When is the Cold Food Festival?
Analysis:
On April 4th every year, the day before Tomb-Sweeping Day is Cold Food Festival.
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Cold Food Festival
The origin of Cold Food Festival is April 4th every year, the day before Tomb-Sweeping Day. Legend has it that this festival is meson push to commemorate the Spring and Autumn Period.
According to legend, in the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period, Jin Xiangong's concubine killed the prince in order to let her son inherit the throne, and Shen Sheng was forced to commit suicide. Shen Sheng's younger brother, Zhong Er, went into exile to escape the scourge. During his exile, Zhong Er suffered humiliation. Most of the courtiers who went out with him went out one after another. Only a few loyal people have been following him. One of them is called meson push. On one occasion, Zhong Er fainted from hunger. In order to save Zhong Er, Jiezitui cut a piece of meat from his leg, cooked it with fire and gave it to Zhong Er. Nineteen years later, Zhong Er returned to China and became a monarch, that is, Jin Wengong, one of the famous five tyrants in the Spring and Autumn Period.
After Jin Wengong came to power, in addition to meson push, he offered many rewards to courtiers who shared his joys and sorrows. Someone defended meson in front of Jin Wengong. Jin Wengong suddenly remembered the past and felt guilty. He immediately sent someone to ask meson to take the imperial court to be rewarded as an official. However, after several trips, the meson could not be pushed. Jin Wengong had to please. However, when Jin Wengong came to the meson pusher's house, he saw that the door was closed. Jiezitui didn't want to see him, and had already been hiding in Mianshan (now southeast of Jiexiu County, Shanxi Province) behind his mother's back. Jin Wengong asked his body guard to search Mianshan, but he couldn't find it. So, someone had an idea, saying, it is better to let Yamakaji go, set fire on three sides, leave one side, burn it and the meson will come out. Jin Wengong ordered the promotion of Yamakaji. Unexpectedly, the fire burned for three days and nights. After the fire was put out, the meson was not pushed out after all. Looking up the mountain, the mother and son were holding a charred willow tree and were dead. Jin Wengong looked at meson push's body and cried for a while. Then I buried the body and found that the back of meson push was blocked by a willow hole, as if there was something. Take out a look, turned out to be a skirt, with a blood poem:
I hope your master is always clear.
It is better to be a ghost than to accompany you as an exhorter.
If your master has me in his heart, remember that I often reflect.
I have a clear conscience in Jiuquan, diligent and honest.
Jin Wengong hid * * * in his sleeve. Then meson tui and his mother were buried under the charred willow tree. To commemorate Jiexiu, Jin Wengong ordered Mianshan to be changed to Jiexiu Mountain, and an ancestral temple was built on the mountain, and the day when Yamakaji was released was designated as the Cold Food Festival, telling the whole country that it is forbidden to set off fireworks and firecrackers on this day every year and only eat cold food.
When he left, he cut a charred willow and made a pair of clogs in the palace. He looked at it every day and sighed, "What a pity." The "first step" is the name of ancient people's subordinates respecting each other between superiors or peers, which is said to come from it.
The following year, Jin Wengong led his ministers to go hiking in plain clothes to show their respect and condolences. Walking to the grave, I saw the dead old willow tree resurrected, with thousands of green branches dancing in the wind. Jin Wengong looked at the resurrected old willow tree and seemed to see the meson push. He walked up to him respectfully, lovingly squeezed a branch, braided it into a circle and put it on his head. After the sacrifice, Jin Wengong named the revived old willow "Qingming Willow" and named it Tomb-Sweeping Day.
Later, Jin Wengong often took * * * as a memorial to spur himself to power. He is diligent and honest, and strives to govern the country well.
Since then, the people of Jin have been able to live and work in peace and contentment, and they are very nostalgic for Jietui, who has made outstanding contributions and is not looking for wealth. On the day of his death, it is forbidden to set off fireworks in memory of him. It is also made of flour and jujube paste into the shape of a swallow, strung with willows and inserted in the door to summon his soul. This thing is called "pushing swallows" (also called intermediary pushing). Since then, cold food and Qingming have become grand festivals for the people of the whole country. Whenever there is cold food, people don't make a fire to cook, but only eat cold food. In the north, people only eat cold food prepared in advance, such as jujube cakes and wheat cakes. In the south, there are mostly green balls and glutinous rice and sugar lotus roots. Every time I go to Tomb-Sweeping Day, people put wicker in a circle and put wicker branches in front of the house to show their memory.
The custom of the Cold Food Festival has two main characteristics: one is to ban cold food by fire, and the other is to commemorate mesons. When the custom of sweeping graves and entertainment is added to this festival, it shows that the nature of this festival has changed substantially, that is, it has changed in Tomb-Sweeping Day. From the existing historical records, poems and other written materials, we can roughly see this transformation process.
At present, there is no clear record of the exact time for the Cold Food Festival to increase grave-sweeping entertainment activities. However, from the "Tang Yao Hui Ji" written by Wang Bi in the Northern Song Dynasty, it can be seen that the custom of sweeping graves and hiking in the cold food festival in the early Tang Dynasty has become a common practice and attracted the attention of the court. In the second year of Li Zhilong's reign in Tang Gaozong (622), the imperial court issued an imperial edict forbidding people to "marry at funeral" and "enjoy wine at funeral", and forbidding people to go to the grave on the Cold Food Festival, even forbidding people to have a happy outing after visiting the grave sadly: "Or go to the grave with cold food, and be happy again. I've never been embarrassed sitting in front of a pine tree. Since the wind is strong, it should be banned. " ("Don Yao Hui" Volume 23) Obviously, the court considered these folk practices to be contradictory and inconceivable, disrespectful to the dead and ghosts, and not serious and immoral. However, folk customs did not decline because of the imperial ban, but became more and more prosperous. So, after more than one hundred years, in 732, the 20th year of the reign of Emperor Xuanzong of Li Longji, the imperial court issued letters, allowing cold food to go to the tomb to offer sacrifices to sweep, and making it a routine:
Cold food to the tomb, the ceremony is unwritten, handed down in modern times, immersion custom. How can a scholar show filial piety if he doesn't like the temple? It is appropriate to go to the grave and use the ceremony of worship. Have a libation outside the south gate and withdraw to cry. If you eat more than you want, you will not be happy. Still integrated into the ceremony, it is always a routine. ("Don Yao Hui" Volume 23)
But it also stipulates that you can't eat, drink and be merry on the spot after sweeping the grave. In the 29th year of Kaiyuan (74 1), Emperor Xuanzong of the Tang Dynasty issued an imperial edict: "Those who eat cold food and go to the grave are Yan musicians. When they see the official code, they will not be eligible to take the exam. After three years in the temple, white people will definitely have a meal to eat. " ("Don Yao Hui", Volume 23) It has been a folk custom since ancient times to enjoy sacrifices in front of graves. Although the court has strict orders, it is difficult to ban them.
Since then, the custom of cold food sweeping graves has become more popular. Later, because officials returned to their hometowns to visit graves, they sometimes delayed their official duties, and the court issued several decrees to solve the holiday problem. At first, it was stipulated that the Cold Food Festival should have a four-day holiday: "February 21st in the 24th year of Kaiyuan (736):' Cold Food Festival and Qingming Festival are holidays. "("Tang Yao Hui "Volume 82) According to the imperial edict of the twelfth year of Dali (777), the Tang Dynasty yamen had a five-day holiday as usual:" From now on, the cold food will be clear, and five days will be off. "In the sixth year of Zhenyuan (790), the holiday was increased to seven days. In this way, officials can calmly pay homage to the grave. It can be seen that the Cold Food Festival has become a very grand national festival in the Tang Dynasty. Wang Lengran's Cold Food in the Tang Dynasty said: "Autumn is as expensive as wax, so it is better to eat cold food before spring." That is, the importance of the Cold Food Festival exceeds that of the Double Ninth Festival and the twelfth lunar month at the end of the year. The Cold Food Festival in Song Dynasty also had seven days' holiday. Volume 1 of Pang Wenchang Magazine in the Northern Song Dynasty records: "Every 70-year-old ancestral temple has six days, and Yuan Day, cold food and winter are seven days each." In the Southern Song Dynasty, Chen Juan quoted Song Luyuan-ming's Miscellaneous Notes of the Year: "The first two days of Tomb-Sweeping Day were Cold Food Festival, which lasted for three days before and after, and rested for seven days. Civil fire ban 104 days, called private cold food, also known as big cold food. Northerners use this day to offer sacrifices first. There is a saying that there is no way out for the moon. "
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Cold Food Festival
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