The origin of firecrackers in Beijing
The government and the people are very concerned about the purchase of firecrackers, China's annual festival and the day of celebration, firecrackers have a long history. According to legend, in ancient times, there is a monster called "year", every 365 days to come out to harm people and animals, when the people do not dare to go out. Occasionally a year, an urchin burning bamboo for warmth and play, burning bamboo fire in the sky, crackling, the monster "year" scared far away, people are happy to get peace and quiet, celebrate the Spring Festival. Since then, firecrackers have become a must for people to drive away evil spirits and welcome the gods and celebrations.
Official "seal", Pearland "closed platform" and other holidays for the New Year's Feudal Dynasty to show that the "New Year" to welcome the importance of spring and the gift of the people and officials, since the waxing moon 19-22 days, by the person in charge of astronomy and astronomy. Since the 19th -22nd of the lunar month, by the astronomical calendar in charge of the Chintian Supervisor selected the "auspicious day", announced the capital and all the yamen and government offices across the country, unified seal, the officials began to holiday New Year's. With this, the Liyuan Theatre is also the most popular theatre in the country. Then the pear theater also "closed" stop performing, vacation, to be performed at the beginning of the new year.
At this time the country's unprecedented prosperity in urban and rural "Lunar New Year City" into a climax, the people engaged in cleaning, to clean up the living environment. Lunar month 23rd for the sacrifice of the God of the stove day, but also over the "small year" of the name, and then the "big year" New Year's Eve is coming soon.
Hanging New Year's paintings, posting spring couplets, hanging lanterns, and posting the word "Fu" upside down
Temple culture--Beijing is the home of Chinese temple fairs
Beijing has been the capital of northern China since the Qin and Han dynasties, and has been the capital of China's northern provinces, especially the Liao, Jin, Yuan, Ming and Qing dynasties, with its cultural heritage being extremely rich. Beijing has been the capital of northern China since the Qin and Han dynasties, especially in Liao, Jin, Yuan, Ming and Qing dynasties. In terms of the Ming and Qing Dynasties, Beijing has more than 1,000 temples of various kinds, which is the highest in the country. More temples and temples will naturally be more, 365 days a year, almost every day there are temples and temples, colorful, beautiful. Such as the Yonghegong "playing ghosts", the City God Temple "out of the patrol", July 15 of the burning boat, October 25 of the White Pagoda lanterns, and so on, all for the temple fair event. Beijing's most famous ancient and modern traditional folk temple fair and bazaar are Baiyunguan, factory Dian, Bailongtan and Ditan, Longtan Lake and so on.
Additionally, Beijing's historical flower fair is unique, spreading throughout the city and countryside. Flower party to skill, mainly Shaolin martial arts, stilt walkers, play in the streamer and too lion, less lion and other activities. Miaofengshan incense flower will be the capital of the most flowers, Empress Dowager Cixi in the northeast side of the Summer Palace, specially built "overlooking the far Zhai" and watch the team and its wonderful performances.
The concept of hutong culture
Beijing's hutong culture has a long history and far-reaching meaning. The word "hutong", according to evidence from the Mongolian language, means a place where there is a "well" for the people to live, so in ancient times there were "square wells", ''city wells'', and ''city wells''. The name of the city wells'' was used in ancient times.
Beijing's hutongs have been around since the Yuan Dynasty, and the word "hutong" has been used in works such as the Yuan Yuan miscellaneous dramas {Shamen Island, Zhang Sheng's Boiled Sea}. In the early 13th century AD, the Mongol leader Genghis Khan led his troops south, burned down the Jin Zhongdu City located outside the present Guang'anmen area, his grandson Kublai lived in the Jin Zhongdu City in the northeastern suburb of the beautiful scenery of the "Daining Palace", that is, today's Qionghua Island in the North China Sea. According to the "Yuan Shi" this biography: Kublai Lie reuse Hebei Xingtai Han Chinese great talent, astronomy, geography, scripture, law calendar and the three types of six non-non magic all proficient Liu Bingzhong, ordered him to preside over the design and construction of the Yuan dynasty capital. Liu Bingzhong in order to reflect the "supremacy of the emperor" and the concept of noble unity of the people, he based on the {I Ching} yin and yang five elements, gossip and four images and qimen shunjia feng shui knowledge, while complying with the "Zhouli? Kao Gongji" on the emperor's capital should be a large square city, three gates on each side, the city's name should be named according to the gossip. And the central part of the city for the Palace, the Palace outside the "former dynasty after the city, left and right community" of the Imperial City system,: Therefore, Liu Bingzhong to the Beihai as the center of the big building of the Yuan dynasty metropolis, that is, the Palace and the inner and outer city, and to sit north-south of the central axis of the layout and symmetry of the system of the overall planning and design of the construction, which creates a street more north-south, and the streets and alleys are running through the city. Alleys and alleys are traveling in the east and west. At the same time and to "Square" as a unit, the unified construction of 50 residential areas, Square and Square with varying widths between the hutongs separated. This kind of hutong is not only a transportation channel, but also a fireproof isolation zone between the "workshops", thus it is also called "fire animal track, fire alley, fire lane" and so on. As Liu Bingzhong built the metropolis like yin and yang eight trigrams, very strict and majestic. In addition, Liu Bingzhong's student Guo Shoujing scientific management of the capital water system, more so that the Yuan dynasty capital is full of oriental civilization of infinite charm, weather, y for the Italian traveler Marco? Polo praised.
According to relevant historical statistics, there are more than 400 hutongs in the capital. After the Ming Dynasty, the capital was rebuilt on the basis of the Yuan Dynasty, and was divided into 36 neighborhoods, with 1,170 hutongs. After the Qing destroyed the old city, renamed the capital, inside and outside the city **** there are 2077 hutongs. After liberation with the rapid development of urban construction, so far there are more than 6000 new and old hutongs.
Hutong is not only a street, alley, road, Li's common name, especially with the Beijing opera, Beijing accent, have a strong "Beijing flavor" cultural characteristics, has a very rich humanistic connotation, is the birthplace of Beijing's history, folklore, anecdotes and pot of gold.
Shabu-shabu - a famous traditional flavor
According to historical research, hot pots have been used in China since the North and South Dynasties. The use of hot pots for shabu-shabu, such as chicken, fish and boar, was widely popular in the Tang and Song dynasties. By the Qing Dynasty, hot pot had become quite popular. According to historical records, in the first year of the Jiaqing period (1796), Qianlong set up a "banquet for a thousand old men" at his palace with more than 1,550 hot pots and ate mainly shabu-shabu, which shows the extent to which it was welcomed by Qing officials. Beijing's shabu-shabu originated in the ethnic minority areas of the northeastern part of the Warring States period. In the late Ming and early Qing dynasties, it was introduced to the Guannai people, and the lamb hotpot was the most popular winter delicacy for Qing royalty at that time. Beijing's shabu-shabu is usually available in the fall and is removed from the market by the end of May. The first shabu-shabu restaurant to open was Zhengyanglou, but in 1914 Donglaishun Mutton Restaurant opened, replacing Zhengyanglou through competition and gaining a reputation in the capital.
Beijing barbecue - Mongolian flavor
Beijing barbecue is said to have originated in the Mongolian region in the north, and has a strong taste for the outside world. Later, it was gradually spread to Guannei, and only in the late Ming and early Qing dynasties did barbecue meat appear in Beijing. "South Wannabe Ji" two to roast meat for the business of the restaurant, were opened in the mid-Qing Dynasty. Located in the Yine Street barbecue Wan, in the Kangxi period by the Beijing East Dafang Hui people Wanmin due to the development of the cart selling meat. In the Shichahai Yinjingqiao barbecue season, the business was founded in the Qing Dynasty Xianfeng period.
The old tradition of barbecue is to use a special fireplace with a roasting pan made of steel strips in close rows, with a small gap in the center, called a "sizzler.
When the meat was roasted, wood or charcoal was burned in the oven, and the thinly sliced meat was cooked on the "sizzle" and then dipped in condiments and eaten. Now it is the first slices of meat with soy sauce, wine, sugar, spices, onions, ginger, garlic and other condiments mixed well, and then use long chopsticks to clip the meat to the "hot" on the grill, like stir-frying as constantly flipping, the grease issued by the "ZiZi" sound, the aroma overflowing, the meat can be baked as soon as cooked! eat, this baked while eating and drinking eating method, rich in natural wild flavor of interest.
Roasted meat starts in the fall and stops in the summer. Very careful about the raw materials, to use "north of the mouth" of the vegetable cattle, plow beef is old can not be used. The age of cattle in 4-5 years old is appropriate, weighing two or three hundred pounds of the best. Only three parts of the cow are used: the upper brain, the loin, and the ribs. In addition, the knife work of cutting meat is also very important, must be very thinly sliced beef and mutton to be suitable for barbecue.
Featured local language with strong Beijing flavor
Beijing's voice is both melodious and easy to understand, the language is rich and vivid, one of the country's best voice, language, China's Putonghua (Mandarin) and Hanyu Pinyin, which is based on Beijing's voice as the standard.
But Beijing's authentic vernacular vernacular, such as without certain explanations, it is not easy for people to quickly understand the over-collected, the rhyme since the difference, very dialectal characteristics. Now the relevant native language brief explanation of the following examples: self: their own a person. We: we. Loud: to ask for help, or to express gratitude. Kan Dashan: poor chat. Cat's meow: to keep something private, not to be told. Poor talker: a talker who talks a lot of nonsense. Foolishness: to be dumb, to pretend to be confused. The following is a list of some of the most important things you can do to make your life easier. Joke: to make fun of someone. Foamy: finished, blown up, messed up. Rip-off: to take advantage of someone, to cheat them. Fear: embarrassment, timidity, fear. Porcelain: sturdy, solid, reliable. No way: no way. Yellowed: not done. Don't price: don't do that. Eat heart: more heart. Double good: especially good, very good. Stirring up trouble: inviting trouble, stirring up trouble. Shame on others: not keeping one's word, teasing others.
Preparing for the year before
Since the Ming and Qing dynasties, people have been preparing for the "New Year's Eve" from the first day of the 12th month of the lunar calendar. Beijing people from Lunar New Year's Eve to New Year's Eve, is to do "New Year's Eve" - the Spring Festival preparation of the busiest days. The day is the busiest for the preparation of the "New Year" - the Spring Festival.
December 8 of the lunar calendar is the "Laha Festival" of the Han Chinese. It is derived from the ancient "wax day" when "animals and birds were sacrificed to their ancestors at the end of the year". "Lapa" is the signal to enter the year, there is "Jubilee". It is a period of time when the rich and powerful "collect debts" and the poor "avoid debts".
The main food for the Lahai Festival "Lahai congee", the source of its customs say a wealth of: I said Shennong's because of the discovery of a hundred valleys, the creation of agricultural production and life, the people, so in the waxing of the day with a variety of grains, fruits, congee for the rituals. Secondly, Zhu Yuanzhang before he ascended the throne as a beggar, ate with the mouse hole in the porridge porridge to feed the hungry. Zhu Yuanzhang when the founding emperor of the Ming dynasty, in order not to forget the past
Go to the suffering, in order to boil on the waxing day "Laha" grain porridge to reward officials, in order to stimulate the spirit of hard work. Three said Sakyamuni on the eighth day of the waxing moon to become a Buddha, known as the Festival. Buddhists porridge Buddha, become a major Buddhist event.
According to the "Yanjing Times Record": people boil congee on the eighth day of the month is very careful, more yellow rice, white rice, rice, millet, chestnuts, lingzhi rice, red clowns, peeled jujubes, etc. and water and boiled, coupled with almonds, melon seeds, peanuts, pine nuts, grapes, red and white sugar and other ingredients, thick and overflowing, very sweet and savory, so until the modern Beijingers, is still happy to retain this eat! The Beijing people are still happy to keep this food custom of eating "Laha congee" until modern times.
Beijing Opera
Beijing Opera, also known as roles, can be divided into five major lines: Sheng, Dan, Jing, Mou and Chou.
1. Sheng line abbreviated as "Sheng". Sheng line is divided into Sheng (Sheng), red Sheng, Sheng, Wu Sheng, doll Sheng and so on. One of the important lines in Beijing opera.
Shu Sheng (Lao Sheng): that is, more than middle-aged playwrights, wearing a beard (beard), due to different personalities and identities, can be divided into An Gong Lao Sheng or singing Lao Sheng (such as playing emperors, bureaucrats, literati, etc.), rely on the Lao Sheng (such as playing a general), the decline of the old school Lao Sheng (such as playing the poor and downtrodden people, etc.).
Hongsheng: the red face of the hook sushi, such as playing Guan Yu, Zhao Kuangyin, and so on.
Small Sheng: refers to the drama of the plume Sheng (with pheasant plume generals, princes and lords, etc.), the gauze hat Sheng (official Sheng), the fan Sheng (scholar), poor Sheng (poor scholar) and so on.
Wusheng: the role of martial arts for the play, wearing thick-soled boots called long leaning (dunzi) Wusheng, wearing thin-soled boots called short beat (skimmer) Wusheng.
2. Dan line short for "Dan". Divided into green, flower Dan, Wu Dan, knife and horse Dan, old Dan, paste Dan, girl Dan and other roles. Dan all female.
Qingyi: mainly singing, playing the role of a good wife and mother.
Flower Dan: also called Flower Shirt, characterized by flowery costumes, mainly plays the roles of queens, princesses, noble ladies, female generals, hawkers, village girls, and so on.
Wudan, knife and horse Dan: women who are good at performing martial arts.
Laodan: sung with this noise, mostly middle-aged and old women.
3. net line short for "net", also known as the flower face. Pure angle refers to the face of colorful drawings of the role of the flower face, it does not seem clean, so the opposite of the meaning of ''net" net line is divided into the following roles: to sing the main copper hammer flower face and black head flower face; to frame the main frame of the frame of the flower face, such as the generals, monks, heroes, and the martial arts flower face and wrestling flower face, and so on. Bronze hammer Hua face called positive net, frame Hua face called vice net, Wu Gong Hua face name Wu net, Wu two Hua face words red net, in the performance style have different characteristics.
4. end line short for "end". The line is mostly middle-aged men. The actual end of the line specializing in the introduction of the play functions, such as playing the head of the field, the opposite of its meaning and called "end".
5. clown line short for "ugly". Chou line hook face in the play, and hook painting "three flower face", the face and flower face is very different.
The clown line is also divided into the clowns, martial arts clowns. In the Wen Chou, it is divided into the square-toweled Chou (literati, Confucian); and the Wu Chou, who specializes in martial arts roles such as falling, hitting, flipping, and pouncing. According to the animal phases, the ugly belongs to the ox, the ox is stupid, ugly is synonymous with stupid. However, the Wu Chou on stage is also known as the Open Jump, and can talk and jump, performing lively and clever, good at martial arts roles, which is completely different from the ugly and stupid nature of the ox.
Additionally, there are also the Su clowns who read Suzhou Bai, the robed clowns who act as officials, the grass-clothed clowns, and the felt-hat clowns who play the roles of marketplaces and farmers and workers, etc., which have different roles and are colorful and varied.
Man Han Quan Xi, the highest state banquet of the Qing Dynasty
This is the highest standard state banquet of the Qing Dynasty, and the most famous banquet in the history of China. It is mainly composed of Manchu snacks and Han Chinese delicacies, hence the name.
Because before the Qing Dynasty, the pasta, dishes are more monotonous, catering is not elaborate. But after entering the Central Plains, because the capital will be gathered all over the country's delicacies. And members of the imperial kitchen by the Manchu and Han chefs, thus the full point of the Chinese cuisine will be merged into one. To the Kangxi years, Manchu-Chinese banquet has been initially formed. According to legend, the Qing Emperor Xuan Ye (Kangxi) in the palace first tasted this full point of Chinese food rich and colorful feast, extremely happy, full of praise, and waved his pen to write down the "Manchu-Chinese banquet" four big words, from now on to establish its status in the palace feast. Qianlong period, the development of Manchu-Han feast to a climax. And joined the Hui, Tibetan, Mongolian food, forming a "five ethnic **** celebration feast" of the Manchu-Han feast. Its culinary skills, the luxury of the surface, tableware and rituals of the elaborate, are unprecedented. This feast, in the Qing court only feudal emperors, queens, royal relatives and senior officials can enjoy.
Man Han feast began in the Kangxi and Qianlong Dynasties, has been more than 300 years of history. According to the provisions of the size of the dishes counted 108 pieces, of which 54 pieces of Nanlei, 54 pieces of northern dishes. A variety of snacks 44 Road, a seat with dozens of pounds of flour, using many valuable fruits. Man Han Quan Xi is a typical barbecue seat, because of the name of the famous points, generally need to be divided into three days to taste all the time.
Peking Duck - China's first food
China's long history of roast duck, according to the North and South Dynasties period (420-589 AD) (Food Zhen Lu) records, there has been a chapter of roast duck, so far there are more than 1,400 years of history. In the Ming and Qing dynasties, roast duck was often eaten in the court, and later spread to the public. According to historical research, Beijing's first roast duck store - "Cheap Place", was founded in the Qing Dynasty Xianfeng five years (1855), in Xuanwu District Mule Ma Shi Street, listed for business, mainly engaged in the stewed oven roast duck. The masters who made the roast duck were mostly Shandong Rongcheng
people, so Peking duck is both the Palace flavor, but also Lulai famous dishes.
The Quanjude Roast Duck Restaurant on the east side of Qianmen Street was founded by Yang Chuanren of Jixian County, Hebei Province, in the third year of the Tongzhi reign in the Qing Dynasty (1864), and it is famous for its roasted duck in a hanging oven. Due to its more sophisticated roasting techniques, the quality and fame of the roasted quickly surpassed that of the Cheap Place.
Roasted duck is made from high-quality snow-white Peking duck. According to the evidence, Peking duck's ancestry in the south, in the early Ming Dynasty with the transport ship transported to Beijing, breeding in the Chaobai River area in the eastern part of the capital, so there is a "White River Puck" of the name. Later, it was moved to Yuchuan Mountain in the west of Beijing, where it was stocked and bred into a good breed. The Peking Duck was raised by artificial feeding method.
Beijing duck grows fast, 60-65 days can be raised to 5-7 pounds. 45 days before the ducklings free to take food, the last 15-20 days by hand-feeding, every 6 hours to feed, day and night. The ducks are slaughtered, de-feathered, gutted, washed, flooded, blown and coated in a series of processes before they can be roasted in a human oven.
Roasting methods generally have three kinds:
1. Stewed stove method Roaster has a door, set up grates in the hearth, burning broomcorn under the grates, will be cooked duck on the grates, close the door to the barbecue and so-called Stewed Stove Roaster Duck.
2. Hanging furnace method Roaster mouth arch, no door, will handle the duck hung on the iron hook in the furnace, the following with pear wood or jujube wood fire baked into.
3. barbecued pork method similar to the production of barbecued pork, must be manually operated one by one, due to laborious and time-consuming low yield, and was gradually eliminated.
Roasted ducks need to be sliced on the table, each duck to cut out about 120 slices, must be sliced with belt meat, fat and thin, the same, the technical requirements are higher.
Duck slices with green onion, cucumber strips, garlic (a little) and sweet noodle sauce and other condiments, with the staple food lotus leaf cake or hollow cake wrapped in food, with a sweet and sweet and crispy and refreshing characteristics.