The "Lamp Officer" went on tour
Author Fucha Baoren
On the fifteenth day of the first month in the northeast, lights are displayed everywhere, accompanied by a series of happy drums and songs, tourists are crowded, and you hug me and squeeze it very lively. In addition to the colorful and brilliant lanterns of the Fire Tree and Honeysuckle, there are several festive activities that make people happy. That is, twisting the straw song, playing with dragon lanterns, dancing lions, and the most amazing and funny thing is the Manchu drama "lamp official out of the tour". Heilongjiang Province's "Chronicle of Shuangcheng County" says:
At night, the house is lit up. In particular, there are many lights in various businesses, and the types are also different, and the lights are colorful, illuminating the streets. Flower Pop Happy Day, said
Lamp officials are known as "Lamp Administration Division", listed ceremonial guards, and patrol the city. Men and women travel, shoulder to shoulder.
The lantern official "Deng zhengsi" at the Manchu lantern festival was not a real Qing court official, but an official disguised as a folk entertainment. However, this official is somewhat semi-official in nature, one is that this lamp official "Lamp Political Division", the official family acquiesced in the official uniform, and the other is that this lamp official does have the power to inspect the lights and patrol the night from the thirteenth to the fifteenth day of the first month. This is a kind of folk custom in the early years when officials who were in charge of the government were happy to enjoy themselves with the people, and "decentralization" was held to the people and the people to make lanterns and were willing to listen to the discipline. The Han poet Yang Xihuan, who was sent to the northeast region in the Qing Dynasty, wrote in the "Songjiang Poetry of the National Dynasty" that the Lantern Festival in Jilin region was written about the Manchu Lantern Official's Strange Customs:
The lantern official is an official who specializes in managing the display of lights in the people around the New Year (i.e. Spring Festival) and the Lantern Festival. Original note: "Jiaping is set up after sealing the seal."
Lamp officer, until the day of opening the seal. "Jiaping, another name for the lunar month (december of the lunar calendar). Sealed, sealed, sealed by the government,
Stop working. Qing system: Each yamen is sealed within four days from December 19 to 22, and from the 19th to the 21st of the first month of the following year
Within three days, the printing will be opened and business as usual. According to the above, the lamp official is temporarily set, that is, it is set after the seal every year, and it is revoked after the opening of the seal the following year.
The candidates are produced in the private sector.
Since the "Lantern Political Division" is an official dressed as a civilian, it is just a entertainment for the Lantern Festival, so the dress is also very arbitrary. Like the "Baoqing County Chronicle" of Heilongjiang Province, the local lamp official road:
The lamp officer, one person, disguised as a Qing Dynasty official, rode a large wooden pole, carried it by two people before and after, and inspected the advantages and disadvantages of the lights along the street.
The "Chronicle of Emu County" of Jilin Province contains the local Dengguan Road:
Those who have lamp officers, wearing robes and hats and glasses, and mouth whiskers, straddling a wooden palanquin, or sitting on a two-person shoulder chair, holding a guard of honor, hugging before and after, such as
The patrol of the official house is silent. Where the lamp city is located, there is no secondary patrol. Cover this time the lighting department is the branch division. Because I am not bothered, I must nod my head and be prepared
comical. If there is a female companion, the way is blocked.
The so-called lantern officials wore the robes and hats of Qing dynasty officials, dressed up by entertainers or "rice flowers" (beggars). The lamp officers' faces are heavily painted, and some of them also wear long beards that sing, and sit on a thick wooden pole with a fan in their hands, carried by two strong men dressed as caravans. Some lamp officers do not have this skill and have to take the "shoulder chair" carried by two people. Behind the lantern officer was another official's wife, dressed in a delicate outfit and riding a donkey, and next to her were ten or eight retinues of ordinary people dressed in Qing Dynasty military uniforms, shouting and jumping forward and backward around the lantern official. Behind these lamp officers and retinues, a large group of adults and children watched the liveliness. Someone wrote:
The cold clouds cannot be frozen, and it is all up to personnel to summon the spring return.
Children stomped their arms and cheered, scrambling to see the lamp officer take office.
In the early years, the Manchu people dressed up lantern officials according to the official system of the Qing Dynasty, and the accompanying servants were also dressed according to the eight flags. Before taking office, the lamp official must first go to the Guandi Temple, the City God Temple or the Land Temple to worship the gods, and then he can take up his post and go on tour. From the fourteenth to the sixteenth of the first month, the streets and streets are illuminated with lights, and everywhere you can see the lively and noisy lantern officers and other people. They also carefully checked the lantern parade, three times a day in the morning, afternoon and evening, stirring up a lot of laughter during the festival of lights. Every time he went to a place, the lamp officer would repeat it in a depressed voice:
In the first month, hang red lights, and make flower lights on the fifteenth day of the first month.
Red lights and flower lights hang together, this officer is here to check the lights!
The "servants" who followed the lamp officer shouted loudly:
Light up the lanterns and look at the flowers.
Beware of fires and warn everyone.
The lamp officer can also be said to have the right to work, if the merchant shop is made big and strange, he will order someone to paste a red note to show the reward, and will also order the accompanying Song Team or dragon lantern team to come to dance to help, and the merchant will be flattered and immediately order people to reward money and reward the Lantern. If you encounter a shop that does not hang flower lanterns or has fewer quality lamps, the lamp officer will angrily reprimand and correct it within a limited time, and will also punish one or two hundred Lanterns as punishment, which will be divided among the accompanying people and so on, and the punished people will have no complaints.
Legend has it that there was a shop selling leather goods on the West Street of Jilin City, but on the fifteenth day of the first month, only a small lantern was hung to cope with the matter, and it was discovered by the lamp officer and his party. The lantern officer was furious and ordered him to change the lamp immediately and punish him with two hundred lanterns. The merchant smiled and promised, and immediately ordered the people to take out two hundred Lanterns to admit punishment. Suddenly, four huge marquee lights were picked out of the gate, but when they saw the red light, the shadows of the shadows and horses were wandering around, and the hundreds of people who were watching were stunned. "Good!" I don't know who took the lead in shouting, and hundreds of onlookers shouted.
It turned out that this was the merchant "fighting for the share" to attract people's attention, in the "selling guanzi". The lamp officer was also overjoyed, and quickly ordered people to paste a red note and enjoy a song, and the merchants also rewarded the Lantern festival at a good time. Later, people spread the word about it to each other, and the sale of this leather shop became more prosperous than before.
My ancestral home is Fengcheng Manchu Autonomous County, Liaoning Province, and when I was a child, I often listened to my father talk about the old days of the Lantern Festival in my hometown, such as making rice songs and lantern officials going out on tour. Phoenix City was a large Manchu county, which was an important side gate on the wicker side trench in the Qing Dynasty, and an important pass for the Qing Dynasty to send tribute to Korea and the Joseon Dynasty. Therefore, this place is not only a place with a long history but also a Manchu settlement.
In the early years, the Lantern Festival in Phoenix City was very lively, singing rice songs, playing rice songs, dressing up rice songs, Taiping songs and other rice songs, it was the left one pulling just walked the right one pulled and came again, and the gongs and drums were noisy and crowded. The most lively ones were also the lantern officials who sounded the gong to open the road, and the people dressed as servants held up large wooden poles and wrote the words "quiet" and "avoided", and accompanied the lantern officials everywhere to patrol the streets. Phoenix Lantern Festival, the lantern officer is colorful, some riding horses, some riding donkeys, some sitting on chairs, the most amazing thing is to sit on a large wooden bar carried by two people, which is the "Eight Immortals Crossing the Sea" each has a doorway.
The lantern officers of Phoenix City were quite entertaining, wearing leather jackets, wearing a red-topped Flower Ling Qing Dynasty official hat on their heads, holding a long dry cigarette bag in their hands, and sitting on a palanquin carried by four sedans or on a large wooden bar. In front of the lantern officer, there are gongs and lanterns, followed by a colorful flower palanquin with a lamp officer's wife sitting inside. But she was wearing a red flag robe, green pants, piped embroidered shoes on her feet, a pink handkerchief in her left hand, and a large cigarette bag in her right hand, and danced to greet tourists from time to time.
On both sides of the lantern official's wife's small flower palanquin, each followed by two rings, combing two heads, with large flowers on it, each person also carries a yarn lamp in his hand, on which are written auspicious words such as "auspicious and fushun", "four seasons of peace", "five blessings Linmen", "Guotai Min'an" and so on. Behind the lamp officer's wife's car, a group of poor people dressed as servants shouted from time to time: "Lantern watch the lanterns, be careful of the candles; the lights are colorful, wait for the officials to come!" Or shout: "Red light high pole, Guotai Min'an; light the lamp, all the people are happy!" Every time the lamp officer goes to a place, he must perform his duties and responsibilities for the previous paragraph: "In the first month, the first month comes to the first month, and the flower lanterns come in the first month; the old man I come to patrol the lights, the street flower lights are red, be careful of the candles don't relax!" ”
The noisy songs and lantern officers in my hometown of Phoenix city on the fifteenth day of the first month, from dress to form and content, show a rich breeze and rhyme, which is very Manchu national characteristics.
In the manchu areas of northeast China, until the Republic of China, people still dressed up lantern officials according to the Eight Banners Qing officials, and the lantern officials really took charge of the lamp management affairs during the lantern festival for a few days. The "Lantern Officer Out Tour" of the Lantern Festival on the fifteenth day of the Manchu First Month is indeed unique and unique, and people show the traditional national slang and the simple self-discipline virtues of the folk customs in the Lantern Festival.
About the author: Fucha Baoren, also known as Fu Baoren, was a state cadre before retirement, and is now a researcher of literature and history of the Jilin Municipal CPPCC, a visiting professor of Beihua University, the vice president of the Jilin Manchu Economic and Cultural Promotion Association, the vice president of the Jilin Manchu Friendship Association, the Jilin Manchu Entrepreneurs Association and the Jilin Urban and Rural Planning and Design Institute, and the consultant of ancient architecture and Manchu architecture.
Mr. Fucha Baoren has written many books, especially books on Manchu history and culture, mainly including the series of "Manchu Past Events in the Great Northeast", which is a project for the development of local history resources in Jilin Province. The series of books is about 1.24 million words, and is divided into 5 volumes, including "The History and Culture of the Manchus in the Great Northeast", "The Old Events of the Manchus in the Great Northeast, the Culture of the Manchus in the Northeast", "The Old Affairs of the Manchus in the Great Northeast, the Culture of Slang Culture", "The Old Affairs of the Manchus in the Great Northeast, the Architectural Culture", and "the Old Affairs of the Manchus in the Great Northeast and The Shamanic Culture". Our platform is authorized to publish some articles. Those who wish to purchase this book can contact the author, Mr. Hosa Hohito.
Our platform has published part of "The History and Culture of the Manchus in the Great Northeast", and now Mr. Li has provided the "Manchu Past Events of the Great Northeast and the Culture of the Years", which we will publish one after another.
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