Looking back on the past, what are the customs of the Spring Festival in the Qing Palace, the commanding height of the empire, in the agricultural era with a strong flavor of the year? How did the son of heaven spend this important festival?
First, the Spring Festival couplets Najib
Every family always trades new peaches for old ones. Since Meng Changjun, the Emperor of Shu in the Five Dynasties, wrote the couplets of "Welcome the New Year, and celebrate the First Festival", it has become a traditional custom to stick Spring Festival couplets to welcome the New Year.
The Spring Festival couplets in Qing Palace are different from the disposable Spring Festival couplets written in red paper and ink. Instead, the Hanlin Academy, which is good at calligraphy of various schools, wrote it on white silk with an academic brush, then made a border and used it repeatedly for many years.
The Spring Festival couplets of the Qing Palace were written in white silk, on the one hand, because white was noble in the society at that time, and more importantly, to form a color contrast with Zhu Hongzhu in the Forbidden City when hanging, so as to enjoy it.
For example, the so-called "Ounei Palace Spring Festival couplets" are made of white silk and sincerely presented by Hanlin. The painted pillars of the palace are all red, so they are reflected in white. Also posted with the Spring Festival couplets are door gods, which are also made of the same material and colorful.
If you catch up with the royal birthday celebration, in order to create a festive atmosphere, the person in charge needs to report to the emperor and ask for red couplets. For example, on the 60th birthday of Cixi in 1894, Prince Li asked for instructions: "Whether her couplets should be edged with yellow silk and paper, waiting for the official decision."
The Spring Festival couplets of the Qing Palace are mainly completed by Hanlin who is good at different styles of writing. In terms of content, in order to avoid being sentenced to whitewash, Hanlin usually focuses on stability and fills the facade with auspicious words. Even so, there are still many taboos. For example, the couplet "The sun and the moon are mountains and rivers, and the mountains and rivers are stronger than the imperial palace" recited by Chen Houzhu for Emperor Wen of Sui Dynasty was later used by the courts of past dynasties. Because the "sun and the moon" evokes the soul of Daming, it has never been used. Therefore, the Spring Festival couplets "Tianjiumenlu Palace and its courtyards" were replaced by "Multi-national costumes, bowing to the crown of pearls" written by Zhao Mengfu for Kublai Khan of Yuan Shizu in Yuan Dynasty.
During the Qianlong period, the country was prosperous in culture and education, and the Hanlin bachelor wrote Spring Festival couplets in auspicious words. Gorgeous and elegant words are used by later generations. If it is broken and continues to be used, the new silk was rewritten by Hanlin according to the old text at that time.
The production of Qing Palace Spring Festival couplets was jointly completed by the Ministry of Interior and the Ministry of Industry. Generally, the Ministry of Industry first determines the size and style of Spring Festival couplets according to the level and scale of temples, and the manufacturing materials are provided by the manufacturing warehouse (a subordinate institution of the Ministry of Industry) and handed over to the manufacturing office of the Ministry of Internal Affairs (mainly for making daily necessities for the Qing Palace).
Due to the special materials, numerous temples and corruption, it is also a big consumption to make Spring Festival couplets in Qing Palace. In order to reduce expenses, the Qing Palace abolished Spring Festival couplets many times. For example, in the thirty years of Qianlong, the emperor approved the memorial of the Ministry of Internal Affairs and removed more than 100 Spring Festival couplets and door gods in the Forbidden City.
Palace Spring Festival couplets are kept by the Ministry of Industry's door god library on weekdays. Maintenance was relatively extensive at first. If it is broken, it can be repaired and replaced at any time. Later, in order to strengthen the sense of responsibility of managers, the imperial court stipulated in the twenty-third year of Qianlong that every five years, the assistant minister of the Ministry of Industry and the minister of internal affairs led the staff of the Ministry of Industry to count the Spring Festival couplets and the door gods, and sent officials to supervise the workers to repair the Spring Festival couplets after the approval of the emperor. The practice of maintaining the Qing Palace Spring Festival couplets once every five years was thus formed.
Palace Spring Festival couplets are usually hung after the "seal" on the 23rd of the twelfth lunar month (the official seal is stamped by the official government, and the official residence is no longer open), especially on the 26th of the twelfth lunar month. On the 20th day of the first month of the following year, when the seal was opened, it retreated, mostly at the beginning of February, when the Erlong looked up. The picking and hanging of Spring Festival couplets is coordinated by the Ministry of Industry and the Ministry of the Interior, starting from Gan Qing Palace and proceeding from Houting to Qian Dian in turn.
If the New Year coincides with the centenary mourning of the Emperor and the Empress Dowager, Spring Festival couplets will not be hung everywhere that year, and it will return to normal the next year. Under special circumstances, the Qing Palace will also remove the Spring Festival couplets in advance. For example, in the eighteenth year of Shunzhi, Fu Lin got smallpox, and all recreational activities were forbidden in the palace. On the fifth day of the first month, the Spring Festival couplets were removed early.
Second, new clothes welcome the spring.
Similar to the folk, the son of heaven wears new clothes to welcome the Spring Festival every year. There are many kinds of clothes in Tian Zi, including royal clothes, auspicious clothes, regular clothes, travel clothes and so on. What we are most familiar with is the dragon robe, which is the auspicious costume of the emperor on grand occasions such as major festivals and banquets. In the Qing Dynasty, the robes of Emperor Tian Zi were generally made of extremely expensive silk, as well as tulle and dragon robes suitable for summer. The robes are decorated with complex patterns, including twelve chapters: sun, moon, stars, mountains, dragons, China insects, flounder, Zong Yi, seaweed, fire and pink rice, which are magnificent.
During the Spring Festival, the most important festival of the year, the Staff Sergeant Supervision Committee, which is responsible for managing the emperor's costumes, prepares the costumes in advance. When the Emperor attended the court ceremony, he wore an auspicious crown, a yellow robe, a mink end cover (coat), a belt around his waist, spring silk cotton trousers, white cotton socks and sheepskin soap boots. After the ceremony, the son of heaven needs to change clothes, put on another royal costume and crown, and go to the palace to visit the queen mother as a sign of filial piety.
Occasionally the emperor chooses his own clothes. For example, on New Year's Eve in the 19th year of Qianlong, the eunuch presented a bright yellow brocade robe for the next day, but Qianlong temporarily changed his mind and put on a fragrant brocade robe, and ordered the robe to "wait less on weekdays and wait until December 30th after bathing every year", which became the annual practice.
Third, family dinner.
During the Spring Festival, the son of heaven will hold three big banquets, two family banquets with his family as the parents, and a state banquet for his ministers as a monarch. State banquets in the Qing Dynasty were divided into two types: full banquet and Chinese banquet. The state banquet in the palace must be full, and Chinese seats can be used outside the palace. Full house is divided into six grades.
First class, second class and third class are all dedicated to the late emperor. The highest level that the living can enjoy is the fourth-class seat, which only appears on important occasions such as Spring Festival, Longevity Festival (emperor's birthday) and emperor's wedding. The fifth and sixth seats are mainly used for banquets for tribute envoys of vassal States and Mongolian princes and nobles.
The banquet is divided into two seats, the first is a "cake banquet" with snacks as the main part, and then a "banquet" with wine and meat as the main part.
This fourth-class banquet during the Spring Festival is held at the Hall of Supreme Harmony at noon every year. There are 2 10 seats, with more than 300 people accompanying the seats, which are divided into single seats, double seats and three seats according to grades.
All the seats are long and low tables, and only first-class and second-class officials can eat in the lobby. The dishes on each table are the same, and the recipes are the same year after year. Although the food is rich, who can enjoy it when the son of heaven is at the state banquet?
The food is not necessarily good, but the money is AA system: in order to save money and enhance the sense of responsibility of the princes, only the emperor's catering is borne by the state treasury, and the snacks of each "cake banquet" are provided by Guanglu Temple, while the dishes and tableware of the "banquet banquet" are provided by the princes with titles according to grades. If there is any difference, it will be made up by Guanglu Temple.
In order to avoid the indescribable occurrence of the old prince and the little queen, the Tianzi family banquet was divided into two parts, breakfast with the queen and dinner with the prince.
Family dinners are also orderly. Family banquets are organized by the Ministry of the Interior, and the dining place is usually in Gan Qing Palace. The emperor sat in the temple during the empresses' banquet, and the emperor sat on the throne during the royal banquet. The rest of the people are divided into single tables or * * * tables according to grades and generations. Similarly, serve the food and milk tea first, then arrange the banquet, and finally go to the "fruit table".
With the banquet, the dining table is not only divided by grades, but also the dishes and tableware on the dining table are different, showing etiquette everywhere. When eating, the emperor should play music when sitting or leaving. When the emperor is drinking tea, eating and drinking, he should kowtow to congratulate the banquet, and even kowtow to give thanks when giving wine. Trivial etiquette can be called torture.
A little warmth lies in the fact that during the banquet, the Ministry of Internal Affairs will "turn to the banquet": since the emperor, snacks on the table will be put on the table to share with the banquet.
Of course, we should eat jiaozi during the Spring Festival. The first meal of the Qing Palace in the New Year is jiaozi, which abides by the customs left by the Nurhachi era. You must eat vegetarian food with vegetable stuffing, jiaozi. After the New Year's Eve ceremony, the emperor will eat jiaozi in the east cabin of Zhaoren Hall, and jiaozi must cook just when the emperor sits down.
In order to ensure the accuracy of the time, the chefs took great pains: traditionally, from the end of the twelfth month to the first month, the eunuch would set off a string of firecrackers every time the emperor crossed a threshold, so that the chefs could master the emperor's itinerary and control the temperature. At the end of the Qing Dynasty, the rules of ancestors became looser and looser. jiaozi, the son of heaven, changed to eat in hall of mental cultivation during the Spring Festival, and dumpling stuffing changed from vegetarian stuffing to meat stuffing.
Four. Various activities
It is of great significance to connect two years old in the Spring Festival, and the son of heaven has to complete many symbolic activities at this time.
On the first day of the New Year, the son of heaven will drink Tu Su wine and hold a "pen-opening" blessing ceremony. Generally speaking, prayer with a pen is held in the bright window of hall of mental cultivation East Warm Pavilion, where Tian Zi usually handles government affairs. At the beginning of the day, Tian Zi came to Dongnuange, personally lit the white jade candlestick named "Jade Candle Long Tune", filled the "Golden Ouyonggu" cup made of gold and precious stones with Tu Su wine, held the "Evergreen" brush, and solemnly wrote "Peace in the World" and "Forever in the Country".
From the second day to the tenth day, the son of heaven will also choose auspicious days, choose literary officials who are good at poetry and fu, and drink tea and write poems together to show his emphasis on culture and education. Tea banquet began in Qianlong period, because it was held in Chonghua Hall, so it is also called "Chinese Banquet Congxian".
At first, the participants were only civil servants, and later they evolved into 28 princes and ministers. At the tea banquet, ministers gathered together to taste the "Sanqing Tea" made of plum blossoms, pine nuts and bergamot in Longjing, Shifeng, Hangzhou. This proposition was put forward by the emperor on the spot, and everyone wrote poems, which was a great event.
Besides these activities, which are intended to set an example for the world, Tianzi also has his own leisure way-going to the theatre.
The emperors of the Qing Dynasty had many wonderful plays, especially the emperors of the late Qing Dynasty. In the early years of the Qing Dynasty, there were many zaju and Kunqu operas. Influenced by Cixi during Tongzhi period, Peking Opera became popular. During Guangxu period, Cixi summoned several famous folk Peking Opera troupes to the palace during the Spring Festival, and passers-by performed for several days, which was enough for drama addiction.
In the Qing Dynasty, Emperor Tiandi not only loved to listen to operas, but also many people could sing: Gan Long often sang "Visiting the Sage" when he offered sacrifices to stoves; Daoguang starred in "Spot Clothes Play Color" to entertain the Queen Mother; Tongzhi can sing martial arts, but not enough; Although Guangxu can't sing, he can act in scenes and often amuse himself by playing "Jinshan Temple".
For China people, the Spring Festival is not only a grand festival, but also a cultural and psychological bond for compatriots whose blood is thicker than water. Recalling the Spring Festival for the country in the past and looking forward to the Spring Festival for the nation now, I hope that our annual flavor will become stronger and stronger and traditional festivals will be carried forward more and more.