That night, in the city of Xudu (present-day Xuchang, Henan), someone shouted, "Kill all the Thieves of Cao to help the Han Room!" ”
It turned out that in the last years of the Eastern Han Dynasty, Cao Cao's power fell to the opposition, blackmailing the princes of Tianzi, and the government and the opposition were indignant, and regarded Cao Cao as a national thief. The five ministers joined forces to prepare to deal with Cao Cao that night.
But these five people are alone after all. In the end, they were either captured by the Cao army or died in the rebellion. Not only that, Cao Cao also killed more than three hundred officials at the zhanghe river.
That night, the corpses in XuDu City were strewn like mountains, and the blood flowed like a river.
Many years later, on the same night, Tang monks and apprentices came to Jinping Province and went into the city to see the lights.
Walk to the Golden Lantern Bridge and see three golden lanterns. Three lamps, three nights burned more than fifty thousand two silver.
Later, Sun Wukong learned that there were three monsters in Xuanying Cave: the King of Cold Shelter, the King of Summer Shelter, and the King of Dust, and he loved to eat crisp sesame oil since childhood. They transformed into Buddha statues and asked the local people to offer sesame oil. The difference between the light lamp oil item is that "each family should be made more than two hundred taels of silver for a year."
The Tang monk, who was devoted to the Buddha, could not recognize the deception, and that night, he was abducted by three demons.
Many years later, on the same night, the eldest brother Song Jiang, together with Chai Jin, Dai Zong, Li Kui, and Yan Qing, came to the capital to watch the lanterns.
Song Jiang, Chai Jin, and the famous prostitute Li Shishi ate wine, but let Li Kui and Dai Zong watch the door. When Li Kui saw this, his heart was angry, so he made a big fuss in the capital.
That night, Song Jiang and other Liangshan leaders disguised themselves into the city, originally in the name of watching the lanterns, hoping to contact the emperor through Li Shishi and promote the great cause of Zhao'an. As a result, Li Kui made such a fuss, and things turned yellow.
Many years later, on the same night, Zhen Shiyin's three-year-old daughter Yinglian was taken away while watching the spark lights of the society, the couple became ill, and the family yard was burned into rubble by the fire.
China's greatest classical novel, it was from that night that it began to lay the most brilliant preparation.
That night was the Lantern Festival.
The Lantern Festival is also known as the Shangyuan Festival, the New Year's Eve Festival, and the Lantern Festival. How this festival came about is still very controversial in the academic circles. It is generally believed that the fifteenth day of the first month of the year is the first "day of hope" (that is, the night of the full moon), so the ancients valued this night.
It is also said that during the Western Han Dynasty, Emperor Wu sacrificed the "Taiyi God" on this day and put on a big display of lights. Since then, Taoism has designated the fifteenth day of the first month as the "Shangyuan Day", and Buddhism has corresponded the fifteenth day of the first month to the "great god changing the moon" in the Indian calendar. Several factors superimposed, and by the Sui and Tang dynasties, it gradually became a common custom of the Lantern Festival.
Chinese classical literature masterpieces like to talk about the Lantern Night. The major events mentioned above by Ai Gongzi are all from the descriptions of the four famous works.
In addition, other famous works also attach great importance to the writing of the Lantern Festival.
Everyone is familiar with the "Golden Plum Bottle", Ximen Qing at least four or five times to use the Lantern Festival to admire the opportunity to secretly have an affair with a married woman. In "Chatting with Zai Zhiyi", the prince served the Lantern Night outing, met Baby Ning, and was immediately hooked, and the lovesickness became a disease...
At that time, reading these novels was very suspicious: why did classical masterpieces put major events in the Lantern Night?
There are many traditional Chinese festivals, but their importance varies. There used to be a Shangwei Festival, which was very lively and grand on the third day of march every year, but in the Song Dynasty, this festival was lost and suddenly disappeared. After the Song Dynasty, the two most important festivals, one is Qingming, the other is the Lantern Festival.
At that time, there were two sayings: "Cold eclipse of the day, lantern of the night and night" and "Day of the cold food festival, the first half of the moon at night".
What does that mean? The Cold Food Festival is a day or two before the Qingming Festival. Contrary to our current understanding, the Qingming Festival at that time was not a sad festival, but on the contrary, it was a festival that could go out and walk in the green and was very happy. Like the Lantern Festival, their tone is cheerful. Therefore, these two sentences are to describe a person's small life is very comfortable, very refreshing.
On the other hand, the most important thing people valued at that time was also these two festivals.
The classical masterpieces quoted above were written after the Song and Yuan dynasties, although some of them are written about previous histories, such as the Romance of the Three Kingdoms, but the author still integrates the social background of his life era when creating, so he will emphasize the importance of the Lantern Festival and arrange the key plot to happen that night.
So, why is the Lantern Festival so popular? Because, this festival is really not ordinary.
In ancient times, the most feared thing for the government was the night.
At night, it is more difficult for the government to control the people, and many illegal crimes are easy to take advantage of this. Therefore, most of the ancient times had a curfew decree, after nightfall, the city gate will be closed, the residential area is also closed, if there is no important matter, it is strictly forbidden to walk in the street, and it is even more impossible to eat a supper grill.
Those who commit curfews are also punished severely, ranging from death to cane.
However, every year, a few days before and after the Lantern Festival, the government lifts the curfew. It's like a bird in a cage for a long time, and when it suddenly gets free in those few days, it is naturally very happy.
We have not experienced a curfew system, and it is difficult to feel the constraints of not being able to go out and walk at night. But the experience of the ancients is deep. The main reason why the Lantern Festival is popular is not actually how many rituals and how much joy this festival has, which are attached to the lifting of the curfew. The most crucial point is that the curfew is lifted, and everyone can go out and experience the real nightlife.
Not only that, during the Lantern Festival, people who go to the streets to watch the lights and play can also break through the boundaries of nobles, men and women, old and young, and join the carnival team together.
One year during the Lantern Festival, Sima Guang's wife wanted to go out to see the lights, and Sima Guang asked, "Why should I go out to see the lights at home?" ”
Madame replied, "I also want to see tourists." ”
Sima Guang asked, "Am I a ghost?" ”
This story is very illustrative that many of the daily taboos of lantern night have been dissolved.
Some scholars more accurately define the Lantern Festival as a carnival in ancient China.
Historian Chen Xiyuan pointed out in his article "China's Sleepless Nights: Lanterns, Night Prohibitions and Carnivals in the Ming and Qing Dynasties" that in the name of lighting lamps in the "city that never sleeps" or in addition to watching the lights, the people transcend various rituals and laws, and subvert the inertial time and space order of the laws preset by daily life—from the difference between day and night, the separation between urban and rural areas, the defense of men and women, to the difference between the noble and the lowly. In fact, the provocation and ridicule of etiquette norms and legal order are the main axis of the rules of the game of various activities of Lantern Folklore.
To put it bluntly, this festival has a liberating nature.
For the imperial court, the Lantern Festival was not only an opportunity to show the prosperity of the Taiping Dynasty and enjoy with the people, but also a relief valve to alleviate social contradictions, so the emperors were happy to lift the curfew once a year.
This Lantern Festival, which has no curfew, has also been extended repeatedly.
Tang Xuanzong stipulated that from the fourteenth to the sixteenth day of the first month, there would be three consecutive days off; Song Taizu would add seventeen and eighteen days, with a holiday of up to 5 days; Ming Taizu also stipulated that from the eighth to the seventeenth day of the first month of the first month, "ten days of lights would be released". However, in the Qing Dynasty, the Lantern Holiday returned to 5 days.
As early as the Sui Dynasty, on the fifteenth night of the first month, the city was already a "city that never sleeps". At that time, Liu Yu, a man, said in a letter to Emperor Wen of Sui that the Lantern Night Gong and Drum were noisy, the fire shone on the ground, and people wore animal faces. He asked the emperor to forbid extravagance on the fifteenth day of the first month.
Emperor Wen of Sui agreed.
But once an activity becomes a tradition, you can't help it.
The emperors in the back knew that they could not help it, and simply used this opportunity to enjoy themselves with the people and preach the power of heaven.
In the era of Emperor Huizong of the Song Dynasty, on the night of the Lantern Festival, the emperor would personally visit the Xuande Building to see the lights. As a result, the crowds on both sides of the Royal Street, while watching the hundred plays and lantern performances, can also see the mysterious face of the emperor through a layer of yellow silk fabrics.
On the morning of the sixteenth day of the first month, the emperor would appear again in the city tower, and if people were not too lazy or drunk at night, they would see more clearly as long as they could get up early enough to rush to the palace gate.
This was almost groundbreaking in ancient China.
However, Emperor Huizong of Song was still immersed in the dreams of the Taiping Dynasty, and the death knell of the Northern Song Dynasty had already sounded.
In the Southern Song Dynasty, the festive atmosphere of the Lantern Festival was still very strong, and it was not diminished by the partial security corner.
How crazy were people at that time? For example, in addition to looking at the lights, shopping, is going out to drink, drunk, only to think of going home.
The chaotic situation caused by alcoholism actually gave birth to a profession that only appeared in the Lantern Festival at that time: some people "swept the streets" with small lights after the night, and often picked up valuable gold and silver jewelry lost by drunks, and they were very fruitful.
No matter how politics changes, people always need to find their own entertainment.
Therefore, the Lantern Festival can be a carnival, it can be a Valentine's Day, it can be a foodie festival, it can be a drama festival, or it can be a key plot in classical fiction.