The Chinese New Year is mentioned many times in Dream of Red Mansions, and there are 53rd and 54th chapters dedicated to the New Year, the former is "the New Year is near, and the New Year is managed", and the latter is "just busy with the New Year". From "just entering the wax moon" to "February 2, the dragon raises its head", almost two months, Cao Xueqin vividly depicted the scene of the old Chinese New Year, showing readers an interesting history of Spring Festival customs. The Spring Festival is here, you might as well take a look at what the Spring Festival in "Dream of Red Mansions" looks like.
Peach charms and couplets.
There is a sentence in Wang Anshi's "Yuan Ri" that "thousands of households always exchange new peaches for old charms", and this "new peach for old charm" refers to "peach charm". In ancient times, during the Spring Festival, there was a custom of hanging peach charms, and "Dream of Red Mansions" wrote: "It has arrived on the twenty-ninth day of the lunar month, all kinds of colors are ready, and the two mansions have changed the door gods, joint pairs, and listings, and the new oil peach charms are new." "So what exactly is the "peach charm"?
"Peach Fu" is the rectangular peach wood board that every household hangs on both sides of the gate during the Spring Festival, and the ancients believed that the peach wood is the essence of the five woods, which can make a hundred ghosts. Not only to hang the mahogany board, but also to draw two door gods on the board, one is called Shen Tu (read as "Shen Shu"), and the other is called Yu Lei (read as "Yu Lu"), both of which are great gods who descend ghosts; Placing the idol on the portal is said to have the effect of deterring ghosts and warding off evil spirits. Later, Shen Tu and Yu Lei evolved into Wei Chi Jingde and Qin Shubao. Legend has it that Tang Taizong failed to stop Wei Zhengmeng from slaying the Jinghe Dragon, and every night after that, the sound of ghosts crying and howling wolves was heard outside the dormitory. After knowing about this, the powerful generals Chi Jingde and Qin Shubao volunteered to disguise themselves to exorcise ghosts, and that night was really safe, and Taizong finally slept well. In this way, for a few days, Taizong could not bear to let the two generals keep vigil again, so he ordered a skilled craftsman to sketch the mighty portrait of the two generals and paste it on the door, one holding a steel whip and the other holding an iron shovel. This matter spread to the people, and the people also began to draw portraits of Wei Chi Jingde and Qin Shubao and pasted them on the door for peace.
The evolution from peach charms to spring couplets can be traced back to Meng Chang, the monarch of Shu at the end of the fifth dynasty. According to Zhang Tangying's "Shu Han Zhu" in the Song Dynasty, Meng Chang was not satisfied with the inscription on the peach wood board of the dormitory of the Hanlin bachelor, so he personally inscribed "New Year's Yuqing, Jiajie Changchun", which is the earliest known Spring Festival couplet. Since then, the nature of the peach charm has changed significantly, in addition to being used to "ward off evil", it is also used for "Naqing", on which you can write some auspicious greetings to welcome the spring and blessings. In the Ming Dynasty, some large families began to use five-color paper to write couplets, especially red paper, to show the meaning of removing the old and clothing the new. The change of production materials has gradually made the Spring Festival couplets independent of the peach charm and become another festival ornament with Chinese national characteristics.
Money given to children as a gift during lunar New Year. During the Spring Festival, the elders should distribute the money prepared in advance to the younger generations, which is called "New Year's money". As for the meaning of "New Year's money", one saying is that "New Year's money" is homophonic with "pressure on the year", it is said that money can channel the spirit, can suppress evil spirits, and let children spend the year in peace; There is also a saying that "pressing the year" is homophonic with "charging the year", in order to suppress the new year.
The custom of giving New Year's money for the New Year has a long history, it represents the good wishes of the elders to the younger generations, and expects the younger generations to grow up healthily in the new year, and the amount is usually not too much, but there are exceptions - the fifty-third chapter of "Dream of Red Mansions" wrote, "The men and women of the two provinces also salute according to the errands, scatter the New Year's money, purse, gold and silver bills, and put on a feast", before that, a girl came in with a tea tray and a New Year's bill, and replied: "The bag of broken gold in the previous child is one hundred and fifty-three taels and six dollars and seven cents, There were no different colors in it, and a total of 220 pieces of money were poured. "Gold bills" are all kinds of gold nuggets below one or two, including plum blossom type, begonia type, pen ingot Ruyi, eight treasures Lianchun, champion and the first. All kinds of small gold coins are New Year's money, so they are also called "New Year's coins". Simply calculated, one gold coin is equivalent to seven or eight taels of silver.
What is the concept of seven or eight taels of silver? Grandma Liu calculated a "crab account" when she entered Rongguo Mansion for the second time: "Such crabs are worth five cents a pound this year." Ten catties and five coins, five five two two, three five five and fifteen, and then put on the wine and food, a total of more than 20 taels of silver. Amitabha! This meal is enough money for our Zhuang family to live for a year. "It seems that a gold coin is enough for the farmer's family to spend half a year. Even giving New Year's money is so generous, it can be seen what a luxurious life Jia Fu lives!
Laba porridge. The Chinese New Year generally begins on the eighth day of the lunar month, and on the eighth day of the lunar month, every household has to boil Laba porridge. Jia Baoyu told Lin Daiyu the story of Laba porridge, saying that there is a forest cave in Yangzhou, and there is a group of rats in the hole. "Why is there the most fruit rice in the temple? Because Laba porridge was first used in the temple to offer to the Buddha. In the past, boiling eight porridge was a major event, the imperial court to send ministers to supervise the production, "Yanjing Chronicles" recorded the grand occasion of boiling eight porridge in Beijing Lama Temple: "Lama of Lama Temple boiled porridge for Buddha on the eighth day and night of the first month, and sent ministers to monitor it to show sincerity and respect." Its porridge pot is so large that it can hold several stones of rice. ”
The history of folk boiling Laba porridge is also very long, the Song people's meticulous "Wulin Old Things" said: "Use walnuts, pine nuts, milk mushrooms, persimmons, chestnuts and the like to make porridge, called 'Laba porridge'." In addition to japonica rice, glutinous rice and other different types of rice, boil eight porridge to add a variety of fruits, the little mouse reported, there are five kinds of fruits: "one red date, two chestnuts, three peanuts, four water chestnuts, five spiced taro." "The boiled laba porridge is relatively viscous, and a layer of film will form on the surface, sprinkle with some green and red silk, and then use white sugar to decorate the words "Fu, Lu, Shou, Xi", etc., which is beautiful and delicious. In addition to eating at home, you should also leave some gifts to relatives and friends to connect with each other and send blessings to each other.
Purchase New Year's goods. The food and supplies during the Chinese New Year are collectively referred to as "New Year's goods". There is a saying in old Beijing: "Twenty-seven or eight, grab and grab." "If you don't prepare for the New Year's goods in advance, everything will increase in price at the end of the year; Even if the price rises, you have to buy it, after all, it's the New Year. Large families buy New Year's goods, in addition to buying, there are other ways, take Jiafu as an example, the emperor will send a sacrifice silver before the New Year, award a reward, Jia Rong once represented the Jia family to Guanglu Temple to receive the spring sacrifice of the silver, and the yellow cloth pocket that was brought back was written with the words "Emperor Grace Yongxi". Jia Zhen said: "In addition to one or two families like ours, those hereditary poor officials, if they don't rely on this silver, what will they take for the New Year?" "It can be seen that the amount of silver bounty is not too small.
When Cao Xueqin wrote about the busy year, she focused on Ning Guofu. In a house like Ningguofu, there is still a way for New Year's goods, and that is the Grange. There are many farmers in the grange, who are busy farming, hunting, and processing things all year round; The person who manages the grange is called "Zhuang Tou", and Zhuang Tou has a special status, both as a slave and as the head of other Zhuang households. Wu Jin Xiao is the head of Ningguofu, on behalf of Ningguofu to manage the households, during the New Year's holidays, to collect the rent and send it to Ningguofu. Zhuangtou's errand is usually hereditary, and it is possible that Wu Jinxiao received this errand from his father, and he will also pass it on to his son in the future, so he said that in a few years, he can rest assured that his son will go. It seems that the relationship between Wujin Xiao and Ning Guofu is not ordinary.
In the fifty-third chapter of "Dream of Red Mansions", it was written that Wu Jinxiao used a cart to transport a batch of New Year's goods and various discounted silver of 2,500 taels to Ning Guofu, and Jia Zhen said after reading it: "You are fighting in the ring again, it is really time to teach farewell to the New Year." This sentence is really infuriating - more than 20 taels of silver is enough for the Zhuang family to live for a year, but 2,500 taels of silver is not enough for Ning Guofu to spend a year, the so-called "Zhumen wine and meat stink, and the road has frozen bones", which shows how great the gap between the rich and the poor was at that time! In addition to the two thousand five hundred taels of silver, Ning Guofu also had other inputs, although they were not small together, but they were less than last year, and much less than in previous years. During the conversation, Jia Zhen mentioned a "Nafu", "Nafu" is Rongguofu, and the life of Rongguofu is even more difficult than Ningguofu, because "a lot of money has been spent in recent years", and he often can't make ends meet. The "Yuan Concubine Provincial Family" alone has huge expenses, and it is far from enough to rely on the emperor's reward. In addition to the provincial relatives, there are various activities in Jiafu at ordinary times, and the cost of each activity is very amazing, which is also an important reason for the prosperity and decline of the Jia family.
In fact, there are a lot of things written on the rent payment form sent by Wu Jinxiao in advance, including pigs, sheep, deer, roe deer, pheasants, sturgeon, fish, and even silver frost charcoal, Yutian rouge rice, etc. The amount of these things is amazing, there are more than 30,000 catties of charcoal alone, and you can imagine the scene of the convoy transported into Beijing a few years ago. If you think further, when Wu Jinxiao is collecting rent from door to door, these farmers who encounter floods and hailstorms still have to pay so many things when the year is not good, how can they celebrate the New Year? How many small poor households, orphans and widows have been forced to be desperate for three or five buckets of rice, one or two taels of silver, the small ones cut down on food and clothing, begged everywhere, and the big ones pawned the family property and sold their children and daughters, just to make money to pay the rent. It's all like this, Jia Zhen is still too little, and said: "I have lost a lot in the past two years, I don't want you to go, who to go to!" Cao Xueqin "writes without writing", although she does not directly write about the village's family, and does not directly write about what happened in the grange, but the reader can feel the human tragedy between the lines. "The year will end at night, thousands of miles have not returned", the New Year is approaching, it is really a few joys and a few sorrows!
It can be seen from the rent payment slip that many things are transported in from outside the customs, such as deer, roe deer, pheasants, sturgeon fish, etc., and some things are unheard of, such as soup pigs and soup sheep. Soup pig and soup sheep are used for boiling soup. Usually when the sheep is slaughtered, the sheepskin will be peeled off, only the mutton will be kept, and the soup sheep will be frozen with the lamb with the hair, and then the hair will be removed when it is used, and the soup will be stewed with the skin, so that the stewed soup is particularly delicious.
Also worth mentioning is the sturgeon. Sturgeon fish is mainly produced in the Heilongjiang area, which used to be a tribute to the emperor, and has the reputation of "freshwater fish king". The things listed on the rent payment form are dozens, hundreds, thousands of catties, tens of thousands of catties, but there are only two sturgeon. In fact, there are a lot of two, and according to legend, a sturgeon is three or four feet long, so big that it can swallow a person. The sturgeon fish meat is delicious, and the stomach, lips, bones, swim bladder, and seeds are all excellent cooking materials, especially the part of the nose bone.
The paragraph of Wujin filial piety paying rent is very interesting to read, and it is condensed in the world.
Worship ancestors and gods. On Chinese New Year's Eve, every household is busy with several major events such as worshipping heaven and earth, worshipping gods, worshipping ancestors, and offering to Buddha. In particular, the scene of ancestor worship can be described as grand, and the fifty-third chapter of "Dream of Red Mansions" depicts the scene of ancestor worship. Jia Zhen watched the little ones lift the screen, wipe a few cases of gold and silver offerings, make various preparations, and wait until the day of the Chinese New Year's Eve, when Jia Mu made up a lot of makeup, led everyone into the palace to congratulate, and after returning, she would enter the ancestral hall to worship her ancestors.
The whole family has to participate in the ancestor worship, and even Jia Jing, who is outside the city with Taoist priest Hu Yi all year round, has to come back to be the main sacrifice, and Jia pardon accompanies the sacrifice. When worshipping ancestors, men and women are separated, stand in a certain order, and then distribute the front salutes, incense, wine, and food. The dishes are generally passed from the outside to the inside in turn, and finally passed to the hands of the eldest Jia's mother, who will put it on by Jia's mother. After sacrificing to the ancestors, Jia's mother began to receive the ceremony, and everyone distributed to salute her.
The statues of the ancestors and the people who worship the ancestors are particular about the arrangement, not only according to the generation, but also pay attention to the "left and right, men and women". "Left Zhao Right Mu" is a specific arrangement in ancient China, the left is Zhao, the right is Mu; The father is Zhao, and the son is Mu. When arranged, the ancestor is in the middle, the 135th emperor is on the left, and the 246th emperor is on the right.
Whether it is everyone or a small household, when the New Year is offered to the ancestors, the portrait of the ancestors must be put out, some small households are really limited in space, can not be displayed one by one, simply draw the portrait of the ancestors and ancestors on a piece of paper, and everyone kneel down to this paper. Everyone has to worship their ancestors, but offering to the Buddha is different, and the small households may not be able to offer it; Everyone generally has a Buddha seat, a Buddhist shrine, the Jia family even has their own family temple - Tiejian Temple, Jia Jing, Qin Keqing died in the Tiejian Temple, Guy Tiejian Temple is their family temple. In addition to the outside of the Iron Threshold Temple, there are some small temples in Jia's mansion, the seventeenth "test question is right", Jia Zheng took Jia Baoyu, Jia Zhen and all the Qing guests from the garden to walk around, all the way, "or the mountain down to the Ni Buddha Temple, or the forest Tibetan female Dao Danfang." It can be seen that there are many similar temples and temples in Jiafu.
When offering to the Buddha, there is a brazier on the ground in the main room of Jia's mother, and the pine and cedar incense is burned in the brazier, and Mrs. Wang's main house is set up in the courtyard of the heaven and earth paper horse incense offering. Burning pine and cypress branches on Chinese New Year's Eve is an ancient custom that is said to ward off the bad luck and bad luck of the past year. "Heaven and Earth Paper Horse" is not a paper horse, but a statue of the gods, in the past can not directly say God, can only say "horse", the old Beijing paper horse, stove horse, god horse, etc., are all this meaning. These "horses" began to be offered on the thirtieth day of the Chinese New Year's Eve, and they had to make incense, salute three times, and make offerings three times a day, and the etiquette was very complicated, and the offerings to the table could not be put away until after the seventeenth day of the first month.
After school, avoid needles.
Finally, let's talk about holidays. In ancient times, it was generally in the wax moon of each year.
Ten. Nine, the wax moon.
Two. 10. Wax Moon.
Two. Ten. 1. During the four days of the 22nd day of the lunar month, the Qin Tianjian selected a date according to various requirements, and announced to the world that from a certain date, the official family was sealed, and all yamen ceased to work. The same is true for other industries, such as those who sing operas to "close the stage" - they don't sing for ten days in a row, and wait for the first day of the new year to sing a big drama of "The Blessing of Heavenly Officials"; Students also have to take a winter vacation, called "New Year's School", "Yanjing Years Chronicles" cloud: "Children's readers, after the seal, the school teacher dissolves the museum, which is called New Year's school." The twentieth chapter of "Dream of Red Mansions" mentions that "at that time, in the first month of the year, the school room was out of school, and the boudoir was taboo, but it was all idle time", Jia Huan, who was out of school, had nothing to do, and played Go with Baochai, Xiangling, and Ying'er, and relied on money when he lost, causing a storm.
At the same time as school is over, the female red will also stop, and it will stop for a whole New Year. The so-called "German words and work", "work" is the female red, in the past, women to be in the boudoir every day to do needlework, only in the first month of the taboo needle, just as Cha Shenxing "Fengcheng New Year's Speech" cloud: "Since then the scissors are idle for a month, and the needlework in the boudoir is more before the year." ”
Dream of Red Mansions, a monumental work describing the social life of the old times, contains rich folk content, such as a market picture scroll, which not only shows the New Year's atmosphere of a family "inside and outside, both busy and busy", but also highlights the cultural heritage of a nation for thousands of years.
Wen Zhouling.