The old man under the moon(yuè xià lǎo rén)

matchmaker

The synonym Yuexia old man (folk character) generally refers to Yuelao (folk character) Yuelao (Yu è L ǎ o), also known as Chai daohuang. It is also known as Yuexia old man and Yuexia old child in the folk. It was born in Songzhou and Songcheng (now Shangqiu, Henan Province). It is the red joy God in charge of marriage in the folk legend of the Han nationality, which is also called the matchmaker God. It is a God in heaven.

The image of Yuelao first appeared in the engagement shop of xuxuanguailu, a novel collection of Tang Dynasty novelist Li Fuyan. It is recorded that in the second year of Yuanhe (807 AD) of the Tang Dynasty, he met the old man under the moon. When the magistrate of Songcheng County knew about this, he named the hotel where Wei Gu lived "engagement Hotel". From then on, Yuelao came and passed on from generation to generation. Men and women, old and young, knew it well. The old man under the moon later became the name of matchmaker.

The old man under the moon tied men and women with a red rope to determine their marriage, which reflected people's cognitive attitude towards love and marriage in the Tang Dynasty. For the old idea that marriage must be right, Yuelao's idea of marriage has obviously made great progress.

Source of characters

Yuexia old man, referred to as "Yuelao", also known as Chai daohuang. In Chinese folklore, Hongxi is the God of marriage, also known as the media God. The story of Yuelao was not recorded before the Tang Dynasty. The earliest literature recording Yuelao comes from the engagement shop of xuxuanguailu by Li Fuyan of Tang Dynasty. In the second year of Yuanhe's trip to song city, Du Ling, Wei Gu, met an old man leaning on a cloth bag, sitting on the steps, collecting books from the moon. Gu asked what book he was looking for and replied, "the wedding slips of the world." Then he asked what was in the bag and said, "red rope ears. In order to tie the feet of husband and wife, and their lives, it is possible to use mutual ties. Although the enemy's family is separated from the noble and the humble, the end of the world is from the official, and Wu and Chu are in a foreign land, this rope can't be broken in the end. " Later, it is often used as a substitute for matchmaker. The old man who leans on the cloth bag, sits on the steps and checks the book with the moon is the old man who was later regarded as the God of marriage among the people. As long as he tied the feet of men and women together with the red rope in his bag, he would dissolve everything and eventually become a husband and wife, even if he experienced the torment of "enemy's resentment, separation between the noble and the humble, the end of the world from the official, Wu and Chu's foreign land".

Anecdotes and allusions

As we all know, matchmaker has a nickname, called "old man under the moon", referred to as "old man on the moon", his origin, there is a funny legend.

In the second year of the Tang Dynasty and the Yuan Dynasty, a scholar named Wei Gu went to Qinghe to visit his friends. On the way, he stayed in the South Inn of Songcheng County, Songzhou. The guest surnamed Zhang, who lived in the inn with him, heard that he had not married yet. He said that he was going to introduce the daughter of Pan Fang, the former governor of Qinghe, to him. He agreed to meet him in front of the gate of Longxing Temple the next morning and tell him his wife's reply.

On the fourth watch of the next day, Wei Gu got up in a hurry and rushed to Longxing Temple. Before the guest surnamed Zhang arrived, he saw a silver haired old man sitting on the steps, leaning on a cloth bag and reading to the moon. He peeped over, but he didn't know a word, so he said to the old man, "I'm familiar with the Scriptures. Why don't I know a word?" The old man said with a smile, "this is not a book in the world. How can you read it? The above is the marriage slips of men and women in the world. "

Wei Gu was suspicious and asked what was in the bag. The old man said, "it's a red line. It's used to tie the feet of husband and wife. When a man and a woman are born, they are already tied. In the future, even if the enemy's family, the gap between the rich and the poor, the difference between the ugly and the beautiful, and the distance between them is thousands of miles, they will become husband and wife." Wei Gu was more surprised and asked, "who is Xiaosheng's wife?" The old man turned over the book and said, "Mrs. Chen's daughter, who sells vegetables in the north of Nandian in Songcheng, is only three years old. She married you when she was 16 years old. As for Pan Fang's daughter, it's none of your business. "

Wei Gu thought, when she was 16 years old, I was already over thirty years old. How could I be so different? So he said, "can I see the future lady?"

The old man led him into a vegetable market and saw a blind woman hobbling with a little girl in her arms. He pointed to the little girl and said, "this is your lady." Wei Gu said angrily: "if I am a knowledgeable person, how can I marry the vulgar daughter of a country old woman's family? I'd better kill her." The old man laughs: "it's already tied up. How can it be reversed?" After the speech, he drifted away.

Where is Wei Gu willing to believe? The servant killed the little girl, the servant timid, only pierced the little girl's eyebrows, run away.

Year after year, although there were good people to promote Wei Gu's marriage, they did not succeed. In the twinkling of an eye, more than ten years later, Wei Gu's family had already been established, and became an officer under Wang Tai, the Prime Minister of Xiangzhou. Wang Tai appreciated his talent and learning. He betrothed his daughter to him and married him on an auspicious day. The bride, Wang, is 28 years old. She is as beautiful as a fairy from yaochi. Wei Gu is very satisfied and the couple respect each other.

There is always a colored paper flower on the bride's eyebrows. She doesn't take it off when she goes to bed at night, and she has to put it on again after bathing. Wei Gu couldn't help asking why. When I was a child, I was stabbed by a gangster, and I used stickers to cover up the scar.

Wei Gu secretly surprised, and then asked his wife's life, Wang truthfully.

Wang's parents died when he was a baby. He lived with Chen, a nanny who lived by selling vegetables. Later, Mrs. Chen found out that her uncle Wang Tai had become an assassin, and sent her to Wang Tai for adoption. Wang Tai treated her as her own daughter and married Wei Gu when she was 16 years old. After listening to his wife's story, Wei Gu is greatly surprised. He remembers that he met an old man in front of Longxing Temple to read a book about the moon. He believes that the old man is the matchmaker in charge of human marriage. He likes to talk about this adventure, which is known far and near. Later, Li Fuyan, a scholar, named the rumor "engagement shop" and included it in Xuyou strange records. It has been handed down from generation to generation. Men, women, old and young know that "the old man under the moon" and "the old man under the moon" are marriage introducers.

Documentation

Six chapters of a floating life: "it is said that the old man under the moon specializes in marriage in the world. In this life, he and his wife have been involved, and the marriage in the next life must rely on divine power."

Wen Kang's biography of heroes and heroines in Qing Dynasty: "maybe he had this marriage in his heart. He was not easy to talk about it, but he made a clear plan and made a secret plan. He decided my business first, and then he could borrow my parents to be an old man for him."

"Today's happy event is not only a matchmaker, but also a matchmaker in pairs. Besides, there is an old man under the moon."

Lao Zhang's philosophy: they believe in religion and don't serve God, just as they don't serve their offspring, their mother and the old man under the moon.

The third fold of Ming Dynasty's Wumingshi's Nuzhen Temple: "you have the right to be an old man under the moon who can match the mountain master's relatives. I have two rings in my mouth to make the friendship between Phoenix and Luan under the peach blossom."

The 57th chapter of a dream of Red Mansions by Cao Xueqin in Qing Dynasty: "if the old man under the moon doesn't use the red thread, he can't go to another place."

"A dream of Red Mansions:" since the ancient road: "a thousand li marriage leads by a thread." There is an old man under the moon who is in charge of marriage. He is predestined to use only one red silk to trip the two people's feet

Chapter 12 of Chen Chen's Water Margin: it's just a couple of beauties and talents. Although overseas, but also a country's son-in-law, wealth infinite. Kuang Tianyuan was set by the red rope of the old man under the moon. Don't be suspicious.

Views on love and marriage

The old man under the moon tied the red rope to determine the marriage between men and women, which reflected the concept of predestined marriage in the Tang Dynasty. He was one of the manifestations of the concept of destiny in the Tang Dynasty. In Tang Dynasty, people thought that people's destiny could not be determined and changed by themselves, "everything in the world is decided before" (GaN Ding Lu · Li mi), "people's encounter is decided by fate" (Ji Wen · Wang), "people's inherent predestination" (Xu Ding Ming Lu · Han Quan).

This predestined concept of Tang people, of course, is also reflected in the aspects of marriage and love: "the marriage of a couple is predestined, the destiny is fixed, and it can not be desired" (xuxuangualu, Madame Zheng Guozhou), and "the way of marriage is also predestined relationship" (Yutang gossip, Guanyuan baby girl).

The appearance of Yuelao's image is precisely the artistic and visualized concept of destiny in the field of marriage and love. In fact, before Li Fuyan's xuxuanguailu · engagement shop, there were similar images in Tang novels

Renyu saw that his vision was extraordinary. He said that Geng had been holding a pot of wine from outside. Renyu first belonged to the guest with wine, but the guest didn't dare to accept it, so he firmly belonged to it, because he was happy with him. Drunk and happy, he sleeps in the same room. On the middle of the evening, when they asked each other to salute, the guest replied, "I'm not a human being, but a local Cao er. The local government ordered the Lord to marry in Hebei, which hindered men and women." Ren opened his clothes and saw the string in his bag, so he believed.

Here, the "guest" of Di Cao, who is the "master of Hebei marriage", also determines the marriage between men and women in the world by "tripping men and women's feet" with the rope in the bag. It can be seen that in the Tang Dynasty, it was a popular and common idea that marriage should be decided before marriage and dominated by the underworld. The reason why men and women in the world can become husband and wife is that the officials in the underworld are tied by ropes, which is also the fate arrangement in the underworld.

However, the image of the old man under the moon tying a rope to fix the marriage is more poetic, so it spread more widely and became the reality. Therefore, the old man under the moon became a household name of the God of marriage. In fact, fate is unpredictable and changeable all the time. Tao (nature) moves according to the time and follows the trend. Everything is not immutable. Even God and Buddha can't control people's thinking. Fate is in their own hands. It's just the so-called: it's man's plan and heaven's success. If fate is really destined, the universe will lose its driving force. So don't believe in fatalism.

Artistic image

Document image

As for the image of the old man under the moon, Shen Sanbai of the Qing Dynasty said in six chapters of a floating life: "with a red silk in one hand, a marriage book hanging with a staff in the other hand, a child's face and a crane's hair, galloping in non smoke and non fog."

Film and television image

Journey to the West and journey to the West II

Li Zhigui plays the role of Yuelao in the brilliant spring

Ma chongle plays the role of Yuelao in seven fairies

Yuelao marriage Sutra

Bu Xu Yun

Taiji is divided into two parts, yin and yang are one.

He he is in charge of marriage

Chinese PinYin : yuè xià lǎo rén