How did the emperor celebrate his birthday?
In the Sui Dynasty, Emperor Wendi's birthday, killing was forbidden in the world, and vegetarian food was used to repay his parents. "Sui Shu Gao Ancestral" records: "Renshou was three years old, and Emperor Wendi of Sui Dynasty issued a letter: June 13th is my birthday, and it is appropriate to establish Hainei as Emperor Wu Yuan and Empress Yuan Ming." Li Shimin, Emperor Taizong, took his own birthday as his birthday, and attached great importance to the date of birth and his feelings for his parents. For example, on his birthday one year, he said to Sun Chang Wuji, "Today is my birthday. As the saying goes,' birthdays can be happy', I think about it with emotion! In the seventeenth year of Kaiyuan (729), Emperor Xuanzong celebrated his birthday, and the emperor invited officials to eat and drink in the Calyx Building. Guan Bai entered Wanshou wine, presented gold mirror ribbon and silk woven dew-bearing bag. The whole country celebrated and had a three-day holiday, which showed its prosperity. On this day, not only banquets are held, but also the monarch and his subjects sing poems.
After that, emperors followed suit and became accustomed to each other. In the Qing Dynasty, the emperor's birthday was mainly summed up in eight words: "Celebrate with the world and grant amnesty to the world", because it was forbidden to die prematurely on his birthday. Therefore, criminals who are about to be executed will be very lucky if they meet the emperor's birthday. We often see such scenes in costume dramas.
Qing Zhaolian's "Xiao Ting Continued Record Wanshou Festival": "The Wanshou Festival, princes and ministers, civil and military officials, etc., dressed in salty robes, arranged in front of the bright hall of Yuanmingyuan at dawn." Wanshou Festival was widely used in the Ming and Qing Dynasties for the birthday of kings. On this day, the emperor needs to accept congratulations and gifts from court officials in the main hall. In addition, on the day of Longevity Day, people all over the country are forbidden to slaughter living animals and slay criminals, so as to wish good luck for the whole year.
In the fifty-second year of Kangxi, in order to celebrate his sixtieth birthday and celebrate with the world, Kangxi specially recruited 1000 old people from all over the country to attend his birthday party in Beijing. At the banquet, Kangxi saw thousands of old people celebrating their birthdays, and he felt deeply about it. He wrote a poem called Thousand Banquets, hence the name Thousand Banquets.
The "Thousand Banquets" during the Qianlong period was even more grand. The first Millennium Banquet was held in Qianlong 1785. More than 3,000 old people were invited to this banquet, far exceeding the banquet of 1,000 people during the reign of Kangxi. For ambitious Qianlong, it is not enough to hold a thousand banquets, so after sixty years of Qianlong, he decided to abdicate to his son Jiaqing and held another thousand banquets.
Even Comrade Zhu Yuanzhang, who is famous as a model worker, will have a rest on his birthday. You should know that during Zhu Yuanzhang's period, there were only three holidays in a year, namely Spring Festival, Winter Solstice and Zhu Yuanzhang's own birthday. It can be seen that the ancient emperors paid attention to their birthdays.