Qingming worship Death is like life
Foundation of the Most Holy Confucius
Qingming season
Qingming is a solar term that characterizes phenology, meaning that the weather is clear and the grass is luxuriant. On the day of the Qingming Dynasty, the folk have customs such as walking on the green, cold food, and sweeping tombs. Do you have doubts, many people remember their ancestors, tirelessly return to their hometowns, and some of their friends in foreign lands sigh that they can't get close to them, what is the purpose? What is the meaning of Qingming Festival?
Qingming Festival: From natural festivals to humanistic customs
During the Qingming Dynasty, everything thaws and then sprouts. Like the living, the deceased ancestors have ushered in a new year, and the weeds in front of the tomb and the tomb are washed by rain and snow and need to be repaired urgently, so the filial son and grandson will choose to repair the tomb for the ancestors on this day in the spring. This is the humanistic care that the Qingming Festival is rich in. "The Middle Way" has a saying: "Death is like life, death is like survival, filial piety is also." It is unkind to the dead if we see them completely as dissipating into the world; it is unwise if we always regard them as living beings. Therefore, the sacrificial activities between benevolence and wisdom are pinned on the infinite nostalgia of the living for the dead, which is the continuation of the emotions of the present world and does not die with the distant ancestors, which is also the original emotional motivation of traditional sacrifice activities.
Qingming has a double meaning, it is a festival, it is also a festival. Solar terms are a sign of continental phenological changes and seasonal orders. "Huainanzi Astronomical Training": "Fifteen days after the spring equinox, the douzhi B, then the qingming wind arrives." "When the Age of Hundred Questions": "All things grow at this time, all are clean and clear." Therefore, it is called qingming. ”
"Qingming Valley rain two connected, soaking and cultivating the field is not delayed", China since ancient times to establish a country as a farmer, Qingming arrived, the temperature rises, it is a good season for spring ploughing and spring planting, so there are "before and after the Qingming, plant melons and beans" and "plant trees and afforestation, no more than Qingming" agricultural proverbs. Qingming is an important festival, due to the integration of cold food customs and events, Qingming has evolved from an astronomical festival into a humanistic festival with many customs and full of interest.
Do you know the relationship between Qingming and cold food?
Cold Food Festival, as the name suggests, only cold food is eaten on this day. Such a custom originated from the ancient habit of forbidding fire. Every early spring, the climate is dry, people save the fire is easy to cause fire, the ancients in this season to carry out a solemn sacrifice activities, the previous year's 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".
Later, there was a legend of Sukesuke, which gave the Cold Food Festival a thick historical and cultural connotation. In the Spring and Autumn Period, Zhong'er, the son of Duke Xian of Jin, fled into exile to escape persecution. When he was tired and hungry, and unable to stand up any longer, he cut a piece of meat from his thigh with the courtier Jiezi and cooked a bowl of broth for Jin Wengong to drink. Nineteen years later, after the ascension to the throne, he was rewarded with the heroes who had originally gone into exile with him, but forgot to push the meson. Many people pushed for the meson and advised him to ask for rewards in front of the king, but the mesons despised those who begged for rewards the most. So he packed his bags and quietly went to Mianshan to live in seclusion. After hearing this, Jin Wengong was ashamed and personally took someone to ask Jiezi Tui, but Jie Zi Tui had already left home and gone to Mianshan Mountain. There were high mountains and long roads, and some people offered to burn the mountain and force out the meson push, but the meson push unfortunately died in the fire. Jin Wengong saw the situation and cried bitterly. "Cut the flesh and serve the king with all his heart, but may the lord always be clear." In order to commemorate the meson push, Jin Wengong ordered that this day be designated as a cold food festival, and no fire should be made to cook, and the people also called the jujube cake eaten on this day "zi tui" in order to commemorate the meson push, and also compiled the story of the meson push as the drama "Burning Cotton Mountain".
Cold food quietly blends into Qingming, and cold food nourishes Qingming. In addition to paying attention to the prohibition of fire and tomb sweeping, in order to prevent cold food from hurting the body, the cold food festival left a series of rich and interesting amusement activities such as willow planting, walking green, swinging, poetry and painting. During the Qingming Dynasty, following the ritual of the ancient emperors and generals to "sacrifice the tomb", from the tomb sweeping of the heart and the mourning without hurt, to the "wandering son looking for spring and half out of the city", all of them embody the cultural tradition of yin and yang harmony, and highlight the filial piety tradition of the cautious pursuit of the distant and the filial piety of the Neighbors and Neighbors.
How should the Qingming Festival be worshipped?
Since Qingming worship is so important, how should Qingming Festival be worshipped? First of all, of course, we can't wish each other happiness (jokes); second, to understand how Qingming Festival exists in our traditional beliefs, let's talk about traditional beliefs.
In the traditional view, everything in the world is nothing more than the harmony and dissipation of yin and yang. Unity is born, scattered is dead, and so are people. Therefore, it is easy to understand that people are alive as a fusion of yin and yang, and when people die, they dissipate yin and yang. Among them, yang qi is also called god, and yin qi is called ghosts. God, Shinya. Ghosts, return. What is stretched out is not dispersed for the time being, so after death, there is a soul-calling ceremony to greet the gods, and this god is to enjoy the sacrifice of man. And the ghost finally returned, silent in the earth. Therefore, the tomb places the mortal body of the person, and the ancestral hall of the Jongmyo Temple is the divine qi of the person. According to the ceremony, the tomb sacrifice is not ceremonial, and the temple sacrifice is the ceremony. Speaking of this, some people may be guilty of muttering, since the tomb sacrifice is not polite, why should we sweep the grave on the Qingming? Today, it is generally considered that the land of China has eliminated the temple on a large scale, so the gods have no place to live. The emotions of communication between man and God cannot be stretched, so they have to rely on the tomb sweeping.
Whether it is etiquette or custom, in fact, in the end, it is only for the purpose of indoctrination, they are all carriers of ethical relations. The peculiarity of traditional Chinese festivals is that they almost all correspond to different indoctrination contents. But in general, they all carry the spirit of loyalty, filial piety and respect. As a festival of filial piety, the Qingming Festival, zhongyuan festival and winter clothing festival are in the same vein. It is not difficult to understand why the Qingming Festival sacrifice sweeping (even if there are some unseemly sacrifice sweeps), although there are inappropriate, but there are not too many explicit prohibitions, except for things like many reports of obvious rudeness (such as dancing in front of the grave, noisy gongs, drums and firecrackers, etc.), which are not so much rude as not being rude, but rather without a little human empathy, and expressing their feelings in vain. We ancients said that death is like life, and what the deceased likes before he dies should be what we prepare for offering and sacrifice, otherwise it is our own wishful thinking. Therefore, for the Qingming festival sweep, the capable people should participate in this activity of remembering the ancestors, even if it is not in the Qingming, when you return to your hometown one day, you may wish to go back to the grave of the ancestors to help weed, send a bowl of rice that it likes to eat before death, and talk to the people of the clan about the virtues of the ancestors, which is also good.
Can qingming worship be sent to the circle of friends?
It is okay to send photos of ancestor worship to relatives who cannot be close to them, which can satisfy people's feelings of remembrance. As far as the current social situation is concerned, a large number of young and middle-aged people are in different places, and they cannot visit the cemetery in person due to objective conditions, and their hearts are also full of remembrance, so it is understandable that relatives share pictures with each other. As for posting pictures to the circle of friends, first of all, the sacrifice is to communicate with the ancestors, to intersect with the gods, and the heartbeat should be focused, not to cater to the aesthetics and fun of the public, let alone to show others. Secondly, sending photos to the circle of friends may cause tasting, and once it is evaluated, it is inevitable that it will be desecrated by people, and it is even more a manifestation of disrespect to the ancestors.
"Zhongyong" has a cloud: "Death is like life, death is like survival", with the attitude of serving the living to treat the deceased, it will "respect and filial piety", otherwise, it is only a sacrifice with performance as a heart, "ghosts and gods do not enjoy".