Through some news reports, we can often see that when the British welcome foreign heads of state or the royal family to attend large events, the Royal Guards in red uniforms and bearskin top hats will also participate in the drum flute. The Royal Guard embodies both royal prestige and the military style. China's ancient emperors also had similar travel pomp and circumstance. The emperor's honor guard is an important part of the traditional ceremonial system, which is abused in the pre-Qin Dynasty, in addition to protecting the safety of the emperor, it is more important to highlight the emperor's noble status and maintain the hierarchical order of respect and inferiority. In the Song Dynasty, the imperial power was further strengthened, and what changes would occur in the honor guard that symbolized the power of the emperor?
Royal Guard of Honour
First, the travel honor guard of the Former Son of Heaven in the Song Dynasty
At first, the role of the royal honor guard was very pure, that is, to "prevent the evil from happening" and protect the personal safety of the Son of Heaven. During the Western Zhou Dynasty, whenever Zhou Tianzi traveled, there would be eight hundred tigers accompanying him. By the time of Qin Shi Huang, there were subordinate cars in the imperial honor guard. According to the "Notes on Ancient and Modern Chinese", when Qin Shi Huang was touring the east, he encountered a beast on the road, because one of the warriors in the honor guard wore a white tanuki hat, which frightened off the beast, and after that, the "tanuki skin white head" became the uniform of the honor guard to achieve the purpose of "using power without fear".
The Qin and Han Tianzi travel ceremonies have a unified name, called "Halogen Book". For example, Cai Yong's "Dictatorship" Yun: "The son of heaven is out, the car is driven in the first place, which is called the halogen book." "Halogen is a tongkan for 橹, meaning great shield. Books are books. Simply put, the halogen book is to record the number and size of the chariots and horses, guards used by the emperor when he traveled. In the Han Dynasty, Tianzi used a relatively small Dharma and small driving when traveling or worshipping the Temple, and used a large driving when worshipping heaven and earth in the suburbs. It is estimated that the "big ride" now said is how it comes from. The big car needs "Gongqing Fengzhi, Tai Servant Emperor, And Great General Participation", and there are also eighty-one subordinate vehicles, "thousands of rides", and the scale is quite spectacular. Xiang Yu was too shocked to see the pomp and circumstance of the First Emperor's travel, so he shouted a sentence "He can take his place", and then he also worked hard to turn this slogan into reality, and experienced a Xiang's "Overlord" travel package.
He Rundong version of Xiang Yu
The Tianzi ceremonial guard of the Wei and Jin dynasties was generally the same as that of the Han Dynasty, but there were some interesting changes in the details. In addition to the larger scale of the Chinese and Korean dynasties used by the Emperor of the Western Jin Dynasty, the carriage was also turned into an ox cart, which was widely used in the honor guard. The Book of Jin also says that the five-ox flag appeared in the emperor's honor guard, that is, the five-color flag was planted on the back of the cow, with cyan and red on the left, yellow in the middle, and white and black on the right.
The Tianzi honor guard system in the Tang Dynasty was more elaborate. The Celestial Guard of Honor is divided into ya and chariot. It was used by the emperor and was divided into five battles: one was an offering battle, standing on the left and right arches to defend the emperor; the second was a pro-battle, which was held by the emperor's personal guard; and the third was a xun battle, which was performed by the xun wei. The other two are the Yi Battle and the Scattered Hand Battle, of which the Scattered Hand Guard and the Sabre Holding Battle are lined up under the east and west corridors.
The Han Dynasty Tianzi honor guard in the film and television drama
Second, the Song Dynasty Tianzi travel ceremony
In the Song Dynasty, like the Tang Dynasty, the Tianzi ceremonial guard was divided into two types, but the name was changed, and it was divided into the palace ceremony used in the building and the driving ceremony used by the emperor when he went out. The use of the ceremony of the palace is mainly in the palace, above the hall and court. The honor guard used here is usually erected, and the members of the honor guard are like tool people who are motionless to decorate the façade. The ceremony of the palace is divided into four specifications from high to low: the Yellow Dragon Battle, the Yellow Half Battle, the Yellow Horn Battle, and the Yellow Dragon Thin Battle.
The yellow is a kind of flag, and the yellow is derived from "the Yellow Emperor Zhenbing, set up five flags and five horses, then the yellow skull system has its own bear shiye". In the Han Dynasty, there was a habit of using the Yellow Dragon Battle in the Halogen Book. The Song Dynasty's Yellow Dragon was made of the Imperial Guard, which was used as the Ribbon Banner in the Honor Guard, which represented the façade of the Honor Guard, so different honor guard specifications would be distinguished by different Yellow Guard.
The Great Battle of Huangli was used for the highest level of the Great Dynasty, which was a ceremonial meeting held by the Song Dynasty every year on the day of Zhengdan, the winter solstice and the first of May for the activities of Daqing, canonization, congratulations, and acceptance of the dynasty. During the reign of Emperor Huizong of Song, the entire Battle of Huangli required 5,075 men. The lowest-ranking Huang Qixiao was used when the Daqing Hall and the Wende Hall were ordered to the empress dowager and the clan chamber. During the Northern Song Dynasty, the number of honor guards was 1402, and during the Southern Song Dynasty, the number of honor guards ranged from 100 to 500 people.
An accompanying officer in the Song Dynasty honor guard
There are three types of driving instruments: the palace guide from the ceremonial guard, the xingxing yiwei, and the halogen book. The guide from the honor guard can be said to be the lowest specification of all the honor guards of Tianzi, and it is also the most frequently used, which is also a scene that we often see in TV dramas. The number of guides in the palace is not many, the main honor guard is the reed, with umbrellas, fans, no banners, koss, etc., the personnel are mainly internal servants and female officials.
Yan Liben's "Step Map"
If the emperor wanted to leave the palace and go to the minister's house, he would have to use the honor of the upper line. The Xingxing Honor Guard was mainly responsible for the clearance and escort work, generally 2400 people, of which the main members were the Forbidden Army's Zhu Ban Zhi and the Imperial City Division's personal subordinate officers.
Among all the Tianzi ceremonial guards in the Song Dynasty, the highest specification was still the great carriage book used by the emperor to sacrifice heaven and earth, totaling more than 20,000 people during the Northern Song Dynasty. There were many ceremonial guards throughout the ceremony, including officials in charge of guiding the car with elephants and hammers, Jin Wuwei holding a white flag and a mallet to clear the streets, a front team that indicated the direction of the battle, and a Si Tianjian who used a timed record. During the Southern Song Dynasty, due to the financial difficulties of the state, the number of honor guards was reduced to 6889.
Third, the self-cultivation of becoming an emperor's bodyguard
The members of the Song Dynasty Emperor's honor guard were roughly divided into two categories: one was the honor guard who was responsible for guarding and holding the honor guard. The second is the number of accompanying officials, which varies.
Most of the ceremonial guards are from the left and right Jinwu Guards divisions and the six military honor guards under the Weiwei Temple, and the Weiwei Temple should provide ceremonial instruments such as feathers, knots, golden drums, and halberds, and perform the duties of clearing the way, patrolling, arranging, and serving the honor guards.
In addition to these professional ceremonial personnel, there are also a large number of temporary ceremonial guards, mainly from the forbidden army and pro-subordinate officials. The emperor's guards in front of the hall of the various classes and elite shangsi army, in addition to guarding the emperor and defending the capital, also have the responsibility of participating in the orchestration before holding large ceremonies, and they are the main force of the halogen book ceremony. In the long procession of the Great Caravan, the one who guarded the emperor in the middle was the Japanese army, one of the top four armies in the forbidden army.
Tianzi travels
Different ceremonial activities use different ceremonial music, so the musicians are also indispensable. In the ceremonial guard of the palace, it is necessary to use the music of the pilgrimage, and the swallow music is used when celebrating on festivals and entertaining foreign envoys. The music is played by the orchestral musicians below the Workshop Division. In the ceremonial battle, the musician of Xingxing is served by Jun Rongzhi, and the drumming music of the Halo Book is responsible for the drumming bureau.
If you want to become a member of the emperor's honor guard, you can sign up for the Forbidden Army. If you are strong enough and brave or have repeatedly made meritorious achievements, you will have the opportunity to rise from the ordinary forbidden army to the upper fourth army. If you want to become a class to join the honor guard steadily, you must also be a good look, and be selected and admitted by the emperor himself. If you can't meet the above conditions, but have a certain amount of musical talent, it is recommended to sign up for the honor guard musicians' folk audition activities during the Southern Song Dynasty. Because at the end of Shaoxing, the abolition of the Jiaofang Division often left the honor guard often short of players, and the imperial court had to recruit skilled musicians from the folk, and if selected, they could play at the ceremony after 20 days of training.
In addition to the above two ways, there is also a relationship that is hard enough to become a pro-subordinate official of the emperor. The pro-subordinate officials were under the jurisdiction of the Imperial City Division, and belonged to the pro-soldiers of the Emperor's personal soldiers. These people undertook the work of "deed survey and inspection" in the honor guard, and the emperor's safety was at risk. The threshold for becoming a pro-subordinate official is very high, and first of all, he must be rooted in Miao Hong, who is the son of the family of the zhi army of the various classes. Secondly, the age should be under 35 years old, and the martial arts should also be assessed. In addition, there is also a height restriction, which must be more than 5 feet 9 inches and 1 minute and 6 centimeters (about 1.85 meters today). By today's standards, it is a proper "rich and handsome". As for becoming an accompanying officer in the honor guard, it is even simpler, take the scientific expedition first! From this point of view, it was still difficult to join the Tianzi Honor Guard in the Song Dynasty.
Wen Shijun said:
In ancient societies, the ceremonial system was an important part of building a hierarchical order. In the Song Dynasty, the emperor and the officials of the first to third grades had corresponding ranks of honor guards, which were easily insurmountable. As the commanding heights of hierarchical society, the emperor naturally enjoyed more cumbersome and huge ceremonial guards. Especially in the major events of the country such as the sacrifice of heaven and earth, which communicate with the heavens and the earth, the great driving book of more than 20,000 people is of great significance, on the one hand, it can highlight the strength of the army and the stability of the emperor's rule, on the other hand, the honor guard bells and drums are sounded in unison, and the crowd echoes, which can also highlight the legitimacy of the emperor's rule and the people's will.
bibliography
1. Liu Ruiling: "Research on the Imperial Honor Guard of the Song Dynasty", Nanchang University 2020 Master's Thesis.
2. Yang Zhigang, Research on Chinese Etiquette System, East China Normal University Press, 2000.
(Author: Haoran Wenshi Tianbai Yujing)
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