Author: Pan Huiying
The fifteenth day of the first lunar month is the first beautiful full moon night of the New Year, so it is called the Lantern Festival, also known as the New Year's Eve, the Lantern Festival, the Small New Moon, and the Shangyuan Festival. Unlike the other full moon festival, the Mid-Autumn Festival, the Lantern Festival does not emphasize the moon in the sky, but on the lights on earth. Just as the Qing Dynasty Liang Yuanying's "New Year's Eve Front Door Viewing Lights" poem "This evening idle killing the group of people, how many tourists only look at the lights", the first keyword of the Lantern is "lights", watching the lights, guessing the riddles of the lights, people indulge in carnival, do a night of fun.
"Ming Xianzong Lantern Xingle Scroll" to see the flower lantern part
[Who can sit idly when they see the moon, where they smell the lights and don't see]
The most recognizable custom of the Lantern Festival is to watch the lanterns. As early as the "Chronicle of the Jingchu Dynasty" written by The Southern Dynasty Liang Dynasty Zong Yi, it was mentioned that the lantern became a system. From the beginning of the Tang Dynasty, the fifteenth night of the first month was illuminated, and the Song Dynasty was at its peak. Many ancient books record that the Song Dynasty lamp market counted five days, from fifteen to nineteen, in advance, a "Aoshan Lamp Shed" with a height of several zhang, on which various lights were arranged, and tens of thousands of lamps were burned. For example, "Tokyo Dream Hualu" said that every Lantern Festival, "Tourists gather under the two corridors of Royal Street, magic and magic, song and dance, scales and scales, and music and music for more than ten miles." Jin Renyuan asked the poem "Kyoto New Year's Eve": "Dressed in costumes and makeup, the lights on the sixth street make children." The long shirt is also what I am, and I am also in the laughter of tourists. "In the Yuan Dynasty, Ma Zhiyuan had a small order to write the Lantern (Xianlu Qingge'er) "December": "Spring City Spring Supper is priceless, illuminating the Xingqiao Fire Tree and Silver Flowers." Miaowu Qingge is the most he, the person in front of the emerald slope, under the Ao Mountain. It is said that at that time, there was a large tree outside the main gate of Dadu li that was named "General of the One Tree" by Kublai Khan, and every year the Lantern was hung with various flower lanterns, which looked like a soaring fire dragon from a distance.
Qing Dynasty Jin Tingbiao "Lantern Drama Map"
In the Ming Dynasty, the Lantern Was extended to ten days, and the famous painter Tang Bohu's "Lantern" poem said: "There is a lamp without a moon without a wrong person, and there is no moon without a lamp that is not a spring." Spring to the human world is like jade, and the lamp burns the moon and the next month is like silver. "In the Qing Dynasty, there were more Lanterns, in addition to flower lanterns, there were also dancing torches, fireballs, fire rain, fire dragons, fire lions and so on. The scribe Ruan Yuan has a poem in "Yangcheng Lantern City": "Sea claw clouds and phoenixes are exquisite and exquisite, and the color screens are listed in demen Ming." The calligrapher and painter Yao Yuanzhi said in the "Wing Lantern Festival": "The bees and butterflies among the flowers take advantage of the ecstasy, and the BMW fragrant car is long at night." The front lights on the twelfth floor are like fire, and the moon outside Siping Street is like frost", which is similar to the famous "Qingyu Case and New Year's Eve" of the Southern Song Dynasty poet Xin Renjie: "The east wind blooms a thousand flowers and trees at night, and it blows down, and the stars are like rain." BMW carved car fragrant road. The sound of the phoenix vibrating, the jade pot turning, the fish and dragon dance in one night...", can be described as a sea of lights and lights, a sea of people, bustling everywhere, warm and cheerful.
Lantern lanterns have a long history and a wide variety. Shen Congwen wrote in "The Lamp of the Lantern Festival": "The Notes of the Song Dynasty also recorded many lantern names, 'glass lamp' can be said to be a new variety, not only in the homes of the rich and noble, but also in the shops began to use it to attract patrons, light like a full moon." 'Ten Thousand Eyes' is made up of red and white sarcombs... Since the Ming and Qing dynasties, it has been reflected in the painting formats such as various lamps in the illustrations of "Jin Ping Mei", "Xuanhe Testament" and "Water Margin", and other crafts- especially preserved in the Ming and Qing splendid embroidery patterns, and one hundred and ten kinds of extremely exquisite and beautiful multi-faceted ball lamps with pearls and jade tassels are basically the styles handed down from the Song Dynasty... The Ming Dynasty's 'goldfish water injection lamp', and the clever lamp made of thousands of eggshells, the ice lamp made of ice, although the style of practice is difficult to know in detail, as for the Ming Dynasty's representative practical new varieties, 'Mingjiao lamp' and 'filament lamp', the physical object is still preserved in the Forbidden City. ”
Southern Song Dynasty Li Song "Guan Lantern Map"
"Dream of the Red Chamber" is like a description of the palatial time of Yuan Chun Province: "I only saw that all kinds of flowers and lanterns in the courtyard were scorched, all of which were tied with yarn and aya, and they were very exquisite." There is a plaque lamp on it, and the words 'Body RenMu De' are written... The garden is full of cigarettes, colorful flowers, lights everywhere, and the sound of music at all times, saying that this peaceful scene, rich and noble. The fifty-third time it is written that during the New Year of Jia Fu, "the eaves of the corridor and the veranda canopy on both sides will be filled with various colors of sheep's horns, glass, poking yarn, silk or embroidery, or painting, or stacking, or cutting, or silk, or paper lamps", which is a lively and festive celebration. "On the beams on both sides, there is a pair of three-in-five glass hibiscus color spike lamps. In front of each seat, a lacquered upside-down lotus leaf is erected, and there are candles on the leaves with colored candles. This lotus leaf is enamel, the living letter can be twisted, and now all the lotus leaves are twisted outwards, forcing the lights and shadows to shine outwards, and watching the drama is extremely real", such a high-end exquisite and practical and decorative lamp, which is beyond the possession of ordinary people. The court lights are more luxurious, the Qing Palace painting "Yongzheng December Lingtu" the first "New Moon Viewing Lantern" has a sky lantern, is a golden carved dragon pattern wooden pillar erected in the stone seat, near the top of a beam, shaped into a dragon shape, the dragon mouth a flower lamp, the flower lamp has a thin line and placed on the ground to play a fixed role in the four small copper people connected. There is also a flower lamp decorated with four patterns hanging high on the lamp shed, under which there are children playing, and under the eaves there are various palace lamps, rendering a full of paper joy. And the Ming Dynasty essayist Tang Shunzhi wrote with great interest "New Year's Eve Yong Ice Lantern": "I am pitying the fire tree QianchunYan, and suddenly seeing the Qinghui reflecting the moon." Out of the sea fish beads are still carrying water, full of sleeves want to be cold. ”
Lantern lights, or children's toys. Wang Zengqi once said: "Children have their own lamps." Rabbit lights, hydrangea lamps, horse lamps... The rabbit lamp is actually not much like a rabbit, the face is round, the eyes are curved, like human eyes, and there are two curved eyebrows! The surprise of Zhou Guoping's childhood Lantern Festival was a delicate marquee made by his father, "painting different watercolors on each side of the paper screen and hanging in the room." As soon as the lights came on, the paper screen spun up, which surprised me. (Autobiography of My Mind)
[Fei Qiong's companions try the lamp, endure the Tan Lang light farewell]
The Lantern Festival is a carnival for the masses, and young men and women often take advantage of this great opportunity to perform a moving love story. Lao She once said: "In the old society, women easily do not go out, they can get some freedom in the Festival of Lights" ("Spring Festival in Beijing"), with men to step on the moon, watch the lights, watch fireworks, crowd the streets. At the end of the Ming Dynasty, Li Cuiwei, a young girl, had a set of scattered songs [Zhenggong Mountain Fishing Lantern Offender] "Lantern Song" passed down, and its first song reads: "The lights are like day, people are like ants, always for the sake of appreciating the Lantern Festival, decorating the golden sky embroidery, how much noise and song are boiling, try to ask what night it is to take this night." This meets Thesaurus, speaking softly with him, and the laughter is low. Although the lights and shadows can be hidden, we must also worry about exposing the light and causing right and wrong. Love to kill you, the fruit of the city is graceful, harmful lovesickness, after a long time today, it will be effective to fly. "This is naturally a transcript of a couple of lovers with a secret date, and the heroine is brave and cute. According to the "Collection of Scattered Songs of Women in the Ming Dynasty" compiled by Wang Duanshu in the early Qing Dynasty, Li Cuiwei was a rice fat person in Shaanxi And was the daughter of Li Zicheng, the king of Chuang. In addition, Dong Shunmin's "Lantern on the First Night" vividly depicts the sweet shyness and unbearable parting of a boudoir woman on the night of the Lantern Festival and the faint sentimentality of not being able to part: "A hundred branches of fire trees and a thousand golden trees, BMW incense dust endlessly." Fei Qiong came together to try the lamp, and endured to bid Tan Lang farewell. Once angry, once smiling, the little maid helped timidly..."
There are many Lantern love dramas in the Yuan miscellaneous dramas, among which "Talented Beauty Mistaken Lantern", "Chen Cui'e Zhen Festival Appreciation Lantern" has been abandoned, "Wang Yueying Yuan's Night Shoes" still exists, and Song Yuan's drama text also has "Wang Yueying's Night Shoes". "Wang Yueying's Night Of Leaving Shoes" is referred to as "Leaving Shoes", an anonymous work, and the title is correct: "Guo Xiucai was drunk and mistaken, and Wang Yueying left shoes on the night." The story tells that Guo Hua went to Beijing to take the exam, met the queen of the rouge shop owner Yueying, and suddenly fell in love with it, borrowed the name of buying rouge, and often went to the store to meet Yueying. And Yueying was also fond of Guo Hua, and asked Yahuan Meixiang to send a message to Guo Hua, asking him to meet at the Xiangguo Temple on the night of the Lantern Festival. Guo Hua went to the appointment after drinking, and slept in the process of waiting for Yueying, and Yueying could not wake him up when he came, so he had to leave an embroidered shoe and a handkerchief in Guo's arms with an expression. Guo Hua woke up, regretting it so much that he swallowed a handkerchief and committed suicide. Bao Gong tried the case and used embroidered shoes as evidence to summon Wang Yueying. Yueying pulled Luopa out of Guo Hua's mouth, and Guo Hua woke up. Bao Gong dismissed the two as husband and wife. The opening of the second fold of the play depicts the scene of the Lantern Festival: "The carriage and horses trample on the dust, the Luo Qi cage smokes, and the light ball is raised high under the moon." The second [rolling hydrangea] depicts the Lantern Festival customs: "The lantern wheel is full of red streets, the boiling spring wind orchestra is a faction, taking advantage of the tourists to crowd out of Penglai, Mo is not the Liuao Sea to help the mountain, mo is not the double phoenix cloud driving in the way, straight to the people and horses next to each other." "The Minnan song boy drama "Chen San Wu Niang" tells that the five niangs were saved by Chen San, a talented son in Quanzhou, when they were watching the lights, and they fell in love at first sight. In addition, "Lechang Storyboard" takes the famous "broken mirror and re-rounding" story as the theme, although the script is not good, the ability is still there, and the Song and Yuan dynasties and the northern and southern dramas have it. It is about Princess Lechang, the sister of Chen Shubao, the lord of the Southern Dynasty Chen Hou, who is talented and beautiful, married to Xu Deyan, and the husband and wife are in love. In view of the political turmoil, Xu Deyan divided a mirror into two, the husband and wife each held half, and if they did not die, the princess sent someone to sell this half of the mirror at the Lantern Festival. After Chen's death, Xu Deyan did indeed see a head in the Lantern Lantern Sea holding a half-face mirror and selling at a high price, and the couple "broke the mirror and reunited", leaving a good story that was popular among the population. The Cantonese opera "Emperor Girl Flower" also plays this story. In addition, the Ming Dynasty novelist Qu You's "Peony Lantern Record" interprets the poignant love story of Qiao Sheng and Fu Liqing into the Ningbo Yuehu version of "Xu Xian and the White Lady", and the Qing Dynasty historian and literary scholar Quan Zuwang Bamboo Branch Ciyun: "The first Yuan Jia'an Lirenxing, Mo is the female rice monk of the Yuan family." If you go deeper into love, the lake is afraid of the peony lamp", the song is also this story.
The lamp represents light and hope, and in the Mintai dialect, it also represents Tim Ding with the "Ding" harmonic, so women who hoped to give birth at the Lantern Festival in the old days would deliberately walk under the lamp. Folk also have the custom of walking around the Lantern Festival and touching door nails, women walk together to strengthen the body, drive away diseases and disasters, and touch the door nails have the meaning of having children. In the "Yongzheng December Lingtu Zhengyue Viewing Lantern", there is a single arch bridge with a lot of heads, and the painting is the Lantern "Walking Hundred Diseases". Mingren Zhang Sushi said: "The white Aya shirt shines in the moonlight, and there is no disease when you walk across the bridge." After the front door nail tentacles, a line of entertainment for a year" - to drive away the disease, Tim Ding, is the most simple and the most beautiful wish of the people for generations.
【Purple House Gao Zhen came to the grand event, painting hall song music Parade】
It is often said that the Lantern Festival is over the New Year, and a word "noisy" tells the unique noise and joy of the Lantern Festival. Xiao Fuxing said, "Lantern looking at the lanterns, the old Beijingers are generally called 'visiting the lantern market', or 'noisy flower lanterns', and there are also called 'stepping on the lantern festival', and in the bamboo branch of the Republic of China, there is 'silver candle shadow under the bright moon, and when they meet, they are stepping on the lamps." Whether it is a 'shopping' word, or a 'noisy' word, or a 'stepping' word, it reflects the publicity of the Lantern Festival at that time. (Lantern Festival Lights)
In the Ming Dynasty, part of the "Landscape Map of the Southern Capital Fanhui" depicts the grand scene of the Nanjing Lantern Festival
In addition to looking at the lights in the real situation, the Lantern "looking at the lights" is also one of the most common bridge sections on the opera stage. Among them, the Huangmei opera "Husband and Wife Watching the Lanterns" and the Yue opera "Chasing Fish" are the most familiar to the public, the former plays Wang Xiaoliu and his wife from one to ten, both report the name of the lamp, raise their hands and feet, full of hopes and wishes for the day and the beauty; the latter sings the students Zhang Zhen and the carp essence rejoice and enjoy the Lantern Lantern Lights: "This box is a lion rolling hydrangea ball everywhere, that box is a two-dragon play bead full of stars, double butterflies flying in the wind, and the wings of the Mandarin ducks are more than wings..." There is also Mao Cavity "Zhao Mei Rong Guan Lantern" and Shanghai opera "Xu A Zeng out of the lamp" There are large sections of depictions of Lantern Viewing Lanterns, as if specially laying out the "Lantern Endowment" or "Lantern Illumination Explanatory Text" that specially introduces various lanterns, the former sings the character stories of the dynasties on a flower lamp, as well as various animal lamps, solar term lamps, crop lights, vegetable garden lights, etc., the latter is a dazzling number of lamp names, such as December flower name lamp, zodiac lamp, and "headless and footed turtle lamp, headless and footless clam clam lamp, footless crab ant ant lamp, headless mud eel lamp", The lyrics are both named and riddled, which is very interesting and very lifelike.
Peking opera master Shi Yihong once used modern scientific and technological images at the Lantern Opera Gala to adapt and restore "Lady Shangyuan" in the details of history.
Mr. Mei Lanfang, a master of Peking Opera, once specially choreographed and performed the new costume play "Lady Shangyuan" for the Lantern Festival, which was first performed in the Xinming Theater in 1920, telling the story of the Queen Mother's Mother and Lady Shangyuan who came down from the sky with a trick and a waiter, emperor Wu of Han set up a feast to entertain, and Mrs. Shangyuan sang and danced. Although the plot of this play is simple, but the scene is lively, especially The Lady Shangyuan played by Mei Lanfang, with pure skills, novel songs and dances, bright costumes, the audience is very fond of it, and the box office revenue in only three days is as high as fifteen thousand yuan. Unfortunately, it has been lost, leaving only the script, the dance score and a few stills. In 2021, Peking Opera master Shi Yihong used modern scientific and technological images to adapt and restore "Lady Shangyuan" in the details of history at the Lantern Opera Gala, showing scenes such as "Holding the Moon", "Wind Turning" and "Looking", she sang "The Shadow of the Stars and moons moves the Jade Lang Jiao, Zhen Xiang Ji celebrates the New Year." Zifu Gao Zhen came to the grand event, painting the song and music of the painting hall and the Chinese feast", and the dynamic reproduction of Mr. Mei Lanfang's Mrs. Shangyuan dance score images overlapped and blended, singing and dancing, refreshing.
Watching the lights is often accompanied by guessing the riddles of the lights, which is fun and intellectual, suitable for all ages, rich and poor. The origin of lantern riddle culture can be traced back to the pre-Qin period 2500 years ago, and the production of lantern riddles requires wisdom and ingenuity, and a large number of techniques such as metaphor, borrowing, imagination and anthropomorphism are used, which is extremely informative and interesting. Qian Qi, a Qing dynasty, described the lively scene of the lantern riddle activity in his "Taiwan Bamboo Branch Words": "Fireworks and fire trees blow over the wall, reflecting the Spring Festival lantern riddles. "In the Qing Dynasty, Li Ruzhen's novel "Mirror Flower Edge" repeatedly wrote about guessing and riddle-making activities, such as the 81st and 82nd vividly and detailed imitations of the guessing activities of the people in the middle of the Qing Dynasty. In "Dream of the Red Chamber", there are a total of twenty-seven riddles, such as the twenty-second "Listening to qu wen baoyu enlightenment Zen mechanism lamp riddle Jia Zheng sad sayings", the eunuch took the riddle made by Yuan Chun for everyone to guess. "Bao Chao waited to listen, a closer look, it is a seven-word poem, there is nothing new, the mouth can not be praised, only said that it is difficult to guess, deliberately pondered, in fact, a guess will guess", a few words will bao Chao's character characteristics of knowing current affairs, understanding the world, and knowing things. And "Jia Mu saw that Yuan Chun was so happy, and she was more and more happy, so she ordered her to quickly make a small and exquisite screen lamp, set it in the house, ordered his sisters to do it secretly, wrote it out and glued it to the screen, and then prepared fragrant tea fine fruits and various colorful toys for the congratulations of guessing." "The preparations are so meticulous and thorough, the joyous celebration of the family reunion guessing the riddle is needless to say.
There must be food in the festival, and the Lantern Festival will eat the Lantern festival as usual. Old Hangzhou has always had the saying of "lantern round falling lantern cake", which means eating tangyuan when the thirteenth day of the first month is lit, and eating rice cake when the eighteenth day of the first month falls. Southern Song Dynasty politician Shi Hao's "Pink Butterfly Wing Yuanzi" said: "Jade crumbs are light, and they are spread all over the place." Look at Xian'e and change some gods. Between the two, as sprinkled, a string of pearls. The fire is burning, the soup is first rolling, and the floating pot noodles are all...", comparing the woman who makes the rounds to Xian'e, and the rounds to the real pearls, and the writing is exquisite. In many places in Taizhou, Zhejiang, after people make the Lantern Festival on the fourteenth day of the first month, they go home to eat not the Lantern Festival, but a bad soup.
In the holiday memories of old Beijingers, the Lantern Festival "Burning Fire Judgment" is an excellent ornamental festival. The "judge" is a clay sculpture of the judge, which is placed in a hearth, and after the coal is ignited, the whole body turns red due to burning, and there is a flame spewing out from the seven knots, which is very beautiful. There is a saying in Sichuan called "the fifteenth moon of the first month, garlic seedlings pulled the pile pile", it is said that "stealing green", that is, to "steal" green onions, garlic, radishes, etc. in other people's homes, the stolen family will not be angry, because in the local dialect, lettuce and "sheng cai" harmonic, radish is called "vegetable head", and "color head" harmonic sound, and garlic and "calculation" homophony, are good "good color head". And the Taiyuan area must be "fiery red" every Lantern Festival - lion dance, dragon lantern playing, stilt walking, eight-tone meeting, lotus falling, two ghost wrestling, running field song, all showing a strong atmosphere of life and local characteristics.
(The author is an associate professor at the School of Humanities, Hangzhou Normal University)
Source: Wen Wei Po