The wind rises, the heavens and the earth are clear, and it is called clear.
In the early days of Chinese civilization, Qingming was a pure agricultural festival. Later, with the evolution of festivals and customs, the connotation of Qingming has gradually expanded and enriched, among which people are most familiar with the solemn worship of ancestors and the remembrance of ancestors, in fact, the Qingming season coincides with the revival of the earth, full of vitality, and the custom and tradition of stepping on the green and seeking spring when the sky is right.
How did Qingming come about?
Do you know? Qingming is the only folk festival among the twenty-four solar terms.
This is because the Qingming Festival, which we are familiar with, is formed by the combination of the Cold Food Festival and the Qingming Festival.
The earliest Qingming Festival was just a single natural festival day, and the first two days were another important festival in ancient China, the Cold Food Festival.
Cold food, as the name suggests, is forbidden fire, cooking without fire, eating cold food, is the only festival named after food in the mainland. It originated from the ancient spring fire system, which is related to the ancient people's fear of the summer heat after the Qingming Dynasty and the mountain fires that may be triggered, and people tried to adopt the ritual of forbidding fire and cold food to prevent and alleviate the external threats that may come.
At the beginning of the cold food festival, it was only a cold food such as forbidden fire, eating steamed bread, cold porridge, and green dough, and gradually added sacrifice sweeps, green walking, willow cutting, swinging, kite flying, and bowing in the development of later generations. The forms of willow cuttings are even more diverse, such as willow cuttings in graves, folding willow branches in households, wearing willow branches on the head or tying clothes belts.
As for the custom of offering sacrifices from the Cold Food Festival to the cemetery, it is not recorded in the early literature. By the time of the Tang Dynasty, it had become common practice to eat cold food on tombs. Although there is no classical liturgical basis for this custom, the rulers have to recognize this social fact. Emperor Xuanzong of Tang officially issued an edict, "Promise cold food to the tomb"
Speaking of Qingming, Qingming is the fifth of the twenty-four solar terms, generally on April 4, 5 or 6 of the Gregorian calendar, which is a node of climate change in the year, used to guide agricultural production, such as the southern tea picking mingqian tea, and the Central Plains has the agricultural proverb of "Qingming Shu Valley Rain Flower" (Qingming Planting Shu Valley Rain Planting Cotton). The Taiping Imperial Records quote the Filial Piety Jingwei as saying: "Fifteen days after the spring equinox, Dou Zhi B is Qingming. ”
Historically, the cold food and Qingming festivals were similar in time (the cold food festival was 105 days after the winter solstice in the summer calendar and one or two days before the Qingming Festival), and over time, they were merged into one festival. In the late Tang Dynasty, the cold food Qingming began to be called, and by the Song Dynasty, the Cold Food of the Qing Dynasty was gradually used, and finally the name of the cold food disappeared from the festival system, and the Qingming Dynasty incorporated all the cold food festival customs into the Qingming time, and the Qingming festival was also a festival.
Qingming customs, not only sweeping the grave
Because the Cold Food Festival and the Qingming Festival are merged into one, the relevant customs of the Cold Food Festival are also integrated into the Qingming Festival and continued, the most typical of which is to sweep the tomb and worship the ancestors and walk on the green.
Since the Tang and Song dynasties, the cold food Qingming has become an important time for worship. Liu Zongyuan said in the "Book of Sending Xu Jingzhao MengRong": "In recent times, the ceremonies have been worshipped for four years. Whenever there is a cold food, the trombone is turned north to make the first meal. "The Ming Dynasty revived the culture of the Song Dynasty, and the Qingming Dynasty completely replaced the cold food and became an important time for the tomb sacrifice sweep, the second volume of the Imperial Capital Scenery Strategy records that Beijing "On the Qingming Day of March, men and women sweep the tomb, bear the honor of the hammer, hang the ingots behind the palanquin, and the splendid road is full of dao." "Some prostrate, some offer wine, some weep, some weed, some weed and added soil to the cemetery, some burned paper money, and some pressed paper money on the grave.
In the poem "Cold Food Wild Hope Yin" of the Tang Dynasty, Bai Juyi once outlined the situation of sweeping the tomb: "The crowing magpies are noisy and the trees are faint, and the Qingming cold food is crying." The wind blows paper money in the wilderness, and the ancient tombs are green in spring. Tang pear blossoms reflect poplar trees, full of dead and alive parting places. The fountain of darkness wept and did not hear, and Xiao Xiao twilight rain people returned. ”
The Northern Song Dynasty Huang Tingjian's poem "Qingming" also has a description: "The festival of Qingming peach and plum smile, noda Arazuka only worries." Thunder shocks the world dragon snake sting, rain foot suburban grass and trees soft. People begged for sacrifices to Concubine Yu, and Shi Gan burned the unjust prince to death. Wise and foolish for thousands of years know who it is, and their eyes are full of basil. ”
But the Qingming Festival is not only a solemn sacrifice and remembrance, but also a peaceful and cheerful side. Since ancient times, the Qingming Dynasty has had the custom of stepping on the green, also known as the "Green Festival", and in ancient times it was also called Xingqing, Exploring Spring, Seeking Spring and so on. In ancient times, people also gathered relatives and friends to play around in the good spring light, and even sat around for a wild feast to return home at dusk.
In ancient times, many poets would travel around or far around the Qingming Dynasty, and most of the destinations favored Jiangnan. Li Bai went to Yangzhou to step on qingqing, and the sentence "The late man said the Yellow Crane Tower in the west, and the fireworks went down to Yangzhou in March" was popular among the people and was familiar to the people. Bai Juyi went to Qiantang Lake, leaving behind the ancient famous sentence of "the eastbound of the favorite lake is insufficient, and the white sand embankment in the green poplar shade".
This is because in the bright spring of the warbler flying grass, stepping on the green is not only intended to be the beauty of the landscape, but also to have an ancient faith in mind and stimulate the vitality of human life with the vitality of nature.
When people walk on the green, they will swing, bow, fly kites, fold willows and other activities. Tang Dynasty Du Fu's "Qingming" poem Yun: "Ten years of keju will be far away, the custom of swinging is the same", depicting that kicking a bow and swinging a swing during the Tang Dynasty became a common "program" for people at that time.
During the Ming Dynasty, there were many children's games during the Qingming Dynasty in Beijing, including shaking empty bamboo, playing tops, kicking shuttlecocks, and flying kites. In the Qing Dynasty, Beijingers would carry paper kites and spools, and after the sacrifice sweep, they would "cast a victory". It is said that the Beijing kite is extremely skilled, and the Liuli Factory has a special kite market during the Qingming Festival. Legend has it that Cao Xueqin, the author of "Dream of the Red Chamber", is a kite making master.
Since the Tang Dynasty, willow cutting and wearing willow have also become a common practice of people in most parts of the mainland, so the Qingming Festival also has another name for "willow cutting festival". "In the dawn of the Qing Dynasty, I heard that wicker was sold along the street."
During the Qingming Dynasty, the willow tree draws out new shoots, which is the timely tree for spring, the first to get the spring qi, and is a symbol of life force. People usually insert it on their own doors, under the eaves, or on the head of the grave, and in bottles to worship buddha statues and deities... Pray for the removal of sickness and good fortune.
There is a proverb that "Qingming does not bring willow, and the next life becomes a yellow dog", and bringing willow is both a display of filial piety and a prayer for the amount of vitality.
Millennium Qingming, Qingming Millennium. Whether it is sorrow and joy, mourning, or cheerful and peaceful, Willow Yiyi, the Qingming Festival is an important time for us to worship our ancestors, get close to the earth, and embrace nature, and it is also a nation's spiritual comfort and cultural inheritance from generation to generation.
Qingming is always there, and the homeland is evergreen.
Resources:
1. Chinese cultural time - the thousand years of qingming
2. The origin and customs of the Qingming Festival
3. Qingming customs hidden in ancient poems
Source: China Environment APP
Edit: Shang Yu