Chen Zhou Talismans of Western Hunan: Drawing a Talisman Must Be Done in One Stroke; Stopping Halfway Renders It Ineffective

In Western Hunan there is a kind of talisman called the “Chen Zhou Talisman.” Chen Zhou is the area around today's Yuanling. The elders say that among all the talisman painters under heaven, the most famous are in Chen Zhou.

There are rules for painting talismans. First wash your hands, rinse your mouth, stand facing a certain direction, chant incantations in your mouth, and draw with cinnabar on yellow paper. The traditional saying is that a talisman must be done “in one stroke,” without stopping or lifting the brush midway. If the brush stops, the talisman is said to have “broken its breath” and becomes ineffective. After a talisman is painted, some paste it on doors, some fold it and wear it on their person, some burn it to ash, mix the ash with water, and drink it, called “talisman water.”

The elders of Western Hunan say that in old times, someone chopping firewood fell and got injured, bleeding without stopping. They found a master to draw a talisman, chant a few words, and the blood slowly stopped. The more truthfully the storyteller tells it, the less the listeners dare not believe.

Some also say that a wound stops bleeding because it naturally scabs over; it just happened to coincide with the talisman, so the credit is recorded on the talisman. And there is one clear point: cinnabar contains mercury, so talisman water should not really be drunk.

Whether Chen Zhou talismans are effective or not, everyone has their own opinion. The attitude of the locals is mostly: those who believe need not argue, and those who do not believe should not reach out and tear the talisman when passing by it.

#Exorcism #网络转载 #湘西 #符咒