In the past, apart from the Spring Festival, the most important festival for people was the Winter Solstice in November of the lunar calendar. On this day, the northern hemisphere has the shortest day and the longest night. The ancients believed that the yin energy reached its peak, while the gradually declining yang energy ushered in a new life while dying. As the saying goes, "One sun comes back", after the winter solstice, the news of spring is gradually approaching.

Winter Solstice Sacrifice

Since the Han Dynasty, "induction between heaven and man" has become one of the important logics to confirm the legitimacy of imperial power. For this reason, worshiping the "Haotian God" is regarded as one of the important rituals of the political power, and the time for worshiping the sky has been set on the winter solstice since the Song Dynasty.

According to Meng Yuanlao's "Tokyo Menghua Lu", on the day before the winter solstice, the Minister of Rites personally invited sacrifices. The sacrificial team was led by cavalry with silver armor and iron horses, followed by seven large cavalrymen covered with gorgeous brocade. The elephant has a gilded lotus throne placed on its back, the elephant's head is decorated with gold threads and gold bridles, and the rider is also wearing beautiful makeup and brocade clothes. From a distance, it looks like a god descending to earth on an elephant. The honor guards following the elephant team held high flags, large fans, painted halberds, and spears respectively. The flags were painted with dragons, tigers, and mountains and rivers. The long soldiers were decorated with leopard tails and colorful ribbons. The honor guards were dressed in colorful armor, looking like auspicious clouds from a distance. A sudden coming. Afterwards, there were many warriors carrying axes and shields on their backs, carrying swords and clubs, and dressed in green, soap, red, and ocher clothes, to escort the holy driver and the officials to the Ancestral Temple. The scene can be described as thousands of horses and chariots like dragons. At the third watch of the night, the emperor put on the Qinggun dragon robe, wore a flat heaven crown decorated with twenty-four thorns on his head, and wore red shoes. He was helped to the altar by two chamberlains. The altar is three stories high, with seventy-two steps. The top of the altar is three feet in diameter. There is a yellow mattress "God Haotian" sitting in the north and facing south, and a yellow mattress "Emperor Taizu" on one side, juxtaposing worshiping heaven and worshiping ancestors. . Taoist priests gathered under the altar, and there was an endless flow of ritual music, singing and dancing. Hundreds of thousands of people outside the altar bowed and worshiped, shouting "long live the mountain." Everyone gained self-identity in this ceremony.

Winter solstice offering sacrifices to the sky is regarded as a national ceremony, but sometimes the emperor is unable to participate in the ceremony in person due to special reasons such as being away on military expeditions, being ill, etc. In this case, he will appoint the most trusted prince or minister to do it on his behalf. . During the Kangxi period, we can also see the mystery of the "nine sons seizing the legitimate sons" one after another from the matters of offering sacrifices to heaven during the winter solstice.

According to Liu Lu's research, between the thirty-fifth and forty-fifth years of Kangxi, the Qing sage Xuanye appointed the successor to the regime, Crown Prince Yunfeng, whom he personally cultivated, four times to perform sacrifices to heaven on his behalf. However, as the father and son turned against each other, in the 47th year of Kangxi's reign, Xuanye ordered that Yun Feng be abolished as crown prince and imprisoned. However, "I shed tears every day because of the matter of deposing the crown prince." In the winter of the forty-seventh year of Emperor Kangxi's reign, Xuanye appointed Aling Adai, a first-class duke and commander of Manchuria with a yellow banner, to offer sacrifices to heaven, and after his sacrifice to heaven, he summoned all the people. Sir, let’s discuss the matter of establishing a crown prince. In fact, Xuan Ye had already sent a signal to the outside world to re-establish Yun Feng, but he did not expect that Al Ling'a openly proposed to establish Yun Xu, the eighth son of the emperor, as the crown prince, and other ministers seconded it, causing the battle to seize the throne to become fierce. Fifty-eight years after Kangxi, Xuan Ye's health was in poor condition, and Yun Feng had been deposed for the second time for many years. The competition for the throne was actually only between the third son of the emperor Yunzhi, the fourth son of the emperor Yinzhen, and The relationship between Yunzi, the fourteenth son of the emperor and supported by Yunzi started. In the fifty-eighth year of Kangxi, it was Yunzhi who was appointed. In the sixtieth and sixty-first years of Kangxi, it was Yinzhen who was appointed twice in a row! From the choice of sacrificers for the Winter Solstice Festival, it can be seen that the successor of Xuan Ye's Xinyun in his later years was the later Qing Shizong. November 15, the 61st year of Kangxi's reign, was the winter solstice. On November 9, Yinzhen had been sent to the Temple of Heaven to fast. Unexpectedly, Xuanye was critically ill on the evening of the 13th, and Yinzhen was urgently recalled to Changchun Garden. The next day, Zong Yinzhen of the Qing Dynasty ascended the throne.

Winter Solstice Long Holiday

The Song Dynasty officially stipulated seven days of holidays on the Winter Solstice, the first day of the Lunar New Year and the Qingming Festival. In fact, the history of the Winter Solstice holiday can be traced back to the Han Dynasty. "Book of the Later Han Dynasty" records: "Before and after the winter solstice, a gentleman settles down and keeps quiet, and all officials do nothing. They do not listen to politics, choose auspicious days and then save trouble." "White Tiger Tongyi" once explained that the reason for the winter solstice holiday is that the yang energy is weak on this day, and the king is We need to follow the way of heaven and rest with the people. By the Wei and Jin Dynasties, people's emphasis on the Winter Solstice rituals was second only to New Year's Day (the first day of the Lunar New Year). "Song Book" records: "In the Wei and Jin Dynasties, the winter solstice was congratulated by all nations and hundreds of officials. Because of the small gathering, others Yi Ya Yu Dan.

For example, Hong Liangji, a famous contender in the mid-Qing Dynasty, enjoyed collecting ancient mirrors. He once received a bronze mirror from the Southern Dynasties with the inscription "Knowing things in the sky, thinking about the king." It may have been a burial object after the death of a concubine in the palace. The inscription was sad and sad. . At the anti-cold meeting, he used these eight characters as rhymes to compose poems with everyone. The poems written by literati from all over the Qing Dynasty at the Cold Relief Meeting have survived to this day and have become an important part of the festival culture of the Qing Dynasty. The poet Yan Mengqin wrote a poem about plum blossoms at the cold-relieving meeting, which is a good example of the romantic atmosphere. The poem says: "The old ruins of Liang Garden have been lost. Don't build a waterfront for the immortals. The cold wind blows the silk mantle for a hundred people, and the snow in Jiuhua The cold and fragrant dust. Who climbs the white jade to find the wise man, and puts the gold together to summon the beauty. It's like a pole of smoke and a spring in the river."