On the origin of the Spring Festival, it is quite early, and it should be difficult to verify the specific time before the birth of the text.
The prototype of the Spring Festival is probably a kind of harvest celebration, where the old ancestors brewed the harvested grain, gathered together to sing and dance, drink wine and eat meat, and celebrate the harvest.
In addition, the end of this year is also the beginning of the next year, and people hold celebrations to pray that the new year will be smooth and rainy, and then have a good harvest.
Of course, this is what folklorists and anthropologists say, and among us ordinary people, there are actually some strange myths circulating.
For example, the most widely spread one says this: in ancient times, there was a beast called "Nian", and every winter, when it ate the animals on the mountain, it would come down the mountain to plague the villagers and the livestock raised by the villagers.
People were very scared, but later it was found that as long as the fire was lit, "Nian" would be scared away by the crackling sound and would never dare to come to the village again. After driving away the "Year", people happily sat down by the fire, sang and danced, drank wine and ate meat.
Later, the celebration ceremony was slowly fixed, and later gradually set on the first day of the first lunar month. This day is called "Shangri", "New Year's Day", "Yuanzheng", "Zhengyi", "Zhengdan" and "Sanyuan", with many names, but the meaning is the meaning of the beginning of the year.
What do you usually do at home during the New Year? New Year's Eve? Playing games? party?
Today, Lu Sir brings readers a cultural rambling talk about the "Spring Festival of Writers of the Republic of China". How did the literati of the Republic of China era celebrate the New Year?
Mr. Lu Xun was working in the Ministry of Education of the Republic of China at that time, and on the first day of the Chinese New Year, his old man still had to go to work!
1. Shen Congwen rushed to the Spring Festival
Since the late Qing Dynasty, China's transportation has begun to modernize, railways, ships, cars can basically send people anywhere. Of course, there is certainly no convenient and safe high-speed rail and aircraft now.
Moreover, the urbanization at that time was also very strong, and the talents and resources were basically concentrated in the big cities, and many of the writers we are familiar with also came from small places.
Studying, living and working in beijing and Shanghai, such as shanghai, so going home for the New Year, of course, also have to go through the Spring Festival, there is no shortage of tossing.
To give you an example, let's say Shen Congwen.
In January 1934, Shen Congwen wanted to return to his hometown of Xiangxi, Hunan To visit relatives. He first took a train from Beijing to Hankou, Hubei Province, and then took a big boat and a small boat, along the way there was rain and snow, and there were rapids and dangerous beaches, and some places were even fighting, in short, it was a bumpy road, and dangers were rife.
I left on January 7th and arrived home on the 22nd, half a month. But he stayed at home for only three days before he had to return to Beijing, and once he returned to Beijing, he was still ill.
It's really a person on the road, and it's not easy to go home.
In fact, he left his hometown in 1923, and he never returned to his hometown for the New Year. How difficult is the road back to Xiangxi from Beijing, Shen Congwen describes as "no less difficult than the Shu Dao of The Qingtian Heavens."
Before he set off, he was ready to read and write a novel on the road, but as soon as he got on the road, he found that he was so naïve. At that time, I also considered that the journey was difficult, so I chose to go on the road alone.
But on the road, he was too lonely and lonely, and he missed his new wife Zhang Zhaohe too much, so he could only write at least one letter to Zhang Zhaohe every day.
2. What are the activities of the literati for the New Year?
Lu Xun once summed up what everyone should do in the New Year in one sentence, that is: "Checkout, worship the gods, worship the ancestors, set off firecrackers, play mahjong, worship the New Year, 'Wishing you prosperity'!" ”
Speaking of the first one, checkout, there is an old saying: "After clearing the old accounts for the New Year, the account will be cleared and you will make a lot of money in the coming year."
That is to say, all old accounts must be settled before the Chinese New Year's Eve, because it is taboo to let someone come to collect debts on the first day of the New Year, thinking that it is too unlucky.
Feng Zikai
Essayist and cartoonist Feng Zikai recounted how he opened a dyeing factory at home when he was a child, and how he collected debts and repaid debts at the end of the year.
If on the first day of the Chinese New Year, you manage others to ask for debts, and the debtor may ask you for money, because he wants to say that you have touched his mold.
Mr. Lu Xun had said that he had set off firecrackers for the New Year, and at that time he was already over fifty years old.
In 1934, he set off fireworks for three nights in a row, and the noise was so loud that the foreigners who lived next door also made a "boo" sound.
Because in the past year, the World Economic Depression and China's internal and external troubles have intensified, and the sound of these firecrackers is like a rest in battle, which can provide people with a little comfort.
Liang Shiqiu
Liang Shiqiu, a scholar, said that the New Year must be in his hometown to have a taste. The detention tour is desolate, and in the New Year, there is only a long sigh and a short sigh, where is there a little joyful mood?
When he said this, he was wandering outside, so he recalled his childhood, in Beijing for the Spring Festival, heck, it was called a hilarity.
For example, it is almost Chinese New Year's Eve, and every household is busy taking out incense burners, fruit plates, tea saucers and so on from the boxes that eat ash all year round, "doing the annual scrubbing";
In addition, it is to prepare the New Year goods early, the dry goods used in the kitchen, the dried apples and fruits used to worship the gods and ancestors, the peony flowers and daffodils to be offered in the house, and the thick and thin mixes that the children eat...
Liang Shiqiu also said that who is the most tired in the New Year, that may be the housewife.
In addition to preparing the above, you must also prepare new clothes, new shoes and new socks for the whole family, and the new year must be new. As for this period of preparation process years ago, Liang Shiqiu described it as, "the size of the home, going in and out, like a stroke demon."
Speaking of eating, this is the highlight of the New Year. The most important thing is to Chinese New Year's Eve!
Uddhav told them how they ate Chinese New Year's Eve meal. At that time, he followed his wife Wang Yingxia back to Hangzhou for the New Year, and when he arrived at Chinese New Year's Eve night, he needed to invite guests to dinner.
Yu Dafu said that Hangzhou's wine is cheap, and it doesn't cost much to cook by yourself, and the most troublesome thing is the chaotic appearance in the kitchen before the guests come.
Chinese New Year's Eve afternoon, the kitchen "knives and soldiers in unison", the house "hot smoke", even so, it is dark, the guests have arrived, the dishes have not been ready, what to do, as we are now, arrange guests to play mahjong!
As a result, those who lost were not willing, and those who won did not want to stop, so they fought round after round until the next day's chickens cried, and this meal could not be eaten Chinese New Year's Eve.
Liang Shiqiu said that in the Republic of China, good people generally did not play mahjong, and his family taught children that to play mahjong, they had to go to the Bada Hutong - that is, those fireworks alleys, where there were good dominoes and card tables, and there were beautiful women around.
But when it comes to the New Year, almost every household has to play mahjong.
Hu shi
This kind of activity is very penetrating, no matter what class likes, such as Hu Shi, the famous leader of the new culture movement, the doctor of Columbia University, a professor at Peking University, is a little pitiful who can't quit card addiction. His diary about "playing cards" during his study abroad has become popular all over the Internet.
While writing a diary to urge himself to work harder, he couldn't help playing cards every day, and then he scolded himself, "Hu Shizhi, Hu Shizhi!" How can you be so depraved! Have you forgotten your previous study plan? ”
However, the version circulating on the Internet is incomplete, and Hu Shi does not play cards all day. He also read books, wrote poetry, read Latin, and did chemistry experiments, and scored a hundred points in chemistry exams!
However, Hu Shi's love of playing cards really cannot be denied.
After he returned to China, he became a professor at Peking University and often played cards during the New Year, and his wife Jiang Dongxiu liked to play cards. Zhang Ailing said that her mother and aunt had played cards with Hu Shi.
3. Zhang Ailing's unpleasant year
Although the Spring Festival is a festive day, it is inevitable that there will be sad things.
For example, Shen Congwen mentioned earlier spent half a month to return home for the New Year, and as a result, he only stayed for three days and had to leave.
He actually went back to visit his sick mother, but because he had written articles criticizing the Nationalist government in Nanjing at that time, he was regarded as a "dangerous person" by the local government, so he should not stay for a long time. Half a month later, his mother died, and the day of her death coincided with the Chinese New Year's Eve.
Similar to Shen Congwen's encounter was Bingxin. In December 1929, Bing Xin, who had just been newly married, suddenly received a telegram from her home in Shanghai, asking her to go home and have a look.
Although the telegram did not say anything, she felt bad, so she quickly bought a ticket, first took the train to Tianjin, and then took a boat to Shanghai, it turned out that the mother was seriously ill and wanted to see her children for the last time.
Ice heart
On January 7, 1930, the eighth day of the first lunar month, Bingxin's mother died in Shanghai.
Bing Xin stayed behind to take care of her mother's affairs, until February 3 of this year, that is, the fourth day of the Lunar New Year, Bing Xin's mother was buried, and relatives and friends were buried together.
Therefore, this Spring Festival, the Bingxin family spent it in a sad mood, without any festive atmosphere.
Finally, let's talk about Zhang Ailing. At least twice in her life, the New Year was quite unpleasant.
Once, when she was 18 years old, her father was instigated by her stepmother to beat her badly and locked her up for half a year, during which Zhang Ailing fell ill and almost died, and then a few days before the New Year, she finally stole out of her father's house.
The second time was in 1946, when she was 26 years old, and this year was spent in rural Zhejiang, when Zhang Ailing was looking for a husband.
Two years ago, in 1944, she married Hu Lancheng, after which Hu Lancheng went to Hubei to run a newspaper, and later fled to Wenzhou under a false name to take refuge. The two had not seen each other for a long time, and Zhang Ailing wanted to know hu Lancheng's situation, so she embarked on the road of finding a husband without hesitation.
For example, when the train stopped, she saw soldiers starving and freezing on the rooftop train, and saw the poor peasants insisting on making preparations for the New Year even when the soldiers were in chaos - playing rice cakes, killing pigs, performing social dramas, and so on.
What made her even more uncomfortable was that in the winter and the menstrual period, she had to go to the toilet in front of the dirty toilet in the countryside.
Of course, none of this is anything, and the sadder is still to come. In fact, Hu Lancheng cheated on a seventeen-year-old nurse Xiao Zhou as early as Hubei, and when he took refuge in Wenzhou, he was with a widow named Fan Xiumei.
When Zhang Ailing worked hard to find him and let him make a decision, he actually refused to do so, and complained that Zhang Ailing came to him. So Zhang Ailing could only return and cry on the boat in the rain.
Well, the content on how the literati celebrate the New Year is shared here.
I hope that everyone will also leave unhappiness and dissatisfaction in the past, continue to support in the new year, and continue to create a better life.
Edited | Liangshan
Typography | Liangshan