Chinese Life in the Tibetan Foothills/Book 1/Chapter 2
CHAPTER II
Passing Through Crises
(or, crossing the barriers 度關 tu kuan)
To take children through the important crises in their lives is the work of a sorcerer. On consultation the fortune-teller announces the critical times in the child's life, when that life may be in danger. The sorcerer's help is then asked for, and he invokes the aid of the k‘ai-kuan t‘u-ti 開關土地 the precinct god who opens barriers.
The following are a few of the crises or barriers which may occur in a child's life, and with respect to which he must be carefully guarded.
There is the 短命關 tuan ming kuan or short-life barrier, which means that the child may die at any age before 12 years. At 12 the barrier or crisis is over. There is also the 100-days barrier; the child is not safe till past that age.
The Buddhist-priest barrier 和尚關 ho-shang kuan, means there is danger that the boy will run away from home and become a priest, which is equivalent to losing him altogether.
The "knock-door crisis" 撞門關 ch‘uang men kuan means there is danger that the child some time visiting a neighbour's house will get bitten by a dog or catch some infectious disease. This barrier is avoided in the following fashion. The parents take the child out for a walk, and accost the first person they meet, pedlar, beggar, or what not. They salute him and tell him the matter, asking him to become surety for the child. If he consents he will give the child a new name and become his kan tieh 乾爹 informal adoptive father (or kan ma 乾媽 adoptive mother). The person is then invited to the house and food put before him, and the same evening the necessary ceremony, much the same as in sorcery, is performed in the house.
The danger may be that the child must pass the lei-kung kuan Thunder-god barrier, or be killed, as the Chinese say, by thunder. Such death is regarded as evidence of the special displeasure of Heaven.
Another crisis is the ch‘ü-ming kuan 取命關 or taking-life barrier. There is danger of the child's life being taken by a demon. In this case a butcher is asked to become surety or adoptive father, because he carries a knife and can thus frighten away the slaying demon. Much the same ceremony is performed as in the "knock-door crisis."
It may be threatened that some heavy or sharp article shall fall on the child and kill it; this is a tao-chên kuan 刀砧關 or knife and anvil crisis. A butcher with his knife or a blacksmith with his sledgehammer is sought as kan tieh.
The danger may be that of drowning, lo-shui kuan 落水關. Any willing person may be made kan tieh in this case.
The p‘ei-ma kuan 披麻關 or donning-sackcloth barrier, means that there is danger the child may be left an orphan, or that he will fall sick if he sees anyone in mourning.
The crisis to be dreaded may be that the child will one day fall through a hole in some bridge and be drowned. This is the tuan-ch‘iao kuan 斷橋關 or broken-bridge crisis.
The child may be liable to the chiang-chün kuan 將軍關; that is, he may be accidentally shot. To avert this calamity, or to get past this barrier he must worship at the tomb of some military general 將軍, or at some memorial stone. Such a lad will most likely carry through life the nickname pei 碑 or tablet, because he worshipped at the stone slab.
There is a crisis recurring at 3, 6 and 9 years old, san liu chin sui kuan 三六九歲關. The child with this threat on him is not allowed to travel far or visit any house where a corpse or coffin may be till he is ten years old.
The white tiger barrier 白虎關 pai-hu kuan, means that a dog will bite the child, or a demon attack him, or that he will be left an orphan.
There is fear that the child will be made ill by the sight of blood; this is called the blood-dish barrier 血盤關 hsüeh-p‘ên kuan. A butcher is the proper kan tieh to be sought for in this case.
There is danger lest the child should be scalded by the upsetting of a kettle of water or burned by the fire-brazier in the winter. The people are in the habit of putting the fire-basket under their clothes or even taking it to bed with them with the result that many lives are lost and much property destroyed.