Chapter 16 Section 2 Fire and Vulcan

Fire is the greatest discovery among countless discoveries of human beings.Human beings can cook food because of fire, thus optimizing their brains, and finally separated from animals. Fire is a natural phenomenon, and the history of natural fire is longer than the history of human beings.For fire, if you cannot recognize, control and master it, it is a great threat.Myths and legends have memories of fire destroying mankind.It has been a long process for human beings to understand and utilize fire.The use of fire has epoch-making significance for the development of human beings.This great discovery is condensed in the images of Vulcans of various nations.

Every nation has its own god of fire, which was an animal god in the early days, then a female god, and then transformed into a male god.When human beings have low self-awareness, they have a low self-esteem in front of nature, and the specialties of each animal have become objects of envy and imitation.For example, the Gaoshan people have two different stories about Vulcan birds.One is that Libishi, the divine bird, took the initiative to bring fire to people, so that people knew how to use and preserve fire.Man is passive, the bird is the giver, the god.The other one says that people send a bird to get the kindling, and the bird that is sent is called "Kaoyousi".The people had no choice but to send the Uhu ancient bird, and finally brought the fire.In order to thank it, people allowed it to freely peck millet in the rice field.

The Suiren family in ancient times was inspired by woodpeckers: it is said that there is a big tree named Sui in Suiming State, with intertwined roots and covering an area of ​​ten thousand hectares.A sage who wandered beyond the light of the sun and the moon came to this country, rested under this tree, and saw birds pecking at the tree and emitting fire.Inspired by this, the saint also used twigs to drill wood to make fire.From now on, this person will be called "Suirenshi". (See "Supplements of Relics" quoted in Volume 78 of "Taiping Yulan") The importance people attach to fire is reflected in the next myth very interestingly:

"In ancient times, people could fly like birds and go wherever they wanted, but there was no fire. In severe cold, people had to hide in caves and eat raw food. In the big forest lived a bird called "Flying Luo", it has fire, but it can't fly. It stays in the cave all day long, staring at other flying birds in a daze. One day, a hunter flew past it and saw that Feiluo was unhappy, so he asked The reason why it was in a daze. Feiluo told about the distress of not having wings, and the hunter offered to exchange his wings for its fire. After hearing this, Feiluo was very happy and exchanged with the hunter happily. Feiluo inserted his wings and flew to The sky; but the hunter has got the fire, but he can't fly... But because of the fire, he can eat cooked food every day, he can get warmth in the severe winter, and he can drive away the wild beasts in the dark. Fire has greatly benefited people."

This is the fire myth of the Bujiao people of the Dai nationality. "Bujiao" means "ancestor" or "creator".The Bujiao people live in a remote village in the northwest corner of Mengla Town, Mengla County, Yunnan Province. They are almost on the verge of extinction, and now their population has grown.It can be seen that their myth is very special and rare, which symbolizes that once human beings realize the importance of fire, they will not hesitate to exchange it with the wings that human beings long to be able to fly.Isn't that a lot more positive than waiting for a boon or favor from a bird?

In addition, there is a legend about the mantis teaching people to make fire from stones in the Dai people; a legend about someone in the Lahu people getting fire from a mouse and so on.The God of Vulcan transitions from an animal god to a human god, and there should be a link between a human being and an animal. Unfortunately, there are not many such materials that have been found, but the Buyi people have a myth about monkey babies making fire. to a stone and light a fire. Although humans have obtained fire through different means, it is also very difficult to preserve fire.For example, when Kucong people move, their parents must walk in front with the fire, and they must carry the fire in their arms in case of wind and rain.In primitive peoples, once the fire goes out, it is considered a bad omen.So preserving the fire is the sacred mission of the whole group.

The ethnic minorities in our country have different ways to preserve fire.The Lhoba people in Tibet use the method of bonfires to preserve them. A fire pond is set up in the middle of the house, managed by the elderly, so that it lasts all night.This custom still remains in various ethnic minorities in the Southwest.Every family's firepit is a sacred place.The Oroqen people in Northeast China hold a ceremony to sacrifice to the Vulcan for the whole family on the first morning of the first lunar month every year. Relatives and friends who come to pay New Year's greetings first offer incense to the bonfire and offer wine and meat.Throw food into the fire before eating.Their god of fire was an old woman.It is said that there was a woman, because sparks jumped to her body and burned her clothes, and her face burned her flesh, she cursed and stabbed her, and she couldn't light a fire anymore, because she hurt the god of fire.One day when she went to a neighbor's house to make a fire, she saw an old woman with tears in one eye and blood in the other. It turned out that this was the Vulcan who was stabbed by her.She was so frightened that she begged again and again, and then lit the fire.During the period of slash-and-burn farming, people still farmed by burning wasteland.The Blang people in Yunnan offer sacrifices to the fire god before burning the mountain every year.People are terrified of the power of fire and wish to control it.While offering sacrifices to the god of fire, the Brown people begged the god of fire not to burn beyond the boundary.They put thatch, bark, and grass ash in bamboo baskets, ask the wizard to chant sutras, then light the grass and bark in the baskets, throw the bamboo baskets into the river, and float away with the water, expressing that they have sent away the harmful Vulcan.

It is a leap forward for human beings to make fire by using natural fire to make fire artificially.Once the fire can be artificially made, there is no need to worry about whether the fire can be preserved, and people can get the fire they need at any time.Around the middle and late Paleolithic period, human beings invented artificial fire on the basis of preserving fire and passing fire.However, there are no specific examples of artificial fire making in my country's Paleolithic archaeology, and only a few clues have been left in ancient myths and legends.Legend has it that Zhu Rong was a fire god in the ancient south. His form in the "Shan Hai Jing·Hawai Nan Jing" belongs to the shape of a human and an animal, with a human face and a beast body, riding two dragons.How can we see that this is the god of fire, because this god can manifest the light of heaven and earth, that is, "Zhu Rong can also manifest the light of heaven and earth". ("Mandarin·Zheng Yu") Another ancient book said that Zhu Rong was the kitchen god, who was originally a woman, then a man, and had a wife.For example, "The Kitchen God Zhu Rong is an old woman". (Volume 529 of "Taiping Yulan" quotes "The Different Meanings of the Five Classics") Stoves are used for cooking.The Kitchen God is, of course, also the God of Vulcan.There were many kitchen gods in ancient times, and their status was much more noble than those in the late feudal society, so the legendary ancestors Huangdi and Yandi all served as kitchen gods.Emperor Yan was once the god of fire, and the evidence is more abundant. "Yan" means "fire", so there is no doubt that it is the god of fire.Some said: "Emperor Yan is the Master of Fire." ("Zuo Zhuan Nine Years of Duke Ai") Since he is a "Master of Fire", he is not the same as the preserver of general fire, which means that Emperor Yan is the master and user of fire. Or, of course, you can also make fire manually.Therefore, some people say that Emperor Yan can drill wood to make fire, and cook meaty food, so that people will not get sick after eating it. "The Yandi clan is named after the fire period, so it is the master of fire." ("Zuo Zhuan Seventeen Years of Zhaogong") All clans that worship fire regard Yandi as their god.Emperor Yan may mark the historic progress of our ancient ancestors in mastering fire.