Today is a small year.
Floating in the rivers and seas, traveling alone in the end of the world for twenty years, the first time in his hometown to live a down-to-earth small year. Although the current small year has long lost the taste of childhood in memory, compared with the vast 20 years of the end of the world that I have walked, this year's small year, less people in the frost and cold rain in the rivers and lakes, but also less full of guest travel wind and dust, and more full of home steadfastness and warmth.
XiaoNian is a traditional Chinese solar term. In the world, as long as there is a place Chinese, it is no stranger to the New Year.
As soon as the twenty-third day of the Waxing Moon arrives, the whole country begins to be busy, and the traditional saying is: busy year. That is to say, from the twenty-third day of the Waxing Moon, it is necessary to start making all kinds of busy preparations for the New Year.
After all, in the depths of the soul of any Chinese in the world, the New Year is more important than any other day in the world. On this day, no matter whether it is far away from thousands of mountains and rivers, or far away in the north and south of the world, in a distant place, no matter what way and what price to pay, you must do everything possible to go home for the New Year. Rich and no money, go home for the New Year, the song is also sung like this. Because the New Year means reunion, it means a new year, a new beginning, and a new hope for the family. What could be more important to every Chinese? Therefore, for this day, every Chinese will be busy inside and out in advance to prepare more. For example: worship the gods, send gods, clean, sort out, prepare all kinds of New Year goods, do all kinds of New Year's food, prepare new clothes, haircuts, prepare all kinds of melons, fruits, vegetables and vegetables and wine and meat, write Spring Festival, stick color practice, hang red lanterns, cut window flowers... In northern China, it is also necessary to steam or fry all kinds of oil cakes and flower buns and button meat. In southern China, a variety of bacon sausages and plum pickles are naturally indispensable.
The twenty-third lunar month is a custom of northerners, in many places in Jiangnan it is the twenty-fourth lunar month, and in many places in Lingnan and Yunnan it is the twenty-fifth lunar month. In some areas of Nanjing, the New Year is the fifteenth day of the first month.
The dates vary from place to place, as do the corresponding cultural practices.
Before the Qing Dynasty, the northern New Year was also the twenty-fourth day of the Waxing Moon. From the middle of the Qing Dynasty, the Manchu Qing Court held a heavenly sacrifice ceremony at the Temple of Heaven on the 23rd of the 23rd month of the month, and by the way, the King of the Stove was also worshipped one day in advance, which is said to be to save financial expenses. The upward movement naturally followed suit, and the northern people close to the ruling center of Beijing followed suit, and also worshipped the god Vesta for a small year on the twenty-third day of the lunar month. The south is far from the center of rule, so the traditional waxing moon 24 or 25 has been continued. As for the custom of celebrating the fifteenth day of the first month in some places in Nanjing, it is because in the early Ming Dynasty, after Zhu Di seized power and became emperor, the rule was harsh, and many people in the people took advantage of the fifteenth day of the first month to remember the days of taizu Zhu Yuanzhang's reign. After coming and going, a local folk culture characteristic was gradually formed.
But whether it is 23 or 24, or other days, a very important role in China's small year is to worship the god of Vesta.
In ancient times, China's ancestors believed in ghosts and gods. For example, when people die, they will become ghosts, animals will become demons when they are old, and things that cannot move will become strange when they become sperm. But whether it is people, animals and plants or natural phenomena, ordinary people think that they are good to themselves and are called gods. They have designated their own gods for all aspects of their lives. When encountering great calamities or major events in life, we should also worship the Buddha and ask the bodhisattva.
The Chinese gods can be said to be the most. In the realm of agrarian civilization thinking, everything that life can involve has its own gods to manage. There are river gods in the rivers. There are mountain gods in the ravines. There is a dragon king in the sea, there are also flower gods in the flowers and grasses, there are gods in the heavens, there are land gods in the land, and the gods on earth are collectively called the three officials of heaven and earth. So most places in China have three official temples, which is the origin. There is a stove for cooking, there is a god of joy in marriage, even if you have a love affair, you have an old moon, and the funeral white thing has yama, that is, the god of death. There are children who send children to Guanyin, every household offers the god of wealth, and there are also door gods on the door. Wind has the god of wind, rain has rain god, thunder and lightning also have thunder and electric mother, start building a house to worship Jiang Taigong, move housewarming to worship God, shops or company opening to worship God, even birthdays and funerals and all the major events in life to choose the day also to worship God! Even in various places in history, some historical figures who have done good things to the local area have been enshrined as gods by the common people, and a clay statue of a temple and a temple has been built to provide for them, as if this can continue to cover them for generations to come.
Because it is human nature to seek advantage and avoid harm, to choose a zodiac auspicious day that is beneficial to oneself, of course, only the immortals know which day is most appropriate. If you want to live smoothly in every aspect of your life, only the gods can bless you. Even, in ordinary times, when doing things for people, they also pay attention to raising their heads and having gods, so as to advise people not to act with good and small, and not to act with evil and small.
In today's eyes, people will think that the people at that time were ridiculous and stupid. But if you really think so, then the ridiculous and ignorant person is yourself. Because you have overlooked a very important question, this is undoubtedly an inevitable choice in the social situation at that time, and under the conditions of the productive forces and the relations of production. Because this choice is good for the people and the rulers, everyone thinks that good things are really good, and naturally there are reasons to pass them on.
China is a traditional farming nation, and the historical development of farming peoples naturally has more difficulties and twists and turns than that of marine civilization and nomadic peoples. Agricultural civilization needs to rely on the sky to eat, and if the year is good, it can barely eat enough, and if the year is not good, it will be hungry. Even if the years are good, in terms of historical development, agricultural civilizations are relatively more vulnerable to infestation and plunder by marine civilizations and nomadic civilizations. Therefore, the living environment of agricultural civilization is relatively difficult.
Since ancient times, people have always hoped that their daily lives, three meals a day, living and eating, joys and sorrows, all year round, bits and pieces of life, all aspects, all the time there are different gods to cover, to protect. Every god has determined a fixed day to carry out the sacrifice, the way of sacrifice is exactly the same as that of human beings themselves, the tributes of sacrifice are the melons, fruits, cakes and wine and meat that human beings like to eat, and even the gods and immortals of all walks of life have the same birthday and birthday as themselves, and every god statue in every temple throughout the country not only looks exactly the same as themselves, but also wears the same style of clothes worn by people at that time, and the things they hold in their hands are exactly the same as those of human beings themselves. Even the heavens and hells they imagined, and even the dragon palace in the sea were exactly the same social structure as the human society at that time, there were emperors in the heavens, there were emperors in the underground, there were strict hierarchies in the heavens and the earth and in the world, there were also the same gatherings and dispersions as human beings themselves, successes and failures, honors and sorrows, and there were also the same pursuits and yearnings as human beings, and there were the same emotions and romances as human beings. For example, Niulang Weaver Girl, Jingwei Reclamation, Nuwa Patching Heaven, Splitting Mountain to Save Mother, Yugong Moving Mountain, Chang'e Running Moon, Quao Father Day by Day, Hou Yi Shooting Sun, Dragon Birth Nine Sons, Phoenix Nirvana, and even the portraits of Fuxi and Nuwa are scenes of men and women in the human world having sex, because human beings hope to extend their heirs, even King Zhou Mu sees the Queen Mother of the West, and the whole process also interprets the love and sorrow of human beings themselves!
。。。
From the Dragon Palace at the bottom of the sea to the Guanghan Palace in the sky, in the Chinese culture that represents the agricultural civilization, these mythical worlds are all extremely vivid and vivid, figuratively reflecting the needs, aspirations, and living conditions of human beings. Therefore, as long as human beings need it, myths can naturally be modified and fabricated according to their own needs, and the functions and appearances of each god can also be modified differently according to the actual needs of human beings themselves. Otherwise, why do you think that the appearance of Guanyin Bodhisattva will change from a man with a hairy hair to a graceful, compassionate, dignified and delicate woman?
In ancient China and even before liberation, the life of ordinary people was actually very difficult. Judging from the objective historical facts of historical development, it is difficult for you to imagine that in a land of agricultural civilization that has lasted for five thousand years, before the founding of the People's Republic of China, there was not even a period of time when the people could really eat and wear warmly, truly do not have to be displaced, and live a solid life. Even the most talked about in history is the rule of Wenjing, the rule of Zhenguan, the prosperity of Kaiyuan, the prosperity of Yongle, the prosperity of Kangqian... Behind almost all the so-called prosperous times, the superficial prosperity and strength, are the starving people who starve to death everywhere, the displaced people who live like ants, the peasants who have not enough to eat and rise up against the cruel suppression, the endless wars, and the plague that helplessly waits for death. Prosperity, the suffering of the people, the death of the people, the suffering of the people, in the thousands of years of Chinese civilization history, is not just a poem.
Therefore, it is difficult for you to imagine that an agrarian nation that grows grain on the land to thrive and thrive has been struggling for thousands of years until the founding of the country, and the whole people have been struggling to survive for the problem of how to fill their stomachs.
Because, before liberation, the land was concentrated in the hands of a very small number of rich and powerful rulers, who did not have to cultivate land or work for generations from birth to death, and could occupy all the resources and rights and interests of the whole country. In order to enable the people of the whole country to willingly work hard for themselves and even to give up their lives, the rulers grasped both soft and hard, and in the hard aspect, formulated various harsh legal systems to restrict the personal freedom of the common people, and this harsh legal system was specifically aimed at the common people and had no effect on the rulers themselves. Because the law is not respected, only the governors are allowed to fart, and the people are not allowed to breathe. On the soft side, the so-called Confucian Buddhist religious theories are used to anesthetize people's minds and bind and bind the souls of the people under the world. Otherwise, do you think that what confucians say about the three principles and five constants, what disciples rules and saints are, and so on, are really for the good of the common people? Oh, that just makes you honest and obedient. If you don't do it, there are all kinds of asymmetrical laws that specifically target you. Otherwise, do you think that what the Buddhists say about people having reincarnation in past lives and in the next life, saying that the suffering of reality is to pay off debts owed in past lives, saying that suffering in this life is for the sake of living well in future lives, and so on, and so on, is it really for the good of the common people? That is just to make you more convinced, to accept this unfairness, to make you obey the rules and regulations of unconditional obedience.
Oh, many times, the so-called Confucian order, the so-called Buddhist compassion, is only to make the people more obedient and obedient, and the soft knife that comes with the hand, any religion in the world, is just a more convenient and effortless ruling stick.
The so-called culture, history, religion, law, and social rules of the dynasties and dynasties, etc., the ultimate purpose, without exception, is only to serve politics. And the essence of politics is nothing more than a means of making the majority more obedient and cheerful in the service of the minority.
Therefore, in history, even if there are intolerable and unable peasants who rise up and rebel and overthrow the rulers and replace them, it is only another reproduction of the vicious circle of the overthrown rulers, and they have become the new minority rulers. And the problems of the majority of the civilian population remain unresolved in the slightest. After each replacement of the old and the new, the difference is that the new ruler will be more careful and harsh than the old ruler, the survival shackles and spiritual shackles imposed on the majority of the people at the bottom.
Behind every page of the history of the loyal and filial sons of the emperors, the social conditions that have truly continued to cycle for thousands of years are actually so true and objective.
Writing this, I can't help but deeply sigh that today we are really lucky to live in such a great era of real openness, freedom and pluralism, and to be fortunate to live in such a great national prosperity that has endured hardships and finally been harmonious and stable. In the final analysis, it is the establishment of New China that makes this ancient nation glow with real greatness and gives real luck to all the people living in this era.
Therefore, people who lived in the past, when their realistic problems of life and their yearning for the future are not solved in real life, they will naturally pin their hopes on abstract images imagined in the spiritual world. The so-called "if something is undecided," ask people for help, and ask god if they don't do it. Of course, it is even worse to ask God, but after all, there is at least a psychological comfort based on the soul. Imaginary yearning is also yearning, illusory ideals are also ideals, once the soul is exhausted without any yearning and thoughts, how will it survive in this difficult world?
Otherwise, do you think that generations of people will really believe that praying to God and worshiping Buddha can solve all the real problems in their real world? Do you think that the people really believe that by burning that incense, they can really get rid of the suffering of the world and enter the ideal paradise of happiness?
In the final analysis, offering sacrifices to the gods and immortals to heaven and earth is nothing more than a reverence for nature and a blessing for one's own desire for a better life in the future. And the sacrifice of ancestors is only to tell themselves and their descendants in this form, do not lose their roots, do not forget their roots, and use this to pin their gratitude to their ancestors and ancestors, to the nature of heaven and earth, and so on.
After all, life is alive, everything must have a sense of ceremony, and so is life.
In the folk to ask people to do things, it is necessary to drink good meat and gift red envelopes, so the same way to sacrifice the gods and buddhas is the same way. There are things that spend money to find people, and those who are asked to do things with money are the traditional thinking of the people.
Therefore, it is natural to sacrifice the gods and buddhas to pay good wine and meat tributes, and in the temple, even to hand red envelopes to the gods. Especially now, the times are developing rapidly, science and technology are progressing, immortals are also advancing with the times, I have seen many places in the country on the merit box of the temple, even next to the statue of the god of the gods and buddhas, also pasted the payment QR code, mobile phone sweep, immediately to the account. As for the high-scented candle, it is just a convenient reminder to the immortals asked for, and there is no essential difference between it and sending a text message prompt after transferring money to others in reality. In the old society, when people asked people to do things, they always had to kneel and prostrate, and the gods and immortals naturally had to prostrate their heads more religiously and kneel longer.
In this way, it seems that the gods and immortals will naturally have a certain responsibility to protect the people who worship him, at least not to embarrass and endanger them, so as to ensure that the ideas they want can be realized immediately.
Asking for help in the real world has something to do with how much you give benefits to others, which reflects the sincerity of your attitude. Therefore, people feel that the immortal's spiritual experience is not effective, and of course, it is also related to their own sincerity, and their sincerity and insincerity have something to do with the quality of the incense candle offerings, and even have a relationship with the amount of red envelopes spent. The immortal Buddha, who has no desire and no desire in traditional mythological stories, has instantly more worldly humanity and market spirit than human beings at this moment. The so-called Purdue sentient beings have become a joke.
Otherwise, why is there a money in the merit box in various large and small monasteries, and naturally there are 120,000 or even hundreds of thousands of hundreds of thousands. Especially in those temples of wealth in the temple, even those who buckle and save money in ordinary life will be unsparing and generous in front of the merit box of the temple of wealth. It seems that the more money you put into it, the more money you will earn in the future when you are protected by the god of wealth. In a well-known monastery in Jiangnan, I once saw a rich man spend a huge amount of money 999999 to pray for peace and happiness for the gods in the temple. In particular, the price of the first incense burned on the first day of the New Year in many monasteries in China is refreshing the previous historical record every year, and I have personally seen someone spend 8.88 million yuan to burn a cup of incense. From today's modern perspective, this is somewhat similar to the collective bribery of their gods and immortals by the people, and the gods and immortals do not fulfill their duties, and the spiritual experience depends on the number of good or bad people who bribe them. This was simply a slap in the face to the immortal Purdue sentient beings.
After all, the reliability of things that do not necessarily exist in objective reality is certainly questionable. Therefore, many times spending money to ask for protection naturally becomes money spent and being fooled. Therefore, of course, most of the time the immortals are still not very responsible, because after all, for the immortals everywhere, when they collect money and do not do things, there are always very few things that happen to be clever, and the so-called bribes to the immortals naturally fall into the hands of the monks and Taoists of the monasteries. The so-called monks and Taoists, on the other hand, are a few true disciples of the Immortals and Buddhas, and most of them are at best just a profession to support their families, but they do not admit it, and they always say that they are monks with no desires and no needs. In fact, to paraphrase Ge You's words in the movie: make money, don't be humble.
Sometimes, in a sense, this is somewhat similar, or it feels less like the Protection Fee charged by Gu Qiuzai in the Hong Kong police movie. If you collect more, your family will be too peaceful, and the protection fee will be less, and your family will always have ancient and confused hooligans to make trouble. But after all, for Gu Qiuzai, collecting money to do things, at least giving money will not make trouble, much stronger than the gods.
Of course, it has nothing to do with ignorance, it is just an inevitable product of the development of the times, related to the needs of people in each era, of course, you can also understand that this is a culture. Therefore, it is bound to disappear with the development of the times.
Because, many times, a necessary premise for analyzing a problem is that you must return to the origin of the problem. For example, to evaluate the quality of a historical figure or a certain historical event, you can't analyze it from today's point of view, that is called a rogue from the perspective of God. To analyze objectively, we must put ourselves in the historical environment and historical objective conditions at that time, personally substitute ourselves into the people you want to evaluate or the event itself, and then put ourselves in the shoes of ourselves and others to transposition analysis. For example, if you want to evaluate someone or something around you or in reality, the same premise is that you must put yourself in the objective situation of the person or thing you want to evaluate. You must understand in enough detail the objective conditions and background and objective needs that the person or thing you want to evaluate at that time, and then imagine how you will think and how you will do it and how you will face it if you face the same equivalent objective condition background and needs, so that it is called objective evaluation. Otherwise, if you open your mouth and say that so-and-so is good and so-and-so is not good, that is called opening the river and playing hooligans.
For example, the issue of worshiping God, in fact, whether it is the East or the West of the world, the nature is the same. For thousands of years, people have been accustomed to worshipping God, not because there really is an objective existence of God in the world. It was because of the psychological spirit of people at that time, the needs of life, and the needs of the development of the times, it was necessary to assume the existence of God, and the development of society could be continued. At that time, the development of productive forces in any aspect of life and society was generally extremely low, and the relations of production and class contradictions were extremely sharp, which led to the fact that at that time, people themselves could not explain and could not solve many things and phenomena that existed in nature, and even around them, so they would make up one mythical story after another that was extremely absurd in logical reasoning, but the common people sounded extremely moving and willing to believe. And the protagonists of these stories are, of course, the Almighty Gods they imagined to have supernatural powers. In order to make it easier for future generations to remember, generations of people continue to use their imaginations to visualize and visualize these myths and stories, so that there are various gods. In order to make more people believe in the existence of these stories, on this basis, Zhang Guanli will wear some accidental coincidences to show his true magic.
Of course, many rulers of the past generations did not believe this, but for those who engage in politics, what the masses believe must be made to exist and flourish, whether right or wrong, and with this existence, it is easier for people's hearts to be unified and easier to be used. In particular, after these legends and stories are systematically theorized in the name of culture, they will inevitably form a kind. An extremely powerful tool of domination. For example, the formation and development of any religion in the world, as well as the influence of each historical period on the formation of society and the human heart, and the influence on the development of history, are good examples.
As for whether these things are available or not, it does not matter, what is important is that the people believe that the purpose can be achieved. The founding emperors of successive dynasties, almost without exception, have had an extremely mysterious birth experience. Some founding emperors claimed to be their own mothers and snakes, such as Liu Bang. Some founding emperors claimed to be their own mothers and birds, such as the ancestors of the Qin state. Even the Ming Dynasty's emperor named Huazi, Zhu Laoba, whose ancestors had been poor peasants for generations, claimed that he was born by mating with a dragon after becoming emperor... This is not only the case in China, but also the founding emperors of any dynasty in the West and even in the world have similar magical birth experiences. Compared with what I just said, it is not difficult for everyone to understand. Because the people believe that is the most important thing. Therefore, only by saying this can we prove that our seat was not stolen by rebellion, but was given by God, and the name is justified. As for whether these things are there, those people who have been there for thousands of years are lazy to care about problems other than those related to the stomach.
Of course, this is not a bad thing.
Because after all, with the existence of these invisible and untouchable myths and stories, for the broad masses of the people, they will live more steadily. Even if survival is difficult, there will be no despair. Even if you live in a bad living environment, you can always have some minimum beauty yearning. For thousands of years, every year to the first seven days of July, there will really be many people who believe that the cowherd weaver will meet at both ends of the galaxy on the bridge made of herds of magpies, and whisper, as to whether anyone really hears what they say under the grapevine at night, it does not matter, and even the objective universe in the distance between the two sides of the galaxy between the cowherd Vega star is hundreds of thousands of light-years apart, these people are not interested, People only know that through this non-existent mythological story, they can express their dissatisfaction with the Queen Mother to allude to dissatisfaction with the real living environment and their yearning for a better life in their own minds. And the so-called good life of the people is that two people who love each other, with their children, no matter how difficult the living environment is, must live with hope and happiness. You see if it is such a story, the people like it, and the rulers like it. Something that everyone loves, that's culture.
For example, it is the same reason to sacrifice the king of the stove in the new year.
It does not matter whether the King of Stove exists or not, what is important is that for thousands of years, people have pinned their beautiful hopes for life in the coming year through this worship service, adding a faint light of hope to the hard life.
The good things and achievements he has done in the past year, I hope to pass on to the heavens through the stove king, in this year I have had some unpleasant and bad things to do some wrong things, of course, I also hope that the stove king can say a few words for himself in heaven, at least do not let the heavens know these unpleasant and bad things of their own and put down the fire. The psychology of seeking advantage and avoiding harm, human nature. The so-called man does not perish for himself. As for whether such an end can be achieved by worshipping the King of the Stove, it does not matter, at least it is a beautiful comfort in his heart.
In this regard, there is no difference from the emperors and generals, the dignitaries and dignitaries, and the common people. In China's thousands of years of historical development, every twenty-fourth day of the waxing moon, as the ruling class of the country, it is on this day to sacrifice the heavens. The so-called sacrifice to heaven is to exaggerate and add fuel to the achievements that have not been achieved in the past year of governing this country, and to tell the heavens that they have made mistakes and wrong things in the past year, and they also hope to get forgiveness from heaven. By doing so, the people will be more down-to-earth with the government. When the people are down-to-earth, the rulers are also down-to-earth, and this is the purpose of the sacrifice to heaven.
For ordinary people, worship the king of the stove to seek a psychological self-comfort, so as to pin on a beautiful yearning for life, inject a beautiful and hopeful element into the difficult living environment, why not enjoy it?
There is an old saying "twenty-three, sugar melon sticks".
I remember when I was a child, when I was a child, every household would buy candy melon, Kanto sugar, hemp candy, filling sugar and other offerings, praying that the stove king would have a sweeter mouth in front of God, and after heaven would say more good words to himself, and pray for a few good things.
When I was a child, I liked to spend a small year, but I didn't think about wanting The Stove King to say something nice to me and ask for anything good. It was only because I had sugar melon eggs to eat when I was a child, and even once I ate sugar melon eggs and eggs, my two teeth were glued down. In our hometown of Jiexiu there is a unique cuisine: filling sugar, that is, filling the middle of the maltose with white candy, putting a bite in the mouth, crisp and raw, the more chewy the more energetic, the sweetness of the sugar, the stickiness of the maltose, the acidity of the preserved fruit, how to eat how to have a taste. When the New Year was sent to heaven by the King of the Stove, every household bought a lot of them back. After the worship, the whole family ate separately, and the family's hope for a better life in the coming year, along with the heavens of the stove king, turned into the crisp and raw stuffed sugar in his hand, from the mouth to the heart.
In some places, in addition to the candy and sugar melon, there are also clear water, beans and rod grass. After all, in the eyes of the common people, the mouth of the stove king who eats people's mouths is short, and the stove king who eats candy sugar melon will naturally give himself a kind word. And The clear water beans and rod grass are prepared for the mount of the stove king to eat on the road. So that the mount of the stove king is full, and after eating well, he can carry the stove king back quickly, bring his wishes up early, and bring down the blessings of heaven as soon as possible.
Therefore, on the twenty-third day of the waxing moon, after sending off the king of the stove, in the evening of the Chinese New Year's Eve, he also had to welcome the king of the stove back with festive firecrackers.
Alas, I can't help but sigh that the hearts of the people of our country are indeed sincere and simple.
In fact, according to the traditional Chinese customs, the day of worshipping the king of the stove should be the twenty-fourth day of the Waxing Moon. It's just that after the middle and late Qing Dynasty, when the Manchu Qing court was on the 23rd day of sacrifice, in order to save expenses and avoid the 2nd day, it had to be re-extravagant and wasteful, so the day of sending the king of the stove to heaven was also advanced to 23, and the people were also upward and downward. On the other hand, the Chinese people like to pay attention to a harmonic sound, twenty-three, sacrifice to the king of the stove, you listen, read more smoothly.
Therefore, in the hearts of Chinese, even the gods and immortals are very good at talking, and they can always obey people's wishes.
This custom, the records of the ancients, are even more interesting.
It is recorded in the "Interpretation of the Name": "Stove. Create also, create food also. That is to say, the duty of vesta was to take charge of the stove and manage the diet, which was later expanded to examine the good and evil of the world in order to bring blessings and misfortunes.
The Records of Local Customs and Customs made by the Jin Dynasty Zhou Chu records: "On the night of the twenty-fourth day of the lunar month, the god of the stove went to heaven the next day, and the white one year was born, so the first day was worshipped."
Volume XII of the Qing Jia Lu (清嘉錄) "December: Reading the Four Nights to Send the Stove": "The twenty-four nights of the month of lala are the four nights of the recitation, which is the night to send the stove."
In the "Qing Dynasty Wild History Grand View and Qing Palace Testament", it is said that in the Qianlong Dynasty, every year on the night of the 24th day of the waxing moon, the god of the stove was worshipped at kunning palace. On the night of the Chinese New Year's Eve, the king of the stove also came to the human world with the gods for the New Year, and there were also ceremonies of "receiving the stove" and "receiving the gods" on that day. After every household burned the palanquins, sprinkled three cups of wine, and sent away the god of Vesta, it was the turn to worship the ancestors. You see, during the Qianlong period of the Qing Dynasty, it was still the twenty-fourth day of the Waxing Moon, and the god of Vesta was sacrificed for a small year.
In some places in Hunan, Hubei Province, it is during the Lapa Festival that the god of Vesta is sacrificed for a small year. The Jingchu Chronicle records that "on his day, he sacrificed the god of Vesta with pork wine."
The Song Dynasty's "Tokyo Dream Record" records that on the 24th day of the lunar month, the city of Bieliang was very lively. Rich or poor, everyone is busy buying wine, meat, fruit, and gold and silver paper for sacrifice.
Qing Jiaqing's 20th Annual Journal of Wenjiang County: "On December 24, the old god of Vesta played a role in heaven, before the night of the twenty-third day, each with fragrant flowers, wine and fruits, lamps, candy, and money to be sacrificed. Vesta was still twenty-four, but the sacrifice was moved to twenty-three. You see, starting from the Jiaqing Emperor, the son of Qianlong in the Qing Dynasty, who was very picky, the day of worship of the god Vesta was advanced to the twenty-third day of the Waxing Moon.
These are some of the historical records that I know of about the sacrifice of vesta in the new year. The record is extremely simple and somewhat official.
The most interesting and well-documented is the Northern Song Dynasty poet Fan Chengda's poem "Sacrifice stove":
According to ancient legend, on the twenty-fourth day of the lunar month, the king of the stove wanted to say something to the heavens.
The cloud car wind horse small stay, the family has cups and plates of abundant ceremonies.
Pork head rotten hot pisces fresh, bean sand and pine powder bait balls.
The boy offered his daughter to avoid, and the wine burned money stove Junxi.
Sons of struggle Jun Mo Wen, cat dog horns Dirty Jun Mo Fu;
Send the jun drunk to the gate of heaven, the long and short do not return to the clouds, and beg for the return of the city.
It records in great detail the activities and customs of the folk festival of the God of Vesta during the Northern Song Dynasty, the 24th day of the 24th lunar month. To this day, the picture is still in front of the eyes, extremely vivid image.
In addition to eating candy and candy, some places worship the god Vesta with wine and meat, of course, this is a local custom in different places.
But one thing is the same all over the country, and that is that on this day of the 24th, there is a big cleaning. In many parts of china, this day is even called dust sweeping day. As the name suggests, all the bad things accumulated in the course of the year are cleaned up to get rid of the old and welcome the new.
And many times, cleaning, in Chinese culture, has never only referred to cleaning up the house, but involves national culture and the height of the philosophy of entering the world.
Confucianism so-called: a house is not swept, how to sweep the world! For thousands of years from ancient times to the present, too many people have used this as inspiration. However, throughout the ages, the vast majority of people know that they do not know why, and that it is not enough to sweep the world without sweeping a house, but no one has ever thought about who said this? In Chinese culture, the person who can sweep the world is what people call successful people today. But on the other hand, if a person can succeed, must he pay attention to the small things of sweeping a house? Not necessarily. After all, on the road to success, there are details that determine success or failure, and there are those who become big things and informal. The two views are diametrically opposed, but both are true, but the people they target are different. Just like the dialectical treatment of Chinese medicine, the details determine success or failure for people who are high and far-reaching. In the words of the common people, people who want to run before they have a firm stand are impetuous, their eyes are high and low, they are so high and far-sighted, and they do not act with their mouths and cannons. For this type of person, we need to tell him, if a house is not swept, why sweep the world?
The so-called big things are informal, and they are people who have great ambitions and firm wills, perseverance, courage to forge ahead and practice, and are sensitive to actions and words.
For ordinary people, although there are no lofty ambitions and ambitions, they can still have their own good little wishes and small goals. While cleaning up the garbage of the house, it is also very necessary to clean up the dust on your soul and soul.
As a child, I remember that my family began to be busy every year on this day. There have always been twenty-three in my hometown, sending the king of the stove to heaven. Twenty-four, clean up and scrub the house. Every household, every day, every household begins to officially busy year in various cleaning.
On the day before the great cleaning, twenty-three, we should use the oil cake noodles to pinch a lot of oil lamps and oil lamps, and at night, I poured oil and lit them, worshiped, and guided the king of the stove to the heavens. Twenty-four began all kinds of cleaning. Clean the house, dismantle the quilt, clean the yard. When I was a child, in addition to doing these tasks, my mother would sew new clothes for me for the New Year. All year round, I always have to change out of old clothes and wear a new one. When I was a child, my family was poor and couldn't afford new clothes, so my mother took apart the rest of the clothes that my brothers and sisters wore, cut them open, and re-dressed a small dress for the New Year.
When I was a child, I remember that it was very troublesome to remove and wash quilts at home. To sew out the thread that sews the quilt, it cannot be broken, because when it is re-sewn after washing, the original thread will be used. After washing the quilt, the cotton inside should be re-laid piece by piece, and it takes several days to remove and wash the quilt. Or is it convenient now, just take the duvet cover and throw it in the washing machine for half an hour, take it out and dry it and put it back on.
When I was a child, the family had twenty-four tidying up the house, and every corner inside and outside had to be cleaned. All the things in the house, whether good or bad, no discarded, no bad things are useful. Even if it is a few rags that have been torn into cobwebs, it is necessary to cut open the rags sewn into pieces, and use it to scrub the pot and set the table, which is very easy to use.
Now people are convenient for shopping, what they need, just open the mobile phone to open Taobao, delivery to the door. Anything you don't like in life, you can throw it away.
In the past, thrift and thrift were considered a virtue. Now, if anyone wants to talk about thrift and thrift, they will always be laughed at as stingy. Now many people regard the so-called separation as a very high-grade exquisite life embodiment. The so-called break-off, in short, is to take the unwanted, the unwanted, the unnecessary, all to the break and discard, only to retain the most necessary and most needed for life.
When I was a child, at home, there was almost no throwing away anything, and no matter how broken and rotten things were, there was always a time to reuse it. Including the books I used in elementary school, they were sewn with needles and threads from cigarette packs I picked up on the street.
When I was a child, no matter how many things there were in the house, I never felt how messy it was, because everything was useful. In the past, people had a slow pace of life, and there was always time to clean up the inside of the home neatly and cleanly.
In the home of modern people, no matter how reasonable the structure of the living room is, it always feels chaotic. The pace of life is fast, there is little free space, there is occasional leisure, I would rather hold my mobile phone and brush three or five hours of vibrato, and few people will have the patience to carefully clean up the home.
In contrast, the so-called fast pace of life is just an excuse, but after eating, wearing and living steadily, people become lazy.
Man's desires will always gradually expand. In the past, productivity was low, material conditions were poor, and the greatest ideal of man was to eat, wear and live in peace. These are not problems in modern society, and people have higher desires. The more desires, the more needs. There is more demand, and there is more greed. There is a lot of greed, some are not, some are useless, and the more unnecessary things are necessary, the more they are revealed. It is easy to choose phobia, it is easy to be upset and impetuous, and it is easy to suffer from gains and losses. Whether it is living space, living environment, dealing with people, daily life, emotional world, or spiritual thoughts, or even souls, the same truth. This wants, that is not willing to give up, greed is insufficient, desire is difficult to fill, the soul and reality are easy to mess up at both ends.
The ancients advocated cleaning, which was very good. All year round, we need to clean up some useless things that affect our normal life growth. The rest of the useful things needed are sorted according to the actual needs.
For us modern people, what needs to be cleaned is not only the formal cleaning of the living environment of the room, but more importantly, the cleaning of our souls and hearts. Eliminate those unnecessary greed and desires, let the living environment of the room return to cleanliness, and let the heart and soul return to peace. For every ordinary person, although it is impossible for everyone to be like a mirror table, as long as they are diligent, the dust of the soul will eventually be less. The soul is quiet, and life is more relaxed, free and happy.
After all, many times, the real freedom and happiness in life is not more, but less greed.
In addition to the big cleaning, in some places in Luliang, Shanxi, there is also the custom of washing the feet of young women. To this day, there is a local folk song in Lüliang that includes:
On the twenty-seventh day of the lunar month, the mother-in-law and women washed their feet.
One does not wash his feet, bleeding pus and harming water for seven months.
Now this custom is gone, in the past women tied small feet, so at the end of the year, always have to shake open the stinky foot wrap on the small feet tied for a year to wash, always do not cover the foot odor that has been covered for a year to the first day of the New Year, or even to the second year.
In the past, in addition to women washing their feet and bathing, there was also the custom of men cutting hair and shaving their heads, the so-called money and no money, shaving their heads for the New Year.
When I was a child, the Spring League Fu characters would also begin to be written. Folk proverb says, twenty-four, write big characters. After writing and posting it, every door of every household is plastered with red spring leagues and red blessing characters. There are old people in the family who always have to write: Fu ru the East Sea long flowing water, Shou bi Nanshan Bulao Pine, to wish the old man a happy life and health! And ordinary people always have to write about grains such as abundant grains, lush wealth, and wish for more money and more harvests in the new year. The courtyard should be posted with the New Year auspicious, and the door should be posted to see the joy. Even in front of the government, it is necessary to post Guotai Min'an and the whole world to celebrate the good wishes for the new year.
I remember when I was a child, every year in the New Year, the family bought red paper to cut well, and my mother herself lifted the brush, dipped in thick ink, and wrote a picture of the Spring League full of blessings on the red paper. My mother is a cultural person in our village, and the brush writing is very beautiful. Graceful and strong. Beautiful and especially agile. Unfortunately, the brush words of my mother's life were written on the Spring League, pasted on the door and were blown by the rain and the wind, and disappeared without a trace. Now that my mother has passed away for many years, my mother's brush words have never been seen again.
When I was a child, one of the most important things my mother had to do was to cut window flowers. In my memory, my mother was recognized by my neighbors as a well-known skillful hand, and the embroidery was also very recognized by everyone, especially the paper cutting. Ordinary people always need to have a bottom for cutting window flowers, and cut them according to the mold. The mother never uses any mold, takes a piece of red paper, folds it, cuts it directly with scissors, divides it by two, and various patterns are vividly displayed under the mother's scissors. There are magpies Noboru, five sons of love lotus, meilan bamboo chrysanthemums, historical figures, mountain and river scenery, fairy Buddha maidens, there are a variety of four hours of yoshi grass dark eight immortals, as well as Fulu Shouki and so on. An ordinary piece of red paper, as long as it passes through the scissors in the mother's hand, seems to be injected into the soul, and it instantly comes to life.
In addition to the above, more importantly, after a small year, the people believe that the gods have gone to heaven, and there are no taboos in human affairs. Red death marriage, opening of the business, weeding in front of the house and behind the house of the uninhabited people, etc. You don't have to look for Mr. Feng Shui to choose a date. Therefore, at the end of the year, there are many wedding ceremonies. Folk have also always had "the years of Yan rural marriage busy, Yichun post to tease chunguang." The sisters in front of the lamp whispered that the shou nian this year is a cave house" said.
In the past, as soon as the new year passed, every household began to be busy in various darkness for a week. Clean the room, clean the courtyard, wipe the glass, wash the quilt, make all kinds of button meat, steamed flower buns, make oil cakes, fried oil flowers. Cut window flowers and make new clothes. Prepare wine, meat, vegetables and fruits, write Spring Festival, cut ribbons, and hang lanterns. Buy firecrackers. The busiest days of the year are these days. Busy for a whole week, busy until Chinese New Year's Eve night, but also to make dumplings, keep the age, set off firecrackers, and receive gods. It was busy until the morning of the first day of the Chinese New Year, burning incense and prostrating to the gods and immortals in the family, and then worshipping the ancestors. After a series of busy, there is only half a day of leisure. And this is only a small half-day of leisure, which is the real leisure time of the former people. The ancient traditional literati used self-deprecation: stealing floating life half-day leisure, used to describe the common people, more appropriately. When we were young, the happiest and most hopeful New Year in our children's hearts was the busier and busier days that my father and mother worked hard all year round.
Times are changing, culture is changing, and customs and habits are also changing. Nowadays, people don't need to be busy like this. Book Chinese New Year's Eve meals in major restaurants and hotels a month in advance, and do what you should do before the first day of the New Year, just like usual. In the Chinese New Year's Eve or the first day of the New Year, have a meal in the booked restaurant and hotel, and the whole family gets together, and the year is over.
With the protection of the world's environmental ecology, environmental protection laws have been introduced all over the world, and they are even stricter in China. Now it is not allowed to set off fireworks and firecrackers, so whether it is a small year or a big year, in addition to the occasional sound of fireworks and firecrackers can be heard in some remote mountain villages, in most cities, the sound of fireworks and firecrackers that are full of joy and freedom and beautiful yearning can no longer be heard there, and it is no longer possible to appreciate Wang Anshi's pen: the sound of firecrackers is one year old, and the spring breeze sends warmth into the cultural mood of Tu Su, and local feelings.
Author: Zi jie wrote on February 4, 2021 in his hometown JieXiu
Source: Walker Zisuke
Disclaimer: This text material is from the Internet, reproduced this article for the purpose of transmitting more information. If there is a source labeling error or infringement of your legitimate rights and interests, please contact us with the author's proof of ownership, we will correct and delete it in time, thank you.