The poem speaks a new language‖ the candles of the Han Palace are passed, and light smoke is scattered into the wuhou family

Wen 丨 Wang Yanan (Intern Researcher, Poetry and Wine Culture Research Center, Fangtang Think Tank)

Cold Food

--Tang Hanhong

Spring City is full of flowers, cold food east wind royal willow oblique.

Candles were passed down at the Han Palace, and light smoke spread into the Wuhou family.

Yesterday, I went to the lakeside park not far from home to enjoy the spring, the sun was shining, and the weather was very good. The tents on the grass by the lake stretch endlessly along the shore of the lake like small hills, and the swing hammocks sway in the forest, shattering the shade of the trees.

Tourists are weaving, adults and children are playing freely on the beach, grass and sidewalks by the lake, and the laughter and laughter have raised the temperature by one degree.

The flowers and trees on both sides of the strait are all open, thousands of reds and purples, the spring wind blows, and the fall is colorful. The petals flew to the mats of the people who were eating picnics, and the mats were surrounded by relatives and friends, and the beer dishes and meats were laid out, and the first two days of the Qingming Dynasty were cold food, and the people who ate here did not follow the traditional custom of eating without making a fire during the cold food?

Cold food, as a traditional festival in China, has a history of more than 2600 years, it was once known as the first festival day of Chinese folk, the most famous source is to commemorate the Spring and Autumn Period of the Jin Dynasty, the famous minister Ofeshi Jiezi Tui.

The "Chronicle of History" records that when the twenty-second monarch of the Jin Dynasty, Jin Wengong, was a prince, because his father, Li Ji, the favorite concubine of Jin Xiangong, wanted to make his son an heir, he alienated the relationship between Jin Xiangong and the other three sons (Shen Sheng, Zhong'er, and Yiwu), and later designed to frame the prince Shensheng, causing Shen Sheng to commit suicide and then began to frame Chong'er and Yiwu, so Chong'er began to go into exile.

It is said that during the exile of heavy ears, the meson has been following around, loyal, when the group fled to Weiguo, there was no food, the heavy ears were starving to death, the meson pushed the pain from the legs to cut the flesh, boiled into soup to fill the heavy ears with hunger. Heavy Ear was thus rejuvenated, and he knew that the broth was boiled by the meson pushing "strand meat", which was very touching, and vowed not to be negative in the future.

Later, Zhong'er returned to China to become the Duke of Jinwen, and divided the group of subjects, only the jiezi pushed not to shilu, only wanted to do filial piety under the knees of Gao Tang, and took his mother to live in seclusion in the mountains. Later, Jin Wengong personally went to the mountain to ask The Mezi Tui, but the Mezi Tui was still unwilling to go out of the mountain, and Jin Wengong's men came up with the idea of setting fire to the mountain, forcing the Mezi to push out, and as a result, the Mezi Tui and his mother were burned to death holding a large tree. Jin Wengong regretted it, so he set this day as a cold food festival, did not make a fire to cook, only ate cold food, and mourned The Tui.

In fact, the origin of the Cold Food Festival also has its practical factors. Because the spring climate is dry, in the ancient times before the spring and autumn period, people's preservation of fires is easy to cause fires, thunder in the spring is also easy to cause mountain and forest fires, this season is the time when agricultural affairs are idle, the ancients held a grand sacrifice activity, the previous year's saved fire all extinguished, that is, "forbidden fire", and then re-drilled to take out the new fire, as the starting point of the new year's production and life, called "change the fire" or "please new fire".

After the Three Kingdoms were unified by the Jin Dynasty, because "forbidden" was homophonous with the "Jin" homophone of the Jin State in the Spring and Autumn Period, special attention was paid to the custom of banning fire and cold food in the Jin Dynasty, and this practice was extended to all parts of the country, so the Cold Food Festival became a national festival, and the Cold Food Festival banned fire and cold food became a common custom of the Han people.

During the ancient Cold Food Festival, there were many activities such as ancestor tomb sweeping, no fire, eating cold food, willow cutting, stepping on green, keju, tree planting, swing, flower viewing, cockfighting, feeding feast, chanting poems, flying kites, fighting hundred grasses, throwing (tile and stone playthings), etc., which were one of the few leisure and relaxation festivals for ancient people.

There are many poems describing cold food in ancient times, the most famous of which is probably the poem "Cold Food" by Han Hong in the Tang Dynasty. This poem was highly appreciated by the literati of the time, from the emperor down to the general officials.

According to the tang dynasty's poetic treatise "Benshi Poem" written by Meng Tang, Tang Dezong was very fond of This poem by Han Hong, and after reading it, he specially gave him the official position of "Driving Lang Zhongzhi Zhi Zhi Zhen". Since the History of Jianghuai Thorn was the same as Han Hong at that time, Tang Dezong wrote this poem and approved "with this Han Hong", which represented that It was Han Hong who wrote this poem.

So, who is Han Hong?

Han Hong, a native of Nanyang (present-day Nanyang, Henan), had been doing paperwork in the army, was good at writing poems on the subject of farewell, and was on a par with poets such as Qian Qi, who was called "Ten Talents of the Great Calendar", and if he had not written the poem "Cold Food", he would probably have ended up being just an ordinary petty official or literati. However, the fate was very strange, and in his later years, he composed a poem "Cold Food" that was appreciated by Tang Dezong, and thus promoted continuously, and eventually became an official to zhongshu sheren. So, what is the charm of this "Cold Food"?

"In the late spring, a hundred flowers bloom in Chang'an City, fluttering everywhere, and the warm east wind blows the willow trees in the imperial city, and the willow branches swing with the wind. After nightfall, candles were lit everywhere in the palace, and the light smoke of the candles spread into the homes of the princes and nobles. ”

Speaking of Spring City, everyone will think of Kunming and think of a beautiful city with four seasons like spring. The first two words of this poem give people a different sense of beauty, spring is the most beautiful season of the year, the city is the most concentrated and lively place of the crowd, the word "Spring City" is both beautiful and prosperous; "Spring City" gives us a static space, which is seen from the whole and the overall situation, just like standing at the head of the city to watch the city. And "Nowhere" takes us down to see every street and every corner of the city; "no flying flowers", and the double negation of "nowhere" in front of it is more affirmative, "flying flowers" suddenly turn the whole city from static to moving, and the whole city has been immersed in a rich spring mood.

In the first verse of the poem, there is no "wind" and there is wind, the wind blows the petals flying, with the wind we went to the royal garden, saw the tall and dense, exuding vigorous willow trees hanging willows were blown by the wind, here cleverly carried out the transfer of space and perspective, but also gave people a change of visual color, after seeing the thousands of purples and thousands of reds of a hundred flowers and then felt the boundless green, here with the Tang Dynasty poet Du Mu's sentence "a thousand miles of warblers cry green and red", the same wonderful. Just two sentences have described the beautiful spring light of Chang'an City during the cold food, which makes people feel "spring breeze facing the face" when reading.

After the sky darkened, here was a time conversion, from day to night, Tang Dynasty poets wrote poems mostly referring to the Tang Dynasty in Han Dynasty, such as "The Han Emperor's Heavy Color Thinking of the Country" "Han Family Smoke and Dust in the Northeast", in the Tang Dynasty, on the day of the cold eclipse, the folk banned fire, only the palace can burn candles, and some powerful and favored subjects will also be blessed by the emperor and get candles. A "transmission" character lit up the number of candles, showing the scene of the palace people running with candles to the palace to light and place them everywhere, and also showing the size of the court.

During the reign of Emperor Cheng of Han, the five brothers of Empress Dowager Wang, Wang Tan, Wang Shang, Wang Li, Wang Gen, and Wang Feng were all waiting for him and received special favors, and the five marquises after that were referred to as high-ranking officials and nobles who were favored by the emperor. The last sentence can be understood differently, one is that the candles in the court are burning, and the light smoke drifts into the homes of the dignitaries and nobles next to the imperial city, and the second is that the emperor rewards the candles of the dignitaries and nobles, and the light smoke also reaches the homes of the dignitaries from the palace. But in any case, this has nothing to do with ordinary people, the perspective here can be the people's, their own homes are forbidden to fire, while the court and high-ranking officials' homes are bright candles, but also the perspective of a member of high-ranking officials, the court and officials are closely related, everything is harmonious and close. Therefore, this poem was also understood differently at that time and later.

Tang Dezong and the officials favored by him thought that the poem portrayed the style of the imperial family, full of intoxication with the spring color of the imperial capital and the singing of shengshi Chengping, so he praised it greatly and gave the poet an official. "Batch Point Tang Poetry Zhengsheng" commented on the poem: the forbidden body does not carve words, and the rich and idle are self-aware.

But others think it's a satirical poem. After the Middle And Tang Dynasties, several emperors favored eunuchs, resulting in eunuchs monopolizing power, corrupting the government, and rejecting imperial officials, and upright people were extremely indignant about this, and this poem was issued because of this. The cold food festival prohibits fire, but the favored eunuchs are given special candles by the emperor and enjoy special privileges. The editor of the "Three Hundred Poems of Tang Dynasty" commented: "The prosperity of the eunuchs of the Tang Dynasty is not reduced to Huan Ling. Poetry is more profound than irony. "This poem is not directly satirical, but only depicts the privileged class in life, implicitly cleverly, into the wood three points.

Because the cold food is a day or two before the Qingming, so roughly to the Tang Dynasty, the cold food festival and the Qingming Festival are combined into one, and most of us have only celebrated the Qingming Festival until now, but many customs have been retained, such as sweeping the tomb, stepping on the green, and now the Qingming holiday has not passed, you may wish to take advantage of the spring and Ming scenery and also go on a green outing.

Editor: Yuan Yuan 丨 Editor: Xu Fengchao 丨Design: Sun Yueyuan