Chapter 15 The Mystification of the Red Gun Society (2)

In addition to the above, Shenbing has its organizational development method, that is, a main banner is issued first as an order to mobilize elite soldiers.Where there is this flag, set up the magic army, and say that the flag is in front, and the people who follow can avoid being killed by bullets.Those who come to ask for it will be given a red and white banner, saying that thousands of troops and horses are concentrated on the banner. When fighting with the banner, they will be victorious and invincible. 2. The spirit possession and invulnerability of the Red Gun Society - the process of running spells when joining the club. The spells of the Red Gun Club have the same immediate effect as witchcraft, so for farmers who want to resist bandits and defeated soldiers, spells become both. Save money, and it is easy to organize the power of unity.Spells are composed of spells and exercises, but in fact, practice is a process of testing the effectiveness of spells.The invulnerability of the Red Gun Society is accomplished by a series of rituals composed of runes and spells, which are ubiquitous in various activities of the Red Gun Society.

The red gun will descend on the body - the process of invulnerability varies from place to place and from time to time, but most of them have to go through cleansing (including Liaochen), moistening the body, and getting rid of the dirty and evil spirits on the body before swallowing the magic spell , into the realm of spirit possession. (1) Those who want to participate in the Red Spear Meeting are not allowed to sleep with women for at least one week.Then go to the river to take a bath and cleanse the body. This is the ancient Chinese ritual of fasting and bathing.There are also cold water from the well, and the bucket cannot fall to the ground, and the cold water is used to bathe and cleanse the body (the jargon is called Qing Palace).There are also those who sign up all gather in the mandala, and at night, the mage will lead them to the river or well to cleanse themselves (cold water bath).Then, put on clean clothes, and as soon as you enter the hall, the teacher will light the yellow paper, and everyone will go up and down, which is called "cleaning the body" or burning dust.Before each veteran student enters the hall, he must also fumigate and bathe with sandalwood to purify himself.

(2) Moisturizing the body is also called Yunshen, pretending (strengthening the body) "pretending the body" is to transform the human body into a dharma body, so that the spirit can come down, so after pretending to be the body, the disciple still kneels in front of the god and recites the mantra silently , and then possessed by a séance.It can be seen from this that pretending to be a body is a preparation for trance possession.Or get rid of evil spirits and bring in righteousness. (3) Drinking Talismans and Swallowing Talismans Red Spear will pay attention to drinking Talismans (swallowing Talismans) and think that they can become invulnerable, drive away disasters and avoid disasters.After moistening or before moistening, drink and swallow the talisman.The talisman is made of yellow paper, on which the incantations are written with cinnabar.

To drink amulets, first prepare a bowl of clear water on the altar table. Members must rinse their mouths before kneeling to show cleanliness. Then, they cover the painted amulets on a cold water bowl and set fire to them, and ask the attendees to throw away the paper ashes that fell into the water bowl. drank.Swallowing Talismans, the master will give one piece of yellow paper written with cinnabar to the congregation, twist it into a ball of paper and swallow (or chew) it, and silently recite the mantra: "The Taishang Laojun is as anxious as a law... .” (4) Passing on the old book is also called the mantra (that is, the proverb or the old book). After the members of the Red Gun Club have finished "strengthening" and "drinking the charm", learning the old book is the mantra.This so-called "mantra" varies slightly from place to place and from person to person. Some consist of three to eight characters, while others are quite long. That is to say, the form and content of the mantra of the Red Spear Society are too arbitrary.But the Mantra is the most central and important mantra for the Red Guns.Its content is: Infinite Holy Buddha, Infinite Buddha, My Spirit Venerable, I invite the Patriarch to protect me.Protect me, protect everyone, I ask the Patriarch to protect my life.Jin Gangling, Dougangling, divine power quick help, immeasurable Buddha.

Judging from the content of the mantra of the Red Spear Society, most of the content is composed of immeasurable Buddhas, and the others are also related to invulnerability.Within a faction, there are differences in the content of its mantras, which may be due to differences in teaching.Because each region had its own teachers at that time, the "mantras" they taught were also different. (5) Psychedelic possession (relying on the body) Red Spear's trance-possession is called please body or invite god, please body is to invite the gods to "attach" to the body of the Taoist.Please be divided into Wen and Wu.Please write down the style, but just sit and rap some mysterious words about good and evil, good and evil, that is, the so-called "going to the gods" and talking for a while.

It's very unusual to ask for martial arts, it's a martial god possessed, the aura is very frightening, like going crazy, take off your shirt, open your eyes, play with knives and sticks, dance a lot, and utter The roar of "Woo", "Wow".Female Taoists also invite martial arts children, and goddesses like Mu Guiying must also dance, but they don't take off their clothes. The person who can invite the gods to attach to the human body, this kind of possessed person is also called mazi (mazi). The so-called "mazi" means that some "Jade Emperor" is attached to the body. Swaying from side to side, dancing with hands and feet, calling me "Jade Emperor" and so on.He has become a god, but he is invulnerable.After that, you can start practicing martial arts, and also verify your invulnerability.

(6) Practicing martial arts Red Spear will practice martial arts, which is also combined with magic.When "arranging bricks", "drinking fire", "arranging knives" and "arranging guns", mantras are inseparable.The training of the Red Spear Club is mainly in the charge of one (or two) mages.Their training content is messy, there are no clear rules, and the methods are sometimes nondescript. Arranging bricks, topping bricks, and arranging knives are hard skills. People with a little background will demonstrate, and some are taught by mages.Four days after joining the club, learn "Arrangement of Swords" (called "Passing Swords" at the beginning), and learn "Paying Cannons" on the 48th. There are also regulations that pass three days to pass bricks, five days to pass swords, and seven days to pass guns.

In addition to the above, there are also actions such as blowing Dharma breath, drinking lamp fire, blowing incense, washing face, beating, and wearing Dharma. 3. The results of mystification The activities of the Red Spear Club, which centered on invulnerability, brought many epic battle results, especially in resisting small and medium-sized bandits.However, it also brought many dire consequences.Most armies are well equipped and have reinforcements, which is fundamentally different from banditry.Although the Red Gun can win a temporary victory when fighting with the army, it is quickly defeated by the army.Such a result is mostly related to the invulnerability of the Red Gun Society.

The invulnerability consciousness of the Red Gun Society will have both affirmative and negative effects on the Red Gun. (1) The positive effect is first, the role of unity.At the end of the Qing Dynasty and the beginning of the Republic of China, the political situation was turbulent and bandits sprang up. In order to maintain their rule, the central and local rulers sometimes spent a lot of energy, money and mobilized many troops to deal with the bandits, but the effect was not great.Therefore, in order to resist bandits, militia organizations were established in various places, but they often fell into trouble quickly due to issues such as funding and power struggles, and most of them became nominal organizations or disintegrated.At this time, a self-defense organization with invulnerability as a link rose up-this is what people often call the Red Gun Society.The Red Gun Society fought bandits as soon as it was born, and its effect was great.As a result, the Red Gun Society publicized Taoism, advocated that spells can be used to resist swords and guns, and farmers who believed in ghosts, gods and Bodhisattvas automatically joined the Red Gun Society.

Second, encourage the courage to fight.Because the disciples are superstitious about the profound psychological effects of poisoning, they are confident that they are invulnerable to weapons and guns, and they swallow a large amount of cinnabar. After being stimulated by the drugs, they are in a state of hyperactivity.Especially when dealing with bandits invading the village, they were extremely brave. Third, the deterrent effect on the enemy.There are two main reasons why the Red Gun Society can show such great prestige: one is that they protect their hometown, hate bandits, and have a spirit of going forward bravely and fearing life and death; , has great power.Even though the guns were firing, they turned a blind eye and did not hear them. They held long guns, excited their red tassels, and followed the sound of killing.Most of the soldiers were peasants, and their consciousness was full of superstition. When they first came into contact with the Red Gun Society, they were afraid of fighting the Red Gun Society. Therefore, in order to encourage the courage of the soldiers, the officers adopted the invulnerability spell, that is, using Chicken blood, white dog blood, black dog blood, etc. are used to smear guns and bullets to destroy the spells of the Red Gun Society.For example, pregnant women and dog blood are the most taboo in the Mingxi Broadsword Society when they fight. It is said that the black magic of the Broadsword Society can be broken with dirty cloth or dog blood used by pregnant women and parturients.

(2) The negative effect is first, not paying enough attention to weapons.The Red Gun Society is a superstitious organization that believes in invulnerability. They don't pay enough attention to the role of firearms in combat, and blindly believe that they already have a vajra body possessed by the gods. Therefore, they don't need to use firearms to improve their combat effectiveness.In addition, most of the members of the Red Gun Club are poor farmers who cannot afford to buy these high-end weapons. The weapons of the Red Gun Club are mainly red tasseled guns, broadswords, and small knives. its role. Second, do not pay attention to strategy and tactics.When members of the Red Gun Society fight, they mainly rely on their numbers and invulnerability, and they don't think much about strategy and tactics. Therefore, they are easily broken by troops with heavy weapons and suffer heavy sacrifices.For example, when the Huaibao Xiaodao knew how to fight, they were superstitious about their invulnerability. In the rain of bullets, they were not allowed to use terrain and features as cover. Third, organizations are prone to disintegration.The Red Spear Club usually chooses the date when they go out to battle, and implements strict invulnerability rituals. For example, on the eve of the Iron Plate Congregation, on the eve of the battle, husband and wife are not allowed to have sex; The master or the head of the meeting breathes in the light with his mouth, and then sprays it on the faces of the members. This is called face washing.At the same time, each person should light a stick of incense. If the incense burnt by anyone is extinguished, that person will not be able to leave the battle.There are rules for fighting in battle: you can only move forward, and you can't look back, and those who look behind will die; you can't be greedy for money, and those who are greedy for money will die;Although there are many measures, the Red Spear Association still died in the contest with the army. Therefore, the teacher explained the phenomenon of death and injury, because they broke the law because of their dishonesty and unclean body, the spell would not work.This kind of explanation to the teacher can work when the number of deaths is small, but when the number of deaths is large, the myth that the Red Gun Society is invulnerable will be completely shattered, leading to the disintegration or cessation of activities of the Red Gun Society organization.

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