Spring Festival in Ming and Qing novels

If poetry is the epiphany of worldly life, then the novel is the unbridled smearing of the world. In particular, the Ming and Qing novels, which are mainly vernacular, grew up in the folk and developed by leaps and bounds, and their ability to depict the life and scenery scenes of the city is beyond the reach of other literary and artistic genres. The depiction of folk festivals and festivals is diverse and three-dimensional, warm and vivid. And the Spring Festival, an important festival of the Chinese nation, painted a heavy color for the Ming and Qing novels.

Zhong Mingding left Yu Qing, and the New Year in "Dream of the Red Chamber" was over

Every Spring Festival, families gather, relatives and friends worship each other. However, how to celebrate the New Year, the scale is exquisite, and there is a big difference between the princes and nobles, the rich and noble families and the people of the city. For example, Cao Xueqin used the fifty-third time in "Dream of the Red Chamber" to carefully describe the scene of the prince and nobleman's New Year in a live newspaper drama.

Buy a year. "At present, it is the waxing moon, and the year is approaching, and Madame Wang and Sister Feng are doing new things." In the Rongguo Mansion, Lady Wang was in charge of the family management power, and Wang Xifeng was always in charge of the family, so naturally she had to worry specifically about how to purchase the New Year goods with dignity, and the NingGuo Mansion was even more concerned about this.

Loose pressure on the old money. "On this day, you shi in the Ning Province was getting up with Jia Rong's wife to give Jia Mu a needle and thread gift, just when the servant held a tea plate and put the age of the hammer in", this is the so-called "pressing old money" of the people, but the luxury is incomparable - those silver hammers "only see that there are also plum blossoms, there are also begonia style, there are also pen ingots, there are also eight treasures of the spring." when Chinese New Year's EveChinese New Year's Eve meal, Jia Mu "scattered the old money, purse, gold and silver hammers."

Eat New Year wine. Eating New Year wine is a major event that affects inter-ethnic interpersonal relations. During the old Chinese New Year, relatives and friends generally invite each other to eat "New Year wine". Ning, Rong Erfu such as the Bell Ming Ding food home please eat New Year wine is particularly exquisite, the day can not be repeated, otherwise it is easy to be criticized as "sending false feelings for fear of trouble". In the Rongguo Mansion, together at the beginning of the New Year, Lady Wang and Sister Feng were busy inviting people to eat New Year wine every day, and relatives and friends were in an endless stream, and they rushed for seven or eight days. Near the Lantern Festival, please eat become invited, "Madame Wang and Sister Feng were invited to eat New Year wine for several days, and they could not win the memory."

Ancestral worship at the ancestral shrine. This is a major event for the New Year in Jia Province, and it is pointed out in the retrospection that it is "Ningguo Province Chinese New Year's Eve Sacrifice Ancestral Hall". First of all, we must make full preparations: "Jia Zhen opened a ancestral hall, cleaned up, packed up the offerings, asked the God Lord, and cleaned the upper room to prepare for the hanging images of the relics." At this time, both inside and outside the Rongning Second Mansion were busy and busy. "By the twenty-ninth day of the waxing moon, all colors were ready, and the two houses of Ningrong had changed the door gods, the joint pairs, the hanging signs, and the new oil peach charms." The next day, those who had been enthroned by Jia Mu, all dressed in court clothes according to their rank, first sat in a large sedan of eight people, led the people into the palace to pay homage, returned from the feast, and then went to the Ningguo Mansion to warm your car. All the disciples, who did not enter the dynasty, waited in shifts in front of the Gate of Ning Province, and then introduced into the ancestral hall. "The order of worship cannot be chaotic:" Jia Jing is the leader of all those who are named from the side of the text; the next is from the jade, Jia Zhen is the head; then from the grass head, Jia Rong is the head; zuo Zhao, right Mu, male and female west." Mother Qian bowed down with incense, and all the people knelt down in unison. ”

Eat Chinese New Year's Eve meal. The ancestors were just finished, followed by the children of Jia Fu to pay homage to Jia Mu, the living elder of the family, and eat Chinese New Year's Eve meal and feast. "Everyone gathered around jia mu in the main room, which was also a brocade embroidery screen, which was renewed." Chairs are set up on the left and right sides, and then the elders and children are seated one by one to receive the salute. Men and women sit back and offer Tu Su wine, hehuan soup, auspicious fruit, and ruyi cake. That night, Jia Fu "burned incense in front of the king of the Buddhist halls everywhere to make offerings, Madame Wang's main courtyard was equipped with heaven and earth paper horse incense offerings, and the main entrance of the Grand View Garden was also picked up with Daming Horn lamps. People up and down, etc., are dressed up in clusters of flowers, and the noise of people all night, laughter and laughter, firecrackers on fire, endless streams."

Most of the New Year folk customs in "Dream of the Red Chamber" are no different from the folk customs at that time, but they are more exquisite. This is a detailed and vivid description of the Spring Festival customs of the Integration of Manchuria and Han in Beijing at that time, and has high anthropological and folklore research value. At the same time, these Spring Festival customs of honoring ancestors and family, and harmonious liturgy and music are also of exemplary significance at the conceptual level.

Hundreds of people generate a society, and joy and sorrow celebrate the rest of the year

In addition to the princes and nobles, merchants, eunuchs, and scholars, how to greet the New Year? In the meantime, life is full of changes and even sorrows and joys, and we can also feel something in many Ming and Qing vernacular novels.

Written in the middle and late Ming Dynasty by Lanling Xiaoxiaosheng, "Golden Bottle Plum" is a worldly love novel that reflects social life, and the book depicts the scene of the merchant and bureaucrat Ximen Qingjia's new year: "Look at the day of the new year, wear the plum table moon, eaves snow and wind, bamboo firecrackers thousands of households, every family sticks spring victories, and pick peach charms everywhere." "Ximen Qing burned paper to pay tribute to Li Bottle'erbi, put the wine in the back hall, and sat down to deliver the wine in turn. The servants, the daughters-in-law, and the little squatters came up and prostrated their heads. Ximen Qing and Wu Yueniang were rewarded with handkerchiefs, sweat towels, silver coins, etc. On the New Year's Day of the first month, "Ximen Qing got up early in the morning, wore a big red, burned paper in heaven and earth, ate snacks, and prepared horses to visit the festival." The women shi Zhu fu powder, arranged flowers and greenery, and dressed up at Wu Yueniang's place to see the ceremony. Ping'an Er and the day of the festival received prayers at the head of the door, went to the door book, and promised to come and go to the chief officer. The hall is equipped with a table for a feast for guests. A good official eunuch, the style of a rich man's family.

In the vernacular novel "The Legend of the Awakening Marriage", the author Xi Zhousheng depicts the situation of the New Year's Eve of chao Dashe, the son of the county ling, which is very vivid: "Because the New Year is approaching, I pour candles at home, fry fruits, kill pigs, the Central people write couplets, buy the door god paper horse, ask for incense, send New Year gifts, watch people squeeze wine, clean the family temple, tree lantern poles, paint peach symbols, Xie Yang Guyue." "New Year's greetings are a must-have, and you must wear new clothes and bring New Year's greetings. In the third episode of the book, it is pointed out: "When the Chinese New Year's Eve, I folded out a few new sets of clothes and asked the book office to prepare a prayer." "At five o'clock and four o'clock, Chao Dashe got up and changed his clothes," burned paper in front of the heaven and earth stove, and prostrated his head in the family temple, and then went out to pray for the New Year. It shows the entire itinerary of ordinary officials for the New Year.

The "Eating New Year Wine" in "Dream of the Red Chamber" is very grand, and Wu Jingzi's long satirical novel "Ru Lin Wai Shi" in the early Qing Dynasty depicts the funny and ugly state of the little person Xia Zongjia showing off eating New Year wine to elevate his status: "Xia Zongjia said: 'You still say it! From the seven or eight days of the New Year, how can you ever have a leisure? I can't wait to grow two mouths, and I can't eat back. Just like the yellow father who invited me today, he is the head of the class who can stand up in front of the old man. He lifted me up, and if I don't, don't you blame him? Shen Xiangfu said, "Old Father Huang of Xiban, I heard that he was sent out by the old master from the beginning of the year; his family has no brothers and sons, but who is the master?" Xia Zongjia made an article by eating New Year wine, mingli cried bitterness, but in fact, he showed off and was ugly, and could also be used as a true portrayal of the customs of the world.

The twenty-first time in the "History of Ru Linwai" writes about the bitterness of the New Year's Eve of the bankrupt small shopkeeper Bu Laopa: "I don't feel that it is Chinese New Year's Eve. The Bu family celebrates the New Year, and in the room of his son and daughter-in-law, there are banquets and charcoal fires. Elder Bu first sent a few pounds of charcoal, asked Niupu to make a fire in the room, and then sent a table of wine and dishes, asked him to Chinese New Year's Eve and set up a tablet in the room to pay tribute to the old father. On the first day of the New Year, he told him to go to the grave to burn paper money, and said: 'You go to the grave and say to your father: I am old, and it is cold, and I cannot personally come to pay homage to my relatives. He said, and cried again. "Elder Bu did not come out to celebrate the festival until the third day of the junior high school, ate a few glasses of wine and some dishes at the people's house, played through the mouth of the pontoon bridge, and saw that the gate brand family changed the New Year League, the flowers and flowers were green, and I couldn't help but feel a pang of sadness, and i was shedding a lot of tears." The sour state of the poor people's Chinese New Year's Eve is lamentable.

The authenticity of reality often coexists with romantic legends and even fantasy ghosts, yearning for prosperity and liveliness and punishing evil and promoting good. Through the Spring Festival in Ming and Qing novels, readers also appreciate the colorful and touching joy and bitterness of life.

[The author is deputy director and professor of the Department of Literature and History of the Central Party School (National School of Administration)]