Ren Yunfei: Why was Bingxiao, who was designated by Qianlongqin as a "national custom", a "response" of the Qing Dynasty to the impact of Western culture?
Beijing, 10 Feb (China News Service) -- Why was Bingxiao, who was designated by Qianlongqin as a "national custom," a "response" of the Qing Dynasty to the impact of Western culture?
The author is Ren Yunfei, Associate Researcher of the Ancient Books Library of the National Library of China
Counting nine cold winters, whether in ancient times or now, there is always a group of people who are not willing to be lonely, out of the house, running to the ice rink. This is reminiscent of the most famous ice sports event in the Qing Dynasty, the Ice Frolic Festival. In recent years, Bing Yue has been well known to the public, more because of a plot of An Lingrong dancing on the ice in the popular TV series "The Biography of Zhen Huan". In fact, the term "ice play" first appeared in the Qianlong period, and many ice sports unique to the Qing Palace were collectively referred to as ice play in the literature.
Ice play, also known as ice play, ice technology, refers to the traditional ice sports form that sprouted in the winter production and life practices of the ancient chinese northern peoples and was formed in the late Ming and early Qing dynasties. In the tenth year of Qianlong (1745), Bingxiao was designated as a "national custom" by Qianlongqin, and formed a system of annual viewing of Bingxiao. Subsequently, the term "ice play" was widely accepted by the court and the people, and gradually became the general term for ice sports in northern China.
From festive entertainment to court ceremonies
As early as the reign of Nurhaci, a type of ice activity called "ice running" was popular in the Later Jin court. On the second day of the Lunar New Year in the Tenth Year of the Mandate of Heaven (1625), Nurhaci held an "ice running play" on the banks of the Taizi River outside Liaoyang, including "kicking the ball play" and "ice running". All nobles of all nationalities and their relatives in the Later Jin court, both men and women, could participate. All participants will be rewarded regardless of whether they win or lose. After the event, all the staff also held a court feast on the ice.
Hou Jin's "ice running drama" has a distinctly court entertainment nature. On the eighth and fifteenth day of the first lunar month in the seventh year of Chongde (1642), Nurhaci's successor, Emperor Taiji, also held a "Keiju Drama" on the ice surface of the Hun River in Shengjing. The event was recorded by the North Korean mission that came to China at that time, and the Joseon Emperor Zhaoxian and the Prince of Fenglin watched it with Qing officials, and after the end, the participants held a feast at the zhuang house to celebrate the festival. This "Keju Drama" held during the New Year, between the Ice Running Play during the Mandate of Heaven and the Ice Frolic Festival during the Qianlong Period, has the characteristics of inheriting the past and opening up the future, which not only inherits the tradition of ice entertainment activities, but also increases the passage of foreign envoys to observe the ceremony.
On January 12, 2020, at Pier 3 of Hunhe Olympic Park in Shenyang, Liaoning Province, the Shengjing Ice Frolic Festival and Shenyang International Ice Dragon Boat Finals were held. Photo by Liu Baocheng, China News Service
After the Qing army entered the customs, the Qing Dynasty brought the "play of Keju" to the city of Beijing. During the Kangxi Dynasty, Gao Shiqi, a close minister, recorded the process of playing ball on the ice of the Tailiu Pond in Xiyuan in the "Notes on the Retreat of Jin'ao". During the Qianlong period, the original ice activities were transformed by the Qianlong Emperor and gradually evolved into an ice festival with the nature of a national ceremony. The Ice Festrançaise festival continued into the Jia Dao Dynasty, and was interrupted during the Daoguang Years. During the Guangxu period, the Royal Ice Festivity was briefly revived.
An exhibition project of the Ice Frolic Festival
During the Qianlong period, the ice festival can be divided into at least three events: snatching, grabbing the ball and turning the dragon to shoot the ball. In the "Ice Map" in the collection of the Palace Museum, the scene of people playing these three sports is vividly depicted.
On October 3, 2021, at the National Day Garden Tour in Beijing's Bada, the reproduction of "Ice Fun Map" attracted the attention of tourists. Photo by Li Wenming, China News Service
Grab the equivalent of skating at the current speed, with participants wearing ice knives on their feet. The large flag erected on the ice is the starting point, and the throne watched by the emperor is the end. The firecrackers gave the order, and the athletes galloped and slid to the throne, with the first to arrive as the winner.
Snatching the ball is the equivalent of rugby on ice, and participants wear spike shoes on their feet. Divided into two teams of red and yellow, two groups of each team, each group of athletes is divided into the main force and the substitute. Ten main men in each group, dressed in red or yellow coats, stood at the front of the line. The ball snatching event evolved from the Manchu traditional sports activity "Kicking the Head", and is also the oldest of the Manchu ice sports.
In order to increase the ornamentality of the ice frolic festival, the Qianlong Emperor transformed figure skating, combining the traditional riding archery in the north with the popular court dramas for thousands of years to create the "Turning Dragon Shooting Ball" project. The dragon shooter first draws a dragon-like spiral on the ice, and the performers are divided into eight flags, and on the established dragon pattern slide, in the order of yellow, yellow, white, red, white, red, blue, and blue, they will appear in turn. The gliding show is divided into two forms, one is skating and archery. Each flag is spearheaded by a flag bearer, followed by an archer. Set up a gate close to the emperor's ice bed. Hanging from the gate, the archer opens his bow and shoots arrows at the moment he slips through the gate. The other is figure skating, archery and trick tricks. In addition to the flag bearer and archer, each flag has two performers. These performers perform tricks on the ice, such as playing a midiwat, playing an instrument, juggling weapons, multi-person figure skating and other skills. The presentation of juggling skills can be said to be a perfect fusion of the Manchu tradition of "good ice and snow" and the "hundred plays" of the Han court.
In addition to the above items, the Tang Tu Scenic Spots Also shows an ice activity similar to the combination of infantry and cavalry. However, due to the lack of documentation, it is now impossible to know the manner and details of such activities.
The Ice Festivity Festival is the result of the reform of the Qianlong ceremonial system
In the prosperous era of Kangqian, the factors hidden in the qing dynasty from prosperity to decline began to appear, and western culture with missionaries as the medium had affected the Qing Dynasty, and faced the collision of Eastern and Western cultures and the degradation of Manchu ancestors' customs. The impact of Western culture prompted the Qing Dynasty to begin to reflect on the cultural identity of dynastic countries, trying to find cultural resources in tradition and re-establish the connotation and extension of the "self-identity" of dynastic countries.
In this context, in the ten years of Qianlong, Bingxiao was designated as a "national custom", and the hundred palace plays and traditional dramas that had been circulating for thousands of years were introduced into Bingxiao, and at the same time, the old custom of riding and shooting was added, so that Bingxiao developed into an important celebration activity of the Qing Palace. The Qianlong Emperor's transformation of Bingxiao expressed the profound intention of the Qing Dynasty to inherit traditional culture and maintain unique old customs, and a new national exhibition and performance activity was established. Since then, Ice Fun has changed from a traditional ice entertainment project to a national celebration that transcends nationalities, regions, time and space.
On January 20, 2016, during the Great Cold Festival, performers dressed in Qing Dynasty Eight Flags costumes staged a royal "ice frolic" in Beijing's Beihai Park. Photo by China News Service reporter Tomita
At the same time, Qianlong also wrote the ice frolic festival into the history books of the canonical body. The traditional ritual system is divided into five ceremonies: auspicious, fierce, guest, military, and jia, and the Qing Dynasty General Code records the ice frolic ceremony in the "ceremonial ceremony" and "music ceremony" respectively.
In the ceremony, Bing Xi belongs to the "military ceremony", which is an extension of the "ceremony of the great reading", carrying a ceremonial function similar to that of the big reading. In the music ceremony, ice frolic is juxtaposed with fire frolic and horse walking, which belongs to the same "scattered music", and its function is "the waiting for the national feast", which is the exhibition and performance activity of the national feast, reflecting the positioning of bing frolic in the "guest ceremony".
Since the Beginning of the Western Zhou Dynasty, "Ritual" and "Music" have laid the foundation for China's ideological and cultural system for more than two thousand years. Kong Yingdashu of the Book of Rites: "If the lord of music and the same are together, they are near and far; if the lord of etiquette is respectful, then they are noble and orderly." "Etiquette represents difference and order, and music represents harmony under order." Bingxiao appeared at the same time as the "ceremony" and the "music ceremony", indicating that bingxiao represented both a specific hierarchical order and a harmonious tolerance between the orders in the Qing Dynasty ceremonial system.
As a performance project during the national feast, Bingxiao first of all aims to enliven the atmosphere of the feast site for the emperors, princes and ministers, and envoys of foreign domains who participated in the feast. The more profound significance is that these performance projects represent the image of the country: in the "military ceremony", it has the meaning of "parade martial arts and promote the prestige of the country", and in the "guest ceremony", it also shows the praise of the Taiping Dynasty and the concept of "having friends from afar". Therefore, the Ice Festival will show the national ceremony that emphasizes both order and harmony.
The Ice Festivity was the Qing Dynasty's response to the onslaught of Western culture
At the beginning of the Qing Dynasty, the "Tianxia View", which had been popular in China for more than 2,000 years, began to accept the challenge of the Western world head-on. For the first time, the conflict brought about by the cultural differences between the East and the West was directly reflected in the demarcation of the sino-Russian border during the Kangxi dynasty. In the traditional political culture of the East, "the world", "dynasty" and "people" are concepts that are deeply rooted in the marrow, which forms an interrelated and conflicting relationship with the concepts of "territory", "country" and "nation" in Western political culture. The rulers of the Qing Dynasty began to reflect on how to find resources in traditional culture, not only to ensure that the traditional view of the world continued to become the mainstream, but also to allow the gentiles to accept such a "state" to the greatest extent. Constantly transforming the liturgical system of the dynastic state, in the direction of strengthening the core and expanding the extension, may be an effective way to resolve the conflict between the East and the West.
In January 2004, the Celestial Music and Dance Performance was rehearsed in front of the Temple of Heaven in Beijing. Photo by China News Service reporter Sheng Jiapeng
After the Qing army entered the customs, the production and life, social organization and Confucian culture of the Han Dynasty were deeply rooted in the hearts of the people. At the same time, the degradation of the old customs of the Eight Banners and the infiltration of Western culture made the Qing Dynasty feel potentially threatened and uneasy. During the Qianlong period, the establishment of a cultural system with new connotations and the revitalization of the national image were problems that the Qianlong Emperor had to solve.
Solving new problems requires finding a basis in traditional culture. The Ice Frolic Festival combines the old customs that were once popular outside guanwai with the etiquette of the traditional dynasty to form a celebration representing the image of the Qing Dynasty, and not only holds ice frolic activities regularly, but also incorporates the items of the ice frolic festival into the ceremony items of the celebration feast and the New Year's Hajj. In this way, whether it is the Eight Banners or other ethnic groups, or even the vassal states, they can find a sense of belonging in the ceremony. The Qing Dynasty constantly added new factors to the ceremonial system, so that the "living people" received more and more "self-identification" with culture while accepting national celebrations.
The emergence and development of the Ice Festival is related to the transformation of cultural identity in the Qing Dynasty. Especially in the late Qianlong period, in the face of the strong influence of Western culture, the Ice Frolic Festival, as a ceremonial activity with distinct dynastic characteristics, became a "response" of the Qing Dynasty to Western culture. But this "response" is not passive due to the impact of Western culture, on the contrary, it always follows the evolution of the dynastic internal system. With the general recognition of Confucian culture and the post-reformed etiquette system in the Qing Dynasty, the "living people" within the territory of the Qing Dynasty formed a relatively stable group of people with common psychological qualities. At the same time, the traditional culture of self-identification is still adding new content in the continuous integration. (End)
Respondent Profiles:
Ren Yunfei is an associate research librarian at the National Library of China, and a doctor of history at the Minzu University of China. His main research areas are Ming and Qing Dynasty history, Chinese traditional ice and snow culture, ancient Chinese maps, etc., and he is engaged in the special collation and research of Chinese traditional ice and snow culture and Chinese maps. He is the author of "Tracing the Origin of Ice Frolic" and "Impressions of Beijing: Beijing City in the Map of the Ming and Qing Dynasties".