Chapter 90 Section 43 "Worship of Zhang Xianzhong"

The Chinese have always had a tradition of worshiping those violent gods, such as Hebo.They have the irresistible ability to harm human beings, so they are qualified to be worshiped by people. When Zhang Xianzhong was in Sichuan, he once led troops passing by Wenchang Temple in Zitong County. He heard that Lord Wenchang was also surnamed Zhang, so he recognized this god as his ancestor and spared the people near Wenchang Temple from being killed.Not long after his death, these people who were not killed thanked Zhang Xianzhong for not killing him, and spontaneously made a statue of Zhang Xianzhong in Wenchang Temple, "green robe and golden face, fierce and fierce", and worshiped them as gods.

Until the seventh year of Qianlong (AD 1742), the "Zhang Xianzhong God" was always full of incense, and people came to offer rich offerings every year, in order to bless the majestic and powerful Zhang's soul, or at least not to harm it. It is said that Zhang Shen is very efficacious and responds to every request. People from hundreds of miles away come to offer incense.Due to the excessive momentum of worship, it finally attracted the attention of the government in the seventh year of Qianlong, and the local officials destroyed the statue of Zhang Xianzhong, and threw the statue on the side of the road to be trampled on.

However, not long after the officials left, the local people rebuilt the statue of Zhang Xianzhong and bowed down to him again ("Textual Research on Zhang Xianzhong's Tushu").In particular, some local bandits, or sporadic peasant uprisings, worshiped Zhang Xianzhong even more; before they went out to fight, they would make a special trip here to kneel down in front of Zhang Xiang for protection. The statue of Zhang Xianzhong disappeared later, but more than 350 years later, Zhang Xianzhong's soul still wanders in the spirit of our nation.Three hundred years after Zhang Xianzhong's death, we have heard some people claim that after 300 million people died in China, half of the population would still be successful. "China is not afraid of war", "kill 200,000 people, and keep peace for 20 years", these sayings can still be heard time and time again.

"Worship of Zhang Xianzhong" is a dangerous lesion in our nation. Although it has been removed by the hand of history, it has not been removed completely, and it may recur from time to time.Even until the 1960s, mass genocide and cannibalism incidents such as the Dao County in Hunan Province had occurred on our land.Therefore, to study the reasons for Zhang Xianzhong's murder is not a curiosity for our nation, but a need.