The Lunar New Year is an important festival in traditional Chinese society, it germinated in ancient times, through the Xia, Shang and Zhou dynasties and feudal eras all the way, has a history of thousands of years.
In 1912, the Republic of China, which ended the two-thousand-year feudal monarchy, made the traditional festival of the Lunar New Year "change the old look for a new look". From 1914 onwards, Yuan Shikai designated January 1 of the Gregorian calendar as the beginning of the year, and the Lunar New Year, originally called New Year's Day, was given a new name of "Spring Festival".
Although the Spring Festival was "born" in the Republic of China, the Spring Festival in the Republic of China period has experienced hardships. Since the end of the Qing Dynasty, the national situation has become increasingly difficult, and a new generation of intellectuals who have opened their eyes to the world have shouted the slogan of learning from the West in an attempt to realize the dream of saving the country and strengthening the country.
▲ Young people intent on saving the country (zhou Enlai in the fourth left row)
A large number of intellectuals believe that China's traditional culture is hindering the country's way of learning from the West, and that to strengthen the country, it must innovate. A series of traditional cultures, including the Spring Festival, were labeled "feudal dross", and Yuan Shikai and Chiang Kai-shek banned the Spring Festival in the form of government decrees in 1913 and 1929-1933, respectively.
Why did Yuan Shikai and Chiang Kai-shek insist on abolishing the Spring Festival? How did the "waste storm" end?
▲ Yuan Shikai and Chiang Kai-shek
I. "New Festivals" Through the Millennium
The appearance of the Lunar New Year is inextricably linked to the calendar. In the process of historical development, the lunar calendar is not only used to measure the length of time, but also closely related to the social attributes of ancient Chinese agricultural society, which became the basis for the development of feudal countries.
Legend has it that the Yellow Emperor's dahuan created the Ganzhi Chronicle, and when the Yellow Emperor's grandson Huan Huan was in power, the prototype of the lunar calendar appeared, the "Zhao Calendar". This ancient calendar is recorded in the Book of Han.
▲ Jaws
During the Xia Dynasty, the calendar was initially perfected, and the prototype of the Lunar New Year also appeared. The "Zhao Calendar" was used until the qin and Han dynasties in the process of continuous improvement, until 105 BC, when Emperor Wu of Han ordered a new calendar.
Because it was compiled during the early years of Emperor Wu, this calendar is called the Taichu Calendar. After the completion of the new calendar, Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty ordered the first month of the year to be the head of the year according to the new calendar.
▲ Emperor Wu of Han
After Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty, the first month of the year became the fixed pattern, and the customs of the Lunar New Year were gradually perfected and established. The Lunar New Year traveled through the Han and Tang Dynasties to the Song and Yuan Dynasties, and successively had different names such as "Shangyuan", "Zhengdan", and "Year Day".
In addition to the Lunar New Year, festivals such as the Qingming Festival, the Dragon Boat Festival, and the Mid-Autumn Festival have also crossed the millennium, and together with the Spring Festival, they have become the four major festivals of the Han nation, witnessing the rise and fall of the feudal country and the development and growth of the Chinese nation.
During the Qing Dynasty, "New Year's Day" was fixed as the name of the Lunar New Year. But with the invasion of European and American powers, the Lunar New Year, like the fate of China at that time, entered a turbulent history.
▲ The emperor of the Qing Dynasty would also hold shamanic ceremonies in the imperial palace
After the outbreak of the Opium War in 1840, China fell into the quagmire of depravity. In order to save the rule, the Qing government carried out a foreign affairs campaign, and neighboring Japan also carried out the Meiji Restoration to make the country rich and strong. The era of reform in China and Japan is similar, but the results are not the same. The foreign affairs movement focused on military equipment and other aspects, and had no intention of reforming the feudal system. Although the japanese state is small, it has gradually established a constitutional monarchy.
In 1894, Japan defeated the Qing forces in the Sino-Japanese War, further deepening the crisis in China. A group of people of insight believe that only by overthrowing the decadent Qing Dynasty can the goal of national salvation be achieved.
▲Sino-Japanese War
The rising of Japan has become an ideal object for scholars to learn, and the cultures of China and Japan are closer to each other than those of the West. A large number of Chinese students came to Japan, hoping to find a way to save the country.
On October 10, 1911, the Xinhai Revolution broke out. Exiled, Sun Yat-sen returned home to lead the revolution and was inaugurated as provisional president of the Republic of China in Nanjing on January 1, 1912.
▲Sun Yat-sen personally sacrificed the Ming Tomb of Filial Piety
On the day of his inauguration, Sun Yat-sen electrified all provinces across the country and changed the solar calendar to the standard calendar. The so-called New Year's Day at the beginning of the year has also changed from the first day of the first lunar month to the 1st of January in the Gregorian calendar. The establishment of the Gregorian calendar was largely the result of learning from Japan.
The current Gregorian calendar, known in the West as the Gregorian Calendar, was promulgated by Pope Gregory III in 1582 and spread throughout most of the world as the great powers expanded in their aggression. Neighboring Japan also abolished the lunar calendar in favor of the Gregorian calendar after the Meiji Restoration. By 1910, Japan had annexed the Korean Peninsula, and the Korean Peninsula had abolished the lunar calendar in favor of the Gregorian New Year.
▲Korea under Japanese rule
After the founding of the Republic of China, people began to cut their hair braids and bow instead of bowing, forming some new social trends. However, the lunar calendar has been implemented in China for thousands of years, and the huge territory and population have also made the implementation of the Gregorian calendar difficult, and merchants in Shanghai, Nanjing and other places still use the lunar calendar as the date standard for accounting last year's accounts on the grounds of "hasty change of calendar".
At this time, the Qing Dynasty's Beiyang New Army posed great military pressure on the revolutionary army in Wuchang and other places, and Sun Yat-sen decided to give up the presidency in exchange for the support of Yuan Shikai, the leader of the Beiyang New Army.
▲ Yuan Shikai dressed in the Qing Dynasty
A month later, on February 12, under Yuan Shikai's "Enwei and Shi", the Qing Dynasty quietly came to an end in the storm. Yuan Shikai went from being a powerful minister in the Qing Dynasty to becoming the president of the Republic of China. Because the Beiyang warlords who held power were represented by Yuan Shikai, they were called the Beiyang government.
Yuan Shikai continued the policy of Sun Yat-sen and others, ceding the name of New Year's Day, which originally belonged to the Lunar New Year, to the Gregorian New Year. He also demanded that shops be closed on New Year's Day, restaurants must be closed, and everyone must be allowed to go home for the New Year (Gregorian calendar). Failure to comply with the regulations will result in fines. For the Lunar New Year, Yuan Shikai asked people to continue working. Yuan Shikai asked government officials to lead by example and take the lead in celebrating the Gregorian New Year.
▲ Yuan Shikai and foreign ministers
Yuan Shikai's order sparked a strong resistance from the people, and on the day of the Lunar New Year in 1913 (February 6 in the Gregorian calendar), it was still a lively scene from the city to the countryside. In order to change the situation in which the two New Year coexist, but also to alleviate public anger. On January 21, 1914, Zhu Qizhao, the minister in charge of the Ministry of the Interior, proposed to Yuan Shikai that the Lunar New Year, the Dragon Boat Festival, the Mid-Autumn Festival, and the Winter Solstice should be designated as the four festivals of spring, summer, autumn and winter.
Zhu Qiju mentioned the necessity of implementing the Gregorian calendar, but also stressed that folk customs and social customs should be respected, and the Lunar New Year should not be abruptly abolished, and on January 23, Yuan Shikai gladly approved Zhu Qizhao's proposal. Three days later (January 26, 1914) is the Lunar New Year, and the Spring Festival has been the new name of the Lunar New Year since 1914.
Yuan Shikai stipulated that the Gregorian New Year would be a national holiday and solemnly celebrated, while the Lunar New Year, which had been passed down for thousands of years, would only be a one-day holiday. Public officials were still barred from celebrating the Lunar New Year, and the ban on the public was completely abolished.
▲ Zhu Qizhao
Although the Beiyang government strongly advocates the Gregorian New Year, in fact, the protagonist is always the Lunar New Year. The Gregorian New Year is more present in government activities. On the day of the Gregorian New Year, the heads of various government departments, the living Buddhas of Inner Mongolia, and the senior generals of the army will personally congratulate the president, adding a strong political significance to the Gregorian New Year.
The coexistence of the two festivals and the predominance of the lunar calendar accompanied the Republic of China for nearly 10 years, until the outbreak of the May Fourth Movement.
▲New Year in the Republic of China
Second, the era of changing customs and customs
In 1919, China suffered a diplomatic failure at the Paris Peace Conference, and the news reached the country and triggered the May Fourth Movement. The May Fourth Movement, together with the New Culture Movement, influenced people's choices for the Lunar New Year.
The failure of the Paris Peace Conference made the people of the country recognize a cruel reality, without the support of strong national strength, the name of the victorious country is nothing more than a false name. Students and reformers chanted slogans of "getting rid of bad customs" and demanded that they be aligned with the West.
▲May Fourth Movement
From 1920 onwards, the debate over the Lunar New Year and the Gregorian New Year reached a new height. After the establishment of the Republic of China, the government will vigorously celebrate on New Year's Day, but the folk celebrations are few and far between. And when the Spring Festival arrives, everywhere you go, you will be full of flavor. After the May Fourth Movement, the New Year in the Gregorian Calendar was seen as a symbol of progress, and the Spring Festival was given a lot of negative significance.
The Spring Festival deity is a custom that has been passed down for thousands of years, and in the 1920s, more and more people regarded it as a symbol of superstition. Even acts such as honoring the king and the god of wealth, which contain good wishes for the New Year, have been criticized, and the huge circulation of the Declaration even links this custom to the ugly phenomenon.
▲ The "Declaration" comes from culturally diverse Shanghai
In addition to worshiping gods, customs such as setting off firecrackers and giving money to the elderly have also been attacked to varying degrees. Firecrackers are considered a waste of money, and the gunpowder gas produced by fireworks is also harmful to human health.
Under the rendering of newspapers, magazines and other media, giving money to the old age has become an evil custom of "cultivating the despicable and profit-loving nature of children". At that time, China was unable to extricate itself from the warlord wars, and the hope for the stability and prosperity of the country shifted to the criticism of the old culture, and the Declaration also compared the Lunar New Year to the feudal warlords, pointing out that if the Lunar New Year was abolished, it would be like overthrowing the warlords.
▲ The era of warlord melee
The "Mr. De" (democracy) and "Mr. Sai" (science) who entered China by relying on the "New Youth" magazine are also quietly changing people's ideological concepts. Celebrating the Gregorian New Year is a scientific, advanced custom, and vice versa is an old custom that makes the country stagnate.
Like the Spring Festival, Chinese characters are also regarded as representatives of the old culture. A group of intellectuals believe that in order to save China, the elimination of Chinese characters is also a step that must be completed. Modern thinker Qian Xuantong and Peking University President Cai Yuanpei are all supporters of the abolition of Chinese characters, and Lu Xun even issued the sentiment that "Chinese characters are not destroyed, China will perish".
▲Two gentlemen
The demise of the Qing Dynasty marked the end of the era of feudal absolutism, and in the more than 20 years since, China has entered an era of great change. But the process of change is very difficult, and the conflict between old and new cultures, industrial development and the confrontation of agricultural society are all testing China.
The Gregorian New Year entered Chinese society under the impetus of the Republic of China government. However, the lunar new year has a huge impact, and it is difficult to implement the decrees of the Gregorian New Year. Political turmoil has left the Beiyang government with no intention of paying attention to the New Year.
▲The Beiyang period when there was no end to war
The tide of the times rolled up by the May Fourth Movement violently slapped towards the Lunar New Year, causing the status of the Lunar New Year to be shaken. But the Lunar New Year did not completely disappear from the life of the Chinese, and by the end of the 1920s, the Qi of the Beiyang government was coming to an end.
Third, Chiang Kai-shek's abacus
Since Yuan Shikai's death in 1916, the Beiyang government has fallen apart, and local warlords have embraced the army and respected themselves. Sun Yat-sen used Liangguang as a base in the hope of defeating warlords everywhere to "rebuild the republic". But Sun Yat-sen did not wait for the day when the revolution succeeded, and on March 12, 1925, he died of cancer at the age of 58.
▲Sun Yat-sen
In 1926, in the context of cooperation between the Kuomintang and the Communists, the National Revolutionary Army launched the Northern Expedition. The Northern Expeditionary Army was like a broken bamboo, and successively defeated Wu Peifu, Sun Chuanfang and severely damaged Zhang Zuolin. Chiang Kai-shek, commander of the Northern Expedition, took advantage of the situation to establish a national government in Nanjing.
The Nationalist government established by the Kuomintang presented itself as reformers, and they continued the calendar policy of the Beiyang government and firmly pursued the Gregorian calendar. On May 7, 1928, the Ministry of the Interior submitted a report to Chiang Kai-shek, calling for "the abolition of the old calendar (lunar calendar) and the universal use of the national calendar (Gregorian calendar)."
▲Northern Expedition War
The Interior Ministry believes it has been more than a decade since the legislation was changed, but the influence of the lunar calendar in society is still enormous. In order to make the Gregorian calendar the universal and only calendar in the country, the Ministry of the Interior submitted eight proposals to Chiang Kai-shek. These include "it is strictly forbidden to privately sell the old calendar, the comparison table of the new and old calendars; strictly order all organs and schools inside and outside Nanjing, except for those stipulated in the national calendar, not to follow the customary holidays; and to guide and improve all the entertainment and competitions of the old calendar festivals and hold them according to the date of the national calendar."
Chiang Kai-shek studied in Japan in his early years, and Japan's experience of changing the country through the Meiji Restoration profoundly affected him, and Japan's policy of changing to the Gregorian calendar also made Chiang Kai-shek deeply believe. Chiang Kai-shek's third wife, Soong Mei-ling, received a Western-style education from an early age, and she also supported the introduction of the Gregorian calendar.
▲ Chiang Kai-shek and Soong Mei-ling
Chiang Kai-shek approved the Ministry of the Interior's request for instructions in an attempt to forcibly ban the people from celebrating the Spring Festival by administrative means. After the storm of Yuan Shikai's abolition of the Lunar New Year in 1912-1913, the Lunar New Year was once again pushed to the cusp of the storm.
On December 8, 1928, the Nationalist government issued a circular decree declaring that "from January 1, 1929, the Gregorian calendar will be used throughout the country, the old calendar will be abolished, and the old calendar will be banned." The previous Beiyang government only did not allow public servants to celebrate the Spring Festival, while the Nationalist government wanted to uproot the Spring Festival customs from the Chinese people.
▲ Chiang Kai-shek wants to abolish the Lunar New Year
In the circular, there are also the following provisions: "During the Lunar New Year, it is strictly forbidden for people to post Spring Festival, set off fireworks and firecrackers, and pay homage to each other, and shops must operate normally and cannot close their doors." These regulations are all aimed at the Spring Festival customs, and each of them is difficult for the people to accept.
In order to ensure the "effective implementation" of the circular order, Chiang Kai-shek proposed that "schools and units on holidays and businessmen who close their doors and businesses will be severely sanctioned", and the literati who write about the Spring Festival on the street have also been investigated and punished by the police.
▲Unemployment on the spot
The requirements for public officials are also very stringent. A Kuomintang official was dragged to a statue of Sun Yat-sen just because he said "Wishing you prosperity" to others during the Spring Festival.
Chiang Kai-shek vigorously promoted the content of the circular order and formulated a series of punishment policies for this purpose. But apart from provoking public resentment, it has no real effect. Ordinary people still secretly celebrate the New Year at home, except for the strictly controlled urban areas, when the Lunar New Year arrived in 1929, every household still ate a reunion dinner, and the sound of firecrackers was not lively.
▲ People who set off firecrackers
The general decree was not implemented well, and the National Government made a new move in 1930. Cai Yuanpei, a kuomintang elder and former president of Peking University, was invited to give a speech, hoping to rely on his social influence to guide the people.
Cai Yuanpei's speech was very emotional, but the final result still hit the wall. After all, the number of people receiving higher education was still a minority, and China was still a backward agricultural country with an absolute majority of peasants at that time, and it was not feasible to blindly emphasize the change of thinking without considering the social base, and even Cai Yuanpei admitted that he "would secretly spend the Spring Festival behind closed doors."
▲ Cai Yuanpei
When the "918 Incident" broke out in 1931, the Nationalist government was too tired to cope with it and had no intention of supervising the implementation of the "Lunar New Year Ban". Chiang Kai-shek finally agreed to lift the ban from January 1934, stating that "for the old calendar year, except for public service organs, folk customs should not be too interfered with." Although the Spring Festival is still not a holiday, the public can publicly celebrate the Lunar New Year.
In 1937, Japan launched a full-scale invasion of China. Nanjing, Shanghai, and Pingjin fell one after another, and the Nationalist government was forced to move the capital to Chongqing. In the context of the all-people War of Resistance, the Spring Festival has been given a new meaning of anti-war mobilization.
▲The Japanese army occupied Peiping
Since 1939, every Spring Festival, the National Government will organize donation activities in Sichuan, Chongqing and other rear areas. Traders, coachmen, peasants, and even beggars would give their meager sums of money to support the soldiers ahead of them in their resistance.
In January 1943, in support of the Chinese War of Resistance, the United States and Britain signed a new treaty with the Nationalist government, abolishing some of the previous unequal treaties. In order to celebrate this event, the National Government specially allowed the Spring Festival (February 5, 1943 in the Gregorian calendar) to take a three-day holiday and hold a grand parade on the streets of Chongqing.
▲The Spring Festival parade in Chongqing
However, during the war, the Spring Festival was never able to solve the problem of material shortage, and the National Government constantly advocated that the Lunar New Year should be spent in a frugal atmosphere. To this end, Chiang Kai-shek issued the following requirements in 1944. (1) To celebrate the New Year, except for the highest organs, no archways shall be erected; (2) shops shall not sell Gifts for the New Year; (3) Banquets and gifts shall be prohibited; (4) New Year's films shall be prohibited and Advertisements for the New Year shall be prohibited; (5) Water and electricity shall be saved, and shops shall be closed before 10 o'clock during the New Year and the Spring Festival.
The Spring Festival during the War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression was not easy and comfortable, and even a little bitter and bitter, but it also became a witness of the special era.
▲Chongqing during the War of Resistance
From Yuan Shikai to Chiang Kai-shek, in just 20 years, he launched two campaigns to abolish the Lunar New Year. Yuan Shikai changed the name of the Spring Festival to the Lunar New Year. After scrapping the Lunar New Year and hitting a wall, he was forced to allow the two festivals to coexist. Chiang Kai-shek intended to impose it in the form of a decree, and eventually had to end it in a hurry.
In the face of the two farces of the Abolition of the Festival during the Republic of China, after the founding of New China, it respected social traditions and adopted a flexible policy on the issue of calendar. While using the Gregorian calendar, the lunar calendar was retained, and corresponding holidays were set up on New Year's Day and Spring Festival. The Lunar New Year has once again become an official national festival.
Although the name of the Spring Festival is young, its core is the accumulation of the Chinese nation after thousands of years of cultural precipitation. Chinese, which has embraced the Gregorian calendar, is connecting with the world at an increasingly rapid pace, and the Lunar New Year, which continues to this day, demonstrates Chinese strong cultural self-confidence.
▲ Chinese New Year celebration in London, UK
Long-term author | Biluo Qingyao
Veteran of history
Responsible editor| Thomas
Graduate of the London School of Economics and Political Science| editor-in-chief of the Global Intelligence Officer
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