Special Article: Yang Muqing, a famous calligrapher and painter and cultural scholar, talks about the culture of nian

Special Article: Yang Muqing, a famous calligrapher and painter and cultural scholar, talks about the 23rd day of the 23rd month of the 2021 Xin Ugly Wax in the cultural lunar calendar of 2021

As we all know, there are more than ten different interpretations of "year", such as time, era, experience, age, harvest and surname, and behind these concepts is the profound Chinese cultural heritage. The cultural content of the year is very extensive, about four categories: the legend of the beast of the year, the customs of the year, the evolution of the text of the year, and the calendar of the year.

First, the legend of the Nian Beast, also known as "Xi", is a vicious beast in the myths and legends of the ancient Han people. Legend has it that in ancient times, at midnight at the end of the year, the nian beasts would attack the village, and the horns on their heads were weapons, and all the villages occupied by the nian beasts were brutally slaughtered. Legend has it that a white-bearded fairy taught people a way to use the weakness of the Nian Beast to "set off firecrackers (frightening the Nian Beast) and sticking to the Spring League (nian beast afraid of red)" to drive away the Nian Beast. Therefore, in order to prevent the New Year beast from harassing again, people gradually turned firecrackers and sticking Spring Festivals into New Year's festival customs. According to research, the earliest mention of the "Nian Beast" appeared in the 1933 Shanghai Pudong writer Sun Yusheng (Sea Shu Shisheng) "Hu Yu Dialect Old Record of the Old Record of the Old Record of the Old Customs of the Years" (壖ruán, the open space or field outside the temple of the city and the water's edge), etc.): "It has a hanging purple micro star scroll, the painter paints a stone pillar, and the lock on the pillar resembles a dog and not a dog beast, or the cloud is a beast, that is, the Tengu star, or the cloud is the name of the beast, often lusting at people, and the purple micro star is locked, so it does not make the netherworld wanton, but makes people not suffer from the New Year, so it is most appropriate to hang on this during the New Year." However, judging from some other documentary records and the later formation of the New Year painting inheritance, the Nian Beast may have evolved from the pre-Qin "Classic of Mountains and Seas", the Han Dynasty "Divine Anomaly Classic", the Southern and Northern Dynasties "Jingchu Chronicles", the Tang Dynasty Du Fu's "Heavenly Dog Endowment", Liu Yuxi's "Tian xing", the Ming Dynasty's Anonym "Xilu Gong Mastiff Map", Wu Cheng'en's "Journey to the West", and the Qing Dynasty Yongzheng period calligrapher Luo Ping's "Hu Ren Strange Beast Map". For example, Du Fu's "Tengu Endowment": "Fu He Tengu is rugged and rugged, and the qi is unique." The color resembles a fox, and it is as small as an ape. Although Wanfu did not dare to go forward, non-Hu people could know where they were going. Leaning on the iron pillar and the golden lock is broken, there is no way to save it. Coincidentally, the fictional unicorn in Western myths and legends is shaped like a white horse, with a spiral horn in front of its forehead, representing nobility, pride and purity. Some stories are described as having wings, and there are even descriptions of unicorns that are black. In particular, some modern and contemporary works such as Harry Potter continue to describe and disseminate it. It is estimated that the prototype of the "unicorn" of the Westerners may have come from the Indian rhinoceros, which is now found in Kazilanga National Park in India. Of course, through the study of the "ancient culture" of China and the Western world, it can be seen that the fictional "unicorn story" in Western myths and legends is to absorb the ancient Chinese historical and cultural stories, and after reprocessing, it was introduced to China in the last years of the Qing Dynasty, starting from the great Shanghai of the Ten Mile Ocean Field, which is the characteristic of the fusion of human society and culture. People basically know the customs of the year, starting from the twenty-third small year of the Waxing Moon (the south begins with the twenty-fourth day, and there is also the saying that the officials, three people, four fishing, and five. Every household has entered the preparation period for the New Year. For example, twenty-three, sugar melon sticky; twenty-four, sweeping the house; twenty-five, grinding tofu; twenty-six, cutting the new year meat; twenty-seven slaughtering roosters; twenty-eight noodles; twenty-nine steamed steamed steamed buns... Of course, there are a lot of customs. Xiaonian does not refer specifically to a festival, and the festivals called "Xiaonian" are not the same due to different customs in different places. Most of the northern regions call the Festival of the 23rd/24th of the Waxing Moon as a small year. Many areas around Jiangsu, Zhejiang, and Shanghai call the fifth day of the first lunar month a small year. There are also many regions that call the 15th Lantern Festival of the first month a small year, and the winter solstice is also called a small year. In fact, for us from the perspective of historical and cultural inheritance and social development, the more likely substantive significance of the New Year lies in the "sacrifice" and "worship", which involves a relationship between heaven, man and earth, that is, how to live in harmony between man and nature, and also belongs to the category of ecological civilization. The ancients said, "The great affairs of the country are in the worship of the gods." Then people know "what is the great affair of the family?" "Through my research, it can be said that the great affairs of the family are in the sacrifice! If the sacrifices and ceremonies are placed in the cultural background of the new era to expand the new, it is of great significance to the current and future social stability and harmonious development. As for the customs of the year, there are many, such as: the twenty-third day of the waxing moon, commonly known as the "small year", and it is said that this day is the day of the "King of the Stove". On the twenty-sixth day of the lunar month, pigs are slaughtered and cut meat, and people can only eat meat during the annual festival. On the twenty-ninth day of the 29th month of The Month of La, go to the grave and ask the ancestors to make a great offering. The worship of ancestors has a long history on the mainland. Chinese New Year's Eve, one night is two years old, and five is divided into two years. Cold resigns from winter snow, and warmth brings into the spring wind. On the first day of the Chinese New Year, the Golden Rooster announced. The younger generation pays homage to the elders, and the elders give the elders money to suppress the evil spirits. On the fifth day of the Chinese New Year, the geng cattle plough in the spring. The five roads connect the god of wealth, the east, west, south, north, and north, and the five roads of wealth. On the seventh day of the Lunar New Year, life expectancy is abundant. Spread pancakes and eat shippo soup, settle the body and mind, and recuperate. On the thirteenth day of the first month, the lamp is lit under the stove. Pre-placed Lantern Festival, since the thirteenth, lanes and strange bridges, are woven bamboo lanterns. Yang Gong's death day. On the fifteenth day of the first month, the night illuminates the silkworm (God). Looking at the color to judge the abundance of the year, it later evolved into the Lantern Festival. As far as the evolution of the word "year" is concerned, as early as three thousand years ago, there was a new year character in the YinShang oracle bone period, which is the physical structure of the "Shanghe Xiaren", which is indeed like a person carrying rice. The Zhou Dynasty Jinwen inherited some cultural characteristics of the Yin Shang oracle bone, and the change to the word "nian" was not very large, and the context was relatively clear. However, the word "nian" became the physical structure of "Shanghe Xiaqian" during the Xiaozhuan period of the Qin Dynasty, which is estimated to mean that people should be long, to have a thousand years, or whether the "millennium plan" will be born from then on! See Guo Moruo and Hu Houxuan's "Oracle Bone Collection, 2132 Rubbings" (published by the Institute of History of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences/Zhonghua Bookstore) and the evolution of ancient scripts such as Jin Wen and Jian Mu. "Poetry Zhou Song Feng Nian": "Feng Duo Duo Huang Duo (tú), there are also Gao Miao, Trillion And Zi. For the wine is liquor, 烝畀祖妣. With the Qiabai Li, the blessings are all over the place. "Mencius Teng Wen Gongshang": "Yu was outside for eight years, and he passed through his door three times without entering." Xu Shen of the Eastern Han Dynasty", "Commentary on the Interpretation of Texts": "Nian /Suffocation, Gu Shuye." The modern paleographer Yu Shengwu's "Oracle Bone Script Interpretation" pointed out: "The year is in terms of the maturity of all cereals throughout the year. "Fourth, the calendar of the year now everyone knows that a year is the time when the earth rotates around the sun for one week (the earth rotates in a circle for one day / day) or the time interval experienced by the sun in the celestial sphere along the ecliptic from a certain punctuation point and back to the same punctuation point, which can be divided into four seasons: spring, summer, autumn and winter, each season is three months, and spring is the beginning of the year and the end of the year. There are twelve months in a year (excluding leap months), 365 or 366 days in the solar calendar, and 354 or 355 days in the lunar calendar, so the lunar calendar should be leap. Of course, this involves a question of an astronomical calendar. Through the literature, it can be seen that "nian" is called "zai" in the time of Yao Shun, which has the meaning of the celestial stars carrying for a week; the Xia Dynasty is called "year", which means that human life has grown by one year, and new vitality is coming; the Shang Dynasty is called "Qi", which means that the four hours have passed, and the history is compiled to worship the ancestors of the gods; the Zhou Dynasty is called "Nian", which is allegorical to the harvest of crops. During the Spring and Autumn Period, the "Three Years of the Duke of Huangong" records: "In a year, all the grains are cooked as a year." Since the ripening of grains requires a cycle, the "year" gradually evolves into a unit of time. For example, in the Book of Poetry, "I have not seen myself, and I have not seen it in the past three years." "Also denotes the unit of time. The first Chinese dictionary, Erya Shitian, which was born in the Warring States period, says: "Zai, Nian Ye." Xia Yue Nian, Shang Yue Qi, Zhou Yue Nian, Tang Yu Yue Zai". Guo Pu, a feng shui scholar during the Two Jin Dynasties, explained this: "Years, take the years and stars once; worship, take four hours and one end; year, take he a ripe; load, take things and finally start more.". Here is a detailed interpretation of the timetable and evolutionary relationship of the "year". In the long-term cultivation practice of primitive agriculture, the Chinese ancestors discovered the cycle of four seasons, and at the same time observed the law between the movement of celestial bodies (sun, moon and stars) and the growth of crops on the ground (that is, visual timing). In the Xia, Shang, and Zhou dynasties, there was already a method of changing the position of the stars referred to by the Big Dipper bucket with the dry branch chronology, month, and day (calendar completion period), and because the calendars used by each dynasty were different, the first year (that is, the beginning of each year) was also different. The first month of the summer calendar is the month of January of the yin (agricultural) calendar that we use now, that is, the month of Jianyin Mengchun; the Shang calendar begins with the current lunar calendar December, that is, the winter month of the Jianugi season. The weekly calendar begins with the current lunar month of November, the month of Jianzi Midwinter. In the early days of the Western Zhou Republic, Zhou Dinggong and Zhao Mu gong jointly ruled and formulated a chronology. The first year of the Republic (i.e. 841 BC) is the beginning of a definite chronology in the history of the continent. The Qin Dynasty used the "Lunar Calendar", with the current lunar calendar October as the first year, that is, the month of Jianhai Mengdong; the early Han Dynasty was still based on the Qin calendar. Until the time of Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty, the "Lunar Calendar" was changed to the "Taichu Calendar", and the twenty-four solar terms were incorporated into the calendar, still with the first month of the Summer Calendar as the first year. This is why we still refer to the yin (agricultural) calendar as the summer calendar. The Southern Song Dynasty Yang Zhongfu compiled the Tongtian Calendar and the Yuan Dynasty Guo Shoujing compiled the Time Calendar, both of which were 365.2425 days at the age of one, which is exactly the same as the average length of one year in the current Gregorian calendar. The Chronological Calendar was issued in 1281 (the current Gregorian calendar was not proposed by the Italian Lirio until 1576). Guo Shoujing's "Chronological Calendar" is a very progressive calendar in ancient mainland China, which spread to the Western world and passed on many advanced scientific achievements to the world - it can be said that the Chinese "astronomy" science has influenced and changed the entire course of the human world! With a scientific attitude, through the examination of ancient books, the origin of the "nian" clearly recorded in these documents has nothing to do with the "legend of the nian beast", which is a folk cultural story that has only been produced in the past one or two hundred years. According to the study of ancient Chinese culture, the Astronomical Calendar of China was produced very early, dating back to the "cubic teeth, fixing the Arctic" period of the Suiren clan in the Great Kunlun region 30,000 years ago, and began to be gradually completed after the Creation of Bagua by the Fuxi clan 15,000 years ago. Strictly speaking, at least five or six thousand years ago, during the Yandi and Yellow Emperors, there were already calendars to guide agricultural production, so it is not a legend that the Da Que clan created the Ganzhi and Rong Cheng clans created the calendar. Later, it came to the completeness of the observation of the "Tao Temple Ruins" in the Tang Yao period. Therefore, I often say that the Chinese astronomical calendar is the most advanced scientific and technological civilization in the world, and it is also the most intelligent cultural generation. The I Ching says, "Observe the astronomy to observe the changes of time." Look at the humanities, in order to transform into the world. Heaven and earth are sensed, and all things are incarnated; saints touch people's hearts, and the world is peaceful. "These are all related to the astronomical calendar, but also related to the humanistic society, and it is even more necessary for us to know and learn!"