In Chinese Deity System, Hou Tu was being appointed (after manifested) to look into issues that happened in the Mortal Worlds (such as birth of living beings, fertility, grains harvesting, life and death of all living beings, etc).
Besides that, Hou Tu was also know to have the ability of looking into Negative Issues such as events that were closely associated with the Yin Element 陰 (such as Funeral, buried land, etc).
In the initial Period of the forming of Taoism, Hou Tu appeared in a Male form, but after the revolution of the Culture of Taoism, during Tang Dynasty (唐朝), Hou Tu changed from a Male form to a Female form (in-order to accommodate the saying of Huang Tian Hou Tu (皇天后土) – Huang Tian as Positive, meaning Male and Hou Tu as Negative, meaning Female).
And so from then, the Earth was being addressed as Mother Earth, this was how our Planet Earth became or known as "Mother of all Mortals" (大地之母).
According to Song Dynasty Taoist Records (宋朝後期道教記載), Hou Tu got 36 Assistants, which were address as Tu Huang (土皇). Each of the Tu Huang was being appointed to look after an area or level of Earth (in Taoism, it was believed that there are 36 levels/direction of Earth 三十六地)
In Today’s Deities belief, Hou Tu had manifested a few Deities that are closely associated with the movements on Mortal World, they are:
1 – Nv Wa 女媧 (which is only a myth)
2 – Di Mu Niang Niang 地母娘娘 (Mother Goddess of Earth)
And it was believed that, all Tu Di aka Deity of Earth (土地神) will have to report to Hou Tu once a year for the result of the Harvesting of the area under their inspection.
后土皇衹寶誥
ReplyDeleteHou Tu Huang Zhi Bao Gao (Praise Mantra)
至心皈命禮。
Zhi Xin Gui Ming Li
九華玉闕。七寶皇房。
Jiu Hua Yu Que, Qi Bao Huang Fang
承天稟命之司。
Cheng Tian Bing Ming Zhi Si
主陰執陽之柄。
Zhu Yin Zhi Yang Zhi Bing
道推尊而含宏光大。
Dao Tui Zun Er Han Hong Guang Da
德敷數於柔順利貞。
De Fu Shu Yu Rou Shun Li Zhen
效法昊天。
Xiao Fa Hao Tian
根本育坤元之美。
Gen Ben Yu Kun Yuan Zhi Mei
流行品物。
Liu Xing Pin Wu
生成施母道之仁。
Sheng Cheng Shi Mu Dao Zhi Ren
嶽瀆是依。山川咸伏。
Yue Du Shi Yi, Shan Chuan Xian Fu
大悲大願。大聖大慈。
Da Bei Da Yuan, Da Sheng Da Ci
承天效法后土皇地靈衹。
Cheng Tian Xiao Fa Hou Tu Di Ling Zhi
how do we call her???how tow leung leung???
ReplyDeleteNo need to add the Niang Niang at the back, even thou Hou Tu appeared to be in female form, but to be more accurate, Hou Tu got no gender-restriction.
ReplyDeleteAs long as you sincere and respectful, just address Hou Tu as Hou Tu, it will be fine.
what are the jobs of 土地公 and 大伯公?... sometimes me confused about their jobs...
ReplyDeleteme thinking of what suitable jobs me should have too in the future...
amitabha buddha... -_-
dsfz
Pls do refer to the previous posting on Fu De Zheng Shen.
ReplyDeleteok... thanks...
ReplyDeletedsfz