Chapter 42 The fourth section of the Sutra

As early as the Zhou Dynasty, people had noticed the season of March. Every Shangsi day, groups would go to the waterside to offer sacrifices, and bathe in water soaked with medicinal herbs, thinking that doing so would get rid of diseases and bad luck.The history books call this kind of sacrificial ceremony as the sacrificing ritual.By the Han Dynasty, the activities of exorcising evil spirits had become very common.Since the Si day in the first ten days of March is different every year, in the Wei and Jin Dynasties, the Qiyu Festival was fixed on March 3, and had the form of "Qushui Liushang".Every March 3rd, people often invite friends and gather around the winding water, put wine glasses upstream, let them go down with the flow, and whoever stops in front of them will take a glass of wine to drink.Wang Xizhi's "Orchid Pavilion Preface" once recorded this grand occasion of feasting and entertainment.

As for the origin of 祓禊, some scholars believe that it has something to do with "Jian Ti swallowing the eggs of black birds (swallows)".Jian Ti is a character in ancient mythology.Legend has it that in mid-spring, when Jian Ti and her younger sister were bathing in the river, suddenly a beautiful black bird flew from the sky and dropped the egg in its beak into the river.Jian Ti and her younger sister competed to get the egg out of the water. Seeing that "the five colors are very good", Jian Ti swallowed the egg and soon became pregnant and gave birth to "Qi", the ancestor of the Shang tribe.After that, Qi's descendants multiplied, gradually developed and established the Shang Dynasty.Later generations also had the custom of "floating plain eggs in Qushui" during the 祓禊 festival. The cooked chicken, duck, and bird eggs were thrown into the water and let them flow down the water. Pick up and eat.From this, it can be seen that the ritual of 祓禊 originally had the meaning of praying for a son.In addition, it is said that the sacrifice of evil spirits also has the meaning of summoning souls.Calling back the soul by the water is the ancients' belief that the soul still exists after death, and the call of the soul is a pursuit of rebirth.However, after the Wei and Jin Dynasties, March 3rd gradually evolved into a festival for literati gatherings, feasting and entertainment, and its original sacrificial connotation was no longer noticed by people.