Hebo

Lukisan Hebo pada Shan Hai Jing edisi tahun 1597

Hebo (Hanzi: 河伯; harfiah: 'Dewa Sungai Kuning') adalah makluk suci yang dipuja sebagai dewa penguasa Sungai Kuning. Ia memegang peranan penting dalam sejarah peribadatan di Tiongkok (khususnya Tiongkok bagian utara) serta budaya Tiongkok, baik sastra maupun puisi. Sungai Kuning sendiri merupakan salah satu sumber air utama untuk irigasi bagi lahan pertanian semenjak masa kelahiran peradaban Tiongkok hingga sekarang.

Nama

Nama "Hebo" memiliki arti "Tuan penguasa Sungai": dalam hal ini, sungai yang dimaksudkan adalah Sungai Kuning, yaitu sungai utama yang mengalir di Tiongkok Utara. Hebo (bahasa Tionghoa: 河伯; Pinyin: Hé​bó) diartikan sebagai "nama atau desa sungai yang diasosiasikan dengan Sungai Kuning". Hé 河 diterjemahkan sebagai "sungai; sungai kecil; Sungai Kuning", secara umum digunakan untuk merujuk sungai atau air yang mengalir, tetapi juga bisa digunakan untuk merujuk Sungai Kuning. Aksara ini tersusun atas radikal shuǐ (氵) "air", radikal kǒu (口) "mulut", radikal yī (一) "satu", dan radikal jué (亅) "kait". Bó, bǎi, atau bà 伯 diterjemahkan sebagai "kakak laki-laki; kakak laki-laki ayah; pria yang lebih senior; pangkat feodal", tersusun atas radikal rén (亻) "manusia" dan radikal bái (白) "putih".

Hebo was also known as Bingyi (冰夷). Today, the meaning of bo (伯) is generally considered to be that of an honorific title, of a martial or noble designation, similar to the European titles of nobility rendered in English as "count" or "earl".

Sungai Kuning

The Yellow River is called "the cradle of Chinese civilization", because its basin was the birthplace of ancient Chinese civilization, and it was the most prosperous region in early Chinese history. However, because of frequent devastating floods and course changes produced by the continual elevation of the river bed (due in part to manmade erosion upstream), sometimes above the level of its surrounding farm fields, it also has the the names China's Sorrow and Scourge of the Sons of Han.

Character

A picture of the Yellow River coursing through the Hukou Waterfall in Shanxi Province, China, 2005

Hebo was the god of the Yellow River, one of the world's major rivers with close association to Chinese culture. To some extent, the deity Hebo is a personification of the character of this river. Reflecting the personification of the Yellow River, Hebo has been regarded as benevolent, but also greedy, unpredictable, and dangerously destructive.

The Jin scholar Guo Pu commented that early illustrations depicted Hebo on his chariot—pulled by two dragons through the clouds—riding in all directions. In the "Nine Songs" from the Songs of Chu, the performer narrates a wedding journey with him in a chariot drawn by two dragons. Some early accounts—such as the book Shizi wherein he bestowed the River Diagram to Yu the Great—describes Hebo as having a white face of a human with the body of a fish.

The poem "Questions of Heaven" alludes to a myth about Houyi shooting Hebo. The Han commentator Wang Yi annotated it with the following story:

Lord of the River transformed himself into a white dragon and was traveling alongside the river when Yi the Archer saw him and shot an arrow at him, hitting his left eye. Lord of the River complained to the Supreme God of Heaven, Di, and said, "Kill Yi to avenge me!" The Supreme God asked, "Why were you struck by an arrow?" and he answered, "I had transformed myself into a white dragon and was traveling about." The Supreme God stated, "If you had only dedicated yourself to carrying out your duties as a god, how would Yi have transgressed? Now you became a beast, and it is natural that someone would shoot at you. Yi acted properly, so what crime has he committed?"

The Huainanzi stated that Houyi had shot Hebo for the latter had drowned people.

A chapter of the Zhuangzi mentions Hebo visiting the northern sea, where Ruo—the God of the Sea—resides, beginning with the following:

The time of the autumn floods came, and the hundred streams poured into the Yellow River. Its racing current swelled to such proportions that, looking from bank to bank or island to island, it was impossible to distinguish a horse from a cow. Then the Lord of the River was beside himself with joy, believing that all the beauty in the world belonged to him alone. Following the current, he journeyed east until at last he reached the North Sea. Looking east, he could see no end to the water. The Lord of the River began to wag his head and roll his eyes. Peering far off in the direction of Ruo, he sighed and said: "The common saying has it, 'He has heard the Way a mere hundred times, but he thinks he's better than anyone else.' It applies to me. In the past, I heard men belittling the learning of Confucius and making light of the righteousness of Bo Yi, though I never believed them. Now, however, I have seen your unfathomable vastness. If I hadn't come to your gate, I should have been in danger. I should forever have been laughed at by the masters of the Great Method!"

Historical worship

"The River Earl" (He Bo), from Nine Songs section, poem number 8 of 11, of annotated version of Chu Ci, published under title Li sao, author attribution as Qu Yuan (actual authors of the Nine Songs section unknown), and with illustrations by Xiao Yuncong.

The Yellow River was believed to have originated at the mythological Mount Kunlun, leading to a cult to Hebo within the ancient states of northwestern and central China before spreading southward.

Hebo was worshiped at various times as an object of human sacrifice and as a figure in the imperial cult. Hebo has been said to have helped Yu the Great to end the Great Flood of China, by providing a map of the Yellow River; and, sometimes the mythology of Hebo is connected with that of Yi, also known as Houyi. Animals as well as humans have been drowned in the river as sacrifices, including young women destined to become the god's wives. The oracle bone inscriptions provide solid evidence of the sacrificial worship of Hebo during the Shang dynasty. Human sacrifice seems to have continued into the Warring States period, prominently featuring the presentation of a virgin female human bride, floated on a bridal raft upon the surface of the river, as an offering to Hebo. This was a practice apparently put end to in one of its manifestations (at the Ye shamanic college) by scholar-official Ximen Bao. However, other bridal sacrifices continued elsewhere, until the time of Shi Huangdi, of Qin state. The book Zhuangzi stated that the wu-shamans and zhu-priests—who were in charge of the rituals—considered oxen with white foreheads, pigs with turned-up snouts, and humans with piles as unsuitable for offerings.

There were cases where people drowned horses and casted valuables into the river as sacrifice. During the Han dynasty, occasional sacrifices of jade objects, together with a live horse are recorded.

Culture

Informasi lebih lanjut: Jiu Ge

Hebo is one of the main characters in the cast of Jiu Ge, the Nine Songs, a work anthologized in the ancient poetic source Chu Ci. The Jiu Ge lyrics, including the "He Bo" section seem to have originally been a lyrical part an ancient religious dramatic performance which also included costuming, choreography, musical accompaniment and other features which unlike the lyrics themselves failed to survive the vicissitudes of history. Of the deities specified therein, Hebo is the one who has had the most mainstream cultural appeal.

Lihat pula

• Mitologi Tiongkok
• Ximen Bao
• Peta Sungai Kuning

Referensi

• Christie, Anthony (1968). Chinese Mythology. Feltham: Hamlyn Publishing. ISBN 0600006379.
• Hawkes, David, translator and introduction (2011 [1985]). Qu Yuan et al., The Songs of the South: An Ancient Chinese Anthology of Poems by Qu Yuan and Other Poets. London: Penguin Books. ISBN 978-0-14-044375-2
• Strassberg, Richard E. (2002). A Chinese Bestiary: Strange Creatures from the Guideways Through Mountains and Seas. Berkeley: University of California Press. ISBN 0-520-21844-2.
• Watson, Burton (2013). The Complete works of Zhuangzi. New York: Columbia University Press. ISBN 9780231164740. 
• Yang, Lihui, et al. (2005). Handbook of Chinese Mythology. New York: Oxford University Press. ISBN 978-0-19-533263-6