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River splits village tradition in two
By Xu Pei and Pan Zheng |
December 26, 2011, Monday
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Print Edition
Print Edition
IN Xuwang Village of Jianbang Area in Jiading District, there is a river called Luhuasong. It is not a very wide one, but people at the west side of the river have a different tradition from those at the east -- the western families hold a ceremony called Zhaisha when they have weddings or funerals, while the eastern people don't.
Zhaisha means "sacrifice to the devil" in Chinese. During the ceremony families will put some liquor and dishes out and pray the gods to stop the devil from coming or making trouble at the wedding or funeral.
Old people said a long time ago there used to be two huge chicken-like devils in local area, one male and one female, which often tortured local residents. They disappeared in the daytime, but at night they broke into the villages and ate the domestic animals. At that time, if someone was holding wedding or funeral, the two creatures always showed up and made some trouble. It was so terrible that they even broke into a house during a funeral and bit the unburied body. To protect themselves against the two monsters, villagers had to take turns to stand guard at night.
Because of the two evil creatures, villagers also shut their doors after sunset and went to bed very early. No one dared to go out after dark.
Later, Zhao Kuangyin, the first emperor of the Song Dynasty (960-1279), passed through the eastern area of the Luhuasong River with his army. He found the two creatures and ordered his army to capture and kill them. People in the eastern area witnessed the death of the two demons so they didn't hold the Zhaisha anymore. However, the western villagers didn't see that and could not totally believe that the monsters were killed. Therefore, they have kept up the Zhaisha tradition until today.
Zhaisha means "sacrifice to the devil" in Chinese. During the ceremony families will put some liquor and dishes out and pray the gods to stop the devil from coming or making trouble at the wedding or funeral.
Old people said a long time ago there used to be two huge chicken-like devils in local area, one male and one female, which often tortured local residents. They disappeared in the daytime, but at night they broke into the villages and ate the domestic animals. At that time, if someone was holding wedding or funeral, the two creatures always showed up and made some trouble. It was so terrible that they even broke into a house during a funeral and bit the unburied body. To protect themselves against the two monsters, villagers had to take turns to stand guard at night.
Because of the two evil creatures, villagers also shut their doors after sunset and went to bed very early. No one dared to go out after dark.
Later, Zhao Kuangyin, the first emperor of the Song Dynasty (960-1279), passed through the eastern area of the Luhuasong River with his army. He found the two creatures and ordered his army to capture and kill them. People in the eastern area witnessed the death of the two demons so they didn't hold the Zhaisha anymore. However, the western villagers didn't see that and could not totally believe that the monsters were killed. Therefore, they have kept up the Zhaisha tradition until today.
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