Traditional Culture Encyclopedia - Travel guide - Is Xiangxi witchcraft real? The ultimate secret of Xiangxi witchcraft

Is Xiangxi witchcraft real? The ultimate secret of Xiangxi witchcraft

In fact, when you hear about the many witchcrafts in the folk, don’t you feel a little frightened? The most famous one is the witchcraft of the Miao people, and one of the witchcraft cultures in Western Hunan is to drive away corpses. Is Xiangxi witchcraft real? What is the ultimate reveal of Xiangxi witchcraft? Let’s take a look below.

Is Xiangxi witchcraft real? The ultimate secret of Xiangxi witchcraft

Xiangxi folk witchcraft

Is Xiangxi witchcraft real?

Corpse driving is a folk custom of the Miao people in western Hunan. It belongs to the shaman culture and is also said to be related to Zhu Youke. In the Qing Dynasty, there were widespread rumors of "corpse chasers" in western Hunan, that is, corpse chasers used "secret techniques" to bring the corpses of people who died in foreign lands back to their hometowns and bury them in peace. Although the "Corpse Hunting in Western Hunan" has never been scientifically verified or confirmed with one's own eyes, it has become the prototype of many thriller movies and has been widely known since then.

In China, as early as the Late Paleolithic Age (about 10,000 years ago), people have already developed the concept of "laying their bodies in peace". To this day, burial is still the most common funeral method in our country. However, for those who have died in a foreign land, "returning fallen leaves to their roots" may be just a luxury hope. However, in Hunan, legend has it that there is a special way to realize this extravagant wish - this is "corpse driving", a legendary magic that can drive corpses to walk. If you enter the word "corpse driving" in a search engine, most of the search results will point to a specific place name: Xiangxi.

The legend of corpse driving in western Hunan is inseparable from the Miao people. According to legend, thousands of years ago, Chi You, the ancestor of the Miao people, led his army to fight against the enemy by the Yellow River. After the war, the troops needed to withdraw to the rear. After carrying away all the wounded, many bodies of dead soldiers were left on the battlefield. Chi You couldn't bear to throw the corpses of his compatriots into the wilderness, but he didn't have enough manpower to carry all the corpses away, so he begged the military advisor accompanying the army to let the war dead return to their hometowns. The military advisor came up with a plan and asked Chi You to hold the talisman to lead the way. He cast a spell to make all the corpses on the battlefield stand up, followed Chi You's high talisman, and returned to his hometown in an orderly manner. This is the earliest legend of exorcism.

The legend of corpse exorcism was originally only spread in Hunan and Guizhou, but later it gradually became known to outsiders. In recent years, with the popularity of tomb-robbery novels, exorcism has become a frequently mentioned topic, and some taboos and rules about exorcism have become widely spread, such as the saying "Three times to drive away three times, and three times to not drive away" (the beheaded corpse Those who were hanged, those who died while standing in cages could be driven out, but those who died of illness, those who died voluntarily by hanging in rivers, and those whose limbs were damaged by lightning and fire could not be driven out), the legend of the "corpse driving hotel" (which only accepts corpses and corpses) , the door is not closed day and night) and so on are gradually becoming known. The image of a corpse driver ringing a bell and leading a string of corpses forward to warn night walkers to avoid them, and to notify people with dogs to lock them up, while handing out paper money along the way, has appeared in the nightmares of many people.

What kind of folk witchcraft is there in Xiangxi?

Xiangxi, located in the west of Hunan Province, is the abbreviation of Tujia and Miao Autonomous Prefecture. It has both the world-famous Zhangjiajie and the mysterious one. local witchcraft culture. Of course, ordinary tourists cannot feel this. But if you can leave the city and live in a surrounding town for a while, you will find that this is a mysterious and supernatural place that will make you more curious.

Local people usually perform a kind of witchcraft of climbing up a sword and descending into a sea of ??fire during major festivals. This is a breathtaking scene. When going up the knife ladder, dozens of wizards must be invited to wear red clothes, red handkerchiefs, crowns and forks, riding whips, willow flags, and horned master's knives. They must play a set of gongs and a red flag every day, and blow the horns together before the performance. , circle the field once. During the performance, the master in charge used a big rooster to release the evil spirit, sealed the knife, opened the knife, and recited the secret of the incantation. After the incantation was completed, the rooster's comb was bitten and the blood bled and stained the knife. The wizard began to take off his shoes and socks, and climbed up the knife ladder barefoot. Thirty-six cloud knives were as sharp as whittling, but as they went up and down, their hands did not hurt their skin, and there were no wounds on their feet. After climbing up the knife ladder, you will continue to the next project: stepping on the plow mouth.

To step on the mouth of a plow, burn more than ten plows in a row, line them up in a row, recite the method three times, and step on them one by one with bare feet. You will see green smoke rising and the sound of burning skin and flesh. But after stepping on it, there was no pain at all. It was really a wonderful technique. This kind of activity of climbing up the knife ladder and stepping on the plow mouth is done on the bad days during the Chinese New Year to honor the gods and fulfill the wishes, or when someone in a certain family dies violently, to absolve the deceased of his sins, etc.

The Luohua Cave Girls in Western Hunan

The "Luohua Cave Girls" in Xiangxi are some unmarried women from the local tribe who can cry down the leaves; they will not eat or drink when they go to the cave. If he doesn't die, he won't drink or eat after he comes back, and he will die in a few days. The tribesmen believed that she went to marry the tree god and the well god, so these girls were not married during their lifetimes. Normally when someone dies, someone else goes to hold the funeral. The family of the Luohuadong girl not only held a funeral for them, but also arranged a wedding. The tribesmen sent congratulations to show their joy at the wedding.

The Luohua Cave Girl entered a state of obsession. Her face was as bright as a peach blossom, her eyes were as bright as stars, her voice was as sweet as silk and bamboo, and her body exuded a pleasant fragrance. She kept wiping tables, wiping chairs, and sweeping the hall every day, making an originally dilapidated home spotless. Entered a realm other than the world. According to local sayings, this girl has promised herself to God, and she lives in the fantasy of happiness all day long.

Her sweetheart is a god who does not eat the fireworks of the world but saves people from fire and water. Therefore, she is no longer tempted by any man in the world. She only needs to carefully protect her beauty and quietness and wait for the auspicious day chosen by her god. Marry her. This is destined that her life will no longer have all the troubles of having children, longing for a husband, and suffering from jealousy and resentment that her mother has experienced in her life. No secular man will think of using his own marriage to save this woman. A girl seduced by a vision of God. Of course, when that day comes, the happy girl will die with a smile on her face, but she has always maintained her good looks. In today's legends and records, she is called Luodong Girl, also known as Luohua. Cave girl.

, Yihe Boxing, etc. should have the same similarities. Among the magical powers in traditional Chinese mysterious culture, the most prominent one among the magical weapons in western Hunan is invulnerability. Yihequan also has similar magical skills. Judging from the "Literary and Historical Materials of Western Hunan", there were "magic weapon" activities in Xiangxi at the beginning of the last century, which was similar to the time when Boxing Boxing occurred. The "Xiangxi Magic Soldiers" were active in the Yongshun, Longshan, and Sangzhi generations, and the Yongshun "Magic Soldiers" were the most powerful. The so-called "magic weapon of Xiangxi" is a big knife in each hand. The knife needs to be made by a blacksmith. Some destroy farm tools to make knives, and some sell their cattle to buy knives to arm themselves. Wrap a red cloth around the handle of the knife, and usually gather in front of the local altar. After chanting spells, drawing talismans, and drinking "sacred water", they practice holding the knife. The mantra is "The spirits of the sky, the spirits of the earth, the Vajras of the Buddhas are coming to protect the disciples. No ghosts, gods and demon soldiers are seen, and people are invisible. The planes and bombs are smashed into pieces, the swords and guns turn into dust. With one finger, the plane falls, and two A warship sinks with one finger, and demons with three fingers are wiped out." When fighting, he wore a triangular magic talisman on his chest. After drinking the magic water, he muttered: "The sword can't cut, the gun can't hit." Then he rushed forward.

According to research, the "Xiangxi Divine Soldier" was a product before liberation. It was introduced to Xiangxi from Sichuan. The leader is called "Shu Ancient Man" and his surname is Peng. The god he believes in is called "Wuji Tianzun". It was introduced to Yongshun in the 1920s, and the purpose it promotes is "cultivate one's nature, prolong life, escape hundreds of calamities, live forever, and become a saint." We believe in the schools of Confucius and Mencius, and also believe in the retribution of good and evil, so ordinary people can join. This is very attractive to the people in western Hunan who have suffered greatly from soldiers and bandits. At the same time, it has a very strict organizational form, and members are divided into hierarchical levels, which can increase in number based on the deepening of each person's skills. The main contents of practice are chanting sutras, worshiping gods and meditating. The sutras they meditate include "Diamond Sutra", "Suffering Suffering Sutra" and "Great Compassion Mantra", etc. Some also recite Wen Tianxiang's "Song of Righteousness".

During festivals in Xiangxi today, there are still wizards who perform climbing up knife ladders and descending into the sea of ????fire to eat from porcelain bowls and bite the red mouth. Is there any connection between their magical skills and "magic weapons"? There is no way to verify it. Recommended reading: Thousand-year-old mummy is mysteriously pregnant

The most terrifying witchcraft! The art of voodoo in western Hunan

The practice of voodoo is spread in almost all regions in western Hunan, and it is deeply rooted in the hearts of the local people. The poison is commonly known as "grass ghost" in the Xiangxi area. According to legend, it only attaches itself to women and harms others. Those so-called women with poison are locally called "grass hags".

The "Gu" in western Hunan and the "Head-lowering Technique" in Thailand are known as the two major evil arts in Southeast Asia and are famous at home and abroad. Those who are poisoned will either go mad or die, but the person who ties the bell can untie it. In Fenghuang Miao District, it is the exclusive property of women and is called "Gu Po" or "Grass Ghost Po". Locals and even outsiders firmly believe in the existence of Gu Po, and there is even a saying that "no village can be built without Gu". For example, if a poor and shabby old woman is pointed out by the villagers and mistakenly thought to be a Gu woman, she will never be able to change her life and eventually die of poverty and illness. The reason is that after a child ate a piece of her sweet glutinous rice cake many years ago, he suddenly died of an unknown illness when he returned home. The locals believed that the old woman had put a poison in the food. There are many miasmas and poisonous insects in the Miao fields, and many people die suddenly and inexplicably. Therefore, the Gu technique in western Hunan is horrifying.

Almost the entire Miao people believe in Gu, but the degree of it varies from place to place. In the conceptual world of the Miao people, voodoos include snake voodoo, frog voodoo, ant voodoo, caterpillar voodoo, sparrow voodoo, turtle voodoo and so on. If the poison multiplies in the person who has the poison, and the poison cannot leak out, the person with the poison (the poison master) will get some strange diseases, and eventually die of the disease. The mother-in-law will feel uncomfortable, so she will release the poison to harm others.

Many of the Gu women are young women who live alone. If they like a stranger, they put poison in the tea he drinks. As a result, the stranger gets strange diseases and cannot move around the inn. After setting off, all the treatments were useless. Finally, with the help of a discerning person (there must be as many discerning persons in the village), we found out that we had been infected by a poison, and only the person who released the poison could cure him. In this way, Po Gu controlled this unlucky young man and kept him by her side. The role of poisoning is not only to kill people, but also to control and threaten others. This may be more frightening than death.

Gu is a poisonous insect that a woman catches in the mountains, sometimes a centipede, sometimes a scorpion. She feeds it with her own menstrual blood in an earthen jar when she goes home, and recites a curse on it every day. Cast a spell. The grown poisonous insects are very fat and huge. They are roasted and ground into powder, hidden in the nails, and then flicked discreetly into someone's tea bowl, and the poison is released.

It is said that the technique of playing this bullet is also very particular. If you play it with one finger or two fingers, the poisoned person will have mild symptoms and can be cured; if the poison is played with three or four fingers, it will be very dangerous and it is an incurable disease. He will die. Of course, the voodoo can be solved by oneself, and one's own voodoo can be solved by oneself. Even asking other voodoos will not help.

The good Gu is generally called "Grass Gu Po", and the Gu people are called "Gu Gu". Most of those affected by the poison are children, and the phenomenon is similar to that of malnutrition and roundworms in the abdomen. If you suffer from bloated abdomen and lose weight, or dream about insects and snakes, you will eventually die. If the patient's family members suspected that a woman from the same street had committed the murder, they would go to see her and say politely, just as a way of casual chatting: "Auntie, my child has a minor illness and it can't be cured. You can't cure it." If you know any little pills, please tell me. What a pitiful child!" The woman knew that people were suspicious of her, so she said, "It doesn't matter, just eat some pork liver (or something else)." She replied. As soon as I took the prescription, I was indeed fine. The reason why the patient recovered from the illness was that the Gu Po "received the voodoo".

The characteristic of Gu Po is that she often has strange illnesses, but her home must be extremely clean, and her eyes are red. The voodoo woman releases the vood because she is forced by the voodoo. If she doesn't voodoo others, she will die. It will happen again in a certain period of time. Usually, a Gu mother can be safe and disease-free for a year after bewitching a child, but it only lasts two months after she bewitched a tree (local trees withered and ant nests died due to ant nests). It only lasts for two months. But it can be worth three years. On the street where Granny Gu lives, the neighbors treat her at a respectful distance and are polite, so she never gets in trouble with the children on the street. However, if there is no last resort, a child on the street or in the city will die due to the poison, and the evildoer will arouse public outrage. The woman will be captured and left to bask in the sun in the hot June weather, which is called "basking the grass poison". . Or use other more cruel methods to punish. Local officials have never asked about this matter. Even if the woman died in a lynching, it wouldn't matter. Some of the women who were punished spoke out loudly about their injustice, while others seemed to think they deserved their punishment and remained silent. Some of them actually confessed how much magic power they had, how many times they used poison, how they bewitched someone to death at a certain time, and how she was responsible for the death of a certain big tree in a certain place and self-immolation. In this way, according to the custom, they must be exposed to the poisonous sun for three days. Some women recovered from their illnesses after being exposed to the sun. They thought that the poison had been exposed to the sun and left, becoming normal women. Some of them died because of this, and after their deaths, people thought they were doing harm to the place.