The winter solstice enters nine, count the full nine nine, then the spring wind sends warmth, the cold is completely eliminated, so the saying has "nine nine cold" saying. In order to survive the long and harsh winter, the ancients came up with all kinds of entertainment to cool off the nine-nine. For example, after the winter solstice, some literati invite relatives and friends, and everyone takes turns to spend money drinking and having fun to spend the winter, this kind of banquet is called "cold elimination meeting".
The cold-quenching meeting began at the end of the Tang Dynasty, also known as the "Warm Winter Society", which is also recorded in ancient books. According to the five generations of Wang Renyu's "Kaiyuan Tianbao Testament • Snow Sweeping Welcome", there was a rich man in Chang'an during the Tang Dynasty, whenever the snow was cold, he would ask his servants to sweep a small road at the mouth of his own street, personally stand at the intersection to greet the guests, prepare dishes for the guests to feast and drink, and seek pleasure, called "warm and cold meeting". During the Qing Dynasty, the cold-quenching meeting was very popular in Beijing, and during the Jiaqing and Daoguang years, literati mainly officials of the Hanlin Academy organized fellowship activities after the winter solstice, focusing on yaji and discussing ancient and modern. For example, in the ninth year of Jiaqing (1804), Tao Shu, the Shuji of the Hanlin Yuan, initiated the establishment of the Cold Poetry Society, the main members of which were Tao Shu, Lin Zexu, Gu Shu, Xia Xiushu, Cheng Enze, Zhu Jue, Wu Chun, Liang Zhangju, Pan Zengyi, etc., because the meeting place was in the Xuannan area outside Xuanwu Gate, also known as the Xuannan Poetry Society, the Xuannan Poetry Society, and the Chengnan Yin Society.
The ninety-second time of "Dream of the Red Chamber" also has a description of the cold meeting, Jia Baoyu did not want to go to the study room, so he took a leave of absence, and asked the old lady who attacked the old lady to send someone to say something? The raider replied that he didn't say anything. Jia Baoyu said, "The old lady must have forgotten." Isn't Ming'er the first day of November, the old lady must be an old rule there, to hold a cold party, Qi Da gang sit down to drink and laugh. While Bao Yu and the servants were discussing, Jia Mu sent someone to inform: "The old lady said that the second master Ming'er did not have to go to school." Ming'er invited his aunt and wife to relieve him, but she was afraid that the girls would come to the house. Miss Shi, Aunt Xing, and Aunt Li were all invited, and Ming'er came to what kind of cold meeting. ”
During the Southern and Northern Dynasties, Liang Zongyi wrote in the "Chronicle of the Jingchu Years": "The number of winter solstice days and 9981 days is used as a cold end. This is also the earliest written record of the custom of "number nine". From the day of the winter solstice, every nine days are counted as one "nine", counting enough "nine nine eighty-one days", and winter is nearing the end, ushering in spring and warm blossoms. In order to calculate this period of time, the ancients came up with the method of charting and counting the day, using the form of drawing plums, drawing circles or filling in the grid characters to record, also referred to as "nine nine figures".
The Ming Dynasty Liu Tong and Yu Yizheng wrote the "Imperial Capital Scenery And Material Strategy": "On the winter solstice, painting a branch of Sumei, there is one petal for eighty, one petal for the day, and nine or nine out of the petals, then the spring is deep, and the nine nine cold map is known." "It is said that from the day of the winter solstice, a single plum is drawn, and nine plum blossoms are drawn on the branches, and each plum blossom has nine petals, a total of eighty-one petals, representing the eighty-one days of "counting nine days". Among them, each flower represents a "nine", each petal represents a day, every day is dyed with color, after dyeing nine petals, there is a "nine", nine dyeing, it is the end of winter and late spring. It is said that this kind of nine-nine cold dissipation map was created by the national hero Wen Tianxiang. Wen Tianxiang was captured in a failed resistance to the Yuan and thrown into a cell in Dadu (now Beijing). In order to survive the long severe winter and express his indomitable will, on the day of the winter solstice, he painted a frost-infested plum on the wall, with nine plum blossoms, each with nine petals, smeared with one petal every day.
The "Imperial Scenery and Material Strategy" also records the interesting "Nine-Nine Songs": "Nineteen-nine-nine, do not call each other; three-nine-seven, the hedge blows the fence; four-nine-thirty-six, sleep at night is like sleeping; five-nine-forty-five, the family piles up salt and tigers; six-nine-fifty-four, the mouth is warmed; seven-nine-sixty-three, pedestrians put on the clothing list; eighty-nine-seventy-two, cats and dogs look for shade; nine-nine-eighty-one, the poor man is finished, only to stretch his feet to sleep, mosquitoes and fleas come out." This is similar to our current "Nine Nine Songs.".
The text version is to choose nine characters, each word is nine strokes, like the practice of calligraphy "red", from the first day of the first nine to fill in, fill in a painting every day, nine characters fill in the cold winter past, spring back to the earth. The Qing Dynasty Wu Zhendi's "Yangji Zhai Series" records: "In the early years of Daoguang, the imperial system of the Nine Nine Cold Removal Chart, with the nine characters 'Weeping willows in front of the pavilion to cherish the spring wind'. The words are all nine strokes also. The Maoqin Hall is double-hooked and inscribed with the inscription 'Guancheng Chunman'. The ministers of the inner value of Hanlin fill in the outline according to the day, and carefully note the clouds, sunny and snowy. And the folk literati Yashi mostly rhymed with the nine words of "weeping willows in front of the pavilion cherishing the spring wind", regardless of content and genre, free to play, every nine days to compose a poem or word, after writing nine songs will usher in a beautiful spring.
There is also a kind of "Nine-Nine Spring Festival" that is loved by literati and scholars. Nine words each in the upper and lower links, each word is nine paintings, the same is a double hook hollow word, from the winter solstice, according to the day of the upper and lower joints to fill in a stroke, the full union is filled in, then the severe winter has gone, spring warm flowers, such as "spring spring weeping spring willow spring spring
In addition, the ancients also drew a circle version of the "Nine-Nine Cold Table", nine lines and eighty-one grids, painted one grid on the day from the winter solstice. Draw a circle in the middle of each grid, called a painting copper coin, and paint one dollar a day. The folk song says: "In the clouds and snow, the left wind and the right rain should be clearly distinguished, nine nine eighty-one is completely exhausted, and the spring returns to the earth and the grass is green." This circle cold removal chart is not only an interesting game for people to survive the long winter, but also a "calendar" for scientifically recording the weather changes after "entering the nine", which concretizes and visualizes the situation of warm and long cold consumption reflected in the number nine. The color used to fill the strokes of the cold map each day is determined according to the weather of the day, the sun is red, the cloud is blue, the rain is green, the wind is yellow, and the snow is white.
In the long and cold years, the ancients condensed their taste and elegance in one thing and one thing, and the days were meticulous and serious. Today, professional weather forecasters can predict the weather fairly accurately, and there is no need for people to record the weather in this primitive way. But in the cold winter, in the howling cold wind, drawing plums in front of the book, or drawing words with ink, there is a unique beauty of winter tranquility and leisure.
(Public Network, Poster News Editor, Liu Zheng, Comprehensive Guangming Daily, Beijing Daily, China News Network, etc.)