Since 1926, when American automobile king Henry Ford adopted a five-day workday, doing five days off has become a common practice around the world. If you want the horses to run, you have to give the horses grass, in the ancient times, there was no five-day rest and two system, for the common people, the sunrise and the sunset, there is no vacation, the formal vacation system only applies to the court officials, and the length of the holiday depends on the dynasty you are an official.
Before talking about ancient holidays, let's start with hair.
In ancient times, both men and women generally had to grow long hair, the reason is very simple, the body hair skin is given by parents, in order to fulfill filial piety, it should be well cared for, can not be destroyed casually.
"Filial Piety Sutra": The skin of the body, the parents who receive it, do not dare to destroy it, and the beginning of filial piety. Stand on the path of walking, make a name for yourself in the hereafter, show your parents, and end up filial piety. Husband filial piety begins with relatives, in the matter of the king, and finally stands up.
And as soon as the hair grows, there is a troublesome thing that has plagued people for thousands of years: the head is difficult to wash. Women living in modern times are still troubled by every hair wash, not to mention the ancient times when the level of technology was very backward.
How much trouble is that? The "Chronicle of History" records the troubles of a famous person, the famous Zhou Gong, who had to pause three times a day when washing his hair. Because the hair is too long, a short time can not be washed, and in order not to let the talents who come to visit feel neglected, they can only wash half of the stop, receive the talent and then come back to wash, if you come to visit again, but also pause, you say trouble is not troublesome.
The son of King Wuwen, the younger brother of King Wu, and the uncle of King Cheng; and he is also in the world, and I am not light in the world. However, one mu three times to hold the hair, one meal and three spit and three feeding, as if afraid of losing the world's people.
In addition to the hair is difficult to manage, there is a more serious is a long hair, once not washed for a long time, the hygiene situation is much more serious than short hair, dandruff, itching, lice and so on, which affects life and work.
In the Han Dynasty, officials generally lived in the official palace, that is, boarding system, usually busy work, big guys do not have time to wash their hair, in order to ensure the personal hygiene of officials, after all, the civil and military courtiers represent the face of the country, too dirty for the family to look down on, but also in order to ensure work efficiency, the Han Dynasty formulated a fixed vacation system: five days a break, four days of work, you can go home to rest for a day, while washing your hair. It can be said that the Han Dynasty state officials had two major events during the holidays: accompanying their families and washing their hair. At the same time, on several holidays such as the summer solstice and the winter solstice, officials can also rest and rest, and if they are roughly counted, Han Dynasty officials can rest for seventy or eighty days a year, and the treatment is not bad.
"Han Law": The officials rest for five days
Around the winter solstice, gentlemen settle down and meditate, hundreds of officials do not do anything, choose auspicious chen and then save trouble.
In the Tang Dynasty, the leave of officials formed a perfect system, and there were clear provisions for the leave of officials in the Six Classics of Tang.
The normal rest days of the Tang Dynasty are: ten days off, that is, ten days a break, a year can be about thirty or forty days of rest, look a little less, but this is a small meaning, the real big head is a variety of holidays.
First of all, there is a holiday every New Year's Holiday. On the first day of the lunar calendar, the New Year's Day, everyone is lively and lively, with seven days off; the winter solstice, an important holiday, the Han Dynasty is on holiday, we are also on holiday, seven days off; the cold food festival, four days off; the Qingming Festival, four days off; August 15, the Mid-Autumn Festival, four days off; the summer solstice day, four days off; the spring equinox, autumn equinox, summer, and winter are a festival, three volts are too hot, holidays, March three, May five, July seven, and so on are all holidays. What about the students of Guozijian? In May, you can go home to help the family do farm work, and in September you can go home to prepare clothes for the winter and leave them for fifteen days each. Want to go home and visit the grave? Okay, five days off; have relatives getting married and going to the ceremony? Yes, five days off, and there are white things to participate in? Okay, three days off; to be crowned? Three days off; want to go home and see your parents? Yes, if the home is three thousand miles away, a thirty-five-day vacation is given every three years; if the home is within five hundred miles, it is given a fifteen-day vacation every five years. Just on the surface of the holidays, the Tang Six Classics record several lines, in addition, some are not recorded, such as Shakyamuni's birthday, a day off; Lao Tzu's birthday, also a holiday, a day off,
When Tang Xuanzong arrived, he also created a festival for officials to take a holiday. In the seventeenth year of the new century, Tang Xuanzong, who had a strong sense of superiority, adopted the suggestions of Zhang Shu and other officials and designated the fifth day of the first month of August every year, that is, his own birthday, as the "Thousand Autumn Festival.", and the officials of this festival not only took a holiday, but also put it on three consecutive days, not only for three consecutive days, but also for various celebrations every day, so that everyone could have fun and have a good time.
In addition to the holidays of various names, the death of the emperor's family members, the bad weather, the emperor's good mood, the joy of your son, and so on, all kinds of reasons can be the reason for the holiday, rough statistics, all kinds of holidays add up, Tang Dynasty officials are resting almost half a year, more than now.
Internal and external officials have the festival of false tranquility, (that is, Yuan Zheng and the winter solstice give seven days of leave, the cold eclipse path Qingming four days, August 15, the summer solstice and lala three days each.) The seventh day of the first month. Fifteen days, obscure days, spring. Autumn 2nd Shrine, February 8, March 3rd, April 8th, May 5th, Sanfu Day, July 7th. Fifteenth, September 9th, October 1st, Spring Equinox, Autumn Equinox, Autumn Equinox, Summer, Winter, Every Ten, and give a day off. May gives field leave, September gives clothing leave, for twice, each fifteen days. Private temples, each given five days of leave. Four o'clock festivals, four days each. Parents are three thousand miles away, three years a given provincial leave of thirty-five days; five hundred miles, five years a give a day of leave of worship, and apart from the journey, the five products have been on and heard. Crown, give three days; five servings of internal pro crown, give a day off, do not give Cheng. Marriage, nine days, separation. Zhou's marriage, five days; great merit, three days; small merit, one day, do not give Cheng. Qi Wan Zhou, give leave for thirty days; burial, three days; remove clothes, two days. May, give leave for fifteen days; burial, two days; removal, one day. In March, seven days of leave are given; one day for burial and removal. Zhou has been on the relatives to give Cheng. If you hear mourning, and subtract one from three points. Private taboo to give a day off, avoid the night before the night to listen to return. Wupin has taken leave of absence, and all the officials have heard about it. The fate of the baggage.
"On August 5, the seventeenth year of the new century, the right minister Xue Yao and the left minister Zhang said that they would play the song, please take the day as the 'Thousand Autumn Festival', write the Jia Order, and spread it in the world", and stipulated that every day on this day, the government and the public rejoiced, "The xian ling of the world's states feasted and enjoyed, and took a three-day vacation."
In the Song Dynasty, it was also a good dynasty. Everyone who has studied a little history knows that the Song Dynasty is more special, the commodity economy is developed, all kinds of entertainment facilities can be seen everywhere, the extravagance is relatively heavy, coupled with the respect for the literati doctors, although the officials' holidays are not as much as the Tang Dynasty, but more than a hundred days can still be achieved, plus the Song Dynasty officials have nothing to do with the salary increase, the officials can be said to have money and leisure, stay up until retirement, and various treatment.
Zhang Dai recorded Su Shi's play experience when he was in Hangzhou in "West Lake Dream Search": "Because I want to keep the day when the eastern slope is in Hangzhou, every time I have a break in the spring, I will meet the lake and eat early in the best place of the landscape." At the end of the meal, each guest has a boat, and the captain has one person, and each receives a number of prostitutes, and let him do as he pleases. After the sound of the gong, the reunion will look at the lake pavilion or the bamboo pavilion, and the joy will be over. To the first and second drums, the night market is still not dispersed, and the candles are listed to return. The women of the city's lieutenants gathered around and watched. This is really ancient and windy, and the xishi is happy, and it cannot be traced back. “
I will not translate, you can read the original text to know how happy this holiday is.
However, from the beginning of the Yuan Dynasty, the good days of officials came to an end. The Yuan Dynasty was established by nomadic peoples, originally did not have a cold interest in the original set of holidays in the Central Plains, plus the Han people are outsiders, is a tool used to govern the country, they should work more, rest less, tired and do not die, life lies in sports, and those who can feel happy at work are good officials. So the traditional holidays were greatly reduced, even the ten days off were cut off, leaving only the Spring Festival, the winter solstice and several other important holidays and the original holidays of the nomads to take a holiday, adding up to only about ten days a year, compared to the Tang and Song Dynasties can be said to be a lot of sadness, want to wash your hair? Don't sleep at night, stay up late and wash it.
When Boss Zhu overthrew the Yuan Dynasty and established Daming, the officials waited not to turn over and sing, but to continue the hard work.
Boss Zhu can be said to be a workaholic, reigning for thirty-one years, almost a day without rest, working every day, only to feel that he did not do enough, especially Hongwu eighteen years, from September 14 to twenty-one of this year, Boss Zhu in eight days, approved and approved 1,660 pieces of music, handled 3,391 pieces of state affairs, an average of more than 200 pieces of music every day, handled more than 400 pieces of state affairs, it can be said that it is a benchmark emperor. He is a workaholic, coupled with the distrust of officials caused by his early experience, Zhu Yuanzhang's requirements for his subordinates can be said to have reached the level of no one who has never come before, and all the holidays except the Spring Festival and the winter solstice do not take holidays, of which the Spring Festival holiday is five days, and the winter solstice is three days off, which is nearly half compared to the Yuan Dynasty. In Boss Zhu's view, officials are dedicated to the country, if you want to rest for a long time, then you can do something else, I as an emperor do not have holidays every day, as a subordinate can be two days more than me, you can steal music at home, don't be dissatisfied.
When Boss Zhu stopped cooking and the Yongle Emperor Zhu Di ascended the throne, the situation gradually improved, and Yongle added ten days of vacation to the officials in one breath, and ordered that the Lantern Festival should also be taken off in the future, and the ten days of rest would be taken, and the hundred officials would be very happy. In addition, the treatment of the Shu Jishi of the Hanlin Academy in the Ming Dynasty can be said to be the envy of officials, and for the Shu Jishi, Zhu Yuanzhang specifically allowed them to restore the ten rest system and be able to do ten days off. However, in addition to the pitiful holidays, officials can also pray for the emperor's leave, encounter the birth of the prince, the emperor's birthday and other royal events, it is possible to take a holiday, if the official family has a wedding and funeral and other major events, you can also apply for a holiday from the imperial court, in general, in addition to the period when Boss Zhu was in power, the Ming Dynasty officials' holidays, although not as good as the Tang and Song Dynasties, were also better than the Yuan Dynasty.
Every year's New Year's Day, starting from the first day of the first year, and five days of holidays for civil and military officials. The winter solstice festival begins with this day and the three days of holiday
Seven years of Yongle, the Lantern Festival, starting from the eleventh day of the first month, and the ten days of the Hundred Officials' Day
The Qing Dynasty generally continued the ming dynasty's vacation system, but there is a special feature in that the Qing Dynasty directly opened up the Spring Festival, Lantern Festival, etc., and created the longest holiday.
During the four days from December 19 to December 22 of the lunar calendar every year, the Qing Dynasty government would be monitored by Qin Tian to calculate an auspicious day, and then the official government would "seal".
It is to seal the official seal that symbolizes the power of the state, indicating that the office will no longer be worked from now on. On the day of the sealing, a solemn sealing ceremony is held, and in the evening, officials will eat a good meal to treat the year's hard work. After the feast, everyone can go back to their respective homes. The printing time is generally after one month, which means that officials can rest for a whole month! Since the day of the seal, except for some important departments, other departments have not accepted business, and criminal cases such as relatively minor thefts will be postponed until the opening of the seal, although the officials are happy, but the people are very injured, according to records, after the seal, the neighborhood merchants are full of hooligans and rogues wandering around.
Seal as usual, promulgate the whole world, and obey it as one
Every December, within the nineteenth, twentieth, twenty-first, and twenty-second four days, the Qin Heavenly Supervisor shall choose an auspicious period, seal it as usual, and promulgate it to the whole world, and obey it as one. On the day of the seal, the heads of the seals of the ministries and institutes shall invite their colleagues to gather and drink in order to reward the work of one year. Therefore, whenever the seal has been completed, all the horses are sent out, the area around the front door, it is very crowded, and the garden and the building are all closed. After the seal, the beggars grabbed goods between the city and had no scruples, and the officials did not do anything. Also vulgar also.
Long or short, as long as there is a vacation, it is a good thing.