Eighty-four, the branch lamp in Daxing Village, Huyang
Xing Shaoshan
Chinese every New Year's Festival, they all play with dragon lanterns, horse lanterns and lion lanterns, and some places also put lotus lamps. And in our Dangtu County Huyang Daxing Village, we play with the chandelier.
What is the chandelier, this has to start from the Ming Dynasty in our village a three-way soldier. This three-member disciple was Xing Xun and his two sons.
Xing Xun (1462 ~1532), the sixth year of Ming Hongzhi (1493), Zhengde Chu (about 1506) was awarded the title of Nanjing Hubu Langzhong, and later served as the prefect of Ganzhou, because of his meritorious efforts in suppressing bandits and counterinsurgency, he was promoted to Jiangxi Left to participate in politics. His second son Xing Kui (邢埴), Ming Jiajing (1522), entered the soil and granted zhixian county in Pucheng County, Fujian Province, and was deeply loved by the people for his meritorious efforts in suppressing bandits, alleviating hunger, and running a academy. Ji Zi Xing site, Ming Jiajing eleven years (1523) into the soil, the Beijing Punishment Department of Shanxi Division, because the official is clean, not afraid of power, uphold justice, Sheng Shandong Province supervision of imperial history. Emperor Mingmuzong, because the Xing family was able to "save its beauty in the world, not to fall in its name", and "to ji qi beauty, the beauty of the past life in the future generations", so the descending aim was to be the village neutral "Ji Mei Fang", and the word "Enrong" is still on the square. In order to make and pass on the virtue of "Ji Qimei" from generation to generation, the emperor also allowed the imitation of "Ji Mei Fang" to tie the colored doors and chancing lamps.
After the construction of Jimeifang, the clever Daxing people imitated "Jimeifang" and built a colored door, on which there were imitations of the "Jimeifang" carved erlong play beads, phoenix wings, lion pride, carp out of the water, crane neck and other patterns, but also equipped with flower and branch ornament patterns, the entire color door, is simply the epitome and reproduction of the Jimeifang gate. However, this ancient color door is made of bamboo, which is light and exquisite, delicate and elegant. The branch lamp is because after the huyang ancestor Bi openly created the foundation, my great Xing Ancestral Heir multiplied, the branches flourished, and the branches and branches were harmonious, symbolizing the descendants of the Xing clan, and the branch shrine was prosperous and passed down from generation to generation. The chandelier has the meaning of inheriting the past and the future, and it is also made of a fence, and candles are inserted in it to light up.
In Daxing Village, Huyang, every New Year's Festival, or there are major activities in the village, we must play with the lanterns, and the Lantern Festival on the fifteenth day of the first month must be lit. The color door, which needs to be carried by four people, is called "lifting the color door". There are strict rules for those who carry the color door, they must be unmarried men who will marry in the next year, these people are strong and energetic, and it is also implied that their daughter-in-law will pass through the door and hope that their children and grandchildren will prosper. Behind the color door is a long branch lamp, each household can make a lamp, the lamp is written on a certain shrine and its name, and you can also write auspicious words such as "grain abundance, prosperity of descendants, and golden list inscription".
Play with the chandeliers, first gather in front of the gate of the Daxing Ancestral Hall, and first entertain the ancestors. In front of the colored door, go to the ancestral hall to worship the ancestors, the branches and lanterns circle in the lobby, show the filial piety of the descendants to the ancestors, and then walk out of the ancestral hall in turn, firecrackers in unison, gongs and drums in the sky. Entertain the ancestors first, and then watch them later. Then, cruise through the village, but when you get to Jimeifang, you must stop and dance the lanterns to show the inheritance. In the past, there was an ancestral hall at the head of the village, highlighting the glory of the family; There are archways in the village, highlighting the glory of the family; There are theaters and temples behind the village, highlighting the glory of the family. In the village, people greet the colored doors and branches of the lanterns, every household must hang red lanterns, and some people also specially light stove head lamps to echo it, and the whole village has become a sea of lights, which is very festive. Passing through the door of the house, the owner lights a cannon in front of the door, which means that the family receives the lamp, the color door stops at the door of the family's house, coincides with it, the branch lamp passes through the color door, to his house around the hall for a week, the family who receives the lamp generally has to wrap the red envelope, how much varies.
Finally, go to the dawang temple behind the village and dance lights in the square of the theater building. The colored door moves in the square, and the chandelier changes various formations in front of the door, wearing dragons, swimming dragons, phalanxes, single whips, Chinese characters, hui characters, etc., which is a bit like the group rest exercise tidbits of the opening ceremony of the Olympic Games. Because in the evening, the dots are shining, the silver waves are overflowing, and the colors are colorful. It's really "dark when night falls, and the lights and branches spit neon." The clouds of smoke flow differently, and the staggering is infinite. "Lifting the colored door and playing with the chandeliers, there are big families and sages, gentlemen and giants who want to pass through the colored doors, there are those who pray for the prosperity of their children and grandchildren, there are those who pray for the title of the gold list, and there are those who hope for the prosperity of their careers..... You can go through the color door and beg for trouble. Someone wants to pass through the color door, the color door goes up to the theater building, and ten branches and lanterns dance with each other, which means perfect. The people who passed through the color gate bowed three times and bowed their heads and walked into the color door, the firecrackers were whining, the gongs and drums were noisy, and the whistle was shouting. People who pass through the color door generally want to play the lottery, and the amount is relatively huge. Before the lights came out, the news came out of the village early, this year whoever is going to pass through the color door, people are looking forward to seeing the wind and color, passing it on as a good story. Some of them went through the color gate with their children and grandchildren and prayed for the prosperity of the whole family.
Finally, the performance of the chandeliers in groups of three or five in front of the color gate to build a ladder, into a leaf type, indicating that the branches are leafy, at this time, the dance lights reach a climax. The scene was magnificent and spectacular, attracting people from all over the world to watch, crowded and bustling. The whole village is empty, as young as seven or eight years old, and as old as seventy or eighty years old, people have seen this grand event. "Kaiyuan Tianbao Testament" has a record of the "Hundred Branches Of Lantern Tree" and "Thousand Torch Candles": the Korean lady placed a hundred lantern trees, eighty feet high, vertical mountains, the night of the Yuan Dynasty, a hundred miles to see, the light to win the moon also. Every first night of Yang Guozhong's disciples, there were thousands of torches of red candles around them. It is about how the aristocratic giants at that time used the overwhelming and prosperous means to make the lights and candles compete with the bright moon. They really did it, the eighty-foot-high lamp tree on the mountain, the thousand candles surrounding the Yang family's children on the night of the First Yuan, those memories that belonged to the prosperous world, did not dissipate with the ashes, but existed in the historical notes for future generations to see. I remember when I was a child, we looked forward to the arrival of the day of lifting the colored door and playing with the lanterns every day. This is a unique performance that cannot be seen anywhere, except that we in Daxing have this lamp to play. At this point, we can finally re-read Xin's "Qingyu Case, New Year's Eve": "The east wind blooms flowers and trees at night, and it blows down even more, and the stars are like rain." BMW carved car fragrant road. The sound of the phoenix vibrates, the jade pot turns, and the fish and dragon dance all night. Moth snow willow golden wisps, laughter full of dark incense. The multitudes looked for him a thousand times, and looked back, but the man was there, and the lights were dimmed. "Unfortunately, our village has not played for thirty or forty years, and if we don't rescue it, it may be lost."
(This article is based on some information provided by Xing Jianming and others)