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“Tattoos” have a history of over 5,000 years in China. They had another name: “spider lilies” . The earliest “tattoos” can be traced back to the northeast part of China at the dawn of Chinese civilization.
At that time, the Northeastern believers of Shamanism would put sap on the body and sketch out a strange pattern, expressing awe before the gods and fear of the spirits. Furthermore, those tattoos were said to carry the power of the gods.
Legend has it that, in the Stone Age, Emperor Fu Xi’s right arm had a “winged flying Tiger” tattoo, giving him the ability to move mountains and rivers.
The tattoo had been passed down and reached its peak during the Song dynasty.
In the famous book Water Margin, many heroes like tattoos, such as Nine Dragon Shi Jin, Figured Monk Lu Zhishen, the prodigal Yan Qing, and so on.
When Lu Zhishen first saw Shi Jin, he gave a thumbs-up and said, “ You have a good tattoo.”
Tattoos have existed all over the country. There were many various kinds of tattoos, but one of the most peculiar styles, yin and yang embroidery, could be found in the southern Fujian area.
Tattoos were called “flower embroidery” in ancient times, so the meaning of yin and yang embroidery is incorporating the “Yin and Yang” into the tattoo, allowing the tattoo to have healthy, protective and lucky functions, just like amulets, Buddha figurines, or imps.
Yin and yang embroidery was created by a wizard who lived in southern Fujian. In the process of sketching tattoos, the wizard found that using the blood of dead people to make the tattoo could let a person have the ability to ward off evil.
In Minnan Zhi, a South Fujian witch used the blood of a corpse to embroider, and the person with the embroidery became the only survivor when he and his companions encountered a water dragon.
In plain words, the southern Fujian witch used the blood of the dead as a dye to give people to make tattoos with. The person with the tattoo and his companions went to swim together, met the “dragon” (meaning whirlpool), and the person with the tattoos survived while the rest drowned.
This event got the wizard’s attention, and since then, he assiduously practiced “yin and yang embroidery”, and began accepting many disciples.
Ever since then, the technique of using the blood of the dead to tattoo had had a resounding name: yin and yang embroidery.
I am Yu Shui, a 15th generation practitioner of yin and yang embroidery.
Ever since my I began practicing yin and yang embroidery, my master told me, “ Yin and yang embroidery, embroidered yin and yang, life, death, riches and honour, a safe journey wherever you go.”
It meant the bearer of a tattoo with yin and yang embroidery could be rich, alive, and safe. The usefulness of the tattoo was great, as was its mystery.
Now, because of China’s reform and opening-up, every household has money. In order to feel secure, a lot of rich people spent hundreds of thousand at temples to seek hazelin consecrated by the monks.
The use of such a wide range of yin and yang embroidery should have had a broader market, but my master did not let me use yin and yang embroidery to make money.
When my master died, he told me again and again that I could not touch the yin and yang embroidery, otherwise I would suffer retribution.
The reason my master was so opposed to it had to do with the matter of Guan Gong opening his eyes to kill.
It happened after the first two years of my apprenticeship with master.
At that time, the situation was chaotic in southern Fujian, and there were many reactionary gangs. A gangster asked my master for a tattoo; he wanted a picture Kuan Kung to be tattooed on his back.
My master refused him immediately, saying that he would not tattoo Kuan Kung, for Kuan was a saint and was also a symbol of blessing. The common people were not fortunate enough to carry Kuan. As a tattoo, he would easily bring about misfortune.
My master had something else in mind that he didn’t say. Kuan was also a kind of yin and yang embroidery, and if someone wanted to tattoo Kuan, it would be the dark. It needed his life hard enough. My master saw the man’s physiognomy and knew that he wasn’t far from the grave, so he told him he couldn’t tattoo Kuan.
That man didn’t care, and he forced my master to tattoo.
My master argued with him, saying he couldn’t tattoo him.
As a result, the man called over a lot of his gangster friends. My master’s tattoo parlor was full of people, one of them holding a gun to my master’s waist.
My master had no choice left, and he said, “ If you want this tattoo, then I will do it. But if you have an accident, don’t come looking for me.”
Usually, a tattoo took a long time to do. One first had to tattoo the foundation, and then fill in the colors. Because the sketch of Kuan was very large, it took a whole week to draw him.
However, just after the foundation was finished, that man had an accident.
The accident was particularly strange. My master heard that the man went to the bathhouse to have a bath, where he suddenly sank in the bathhouse pool, no longer able to float.
At that time he was not the only one taking a bath, and there were many people beside him. When they saw this situation they all tried to pull him out, but the man would not budge, as if a heavy rock weighed him down.
They could only helplessly watch the man drown in the bathhouse.
Once the man died, his body unexpectedly floated up. When the rescuers carried him to the edge of the pool, the tattoo of Kuan on his back suddenly opened its eyes.
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