Wen Shen
Wen Shen(Chinese:Ôn thần) is a deity or group of deities responsible for illness, plague, and disease inChinese folk religion.In some belief systems, Wen Shen is identified as a single entity who commandswenspirits; in others, the term is used for a grouping of several distinct deities.
Description
[edit]The earliest mention of a group of pestilence gods in Chinese mythology is from theLi wei xi ming zhengLễ vĩ kê mệnh chứng,an apocryphal Confucian commentary dating from theHan dynasty.This describes three sons of the EmperorZhuanxu,all three of whom died at birth and became spirits of disease. Over time, these spirits became conflated with the "five wet ghosts"Ngũ thấp quỷof theLongyu hetuLong ngư hà đồand formed the basis for later groupings of pestilence gods.[1]
The term Wen Shen is used to refer to theFive Commissioners of PestilenceNgũ ôn sử giả.The Five Commissioners, who governed Heaven's Ministry of Epidemics,[2]were Zhang YuanboTrương nguyên bá,Liu YuandaLưu nguyên đạt,Zhao GongmingTriệu công minh,Zhong ShiguiChung sĩ quý,and Shi WenyeSử văn nghiệp.The first four were associated with the four seasons (spring, summer, autumn, and winter respectively) while Shi Wenye was associated with the center and was the superior god of pestilence. In theZhengyi wensi bi dushen dengyiChính nhất ôn tư tích độc thần đăng nghi,which dates from theTang dynasty,the five gods are associated with the points of the compass.[1]
In traditional Chinese folk beliefs, Wen Shen was believed to release plagues and pestilence upon the world in punishment for the misdeeds of humanity and prayers or offerings were necessary to placate them. Sometimes the placatory rituals would be performed by an entire community.[3][2]An alternative to offerings was to use a model boat to symbolically carry the pestilence away; this was a tradition of the Wen Shen cult inTaiwan.[4]As another alternative, theTaoistexorcistLu Shizhongclaimed that the deities could be exorcised by simply calling their name three times.[1]Many temples were established to honor and propitiate these deities. In 1960, there were over such 730 temples recorded in Taiwan alone.[5]
Crab appleswere regarded as talismans against Wen Shen.[6]
References
[edit]- ^abcTheobald, Ulrich."Religions in China – Wenshen ôn thần, the Gods of Pestilence".Chinaknowledge.de.Retrieved17 January2017.
- ^abHoward Chiang (2015).Historical Epistemology and the Making of Modern Chinese Medicine.Oxford University Press. p. 116.ISBN978-0-7190-9600-6.
- ^John R. Watt (10 October 2013).Saving Lives in Wartime China: How Medical Reformers Built Modern Healthcare Systems Amid War and Epidemics, 1928–1945.BRILL. p. 6.ISBN978-90-04-25646-0.
- ^Wolfram Eberhard (1969).The Local Cultures of South and East China.Brill Archive. p. 399. GGKEY:C1SUKUE58U9.
- ^Liu, Chi-Wan (1 September 1966)."Plague Temple in Taiwan The Temple of the Gods of Epidemics in Taiwan".Institute of Ethnology, Academia Sinica.22:53–95.Retrieved17 January2017.
- ^Mark Swislocki (2009).Culinary Nostalgia: Regional Food Culture and the Urban Experience in Shanghai.Stanford University Press. p. 62.ISBN978-0-8047-6012-6.