Fast forward to 2022, and we still haven't been able to completely get rid of the epidemic.
Although we may not be able to return home during special periods, we are still much happier than the ancients. The ancients wanted to go home for the New Year, which was even more difficult than ascending to the heavens.
So, what was the reason for forcing the ancients to "celebrate the New Year in place"?
The road fare is too expensive
In ancient times, officials took office as officials, students went to Beijing to catch examinations, and businessmen went out to do business, often far away from their hometowns. Such a long distance, if you want to go home for the New Year, you can take horses, donkeys, cattle, as well as horse-drawn carriages, donkey carts, and ox carts.
Horses and carriages have the highest prices, according to the standards of the Tang Dynasty, horses carry 100 pounds, and for every 100 miles, the price is 100 yuan. Suppose one person and one horse have to walk 300 kilometers, about 600 texts (1 kilometer = 2 miles). The speed of ancient horses was about 70 miles per day, and this journey took about ten days. Considering the cost of food, accommodation, and so on on on the road in these ten days or so, it will cost nearly a thousand yuan, that is, one or two pieces of silver.
Southern Song Dynasty Li Tang (biography) "Jin Wen GongFuGuo Map" (partial) Metropolitan Museum of Art Collection
Looking at the salary standards of the Tang Dynasty, the grass-roots state cadres like Jiupin Sesame in the Tang Dynasty had a monthly salary of no more than half two silver. If you want to take a carriage home, the two-month salary is gone, and the workers are distressed.
The most common travel for the average person is an ox cart or donkey cart. What did the car that the ancients took on the way home look like? Zhu Rui's "Journey map of Xishan" of the Southern Song Dynasty depicts in detail the shape of several three-ox vans for us. In the picture, three oxen are seen driving together, and one person wields a whip to drive the car. The wheels of the carriage behind him were huge, higher than a human body, and it was no wonder that three cows had to pull them. There are two small short legs protruding from the back of the car to stabilize the car when parking.
Southern Song Dynasty Zhu Rui (biography) "Xishan Travel Map" (partial)
The carriage is divided into two levels, the lower floor is low and wide, and the upper floor is high and narrow. The picture below shows a man sitting on the back of the car with his legs crossed, and a man lying on the upper floor wrapped in a quilt – there was a sleeper.
Southern Song Dynasty Zhu Rui 《溪山行图)" (partial)
According to the Tang Liudian ( Tang Liudian ) , the cost of hiring a donkey cart to travel 100 miles with a piece of luggage is 900 yuan , and if you take a mountain road , it rises to 1200 yuan. Do not blame people for rising prices, the reason why transportation is inconvenient in ancient times, in addition to backward transportation, poor road conditions are also a reason. Fan Chengda of the Song Dynasty complained about this in his travelogue:
“
Since leaving Yichun, it has been raining heavily for several days, and the mud on the road is like oil. I don't know who rules the way, but the stones are filled randomly, and the faces are cut and smooth. In the mud, the pulp is deeply submerged, and on the stone, it is not allowed to stand on the feet.
——Fan Chengda's "Record of the Luan"
”
When Fan Chengda left Yichun, he encountered heavy rain for several days, and the mud on the road was muddy and viscous, as if it had been laid with a thick layer of oil, and there were rubble scattered among them. Walking on the mud, the feet will be submerged, stepping on the stones, and the feet will be shaky. Fan Cheng was furious, and even the people who built the road criticized him.
In contrast, "local New Year" can not only save a lot of money, but also eliminate a lot of boatwork.
It's too long
Even if you are not short of money, the ancients went out on a long trip, and the time spent on the road was as little as half a month, more than half a year, just to go home for a new year and then come back to work, it is not cost-effective.
At the beginning of the eleventh year of the reign of The Great Ming Dynasty (1498 AD), Xu Pu, the first assistant of the cabinet who had returned to his hometown, set out from Beijing and embarked on a journey back to his hometown. Xu Pu was a native of Yixing, Jiangsu Province, and the best route from Beijing to Yixing in that era was to take a boat all the way south along the Beijing-Hangzhou Grand Canal.
By the twenty-seventh day of the lunar month, Xu Pu finally returned home. This "Spring Festival" one-way trip took nearly a month, and Xu Pu later lamented in a letter to his colleagues: "This road is tossed, my old bones are going to fall apart."
Southern Song Dynasty Li Tang 《To be crossed picture page) (partial)
This year, Xu Pu was 71 years old, and as the first assistant of the cabinet, he retired to his hometown, and the carriages and horses along the way must not be too bad, even so it took nearly a month.
Not to mention ordinary people. If you want to go home for the New Year, and you haven't gone to the place yet, you have to go back to work again.
Such a huge time cost has made many ancient people's local New Year's Day become the norm, and staying in the post is a long time. How long is it? Let's say that I have forgotten what my daughter-in-law looks like.
The "Biography of the Daughters of Lie" records that a man named Qiu Hu went to work as an official in a foreign country five days after marrying his daughter-in-law, and once he went there, he went for five years. Five years later, when he returned to his hometown, he met a beautiful mulberry woman on the side of the road, so he went forward to flirt, but the woman sternly refused. After returning home, Qiu Hu found that the picker he met on the side of the road was his wife, and he was very ashamed.
The story ends with the wife, ashamed of Qiu Hu's despicable deeds, and commits suicide by throwing herself into the river. This qiu hu, the scum of chic, such a person, or on the spot New Year, never come back.
Too heavy luggage
Even without considering the cost of time and money, the ancients had another obstacle on the way home for the New Year: luggage. Because it takes a month to go home, eating and wearing on the road has become a big problem. The luggage of the ancients mainly contained such several types of items.
Change of clothes and sleeping bedding on the road. Because the journey is too long, it is very likely that the rain and snow will be rainy and snowy when you leave, and the willows will be green when you arrive. The thick and thin ones in the bag should be prepared to cope with the unpredictable weather. Some inns do not provide bedding, so you have to bring your own.
The food eaten on the road is both dry food and road food. Long journeys always pass by sparsely populated areas. Modern people see through the car window of the large area of land that is not seen, or the rolling hills, will become the scenery on the road. But for the ancients, such a thousand miles of barren smoke they had to measure with their feet, even the "chicken sound mao shop month, human footprint Banqiao cream" such a small inn is also a luxury, had to take out dry food, with pickles to fill the stomach.
Southern Song Dynasty Liang Kai "Snow Mountain Travel Map", Collection of the Freer Museum of Art, USA
The picture shows two people riding a donkey on a path between the mountains
Ordinary people's road dishes are generally pickles made of kohlrabi, and slightly richer people can also bring some chicken, fish and dried meat and vegetables. Like the eggplant that Wang Xifeng fed to Grandma Liu in the dream of the Red Chamber, it can be sealed in a jar for a long time, of course, it can be used as a road dish, but this dish "poured a dozen chickens to accompany him", and the workers could not afford to hurt it.
The ancients also needed umbrellas in their bags. In addition to basic functions such as preventing rain and sun, sometimes umbrellas have a wonderful use.
Yuan Wang Yuan (biography) "Autumn Mountain Travel Map" (partial)
The Southern Song Dynasty people introduced a new way of opening the umbrella: "Give it to Dengye, take the second rain cover, and remove its handle." He who has it, who serves the winds of heaven and the wind, and whose wings are drummed, is on the flat earth, and is harmless. "The rain cover is the umbrella, and this man said that when he climbed up to the heights, he carried two umbrellas, removed the handles, and when the wind started, he put the two umbrella covers on his body as wings, and in an instant he could come to the flat ground unharmed.
Actually collided with Tom Cat's brain hole.
Medicines are also essential for travel. In the "Hostel Preparation Essentials" written by Dong Ji, a Song Dynasty, it is written: "Eunuchs travel north and south, guests wading on the road, most of them are touching, evil qi is easy to enter, and prescription medicines are prepared for urgency, especially when they are careful." "Dong Ji has been sick since he was a child, so he went to study medicine, because he thought that people are prone to diseases on the road, he specially wrote this book for people traveling on the road.
Sometimes the ancients had to bring their own night pots when they went far away. In ancient times, the service industry was not developed, and inns in bustling areas may be equipped with Gong barrels, but remote inns are not so complete. If you live in, and if you want to go to the toilet in the middle of the night, the wilderness, go out for fear of things being stolen, do not go out to hold it uncomfortable, at this time only to find that the hard work of carrying the night pot all the way, the back is worth it.
Southern Song Dynasty Anon. "Mountain Shop Wind Curtain Map" Collection of the Palace Museum
Picture of a small inn on a winding mountain road
For the ancients, a trip to a long door is tantamount to moving a home for several months, and it is no wonder that so many people are willing to celebrate the New Year on the spot.
Qing Yu Zhiding "Migration Map" (partial) Collection of the Palace Museum
Forced to work overtime
If your family is not short of money, buys the best carriage, hires many servants, covers dry food and night pots and so on, don't worry about it, you plan to go home and reunite with your parents and family no matter what, but I'm sorry, I said: How about another shift?
Some ministers worked overtime to pay homage to the emperor.
According to the "Tokyo Dream Record", "On New Year's Day, the car sat in the Daikei Hall. Hundreds of officials are crowned with court clothes, and all roads are lifted up to remove people, and they are also dressed in class. "On the first day of the New Year of the Song Dynasty, a great pilgrimage meeting was to be held, and all the civil and military officials had to participate, and the emperor sat in the Daqing Hall, and the civil and military officials, envoys of various countries, and the emperors and grandchildren on the square outside the palace were lined up neatly outside the palace, and under the guidance of the praise officer, they prostrated to the emperor and shouted long live.
This kind of activity cannot be easily absent, and officials whose hometown is not in the capital can hardly think about going home for the New Year. On the contrary, it is better to stay in the capital honestly and follow the emperor to eat and drink spicy.
But some officials are not so relaxed and need to be on duty. This kind of work often falls on the heads of newcomers. According to the Song Ren's notebook novel "New Book of the South", "The old practice of the imperial history, the first entry into Taiwan, accompanied by twenty-five days." The holiday is straight for five days, which is called the leopard straight. The first official of Baisi Prefecture has this name. ”
In the sixth year of Jiayou, the 25-year-old Su Shi was required to take the examination of the middle school subject, and was awarded the title of Judge of Dali and the Judge of Fengxiang Province. Su Shi achieved the best score of the third class in the subject examination - there were seven grades in the subject examination, of which the third class was the highest, because the first and second grades were fictitious. Su Shi's achievements were not only the best among all the people in the dynasty, but also the only one in the three hundred years of the Song Dynasty.
The results have been so good that they have just entered the official field and are also a newcomer, and the New Year's duty has undoubtedly been handed over to Su Shi. Su Shi wrote a poem to record this.
Children are strong enough not to sleep, and they keep vigil and rejoice.
Morning chickens and do not sing, but also drums and fears.
Sit for a long time when the embers fall and look up at the Big Dipper obliquely.
Next year will not be a year, and the heart is afraid.
Trying to do your best this night, the teenager can still boast.
- Su Shi, "Keeping the Age"
At that time, Su Shi's father and brother were in Kyoto, and Su Shi was alone in the new year, although his heart was lonely, he still comforted himself that there was a New Year next year, and it was the same when the time came to reunite.
Qing Dong Bangda "Imperial Pen Fan Cheng Dafen Year Axis" (partial)
Collection of the National Palace Museum in Taipei
The picture depicts Chinese New Year's Eve the scene of eating a reunion dinner at night and children lighting a cannon battle
For the sake of time, money, luggage, overtime, etc., "local New Year" has become the most cost-effective choice for many people in ancient times, both economically and emotionally. Some people are bitter and happy, and after overcoming the initial homesickness, they find pleasure in the New Year in a foreign land.
Xu Xiake, a famous traveler of the Ming Dynasty, came to Jizu Mountain in Yunnan Province one winter and spent the night in a temple. When the monk went out one day, he told him that tomorrow was the Chinese New Year's Eve, and Xu Xiake was shocked to realize that it was the end of the year, and the time had passed so quickly, and he was thousands of miles away from home, and he couldn't help but "be miserable for a long time." But soon, the desolate mood was washed away by the new insights during the journey, and Xu Xiake's new friends invited him to visit his home Chinese New Year's Eve night.
Two or three friends, gathered around a roast potato, boiled vegetables, coarse tea and light rice but tasteful; although the huts in the mountains are small, they are simple and elegant, and the windows are clear. This year, Xu Xiake spent Chinese New Year's Eve nights in the depths of the chaotic mountains, but he felt that "this one night is better than a thousand nights in the world".
On the first day of the new year, when the sky was still dark, he stood at the window and looked out, the sky was full of stars and sagging, as if within reach, and the torches of the people facing the mountain at the bottom of the mountain were shining brightly, and they did not go out all night. It is the Yao pond under the moon, the scenery of Penglai, but it is just that.
Time to go back to the present, because of the epidemic, some people can not go home for the New Year. But we are much happier than the ancients. Instead of anxiety and sorrow, it is better to use a mask, use safety protection, and use the love of distant relatives to create their own peace of mind.
After all, health and peace are the biggest concerns you and your loved ones at home for each other.
Resources:
Liu Xiang's Biography of the Daughters of Lie
Yue Ke 《桯史·Panyu Sea Beast》
Xu Jijun,"Song Dynasty Food, Clothing, Shelter and Travel"
Guan Shanyuan, "The Spring Festival of the Ancients: Slow and Leisurely Road, Heavy Nostalgia"
Ni Fangliu's "Ancient "Spring Festival""