The legend of the hunter-goddess Meishan in western Hunan
Source: Chinese Folk story network Author: Xiang Xiantao
There is a "Meishan Temple" in Xinghu Chong, the upper south gate of Yuanling Town, Yuanling County, western Hunan, where the local Tujia's hunting god "Meishan Goddess" is worshipped. It turned out that the Tujia's religious beliefs were deeply influenced by the Han nationality, superstitious mountain gods and wororing ancestors. The Tujia ancestors were known for being good at shooting and hunting, and Meishan God was the hunting god believed by the Tujia people. Before and after hunting, hunters would hold the sacrificial ceremony of "An Mei Mountain" to offer sacrifices to the "Meishan Maiden".
According to legend, in ancient times Yuanling mountain high forest dense, tiger leopard especially many. Many years ago, Wuling Mountain in the Yuanshui River between the Heming mountain and Wutong Mountain, because of the rise of tigers and leopards, named Xing tiger Chong. There was a hunter named Mei in Xinghu Chong who had a girl who lived with her father. The girl was born clever, beautiful, with red almond eyes and lips, and the hunter loved her like the apple of his eye, and was bent on teaching her a good way.
The girl grew up knowing the language of birds and beasts, and her character was like that of a boy. She plays with the dog during the day, sleeps with the rabbit at night, and is happy all day long. The girl is also diligent and studious, no matter what she learns, she is always clear and will learn as soon as she learns. The girl can embroider when she is five years old, and the flowers she embroiders look very vivid. Seven years old can play Dong dong kui, inviting flowers and birds to sing. At the age of nine, he has been able to do housework, collect wood, carry water, wash clothes, cook, and be able to do everything, and become a good helper for his father.
When the girl was fifteen or sixteen years old, she wanted to go hunting in the mountains with her father, but Father refused at first, until the girl asked again and again, and Father agreed to take her. The girl's understanding was very high, and father soon learned all the hunting skills; In addition, her archery is very good, the left and right bow is accurate and far, but also through the language of birds and animals, the strength is particularly amazing, so she went into the mountains to hunt, 100 shots. But she does not hunt the brood in winter, nor the brood in spring.
The girl shoots more prey every day than the hunters in Nine streams and 18 holes, and it's always full of prey. After the girl hit the prey, she always left the animal head according to the custom of the stockade, and distributed the prey to each Tujia on the mountain. Wuling Mountain area people like her very much, because she runs in the mountains all the year round, everyone called her "Meishan girl". In order to improve the hunting skills and efficiency, Meishan girl asked the blacksmith to help, invented the earth fire gun, and cleverly captured the bear, so that the Tujia life was no longer harassed by the bear. Meishan girl fame since then, the Tujia loved her very much.
The girl of Meishan traveled all over Wuling Mountain, killing 9981 wild boars, 7749 leopards, 55, 25 tigers, hundreds of goats and thousands of pheasants. The hides in the house were piled up into mountains, and animal heads hung all over the walls. One day, suddenly came the wind that seven tigers appeared in the Wuling mountain, and in only three days and two nights, they killed nine sheep, took away nine cows, and wounded nine pedestrians, making every house in the cottage shut its doors, and everyone dared not drive cattle and sheep up the mountain, dared not go out to do spring, dared not go into the mountain to hunt, and even the merchants who had passed away. When Meishan girl heard this, she made up her mind to get rid of the seven tigers for the villagers.
The next morning, the Meishan girl worshipped the ancestors, carrying dry food, holding a horn steel fork, and went to say goodbye to the old hunter father. The old hunter wanted to go together, but old age, had to let Meishan girl go alone.
The girl of Meishan Mountain climbs like a horse, and descends like an arrow. She climbed nine mountains and crossed nine streams, sat under a tree, took a breath, ate two packets of grain, drank a few sips of mountain water, climbed to the top of the mountain, and kept searching. Meishan girl to find the tiger trail, try her best to fight with a tiger.
That day, from morning to evening, Meishan girl killed six tigers one after another. While fighting with the sixth tiger, the horn fork broke in two. The girl in Meishan, holding half of the horn fork, looked up and saw that the sun had set, the birds had gone to the forest, and in front of them was a cliff and a deep valley. She herself was tired, so she prepared to go back down the mountain and look for the last tiger tomorrow.
When the girl in Meishan was preparing to go down the mountain, suddenly, a strong wind blew, and with a roar of the tiger, the tiger appeared two feet away from her, opened its huge mouth, flashed a green light in its eyes, and the markings on its forehead showed the word "King" clearly. Suddenly, the tiger rushed to Meishan girl. Meishan girl will be a bow, the tiger pounced on the empty, Meishan girl saw the tiger fell to the ground, take advantage of the hand half horn steel fork aimed at the head of the tiger to throw. Who knows, the tiger turned around, the steel fork is following the tiger's ears fell down. The tiger turned around and once again pounced on Meishan girl. Meishan girl saw that the tiger was fierce, so when the tiger flew in the air, she rushed over and hugged it
The tiger's neck, the body tightly attached to the belly of the tiger, the two hands firmly grasped the tiger's neck, pinched and pinched, ten fingers sank into the tiger's flesh, the tiger's neck was bleeding, the girl Meishan was still pinching and pinching, the tiger's back PAWS scratched the girl's clothes, and the girl's body was black and blue, and the girl Gushan was still pinching the tiger's neck and would not let go. Pinched the tiger pain, the tiger desperately struggling, rolling, bent on getting rid of Meishan girl, Meishan girl hard, along with the tiger rolled down the deep valley. ... That night, the old hunter did not see Meishan girl go home, and could not sleep all night. The next day just after dawn, they went up the mountain to look for Meishan girl. The Tujia heard about it and went up the mountain to look for it. They saw six tigers on the hillside and on the top of the mountain, and found the seventh tiger that the Meishan girl had killed at the bottom of the deep valley of the hanging rocks in Meishan, but the Meishan girl was neither found in the body nor in sight.
When people were looking around, a few days later, Meishan girl came home by herself. It turned out that when Meishan girl and the last tiger fell down the hanging rock together, they fell into the air and were caught by the gods. The God saved Meishan girl to heaven, and named her the hunting God, let her be in charge of all the beasts in the mountain. Meishan girl is reluctant to give up old daddy, just back to the mountains.
The news reached the king of Toast, and the king of Toast sent a matchmaker to send several baskets of jewelry to marry the girl of Meishan as a wing room. Meishan girl did not promise, the king of toast will Meishan girl into prison, Meishan girl or die not comply.
The king of toast saw Meishan girl not from, since he could not marry her, he wanted to kill Meishan girl. The housekeeper advised, "If you kill her without reason, I'm afraid it will arouse people's anger." I have a plan to kill her."
So the butler came to the prison and said to the girl Meishan, "You may not marry the king of toast, but you must obey one thing." There is a big tiger in the North Mountain. If you can get rid of it, you will be released."
Meishan girl believed it, night up the north mountain tiger. Just up the hill, suddenly out of the woods a gorgeous tiger, roaring at Meishan girl, want to swallow her down.
Meishan girl saw the tiger pounced on her, at first, but soon woke up, she escaped the three jumps of the tiger, and launched a life-and-death struggle with the short firewood knife in her hand.
In the fight, the clothes on her body were caught by the tiger claws into filaments, and turned into pieces of butterflies gone with the wind, shoulders, back, wrists, thighs, bruises and blood, but the tiger did not get cheap, forehead, body, everywhere by Meishan girl cut to pieces, but also scarred. Finally, she clenched her teeth and used her last strength to cut the firewood knife with blade and handle into the tiger's life hole, and finally cut the vicious tiger to death.
On the way home after Meishan girl cut the tiger, unfortunately one foot into the trap set by the king of Tusi long ago, ambushed in the trap next to the king of Tusi butler commanding the arrows, Meishan girl immediately shot dead.
The bad news spread to the cottage, the people were angry, and the Tujia immediately rose up and shouted revenge for the Meishan girl, and killed the king of Toast together, and hacked the butler to death, and the king of Toast was shredded. After the death of Meishan girl, she turned into the god of Meishan and was in charge of people's hunting. Meishan God secretly gave prey to Tujia hunters, protecting Tujia hunters. Since then, the Tujia will Meishan girl into Meishan God worship, become the god of hunting. At the same time, the "Meishan Hall" was established in Xinghu Chong, and the Tujia were always blessed with safe hunting and abundant prey.
Because the tiger was hunted by Tujia hunters gradually reduced, Xing Hu Hong is located in the Yuanshui river, the ancient people will be slightly away from the water on the shore of the flat called the margin, the apricot trees everywhere; Meishan girl and apricot eyes red lips, in memory of Meishan girl, so people will xing tiger chong renamed Xinghu Chong.
From then on, the Tujia went up the mountain to hunt and returned from hunting, to worship Meishan God. Before going up the mountain to hunt, burn incense and burn paper first, and then set out after offering sacrifices to the Mei Mountain God, which is called Kai Mei Mountain. It is believed that if you do not worship the Mei mountain God first, after going up the mountain, you can not find the trace of prey, or even shoot the shotgun or kill the companion as prey.
It is said that all the animals in Wuling Mountain listen to the orders of the Mei mountain God, and enter the mountain to worship the Mei Mountain God, asking the Mei Mountain God to gather all the animals and give people prey; To respect Meishan after the hunt is to express gratitude to the Meishan God. When you worship Meishan God, you should dress neatly and be pious, otherwise it will not work. Therefore, many hunters carry other people behind their backs when they worship the god of Mei Shan, secretly set up altars, and when they worship the god of Mei Shan, they set up a Meishan deity position in the side of the room or in a secluded place behind the room, facing the direction of entering the mountain, and worship the air. It is to prevent others from playing and teasing, not respecting the plum mountain God. Since then, the Tujia people, who have lived in the Wuling Mountains for generations, have favored collective hunting. After hitting the prey, follow Meishan
The girl's practice, the implementation of prey distribution "mountain hunting, see people have a share" principle. After the beast was defeated, the number of people counted, the hunted beast carried home, first worshipped the Meishan God (that is, the hunter God), and then killed, and divided the meat according to the shares. The dead beast is cut off from the neck, with the head included, and any number of pieces belongs to the hunter who fired the first shot or struck the first blow. The person who shoots the second shot or assassinates the second spear is called "two colors" and divides a pig's leg. Others are divided per capita. Anyone who sees the beast fall to the ground has a share, which is called "drive the meat along the mountain, and he who sees it has a share." When the meat is divided, each meat is worn with brown leaves, put together in the dustpan, and then cover a dustpan, only the brown leaves are exposed outside, when the meat is taken, the dustpan is shaken a few times, no one can see the good and bad of the meat, each person is holding the brown leaves of the skewer meat, taking good and bad, no one has an opinion. Heart and lungs of wild boar, shared with hounds. Other internal organs and four hooves cooked in a pot, everyone ate together, sharing the joy of hunting and hunting victory and this proof of hunting and distribution.
This legend and custom have been passed down from generation to generation by the Tujia people, and have continued to this day, leaving many mysterious and magical traces; The Tujia's worship of Meishan goddess, like the ancient Greek goddess Diana, appears primitive and ancient.