Great Zhou Empire: Kill Zhao Kuangyin at the beginning

Chapter 428: Lantern Festival Lanterns as Bright as Day (Special thanks to book friend 2023…4637 for two monthly tickets!)
Chai Zongxun, surrounded by plainclothes guards, looked at lanterns of various styles from west to east.

There are a wide variety of lanterns on the street, including the "Fuzhou Lanterns" made entirely of white jade, the "Red Lotus Lanterns" carefully crafted from bamboo and paper, and the "Su Lanterns" with a scroll diameter of three or four feet and made entirely of colorful colored glaze.

At a glance, there are more than twenty types of lanterns on the streets of Bianjing at this time.

These lanterns are carefully made by the people and hung on the streets for display during the Lantern Festival, symbolizing good luck and fortune in the new year.

Of course there were also lanterns hung by government offices, but with the rapid development of the commodity economy of the Great Zhou Dynasty, their number had dropped from more than half of the Lantern Festival lanterns in the early years of Kaixi to less than one-tenth today.

Among the lanterns all over the streets, those hung in ordinary people's homes are mostly inscribed with riddles popular among the people; the lanterns hung by wealthy families and officials have poems or paintings written by contemporary literati, calligraphers and painters.

As Chai Zongxun looked along the way, he saw many lanterns with lyrics written by himself.

The Lantern Festival, also known as Shangyuan Festival, Yuan Ye, and Spring Lantern Festival, is a traditional Chinese folk festival. It is said to have been established during the reign of Emperor Wen of the Han Dynasty to commemorate the "suppression of the Lü clan".

After Emperor Hui of Han, Liu Ying, died, Empress Lü usurped power and the Lü clan controlled the government. After Empress Lü's death, Zhou Bo, Chen Ping and others eliminated her forces and supported Liu Heng as Emperor Wen of Han.

Because the day when the Lü clan was pacified was the fifteenth day of the first lunar month, from then on every night of the fifteenth day of the first lunar month, Emperor Wen of Han would go out of the palace in plain clothes to celebrate with the people to commemorate the event, and designated the fifteenth day of the first lunar month as the Lantern Festival.

As for hanging lanterns on the Lantern Festival, there is a beautiful legend that in ancient times a hunter shot and killed a divine bird. Upon hearing the news, the Jade Emperor was furious and wanted to avenge the divine bird. He planned to burn the human world on the fifteenth day of the first lunar month. A kind-hearted fairy sneaked down to the mortal world and reported the news to people.

People decided to hang red lanterns and set off fireworks around the 15th day of the first lunar month, so that when the heavenly soldiers were about to descend to the earth, they would see a sea of ​​fire and think that the fire had already started, so they would not descend to the earth and report directly to the Jade Emperor, thus saving the world from disaster. From then on, every household would hang lanterns on this day.

When we arrived at the Drum Tower in the center of Junyi Street, we saw that the area surrounding the Drum Tower was decorated with lanterns that were hung in the government office of Bianliang.

Among these lanterns, the largest and most dazzling ones are all inscribed with poems of Emperor Chai Zongxun by famous calligraphers, especially "Nian Nujiao·Reminiscence of the Past at Chibi" and "Shui Tiao Ge Tou·When Will the Bright Moon Appear" which are the most eye-catching.

At this moment, under the lanterns in the Drum Tower, many scholars were gathered here to appreciate the poems of Chai Zongxun.

"Your Majesty, this poem Nian Nu Jiao - Remembering the Past at Chibi is so majestic and powerful, it seems like you have the ambition to conquer the world!
No wonder Your Majesty was able to destroy dozens of countries in just thirty years and create a prosperous era for our Great Zhou Empire that far surpassed the Han and Tang dynasties!"

"That's right! Your Majesty is an eternal sage king with great ambitions and strategies, and is proficient in finance and military affairs. That's why our Great Zhou is now a prosperous era with all nations paying tribute, a vast territory, and prosperous people!"

"The imperial examination will be held in May this year. Your Majesty will select all the candidates through the imperial examination. There will be no more problems of recommendation or favoritism. It is extremely fair!
In order to pass the imperial examination, my father ordered me to come to Bianjing next year to study and take the exam."

After some conversation, it turned out that more than half of the people who were gathered around the Drum Tower to admire the lanterns were those who had come to Bian Jing in advance to prepare for the imperial examination.

Nowadays, the people of the Great Zhou have become generally wealthy, and their spending power has greatly increased. The cost of food and accommodation for a few months in an inn is no longer a burden. Therefore, the number of candidates from all over the country rushing to Bian Jing to prepare for the exam in advance increases every year.

In the first year of Kaixi, there were more than 200 inns in the whole city of Bianjing. The cheapest room cost ten coins a night, and a monthly package cost only two hundred coins.

However, almost no candidate at that time would come to Bian Jing to prepare for the exam several months in advance. They would all set out from their hometowns on time and arrive in the capital one or two days before the exam to save as much money as possible.

Now, with the prosperity of business and doubling of population over the past thirty years, there are more than 800 inns in the city of Bianjing, and the decoration and living conditions have also been greatly improved. The price of the cheapest room has risen to 30 wen, and the monthly price is 600 wen.

However, every three years during the imperial examination, tens of thousands of candidates would rush to Bian Jing several months in advance to visit teachers and friends in order to increase their chances of passing the examination.

Amid the praises for the emperor, Chai Zongxun was feeling proud when he heard a scholar sigh:
"Your Majesty is indeed the eternal sage monarch of China, but he has two minor flaws, otherwise he can be called a perfect sage monarch." The person next to him hurriedly asked the person who spoke.

Chai Zongxun took a quick look and saw that the man was about seventeen or eighteen years old, with a rather extraordinary temperament.

This person said:
"Your Majesty is a man of great talent and vision, and you are able to put the people first and promote industry and commerce. Since you ascended the throne, you have abolished privileges and implemented benevolent policies that ensure equality for all people before the judiciary.

It’s just that Your Majesty seems to admire Taoism very much, and is a little too obsessed with it. Many Taoist temples have been built across the country over the years, costing a lot of financial resources.

Secondly, Your Majesty loves beautiful women. Now you have more than 2,000 concubines in your harem from all over our Great Zhou and all over the world, but it is still not enough.

I am afraid that in the history books, your Majesty’s image as a holy ruler will be somewhat tarnished because of this.”

A few people in the crowd nodded in agreement.

Someone said:
"I heard that during your tour to the northwest, your Majesty pacified Gaochang and Khotan in February, and also took in the Gaochang king's favorite concubine, Mo Zang.

In the end, for some unknown reason, His Majesty did not take Mo Zang into the harem, but instead sent soldiers from the Wude Division to send her to the "Baoen Temple" to practice.

When the Mei Zang clan came to Beijing that day, I was standing on the street and saw the carriage procession with my own eyes!"

"I heard that this Mo Zang was the imperial concubine of Gaochang, who was extremely favored by King Lu Sheng and was a stunner in the world.

It’s a pity that even the “Bao En Temple” is guarded by the Wude Division, so we, the common people, cannot see her peerless beauty!”

A young man aged seventeen or eighteen sighed:
"The silver palace of Penglai is full of romance, but the wind from the weak water is hard to reach.

The light shines on the bamboo palace, making me tired of worshipping at night; the dew wets the golden palms, making me waste my morning meal.

Li Tong went to Qinghai to seek dragon seeds, and after his death, he ate horse liver.

"The gentleman who is waiting for the emperor to weave shells, then he will teach me to go to Chang'an."

Upon hearing this, Chai Zongxun became furious. He realized that the young man was writing a poem in which he was satirizing himself by comparing Emperor Wu of Han's quest for immortality. So he walked over to refute the young man.

Just as he took two steps forward, he suddenly heard another young man in his twenties shaking his head and saying:
“No!
Your Majesty's wisdom lies in his true nature!

Your Majesty governs with openness and sincerity, speaks with his subjects sincerely, and acts in accordance with the law. There has never been a case in history where a king has treated the people as enemies, or plotted to frame and suppress them.

Taoism is the source of Chinese culture. In the past, the Taoist master Chen Tuan came down from Mount Hua and went to Bian Jing in person to treat Your Majesty, and Your Majesty recovered instantly.

Your Majesty values ​​Taoism. With the national treasury full, isn't it a good thing to build Taoist temples in all states across the country?"

(End of this chapter)