Spring
Author | Zhang Mingxuan
Li Chun is one of the twenty-four solar terms of the year, commonly known as: Playing Spring. The full name of Dachun should be "Dachun Niu". The ancients raised cattle in order to kill meat and worship their ancestors. In tribes that live in groups and hunt as a way of subsistence, whenever the festival is used to worship gods and ancestors, the highest-grade offering is Tai prison, which refers to the slaughter of cattle. Sheep are inferior, called less prison. Cattle and sheep are called sacrifices. Since hunting animals and animals may not be accurately caught near the festival, the ancients raised the captured cattle and sheep in advance and slaughtered them directly until the festival of sacrifice. Over time, people learned to raise livestock.
The original purpose of cattle feeding was for the needs of sacrifice, and during the Western Zhou Dynasty, people learned the art of driving cattle and using cattle to pull carts to transport goods.
During the Spring and Autumn Period, people also learned the technique of ploughing cattle.
During the Warring States period, people gradually promoted cattle farming instead of human farming.
During the Qin and Han dynasties, cattle cultivation technology was popularized as never before. Since then, the main use of cattle has changed from being too tight to being a laborer for cultivated land, and even a representative image of spring ploughing.
The Sixth Book of the Book of Rites and the Sixth Decree of the Moon records: "On the third day of the first spring, the Heavenly Son of the Great History said: 'One day li chun, Sheng De is in the wood. 'The Son of Heaven is a faster.' On the day of the establishment of spring, tianzi's personal marshals three dukes and nine secretaries, and princes and doctors greeted the spring in the eastern suburbs. "It is the moon, and the Son of Heaven prays to God on the first day." Nai Xuan Yuan Chen, the Son of Heaven personally carried the Qi Qi, took measures to the Imperial Household of the Insured Introduction, the Shuai Three Dukes and the Nine Qings, the Grand Master, and the Emperor of Cultivation. The Son of Heaven pushed three times, the three princes and five pushed, and the Qing princes pushed nine times. Judging from the text of the "Book of Rites and Monthly Orders", in ancient times, Lichun, from the emperor down to the people, attached great importance to it, and it was necessary to gather officials and ministers to welcome the eastern suburbs of Spring. The ancients talked about the five elements, the east belongs to the wood, and the wood is prosperous in the spring, so they have to go to the east to worship the Qing Emperor Gou Mang. At the same time, it is necessary to cultivate the emperor, and the three princes and nine secretaries and princes and doctors perform the nine pushing ceremonies. What is Nine Push? Gai Pro Fu Qi Agricultural Machinery tried to work in the imperial land.
When later generations applied the technique of cattle farming to agriculture, the emperor's nine pushing ceremony was also improved to help the plough and cultivate it.
The Book of Rites has a record of "unearthing cattle in Lichun to send cold air". Its ritual system is: on the day before the establishment of spring, a temporary color shed is set up in the square in front of the palace, and the ceremonial guard played with gongs and drums is used to go out of the East City Gate, and to the eastern outskirts of the city to greet the earth cow and the mangshen, and come back to display it in the color shed, which is "welcoming spring". Find someone in advance to mold the earth cow in this clay, and the posterity is mostly a paper cow with paper paste, known as:"Spring Cow". The image of the farmer holding a whip to drive cattle is the "god of gooman", that is, the god of Spring and the god of farming. In the year of the early spring, that is, the year of the spring before the spring, the spring ceremony should be placed in front of the cow, indicating that the farming is early; in the year of the spring festival, that is, the year of the first ten or so springs of the first month after the Spring Festival, the spring ceremony should be erected behind the cattle, indicating that the farming is late, and the mangshen destroys the spring cattle; in the moderate year of the spring, that is, the year of the spring before the tenth day of the first month, the spring ceremony will stand on the side of the earth cattle, side by side with the cattle.
On the day of the spring festival, at dawn, Tianzi led the civil and military officials to wear official clothes to worship the Shennong clan. The emperor first sacrificed the altar and performed the ploughing ceremony. The beginning of the spring ceremony must be until the spring ceremony promulgated in the almanac, when the Son of Heaven or the first Zaifu is the chief priest, holding a bull whip in his right hand, holding a plough handle in his left hand, and beating three, five, and nine whips on the earth cattle, respectively, which is considered to be the beginning of farming work, in order to demonstrate that people should work hard to cultivate the fields and not violate the agricultural time. This is called": "Fighting Spring", also known as "Whip Spring".
The Ming Dynasty's "Whip Spring Cow" poem says: "Every spring, six or nine heads are beaten, and the fireworks are hot and the bamboo is not endless." Colorful flags and drums, surrounded by Fu Yin whip spring cattle. ”
At the time of the whip spring, the ming praise officer (celebrant) shouted loudly: "One whip wind and rain are smooth, two whips are guotai and min'an, and three whips are safe for four seasons" and other auspicious words.
At the end of the whip spring, the onlookers scrambled to grab the earth cattle until they snatched up the earth cattle and brought them home to put them in their fields, which was said to make themselves harvest the grains in the field.
During the Ming and Qing dynasties, whenever Linqu County, the capital of Qingzhou, opened the East City Gate to welcome the spring, most of the peasants in the eastern suburbs set off firecrackers to celebrate, and the suburban rural drama classes were mostly here to perform, beating gongs and drums, and it was lively. After the county officials led the county officials to fight the spring, they mostly asked about the feelings of the farmers, and wished the peasants a prosperous business and a good harvest of grain. Yi Kusheng members then lined up to learn official etiquette and help county officials to the field, coupled with folk play, blowing and singing, and the ceremony of playing spring mostly showed a peaceful scene, which was a grand ceremony in Yicheng.
On the day of the establishment of spring, families should paste "Yichun stickers", that is, write or cut into the word "Yichun" on red paper, and paste them on the windows or walls of the hall.
Lichun food custom is to eat spring cakes, eat spring plates, commonly known as "biting spring", spring plates alias "five spice plates", that is, refers to green onions, garlic, radish, ginger, mustard five kinds of spicy food.
The Tang "Four Jewels of Time" records: "On the spring day, eat reeds, spring cakes, lettuce, and call it 'spring plate'." "During the Sui and Tang dynasties, du Fu's poem "Li Chun" said: "Spring on spring plates of fine lettuce, suddenly recalling the heyday of the two capitals." That is, it refers to the spring food custom.
The "Compendium of Materia Medica" says: "Five spices are new year's day, Lichun with green onions, garlic, leeks, artemisia, mustard and tender vegetable miscellaneous and edible, taking the meaning of welcoming the new." ”
——This article is excerpted from Zhang Mingxuan's Haidai festival monograph "Qi Fengduo Language"
Zhang Mingxuan, courtesy name Zhang Weichi, Linqu ren, now working in The Shimenfang Scenic Area of Linqu County, is the inheritor of the Shimenfang Intangible Cultural Heritage Project; he is a member of the Shandong Genealogy Society, a member of the Weifang Writers Association, a member of the Weifang Photographers Association, and a contributor to the literature and history materials of the Linqu County CPPCC; the chief editor of the "Weifang Tourism Series Series" Linqu Volume, Changyi Volume, Zhucheng Volume, Yishan Volume, Weifang Intangible Cultural Heritage Volume; and the Qing Guangxu "Linqu County Chronicle" published by Dian school. His personal monographs have been published in Linqu Famous Scenic History, Shimen Fang Kao, and Three Emperors Temple Chronicle, and the Haidai Festival Customs Examination Monograph "Qi Feng Duo Language" will be published soon.