August 7th, the tenth day of the seventh month of the lunar calendar, is the beginning of autumn. At this moment, the bucket points southwest, and the sun reaches 135 degrees ecliptic longitude. Liqiu is the 13th of the twenty-four solar terms and the first of autumn. After the autumn, everything in nature also began to change from lush and lush to solid.
The joy of golden grains
Liqiu is one of the "Four Hours and Eight Festivals", and "Li" has the meaning of beginning. After the autumn, it begins to fall.
The 10th day of autumn is red everywhere. Autumn means that the grain begins to ripen. The "Explanation of the Seventy-two Waiting Collections of the Moon Order" records: "Autumn, tugging, and things here and pulling also." The meaning of "autumn" in the "Explanation of Words" is more explicit: "Autumn, hegu ripe also." "After the autumn, nature presents a harvest scene.
Out of the city, to the autumn field to look at the corn flowers, soybean pods, cotton bells, farmers look forward to the autumn after the rain is abundant, agricultural affairs are prosperous. As the saying goes: "Three rains in autumn, rice becomes rice". Looking at the dense turns of the crop and the growth of the ears, the joy in the farmer's heart overflowed on his face, and it was a golden season and a harvest autumn.
The countryside of Shaanxi during the busy autumn season shows a happy picture of prosperous farming and living and working in peace and contentment. Wang Zhi, an expert on xi'an folklore, told the China Consumer Daily reporter that after the autumn, the Guanzhong Plain was full of grains, six livestock, and agricultural economic and trade exchanges were active. Between the ridges of the QueMo Field, each family is returning to the twilight, and there is an endless stream. Some are busy making koji, pressing oil, drying vinegar, cutting paint, and some are starting to pick apples, peaches, plums, and grapes. What is impressive is that in the autumn, various townships in the Guanzhong area hold successive "township meetings" of different sizes. This kind of "township and town meeting," also known as the autumn busy meeting, is an "economic and trade exchange meeting" held regularly by peasants in order to exchange agricultural tools, grain, and livestock on the eve of autumn busy. Singular days are opened in the countryside and even-numbered days are opened in townships. Mules, horses, cloth, grain and other agricultural products and tools are available, and folk entertainment projects such as monkey playing, watching plays, and running horses also make the villagers linger. It is said that this unique consumption scene in rural areas of Guanzhong will continue until the end of August of the lunar calendar.
In addition to the seasonal theme of maturity and joy, the Autumn Farming Drama is indispensable to various rural wild interests. After the autumn, the golden yellow corn with flowers and ears is about one person to come high. Three or five teenagers went into the green yarn tent, and after playing and playing, they held the tender bud valley with both hands and stuffed it into the earth stove pit dug on the ground, leaving a smoke pipe on top, and lighting the corn flowers as firewood below, and after a while, the fragrant roast bud valley came out of the "furnace".
The scene of autumn that makes people can't help but be funny is still haunting people's minds and making people reverie; In autumn, the colorful and attractive fruits and golden rice fields spread over the mountains are warm pictures that cure the rural people's agricultural anxieties and harvest desires.
A living legacy
On the west side of the Bell Tower in Xi'an City, more than 100 meters away from the west, is the xi'an drum tower with the largest existing form in China. On the day of the bright sun, the reporter of China Consumer Daily climbed the Ming Dynasty drum tower built in 1380 and with a height of 34 meters. Above the cloisters on the north and south sides of the drum tower, 24 drums with a height of 1.75 meters and a drum base and a drum face weighing 200 kilograms stand in order, and the momentum is magnificent. On the first drum at the west end of the north side, two quaint and vigorous characters of "LiQiu" are written in small seals. Standing in front of the huge solar terms drum, the reporter silently pondered for a long time, and the drum beat sounded in his ears, and the culture and charm of the solar term customs were accompanied by this sonorous and powerful sound drum music, which was heard in the sky and passed on for a long time.
Twenty-four solar terms on the Xi'an Drum Tower. Xu Wenzhi/Photo
Different solar terms, different drum beats, people thus know the alternation and transformation of the seasons. Closing your eyes and listening, the drum tower hall is playing the sound of dense and exciting golden autumn drum music; Looking down on the supporting wall, the surrounding of the drum tower can be described as "several trees dark red out of light yellow", which seems to remind people that the "Liqiu" is coming. In ancient times, this festival was called the Liqiu Festival, also known as the July Festival. The "Later Han Book Sacrifice Chronicle" records that the ancient emperor led the high-ranking official Shangqing "to establish the autumn day, welcome the autumn in the western suburbs, and sacrifice the white emperor to harvest." After worshipping the gods and ancestors, grateful for the joy of harvest, some beautiful women picked up the falling plane leaves, cut them into beautiful hairpins, and inserted them into buns to express their love for the beauty of life.
Nourished by thousands of years of cultural traditions, folk customs such as "nibbling on autumn" and "sunbathing autumn" have been born and have been passed down to this day. According to Wang Zhi, every time the season changes, the masses everywhere have the tradition of "tasting the new" in their diets, such as "tasting spring" and "tasting summer", and the day of autumn also has the saying of "tasting autumn", commonly known as "nibbling autumn". The "Chronicle of the Capital" records: "On the day before the establishment of autumn, watermelon is eaten, which is called eating autumn. "In autumn, whether you nibble on watermelon, melon or corn, it is to express joy in the generous gifts of nature. As the saying goes, there are different winds in a thousand miles, and different customs in a hundred miles. The customs of "nibbling autumn" in the north and south of the river are very different, Beijing and Tianjin and other places, everyone likes to eat watermelon or melon on the day of autumn, known as "biting autumn", a "bite" word will keep people in the cool autumn mood, farewell to the hot summer mood expressed vividly. In the zhejiang area, it is said that the custom of eating watermelon and shochu together on the day of autumn is said to prevent malaria.
After the autumn, the green trees in the city gradually fell, but the autumn colors in the mountains were intoxicating. Some mountain farmhouses in Jiangxi, Anhui and other places are built on the mountain, with white walls, and every autumn, every household is hung on the roof, next to the window ledge, under the eaves, and is full of colorful peppers, corn, pumpkins, chrysanthemums, and persimmons. Over time, these customs of hanging and drying crops have been passed down from generation to generation and have become a very characteristic local autumn custom.
Autumn Festival. Xu Wenzhi/Photo
When the drums of Li Qiu and the call of the old man reverberated in the air, the children chasing and fighting in the field gathered around the old man at home, each stretched out his small hand, took seven small red beans, and swallowed a bowl of water. Old people often say that there is no disease in this way. Today, in the vast rural land, in addition to the custom of nibbling on autumn and drying autumn, simple farmers still retain the customs of tasting new beans, steaming eggplant, frying fragrant herbs and drinking, behind these inheritances, people's expectations for a better life are hidden.
Wisdom that does not eat from time to time
The Analects says: "From time to time do not eat." The "time" here can be understood as "solar terms", and to what festival to eat and what food, we must pay attention to the "rules", and we must not mess with the "moves". For example, Li Chun eats radish, called "biting spring"; And Li Qiu pays attention to eating watermelon, which is called "nibbling autumn"; In the Mid-Autumn Festival after the Autumn Festival, it pays attention to mooncakes, crabs, lotus roots and eats them all...
After the autumn, the cool air to the white dew descends to the autumn cicadas, and people will feel a little cool in the morning and night, but the power of the "autumn tiger" should not be underestimated, and the heat is unbearable. The feeling of physical fatigue and fatigue strikes from time to time, the so-called "one summer without illness and three points of weakness". According to the tradition of "raising the yang in spring and summer, and raising the yin in autumn and winter", in the autumn season, people's "appetite" will be greatly satisfied. Summers are hot and people eat lightly, but after a few months, their weight will drop a lot. After entering the autumn, people will compare the results of Liqiu "calling people" and Lixia "calling people", and they will find that they need to make up for it, at this time, all kinds of meat is undoubtedly the best choice. People with a big appetite, in the face of the temptation of meat foods such as roast meat, stewed meat and braised meat, feast on it, "sticking meat to the stomach", which is vividly called "sticking autumn fat".
Shaanxi people love lamb steamed buns. Xu Wenzhi/Photo
North of Xi'an Drum Tower, it is a well-known food street. The streets are lined with restaurants, tourists from all over the world, and all kinds of beef and mutton delicacies are mouth-watering and dizzying. "Mention Chang'an City, often remember the name of yokan soup." After the autumn, among the supplementary foods of Shaanxi people in autumn and winter, the most distinctive is of course the ancient name "yokan soup", which is widely spread in the land of Sanqin today. Walking down from the drum tower, the hungry reporter walked into a lamb steamed bun restaurant, took a bowl of lamb steamed bun with rotten soup and full of aroma, ate a clove of sour and spicy sugar garlic, and the spirit was suddenly lifted. Only from the degree to which lamb steamed buns are "pampered" in the local area, we can roughly see the unique experience of Shaanxi people for Liqiu diet. With the help of the effect of mutton warming the spleen and stomach, nourishing the yin and invigorating the blood, after thousands of years of precipitation and evolution, the fathers and elders of Sanqin made "yokan" into a world-renowned autumn food.
Wandering in the Gulou Food Street for a long time, looking at the tourists who gathered around a table to taste the lamb steamed buns singing and laughing, holding the honey date cake while walking and eating, smiling and smiling, a mouthful of sour soup and dumplings, sweating Hanzi, at this moment, the cultural tradition of "not eating from time to time" makes seasonal food give birth to the wanderer's concern for his hometown, in the colorful seasonal diet, cultural identity and spiritual emotions have been harmoniously unified and constructed.
The reporter stepped out of the Drum Tower Street and looked up at the twenty-four side of the drum tower, and his thoughts were endless. The huge and red solar terms drum seems to indicate that we are today: the common customs, common agricultural affairs and common culture built by the twenty-four solar terms civilization have allowed us to form a common national sentiment and cultural roots. Perhaps, this is a spiritual harvest given to people by the twenty-four solar terms.
Reporter/Xu Wenzhi
Source: China Consumer Daily