Spoiling History: Starting from the Three Kingdoms

[Essentially speaking, regardless of ancient times or modern times, because the first day of the first lunar month is actually the beginning of the year, all the complicated things are concentrated on this day, making it difficult to get free time.

For common people, there has been a custom of keeping the year old since the Jin Dynasty. The keeping of the year old on New Year's Eve ends at dawn on the first day of the first lunar month. After celebrating each other, everyone goes back to their houses to sleep.

The emperor and officials had to be even busier. For example, the Great Chao Hui was written into the Zhou Rites and was the highest standard of court rituals in the feudal era. From the Qin and Han Dynasties to the Ming and Qing Dynasties, the Da Chao Hui was followed through generations without interruption.

In addition, each dynasty will also have some other tasks. For example, the Qin Dynasty also needed to offer sacrifices to heaven on the first day of the first lunar month. The Tang Dynasty moved the sacrifice to heaven to the winter solstice, but added a big display to open the eyes of the vassal states. The Song Dynasty fought wars Naturally, it would be difficult to provide eye drops to the vassal country, so we simply extended the process to three days. There was a meeting on the first day, a meal together on the second day, and a sports meeting on the third day, allowing the generals of the Song Dynasty to compete with Xixia, Jiaozhi, Dali and other countries. Than archery.

Regarding the chores of celebrating the New Year, the ancients and modern people actually have a common language. For example, the Tang Dynasty, where the New Year etiquette has been initially perfected, has many works about the first day of the Lunar New Year. Among the more famous ones is Bai Juyi's Wine on the New Year's Day 》.

This poem written by Bai Juyi when he was seventy is more about expressing his emotions about the changes over time, but it also records the entertainment that people in the Tang Dynasty had to face during the New Year:

If you go out on the first day of the year, you need to bow your head when you see your peers, kneel down when you see your elders, and drink alcohol when you are having a banquet. Returning home is very tiring. In a sense, it is really different from our modern times.

It is also because of this that the Lantern Festival, a festival that truly everyone can participate in, has officially flourished.

The prosperity of the Lantern Festival is similar to that of Laba Festival and New Year's Eve. Basically, it is the process of the Han Dynasty setting the time, and the Tang and Song Dynasties determining the prosperity. 】

On this day of the Yuan Dynasty, the Tang and Song Dynasties were certainly busy, so why did they only skip over our Han Dynasty?

Liu Bei was grumbling with a smile on his face, pinching his fingers and calculating:

Since Emperor Guangwu, the emperors of the Han Dynasty have to visit Deyang Palace every year. The ministers, generals, civil and military officials, governors of prefectures and counties, tribal chiefs, and envoys from dozens of foreign countries all come to pay their respects. This alone can be said to be a labor of love. Labor.”

In addition, we also need to examine the local accounting books to know the local gains and losses in a year. We need to determine the merits and demerits of the chief officials accordingly. How can we calm down the people of the country? How can we have free time?

It was said that he was complaining, but there was no dissatisfaction in Xuande Gong's tone. So everyone looked at the Song Dynasty's helpless handling, and then looked at the smile on the corner of the Lord's mouth, so they could only hand over their hands and say that the Lord was tired.

Regarding this unique process of celebrating the New Year in the Song Dynasty, everyone present is not a fool, no one can understand it.

If it was a good idea to compete with envoys from vassal states, why didn't the Han and Tang Dynasties think of it?

To put it bluntly, isn't it because martial arts are in decline, so they rely on side techniques to dominate?

Since I'm not in Song Dynasty, I can't judge whether it's right or wrong, but when everyone looks at this process, they really feel a sense of helplessness.

Liu Bei gave up to everyone and just praised the emperor for his hard work, which he was not worthy of.

After all, during Yuan Zhengshi, he only had a glass of wine and a meal with his subjects, so why bother?

On the contrary, the emperor who was taken to Yecheng by the Cao thieves is really suffering.

Speaking of the emperor who was held hostage by Cao Cao, everyone agreed:

Yes, yes, wow, it is really hard for us, the emperor.

After the matter rested for a while, Kong Ming remembered what he had seen before:

In the Tang Dynasty, Li Shimin made famous tattoos made of gold to express his congratulations. Later generations said that officials and people imitated this, perhaps to understand the hard work of the New Year.

A copy of this thing was collected in later generations, and Kong Ming still has an impression of it.

What I also remember clearly is the evaluation of it by later generations, saying that greeting cards will still be used until later generations.

[Unlike the first day of the first lunar month, the fifteenth day of the first lunar month can basically be said to have been kneaded by Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty who pursued cultural integration and unification.

In terms of doctrine, Emperor Wu deposed hundreds of schools of thought to only respect Confucianism, and in Shinto worship, Emperor Wu also began to advocate exclusively respecting the Taiyi God.

In the Western Han Dynasty, Taoism had not yet been formed. In addition to the Three Sovereigns and Five Emperors, the objects of sacrifice at that time were the gods of mountains, rivers, and mountains. There was a lack of a unified concept of a supreme god.

As for the process of respecting the Taiyi God alone, Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty can also be said to be familiar with the process.

First, some alchemists jumped out and praised Taiyi for his power. He was praised by Emperor Wu, which broke the pre-Qin concept of the Heavenly Emperor and God, and began to formally set up an altar to offer sacrifices.

Not a few years later, an ancient auspicious tripod was excavated in Hedong, and coincidentally, the tripod was engraved with the scene of Taiyi assisting the Five Emperors.

In the next two years, Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty carried out sacrifices, and even used the ritual of worshiping Taiyi when he consecrated Mount Tai, officially making Taiyi the supreme god of the Han Dynasty.

At the same time, in the Taichu Calendar, Emperor Wu personally designated the fifteenth day of the first lunar month as the day to worship Taiyi. Lanterns were burned in Ganquan Palace until dawn as a sacrificial etiquette, and the people began to follow suit.

From this point of view, when Wu Zetian later developed the auspicious gameplay, it is difficult to say how much she learned from Liu Che. The level was far different.

Later in the Eastern Han Dynasty, the Taiping Jing as a guideline for rebellion was gradually improved. During the reign of Emperor Huan, Zhang Daoling, a Taoist genius, first proposed the Three Yuan Festival, that is, the officials of heaven bestow blessings, the officials of earth forgive sins, and the officials of water relieve misfortune. ”, and designated the sacrificial time respectively. The core logic is actually somewhat similar to Zhang Jiao’s Fu Shui later, both of which use the God of Jian to drive away evil to confuse people’s hearts.

As we all know, religions have always been good at gaining popularity, and the earliest Taoism was no exception, and the Heavenly Official in it naturally became the reference to the great Han Taiyi God.

The day designated by Liu Che to worship Taiyi naturally got the name Shangyuan Festival with the demise of the Han Dynasty and the evolution of the Southern and Northern Dynasties.

After the Northern and Southern Dynasties, the Sui Dynasty had already had the tradition of celebrating the Shangyuan Festival. By the time the Tang Dynasty took it a step further - after all, it is well known that the Li and Tang royal families were descendants of Taoist Laozi, so the Shangyuan Festival became a legal obligation of the Tang Dynasty. Holidays.

Although it became the Shangyuan Festival, the method of worshiping Taiyi God personally formulated by Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty was still passed down, that is, burning lanterns.

This method of celebrating the festival was very popular for the people of the Tang Dynasty. After all, you couldn't light lanterns during the day, and if you celebrated the festival at night, the curfew was temporarily lifted as a matter of course, and the people could party all night long. This was The ancient times before the Song Dynasty are difficult to imagine.

In addition, Shangyuan Energy Festival was extremely popular in the Tang Dynasty, not only because it was after New Year's Day, which allowed everyone to release stress, but also because it was the actual Valentine's Day in the Tang Dynasty.

When the Shangyuan Festival begins, the curfew is lifted, men and women meet, and there are no taboos. This is the real scene of the Shangyuan Festival in the Tang Dynasty.

Old Book of Tang records that on the Shangyuan Festival four years after the Shenlong coup, Li Xian and Queen Wei secretly visited Chang'an market in private to watch the burning of lanterns.

In order to show his grace, Li Xian ordered thousands of palace ladies to be released for night tours. Unexpectedly, when the number of palace ladies was rechecked at dawn, there was a big gap.

Li Xian sent Xiaoqi to investigate, and finally found out that many palace ladies fell in love with young men outside the palace on the night of the Lantern Festival, and finally chose to escape without repaying with their wishful husband, which is commonly known as elopement.

Later in the Song Dynasty, the Valentine's Day attribute of the Lantern Festival became more and more obvious.

For example, Ouyang Xiu's poem On the night of the Lantern Festival last year, the lights in the flower market were as bright as day. On the willow branches above the moon, people made appointments after dusk clearly describes the scene of men and women dating.

Xin Qiji's popular poem Searching for Him A Thousand Baidus in the Crowd was also written about the Shangyuan Festival, so I won't go into details because it is so famous. 】

This Supreme One, the changes in the Three Yuan Festival actually follow this principle.

Du Ruhui was very surprised.

They, the civil servants, were actually more familiar with these historical materials discussed in later generations, but if they were to follow their fundamentals and study their internal principles, they would be far inferior to those of later generations.

For example, later generations said that Emperor Wu wanted to integrate and unify cultures, which is suddenly enlightening.

But looking back at what later generations said, combined with the historical materials he studied personally, Du Ruhui gained a bit more understanding of the statement that Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty installed software on the Chinese machine.

Culture can be seen and touched but it is difficult to call it an entity. Calling it soft does make some sense.

The Qin Emperor made the hardware, and the Han Dynasty armed the software. Now it is Zhenguan’s turn, what should he do to make this machine remove the old and innovate?

Du Ruhui suddenly had many ideas.

Li Shimin looked at the word well known in quotation marks. Although his cheeks were red, he still argued with reason:

My surname is Li, and I am also surnamed Li. We all came from the same lineage thousands of years ago, so why can't we call them ancestors?

Everyone nodded perfunctorily, expressing their nonchalant agreement with the Emperor of Tang Dynasty.

Empress Changsun didn't even want to give a perfunctory nod, but looked at Li Shimin with a little expectancy.

And the thoughts are almost written on his face: If Li Xian can take the Queen on a small trip, why can't Your Majesty?

Li Shimin thought about last year's sudden rise to leave the palace incognito, which seemed to have indeed caused the queen to complain, so he nodded in response.

This festival he has decided to capture the good and bad of the millennium and make the people celebrate.

As the emperor, he had to leave the palace to supervise the results at that time, so it was normal for him to bring the queen to join in the fun.

But if there is a curfew, then...

Others are looking forward to Chang'an City having a curfew. Changsun Wuji is very worried about Chang'an City having a curfew.

Fang Xuanling understood the difficulty and also commented:

There is a danger of flooding all over the city if there are lanterns burning. If there are thieves who cause trouble, unspeakable things may happen.

The suggestions of the two ministers immediately calmed everyone down. After all, they knew very well how many people there were in Chang'an. Normally, it was fine. It may be ten times easier for thieves to cause chaos than usual, and they can cause a hundred times more disasters.

Don't give up eating because of choking. Li Shimin was the first to express his stance.

Your Majesty may send hundreds of cavalry officers to the streets to monitor and be prepared for any trouble. Wei Zheng suggested.

Yuchi Jingde was the first to object rarely:

The Hundred Cavalry Division only has more than a thousand people, and it is only a drop in the bucket in Chang'an. If you want to maintain peace under the curfew, you have to impose a ban on the two yamen.

Du Ruhui frowned:

The Imperial Guards are all brave men. If they conflict with the people, it will be difficult to punish them. No way.

Qin Qiong stood on the old brother's side and agreed:

If you want to control a city, you must have a forbidden army. You can deploy elite troops and spread them out along the streets. You can send hundreds of cavalry officers and six-door eagle dogs to fill in the gaps in detail. Then you can combine bad commanders with rotten people to bring peace to the town.

This opinion made all the civil and military personnel suddenly silent. After thinking about it in their hearts, they felt that it was feasible, but the only problem was:

To mobilize the troops and mobilize the people in this way may seem like a waste of national power, and if the people are happy but the army is in trouble, there may be resentment. Wei Zheng said worriedly.

Li Shimin took a step forward, not looking at the ministers but at the prosperous scene on the light screen that was imitated by the ancients and said:

Why bother mobilizing troops and mobilizing the masses? Later, when the Western Regions are unified, thousands of barbarians will come to Chang'an to pay tribute, and the affairs will be far more complicated than at this time. The labor union of Shangyuan will be the future.

I am not exaggerating about the fertility, and I will not take anything from the barbarians. The imperial army will act as a fair town, so that the people of Tang Dynasty can become rich by taking the wealth of the barbarians.

How can everyone not know about the false boasts of abundance? In the sixth year of Daye, Emperor Yangdi gathered all the chiefs in Luoyang to praise his achievements, and performed hundreds of plays for Zhu Hu with a formation of 5,000 steps and 8,000 people.

In the market, foreigners were invited to buy wine and food without paying a penny, and silk and satin were wrapped around trees to show their magnanimity. This led the foreigners to ask why the silk wrapped around the trees was not given to the Chinese people who were not fully clothed.

This incident disappeared with the fall of the Sui Dynasty and became a joke. However, after observing the prosperity of later generations, Li Shimin once told them that such a grand event would be held again in the Tang Dynasty, but this time it would be a threat with weapons and weapons, and the barbarians would use songs and dances to attack the Tang Dynasty.

Now it seems that His Majesty remembers this ambition clearly. Wei Zheng is pleased, Du Ruhui is looking forward to it, Yuchi Jingde is excited, and they all respond in kind.

[In addition, the most noteworthy aspect of the Lantern Festival is of course the Lantern Festival.

Historically, from Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty to the Sui Dynasty, burning lamps has always been the exclusive preserve of the ruling class. After all, ordinary people do not have so much lamp oil to waste.

Emperor Yang of the Sui Dynasty was considered a lover of spectacles by today's standards. He first raised the standards of the Shangyuan Festival and burned dozens of piles of expensive agarwood with spices until dawn.

The Tang Dynasty could not commit such a prodigal act, so it could only overtake in technical corners.

During the hundred years of Taixuan, the Lantern Festival lanterns were constantly innovative. In the early days, they were limited to imitating animal images in structure. In the later period, shadow lanterns made of thermodynamics similar to Kongming lanterns appeared, that is, Commonly known as marquee.

By the time of Xuanzong, the Shangyuan Festival of the Tang Dynasty had reached its peak. From the anthropomorphic lantern maids to the hundreds of lanterns planted with lantern trees on Dengshan Mountain, there were many kinds of lanterns.

However, in the feudal era, ordinary people would never have fun with the emperor. After Li Dan became emperor, in order to celebrate the Lantern Festival, he spent a lot of effort to build a twenty-foot-high seven-story marquee.

Not to be outdone, Li Longji built the Shangyuan Lantern Tower in Shangyang Palace, a hundred and fifty feet high, with hanging pearls and jade as wind chimes. When the breeze comes, it will sound sonorous and become rhyme, which can be called brilliant and magnificent.

Similar to other folk customs, in the Song Dynasty, the right to enjoy lanterns was devolved to the people, and the common people could not afford the spectacle. At that time, businesses set up lanterns to attract customers during the Lantern Festival. In the process, some people combined the pre-Qin word puzzles with the lanterns. , guessing lantern riddles appears.

Lantern riddles were already a very important part of the Lantern Festival during the Ming and Qing Dynasties, but due to the shortening of the holiday and other reasons, the level of celebration declined compared to the Tang and Song Dynasties.

In our modern times, the custom of going to the Lantern Festival on the fifteenth day of the first lunar month still remains.

However, due to work, study and other reasons, the degree of carnival cannot be compared to that of the Tang and Song Dynasties - after all, the Lantern Festival is a legal holiday, so it cannot be compared.

But when it comes to the exquisiteness and complexity of the lanterns and the grandeur of the lantern show, compared with those in ancient times, it is completely bullying.

After all, no matter in terms of brightness, richness of colors, or stability, electric lamps outperform ancient candle lamps instantly. 】