During the Spring Festival, there will be a variety of folk activities, among which "New Year's Greeting" is very important. On the first day of the first lunar month, people will go out of their homes and congratulate their relatives and friends on the New Year. The custom of "paying homage to the New Year" during the Spring Festival has existed since ancient times and has been passed down for thousands of years. So during the Ming Dynasty, how did people worship each other?
According to social status, let's start with the Emperor of the Ming Dynasty. Although the emperor is the lord of the world, there are still people who are more honorable than his status, which is the emperor's living mother and grandmother. For example, during the reign of Emperor Yingzong, Emperor Xiaozong of Ming, and Emperor Wuzong of Ming, they would first go to the palace of the empress dowager and the empress dowager to ask questions, and "pay homage" to their grandmothers and mothers. At this time, the emperor also had to kneel down and ask for peace.
Next, the emperor "served the crown" to the Fengtian Temple and held a grand first pilgrimage, "Jinyi Wei Chen Halo Book of Honor guard in Dan Majesty, and the east and west of Dan Qi", "The Sect Secretary Chen Da is happy to be in the east, west, north of Dan Majesty." The Ceremonial Division set up the Tongwen Yu Shuai case in the east of Dan Majesty". All officials of all sizes in Beijing, as well as envoys of vassal states such as Korea and Ryukyu, dressed in imperial robes, knelt in front of the Fengtian Hall to congratulate the emperor on the New Year and performed the kneeling ceremony.
After the end of the pilgrimage, it is the New Year's celebration between officials, which basically follows the principle of honor and inferiority. However, the New Year's celebrations in the Beijing officialdom are more special. On the first day of the first lunar month, the owner went out to visit the New Year, and only put a paper book and pen in his home. When guests arrive at home, they simply write their names on a piece of paper and celebrate the New Year. Since the host was not at home, there was no courtesy at all.
Here we are talking about the New Year's greetings of the Ming Dynasty's clan. Every year on the first day of the first lunar month, officials "pay homage" to the emperor in the Fengtian Temple, and on the second day of the first lunar month, they will come to the palace to "pay homage" to the princes who have not yet reached the fiefdom in the capital. The place of worship is located on the east corridor of The Fengtian Gate.
As for the clans in the fiefdoms, it was a different story. Taking the King of Zhou in Kaifeng as an example, on the first day of the first lunar month, the King of Zhou led the clan, yibin, and civil and military officials to the carrier gate to worship the long live card. Then, the King of Zhou came to the Cunxin Hall and accepted the greetings of the others. After the end of the pilgrimage, the king of Zhou would give a feast, and then these people would take turns to invite guests, and the moon would not be empty.
Ordinary people have their own customs. The New Year's Eve in the Beijing area is a trip on the first day of the first year, and if you meet relatives and friends on the road, you will kowtow on the street. In the Hangzhou area, the New Year's greeting is the middle hall in the family, the humble and the young greet the elderly, and the men go out to pay homage to relatives and friends. At that time, there were three main kinds of new year-worship rituals: prostration, worship, and prostration.
This kind of etiquette fully embodies the concept of respect and inferiority, and the worship and worship are generally between peers, and prostration is the way for juniors to bow to their elders. However, at that time, there was already a clear "urban-rural difference". The New Year's greetings in the city are often false gifts, most of them are looking at the door to throw this thorn, and some even do not go to the door at all, but only send people to send famous posts. In rural areas, however, new year's greetings must be done personally and personally visited the door to pay homage.
Resources:
1. "Miscellaneous Records of Yupu"; 2. "Zhi Zhongzhi"; 4. "Miscellaneous Records of Wanju"; 4 "Slang"