Ding Fuzhi's year of the Dynasty Ganguo Diagram Data**.
Lou Shibai Spring Breeze Sends Warmth to Welcome the New Year Information**.
A Brief History of the Spring Festival" by Zhang Zhichun, Shaanxi Normal University Publishing House.
The reader said] Spring Festival is the traditional New Year of the Chinese. The Spring Festival has a unique status and significance in the minds of Chinese, and is the most solemn festival. The humanistic charm of the Chinese New Year has already affected the world, and on December 22, 2023, the 78th session of the United Nations General Assembly resolved to designate the Chinese New Year as a United Nations holiday. The Spring Festival culture is broad and profound, and Professor Zhang Zhichun's new book "A Brief History of the Spring Festival" is a good interpretation of the Spring Festival narrative. Through fieldwork and literature research, the book traces and interprets the origin of the Spring Festival, points out the source of the Spring Festival, and outlines the development of Spring Festival culture.
Chinese New Year narrative from a cultural perspective.
The context of the Spring Festival is divided into narrow and broad senses. The Spring Festival in the narrow sense only refers to the first day of the first lunar month, also known as the first day of the new year. Spring Festival in a broad sense, including Chinese New Year's Eve, the first day of the first lunar month, and the Lantern Festival. Zhang Zhichun's "A Brief History of the Spring Festival" is different, he regards the Spring Festival as "a fairly long festival period", and makes the narrative of the Spring Festival reasonably elongated, which is more complete and reasonable in terms of natural time advancement and the staging of festival rituals. The author points out that the Spring Festival is not only a family reunion on Chinese New Year's Eve and a New Year's greeting event on the first day of the new year, but also from the winter solstice and wax.
8. Sacrifice stove, Chinese New Year's Eve, until broken.
5. The whole celebration process of Renri and Lantern Festival. This auspicious and joyful time is accompanied by a variety of rituals, dotted with a variety of delicacies, and poured into a rich and beautiful emotion. Each node is related to the cultural inheritance and emotional sustenance of the Chinese for thousands of years.
In short, it takes the winter solstice and the rising of the sun to eat dumplings as the prelude to the New Year's Festival, constituting the rehearsal of the year, and takes Laba as the start of the Spring Festival system ceremony, approaching the New Year day by day, thus constituting the double launching ceremony of "taking the winter solstice as the overture and Laba as the symbol"; With the advent of the Spring Festival ritual of the small year sacrifice to the god of the stove, the New Year has entered the countdown. Chinese New Year's Eve forms the first climax for the core of the Spring Festival; The first day of the Lunar New Year is the most solemn moment of the Spring Festival, constituting the second climax; The fifth day of the first month is the breaking of various taboos during the Spring Festival, that is, the fifth day of the first month, and the seventh day of the first month is the day for people to celebrate the New Year, constituting an episode of the Spring Festival culture; The Lantern Festival on the fifteenth day of the first lunar month is the end of the Spring Festival, and the full moon is lit up with lights, drawing a successful end.
The scattered narrative injects a deep connotation into this major cultural narrative. "Half of the winter solstice, the heart of heaven has not changed", the winter solstice as big as the year, can naturally enter the sequence of Spring Festival culture. Didn't you say that Laba is the New Year, how can Laba be excluded from the Spring Festival? As for the small year and Chinese New Year's Eve, it is associated with the big year and the Spring Festival. Many taboos in the Spring Festival are to win a year of happiness and health, so there is a lifting of taboos for breaking five, and there are Lantern Festival lights for reunion, and the Spring Festival is relaxed and harmonious. The seventh day of the first lunar month seems to be independent of the Spring Festival, but Zhang Zhichun, based on literature and fieldwork, regards it as a New Year's Day, corresponding to the first day of the New Year for God, and has become a human day in the Spring Festival. With such a cultural narrative, the Spring Festival has become a music that integrates heaven, earth, man and gods, with a prelude, a narrative, a climax, an epilogue, and an interlude. Its organic integrity is like a spring water in the river of time, flowing in the land of Kyushu. In addition to the outline, the author traces the origin of each node of the Spring Festival, presenting us with a cultural space exclusive to the Spring Festival.
Window flower couplets are auspicious and beautiful.
As the author says, "The evolution of the New Year itself is a historical process" and "The name of the New Year also has a diachronic evolution". Therefore, examining the origins of the mirror, crawling combing, and interpreting the name of the New Year Festival is itself a narrative of the history of the Spring Festival. A Brief History of the Spring Festival takes a cultural perspective to explore the cultural connotations behind these concrete and vivid life phenomena.
The common window flowers are extraordinary when they enter the Spring Festival. On Chinese New Year's Eve, all kinds of window grilles that are either cut by themselves or purchased in the market are pasted on the window mullions, lintels, shrines, ceilings, kangwais, bedsides, and even offering tables, granaries, and house walls, accompanied by careful and hopeful pasting, and ordinary life time and space begin to be sacred. The beautified residence through the window flowers seems to be surrounded by auspicious clouds, and people's words and deeds are also elegant and beautiful. These window flowers full of joy and vitality include the plum blossoms of "one tree alone in the spring of the world", the peony of "the capital of the capital when the flowers bloom", the peach blossom of "scorching its flower" and "suitable for its room", the orchid of "the first spring cluster of flowers, the fresh branches are like new bath", the lotus flower of "out of the mud but not stained, the clear ripples but not the demon", the chrysanthemum of "more flowers after the flower blooms", and the pomegranate flower ...... bright and redIn the author's opinion, there are all kinds of window flowers, with their own prototypes and flower languages. The plum blossoms are quiet and indifferent, and the wind is solemn; The peony is beautiful and fragrant, rich and auspicious; The peach blossom is young and beautiful and happily married, its branches avoid evil and its fruit prolongs its life; Orchids are otherworldly and have a gentlemanly demeanor; The lotus flower is holy and steadfast, and is connected to harmony; Chrysanthemums are in full bloom with their own bones; As for the pomegranate flower, the pomegranate fruit is prosperous because of the large number of seeds, and the pomegranate fruit is blessed with many fruits and gold. Window flowers bloom not only in the lattice, but also in everyone's heart. Blessings, auspiciousness and warmth have become hints and accents in the context of the New Year's Festival. Based on literature and archaeology, the author points out that the totem of the Chinese national flower originated from ancient times, thousands of years earlier than the dragon. The "Hua" of China has been connected with the "flower" since ancient times. As a result, the window flowers of the New Year have become the root of the Chinese cultural totem.
The Spring Festival couplets originated from the belief of the door god of the town house to pray for blessings, and later transitioned from the peach charm. Wang Anshi's "Yuan Day" "Thousands of households always replace the new peach with the old one" refers to this. The black characters are written on the festive red paper, the language is neat and rhythmic, writing personal wishes for a better life, and has the function of driving away evil spirits, and the Spring Festival couplets are popularized all over the world in Kyushu. The number of words is five, seven or more words, and the pattern is different, all of which are peaceful and festive; The form also keeps pace with the times, the red paper is solemn, the ink book or gold characters can be used, or the printing or pen writing is at your disposal, and the background color is lined with auspicious tiles, dragons and phoenixes, and floral ornaments, which always coincide with the context of the New Year. In the author's opinion, the Spring Festival couplets adapt to the needs of the festival and are a sacred ritual. The red paper on the lintel is auspicious, and the words symbolize ideals, happiness and the future, expressing good wishes and visions. The most common ones are "the days increase the years, the people increase the longevity, the spring is full of blessings" and "the business is prosperous and leads to the four seas, and the wealth is prosperous to the three rivers", which is not only a personal hope for the new year, but also an ode to the presence of heaven, earth, man and god at the same time. A small pair of Spring Festival couplets, "it is not purely literary and artistic, but a declaration and performance of a sacred destiny", which is a kind of "narrative that condenses heaven, earth, man and god". This kind of excavation of the Spring Festival couplet culture is from a high vantage point.
On the fifteenth day of the first lunar month, eat rice balls, enjoy lanterns, and guess lantern riddles. These seemingly ordinary festivals have a heavy cultural accumulation. The author extracted the word "trouble" from the text narrative of the ancients, and excavated the Chinese-style carnival behind the Lantern Festival, with social fire, bamboo horses, lion dances and lanterns, which bloomed into a cheerful experience. In this release and jubilation of life, the activity of guessing lantern riddles is elegant and attractive. The group entertainment of appreciating the lanterns and guessing the lantern riddles is a perfect match for the Lantern Festival, just imagine, the lights are brilliant and the voices are boiling, if you look up at the lantern riddles, bow your head to meditate, and suddenly realize that you can guess the riddle, how elegant. Lantern riddles set off and embellish the joy of the Lantern Festival, and also spread the fragrance of culture for the living space. Here, there is not only the collision of wisdom, the burst of thinking, but also the cohesion of the crowd. Therefore, on the occasion of the New Year, guessing lantern riddles, fighting wits and fun, encourages people to expand into the unknown.
Say goodbye to the old and welcome the new, talk about family affection.
The charm of the Spring Festival embodies the sacred sublime of the Qingming Festival and the reunion and celebration of the Mid-Autumn Festival, and has the special charm of seeking good fortune and avoiding evil because of saying goodbye to the old and welcoming the new, bidding farewell to the past and opening the future, just like the beginning of giving birth to a new life. In this moment of renewal, people look forward to the beginning of a new life through a series of symbolic rituals and cultural symbols. This is the pursuit of the unity of heaven and man, which moves in unison with heaven and earth.
In "A Brief History of the Spring Festival", the auspiciousness of saying goodbye to the old and welcoming the new, sweeping away the old and praying for the new is most prominent. From eating dumplings or glutinous rice balls on the winter solstice and spring sun (all symbolizing biting through the chaos and opening the world), Chinese New Year's Eve to sweeping the house, painting the walls, pasting window flowers, pasting Spring Festival couplets, pasting New Year's pictures to beautify the house, and then to the first dumpling on the first day of the Lunar New Year, wearing new clothes, setting off firecrackers, driving away evil spirits and attracting blessings, pleasing a good fortune, and opening a good situation, the words and deeds of looking forward to a new life have become meaningful.
The red fire and festivity are more manifested in the colors of the Spring Festival. The red couplets of the big red blessing characters, the red window flowers, the red spring strips, the red clothes, the red firecrackers, the red lanterns, and the bulging red envelopes, which seem to be traced back to the sprinkling of red powder of the cave people on the top of the mountain, and the traditional ...... of the Zhou, Han, Tang, Song and Ming dynastiesIn a piece of Chinese red, it is full of the flavor of celebration.
The warmth of the Spring Festival reunion is reflected in the reunion dinner on Chinese New Year's Eve and the rice balls of the Lantern Festival. On Chinese New Year's Eve, no matter where you are, you'll find a way to return to your hometown to reunite with your family. Everyone sat around, just waiting for the Chinese New Year's Eve firecrackers to sound, and then toasted together and talked about family affection. At this moment, not only the family, but even the ancestors are celebrating the New Year, constituting a great reunion of heaven, earth, man and god. The warmth of this reunion lasted until the Lantern Festival. The carnival night of the Lantern Festival becomes the closing ceremony of the New Year's Festival. Those who went out to work also went out of their homes to start a new journey.
The poetic narrative has a long charm.
The narrative of "A Brief History of the Spring Festival" is of great significance. The title of the book is "A Brief History", which not only adopts the strategy of shortening like a dragonfly, but also does not affect the exploration of the laws behind the Spring Festival culture. Therefore, the book has both the solemnity and norms of an academic work and the poetic beauty of prose. The poetic narrative of "A Brief History of the Spring Festival" is not only the words themselves, but also the overall structure of the whole book like a long poem. "Winter Solstice: As if it were a preview of the year", "Laba: The Sacred Opening", "Sacrifice Stove: A Piece of Sincerity Can Ask the Sky", "Chinese New Year's Eve: Borderline on the Alternation of the Old and the New", "New Year's Day: The Sun Rises on the Horizon", "Breaking Five: The Transition from Sacred to Secular Status", "Human Day: People's Birthday, Human Birthday", "Lantern Festival: The First Full Moon Night", "Spring Festival: Festival Without Borders". In this way, the nine chapters, with the fifth chapter on the first day of the Lunar New Year as the axis of symmetry, constitute the canon of the Spring Festival, and become the main theme of the Spring Festival symphony. The first four chapters are preludes, and the last three are adagio sonatas. Among the nine chapters, Chinese New Year's Eve is the critical point of the sacred moment, so the ink is the most, and the last chapter highlights the global influence of Chinese culture. The poem-like structure, coupled with the poem-like chapter titles, is unique and full of linguistic tension.
The use of poetry to prove history is a significant feature of "A Brief History of the Spring Festival". China is a land of poetry. When describing the Spring Festival ceremony, the author selected some classic poems to illustrate the poetic meaning of the ceremony. Wang Anshi's "Yuan Ri" needless to say. Let's talk about the ceremony of sacrificing the stove in the new year, quoting Fan Chengda's "Words of the Sacrificial Stove": "In ancient times, on the twenty-fourth day of the lunar month, the stove king wanted to talk about things. The cloud car wind horse is small and stays, and the family has a cup and plate ceremony. The pig's head is rotten and hot double fish fresh, and the bean paste is sweet pine powder bait. The man sacrificed his daughter to avoid, and drank and burned the money stove Junxi. "Not only imagined that the stove gentleman was in the sky, but also said that the ritual of the interaction of the stove was concrete and funny. Another example is the Chinese New Year's Eve New Year's Celebration Ceremony, quoting Wu Manyun's "New Year's Money": "One hundred and ten dollars wear a long colored line, and then collect it from the pillow." Discuss the price of firecrackers and flute, and make Jiao'er busy all night. "The sense of ritual of the New Year's money and the children's sense of expectation and joy are diffused between the lines. "Who can sit idly when they see the moon, where they don't see the lights", "Clothes and makeup are everywhere, and the lights on the sixth street are noisy for children", the concise quotation poem puts the noisy carnival context of the lantern night and the Lantern Festival on the Lantern Festival, which has a long charm.
The poetic narration of "A Brief History of the Spring Festival" is also related to the author's sense of substitution. Zhang Zhichun has been studying folk customs for a long time, and from the perspective of a researcher, he has gone deep into the historical depth of the Spring Festival culture and extracted the authentic charm of the Spring Festival culture. For example, when narrating a certain Spring Festival event, the author will insert his own experience of doing folk fieldwork, or confirm history, or express the flow of changes, all of which are presented as poetic sentences full of feelings. The sense of substitution in the Spring Festival narrative is also reflected in the author's reminiscences of the past. The pictures of the Spring Festival folk customs in the countryside are like "reappearing yesterday", and like a little light, warming our hearts, isn't this our spiritual roots? What is impressive is the "mother", her needlework, her window flowers, and the fragrant Laba porridge she boiled, which are not only the cultural memories of the author's childhood, but also the enlightener of the Spring Festival culture of each of us. The author's folk account of his mother's New Year is looming in the book. These warm pictures flicker with the warm figure of the mother. "Mother" is not only a participant in the Spring Festival cultural rituals, but also the leader and guardian of the Spring Festival cultural rituals. Isn't the broad tolerance and profound wordlessness of motherhood the best interpretation of the cultural connotation of the Spring Festival?
A Brief History of the Spring Festival recounts the Spring Festival culture, full of the poetry of traditional festivals and the warmth of the author. The reason why the Chinese nation can continue to move towards glory is not precisely because of this kind of inherited root culture? With the great rejuvenation of the Chinese nation, the Spring Festival will become a festival without borders, as the author said: "Spring has no borders, and the Spring Festival has no borders." ”
Author: Liu Yinchang, associate professor of Shaanxi Normal University).