The ancient Qingming Festival can be said to be happy!

Today's Internet also has a variety of nouns Internet terms, the most mentioned is the word water reverse.

This is not a feudal superstition, but an "artificial superstition", very trendy and very low, and there is no scientific basis for the claim.

In addition to the water reversal, there is also the Dragon Boat Festival can not say happy, there are Qingming Festival days before and after the day can not say hello.

However, it seems that this taboo of the Qingming Festival should be more warm.

01

The source of the Qingming Festival

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The reason why Qingming Festival cannot be said to be safe is that today's Qingming Festival is completely different from ancient times.

Qingming is one of the twenty-four solar terms, and its function is closely related to farming.

Every year from April 4 to 6, the sun reaches 15 degrees ecliptic longitude, and the handle of the Beidou points to Tiangan Yi, which is the Qingming solar term.

Qingming Festival is divided into three periods:

First, Tong Shihua: Wutong blooms, for "Tong Shihua".

In the second period, voles turn into quails: voles are the most yin things, and quail and other birds are the most yang things

Field mice lurk, active at night, birds fly, day action, the ancients used "voles turned into quails", to compare the growing yang, grass long warbler flying, spring and Jingming.

Three waits, the rainbow is first seen: wind and rain rainbow, rain in the Qingming season, naturally easy to see the rainbow after the rain.

Qingming is another traditional festival on the mainland.

Historically, there was also a winter solstice on such days, but now the winter solstice festival is fading, and Qingming is becoming more and more important.

This is due to the fact that the Chinese nation has not had a unified religious belief since ancient times. The belief in heaven and earth and the belief in ancestors have become people's original beliefs in reverence for nature and life.

Since ancient times, people have held sacrifices to heaven and earth and ancestors in spring and autumn.

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The Qingming solar term is when all things are clean, and the earth presents the image of spring and prosperity, and people hold spring festivals at this time.

While paying homage to heaven and earth and ancestors, I hope to get their blessings, smooth winds and rain, and a good harvest.

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At this time, there is no Qingming Festival, and the date of the sacrifice is not fixed, but only a few days before and after this solar term.

As for tomb sweeping, it was originally unrelated to the Qingming Festival and was closely related to another ancient festival, the Cold Food Festival.

02

Fire worship at the Cold Food Festival

In ancient times, it was not easy to make fires, and people often tried to save some fires.

In the spring season, the climate can be dry, and the preserved fire is easy to cause fire.

Every season in this season, the ancients would extinguish all the fires handed down from the previous year, which is called "forbidden fire".

The new fire is then drilled again to form a new fire, which is called "changing the fire" or "inviting the new fire".

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When the fire is changed, a grand sacrifice is held to pray for the protection of the gods and ancestors, and the new year will be smooth in production and life.

There is a time lag between banning fire and changing fire, and people must prepare enough cooked food in advance to live with cold food during this fireless time, which is called "cold food", hence the name Cold Food Festival.

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In later generations, although it was easy to make a fire, the cold food festival also kept pace with the times and had a new connotation.

That is the interaction between Jie Zitui and Jin Wengong, which evolved from the need to "change the fire" to commemorate the sage, and the connotation was sublimated.

Under the promotion of the celebrity effect, the cold food festival went from Shanxi to the whole country, and at the latest in the Southern and Northern Dynasties, it became a national festival of the Han people, and the content also evolved into the sacrifice of ancestors, becoming the first major festival of Chinese folk.

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However, since it is difficult for ordinary people to worship their ancestors in the temple like princes and ministers, sweeping the tombs of ancestors has become an alternative option.

During the reign of Emperor Xuanzong of Tang, in the form of a state edict, this fact was tacitly accepted.

The imperial court had an edict, and there were many people who swept the tomb with cold food, and at this point, the custom of paying homage to ancestors during the cold food festival, sweeping tombs, putting incense, and sending paper money to the dead gradually formed.

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Of course, officials must still return to their hometowns to worship their ancestors, and it is inevitable that there will be leave and delay in their duties.

Emperor Xuanzong of Tang simply issued a decree stipulating that the Cold Food Festival should be a four-day holiday, and the "Tang Huiyi" contained: "February 21 (Kaiyuan) 24th year (736): 'Cold food and Qingming four days are holidays. ’”

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Because the cold food and Qingming were too close, the middle and late Tang Dynasties simply merged the two sections into one.

On February 15, the twelfth year of the Tang Dynasty (777), the edict reads: "From now on, cold food is the same as Qingming." ”

On Qingming Day, there is a custom of sweeping the graves of ancestors.

03

The Upper Festival

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Remembering ancestors is a very heavy topic, but during the Qingming Festival, there is also the custom of stepping on the outskirts.

This mourning and happiness, we have to talk about another festival - the Shangshi Festival.

The Shangcheng Festival, commonly known as the third of March, originated in the Spring and Autumn Period, and the main activity is the Yuanyu, where people go to the river to bathe in the water and remove the filth.

"Analects": "Those who are in the twilight of spring, the spring clothes are ready, the crown is five or six, the boy is six or seven, the bath is yi, the wind is dancing, and the song is returned." “

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It is said that Confucius led his disciples to wash in Yishui, remove the dirt, remove obscurity, and pray for blessings.

There is a cloud in the Book of the Later Han: "It is the moon, and the officials and the people are cleansed on the east flowing water, and they wash the water, and they remove the dirt and dirt to be clean."

"Shangxi" means "Shangxi Day", which is not necessarily the third of March, but in the Wei and Jin dynasties, the time of the Shangxi Festival was fixed on the third day of March.

In the Song Dynasty, Wang Huang's "Wild Visitors Series" volume 16 "Shangxi Qi" article records: "Since before the Han Dynasty, Shangxi did not have to take the third day of March, but the day of Shangxi. Since Wei, but with the third of March, it is not necessary to be in the Wei dynasty. ”

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Because the "Shangxi Yuanyu" is located on the riverside and water, it later added activities such as waterside banquets and spring outings, which also derived an important custom of the Shangxi Festival - Qushui Liuyu.

The "Jing Chu Dynasty" during the Southern Dynasty wrote: "On the third day of March, the four people went out of the Jiangzhu pond and swamp. Lin Qingliu, for the drink of flowing cup of curved water. ”

The most famous spring gathering banquet is, of course, the activity of the elegant scribes in Wang Xizhi's "Preface to the Lanting Collection".

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In the Tang Dynasty, because the third of March was also close to Qingming, sometimes it even coincided on a day, so some activities of the Shangcheng Festival gradually shifted to Qingming, and the two festivals passed together.

Wang Wei has a poem: "The young man travels in different days, and does not need to be clear and shangming." ”

This is true of the people, and the court is no exception. On the Qingming Festival in the thirteenth year of Tianbao (754), Emperor Xuanzong of Tang ordered the palace people to go out of the eastern suburbs to set foot in Qingqing.

Du Fu's "Beauty Travel" describes the magnificent scenery of the spring outing of noblewomen in the Tang Dynasty: "On the third of March, the weather was new, and there were many beautiful people on the waterside of Chang'an. ”

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Zhang Zeduan's "Map of the Upper River of the Qingming Dynasty" depicts the grand travel from the royal family to the people during the Qingming Dynasty in the Bianliang and Qingming Dynasties of the Northern Song Dynasty.

It can be seen that the Qingming Festival after absorbing the elements of the Shangcheng Festival has become a cheerful festival for the whole people, while the original Shangxi Festival has gradually disappeared from the festival culture, and the Shangxi Festival has disappeared from the literature after the Song Dynasty.

04

Hope breeds grief

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"During the Qingming season, the rain falls, and the pedestrians on the road want to break their souls", Du Mu's song "Qingming" lays the sad mood of the Qingming Festival to pay tribute to the ancients;

"The pear blossom wind rises and the sun is clear, the wanderer is looking for spring and half out of the city, the twilight song is cleaned up, and the ten thousand willow warblers are of the genus Stream Warbler."

Wu Weixin's song "Sudi Qingming Incident" by Wu Weixin of the Song Dynasty recounts the cheerful scene of Qingming Spring Tour.

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Nowadays, while paying homage to the ancestors, I see nature revealing the old and renewing the new, and there is a scene full of life.

I am afraid that this is the portrayal of the Chinese nation facing the hardships of life squarely, and there is no lack of tenacity and strength.

Therefore, the fact that you cannot say good morning a few days before and after the Qingming Festival is considered to put people's heavy hearts and should be understood.

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But there is no need to limit the time for a long time, after all, Qingming Festival is also a cheerful festival.

At the beginning, after Kong Li had served his mother for a year, he couldn't help but cry when he thought of his mother.

When Confucius heard this, he criticized Kong Li and said, "Hey, it's even better." ”

Because in reality, love and propriety often contradict.

Of course, Confucius paid attention to "putting love first", but he designed the etiquette system, "gentlemen's etiquette to decorate love", in order to control love with etiquette.

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Love and etiquette both pay attention to a moderate, too cumbersome etiquette, but will be delicate and contrived.

On the day of Qingming Festival, we should pay attention to some taboos, and after Qingming Festival, we should also respond politely to other people's greetings.

This is our attitude of attaching importance to national traditional festivals.

Resources:

Read "Water Cloud Chujing: It turns out that we have all been deceived, Qingming Festival is not just a day to sweep graves and worship ancestors"

This article authoring team

Author | Zhao Xiyi

Curated | Zhao Xiyi

Edit | Zhao Xiyi

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