The Nomination of the gods

the Nomination of the gods (in Chinese: zh-Hant 封神演義, Fēngshén yǎnyì , or zh-Hant 封神榜, Fēngshén bàng ) is a historical novel and fantastic of the Dynastie Ming (fine XVI E , beginning 17th century) allotted to Xu Zhonglin or Lu Xixing, reporting the fight enters the last king of the Shang and the founder of the Dynastie Zhou. The two parties are helped by many gifted characters of extraordinary capacities which will be divinisés after their death, from where the title of the work.

Author and sources

The author was seldom mentioned in a clear way on the old specimens of the Chinese novels. The text could be modified by its various editors, even the bibliophiles. It is thus difficult to know if a name appoints the author of origin or an intermediate writer. Moreover, the majority of the popular novels of Ming are not original works but take again a long tradition of oral and written literature treating same topic. Thus, the Nomination rests certainly, inter alia, on the Contes of the war of king Wu against Zhou , collection dating from the Song. The topic of the nomination of the gods by Jiang Taigong is old because it is mentioned as of in the Shiji and included in the Livre of the Tang .

The determination of the identity of the author thus requires research which seldom arrives at a final decision. In the case of the Fengshen yanyi , there exist two candidates:

  • Xu Zhonglin or Chen Zhonglin, whose name is mentioned as author or editor in chapter II of a specimen preserved in the Japanese funds Naikaku bunko . Almost unknown, it is known only that it was originating in the prefecture of Yingtian close to Nankin and that it had as a nickname “the old hermit of the Zhong mount”. It would have completed the book between 1566 and 1620. Within sight of the foreword, Zhang Peihuan proposed that it had a certain Li Yunxiang as joint author.
  • Lu Xixing, which would be the Master taoist Lu Changgeng, author of religious works and poems. This assumption, suggested by Sun Kaidi bases on a mention in a Recueil of extraordinary anecdotes and the deep knowledge of the taoism to which the author testifies.

Contents

The account is divided into hundred chapters. A poem of the type shi , Ge or fu generally introduces prose. The text abounds of descriptions of the abominable exactions of Dixin, the tricks of Daji and the combat between beings to the extraordinary capacities. The majority of the participants is divided between two sects, the sect chan on the side of Zhou and the sect jie on the side of Shang. These two names could not be explained; one can only point out that chan means in Chinese modern “to start” or “to update”, whereas jie expresses the idea of “cut” or “interruption”. The names could thus express the contradictory destinies of the two dynasties. In spite of the presence of Bodhisattva S within the sect chan , the novel reflects primarily the current Taoïste. These deities Bouddhiste S, which include/understand in first places the owners of the mounts crowned of Buddhism, are regarded as gods taoists being converted on late with another religion. Only the Western sect inspired by the current Pure Ground, which plays a minor part, is entirely Buddhist. In addition to the historical characters of antiquity, a hero of the beginning of the Dynastie Tang is also present. Many aspects of the life at the time of the drafting of the novel show through in work.

Broad outlines of the intrigue

The last king of Shang, called Di Xin or Zhou Wang, degenerated, cruel and makes indignant, lost the Mandat of the Sky. The goddess Nüwa, whom he insulted, orders with a demon-fox to take possession of the body of a named beauty Daji and to excite the bad instincts of the king to cause a general rebellion which will be carried out by future king Wu of Zhou. Many characters, gods and animated bodhisattva, human, demons, spirit-animals or even objects take part in the combat on the two sides. After the victory of king Wu, Jiang Ziya of IQ (honorary name Jiang Taigong), large feudal combined of Zhou and exorcist, drives out the fox of the body of Daji and confers to the participants who were distinguished with the combat, combined and adversaries without distinction, an official title of divinity.

Three famous anecdotes

  • How Dixin attracted itself the anger of Nüwa : Dixin penetrated one day in a temple dedicated to the goddess. Struck by the beauty of its statue, it was let go to inappropriate remarks which it went until registering in the form of poem on the walls. Its fate was sealed. Nüwa charged a fox spirit, a pheasant with nine heads and a lute of jade to precipitate its loss. It was that Dixin was about to insert in its palate a new named concubine Daji. The fox intercepted it in way, destroyed its spirit and took possession of its body.

  • king Wen meets Jiang Ziya : the latter, which had studied soixante-douze years near an immortal , was accustomed to fishing at the edge of a river with at the end of its line a perfectly rectilinear hook and without soft food, that of which each one was astonished. When one asked him what he hoped to take thus, he answered: “A king and his vassal. ”. Indeed, future king Wen de Zhou had wind of his control and made the express voyage to meet it. Jiang Ziya then requested it to draw its cart. Intrigued, the king was carried out, stopping after eight hundred steps. Jiang Ziya says to him then: “You will be king, and your dynasty will last eight hundred years. ”. The king tried to draw the cart a little further, but it was with end of forces. It chooses later Jiang Ziya like Prime Minister.

  • How Bi Gan lost its heart : Bi Gan, courtier honest of the king of Shang, had a heart of a particular quality because it had been offered to him in childhood by the Nüwa goddess after a drowning. Daji, which wanted to eliminate all the members of the court likely to slow down the decline of the king, pretended an heart attack and claimed that only the Bi Gan heart could save it. The king ordered whereas its desire is exaucé. However Jiang Ziya had envisaged the danger thanks to its science of the divination, and had provided Bi Gan with a talisman enabling him to extract its heart without danger. It would then be enough for him to return immediately at his place without being turned over, and the body would push back in one day. Unfortunately, whereas it was almost with its door, the cry of commercial travelling was made hear behind him: “Cabbages without heart! Cabbages without heart! ”. It could not be prevented from being turned over to ask him: “There exist really cabbages without heart? ” “Not, of course,” retorted by grimaçant the old woman who was other than the spirit-lute sent by Nüwa “neither the cabbages nor the men cannot do without a heart. ”. On this, Bi Gan fell stiff dead.

Influence

the Nomination of the gods exerted a great influence on the Chinese popular culture, and to a lesser extent Japanese woman. It popularized in China a certain number of divinities who, without him, would undoubtedly be forgotten because much of gods taoists have a restricted audience. One of those which particularly profited from this “publicity” is the god Nezha who also appears in the Voyage in Occident . The work perpetuated and enriched the popular legend by the remote figures of Chinese antiquity like Jiang Ziya.

the Nomination of the gods was the subject of adaptations televised to HongKong and in popular China where were also produced of the cartoons reporting the exploits of Nezha. The Fengshen yanyi became more recently topic of Japanese video games, the most known version being Mystic Heroes. There exist also Manga S like Hōshin, the Nomination of the Gods ( Hōshin is the Japanese transcription of Fengshen ).

Random links:Bronchodilatator | Charlie and the chocolate factory (film, 1971) | Mouterre-Silly | Battle of Saint-Gothard | Clarence Gatemouth Brown | Cerfs_communs