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Story 12: Double Ninth Festival Story

Double Ninth Festival Story

Author: Anonymous

The Double Ninth Festival is an old traditional festival that few people celebrate now. Some people don’t even understand the existence of this festival. All they know is that the first to ninth day of September is the birthday of the Nine Emperor Gods.

The ninth day of September is one of our traditional festivals that is little-known. On this day every year, people leave their homes to travel or climb mountains.

It turns out that this has its own allusion. It is said that during the Eastern Han Dynasty, there was a Taoist priest who could predict the future. He knows magic and is good at exorcisms.

One day, he told his disciples that the God of disaster would come to the world on the ninth day of the ninth lunar month. He told his disciples to go to the countryside to conquer the god of disaster. The Taoist priest gave his disciple bundled herbs and a pot of chrysanthemum wine. He asked his disciples to bring these medicines and wine to people to resolve the disaster.

His disciples rode on cranes and distributed the Taoist priest’s herbs and chrysanthemum wine to everyone. In the meantime, take them to the mountains. After drinking chrysanthemum wine and herbs, the god of disaster would not dare to approach them.

When the God of Disaster came to the village, he found that everyone in the village was gone. It found that people were running to the mountain, so it hurried to the other side of the mountain. However, it couldn’t get any closer. Later, he was stabbed by the Taoist priest’s disciples.

From then on, every ninth day of the ninth lunar month, people would go to the mountains or go out to play to avoid the god of disaster. Speaking of the ninth day of September, the most well-known one is the Nine Emperor Gods Festival celebrated from the first to the ninth day of September. This is celebrated by many people in various parts of Malaysia.

The Legend of Double Ninth Festival

During the Eastern Han Dynasty, there was a plague demon in the Ruhe River. Whenever it appeared, someone would fall ill in every family, and people would die every day. The people in this area were ravaged by the plague.

A plague took away Hengjing’s parents, and he himself almost died. After Hengjing recovered from his illness, he said goodbye to his wife and fellow villagers, and determined to visit immortals to learn skills and get rid of the plague for the people. Hengjing visited famous mountains and high soils, and finally found out that there was an immortal with boundless power on one of the oldest mountains in the east.

Under the guidance of the crane, the immortal finally took Hengjing in. In addition to teaching him the swordsmanship of subduing demons, the immortal also gave him gifts. A demon-slaying sword. Hengjing practiced hard, forgetting food and sleep, and finally developed martial arts skills.

On this day, the immortal called Hengjing to him and said: “Tomorrow, the ninth day of September, the plague demon will come out to do evil again. You have learned your skills and should go back to eliminate harm to the people.”

The immortal gave Hengjing a pack of dogwood leaves and a He made cup of chrysanthemum and Fu wine, and secretly taught him how to ward off evil spirits, and asked Hengjing to ride a crane home.

Hengjing returned to his hometown. On the morning of the ninth day of the lunar month, he led the villagers to a nearby mountain as instructed by the immortal, and then gave each of them a piece of dogwood leaf and a cup of chrysanthemum wine. At noon, with several strange calls, the plague demon rushed out of the Ruhe River. Just as the plague demon rushed to the foot of the mountain, bursts of the strange fragrance of dogwood and chrysanthemum alcohol suddenly blew.

The plague demon suddenly stopped, his face suddenly changed, Hengjing chased down the mountain with the demon-slaying sword, and stabbed the warm demon to death as soon as he reached the sword. From then on, the custom of climbing high to avoid the plague on the ninth day of September was passed down year after year.

Source: China Folktales