The seventh month of the lunar calendar is traditionally known as Ghost Month, but according to a report published by the Taiwan Folklore Museum, it only acquired its inauspicious connotations during the reign of the Hongwu Emperor during the Ming Dynasty in the 14th century. Until then, the month was a time for worshipping ancestors and honoring parents.
The museum’s research shows that the Hongwu Emperor “blamed the ghosts” as a way of deterring the general public from worshipping on the same auspicious days as the imperial court.
Taiwan Folklore Museum director Chu Chieh-yang said that there are a lot of taboos during Ghost Month, and many everyday activities are deemed inappropriate. However, not many people have bothered to find out why, so the museum decided to conduct some research into the matter.
Yen Rong-feng, deputy director of the museum, said ancient poems and texts make no mention of anything inauspicious related to the seventh lunar month. On the contrary, a Buddhist ancestor worshipping ceremony, Ullambana, was introduced by Emperor Wu of the Liang Dynasty. Ullambana became popular among the general populace, who honored their elders and ancestors on the 15th day of the seventh month. This continued until the Tang Dynasty, and there are no references to ghosts until the Song Dynasty.
The Ghost Festival that falls on the seventh full moon of the lunar year was considered an important day for worshiping ancestors, and a record of this practice is recorded in the General History of Taiwan. Buddhists associate the Ghost Festival with filial piety through the legend of Maudgalyayana, who rescued his mother after she was reborn in the realm of hungry ghosts. Yen says an expression used by the ancient geomancers that, “Since ancient times, emperors have been buried in the seventh month,” is further evidence that the seventh month used to be considered auspicious. An alternative word for the seventh lunar month contained the field radical with a vertical line through it, implying that “The time is right in heaven, the conditions on earth are favorable.” Yen says that Ming emperors not only had their burials in this month, but also favored it for coronations.
So when did the seventh lunar month become inauspicious? Yen says historical documents show that Liu Bo-wen, an advisor to the Hongwu Emperor, proposed the idea of sending people disguised as Taoist priests to cities and counties to spread the news that a disaster would happen in the seventh month. From then on, the notion of that month being unlucky began to spread.
Yen speculates that the Hongwu Emperor was an ardent believer in geomancy who fooled his subjects into believing that that the seventh month was unlucky so that the imperial court could reap the benefits of the auspicious days without having to share them with the common people. Yen says that the purpose of the museum’s research is to prevent people from becoming overly superstitious.
(LIBERTY TIMES, TRANSLATED BY TAIJING WU)
農曆七月俗稱鬼月,但台灣民俗文物館考據後發現,這種不吉祥的說法,是從明朝明太祖朱洪武才開始,在這之前的七月多是祭祖、孝義之月。
研究顯示,應該是明太祖「嫁禍於鬼」,不讓民間與皇族共用吉日吉時所致。
台灣民俗文物館館長朱界陽指出,每逢農曆七月,民眾總有諸多忌諱,認為諸事不宜,但實況究竟為何卻少有人探究,因此決定加以考證。
副館長顏榮豐說,考證不少古時經典都未找到有不祥之兆的記載;梁武帝時設盂蘭盆齋,此後民間普遍在七月十五設盂蘭盆齋為孝親之供,到唐代仍沿襲;到宋朝為止,未曾查見到七月是鬼月的記載。
七月十五中元節是舊時祭祖重要日子;台灣通史也記載相同祭祖的活動;佛教在中元祭祖禮俗外,也增「目連救母」的說法,讓中元節又增添孝親意義。顏榮豐說,另查到古代堪輿師的口訣指「古來天子七月葬」,因為七月是申月,取其在田,有「上得天時下得地利」之勢,而且明朝皇帝除沿古來天子七月葬之俗外,也偏好選在七月登基。
那七月究竟從何時開始變成不祥之月呢?顏榮豐說,文獻紀載朱洪武軍師劉伯溫獻計,在七月叫許多人扮道士向各州縣散播天將降大災等訊息,應是七月不祥之月的由來。
顏榮豐推測,明太祖朱元璋篤信風水地理之說,把七月視作諸事不宜的鬼月,應是當時刻意施行的愚民政策,目的就是不讓民間與皇族共享天時、吉日。顏榮豐強調,進行考據的目的就是希望民眾不要過度迷信。
(自由時報記者蘇孟娟)
When Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang revealed on Friday last week that the company is working with the Trump administration on a new computer chip designed for sale to China, it marked the latest chapter in a long-running debate over how the US should compete with China’s technological ambitions. The reasoning has sometimes changed — with US officials citing national security, human rights or purely economic competition — but the tool has been the same: export controls, or the threat of them. Nvidia believes it can eventually reap US$50 billion from artificial intelligence (AI) chip sales in China. But it so far has
Long before numerals and arithmetic systems developed, humans relied on tally marks to count. These simple, repeated marks — often just straight lines — are one of the earliest and most widespread methods of recording numbers. Archaeological findings suggest that humans began tallying in prehistoric times. During the Late Stone Age in Africa, humans began to carve notches onto bones to create tangible records of quantities. One of the earliest known examples is the Wolf bone, an artifact unearthed in Central Europe in 1937. This bone bears notches believed to be an early form of counting. Even more intriguing
Continued from yesterday(延續自昨日) https://www.taipeitimes.com/News/lang In many Western countries, the most common form of tally marks employs a five-bar gate structure: four vertical lines followed by a diagonal slash. To form this group, one begins by drawing four parallel vertical lines, each representing one. For the fifth, draw a diagonal line across the existing four. This diagonal stroke effectively creates a distinct group of five. To continue counting, just initiate a new cycle in the same manner. A set of five tallies combined with a single vertical line next to it represents the number six. Across many Asian countries, the Chinese character
Week 23 : 詞法——名詞 1. 請給我兩張紙。 ˇ Please hand me two sheets of paper. χ Please hand me two papers. 註︰paper 作物質名詞(material noun)「紙」解時,沒有複數形式,要表達數量時前面要加量詞,作「學術報告」、「報紙」、「考卷」或「論文」等解時,可有複數形式。常見的物質名詞還有麵包(bread)、粉筆(chalk)等。 2. 祖母的頭髮已變灰白了。 ˇ Grandmother’s hair has already turned gray. χ Grandmother’s hairs have already turned gray. 註︰hair 統指頭髮(或毛)時只用單數。hairs 指多根頭髮(或毛),例如:She has several gray hairs.。另外,英文裡提到白頭髮習慣上多以 gray 一詞來代替 white,較為委婉含蓄。 3. 他沒有多少工作要做。 ˇ He doesn’t have a lot of work to do. χ He doesn’t have a lot of works to do. 註︰work 若指「工作」是不可數名詞,不能加 s,且不用不定冠詞。work 的複數形式表示下列幾種意義:(1) 著作,如 Chaucer’s works;(2) 工廠,如 China Steel Works;(3) 機器的轉動部分,如 the works of a watch;(4) 工程,如 public works。 4. 這是個好消息。 ˇ This is very good news. ˇ This is great news. χ This is such a good news. 註︰news 是不可數名詞,雖具有複數形式,但只用作單數,前面不可加 a,後面的動詞也應用第三人稱單數,如:Bad news travels quickly.