The Prodigal Son of Zhenguan

On the night of the Mid-Autumn Festival, the royal family must worship the moon, but the common people do not need to worship the moon, because the sun and the moon are equivalent to the gods representing yin and yang. Only the royal family is qualified to communicate with them, and ordinary people cannot worship them casually.

In the former Sui Dynasty and now the Tang Dynasty, although this activity is no longer so grand and ostentatious, such rules are still passed down in the palace.

To worship the moon, you only need to have such a process before the Mid-Autumn Festival banquet.

Li Shimin took Empress Changsun, Li Chengqian and other princes, plus some important members of the royal family, to the high platform to worship the moon.

Li Fu put down the documents in his hand and looked up at the sky outside the house.

The worship of the sun and the moon is also an important part of primitive religion since ancient times. The two celestial bodies of the sun and the moon represent the two poles of the world in people's hearts.

That is to say, the sun is the master of yang, and the moon is the ancestor of yin.

The emperor represents the sun, the queen represents the moon, and the sun and the moon travel in the sky, which has never changed since ancient times.

In people's eyes, the normal operation of the sun and the moon is the guarantee of peace and harmony of all things. The sun rises in the east, the moon rises in the west, and the length of yin and yang always changes, leading to harmony in the world.

Therefore, once there is a solar eclipse or a lunar eclipse, everyone will think that the emperor may have done something wrong, which made the heaven angry and sent down a warning.

At this time, the ministers will also get involved and try every means to make the emperor issue a self-criticism edict.

The emperor may not have done as many bad things as the court officials in his life, but he is good at taking the blame.

If there is anything wrong, it must be the emperor's fault.

When officials exploit the people, the first thing to condemn is not the officials, but the emperor's lax governance, lax control of his subordinates, and the emperor's lack of morality.

Therefore, the royal family worshipped the moon, thinking that you'd better be normal all year round and not have any messy phenomena...

"My dear, you have to wear court clothes on the Mid-Autumn Festival." Xiao Tao said: "I will iron your court clothes again. Don't touch them for the next two days."

Li Fu nodded: "Okay, there is nothing to do in the next two days, and I don't need it."

Li Fu usually doesn't wear court clothes. He wears regular clothes on weekdays. He only wears court clothes when he has to attend the morning court meeting.

Even when he was discussing matters in the Liangyi Hall on weekdays, Li Fu was just wearing regular clothes.

Xiao Tao hurried to prepare. It was not an easy job to iron clothes in such a hot day.

This thing was really painful.

Let the kitchen light the charcoal fire and put it in the fire bucket.

Xiao Tao also found a place under the shade of a tree, put the flat table board on the stone table, and spread Li Fu's clothes on it.

Soon, Li Fu in the study smelled a fragrance.

Looking out the window, Xiao Tao was ironing her clothes.

The fire bowl in Xiao Tao's hand was double-layered, with burning charcoal in the middle and incense in the interlayer next to it.

Such a fire bowl can heat the incense while ironing the wrinkles of clothes, adding fragrance to the clothes.

In the past, Li Fu had never seen how Xiao Tao packed her clothes, but those clothes were sent for cleaning, and Xiao Tao properly arranged them after they were collected.

Every time she prepared clean clothes, the clothes were fragrant.

So this is how to add fragrance.

On a hot day, Xiao Tao held a fire bowl in her hand and carefully ironed the court clothes. After a while, fine sweat appeared on her forehead.

She held the fire bowl steadily in one hand and took out a handkerchief with the other hand, and quickly wiped the sweat off her face, fearing that the sweat would drip onto Li Fu's court dress.

Li Fu stood up, stood in the corridor, and called another maid who was waiting on the side.

"Tell the kitchen to prepare some ice drinks." Li Fu said.

"Yes." The maid responded.

After Xiao Tao carefully ironed Li Fu's court dress, she put the fire bowl on the ground and asked someone to take it away and deal with it.

The charcoal inside was not valuable, but the incense in the interlayer was not cheap. After taking it away, you had to take out the charcoal inside, extinguish the charcoal, put away the fire bowl well, and put the incense inside well.

"My dear, it's done." Xiao Tao looked at Li Fu with a smile on her face.

"It's so hot, you've worked hard." Li Fu said, "Ask the kitchen to prepare ice drinks for you, take a break."

Xiao Tao shook her head.

"Rest in a while, these clothes need to be hung up in the house."

There are hangers in the house, which are specially used to hang court clothes.

Unlike other clothes, court clothes must be treated well. After ironing, they cannot be put in the closet, but must be hung on the rack in the room.

There are also some particular materials.Precious clothes cannot be folded, they must be hung up properly.

Ordinary people only say that clothes are kept at the bottom of the box.

In wealthy families, the more precious the clothes are, the less likely they are to be kept at the bottom of the box.

Either hang them in the cabinet or hang them on the wooden rack in the room.

When hanging them on the wooden rack in the room, even the sleeves of the clothes must be propped up. The wooden rack is made to imitate the posture of a person with open arms.

Hanging them in the cabinet only keeps the clothes in a vertical state without folding.

"Also, the crown and hat you changed yesterday also need to be cleaned." Xiao Tao said: "Sacrifice is a big deal. Even if the crown has only been used once, it needs to be cleaned again."

"Then you can rest for a while before you get busy again." Li Fu said.

From Xiao Tao's diligent attitude, we can see how important it is to worship the moon on Mid-Autumn Festival.

If Li Fu had been in Chang'an last year, his name would have been on the moon worship list.

But last year, he, Jiang Que, Yan Lide and others were in Linying County, and did not return to Chang'an for the festival.

So this year was the first year that Li Fu knew about the moon worship and the first time he participated in it.

The kitchen staff brought iced drinks to the yard.

"Xiao Tao, drink some to cool down. Don't keep yourself busy and get a heat stroke. Let others do these things in the evening."

Xiao Tao took the cup and took a few sips to cool down.

"That won't do. I have to do this myself to feel at ease. And the sooner I clean up, the less I have to worry. I must prepare everything in advance so that there will be no mistakes when the time comes." Xiao Tao said, "People in the palace have said that worshiping the moon is a big deal and we can't be careless. They have given us many instructions. Now that I know about this, I must prepare it myself for you, otherwise I really can't feel at ease." After Xiao Tao finished speaking, she put down the cold drink in her hand.

"My dear, I have to go to another courtyard to clean up. I won't bother you here."

"Okay." Li Fu responded.