In the festive atmosphere of the Spring Festival, the moviegoers ushered in another audio-visual feast. In the “Film and Television New Year” series, we watched The Legend of the Condor Heroes, Chinatown and Nezha, and today let’s take a look at “Fengshen”.

The popular release of “Fengshen Part 1: Chao Song Fengyun” in 2023 has opened a door to the ancient world of Fengshen for the audience. In the film, the disputes between expounding and intercepting religions, and the magnificence of the Shang and Zhou revolutions are vividly reproduced on the big screen, making the audience feel as if they have traveled through time and space and experienced that legendary time. However, there will probably be some people who are a little vague about some of the settings, before watching “Fengshen 2”, maybe you can take a look at this article first, and figure out what is the relationship between these immortals in “Romance of the Fengshen”?

Exposition and interception

The immortals in “The Romance of the Gods” can be divided into two major factions: expounding the religion (and its allies) and intercepting the religion.

On the side of the sect leader, the sect leader level figures include Lao Tzu and Yuan Shi Tianzun, and there is only one Tongtian sect leader in the sect, and the sect is two to one ahead. In addition, for example, the introduction and quasi-mention of Western religions are also at the level of religious leaders, and they are obviously on the side of expounding the teachings.

It can be said that in the competition at the level of the sect leader, the sect side won completely.

The second-generation disciple, under Lao Tzu, only one old apprentice of the light pole appeared in the book, Master Xuandu; Under the Yuan Shi Tianzun door, the number of people can be large, commonly known as the “Twelve Golden Immortals of the Jade Void Palace”. But who the twelve immortals are, how many candidates are not fixed, the total is the appearance of thirteen or fourteen candidates. This is not surprising, as there are several controversial references in Western mythology, such as the Greek twelve main gods of Mount Olympus.

The problem of exposition lies with the third generation. The characters we are familiar with, such as Nezha, Yang Jian, Lei Zhenzi, and Wei Hu, are all the third generation of expounding teachings, and they are obviously still very young and have just started on the road of cultivation. The number of three generations on the side of the exposition is limited, and the overall level is worse after removing the protagonists and quasi-protagonists.

On the side of the interception of teaching, the seniority is a mess. In fact, there are only four core disciples of the Tongtian Sect Master: Duobao Daoren, Our Lady of the Golden Spirit, Our Lady of Wudang, and Our Lady of the Turtle Spirit. But there are also a large number of characters who are not known for generations.

Wen Zhongwen Taishi of the Shang Dynasty must be the third generation disciple of the Interception Sect. But there are characters from the sect of Interception, who not only have a relationship with Wen Zhong’s peers, but also get along with the second-generation Jin Xian on an equal footing. In terms of strength, of course they also have this qualification. Like Zhao Gongming and Sanxiao Niangniang, they can reach the level of beating the twelve immortals of Kunlun.

Therefore, below the level of the sect leader, the sect interception side has an absolute advantage over the teaching.

If we put it on the political position of the Shang and Zhou dynasties, it can be roughly considered that the exposition of the religion supported the revival of the Zhou and the destruction of the Shang, while the interception of the religion stood on the side of the Shang Dynasty. But apart from that, what is the difference between the values of exposition and interception?

Some scholars wanted to find differences in the cultivation methods of the two sects, but they found that most of the time there was no difference, and everyone had a bunch of “Qi Refiners”. Some people have tried to link the exposition of the teachings and the interception of the two Taoist schools of the Ming Dynasty, Quanzhen Dao and Zheng, which were the most influential in the Ming Dynasty, and the result is that there are opposing opinions on who corresponds to Quanzhen and who corresponds to Zhengyi.

In fact, you don’t need to think too much, you just need to go back to the novel itself to find out what exactly the exposition is attacking and intercepting, and it is very clear.

Truism and polytheism

Let’s take a look at a conversation between the sectarians in front of the Tongtian Sect Master and the Diao state of Guangchengzi, who explained the teaching:

Duobao Taoist said: “The teacher is above: the disciple didn’t dare to say it, but now the teacher doesn’t know the details, and the matter has come to this point, so he has to tell it directly.” He scolded the Sect as a left-handed sect: ‘No matter who is clothed in hair and horns, and who are wet and egg-born, they can all live together in the same group. He regarded me as nothing, and called him the ‘Supreme Supreme’, so the disciples were not convinced. The Tongtian Sect Master said: “I think Guangchengzi is also a true gentleman, and he is absolutely speechless. Don’t be mistaken. Duobao Taoist said: “How dare the disciple deceive the teacher!” All the people said, “That’s true.” This can be dough quality. The Tongtian Sect Master smiled and said, “I am with Yu and Mao, but who is his master?” I became a feather, and his master was also a feather, a feather, and so on. This beast is so thin! ”

Here are a few words that need to be explained.

“Wet ovidization” is a Buddhist taxonomy. According to Buddhism, animals are divided into four categories: viviparous, oviparous, hyophytic (born from dampness), and metamorphosis (born from nothingness).

The Tongtian Sect Master said that “feathers, feathers, etc.”, and the feathers should be separated by a ton, not as slight as a feather, which involves traditional Chinese animal taxonomy: feather insects (such as birds), caterpillars (such as beasts), scale insects (such as fish), and beetles(e.g., turtles), naked insects (e.g., humans).

In short, this passage is about: Duobao Daoist said that Guangchengzi attacked the sect to have too many species.

As far as the matter is concerned, the words of the Duobao Daoist may be suspected of false accusation, but later the Tongtian Sect Master talked about this matter to Yuan Shi Tianzun in person, and Yuan Shi Tianzun calmly agreed, and said:

“You are doing nonsense, you don’t know how to be obedient, you are blindly strong, and you are beastly and obedient. Moreover, the virtuous brother did not choose what kind of root he did, and insisted on taking him in, causing each other to fight right and wrong, causing the lives to be miserable. ”

The teacher’s attitude is like this, and the disciples’ words and deeds can be known.

Therefore, this kind of attack on the interception of the religion must have been around for a long time, and there must have existed in large numbers.

The exposition is a typical anthropocentric position, and the vast majority of his disciples are humans, and they are very discriminatory against other species, believing that only humans have the qualifications to cultivate immortals. The sect is an animistic pantheist and environmentalist, advocating the concept of harmonious development of man and nature sharing the resources of cultivating immortals.

This kind of open and inclusive mentality is also an important reason why the interception of education can develop rapidly and recruit talents. This can also explain why the generations of the sect are so confused: many masters like Zhao Gongming and Sanxiao Niangniang may not be the disciples of the master of the Tongtian Sect, but because they agree with the development concept of the sect, they take the initiative to join and become a member of the sect. Therefore, it is impossible for them to be as hierarchical and orderly as the teachings.

This phenomenon is extremely common in polytheistic beliefs, such as Athena, the goddess of war and wisdom, and Ares, a male god of war, among the gods of ancient Greece – why set up two gods of war? One theory is that Ares was originally a Thracian god who was made his own by the Greeks. Why were there so many gods in Rome? It is also because the Romans conquered a nation and put their gods into their own god system. Under the imposing dome of Hadrian’s Pantheon, these gods gathered from all over the Mediterranean Sea were inevitably a mess.

In short, the chaos and miscellaneous, absorbing other people’s gods and transforming them into their own gods is actually the manifestation of the vitality of this system.

Therefore, when the two sects of the Ten Thousand Immortal Array faced off, there was such an exclamation in terms of teaching:

When the immortals on the reed canopy saw it, they opened their eyes and looked at it several times, and saw that they were all wandering Taoists in the five mountains, mountains and seas, strange people. Randen nodded and sighed to the Taoists: “Today, I know that the sect has so many characters. I teach only a handful of people! ”

Therefore, expounding on religion must stifle the momentum of the development of the sect.

This big game of chess is also known as the “God List”. A large number of sectarian immortals were killed, and then Jiang Ziya made them gods.

This involves an important setting of “Romance of the Gods”. Yuan Shi Tianzun said frankly:

At that time, in your Biyou Palace, we discussed the ‘Feng Shen Bang’, and sealed it in person, and there were three grades: those who have deep roots will become their immortal paths; those who have deep roots will become their immortal paths; those who are slightly inferior in roots will become their gods; and those who are shallow in their roots will become humane and still follow the catastrophe of reincarnation.

Immortals are higher than gods. Therefore, when mortals become gods after death, they earn money; If an immortal becomes a god after death, he loses a lot. In traditional folk beliefs, the relationship between immortals and humans is also significantly different from the relationship between gods and humans. Immortals are very cold, they ignore people, it is love to help people, and it is their duty not to help. Unlike God, man can control God to work for him when he has mastered certain spells; If a person has made enough offerings to God, it is God’s responsibility to fulfill man’s requirements.

Here we can also see the problem with the values of the sect: the concept that everything can cultivate immortals, although it is fair and environmentally friendly, but the huge number of “immortals” (after all, there are already so many immortals in the sect that they can put a “ten thousand immortal array”) on the top of human beings, it will inevitably overwhelm human beings. Therefore, it is necessary to maintain the scarce status of immortals, and to change immortals into gods, gods are to give back to human beings, at least theoretically, the burden of human beings can be greatly reduced.

Now, we can look back at the characteristics of the historical Yin Shang culture. There is a famous passage in the Book of Rites and Tables:

Yin people respect God, lead the people to serve God, first ghosts and then salutes, first punish and then reward, respect but not kiss. The defeat of its people is unstable and unstable, victorious and shameless.

The attitude of the people of the Shang Dynasty was to take a large amount of social resources to worship ghosts and gods, put the worship of ghosts and gods before human relations, and attach importance to punishment and despise reward. In this way, the other tribes of the world were in awe of the merchants, but not close to them. In order to satisfy the worship of the gods, the merchant must constantly attack without rest (swinging but not quiet), and in order to win by any means (victory and shamelessness), and of course, eventually lose the hearts and minds of the world.

The archaeology of Yinxu and the interpretation of the oracle bone inscription also confirm that there are various gods in the minds of merchants, and it can be said that there are no gods and no sacrifices, and nothing is occupied. It can be seen that the concept of businessmen is precisely the concept of interception. One of the greatest cultural achievements of Zhou and Shang is to destroy this value orientation of “ghosts first and then rituals”.

Exposition and Destiny

Reading “The Romance of the Gods”, modern readers are easily impressed by the immortals who expounded the teachings. Most of them have vague faces, no personality at all, and are full of benevolence, righteousness and morality, but their actual behavior is to protect their shortcomings, hold together, go back on their word, fight against differences, die and die in the poor, and use more to bully the less, and kill them all…… In short, all kinds of viciousness and obscenity are almost all occupied.

What is worth paying attention here is how the teachings and their allies understood justice.

The famous story of Nezha in the sea. Nezha fought the Dragon King outside the Baode Gate of the Heavenly Palace, and declared:

Because of the destruction of the soup, the Zhou room was prosperous, and Jiang Ziya soon went down the mountain. Occasionally, because of the bathing in the Jiuwan River, your family bullied me, and I was in a hurry, so I killed him twice, which is also a trivial matter, you will go to the book! My master said that even if you old fool beat you to death, it doesn’t matter.

With the endorsement of the general principle of “the soup is destroyed together, the Zhou room is prosperous”, and killing a few lives is “also a trivial matter”. Later, Nezha and Shiji Niangniang had a conflict, and Master Taiyi Zhenren defended him:

Nezha was born on the order of the imperial edict to assist Mingjun, which is not my own selfishness…… Now the soup is extinguished, and the Zhou room is prosperous…… and he has wounded thy disciples, but it is the number of days.

The master and apprentice said exactly the same, Nezha’s words were obviously taught by the teacher. And before Jiang Ziya went down the mountain, what Yuan Shi Tianzun said to him was:

You were born with a thin life, and it is difficult to achieve immortal paths, so you can only receive the blessings of the world. The soup is exhausted, and the Zhou room will be prosperous. You and I worked for you, sealed the gods and went down the mountain, helped the master, as a general, it was not in vain that you went up the mountain to practice for 40 years.

The battle between the two sects of the Zhuxian Array, the words of the Yuan Shi Tianzun to the Tongtian Sect Master were:

There is no way to become a soup, and the number of qi should be the end; Zhou Room Renming, when the time comes. Don’t you know? On the contrary, he came to resist Jiang Shang, and there was a hanging image from the sky on his back.

There are too many other examples to be cited. In short, “the soup is extinguished, and the Zhou room is prosperous” is a reeling of words, or replaced with a more concise expression, which is called “Mandate of Heaven”.

These passages, in fact, are completely in line with the mainstream historical narrative. To this day, when cultural historians talk about the cultural creation of the Zhou people, they often cite one point: the Zhou people invented a new concept of destiny.

The Mandate of Heaven is the greatest justice, and under this greatest justice, the various misdeeds listed above can be said to be insignificant. And once you dare to confront this kind of justice, it will be the wheel of history rolling forward, and the mantis arm will be crushed.

Many of the characters in “The Romance of the Gods” are more moving than the teachings, and the reason is also here. They also knew that it was the destiny of Heaven to destroy Zhou Shang, but either out of family affection, or because of friendship, or because of righteous indignation, or out of loyalty…… chose to fight against the Mandate of Heaven, even if it was destroyed in the end. Since I was a child, I have been accustomed to hearing “I am the master of my life”, “go your own way and let others say it”, “choke the throat of fate”…… Modern people with such aphorisms, of course, will resonate more with such a choice.

The explanators are much less energetic in comparison. The Twelve Immortals of Kunlun are completely tools of the Mandate of Heaven: when they kill the sectarians, they claim that it is the Mandate of Heaven; Arranging for Daoists to send their lives to pave the way for them to break the formation is also the arrangement of Destiny; Of course, I was unlucky, and I cut off the three flowers on the top to eliminate the five qi in my chest, and I only had to accept my fate, which was “fate should have this misfortune”.

Don’t say that the second and third generations of disciples are just ants under the Mandate of Heaven, even if they are sect masters like Lao Tzu and Yuan Shi Tianzun, they don’t dare to take a step beyond the Thunder Pool in the face of the Mandate of Heaven. When breaking the Ten Thousand Immortal Array, the two masters had such a conversation:

Lao Tzu clapped his hands and said: “The Zhou family is only 800 years old, and the poor road has also come to the red dust. It can be seen that the luck is inescapable, why be afraid of the gods and Buddhas:”

Yuan Shi said: “The earthly calamity, even the gods outside the world are inevitable, and I am a prisoner, I can’t wait for this calamity.” ”

As a character setting of the novel, this can be said to be quite boring. However, from the perspective of faith, the abstraction and impersonalization of the ultimate ruler of the world is a necessary condition for arousing the worship and awe of believers.

I don’t know if speaking of which, can you distinguish the factions and positions of these immortals in the gods? “Fengshen Part II: War Xiqi” has been released, if you have already seen it, don’t spoil it in the comment area~