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The flower market is as bright as day, the Lantern Festival is reunited, and today is the Lantern Festival. The Lantern Festival has a history of thousands of years in the mainland, and throughout the ages, not only has there been a large number of popular Lantern Poetry, but many classic works have also depicted the lively scenes of the Lantern Festival. Enjoying the lanterns, guessing the riddles, eating the Lantern, looking for beautiful people... The Lantern Festival of the ancients was even more lively than Chinese New Year's Eve.
Today, let us follow the footsteps of the ancients and appreciate the style of the Lantern Festival at that time.
The ancients on the Yuan Festival
Have a great night out
The first month is the first month of the lunar calendar, and the ancients called the night "supper", so the first full moon of the first full moon of the first month (fifteenth) is called the Lantern Festival (also known as the Shangyuan Festival, the Yuan Night, and the Lantern Festival).
Every Lantern Festival, the ancients had to burn lamps. How did this custom come about? To understand this problem, we must first understand the origin of the Lantern Festival.
Netizen @ Chen Jinquan photo
Chinese
The origin of the Lantern Festival is related to the founding of the Western Han Dynasty
The origin of the Lantern Festival can be traced back to the Han Dynasty. The earliest origin theory is related to Zhou Bo, the founding minister of the Western Han Dynasty. In that year, Zhou Bo plotted with Chen Ping to destroy the dictatorial Lü family and establish Liu Heng (Emperor Wen of Han). Because Zhou Bo put an end to the "Rebellion of Zhulu" on the fifteenth day of the first month, Emperor Wen of Han designated this day as the Lantern Festival. Since then, every year on the evening of January 15, Emperor Wen of Han has to travel and have fun with the people.
There is also a theory related to the first moon sacrifice of the god Tai (Tai). The Book of History and Music records: "The Han family often uses the Xin Ancestral Temple Taiyi Ganquan on the first lunar month to end at dusk and night. "Taiyi god is the god of heaven, Emperor Wu of Han is very devout to the sacrifice of Taiyi god, set up a "Taiyi god ceremony" in Ganquan Palace, and set up a sacrifice activity from the fifteenth dusk of the first month, the palace is full of lights and candles, and even all night, so the Lantern Festival is also known as the "Lantern Festival" or "Lantern Festival". On this night, the night ban is lifted, the so-called "night release", and the residents of the capital can spend all night.
Netizen @ Chen Jinquan photo
Sui
Chang'an Street Performance "Man Wears Animal Face"
During the Southern and Northern Dynasties, the Lantern Festival lanterns had become a climate, and it was the Sui and Tang Dynasties that really carried forward the custom of lanterns in the Lantern Festival.
During the Sui Dynasty, the Lantern Festival on the fifteenth day of the first month was already unprecedented. The "Sui Shu Liu Yu Biography" records: "Every first lunar month looks at the night, fills the streets with strangers, and gathers to play and travel. Drums beat the sky and burn on the ground. At that time, the residents of Chang'an City would come out to watch the lights and watch the theater, and the street performances were also rich and interesting, "people wear animal faces, men are women's clothes, advocate excellent miscellaneous tricks, and strange shapes." ”
Tang Dynasty
Luoyang Lamp Tower is 100 feet tall
The Tang Dynasty Lantern Festival was more lively than the Sui Dynasty. The famous idiom "fire tree honeysuckle" comes from the "Fifteen Nights of the First Moon" by Su Wei, the prime minister of the Wu Zetian period, and the poem writes the moving atmosphere of the Tang Dynasty Lantern Festival: "The tree and silver flowers are combined, and the star bridge is locked open." Dark dust goes with the horse, and the bright moon comes one by one..."
How big are the lanterns during the Tang Dynasty Lantern Festival? In the Miscellaneous Records of the Ming Emperor, The Chronicles of the Ming Dynasty, and other books, it is recorded that Tang Xuanzong "knotted silk for thirty lamp towers in the eastern capital of Luoyang, one hundred and ten feet high, hanging with pearls and jade, and the breeze moved, and the sound was sonorous, and its lamps were in the shape of dragons, phoenixes, tigers, and leopards."
In order to make the people happy to spend the Lantern Festival, the imperial court not only abolished the night ban, but also gave officials a holiday. For example, before Li Longji became emperor, the lamp was only lit for the fifteenth day of the first month, and after Li Longji became emperor, it increased to three days, from the fourteenth day of the first month to the sixteenth day of the first month.
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Puzzle making and guessing are also means of making a living
In the Song Dynasty, a special lamp market appeared, and the Lantern Festival activities were increased to five days, from the fourteenth of the first month to the eighteenth day of the first month, there were lantern burning activities. There are also a variety of lanterns, such as the Lantern Festival recorded in the "Tokyo Dream Record" that "looks like a double dragon flying away" dragon lanterns, and there are also hundreds of people carrying the "Aoshan Lantern Shed" that is several feet high, which is arranged with various lights and lights.
By the Song Dynasty, the Lantern Festival already had the meaning of "puzzle festival", and one of the symbols was the appearance of "lantern riddle". Lantern riddle is a riddle pasted on the Lantern Festival lanterns for tourists to guess, also known as "Yu Ci", "Hidden Language", has become an indispensable entertainment project of the Lantern Festival. In addition, according to Wu Zimu's "Mengliang Record", during the Southern Song Dynasty, riddle making and guessing puzzles can be used as a means of making a living, just like storytelling and chess.
bright
Zhu Di especially loves the Lantern Festival and has a seven-day holiday
The Lantern Festival of the Ming Dynasty burned the lanterns longer. According to the "Seven Revision Drafts", Zhu Yuanzhang, the ancestor of the Ming Dynasty, was in the capital of Yingtian (present-day Nanjing), "lanterns were put on the Lantern Festival, up to more than ten days."
Ming Chengzu Zhu Di also favored the Lantern Festival, not only giving officials "seven days of holiday", but also viewing the lanterns from the beginning of the eleventh month to the twenty-second day of the first month.
Opera acrobatics are exhaustive
In addition to the lantern riddles and hundreds of opera songs and dances in the lantern markets of the Ming and Qing dynasties, the content of opera performances was added. Different customs are also incorporated into each place, such as stepping on stilts, guessing lantern riddles, playing with dragon lanterns, and dancing lions. In the folk, there are also customs with the nature of blessings, such as sending flowers and lanterns to ask for children, and walking around for a hundred diseases.
There were many other acrobatic performances in the Qing Dynasty. The "Diary of Youzheng Wei Zhai" records: "Among the hundred plays, there are acting books, jumping boats, material tigers, taming bears, illusions, disguises, and all kinds of tricks." "So many acrobatics come together to feast the audience's eyes.
Song Dynasty tangyuan was popular to fry and eat
The custom of eating tangyuan during the Lantern Festival should have appeared in the Song Dynasty. In the poem of the Southern Song Dynasty Zhou Bida's "Lantern Boiled Floating Balls", it has been mentioned that boiling tangyuan: "Knowing what night it is, the reunion is the same" "In the stars and dark clouds, the beads float in the turbid water" The "pearls" here are tangyuan, and the poem not only tells the feelings of the festival reunion, but also talks about the cooking of tangyuan in detail.
The "Lantern" that was originally the name of the festival has become the name of the diet, which should be in the Ming Dynasty. Ming Liu Ruoyu's "History of the Ming Palace and the First Moon" details the method: "Eating the Lantern, its preparation method is made of glutinous rice thin noodles... That is, Jiangnan called 'Tangyuan' also. ”
In ancient times, "cooking lanterns" was not the mainstream at first, and there were many ways to eat lanterns in the early days, as well as "fried lanterns".
For example, during the Northern Song Dynasty, the Kaifeng Lantern Festival in beijing was more popular to eat oil, commonly known as "biting scorch". Tar is oil, probably the name of the tangyuan after it is fried and browned. The Northern Song Dynasty Chen Yuanliang's "Shi Guangji" "Biting Jiao" article quotes the "Miscellaneous Records of the Years" as saying: "The Jingshi Shangyuan Festival Jiao is the most prosperous and long. ”
The tangyuan filling of the ancients was mostly sweet, generally mixed with peanuts, walnuts, melon seeds, sesame seeds and so on. Yuan Ming of the Qing Dynasty also recorded the salty tangyuan - radish tangyuan in the "Suiyuan Food List", the method is "radish shavings are boiled, deodorized, slightly dried, added onions, sauce and mixed, put in the powder balls for filling, and then burned with sesame oil." Soup can also be rolled".
A different Lantern Festival in famous books
Ancient masterpieces, such as "Water Margin", "Romance of the Three Kingdoms" and "Dream of the Red Chamber", also have descriptions of the Lantern Festival.
Li Kuiyuan haunted Tokyo at night
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"Water Margin" narrates several stories that took place during the Lantern Festival. For example, the thirty-third time "Song Jiang night to see Xiao AoShan Hua Rong made a big fuss in Qingfeng Village", the sixty-sixth time "Shi Qian burned Cuiyun Lou Wu used wisdom to take the Daimyo Mansion", and the seventy-second time "Chai jin Hua Ren Forbidden Courtyard Li KuiYuan night haunt Tokyo". The Lantern Festival described in the book is both lively and related to fighting, such as the sixty-sixth time writing: "Like a flower lady, the gold falling jade collapse in the crowd; Play jingjin, the film time is scattered. The rubble buried The gold was buried, and the terrace became a blessing and a ruin. It is a pity that the thousand-year-old song and dance land has been turned into a war field. ”
The five ministers raised an army against Cao Cao
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In the chapter of the sixty-ninth chapter of the Romance of the Three Kingdoms, "Bu Zhou Yi Guan Zhi Ji Ji Jie Jie Wu Chen's Death Festival", Geng Ji, Wei Huang, Jin Yi, Ji Mi and Ji Mu planned to raise an army against Cao Cao on the occasion of the 15th day of the first month of Xu Du. On that day, "the sky was clear, the stars and the moon were shining, the six streets and three cities, and the flower lanterns were put on", "there were four fires in the city, burning the Five Phoenix Tower, and the emperor avoided the deep palace." Cao's henchmen and minions died at the palace gate. But people in the city shouted: 'Kill all the Thieves of Cao, in order to help the Han Room!' But the five men were alone, either captured by the Cao army or died in the rebellion.
Sister Feng has a joke with deep meaning
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The description of the Lantern Festival in "Dream of the Red Chamber" is particularly profound. In the fifty-fourth time, in order to please Jia Mu, Sister Feng said two jokes in a row at the banquet of the Lantern Festival, "Half of the First Moon", and after saying the joke, Sister Feng said: "We should also 'deaf people let go of the cannon battle -- disperse." This echoes with the first leprosy monk's recitation of "After the Lantern Festival, it is time for smoke and fire to extinguish", and Jia Province went from prosperity to decline.
The ancient Lantern Festival is also Valentine's Day
The reason why the Lantern Festival was so attractive in ancient times was not just the lantern festival. On this day, the girls who hide in the boudoir can also go to the street to play, in a beautiful and romantic atmosphere, you can see the handsome teenagers dressed in fresh clothes and angry horses, which can be described as the ancient Valentine's Day.
The classic sentence in Xin Zhiyi's "Qingyu Case, New Year's Eve" "The crowd looks for him for a thousand hundred degrees, and suddenly looks back, but the person is there, and the lights are dimmed" describes the night of the Lantern Festival, the ambiguous admiration atmosphere of young men and women.
Ancient cities on the mainland have implemented a curfew system since the Zhou Dynasty, that is, closing the gates of the city gate on time and prohibiting residents from traveling at night, most of the ordinary people have no nightlife on ordinary days. The Lantern Festival imperial court canceled the night ban, residents can spend the night, coupled with the festive atmosphere, naturally become the day to find the object.
In the old plays, there are many stories about the reunion of the Lantern Encounter with a loved one or lover. For example, the Tang Dynasty Wei Shu's "New Record of Two Capitals" records that Princess Nanchen Lechang and her husband Xu Deyan feared that after the country was broken, the two could not protect each other, broke a bronze mirror, each holding half of it, about the Lantern Festival of his year sold broken mirrors in the city; later, the two finally broke the mirror on the night of the Lantern Festival.
Source: Southeast Network Comprehensive Straits Metropolis Daily, Beijing Evening News, Science and Technology Daily, etc
Editors: Gao Shan, Chen Honghong
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