The Lantern Festival on the fifteenth day of the first lunar month, also known as the Shangyuan Festival.
The fifty-third time in "Dream of the Red Chamber" writes,
Jia Mu set off wine in the large flower hall to celebrate the Lantern Festival.
Jia Mu likes the furnishings, always rich and generous,
At a lively and festive feast,
It needs to be accompanied by a natural "warm fragrance": the flower hall is dedicated to the "three friends of the cold year",
There are also fresh flowers and plants such as "Yutang Fugui".
In the middle of winter, it is not difficult to gather the "three friends of the cold years" of pine, bamboo and plum, but "Yutang Fugui" is composed of magnolias, begonias and peonies, not seasonal flowers, which were "Tang flowers" cultivated in greenhouses at that time. During the New Year of the Qing Dynasty, varieties such as peonies, peaches, tanchun, and kumquats were very popular, and "Yutang Fugui" was a good gift. The Qianlong Emperor's "Drama of Tang Hua" is a poem: "Wan Fangxin, ingeniously grasping the heavens and the fire to force spring." "Delicate flowers can bring a thriving atmosphere to the New Year.
Dotting the night sky are fireworks. The fireworks of Jia Province are all tributes from all over the place, although they are not very large, they are extremely exquisite, and they are full of stories and various fireworks. Even the fragmentary small firecrackers are also "full of stars", "nine dragons into the clouds", "a thunder", "ten sounds in the sky" and so on.
In the era of "Dream of the Red Chamber", people's entertainment life is not rich, and the annual Shangyuan fireworks are a visual feast that everyone looks forward to. Gunpowder, one of the four great inventions, by the Qing Dynasty, had spawned many vivid and beautiful fireworks, and once lit, they could interpret familiar stories. The most chic fireworks, a small one, can "tell" several stories, "the characters are like life, feathers and flowers, and the beauty of the makeup".
The novel "Mischievous Road Lantern", which is contemporaneous with "Dream of the Red Chamber", mentions many fireworks titles: "Su Wu Muyang", "Wang Xi's Love Goose", "Cannon Strike Xiangyang" in the historical story, "Lü Bu Playing Sable Cicada", "Huarong Dao Blocking Cao", "Zhang Fei Drinking Broken Dangyang Bridge" in "Journey to the West", "Sun Wukong Jumping Out of the Five Elements Mountain", "Eight Commandments Spider Essence", "Nezha Going to the Sea" from "Journey to the West", and "Double Phoenix Chaoyang", "Erlong Play Pearl", "Qilin Sending Son" symbolizing auspiciousness...
In "Misguided Lights", a pyrotechnics specifically pointed out that fireworks that cannot burn people are not "good" fireworks. The most "ideal" effect is to "shoot at a person, like a carpenter's drill, drill through the clothes and then drill the flesh." This kind of ugly custom has been spread to the Republic of China. In Ba Jin's novel "Home", the old masters and young masters of the Gao family throw the flaming fireworks at the people who hired the dragon dancers, and afterwards they only lost a few rewards to appease them. The ruling class at that time was good at using gunpowder technology to decorate banquets and celebrations, rather than using it to defend against foreign enemies; some ignorant people would only let fireworks fall on others, deriving pleasure from their embarrassment and pain, but they did not know that national shame was approaching step by step.
Jia Fu is the home of Zhong Ming Ding, the family of Han Mo poetry books, fireworks are used to please the eye, and will not carry out cruel entertainment. When the fireworks were set off, Jia Mu put her arms around the weak Lin Daiyu, Madame Wang put her arms around her beloved son Jia Baoyu, and Aunt Xue wanted to hold the orphan girl Shi Xiangyun, but this bold girl who loved to amplify the cannon battle smiled and said, "I am not afraid." "The elders' love for young boys and girls is very warm, and it seems to be a piece of harmony.
Jia Mu's Lantern Night Feast invited men and women of the Jia clan. However, such a huge family, the people who came to the banquet on the first night, counting the young master and female relatives of the Second House of Rongning, as well as in-laws such as Aunt Xue and Aunt Li, only filled ten seats. Among them, people's hearts are also very subtle: some people who do not come to the banquet do not like to be lively because of their old age, some want to take care of their families, some are sick, some are jealous of the rich and ashamed of the poor, some are shy and dare not communicate, and even some hate Sister Feng as a person, and they cannot gamble.
In the end, only Jia Qin, Jia Yun, Jia Chang and Jia Ling came of the collateral males. The four of them were working under Sister Feng, flexible and changeable, and seized this opportunity to be close to the family sister Feng, co-opting the uncles and brothers of the direct family and seeking more opportunities. Moreover, they were in charge of the Rongguo Mansion, and they had a little power in their hands, and they also had a greater sense of belonging to this large family than other collateral families. In the eyes of these four people, this family banquet, watching the lights and watching the drama, the atmosphere is relaxed, I am afraid that like today's company annual meeting, you can participate in it with all the courage.
In addition, Jia Mou's widowed mother came with her son. Jia Xi is a great-grandson of Jia Fu's recent faction, mischievous and bold, and is a distinct and active person in the "Naughty Boy Haunting School". He and Jia Baoyu's nephew Jia Lan were the best, and they were at the same table in the academy. Jia Mu set up a banquet, and Jia Mou will want to come to meet the brothers and see the world.
Cao Gong has always been like a god in his pen, and behind the seemingly happy and harmonious scenes he wrote, there are many complex worldly sophistications and human feelings.
Article: Xinmin Evening News