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It's snowing, and the circle of friends of the ancients is like this

author:Xinhua
It's snowing, and the circle of friends of the ancients is like this

Yuan An lay in the snow

Every winter, we will see many different forms of snow, especially this year's Winter Olympics, and various competitive competitions have opened up our "new world of ice and snow". As a modern person, the process of snow appreciation is naturally to take pictures and videos to send to the circle of friends, so what will the ancients with big brains do on snow days? We may wish to cross into ancient paintings and ancient books from the circle of friends, and enjoy the snow that has fallen for thousands of years with the ancients.

"Ice piers", "snow melting"... Not enough, put together a zoo

As the mascot of the Winter Olympic Games, the ice pier and snow melted into the red overnight, becoming a veritable top stream of the Beijing Winter Olympic Games, especially the ice pier, whether online or offline, can be described as "a pier is difficult to find". Coincidentally, at this time, many cities in China were snowing heavily, so netizens who could not buy ice piers used snow to pile up ice piers, and many netizens shouted "creative" in the comment area.

In fact, the use of snow pile ice piers by modern people is not innovative, but it is to catch a "retro" trend, because in the ancient snow days, ancient people will also do this kind of childlike game. But instead of stacking snowmen, they are mainly animals, such as lions. According to the "Tokyo Dream Record", "And the rich family, when the snow is encountered, the feast is opened, the snow lion is molded, and the snow lamp is installed, so that it will kiss the old." "Yes, you read that right, the ancients played with snow is so pompous, simple snowmen do not pile, to pile a snow lion out of the town yard."

Not only did the rich and nobles like to build snow lions, but even the imperial palaces of the Song Dynasty were full of interest in snow lions. The Southern Song Dynasty's meticulousness once recorded in detail in the "Past Events of Wulin" the basic process of enjoying snow lions in the imperial palace at that time: "The back garden enters the snow lions of all sizes, and is decorated with golden bells and colorful wisps, and makes snowflakes, snow lanterns, snow mountains and the like." "In the palace of the Song Dynasty, not only did they pile up large and small snow lions, but also wore jewelry for them, such as hanging gold bells around their necks and draped with colorful silk threads. In order to meet the scene, in addition to the snow lion, the ancients also had to build snow mountains, snowflakes, snow lanterns and so on. Among them, the "snow lantern" is reminiscent of the "snow rongrong" of the Beijing Winter Olympics, which is a lamp made of snow, which is similar to the image of the red lantern hanging from the snow in the "snow rongrong", and looks like it is moving and moving.

But then again, why did the ancients love lions so much? Is the snow lion built by the ancients the same species as the lion we modern people see in zoos?

As early as the Han Dynasty, in order to establish diplomatic relations with the Han Dynasty, the State of Rest paid tribute to lions and fu ba, and called them "Rui Beast". Gradually, the image of the lion also penetrated into the daily folk life of the ancients, the most typical is that a large number of "stone lions" appeared in ancient times, because the ancients believed that stone lions had spirituality and could guard the four directions. The Tang Dynasty scholar Yu Shinan wrote a "Lion Endowment", which mentioned that the lion was a divine beast of the absolute domain; the later medical scientist Li Shizhen called the lion "the chief of the hundred beasts". It can be seen that the lion has always been a symbol of good fortune and good luck, and it is a manifestation of identity in the palace. As for the snow lions that the ancients piled up in the snow days, in general, it is the appearance of stone lions: first, stone lions are more common, and the ancients do not have to open too big brain holes; second, the image of stone lions is relatively stable, and it is not easy to collapse after stacking!

After the Qing Dynasty, the ancients no longer focused only on building snow lions, they began to build elephants and horses. Wu Zhenjian of the Qing Dynasty recorded in volume 14 of the Yangji Zhai Congluence: "When snow is obtained in winter, lions and elephants are piled up in the court of the Yangxin Temple, and Zhi Xi Zhaofeng is often invited to chant." Qianlong Nongshen and Yi Unitary, with snow lions and snow elephants. Jiaqing Pengyin, also stacked as Woma II, east and west, there are joint poems with Neiting Hanlin. "When the snow lions, snow elephants, and snow horses are piled up, the emperor and the Hanlin scholars in the palace also use this as a theme to chant poems. In the "Words of the Fenjing Palace" written by Yan Jihu during the Guangxu period, there are poems describing the snow viewing in the palace, such as: "Ruixue is colorful and flourishes in the sky, and the lions hold elephants in front of the steps." ”

It can be seen that the ancients also loved the mascot in the snow day.

It's snowing, and the circle of friends of the ancients is like this

"Snow Lion Building" (partial) Yu Ming

It's snowing, and the circle of friends of the ancients is like this

"Painting Emperor Gaozong's Imperial Pen Armor After the Afternoon Snow" Qing Dong Zhen

It's snowing, and the circle of friends of the ancients is like this

"Snow River Selling Fish" (partial) Southern Song Dynasty Li Dong

Snow days are still inseparable from the word "eating and drinking", even rabbits are not spared

Using a snowdrift mascot to get addicted is fun, but in the end it is a little cold, and it will be hungry when it is cold, so after the ancients played with snow, their favorite thing is to make a date. On a snowy day, the most classic is the Tang Dynasty Bai Juyi wrote the article "Ask Liu Nineteen": "Green ants new wine, red clay small stove." Late to the day want snow, can you drink a cup of nothing? "On a snowy evening, the newly brewed rice wine at home has not yet been filtered, the wine surface is covered with a layer of green bubbles, the aroma is fragrant, and the hot wine made of red clay is also ready with a small stove, just wait for a good friend to make a cup!

Some people make an appointment, naturally there will be people who come to the door to rub rice, the ancients who attach importance to etiquette, and the door-to-door rubbing rice can not always be empty hands, right? Under normal circumstances, the ancients would bring some good wine or some snacks to eat when they came to the door, but the Southern Song Dynasty Lin Hong's recipe "Mountain Family Offering" recorded one thing, and the gift he brought to visit the door was really special: "Visiting the Stop Master to you Wuyi Mountain Liuqu, in the event of snow, get a rabbit, no one can make it." Shi Yun: Only thin batches are used in the mountains, and the wine sauce and pepper are fertile. Take the seat of the wind stove, use less than half a cup of water, wait for the soup to ring a cup, and divide each one into the soup, so that the self-imposed soup is cooked, but it is appropriate to offer each with juice. ”

Lin Hong visited his friend on a snowy day, and he actually caught a rabbit on the way, so the gift of his visit to his friend this time was this rabbit. There was no cook in the mountains, so Lin Hong's friend thought of a way, and he said to Lin Hong: "Everything can go into the hot pot!" I'll prepare some dipping sauce, and today we'll make a shabu-shabu hot pot! Sure enough, in the eyes of foodies, rabbits are not pets, but food.

In addition to shabu-shabu, the ancients also liked to eat fish on snowy days. In the Palace Museum and the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, there is a Tuan Fan painting, the former is called "Snow River Selling Fish Map", and the latter is called "Snow Bridge Buy Fish Map". In the snow landscape map, the details of buying and selling live fish, which seem to be full of fireworks in the city, bring interest to the picture, although many scholars believe that this is used to reflect the ideal spiritual world of literati and fishermen, but it also confirms the fact that the ancients liked to eat live fish on snowy days. Not only did the ancients in the Central Plains love to eat live fish on snowy days, but also the nomads in the north, who would cut ice holes in the frozen rivers and lakes in winter and hook big fish. Unearthed in liaoning Faku Ye Maotai Liao tomb a kind of Khitan fish hook, the hook tip is very sharp, the hook body is long, and equipped with a wooden handle, which is used to "chisel ice hook fish" artifact.

Eat meat, drink wine, the ancients will also drink some tea scraping oil on snowy days. However, how could the ancients, whose brains have always been big, honestly only boil tea? Yes, they're playing tricks again. In the eyes of the ancients, the normal mountain spring water could no longer satisfy their pursuit of snow and elegant things, so they targeted snow.

Gao Lian of the Ming Dynasty once said in "Snow Sweeping and Cooking Tea Play Painting": "Tea is cooked with snow, the taste is clearer, and the river water for half a day is also." Not subject to dust, the ghost sips this, enough to break the cold. It seems that the ancients not only used snow to cook tea on snow days, but also to take the snow on plum blossoms, orchids, and green pines, and felt that as long as you drink this cup of snow-cooked tea, you can have the cleanliness of snow, the pride of plums, the elegance of orchids, and the integrity of green pines, which is clearly our modern popular "concept tea"!

Snow days are easy to go crazy, and Zhang Dai collects strange passages about snow days

Playing with the snow, eating, drinking tea, naturally need to "pretend". We modern people often make a little gimmick on snow days to make a circle of friends, some people practice yoga in the snow, some people wear Hanfu to go to the Forbidden City, and some people lie in the snow to imitate idol films to take pictures... The "fabrication" in the snow days of the ancients is naturally very special, which can be called performance art.

For example, in the Song Dynasty, there was a man named Wang Jiang who wandered around Chen Prefecture (present-day Huaiyang, Henan). Don't look at him as a tramp, at that time, there were many fans, and scholars like Su Dongpo and Su Rui were his loyal fans. In addition to his debauchery and love of freedom, this person named Wang Jiang also has a special function, that is, on snow days, he will bury himself with snow, and then use a body of hot air to melt the snow. After the snow melted, Wang Jiang did nothing and continued to wander while drinking. It is rumored that people who saw this scene at that time were greatly shocked.

In addition to going to see the snow in the lake pavilion and writing a small essay on the snow day, Zhang Dai, a scholar at the end of the Ming Dynasty, also did a big thing, that is, in the first volume of the book "Night Sailing Ship", he opened a column called "Astronomy Department • Snow Frost", which specifically collected strange passages about snow days. Among them, we are familiar with "willow because of the wind", "stepping on the snow to find plums", "reading in the snow", "eating snow and swallowing felt", etc., which are relatively normal, and some of the rest of the passages can only shock us modern people.

For example, the passage "Wanting immortals to go" says that the crown of the Yue people, when it is snowy, is not afraid of cold, barefoot to climb the furnace peak, look around, shout: "The heavens and the earth are all white jade synthesis, so that people's hearts are clear, they want immortals to go!" Like Wang Mian, there are also "immortals in the gods", the text said that King Gong of Jin once walked in the snow wearing a crane hair, and when Meng Xu saw it, he touted him commercially: "Oh! You are such a god! ”

There is also a man called The Iron Foot Daoist, who is neither afraid of the cold nor of diarrhea. When it is snowy, he loves to walk barefoot in the snow, and when he is happy, he will recite "Nanhua Autumn Water" aloud, and then pick some plum blossoms and put them in his mouth to chew, and when he feels a little dry, he will swallow some snow together. To this, he explained: "I want to soak this cold fragrance into my bones!" So I am as fragrant as plum blossoms and as clean as snow! ”

Whether these performance artists eventually became gods and whether they were cold and fragrant, we don't know, but one performance artist got an offer on a snowy day. The name of this passage is very poetic, called "Lying Snow", and the protagonist is Yuan An, a famous minister of the Eastern Han Dynasty.

It is said that one year it snowed heavily in Luoyang, and everyone else went out to beg for food, only the snow in front of Yuan An's door was as old as ever. When Luoyang Ling inspected the household, he thought that Yuan An had frozen and starved to death, so he asked people to sweep away the snow in front of his door and then enter the house to inspect it. After entering the door, Luoyang Ling and his entourage found Yuan An lying upright, as if he was not dead, so he asked Yuan An, "Why don't you go out?" Yuan An replied: "On this snowy day, everyone is hungry, we shouldn't bother others, I'll lie down for a while..." As soon as this word came out, the pattern was there: people can still maintain discipline when they are hungry and cold, which is not easy! Luoyang Ling thought that Yuan An was a virtuous person, so he held him up as filial piety.

Since then, the allusion of Yuan An Lying Snow has actually become a thousand-year super IP (intellectual property rights, extended to the collective name of famous cultural creation), not only in poetry like to use this allusion, but also in the literati's snow landscape paintings also like to add this element. Perhaps Yuan An himself did not expect that a heavy snow had actually changed his life.

After brushing the circle of friends of the ancients in the snow day, you must give the ancients a thumbs up, they are really good at playing! But for the various "can play" of the ancients, we modern people still have to remain sober and rational, only taste the ancient meaning, can not blindly imitate, after all, we do not have super energy like the ice pier! (Courtesy photo/Jinling Xiaodai)

Source: Beijing Youth Daily

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