Gu Yu: A special festival that embodies traditional Chinese agricultural civilization

On April 5, 2021, parents accompanied their children to the Nanjing Science and Technology Museum Tea Garden to learn to pick tea before the rain. Courtesy of Visual China

"The rain in the valley is like dust, and the boiled bottle of floating wax is trying something new." Peonies are ripe with sepals and cherries, and no flowers are allowed to fall into the spring. This is the scene of the valley rain season described by the Southern Song Dynasty poet Fan Chengda in "Late Spring Pastoral Miscellaneous". Of the twenty-four solar terms, Gu Yu is the sixth and the last of spring. Gu Yu falls between April 19 and April 21 in the Gregorian calendar. This year's valley rainy season is on April 20th. "Pipe Four Hours" Cloud: "When the rain falls, the grain and the fruit are deng." "Valley rain" is taken from the meaning of "rain born of a hundred valleys".

Happy rain will fall, not to live up to the name of "rain born of a hundred valleys"

As the saying goes, "Qingming cut off snow, valley rain breaks frost", the temperature rises significantly after the valley rain, which means that spring is coming to an end, and summer is on the way. Song Yingjie, vice president of the China Institute of Weather and Twenty-Four Solar Terms and "Mr. China Meteorologist", summed up the climatic characteristics of Guyu in the "Twenty-Four Solar Terms" that "the rain is more abundant". "The precipitation during the rainy season of the valley is both more than the previous Qingming and the subsequent Lixia", living up to the name of "Rainy Hundred Valleys". The "rain of the hour" in "When the rain will fall" refers to both the rain that should come from time to time and the rapid and erratic rain. The rain in the valley rain festival is abundant and urgent, and the rain often becomes a small episode of the day, even the main theme.

Song Yingjie introduced that since ancient times, among various meteorological elements, people are most concerned about rainfall. About 75% of the divination and record-keeping matters in Oracle are actual predictions and recorded rainfall. The so-called divination year is actually based on rainfall. Since the beginning of the Han Dynasty, the imperial court has stipulated that all localities "play the rain", and other meteorological elements do not need to be reported. Therefore, in people's subconscious, the so-called "climate" is actually "rain weather". It is not difficult to understand why the ancient people's description of rain often had a distinct emotional tendency, such as happy rain, moral rain, and rain, prolonged rain, obscene rain, evil rain, evil rain and so on. The "rain" of Gu Yu is precisely "happy rain". It is the so-called "Qingming should be sunny, and the valley rain should be rainy". During the rainy season, the rain increases, which is very conducive to the growth of cereal crops.

Cuckoo is busy with farming

In the "Explanation of the Seventy-two Waiting For the Moon Order", it is recorded that Gu Yu has three seasons, "the first waiting for Ping to be born; the second waiting for the singing dove to whisk its feathers; and the third waiting for Dai Sheng to descend to Sang." This means that during the rainy season, duckweed begins to grow, cuckoos begin to remind people to sow seeds, and Daisheng birds fly down on mulberry trees.

Xiao Fang, a professor at the School of Sociology of Beijing Normal University and chief expert of the National Social Science Foundation's major project "Research on the Construction of a Civilization Practice Center in the New Era," told reporters that Gu Yu is one of the solar terms that combines agricultural affairs and phenology relatively closely.

Gu rain is the busy season for spring planting. The Tang Dynasty poet Li Bai wrote in "Wen Wang Changling Zuo QianLong Biao Yao Has This Mail": "Yang Hua fell to the end of the rules and cried. "Zi Gui, also known as cuckoo, is commonly known as the cuckoo. The bird flew among the mulberries in the field, and the farmers thought that the bird was urging people to cultivate. There is a proverb: "The rain in the Qingming Valley is closely linked, and the early rice area is planted with rice fields." "Valley rain is the season of sowing, people in the cuckoo "ploughing" chirping, the grain seeds are evenly sown into the rice field, sowing not only the grain seeds, but also the hope of a good harvest, so there is no lack of "sense of ceremony" in sowing. In the Quzhou area of Zhejiang Province, farmers should plant a new willow in the rice seed basket, and after sowing, they should insert the willow into the water inlet of the rice field until the seedling is pulled, which is intended to "keep the seedling". People in the Changshan area of Quzhou also pin their expectations for a bumper harvest on food, such as eating hair cakes, which means that rice sprouts are strong and root-haired, and eating bean sprouts means that there are roots and sprouts in the ground under the rice plant.

Gu Yu is also in the silkworm moon in Jiangnan. "Gu Yu is close to the silkworm", from the beginning of the valley rain, the silkworm farmers have entered the busy stage of picking mulberry and breeding silkworms. Xiao Fang introduced that silkworm farmers regard silkworms as their children and call them "silkworm babies". Silkworm farmers usually have a special jam room in their home, and a silkworm lady is responsible for the breeding of spring silkworms. In the old days, there was no corresponding monitoring technology and equipment for sericulture, and many procedures depended on the silkworm lady's own feelings, such as the silkworm lady felt hungry, so she fed the silkworm baby leaves; the silkworm lady felt full, so she stopped feeding the leaves; the silkworm lady felt cold, and the silkworm room made a fire for warmth; the silkworm lady felt hot, so she had to anneal. Silkworm Niang cares for the growth of silkworm babies as thoughtfully as she pampers her own children. Silkworm township also has the custom of "closing the silkworm gate". The Qing Dynasty Weng Shu's "Chronicle of the District" records that at this time, "every household was closed and there was no contact with each other", not only the exchanges between relatives, friends and neighbors were interrupted, but even the official examinations, military parades, case handling, taxation, and theft arrest were postponed. There is a reason for "closing the silkworm door". A silkworm is prone to disease, close the silkworm door, outsiders are exempted from entering, has the effect of preventing infectious diseases. Second, in the spring, the seedlings are green and yellow, and it is a busy season for silkworm affairs, and everyone in the silkworm village is working hard, and there is no time to visit the door.

GuYu is also the "Kaiyang Festival" for fishermen engaged in sea fishing, and coastal fishermen hold sea sacrifice ceremonies when Gu Yu arrives, collectively worship the sea god, sing opera to cheer, feast and cheer. After the valley rain festival, the production activities of fishing in the sea began.

There are many pleasures in enjoying flowers and tea

The flowers of Gu Yu are peony, tulip, and neem. Qing Ren Chen's "Flower Mirror" Cloud: "Twenty-four flower trade winds, plum blossoms as the head, neem flowers as the end." After the valley rain, the twenty-four flower trade winds ended, and after that, it was the scene of the "green yin grass long pavilion". The time before and after the valley rain is when the peony blossoms bloom, so the peony is also called the "valley rain flower". Xiao Fang told reporters that peonies entered urban life as horticultural flowers and gained a prominent status during the Sui and Tang dynasties. The Sui and Tang emperors were all fond of flowers, and the Sui Emperor opened up a west garden in Luoyang to plant flowers, making peonies flourish in Luoyang, and there is a saying that "Luoyang peony A world". In the old days, Jiangnan folk also had the saying of "Gu Yu Three Dynasties looking at peonies", and on the third day after the Valley Rain Festival, places where peonies were planted everywhere, even private courtyards, would be open to the public for free and for people to watch. During the Ming and Qing dynasties, flower farmers in Dongting Mountain, Guangfu and other places in Suzhou would carry their burdens to the Shantang Flower Market to sell peonies during the rainy season. The custom of viewing peonies during the rainy season of the valley has been passed down in the folk for thousands of years. To this day, Heze, Shandong, Luoyang, Henan and other places will hold peony flower parties during the rainy season of the valley.

Before the valley rain, it is the spring tea picking season. Jiangnan produces green tea, the mining time in various places is early or late, according to the time of picking, it can generally be divided into "Mingqian tea" and "pre-rain tea". The former was collected before the Qingming Dynasty, and the latter was collected between the Qingming Dynasty and the Valley Rain. Most people value tea before the Ming Dynasty, but Xu Cishu of the Ming Dynasty pointed out in the "Tea Shu": "The Qingming Dynasty is too early, the summer is too late, and before and after the valley rain, the timing is moderate." He also believes that Guyu tea is warm and cool, has the effect of dispelling fire, eyesight and dehumidification, and can be used as a tea therapy.

Tang Yin, a scholar of the Ming Dynasty, admired Yang envy tea, and he said in his poem: "Qingming scrambled to insert Hexi willow, and Gu Yu first came to Yangxian tea." "In the old days, after the tea farmers picked fresh leaves, they roasted the tea on the stove, the stove fire was not extinguished, and the incense drifted for ten miles. After becoming a tea, Yangxian tea is brewed with Jinsha spring water from Guzhu Mountain, which is served in a purple sand pot produced by Yixing, which can be regarded as the "three absolutes" of tea drinking.

The Kangxi Emperor gave the name of Biluochun, produced in the dongting east and west mountains around Wuzhong in Suzhou, and was harvested in the month before and after the Qingming Dynasty, until the end of the valley rain, and "the valley rain is precious" (Qing Jia Lu of the Qing Dynasty). After the valley rain, the temperature is high, the tea grows rapidly, it appears thick, and it no longer has a sweet taste.

The same prestigious West Lake Longjing also has a long history, and in Lu Yu's "Tea Classic", there are records of tea production in the two temples of Hangzhou Tianzhu and Lingyin. Xiao Fang said that Longjing tea went through the three dynasties of the Song Dynasty, Yuan and Ming Dynasties, and flourished in the Qing Dynasty. The picking of Longjing tea begins about after the spring equinox, and the shape of the tea leaves varies from picking time to time. Mingqian tea tea leaves buds first bloom, like lotus hearts, so called "lotus heart"; before the rain tea is also known as "flag gun", at this time the tea handle has been issued a leaf, shaped like a flagpole, the tea leaves are slightly longer like "guns". Mingqian Longjing tea is famous outside, before the rain Longjing tea is not inferior, at this time the buds are full, the color is tender and green, and the tea soup is mellow, the aroma is refreshing, deeply pleasing to the old tea customers, often jokingly called "ration tea".

A festival commemorating Cangjie

"Qingming sacrifices the Yellow Emperor, And Gu Yu sacrifices Cangjie". According to legend, the origin of Gu Yu is related to the Cangjie characters. According to the Huainan Zi Benjing, "In the past, Cangjie wrote books, but the rain fell and the ghosts cried at night." Cangjie created the text, which alarmed the heavens and the earth, and there was a spectacle of the valley falling from the sky and the valley falling like rain. Later, people designated this day as the "Valley Rain Festival" as a day to commemorate Cangjie. To this day, the Baishui Cangjie Temple in Shaanxi still holds a traditional temple fair in the Guyu Festival, sacrificing Cangjie and remembering his great achievements in inventing writing.

After the valley rains, the temperature gradually rises, insects appear, and birds finally no longer have to eat only vegetarians. The farmer said, "In March and a half, there are tens of millions of scorpions." The rooster sings again, and the scorpion does not meet. "The valley rain is good, and the scorpions are few." Come on one, the chickens eat. Xiao Fang told reporters that because the pests began to be active, in order to inhibit the insect pests, people invented various ways to deworm. In the northern region, people take guyu as an important time to remove scorpions, and in Shandong, Shanxi, Shaanxi and other places, people will paste "forbidden scorpion posts" on the walls of the valley rainy days, and there are pictures and texts on the posts, and the incantation is: "Valley rain day, valley rain morning, tea three cups of wine three patrols, reverse scorpion thousands of miles into dust." Xiao Fang said that although this is only a kind of witchcraft, it expresses people's feelings and willingness to seek advantage and avoid harm.

According to the "Twenty-Four Festivals", xiaomeng Song in Xishuangbanna, Yunnan Province, also has the custom of "celebrating" the insects after the valley rain. The ritual of the festival is to find a few earthworms, a few grasshoppers, etc. in the field as representatives of insects, solemnly apologize to them, saying that people may disturb them or even inadvertently hurt them when they are farming, hoping to get their forgiveness, and then release them. Song Yingjie believes that choosing a festival like this, suspending farming, and taking a holiday for people and small animals is both gratitude and self-examination.

Xiao Fang believes that Gu Yu is a special festival that embodies agricultural civilization. Whether it is sowing silkworms, enjoying flowers and tea, or driving away diseases and commemorating Cangjie, they all reflect the elegance and wisdom of the ancients, and are also the modern inheritance of traditional culture. Modern people can enjoy the joy of the festival civilization, bid farewell to spring, and welcome the upcoming summer.

Source: China Youth Daily