Wang Anshi's poem "Yuan Ri" is known to be written about the Spring Festival, and he wrote it very specifically, grasping the lively, joyful and new scenes of the ancients during the New Year, and providing us modern people with rare information to understand the ancients' New Year and understand the historical customs of the New Year.
In the sound of firecrackers, the spring breeze sends warmth into Tu Su.
Thousands of households always exchange new peaches for old charms.
The title of the poem is called Yuan Day, which refers to the first day of the first lunar month of the lunar calendar, and also refers to the New Year. The general meaning of the poem is that the sound of firecrackers bids farewell to the old age, and Chinese New Year's Eve night every house roasts the fire and lights the long lamp, until the sun of the New Year is ushered in, and people drink Tusu wine and cheerfully change into new peach charms.
Wang Anshi's poem is a sentence, the four poems write a total of four things, it can be said that these things are the details of the New Year at that time, that is, the characteristics of the New Year. These four events, as the main cultural customs of the Spring Festival, have been passed down, and it can be said that there have been only slight changes until now.
The first thing is firecrackers
The history of the New Year dates back four thousand years, when there was no gunpowder and no paper. Even if the Song Dynasty had these, the cost was very high. So the ancients were burning bamboo, making the bamboo joint burst and make a sound.
Because the firecrackers have both fire and loud noises, they are both lively, mighty and powerful, and powerful. Under the social conditions of the time, people believed that this firecracker could drive away the beasts of prey and avoid sneaky evil.
With the progress of social civilization, the invention of paper and gunpowder, and later there were firecracker sparks, this custom of opening the door and setting off firecrackers Chinese New Year's Eve night and the first day has been maintained, and even firecrackers will be set off Chinese New Year's Eve night.
The second thing is to drink Tu Su wine
The ancients had become a custom to drink Tusu wine at home during the New Year, because Tusu wine was a medicinal liquor, which could dispel wind and cold and prevent plague and infectious diseases. We are drinking alcohol for the New Year now, but it is not Tu Su wine. Now people's ideological consciousness and living environment have progressed, and they are less dependent on medicinal liquor.
Now most of them are high-rise buildings, even the ground floor is cement floor moisture insulation, and the ancients are mostly grass huts, not only prone to rheumatism and paralysis, but also may suffer from insect bites and snake bites, so the prevalence rate is relatively high.
According to legend, Tusu liquor was invented by Hua Tuo, a famous doctor of the Han Dynasty, and it was mainly brewed in wine by more than a dozen Chinese medicines such as windproof and aconitum. Later, it was improved by famous doctors such as Zhang Zhongjing and Sun Simiao and passed down from generation to generation. Wang Anshi was a song dynasty person, which shows that the Song dynasty was still drinking TuSu wine.
The third thing is to light a long lamp
The thousands of households mentioned in the poem refer to the opening of the door on the first morning of the first year and bathing in the sunshine of the new spring, and also refers to the dazzling and bright lights of the Chinese New Year's Eve night. In ancient times, there were no electric lights, and it was usually dark at night. Only this big Chinese New Year's Eve is as bright as day.
In ancient times Chinese New Year's Eve night was to order long lanterns, candles for candles, and if there were no candles, it was oil lamps. The oil lamp is filled with oil, placed on the lamp engine, illuminated all night, do not artificially blow out, let it naturally dry the lamp, called a round lamp.
There is also the Chinese New Year's Eve night to make a fire, the family to sit around the stove at night, to keep vigil all night. And this kind of fire is as strong as possible, it symbolizes the new year of family life is sweet and sweet, the days are red hot.
The fourth thing is to change the peach charm
The peach charm is to carve and paste the pattern on the peach wood board, and replace the old with the new one during the New Year, hanging on both sides of the gate. Before the Han Dynasty, most of the patterns were shendi and yulei, and later they slowly evolved into zhong kui, guan gong, the god of wealth, as well as various patterns and auspicious blessings.
This peach charm was originally used to drive away evil spirits, but in the early Song Dynasty, it formed the Spring League, which became a New Year's wish and blessing. The earliest pair of Spring Leagues is the "New Year Na Yu Qing, Jia Jie Changchun" of Shu Mengchang after the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms Period.
In the Ming Dynasty, the Spring League was widely popularized, and almost every household had to paste couplets in the New Year. Today we read Wang Anshi's "Yuan Ri", which was used in the Song Dynasty at that time. Although paper was invented at that time, it may be that paper costs high and has not yet been popularized, and the role of peach charms has not yet been freed from superstition.
Wang Anshi wrote "Yuan Ri", ostensibly through the four events of firecrackers, Tu Su wine, lights and peach charms, to write about the warm and cheerful atmosphere of the New Year. In fact, he was promoting the reform of the law at that time, and writing the new year was writing a new law, expressing a kind of joy at the smooth implementation of the new law and the improvement of people's lives.
The poet Wang Anshi was in the Song Dynasty, and the four things written in the poem were somewhat different from now, but that was determined by the degree of social civilization at that time. Although we have made a lot of progress in the Spring Festival today, the main elements have evolved from there.
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