For Li Jing, everyone is familiar with Zhong He in The Journey to the West. He appeared in the image of King Tota Li Tian: dressed in armor and holding a pagoda, he suppressed the Great Sage of Qi Tian and was majestic. The poster of Devil Boy basically continues this classic shape, but the armor and sword are not unusual. We are curious about where the pagoda in his hand came from.
There is evidence that one of the sources of Li Jing's mythical image may be Pishamenton, which prevailed in the Tang Dynasty and Dunhuang. Let's talk about Jing Li first, and put it behind for the time being. As for Li Jing, he is a native of Beijing, Zhao and Sanyuan, which is now Sanyuan County, Shaanxi Province. Now there is his ancestral temple in the northwest of the county, which is called "Gong Li Temple".
From the Song Dynasty poet Lv Shengqing's Visit to Li Ci, we can see the cognition of folk sacrifices to Li Jing:
In fact, in general, China people's religious complex is actually very weak, but one feature is "utilitarianism" based on secular interests, mostly "cramming", such as going to worship Guanyin if you want children; I don't worship Wen Quxing until I want to be the first.
Therefore, if people want to make long-term and extensive sacrifices, Li Jing, as a god, will certainly play an indispensable role in people's lives. What is related to Li Jing is the weather, pests and diseases.
Li Jing's Pray for Rain for the Dragon is the source of all these "practical functions" and the most important event. Because farmers rely on the land, but they have to rely on the weather to eat, and drought and flood are weather factors; The elimination of insects and locusts comes from the idea that everything is connected by ancestors. Since it can affect the weather and ensure the increase of income, it can naturally reduce the unreasonable loss of food; And disease is pushing your luck. Since natural disasters can be resisted, people's bodies can naturally be "affected" (diseases) to help get rid of them.
Folk sacrifice is so simple and utilitarian, and what really determines its status lies in whether it can be included in the ranks of official sacrifice or national sacrifice. The recognition of the rulers makes it spread more deeply from top to bottom, and conversely, the voices from the people have more or less affected its image and function. This two-way deification process is really interesting.
Li Jing's contribution lies not only in his contribution to the founding of the People's Republic of China, but also in his contribution to fighting against Turks and opening up territory after the establishment of the Tang Dynasty. Because of this, in the seventeenth year of Zhenguan, Emperor Taizong was honored as one of the twenty-four outstanding figures in Lingyange.
It was really included in the national ceremony when he was in Tang Suzong, and he was named Wu Chengwang, one of the "Ten Philosophers".
It can be seen that the reason why Li Jing can be deified is closely related to the Tang Dynasty and military achievements in official terms, while it is related to its practical function in folk. Interestingly, the spread of Vishamenton in Dunhuang and Hotan in the Tang Dynasty was along the official upper-level route.
In the middle Tang Dynasty and the Western Regions, there was basically such a fixed schema, which was called "Vishamenton" by Japanese scholar Saburo Matsumoto. Generally speaking, it includes these three basic characteristics:
Surprisingly, in Vishamun's classic schema, there is no pagoda, the most familiar object in our hands.
In fact, this kind of "Pi Shan Men Tong" is called "basic money" because it is only his image book, and the first one is the most important. On the contrary, it is the things they hold in their hands that distinguish their times and types.
Therefore, according to the different objects in their hands, we can see two most important Vishamun patterns in murals:
We call the former "Yutian style", mainly represented by the heavenly king on the east side of the front room of Cave 25 in Yulin.
Regarding the latter, Pishamenton, which is called "Dunhuang style", is mainly represented by King Tian Wen in the northern wall of Yulin 15 Cave.
The difference between the two iconic objects may represent the dual divinity of the Pishamen heavenly king: he is both a god of war and a god of wealth!
The A-shaped Pishamen heavenly object is a pagoda, which means protection. This is because in the area of Khotan, Pishamton was regarded as lord protector and the temple protector from the beginning, and later it was related to lord protector and the god of protecting the army. In the records of the Western Regions in the Tang Dynasty, the earliest legends about its protection of Buddhism and temples were recorded:
Galand protected by Vishnu is located next to the city, so it is located in today's Afghan region. As a Buddhist protector from India, the embryonic form of holding the pagoda should be related to the early stupa, that is, "burying the slope" (placing relics, scriptures and objects), because there is an example in the literature of Khotan that "Lohan holds the pagoda with his right hand to block the slope".
The main symbol of type B Vishamun is the mouse shape, which represents wealth. This image of holding something can be traced back to Pyrrhus, the Hindu god of wealth. In the early days, Jupiter held a stick as a symbol of protection in one hand and a mouse as a symbol of wealth in the other. The idea of taking mice as wealth came from India, but in Central Asia, it developed into the custom of making wallets or jewelry bags from the skins of mice and ferrets.
With regard to the two styles of Pishamen's "Yutian" and "Tubo", we not only pay attention to the differences of the objects held by their gods, but also find their similarities: that is, the heavenly king is not alone, and there are two men and one woman around him who threaten to serve the gods. Who are they?
Take Pishamenton in Cave 25 as an example. The companion on the left is smaller, shaped like a goddess, and next to it is the inscription of "Great Sarasvati Support" (the list is named the inscription of tourists in Yuan Dynasty). On the other hand, the demigod on the right is tall, wearing a tiger hat and a tiger coat, holding the big Mani pearl in his left hand and the watering can mouse in his right hand.
If the title of the list is not reliable, then the identification of the two people must find the corresponding relationship from the books and images related to Indian Buddhism.
From the materials, we can know that the day when he came out with the Indian god of wealth must be the Buddha of his concubine, so it must be an auspicious day for his concubine to come out with Vishamen. Coincidentally, the original function of the auspicious day of the ecliptic is to protect the treasure of wealth, and in Chinese style, the wishful orb is often used for identification.
So, who is the other man wearing a tiger hat and spitting out treasure rats? According to Buddhist records, the blessed goddess and the most victorious prince emerged from the Vishamen Heaven where heaven and earth meet. So, this man must be the best prince? Not necessarily. Vishamen has five princes. The most successful prince is the eldest son, the second is Dujian, the third is Nezha, the fourth is ordinary, and the fifth is Zen.
Judging from the description of the most successful prince in Buddhist scriptures, he is a good god who protects Buddhism and protects the country. Like Nezha, his image is mostly fierce with eight arms on all sides, and there are also two arms in a bun.
No matter how you look at this image, it is far from those who wear tiger skin and hold precious mice. So, is it possible that this male god is the son of another Vishamenton? Get rid of the most famous Prince Nezha, who is the same as Nezha, and the lesser-known fourth and fifth children, and then only the second child will be healthy.
Could it be him?
In 742 AD, Xifan, Kangju and other countries were on the border, and Tang Xuanzong invited Master Sanzang to protect him. After the practice, the magic soldiers of King Pishaman appeared in the clouds on the western border, drums and horns blared, causing Tubo to collapse.
This city, which was saved by the power of Pishamen, was Anxi City in the Tang Dynasty. One detail needs special attention, that is, King Visaman did not come out to save the market himself, but let his second son "Du Jian" lead the magic army.
Postscript to the translation of the Sutra of Pishamen: The sage suddenly saw two or three hundred gods standing in front of the Dojo, wearing armor. The sage asked the monk, who is this? Guang Zhi said, "Du Jian, the second son of Shi Pi Shan Men Tun, led heavenly troops to save Anxi, so he resigned ... Later, Pishamton made efforts upstairs.
In fact, this practice of sending sons to save people without moving the Lord God has a profound cultural tradition. Not only in terms of protection, even when people prayed to Vishnu for property, Vishnu did not come forward in person, but his son took a mouse (or mouse bag) and distributed the property to the supplicant.
From this point of view, the man in Pishamton's group can only be the "only daughter" of the second son: on the one hand, he can protect Anxi, on the other hand, he can give money to the mice. It can be said that Pishamton's work as a god of war and a god of wealth was completed by this capable second son.
Vishnu, I have to say that you really gave birth to a good son, which is much more worrying than the annoying third prince.