The most famous "Farewell" in ancient times, The Farewell to Friends Yuan Er by Tang Dynasty poet Wang Wei should undoubtedly be among the best. One spring, Wang Wei gave a banquet in Weicheng Guest House, invited Yuaner, who was about to travel, to have a drink, and wrote the famous farewell poem "Send Yuaner to Anxi": "Weicheng is stormy and dusty, and the guest house is green and willow-colored. I advise you to drink more wine. It makes no sense to go to Yangguan in the west. "
Wang Wei invited wine to see him off, which was called "drinking" in ancient times. This is the most common way of farewell in ancient times, and it is still very popular today. This farewell is usually held before travelers go on the road. It originated from a popular custom called "Zu" in the pre-Qin period. The so-called "ancestor worship" was originally an act of offering sacrifices to the road gods when traveling, with the aim of praying for a safe journey. Sima Zhen's Historical Records of the Tang Dynasty said: "Ancestors, acting as gods, are farewell sacrifices, so they are called' ancestors'." Later, I simply called drinking and getting off the bus "Zu", and Zheng Xuan, a scholar in the Eastern Han Dynasty, called it "Zu".
"Zu", also known as "Zu Xing", is one of the "Seven Sacrifices" (or "Five Rites") in the pre-Qin period, and it is a kind of "gift of walking", so it is essential for people to travel. How did the sacrificial ceremony come into being? It is said that it has something to do with Lei Zu, the son of the Yellow Emperor. Leizu died on the road, so people held a road sacrifice for him. Later, the road sacrifice gradually evolved into a farewell folk custom with farewell as the main content, and Lei Zu also became "distracted".
"Zuyou" is very particular and has a set of mature procedures. Many people set up accounts in post houses or roadside to hold banquets, which are called "ancestral accounts", also known as "ancestral banquets" and "ancestral banquets". This kind of farewell was particularly popular among literati in the Tang Dynasty. Zhang Ji's poem A Farewell to Lu Wuyue describes his farewell activities for his friend Lu, who is going to travel to Jiangsu and Zhejiang today. At that time, "Spring grass was on the high platform", and Zhang Ji put a table of dining tables on the post-house: "I admire Dong Jun for going to see Can Mei, and Wang Sun didn't come back alone ... The wind poured down the column and the tide came."