On the twenty-eighth day of the first month of the seventh year of the Northern Song Dynasty (1062), Sima Guang gave a proposal to Emperor Renzong of Song to the effect that he was asking the imperial court to rectify the female sumo performances in the Beijing street market and hook up the fence, because this kind of female sumo show was harmful to morality.
Sumo is now the national skill of Japan, but more than nine hundred years ago, it was one of the most popular mass sports in the Song Dynasty, and there were not only daily sumo commercial performances in the city, but also national sumo competitions. In cities such as Beijing and Hangzhou, artists perform sumo wrestling shows every day and collect tickets from the audience. In the late Southern Song Dynasty, the most famous sumo wrestling masters in Hangzhou were "Zhou Qiankui", "Dong Qiankui", "Wang Qiankui", "Saiguansuo", "Red Hair Zhu Chao", "Zhou Busy Looking", "Zheng Boda", "Tie Shaogong", "Han Tongzhu", "Yang Longfoot", and so on. This list is included in the Southern Song Dynasty notebook "Mengliang Record".
The peak terrace south of the Gokokuji Temple in Lin'an Castle is a sumo wrestling ring, which often holds national sumo tournaments, and the sumo wrestlers who compete on the stage are from the "prefectures of various provinces", and they are all selected by each state. The winner can get prize money, trophies, pennants, and only "those who are strong and strong and have no right in the world can win their rewards". The prizes of the champions include "flag tents, silver cups, colored satins, brocade jackets, official meetings (huizi), and horses". During the reign of Emperor Jingding of the Song Dynasty, there was a Wenzhou sumo wrestler named Han Fu, who was able to "replenish the post of military assistant" because he "won the first prize" in the sumo wrestling tournament.
The most novelty for future generations is the women's sumo wrestling competition. It is not difficult to imagine that female sumo wrestling must be very glamorous, and may even be "very yellow and violent". Judging from the sumo wrestling diagrams unearthed from the Song Dynasty sumo figurines and song tomb murals, the male sumo wrestlers are naked on the upper body, and the lower body is only wrapped in a piece of cloth, showing a strong muscle; the female sumo wrestler, even if she is not like a male sumo wrestler, must be wearing a tight suit with extremely economical cloth, and the curve is exposed.
The 104th time in "Water Margin" describes a sumo contest between men and women, the woman's name is Duan Sanniang, and the man's name is Wang Qing: "The woman is twenty-four or five years old, she took off her outer shirt, rolled it into a ball, and threw it on a table, inside was an arrow shaft with small sleeves, a parrot green short jacket, and a pair of large purple clip-sleeved pants, stepped forward, raised her fist, and hoped that Wang Qing would come." Wang Qing saw that she was a woman, and saw that she had flaws in her fists, deliberately playing her, deliberately not to fall quickly, and also dragged her fists to spit out a portal, swing the solution, and sumo wrestling with the woman. Judging from the description of the novel, the female sumo wrestler wears a tight suit.
Although "Water Margin" is a novel written in the Ming Dynasty, what is described in the book may not be in line with the facts of the Song Dynasty, but the female sumo exhibition tournament is indeed a very common entertainment program in the Song Dynasty, and the dress of the female sumo wrestlers is more irritating than that of Duan Sanniang in the novel. It is said that on the eighteenth day of the first month of the seventh year of Jiayou, it is during the Lantern Festival, the citizens of Beijing make a lantern, according to the custom of the Song Dynasty, Song Renzong went out of the palace to enjoy with the people, drove to the Xuande Gate City Tower, "summoned all the artists of all colors, each into the skill", including a female sumo performance match. These female sumo wrestlers dressed hotly because Sima Guang later used the term "women's drama" to describe the performance. The Liao State, which coexisted with the Northern Song Dynasty, also popularized the sport of female sumo wrestlers, and female sumo wrestlers used their breasts to "cover their breasts, and if they were exposed, they walked with their hands over their faces, deeply ashamed", and they wrestled with their underwear. The social culture of Song and Liao influenced each other, and the attire of female sumo wrestlers should be similar.
Speaking of the female sumo performance of the Northern Song Dynasty Lantern Festival. After the wonderful performances of the artists of various colors, Song Renzong was very happy and ordered to "give silver silk" to reward the artists, and the female sumo wrestlers were also rewarded: "There are women sumo wrestlers who are also rewarded." The emperor's move angered Sima Guang. Ten days later, on the twenty-eighth day of the first month, Sima Guang put on a "Treatise on the Sumo Of the Women of the Yuan Order", gently criticizing Emperor Renzong.
Sima Guang said: "The Xuande Gate, the image of the state wei, so the constitution degree, the cloth order also." Now there is the dignity of the Son of Heaven, and below there are the multitudes of the people, and the queen concubines are next to each other, and the women are ordered to look at the whole, and the women are in front of them, so that they can perform rituals and show the four directions. His Majesty the Holy Grace, who obeys the rituals, and the skillful deeds, and the miraculous deeds are used in vain to defile the cleverness. Stealing fear is far away. "Xuandemen Square in Beijing is the place where the state issues laws and decrees, and on such a serious occasion, in front of the imperial concubines and the imperial court's wives, in full view of everyone, watching the "women's drama", what is the system? Of course, Sima Guang could not have directly scolded the emperor for being "unorganized" and "laughing at the four sides", but said that he had been misled by the courtiers of "Qiaoyou".
Therefore, Sima Guang strongly recommended: "If the old rules are all, His Majesty Fu Wang will therefore rebuke them; there is still a decree, and a strict prohibition is imposed, so that women are not allowed to gather in the street market as a play; if this time in the Yuan Dynasty, the list of the hundred plays that are prepared, that is, the beggars to take the survey and management of the ministers, why are they in the register, or if there are ministers who cite the music, so that those who proclaim it, and repeat the condemnation, and make the ministers of Qiao Yu wary, and do not lead to indecency." ”
Translated, Sima Guang means: First, if the Lantern Festival holds a female sumo wrestling performance in Xuandemen Square, which has always been an old practice, then please ask the emperor to abolish this practice. Second, ask the emperor to issue an edict to issue a ban on the performance of female sumo shows in the street market. Third, if there is no old precedent, then ask the imperial court to investigate who arranged the female sumo performance in Xuandemen Square this time, and they must be "re-condemned" so that the courtiers of Qiao Yu will not dare to lure the emperor to do anything against the etiquette system in the future.
From the standpoint of a modern person and a Confucian, I agree with sima Guang's opinions as well as disagree with them. On such a solemn and serious occasion as Xuandemen, arranging for a hot and coolly dressed female sumo wrestler to "hand-to-hand combat" and letting the king of a country lead a group of court officials to watch such a vulgar and frivolous performance is indeed incompatible with etiquette and does not form a system. Sima Guang had every reason to demand that the emperor and government officials not watch programs that lost their identity in public in the future.
He also had some reason for proposing to investigate and punish the courtiers who had induced the emperor, because these people freed the monarch from the strict constraints of etiquette. After all, in the age of monarchy, the monarch, as a symbol of moral etiquette, could not be willful. In terms of etiquette, the freedom of the monarch should be severely restricted.
However, Sima Guang's suggestion that there be a ban on female sumo wrestling between the wells in the city is more nosy. Female sumo is just a spontaneous entertainment culture of the citizens, and does not need to bear a heavy ritual function, it may be a bit vulgar, but that is the fun of the small citizens, why respect? Confucianism pays attention to "etiquette is not enough to be a common person" and does not require small people in the city with a strict etiquette system.
After Sima Guang's "On the Shangyuan Ling Woman Sumo" was presented to the imperial review, I did not find out what feedback Song Renzong gave, but it can be slightly speculated through other historical records. The "Tokyo Dream Record", which describes the customs of The Late Northern Song Dynasty, depicts the excitement of the Tokyo Lantern Festival, but there is no record of the female sumo performance in front of xuande gate, and it seems that the official government should abolish the old practice of female sumo wrestlers performing at Xuandemen.
But folk sumo performances for women should be unrestricted. Because according to the "Mengliang Record" and "Wulin Past", there have always been female sumo wrestling competitions in the Washe Gou column in Hangzhou in the Southern Song Dynasty: "The washi sumo wrestlers, the Luqi people (folk artists) gather first-class partners to try their hands." First, the female floppy (that is, the female sumo wrestler) is used to play the condom, which is watchable, and then the wrestler competes. "These fee-based commercial sumo exhibition matches are usually held in the form of female sumo wrestling matches, attracting spectators, and then the official competition of male sumo wrestlers.
The "Records of Dreams" and "Past Events of Wulin" also include the names of several female sumo wrestlers in Hangzhou Vashe: "Sai GuanSuo", "Huan Sanniang", "Black Fourth Sister", "Han Chunchun", "Xiu Le Shuai", "Jin Le Shuai", "Sai Xiang Duo", "Yu Liu Niang", "Junior Servant", "Female Hurry", etc. These female sumo wrestlers, like male sumo wrestlers, competed in the "watts and counties" and made a name for themselves. Apparently, the Song government did not impose a ban on folk sumo wrestling.
However, after the Song Dynasty, there was no longer any entertainment for female sumo wrestling in the city, and even urban entertainment institutions such as the Washe Goulan disappeared into the depths of history. This may be the reason why the Yuan, Ming, and Qing dynasties after the Song Dynasty, the restraint of etiquette on the common people, and the state's control of society tended to be strict.
Excerpt from Wu Hook's new book "Living in the Song Dynasty", authorized for publication
Welcome to subscribe to the WeChat public account "duyaoapp", every afternoon to promote the original book review film review, here to meet the same kind.
Welcome to the "First Poison Writing Festival", download the Poison app (www.duyao001.com) to see the contest page, welcome to the manuscript.