk, gold, copper, jade, board and so on. Because of the different materials, colors, sizes, uses, patterns, etc. There are also small differences in names, and there are many kinds, even a flag will have different names. According to the above aspects, the following are the main features:
As far as materials are concerned, there are brocade, silk, flat, gold copper, silk, jade, board and paper.
Secondly, as far as colors are concerned, there are white flags, red flags, yellow flags, green flags, light yellow flags, flying flags, five-color flags, variegated flags and so on.
Third, according to the size, there are big banners and small banners.
Fourth, from the use of places, there are halls, halls, auditoriums, lecture halls, courtyards, houses, high seats and ceilings.
In terms of usage, there are empathy banners, memorial banners, memorial banners, funeral banners, hungry ghost banners and so on.
Six kinds are distinguished by patterns, including colorful flags, seed flags and Samo topographic flags.
Brocade, twill, silk and flat flag are all made of cloth. Cloth flag, also called split flag, includes Luo flag and embroidered flag. Gold and copper flags are made of thin copper plates. Silk ribbon is a kind of ribbon that drags spun silk into ribbon or hangs it as ribbon. Jade banners are made of agate, colored glaze, glass, water essence and other treasures in series; This board is made of wood; The paper banner was cut from a piece of paper.
White, red, blue, light yellow and scarlet banners are monochrome banners, that is, each banner uses only one color and is made of cloth, board and paper. It is usually made of green bamboo stems and yellow paper. It is a simple structure, mostly used for profound practice; Five-color banners, also known as five-color banners, are divided into two types: one is cyan, red, yellow, white and black color banners, and there is no special regulation on color matching; The other is to combine five kinds of banners with one color, which is called five-color banner. The moral of the five colors is the five elements, which are the five internal organs. Using this color to support Buddha is to protect the five internal organs of the donor and prolong life. Others, such as eight-color flags, nine-color flags and variegated flags, are the general names of several monochromatic flags.
Big banners and small banners are just convenient names, but there is no certain size and size standard.
Church flag, Jintang flag, auditorium flag, government flag, etc. It's named after the hanging place. Complications of Jintang (also known as nave's complications and Buddhism complications), lecture hall complications and Maitreya complications are also collectively referred to as complications; Tantric school is also called auditorium flag for short. On this occasion, eight-color flags and samadhi flags are used. As for the banners hanging in the hall, most of them are pennants, pennants, pennants and embroidered flags. Courtyard flags are used for court ceremonies when praying for rain, mostly jade flags, pennants and green flags. High-seat banners are banners hung on the high seats of instructors or lecturers, while canopy banners are hung on the four corners of the canopy. There are also different types of awnings according to different practices. For example, when repairing the roof, hang colorful flags at the four corners of the canopy; When repairing the life extension method, hang two yellow banners at the four corners; And when you practice love dyeing, you hang a nine-color banner.
Guanding Banner has records of using pennants and embroidered flags. The longevity flag is also called the longevity flag. The fifth volume of the Book of Sakyamuni once described that when Ashoka was ill, he was granted a twelve-year life extension for praying for merit. "Pharmacist's Wish Book" also said that if the relatives and friends of the patient could follow the pharmacist Liu Liguang at that time, please ask the monks to read this book, burn seven layers of lights, and hang five colors to continue their lives, which may enable them to know and see themselves clearly in their dreams. It can be seen that the update banner is a five-color banner. It is recommended that death banners, also known as life banners, be built for the accumulation of wealth of the deceased. The Awakening Sutra says that when a person dies, he should burn incense and light to continue to shine, hang his life on the watch brake of Baota Temple, and read the Sanqi Tianzun Sutra. Therefore, when you die, you are like a child of Yin Zhong, and your sin and happiness are undecided. You should cultivate happiness and pray that the knowledge of the dead will be born in the boundless soil. If you inherit this merit, you will die. It is the merit of dying for a person's life. The mourning flag, also called the Four Flags, is made of white paper or plain silk for burial. On each side are written the seed words of Buddha and Bodhisattva, such as Amitabha, Guanyin and Shi Zhi, and the words in Nirvana Sutra, "The impermanence of all lines is the law of birth and death, and death is joy". Hungry ghost banners are used in yoga, mainly using paper banners, most of which are very rough.
Painted banners are banners depicting buddhas, bodhisattvas, kings of Ming Dynasty and celestial bodies, including the banners of Buddha statues, and there are many kinds. As for the sub-banner, seed characters are used instead of painted banners; Samadhi Banner, also known as Dharma Banner, is a banner depicting Samadhi Banner of Buddha and Bodhisattva. The so-called Samadhi Banner refers to the vows made by Buddhas and Bodhisattvas for enlightenment, such as the seals of Buddhas, the lotus of Guanyin Bodhisattva, and the sword of Harraca Ranasa. In addition, there is also a kind of building banner, which is made of hexagonal or octagonal buildings, combining the advantages and disadvantages of buildings with banners. Wooden building banners are called wooden building banners.
There are also some other names in the scriptures, such as Long Zifan of Manjusri Wen Jing, Shi Zifan of Uber Namgya, Mo Fan, Long Fan, Jielu Chafan, Niu Wang Fan and so on.
Among the solemn instruments in the hall, banners are matched with doors, buildings and covers. The ring door is a large square brocade curtain, which is used for solemn statues of Buddha and Bodhisattva in the hall. Most of the ring doors are embroidered with rare birds and animals and exotic flowers and grasses.
The building is a long tubular display hanging in a Buddhist temple. Most of them are made of silk, and the colors are fragrant yellow or apricot yellow. Under the building, sometimes a lot of wishful beads are hung for decoration.
Gai Hua, generally speaking, is a flat-topped cylindrical umbrella-shaped silk fabric covering Buddha statues and Bodhisattva statues. The statue of Buddha and Bodhisattva is covered with a treasure cover, which means that "no matter what the Buddha does, the Buddha will live all his life" and it also has the function of dust prevention. High seats for lecturers and readers can sometimes be hung with treasure covers. The Vimalakīrti Sutra of Buddhism says, "There is an eldest son named Baoji who left the city. Together with 500 eldest sons, they all came to the Buddhist temple with Qibao. " In other words, exquisite treasure covers are often covered with jewelry, glass and other things, so they are called "seven treasure covers".