Exorcism celebrates the New Year's eve drinking tusu, the New Year's ritual in the Forbidden City

The first day of the lunar new year in ancient mainland China is also known as New Year's Day. On this day, both the common people and the emperor will express their good wishes for the New Year with specific activities. Since the Yongzheng Dynasty of the Qing Dynasty, the emperor will hold a ceremonial activity of "opening the pen and drinking Tusu in the open window" on New Year's Day. That is, at 00:00 (zi shi) on New Year's Day every year, in the sound of firecrackers, after the emperor performed the incense ceremony, he would come to the west room of the front hall of the Yangxin Hall, sit in front of the rosewood long case near the window, personally pour Tu Su wine into the Jin Ou Yonggu cup, and write down the New Year auspicious language after drinking.

What is Tu Su? Part of the volume of the Tang Dynasty agronomist Han E's "Nian Hua Ji Li" believes that Tu Su is the name of the thatched house, and the owner of the house puts the medicine in the sac and soaks it in the bottom of the well at the end of each year, and when it is taken out and mixed into the wine on New Year's Day, everyone will not get the disease after drinking. According to the twenty-fifth volume of the Gubu of the Compendium of Materia Medica written by the Ming Dynasty physician Li Shizhen, Tu Su is a herb that can slaughter Su Yu and drive away ghosts and disasters. After Tu Su soaked in wine, it had the function of epidemic prevention. For example, the third volume of the "Compendium of Materia Medica" contains "Tu Su wine, drink it on New Year's Day, and dispel plague", which means that drinking Tu Su wine in the New Year can avoid plague and drive away epidemics.

The custom of drinking Tusu wine on New Year's Day was earlier seen in the "Records of the Jingchu Years" written by the Liang Dynasty scholar Zong Yi. This is the most complete preserved ancient book on the mainland that records the seasons of the year. The book contains New Year's Day "Into Tu Su Wine, Gum Tooth Dumplings", where "Gum Tooth Dumplings" refers to sugar made from malt. In the subsequent Tang and Song dynasties, drinking Tusu wine on New Year's Day gradually became popular. For example, the Poem "Tu Su Wine First in the Years" written by the Tang Dynasty poet Pei Yizhi contains "Tu Su First And Not Let Spring"; a part of the volume of "Rong Zhai Essays" written by the Southern Song Dynasty official Hong Mai contains "This person drinks Tu Su wine on the first day of the yuan, and it has been passed down for a long time since he was a child."

Jin Ou Yonggu Cup

For the Forbidden City of the Qing Dynasty, in addition to drinking Tu Su in the Ming Window, the emperor would also drink Tu Su wine with his family members, hundreds of officials, emissaries and others on New Year's Day. For example, the Qianlong Emperor wrote a poem on the New Year's Day of the twelfth year of Qianlong (1747), "The Banquet of the Emperor and Empress Dowager of the New Zhengling Ri Chonghua Palace", which contains "Jue Ji Tu Su Bao, Ping Kai Xian Mu Ling", which means drinking Tu Su with the empress dowager to express New Year blessings; on the same day, the envoys of the Dzungar tribe were invited and the poem "Feast on the Dzungar Yi Envoy", which contains "Wanma has seen thousands of miles, Tu Su promised to pre-Yuanzheng", which means to drink Tu Su wine with the emissary and give New Year greetings; Qianlong Fifty-fifth Year (1790) New Year's Day, The Qianlong Emperor held a New Year's group meeting at the Taihe Hall and composed a poem "Yuan Zheng Taihe Dian Gifts Banquet Chronicle Two Laws", which has "Jade Lord Tu Su Bai Li Qia, Jin Yi Rui Mist Wan Xiangnong", that is, through the way of drinking Tu Su wine, with the hundred officials to celebrate the New Year.

The anti-epidemic function of Tusu liquor is closely related to its formula. The twenty-fifth volume of the Valley Department of the Compendium of Materia Medica records the recipe and drinking method of Tusu wine: seven dollars and five cents of Akagi Guixin, one or two for windproof, five dollars for sarsaparilla, five dollars for Shu pepper, orange stem, rhubarb, five dollars for aconitum, and fourteen pieces for adzuki beans; the above prescriptions are packed in a triangular red cloth bag, placed at the bottom of the well on the night of Chinese New Year's Eve, taken out the next day, soaked in wine, boiled several times, and then drunk; the residue can also be placed at the bottom of the well and reused in the next year. The recipe and steeping method of Tusu wine produced by the Tea House and Pharmacy of the Forbidden City are highly similar to the methods of the Compendium of Materia Medica, and the wine selected is papaya wine. To ensure the glycolity of the wine, rock sugar noodles are also incorporated into the recipe. After the above recipe was boiled, the resulting wine became the Tusu wine drunk by the emperor.

By inquiring into the relevant literature of domestic traditional Chinese medicine, the author found that various Chinese herbal medicines in the formula have medical functions. For example, guixin belongs to the cinnamon plant, can cure wind chills, all kinds of heartache; windproof can treat diarrhea, rheumatism, wind chills and other diseases; sarsaparilla can treat rheumatic paralysis, skin abscesses and other diseases; Shu pepper can treat external cold and internal invasion, stomach and abdominal cold pain and other diseases; platycodon can treat cough phlegm, sore throat and hoarseness and other diseases; rhubarb can cure diarrhea, damp and hot jaundice and other diseases; aconitum can treat rheumatism, rheumatic neuralgia and other diseases; papaya is a fruit that relies muscles and vitality, anti-coagulation and anti-pressure relief. The above-mentioned Chinese herbal medicine is soaked in the wine after boiling treatment, which is not only conducive to the full dissolution of various drugs in the wine, but also kills some pathogens and bacteria. Because the composition of Tusu wine and the treatment method before drinking are conducive to exorcism, it has a medical scientific nature.

The custom of the Emperor of the Qing Dynasty to drink Tu Su Nian wine also contained a rich cultural component. The Northern Song Dynasty politician Wang Anshi's poem "Yuan Ri" contains that "the sound of firecrackers is one year old, and the spring breeze sends warmth into Tu Su", which shows that the ancients believed that drinking Tu Su wine and setting off firecrackers belonged to the symbol of the arrival of the New Year. According to the Thirteenth Volume of the Yangji Zhai Conglu written by the Qing Dynasty official Wu Zhendi, the custom of opening the pen in the Ming Window and drinking Tu Su wine began with the Yongzheng Emperor. In fact, Yongzheng usually does not drink much. For example, volume 44 of the Qing ShiLu contains the Yongzheng Emperor's evaluation of his own drinking, that is, "The nature of the Yongzheng Emperor cannot be drunk, and it is known inside and outside." It can be seen that the Yongzheng Emperor drank Tusu wine in the New Year, and its main purpose was to hope that the new year would eliminate disasters and drive away epidemics.

Not only that, the Qing Emperor also had a variety of exquisite drinks of Tusu wine, such as the emperor in the "Ming Window Opening Pen" custom, must choose the New Year's Son to drink, which means the new year, the new moon, the new day, the beginning of the new time; the choice of Jin Ou Yonggu cup to serve wine, meaning the regime is eternal; when drinking, facing the east, it means to greet the new sunrise. It can be seen from the above that the custom of the emperor of the Qing Dynasty to drink Tusu wine in the New Year is an important part of the mainland's annual culture, which can reflect that the emperor, like the people, hopes that the new year will drive away the disease and usher in good fortune, and the family and country will be safe.

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