"Rain and frost cut off the air and clear, willow green tea fragrant swallow to make shuttle."
Cuckoo cries sowing spring twilight, planting and planting tubes many things. ”
After the late spring rains, the grain is born, which is when the farmer sows the seeds.
The valley rain fades away from spring, only waiting for the summer to be shaded.
Today, in Guyu, we invited Professor Liu Xiaofeng of the Department of History of Tsinghua University to tell us about the inextricable connection between the Guyu festival and farming culture.
First, the meaning of gu rain
Guyu is the last festival of spring and the second of spring in the third month of the lunar calendar. The Tongwei Filial Piety Sutra Aid Divine Contract says: "Fifteen days after the Qingming Dynasty, Dou Zhichen, for the valley rain, in the middle of March, Yan Yusheng Hundred Valleys are pure and clear." ”
The ancient book "Qunfang Spectrum" Yun: "Gu Yu, Gu DeYu was born of rain." Obviously, the name "valley rain" is inseparable from "valley" and "rain", taken from the meaning of "rain born of hundred valleys".
In the "Seventy-two Waiting Solutions to the Moon Order", the "valley rain" is explained: "In the middle of March, since the rain, the earth has pulsated, and now it is raining in the valley of the water. Rain reads as going to sound, like rain in my public fields. Gaigu sows seeds at this time, from top to bottom also. "When it rains in the valley, the rainfall increases, the temperature rises, and the gentle spring rain moisturizes the soft and thick land, completely driving away the previous dry and cold, warm and humid environment is a good time for the growth of cereal crops."
As the agricultural proverb says, "Qingming is busy planting wheat, and the valley rain is planting fields", and people often plant corn, sorghum, millet, millet, soybeans and other crops during the valley rain.
From its name, guyu represents a meteorological situation that reflects the precipitation that runs through the four seasons and thus is associated with agricultural activities. The rainy valley of spring is also a kind of prayer for the Chinese people who attach great importance to agricultural production.
The "Spring and Autumn Zuo Clan Biography" said: "Qi Sting and Yan." He also said, "The dragon sees and the goose." The "Kai" and "Ryumi" here all refer to February.
"yú" refers to an ancient ritual held to ask for rain. The upper is "rain" and the lower is "loss", and people long for rain to fill the dry parts of the earth. Spring and February, autumn and August. Spring prays for valley rain, autumn prays for valley real. Therefore, the valley rain is also the purpose of the spring goose prayer.
"Good rain knows the season, when spring is happening", in the land where the grain has been sown, people are eagerly looking forward to a warm and abundant drizzle falling to awaken this thirsty crop field that has been thirsty all winter.
Second, the valley rain three weather
The abundant rain not only spawned the crops in the land, but also brought new life to the season. The Verse of the Twenty-Four Solar Terms describes:
The valley rain is dawning in spring, and the mountains and rivers are blue.
Kuwama Ming Dai Sheng, Sawami naga duckweed.
Silkworm ants grow in warm houses, and the wind attracts wheat leaves.
The dove whisked its feathers, and the letter was unbearable.
As stated in the "Interpretation of the Seventy-Two Waiting For the Moon Order", Gu Yu has three seasons: the first waiting for Ping to be born, the second waiting for the dove to whisk its feathers, and the third waiting for Dai Sheng to descend to Sang.
Yi Hou Ping was born
"Ping, the water weeds, is equal to the water, so it is known as Ping, drifting with the wind, so it is also known as drifting." When it rains in the valley, the surface of the pond grows a new green, and the originally empty pool is unconsciously a little more lively. To say that the greenery, looking around, the rice in the north and south of the river has grown a second and third green rice leaves; the picking of spring tea is also busy.
The second singing dove whisks its feathers
"Dove" refers to the cuckoo we know as it is, "In March, when the farmer is in a hurry, the dove is chasing and singing, and the drum feathers are straight up and flying, so it is commonly known as cuckoo." "Before and after the valley rain, the cherries are red, it is late spring, the agricultural affairs are urgent, and there are often ethereal "cuckoo, cuckoo" sounds echoing in the fields, high and low, up and down. The cuckoo chirps and flaps its wings as if to remind people to sow the cuckoo seeds.
Sanhou Dai Sheng descended to Sang
The Daisheng bird has a crown on its head and is a bird connected to a silkworm. In ancient times, "victory" was a kind of female headdress, and the crown feathers of the bird looked like wearing "victory" on the head, which looked graceful and luxurious. In the Classic of Mountains and Seas, the Queen Mother of the West is also known as "Dai Sheng".
The agricultural proverb says that "guyu three dynasties silkworm white head", late spring is the day when the people who plant mulberry silkworms are busy raising silkworm babies. The ancient poem "Picking Mulberry Degrees" yun: "Silkworms are born in spring in March, and spring mulberries are containing green." The daughter picks spring mulberry and sings as spring songs. "In the third month of the lunar calendar, the Dai sheng bird landed on the mulberry tree, built a nest through the yang qi generated by the mulberry tree, and heralded with a crisp call that the work of silkworm weaving had begun.
During the rainy season of the valley, the warm rain brings vitality to cereal crops, and the representative phenology of cuckoo cultivation and Dai Sheng weaving also reflects and guides people's agricultural production activities in different aspects.
3. Guyu folk customs
As a festival closely related to the daily production and life of the people such as farming and weaving, a variety of folk customs are naturally indispensable during the valley rains, which are mostly combined with natural phenology and local terroirs to become quite distinctive folk activities.
Ornamental peonies
It is often said that "spring has a hundred flowers and autumn has a moon", spring is the season of a hundred flowers blooming, and the valley rain is the season when the peony blossoms, so the peony has an alias - "valley rain flower". The agricultural proverb says that "after three days of rain in the valley, look at the peonies in the garden", and if you want to say that the most famous and widely spread activity during the valley rain, you have to admire the peonies.
The peony flower is the king of flowers, and when it blooms, it is graceful and dazzling. However, at first, peony was used as a traditional Chinese medicine and grew among the mountains and forests. According to the Shennong Materia Medica, "Peony, spicy and cold... A deer leek, a rat girl, born in the valley. ”
By the time of the Sui Dynasty Emperor, peonies became the scenery of late spring in the royal gardens. In the middle and late Tang Dynasty, peony flowers have bloomed all over Chang'an Avenue and alley, which can be appreciated by ordinary people.
The Tang Dynasty poet Liu Yuxi's poem "Viewing Peony Flowers" has: "Only peonies are really national colors, and the flowers move the capital during the blossom season." "In the rainy hours of the Late Spring Valley, a hundred flowers gradually fall, only the peony, the atmosphere is magnificent, brilliant blooming on this time of wind and rain, has the meaning of peace and prosperity, so it has become the national flower of the Tang Dynasty."
Until now, during the rainy flowering period of the valley, many places such as Heze in Shandong and Luoyang in Henan will hold peony flower parties for tourists to watch.
Worship the god of the sea
China is a vast continental country with a long coastline. For coastal fishermen who make a living from fishing, poseidon is the faith of their lives.
When the spring floods warm up, fishery production begins to enter a new cycle, for example, Shandong fishermen are known as "valley rain and a hundred fish ashore". Therefore, Gu Yu is as important in their hearts as the "New Year", and it is an important day for them to worship the sea god. On this day, fishermen sacrifice three animals (pigs, chickens, fish), wine, etc., praying for peace at sea, calm wind and waves, and full of fish and shrimp. Today, fishermen along the coast of Shandong still have the custom of "Guyu Festival" to sacrifice to the sea.
Fourth, gu rain culture
It can be seen from the rich connotation of the valley rain festival that the production and labor of the ancient peasants on the mainland were carried out in strict accordance with the changes of the four seasons. What kind of climate, what kind of phenology appears, and which crops are suitable for growth at a particular time have long been revealed to us.
With the help of the spirit and ability of "the unity of heaven and man", the ancients felt and summarized the simple and practical laws of life, which have been passed down from generation to generation through popular and kind proverbs or customs. What we are pursuing is not only the vein of the valley rain festival, but also the vein of the long-standing farming culture in China. And these precious empirical wisdoms will forever accompany us in every twilight of our time with nature.
At this point, the festival that belongs to spring is coming to an end. As soon as the valley rain passes, it is the end of the three springs. What makes people wait is the hot summer day that is full of life.