As soon as we hear the name, we know roughly what it is for. It is a way to be organized by the emperor, invite elderly people from all over the country to participate, and then show the strength of the country and the benevolent heart of the emperor. The Qing Dynasty held four feasts of the Thousand Sons at the time of the heyday of Kangqian, and now please listen to the Japanese Airlines Emperor to break it down for you.
First, the Feast of the Thousand Sorrows in the Kangqian Period
Since the question is about Qianlong, I will mainly talk about the Feast of the Thousand Sorrows in the Qianlong period. I have to say that Qianlong's banquet for thousands of people is inseparable from the influence of his grandfather Kangxi. Qianlong was deeply impressed by the luxurious and grand banquet held during the Kangxi Period, so Qianlong also began to hold a banquet for thousands of people after becoming emperor.
More than 800 seats were prepared for Qianlong's Thousand Sorrows Feast, which was eaten by the imperial chef and drunk from the fine wine treasured by the court. During the banquet, Qianlong also gathered a minister and an elderly person over 90 years old, personally gave him drinking, and then gave everyone various gifts, which was also called "an unprecedented act in ancient times".
In my personal opinion, Kangxi Qianlong and others were deeply influenced by Han Chinese Confucian culture, and they needed to use Confucian culture to consolidate their rule. Among them, what is very important is the culture of respecting the elderly. Therefore, Kangxi Qianlong and others held a banquet for thousands of people in order to show their respect for the elderly and to rule the country with filial piety. At the same time, with the help of the strength of this group of elderly people, let them return to their hometowns to publicize and show the emperor's grace and so on.
Second, what do the old people say when they are tortured?
In fact, this is also understandable. I don't think Qianlong idle has nothing to do to find a bunch of elderly people just to torture them to get over. It seems to me that the torture may have the following reasons.
1, the road is far away, the old people are tired of boats
There was a professor in our school, a native of Lijiang, Yunnan, who was admitted to Peking University and then went to Beijing to study. He was a strong young man, riding a horse, and it took seven days to get from Lijiang to Kunming, and it took even longer to get from Kunming to Beijing.
In the Qing Dynasty, if an old man from Yunnan went to Beijing to attend the Feast of the Thousand Sorrows, he himself was very old, frail and sickly, and he might need to spend half a year to go to Beijing. So it's a big problem.
2. The Feast of the Thousand Sorrows is an open-air feast, and in winter
When you go to Beijing in winter, you know how cold Beijing is in winter. In the cold winter, eating in the open air may be cold and the wine is also cold. One by one, the elderly shivered in the cold wind, and thanked the emperor for his greatness, which was really torturous to see.
3. Folklore
There has always been a legend that after the Feast of the Thousand Sorrows, many of the elderly who returned died after the Feast of the Thousand Sorrows in that year. Therefore, people speculated that it might be because they were abused at the Feast of the Thousand Sorrows or because of some witchcraft.
Text: JAL Tongjian Map: From the Network and The Site, Invasion and Deletion