How Chen Wenlong became a "water god"

On the right side of the front hall of the Xianying Palace is the first statue

The 44 painted statues excavated from the site of the Grand King's Palace (Xianying Palace) in Xianqi Village, Zhanggang Town, Changle, are the largest number of folk belief clay statues found in Fujian so far, and the Xianying Palace was selected as the sixth batch of national key cultural relics protection units in 2006.

Among the clay sculptures, 15 are female idols. Since Mazu, Lady Linshui and Emperor Baosheng were worshipped a lot in the province, there is no doubt about the several painted statues enshrined in the Xianying Palace. However, the so-called "sea patrol ministers" on the right side of the front hall are not seen elsewhere, and their identities have become a mystery for a while.

Is the "Minister of Sea Patrol" Zheng He?

In June 1992, the ruins of the Grand Palace were discovered by villagers for the construction of Changle Airport, which was covered at the bottom of a sand mountain more than 20 meters high. The site is only 3 km from the sea, and the impact of natural floods is both large and direct.

According to the Chronicle of Changle County, "on the second day of the first month of August in the first year of Xuanun (1909), a hurricane caused a disaster, destroying the huts and sinking many ships." Ding Qinghua, an associate researcher at the Fujian Museum, believes that the site of Xianying Palace was buried by the wind and sand because of the hurricane during the Qing Dynasty, leaving only a place name legend of "Great King's Court", which was only seen again after 83 years.

When it was first unearthed, the vermilion and gold on the clay sculptures were almost undiminished. The villagers' "sea patrol minister (god)", which is strictly speaking, is an anonymous statue, which is placed on the right side of the front hall of the Xianying Palace. The "Briefing on the Cleanup of the Ruins of the Great Royal Palace in Changle Zhanggang" records this statue: "The male seated statue, 100 cm high, from the shape, decoration, and volume position, this statue should be the main statue of this group." Wearing a large cardigan and wide sleeve robe, the left hand is on the knee, the right hand is supported on the jade belt, the wrinkles of the sleeves are very smooth, and the chest, abdomen, sleeves and other places on the clothes are pasted with gold. ”

Some scholars believe that the "minister of sea patrol" enshrined in the right shrine of the front hall is Zheng He, and it is the earliest statue of Zheng He found at home and abroad.

"The statue has a beard hole in its lower jaw, and it cannot be the eunuch Zheng He." Ding Qinghua said that the clothing worn by the clay sculpture is quite different from the straight body of the eunuch in the ninth "Book of Si Li Zhi" in the Palace Museum's "Xu Xianqing Eunuch Traces".

From the sixth year of Ming Longqing (1572) to the second year of the Wanli Calendar (1574) and the fourth year of the Wanli Calendar (1576), Xu Xianqing taught for the eunuchs of the Si Li Supervisor in the Neishu Hall. Some of the eunuchs who attended the lectures wore official hats, some combed buns, and all of them wore green plain straights on their bodies, and hung tooth tags around their waists. The eunuch's straight body is similar to that of the robe, with a straight collar, a large placket on the right side, and a large sleeve, but there are double swings on the sides of the slit.

"The exposed double pendulum can be seen on the back of the eunuch in the picture. In addition, the internal minister's tooth plate is different from the official tooth card system, which is embellished with a red line card spike, while the foreign minister's is embellished with a black line card tassel. Ding Qinghua said that from the characteristics of these costumes compared with the clothing worn by the "sea patrol minister" in the Xianying Palace, the difference can be directly seen.

Ming and Qing Dynasty "Official Ships Worship Shangshu"

The location of the Xianying Palace, the former genus of the Changle Fifteenth Chord Song In the Xianqi Realm. A hundred meters outside the Xianying Palace, there is a city gate built by the Ming Dynasty to defend against the Wo, that is, the West City Gate is called "Dane". In the sixteenth year of Ming Hongzhi (1503), the engraving of the "Chronicle of Changle County" Yun, the Inspection Department of Jiaoshan Mountain, "in the fifteenth capital of the county zhidong Shiliang Banana Mountain, the old in the plum blossom." In the twentieth year of Hongwu (1387), Zhou Dexing, the Marquis of Jiangxia, moved to the present place."

In the fifth year of Ming Hongwu (1372), Ming Taizu Zhu Yuanzhang sent a pedestrian Yang Zai to Ryukyu for the first time, and all the Ryukyu kings thereafter had to be canonized by the Ming Dynasty. At the beginning of the Ming Dynasty, China's port to Naha was in Quanzhou. In the eighth year of Ming Chenghua (1472), the Fujian City Shipping Division was moved from Quanzhou to Fuzhou, and fuzhou's envoys to Ryukyu must have "opened their ships" from Changle plum blossoms. After the inspection department moved to Mt. Shoyama, it became inevitable that whenever the official ship went to Ryukyu, or the inspection ship went out to sea to inspect, it became inevitable to first go to the Xianying Palace to worship the sea god.

"There is a saying on both sides of the taiwan strait that 'official ships worship Shangshu, and civilian ships worship Mazu', which originated in the Ming and Qing dynasties." Ding Qinghua said that every three years after the imperial examination, successive emperors appointed Xinke Zhuangyuan to lead the canonized delegation to Ryukyu and Taiwan. In order to pray for the safety of the ship on the sea, before the voyage, not only to sacrifice the Heavenly Concubine, but also to worship chen Wenlong statue in the boat.

Chen Wenlong, a native of Xinghua (present-day Putian), Fujian, was a famous anti-Yuan courtier during the Southern Song Dynasty. According to the "Ming Shi Lizhi Shrine of the Gods", "In the first year of Hongwu (1368), he was sent to the county of Xia County, and visited the gods. Famous mountains and rivers, Saint Emperor Ming, loyal martyrs, all those who have contributed to the country and loved the people, written in the ceremony, so that there are priests to make sacrifices when they are old. In his visit to the people to worship the gods, Zhu Yuanzhang paid special attention to Wen Tianxiang and Chen Wenlong of the Song Dynasty, who "stood by their names and stood together", which was the beginning of Chen Wenlong's "birth as a famous subject and death as a god".

At the beginning of the Ming Dynasty, chen Wenlong was not only named "Fuzhou Fucheng", but also because he could bless shipping and fishermen, and during the Ming Yongle years, he sealed the "Shangshu of the Ministry of Water", so the people of Fuzhou called Chen Wenlong "Shangshu Gong".

The Qianlong Emperor sealed the "King of Zhenhai"

Chen Wenlong can be crowned as a god of water transportation and navigation, and his origins come from him. During the Xianchun period of the Southern Song Dynasty, due to frequent droughts, Chen Wenlong built embankments to encircle the fields in the Jinfeng area of Changle North Township, widened the waterway, and built doumen gates to merge the water flow in Xiangeli (present-day Tantou area), communicate plum blossoms, Wenling (present-day Meihua Port), and merge the waters of the seventy-two oceans in one port, and the townspeople named it "ChenTang Port". Chentang Port is more than 50 miles long and the water depth is more than enough, so it has become the main channel for shipping ships.

It is precisely because of the construction of Chentang Port that Chen Wenlong is linked to maritime activities such as waterways and shipping, and is given the priesthood of protecting shipping and fishermen. The ruins of the Changle Grand Palace are located in the String Song, and in the Jingmiao Palace Shrine located in the String Song, Chen Wenlong was sacrificed by the statue.

During the Ming and Qing dynasties, Fujian was the only legal port of entry into Ryukyu in China. According to the Japanese historian Makoto Akayashi Akatsushi's "Ryukyu in the Age of Discovery", in the nearly 500 years from 1390 to 1876, there were 645 cases of shipwrecks on the Chuliu Route, of which more than 3,300 died.

The Qing Dynasty canonized envoy Qi Kun recorded an incident in the "Continuation of the Ryukyu State Chronicle": "The state dynasty sealed the Ryukyu, asked the tianhou and the gong deity to worship the number one ship, and asked the Shang Shu god statue to worship the second ship... On the same day, the second ship was also violent, and the civilian and military officer Ben Qian bowed to the statue of Shangshu and was spared from the evil... Shang Shu Chen surname, name Wenlong, Fujian Xinghua people. In the fourth year of Song Xianchun (1268), the court was the first, the official counselor and governor, and the Zhixinghua army was held by thieves and did not bend to death. Ming Shi appeared, rescued Feng Zhou, sealed the Water Department Shangshu, and established a temple outside the Southern Pass of Fujian Province. ”

It seems that Chen Wenlong did indeed fulfill his "duty", so the Qing court did not hesitate to "seal" him again and again, so that the mission would be forever blessed and be able to safely travel between Zhongliu and Liu under the condition of "calm wind and waves, and no waves in the sea".

In the Wanshou Shangshu Temple of Fuzhou, there are three plaques given by the Kangxi, Jiaqing, and Daoguang Emperors, namely the plaque "Chaozong Liji" given to Chen Shangshu by Haibao, the vice envoy of Ryukyu in the fifty-eighth year of Kangxi (1719), the plaque given by Qi Kun in the thirteenth year of Jiaqing (1808), and the plaque "Protecting the Country and Blessing the People" given by Lin Hongnian and Gao Renjian in the eighteenth year of Daoguang (1838).

Fuzhou Yangqi Shangshu Temple is also known as "Shangshu Ancestral Temple", and the other 4 Shangshu temples in Fuzhou City are all incensed. The Qianlong stele in the ancestral temple reads: "The Ancestral Temple Shuibu Shangshu was sealed three times, and the Zhenhai King was crowned." ”

"The 'sea patrol minister' unearthed from changle Xianying Palace should be Chen Wenlong, the 'King of Zhenhai.'" Ding Qinghua said that in the past, referring to the two generals who enshrined a Ryukyu costume on the left and right sides of the main hall of the Wanxiu Shangshu Temple in Taijiang, the role of the Fanren on the side of the "Minister of Sea Patrol" at the Changle Xianying Palace could also be identified.