Tang Dynasty Crossing Guide: Chang'an and People's Life Manual

Chapter 37 We celebrated festivals like this more than 1000 years ago (4)
On New Year's Eve, the brigade will immediately go to the streets to exorcise Nuo, and they must greet the urban management department in advance.It is a rare opportunity for participants to go out and wander around in the dark without committing a night ban.What's even more rare is... hey, the guests look at you, if you don't pay attention, you will fall behind?The group of people you were with just now went straight to the north, and they probably wanted to jump into the palace all the way to exorcise the emperor's concubines.At such a time, there are a lot of idle and boring people who specially buy the outfit you are wearing, pretending to be a child and sneaking into the palace, hoping to take the opportunity to open their eyes and see what the royal women look like.

Sigh, forget it, I guess they won't see anything, let's go home, let's not join in the fun - there are still a lot of fun waiting for you at home.

Along the street, enter the square gate, walk through the alleys, and go home.You ask if there are street lights in Chang'an City at night?Sorry, no, usually only rely on moonlight and stars to illuminate the road, but it will be better on New Year’s Eve, because there are big fires lit in the courtyards of every household, which is generally called "Ting Liao" by people in the Tang Dynasty. Make it brighter.

As a wealthy household in the capital, the family you traveled to must have several fires lit in the lower courtyard.Now that you entered your house, you saw people around the fire. Some of the dozens of people in the family were sitting at the banquet, having a New Year’s Eve dinner and drinking reunion wine, and some were drinking too much, singing and dancing arm in arm. , while playing music, it is really lively.

What do you most want to do at this time?Looking for skewers to grill?I said first restrain your foodie nature, okay?What you transmigrate into is a boy of twelve or thirteen years old, and he is also a son of a rich family. His desire to play is far greater than his desire to eat, okay?It's almost time to hand in, and the sound of firecrackers near and far is getting louder and louder, so hurry up and take out the firecrackers prepared at home and let them go!

Uh, you said you can't turn over the firecrackers wrapped in red paper?Can't find incense sticks for lighting?
Guest, wake up, we have traveled to the Tang Dynasty, and gunpowder is still a little far from entering the daily life of the people.There are no incense sticks, thank you. At that time, people’s incense was made into small pieces and stuffed in the stove to smoke.

How are firecrackers made without gunpowder?What kind of fake effect is this loud explosion sound?Hey, guest, don't you know Chinese characters? What does the word "firecracker" mean? You can guess it pretty well, right?

You see, didn't other people in your family drag a lot of bamboo over here?That's right, why are you still standing there, join hands with other children and throw bamboo poles into the fire!There is air in the middle of the bamboo joints, and when it is exploded by fire, it will naturally crackle, bursting out bursts of small golden-red sparks, which are extraordinarily gorgeous and festive in the night.

That's right, the mass firecrackers of the Tang Dynasty and previous eras are like this. If you don't feel satisfied, you must order the firecrackers with gunpowder. Please look for the target and only travel after the Song Dynasty.

The children are burning bamboo on the fire, but the adults in the family are collecting brooms and shoes that have been worn out in the past year. The brooms are also thrown into the fire and burned, and they cannot be thrown out of the hospital. Make the warehouse worthwhile."As for the old shoes, they should be buried in the courtyard, so that the son of a high official will be born in the family.

Dangdangdang, Zishi is here, and the bells and drums are beeping in the street. This is the moment to bid farewell to the old and welcome the new.People who are watching the year at home get up one after another, the younger generation salutes the elders, the servant kowtows to the master, and everyone wants to say some auspicious words for the new year.What are you talking about? "Gong Xi Fa Cai, here is the red envelope." Can you pretend to be a little educated?Can you, can you?
How do you say New Year's greetings in the Tang Dynasty?If you want to put it in a simpler way, just remember the two sentences "Fortune prolongs the new day, celebrates longevity without borders" and "Fu celebrates the new day, prolongs longevity"① should be able to handle it.You don't have to stretch your claws forward desperately, there are no red envelopes, and people in the Tang Dynasty don't give lucky money.

Disappointed?I deliberately dressed as a child to come to the Tang Dynasty to celebrate the New Year, but I didn't even get any lucky money.To comfort you, some families are rich or their elders love their children very much. They may prepare some special gold, silver, copper coins, or precious metal ornaments, or even jewelry and satin items, and give them to children during the Chinese New Year. Auspicious, although these banknotes are not money that can be spent immediately, it is not impossible for you to secretly exchange them for food and play.

However, the term "lucky money", or pressure money, pressure money, and the custom of giving money during the New Year did not exist in the Tang Dynasty.Same as above, counting on lucky money, please travel through the Song Dynasty.

After midnight, the adults in some families will continue to watch the New Year and have fun, staying up until dawn, but the children are generally sent to bed by their parents because they have to get up early on the first day of the new year.Of course, you may be reluctant and feel that you are still not sleepy. Your family will make a wish saying that there are many delicious and fun things waiting for you when you get up early tomorrow. Be good, take off your clothes and go to sleep, and you can wear new clothes tomorrow yo...

Note that the family members are talking about new clothes, not new padded jackets.

is there any difference?Of course there was. Before the Song Dynasty, the Central Plains did not have the kind of white cotton we are seeing now. Where did the cotton jacket come from?If you are a pure cotton lover and insist on wearing cotton cloth in the Tang Dynasty, then please travel to the Western Regions, which is now Xinjiang, that magical land has had cotton cloth since the Han Dynasty.

You ask if you don’t even have a cotton-padded jacket in the twelfth lunar month, will you freeze to death?Cough, according to what you said, go to sleep quickly, and when you wake up, look at the brightly colored new clothes next to the pillow. It also feels soft and thick, right?What kind of material is this?

Sitting up and shaking, the thickest one in the middle has a layer of snow-white curly short hair, which is sheepskin.You can wear real fur at a young age, isn't it?

Of course, sheepskin was not considered a particularly valuable thing in ancient China. It was not difficult for ordinary people, poor nobles and poor scholars to get a sheepskin jacket to wear.Expensive, status-defining furs, such as fox fur, leopard fur, and mink fur, are all worn by adults to show off and earn face, and children should not even think about it.

The servant girl is here to help you dress, don't dress yourself in disorder, it's easy to get the order wrong.Close-fitting underwear is generally made of linen. Of course, if your family is rich and during the Chinese New Year, it is also possible to wear a high-grade silk underwear for you.Put on a fur top and bottom with the fur side facing out, but you can't just run out with fur all over, like a savage, how uneducated.

① These two pairs of Dunhuang posthumous writings unearthed from the Sutra Cave of Mogao Grottoes with volume number Stein 0610 are considered by some scholars to be the earliest extant Spring Festival couplets.

On top of the plush side of the fur, another layer of silk coat is worn. This is called "裼", which covers the fur, which is the formal way of wearing according to the etiquette.

What?You say you are an environmentalist animal protectionist and refuse to wear fur?Well, well, Tang Dynasty people also have non-animal winter clothes, but they are usually for very poor people who can’t even afford sheepskin. If you go out with rotten robes, be careful of being whipped with a stick by your family.

Since the plant-based filler in the interlayer of winter clothes cannot be used with cotton, what else can be used?The most common ones are all kinds of leftovers from spinning thread to make cloth—hemp, flocs from old clothes, and floating silk from silkworm cocoons. Finally, this kind can also be refined into a relatively high-grade material, which is now called "silk floss".

After you put on your clothes, you hopped out and ran to the courtyard. At this time, it was just dawn, and your family burned some firecrackers in front of the court.Last night was New Year's Eve, and today is Heyuan Day.

People in the Tang Dynasty called the first day of the Lunar New Year Yuan Day, or New Year's Day, which is not the same as the New Year's Day on January [-]st in the Gregorian calendar.After the family finished burning the firecrackers, the fires were basically extinguished last night, the ashes were still smoking, and the ground was full of bamboo scraps.

You suddenly find something new in the courtyard, it is a very long bamboo pole, the bottom is buried in the soil, and a long strip flag made of paper or cloth hangs on the top of the pole, in the cold wind shake.

You say you recognize this?Called carp floating?Well, obviously you watch Japanese movies a lot.The carp floats that the Japanese set up for boys' festivals came from the cottages in our country.This kind of flag was hung in the courtyard on the first day of the National People's Congress in the Tang Dynasty. It was used to pray for longevity, and there was no sign of inequality between men and women.

There is a lot of noise at the gate, a bunch of people are watching, you also squeezed in, it turns out that the family members are changing peach charms, posting door gods and Spring Festival couplets.

Peach charms, a pair of wood chips cut from peach tree branches, are usually painted red and hung on both sides of the gate. They are said to have the effect of warding off evil spirits. Every year on the first day of the new year, the old ones are taken off and replaced with new ones.If you are too poor to afford a new one, you have to take it off and repaint it with red paint before hanging it up.

On the first two pieces of peach charms, one is written "Shen Tu" and the other is written "Yu Lei", both of which are legendary door gods who can suppress evil spirits.In the middle and late Tang Dynasty, due to the hype led by the royal family, the two brothers were replaced by Qin Qiong and Jingde, who were more popular with the masses, and the masses felt that it was not enough to write two names on peach charms, and they had to draw their images and paste them on the door. It is curative enough.

As for posting Spring Festival couplets, it was originally believed that this custom only existed in the late Tang Dynasty and the Five Dynasties. However, textual materials unearthed in Dunhuang prove that couplets posted on both sides of the gate appeared as early as the Kaiyuan period of Emperor Xuanzong of Tang Dynasty.So if you travel to the middle and late Tang Dynasty, it is very likely that on the morning of the first day of the new year, you will find couplets similar to the following on both sides of your gate:

Sanyang begins to clothe and four seasons begin to open
At the beginning of Tonghun Dynasty, Yulu began to regulate Yang

Five blessings eliminate three misfortunes

Baoji can ward off evil Ruiyan Xie Chengxiang...

After finishing a bunch of occasional activities on the morning of the first day, the family will pay New Year's greetings to each other, sit down in groups at the door, and finally enter the most exciting procedure during the Chinese New Year—serve the dishes and start eating!
What do people in the Tang Dynasty eat during the Chinese New Year?This seems to be an issue of general concern to the masses.But in fact, when the family starts to eat the New Year's Eve dinner, the first thing to eat is not to eat, but to drink.

On the first day, there are several kinds of special drinks for the New Year, one is called Tusu wine, and the other is called pepper wine.Tusu is a kind of traditional Chinese medicine, which is made by mixing seven kinds of medicinal materials: rhubarb, Atractylodes macrocephala, platycodon grandiflorum, Sichuan pepper, cinnamon, aconitum, and sarsaparilla. How to drink it? Some people soak this traditional Chinese medicine in the well at home in advance. On the first day of the Yuan Dynasty, water was drawn from the well to drink, and some people used this medicine to infuse medicinal wine to drink.

Pepper and cypress wine is a wine soaked with pepper and cypress leaves. It is said that drinking these two wines can exorcise evil spirits, detoxify and prolong life. Of course, the taste must be very weird.

The servant brought the wine to the table and poured it one by one. You smelled the smell, and you were frowning, thinking about how to pour it away secretly, but all the elders in the family were smiling and looking at you, and the head of the family even called out to your little one. The name tells you to drink this wine first to "get old" before others can drink it.

What's the point?Since ancient times, didn't those who served the banquet respect the elders first?How can there be any reason for the youngest to drink first?This group of people from the Tang Dynasty are bullying brother, a time traveler...Guest, you are thinking wrong. The rules of drinking Tu Sujiaobai wine on Yuan Ri are really starting from childhood. You heard what the parents said: "Young people get old first Congratulations with wine, the old man loses his age, so I will give you wine." ①Although no lucky money is given, the whole family is here to congratulate you for being one year older.

No way, drink it.Sure enough, it is salty, bitter and spicy, and it tastes terrible.You are smacking your lips with a bitter face, and another plate of strange-smelling food is served, this one is called Wuxin plate.

When you look closely, there is a piece of green and spicy pottery dish on the food table, and there are five kinds of vegetables, which are garlic, garlic, leek, brassica, and coriander (called coriander or coriander in the north) ).Eating Wuxin dishes during the Chinese New Year is to disperse the depression of the five internal organs, prevent epidemics, and prevent illness.Come on, move your chopsticks, children are not allowed to be picky eaters, you can't do without them!I want to learn Crayon Shin-chan, but there is no door.

Okay, okay, Chinese New Year's food isn't all so weird and unpalatable.After finishing the Wuxin plate, isn’t this another plate of jellyfish that everyone loves and sees flowers blooming?
What is 饧?It is roughly what is called maltose today. The desserts made by the ancients from barley, wheat or glutinous rice are sticky and soft, and the sweetness is not as good as honey, nor is it as sweet as sucrose that is commonly used today.However, in the Tang Dynasty, shortly after the sugar cane sugar production method was introduced from abroad, sucrose (also called stone honey) was still not popular and could not be seen by ordinary people, so maltose was already considered a valuable and delicious food.

Guests, don’t rush to reach out, Jiaoya 饧 is not Tusu wine, you can’t let the children eat it first, this is mainly for the elderly.Gel teeth are also fixed teeth. On the one hand, it is to test the strength of the old man's teeth; on the other hand, it is to wish the old man's teeth never fall out and live forever.

After drinking bitter wine, eating spicy food and a little sugar, my stomach was rumbling with discomfort.This is the staple food. You must feel familiar and friendly when you see this plate - steaming white dumplings!
①From Zong Mo's "Jingchu Sui Shi Ji".

They are really dumplings. They are made into a half-moon shape, and the dough is wrapped with various fillings. They are boiled in a large pot and taken out. Eat them while they are hot. They also have vinegar and garlic!However, after eating a bowl, if you yell "have another bowl of dumplings", the servants will be dizzy and don't know what you are talking about, because the dumplings in the Tang Dynasty were not called by this name, they were called "Tang Zhonglao Wan".

It seems that you, the guest, are really hungry. Don't worry about this big mouthful. Even if you don't have enough to eat at home, you will go out with the adults in a while to celebrate the New Year.On the first day of the first lunar month, every household in Chang'an City holds a banquet. When neighbors pay New Year's greetings to each other, they can eat together. This is called "passing seats".

Common people eat, drink and have fun during the New Year, which is probably like this.Now back to the question at the beginning: Why is it best not to dress up as an official during the Chinese New Year?Do civil servants in the Tang Dynasty have to go to work without holidays during the Chinese New Year?
Well, in theory, civil servants also have seven days off during Chinese New Year, just like now.However, on the morning of the first day of the new year, officials have to go to the court meeting!
Not just the first day of junior high school, those senior officials who are more trusted by the emperor have to abandon their families and go to the palace on New Year's Eve, and accompany the emperor to watch the Spring Festival Gala, have a banquet, drink, sing and write poems.The food at the royal banquet may be more exquisite and delicious, and the level of singing and dancing is also very high, but who wants to spend the New Year's Eve with the big boss?Taking a wrong step or saying a wrong word may lead to a crime, and those who are trembling are purely looking for guilt.

Stay up all night in the palace, and at dawn the next day, you have to go to court, and you will suffer even more.

The Grand Court Meeting on the first day of the Yuan Dynasty is one of the most solemn court meetings of the year. Not only do all civil and military officials in the capital have to clock in and are not allowed to be late, local officials from all over the country will also send envoys or come to Beijing to congratulate the court in person. The prefectures of Jimi and the dependent countries will also send people to give gifts to congratulate.

So the etiquette procedures are also very trivial.First, the prime minister and other high-ranking officials led a group of subordinates to raise fire and light lamps to go up to the court like hunting wolves, and ignited a "fire city" in the dark morning.Everyone was dressed in official court clothes, and they were all dressed up in fancy dresses. First, the prime minister led them into the main hall of the palace, congratulated the emperor, and read obscure New Year’s greetings that no one but the author could understand. Then the ministers answered for the emperor, and the prime ministers left again Accept the He Wenchao form from the officials and vassals of other places, and choose a high-ranking official's congratulatory form to continue reading.If the empress dowager is still alive in this dynasty, the prime ministers will lead officials to pay New Year's greetings to the empress dowager after the emperor's work is done.

Generally speaking, officials who can be prime ministers are old people in their 70s, 80s and [-]s. It is good to not suffer from heart disease, high blood pressure, stroke and cramps during the Chinese New Year.The famous calligrapher Liu Gongquan almost died when he came to court on the first day of junior high school.

At that time, he was already over 80 years old. He became a prime minister and went to court on the first day of the Yuan Dynasty. He led all the officials to climb the huge dragon tail path of the Hanyuan Hall of the Daming Palace and entered the hall. His head was buzzing, and he didn't want to rest. He immediately began to read the congratulatory form, but his tongue couldn't control him for a while, and he misread the former dynasty "×××× and Wu Guangxiao ××××emperor" as "Guangwu and filial piety". emperor".There was a slight mistake in the order of the words before and after, and was heard by the censor who was pricking his ears to find faults. The emperor felt that Mr. Liu was wronged when he went up to impeach him, so he was punished lightly and fined him for one year's salary.

① Jimi Prefecture, a local administrative unit set up in ethnic minority areas by the Tang, Song, and Ming dynasties.The establishment of Jimi Prefecture, State, and Weisuo strengthened the relationship between the Central Plains and the frontier regions.

Therefore, during the Chinese New Year holidays, being an official is really not as easy and leisurely as being a commoner.But this is only a temporary phenomenon. Most of the time, the privileged class is much more comfortable.

Finally, I would like to send a song "Yuan Ri Shu Huai" by Lu Zhaolin as the concluding remarks of this festive special.

Jingshi has no middle rank, and there are foreign ministers for farming.

People song Xiaosuijiu, Flower Dance Datangchun.

The grass is fascinated by the three paths, and the scenery moves around.

I hope it will grow like this, and it will be new year after year.

References & in-depth understanding recommendations for this article:

Zhang Hongmei. Festivals and Customs of the Tang Dynasty. Taiyuan: Shanxi People's Publishing House, 2010
(End of this chapter)