Seven Little Pigs Flying in the Sky--The Story of Thich Nhat Hanh and the Big Dipper

This article is also going to be used as a radio program draft, but the target of the program is children, so the writing is relatively simple, so I will add some other things to the content posted here.

 There are actually various stories about the Big Dipper in ancient China, and different countries in different eras have different images, but it is very interesting to imagine the Big Dipper as a pig, because this kind of imagination first came from India. It is said that even Taoism regards Beidu Qixing as piglets.

There will be other posts in this part of the story in the future. In short, the pig symbol and the Big Dipper are linked together from India. As for why this happens, I don't know it.

During the reign of Emperor Xuanzong of Tang Dynasty in China, there was a famous Buddhist master and a group of monks. He had a hard time after he was a child, and he was often helped by his neighbor, Grandma Wang, so that he could grow up smoothly. Later, he became a monk, became a famous monk, and was rewarded by the emperor, so he always wanted to find an opportunity to repay Grandma Wang.

One day, the grandmother of the king came to the master of the party crying and crying. It turned out that it was the son of the grandmother who killed someone and was sentenced to death. Therefore, the grandmother of the king came to the master of the party, hoping that the master could help find a way to save her son from the death penalty.

But grandma Wang's son was a murderer after all, how could the master of the line interfere with the legal trial casually, so he refused grandma Wang's request.

Seeing that Master Yixing refused to help her, Grandma Wang scolded Master Yixing for being ungrateful and left sadly.

Seeing that Grandma Wang was so sad, Master Yixing couldn't bear it, but the judgment of the national law cannot be overturned at will, otherwise the country will lose its prestige and it will be unfair to the people who were killed, so Master Yixing was distressed for a while, and finally came up with a solution .

He first made a large water tank and placed it in the courtyard of the temple. Then he found two little monks, gave them seven cloth bags and seven ropes, and told them that seven little pigs would run into the courtyard this evening and asked them to put The seven little pigs grabbed them, threw them into the big water tank, and covered the water tank with a wooden board.

Sure enough, seven little pigs broke into the yard that night. Two little monks chased the seven little pigs in the yard. They finally grabbed them all, threw them into the water tank, and covered them with a wooden board.

Hearing that the little pig was caught, a group of masters came into the yard with a writing brush, drew a few seals on the wooden cover, and then went back to sleep.

As a result, there was a messenger from the palace before dawn, and hurriedly asked a group of masters to enter the palace to meet the emperor.

With a clear look on his face, the masters of the party went out slowly when they were ready. As soon as the emperor saw a group of masters, he hurried forward to ask for help. The Sitiantai official who was in charge of observing the sky at night found that the Big Dipper had disappeared from the sky, and the Big Dipper was the star in charge of death. The disappearance of the stars means descending to the earth, and the descending of the Big Dipper is a great omen. Ah!

I saw a line of masters with a calm demeanor and said: "This kind of thing has not been seen since ancient times. It seems that God is warning your majesty, I am afraid that there will be natural disasters and earthly changes, but as long as your majesty is kind, heaven will definitely appreciate your kindness. Look! Why don't you pardon the world!"

The emperor hurriedly said yes, and immediately issued an edict to amnesty the world, and the son of the grandmother Wang escaped the death penalty.

That night, a group of masters painted off the spell on the water tank, opened the lid, and undid a cloth bag.

I saw the little pig run out, barked a few times, ran a few laps in the yard, and suddenly ran into the sky. One of the original Big Dipper stars has now recovered.

In this way, a group of masters put a pig back into the sky a day, and seven days later, all the Big Dipper stars returned to their places, and the emperor was finally relieved.

This matter was also written in the Buddhist scriptures by a line of masters!

In fact, there are almost identical stories in Japan, except that the protagonist becomes a Japanese. It can only be said that if the same story is spread to different places, it will become a new story locally!

However, in some versions of this legend, it was Grandma Wang who caught the little pig, and there were also sayings that all seven pigs were put back in one go.

We can also see the mixed state of culture. This story is written into the Buddhist scriptures by himself, but the connection between the Big Dipper and the pig comes from Hinduism, which was later appropriated by Taoism. The death of the Big Dipper is a Taoist thinking, and the connection between the stars and the world is the standard Satheology is not a Buddhist thing, and it is a standard Confucian view that the Son of Heaven can interfere with the mandate of heaven. Of course, it is too difficult to tell children about it, so I just add it here.

It is also natural for this story to be moved to Japan. After all, Japan at that time liked Tang culture very much. It is not surprising to copy this story into its own story, and the Japanese version of the story has very few changes, which is a rare example. Usually this kind of appropriation will do some localization, such as the story of the zodiac, the original version is the Babylonian mythology, after moving to Greece, everyone thinks it is the original Greek, because the whole is rewritten, it looks really Greek Ah!