Spring Couplets
As a unique literary form, Spring Couplets have a long history in our country. It began during the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms period, was particularly prosperous during the Ming and Qing dynasties, and has been developed for more than a thousand years.
Early before the Qin and Han dynasties, Chinese folk had the custom of hanging peach charms on the left and right sides of the door during the Chinese New Year. Taofu are two large boards made of peach wood, on which the names of the legendary ghost-conquering gods "Tu" and "Yu Lei" are written respectively, which are used to drive away ghosts and suppress evil spirits. This custom has lasted for more than a thousand years. It was not until the Five Dynasties that people began to inscribe couplets on peach boards to replace the names of the ghost-conquering gods. According to historical records, the couplet "New Year Na Yuqing, Jiajie Changchun" written by Meng Chang, the lord of Later Shu, on his bedroom door on New Year's Eve in 964 AD is the earliest Spring Festival couplet in my country.
After the Song Dynasty, it has become quite common for folk to hang Spring Festival couplets during the New Year. Therefore, in Wang Anshi's poem "Yuan Ri", "Thousands of households are as bright as the sun, and new peaches are always replaced by old charms." It is the Spring Festival couplets at that time. A true portrayal of the grand occasion. Since the appearance of Spring Festival couplets is closely related to Taofu, the ancients also called Spring Festival couplets "Taofu".
In the Ming Dynasty, Ming Taizu Zhu Yuanzhang vigorously advocated couplets. After he established his capital in Jinling (now Nanjing), he ordered ministers, officials and ordinary people to write a couplet on their door before New Year's Eve. He personally wore casual clothes and went on tour, going door to door to watch and entertain himself. The literati at that time also regarded composing couplets as an elegant pleasure, and writing Spring Festival couplets became a temporary social fashion.
After entering the Qing Dynasty, during the Qianlong, Jiaqing, and Daoguang dynasties, couplets flourished just like the rhythmic poetry of the Tang Dynasty, and many famous couplets appeared.
With the development of cultural exchanges between countries, couplets were introduced to Vietnam, North Korea, Japan, Singapore and other countries. These countries still retain the custom of posting couplets.
1. The origin of the study
In the middle of the sixth century AD, Zongmao of the Liang Dynasty (about 498-561 AD) recorded the New Year celebrations in Jingchu in the "Jingchu Years" Scholars praised this exemplary chronicle of the year as "a dynamic ancient field record" [1], which changed the previous monthly-style political and religious style and the literati-style appreciation of wonders. To this day, the Spring Festival, which originated from the year-end "December Festival", is still the most important festival for Chinese people. However, the two problems that "Jingchu Age Chronicles" tries to avoid still exist. There are numerous articles introducing Spring Festival customs. Although the content is complex and simple, with different emphasis, their narrative mode is nothing more than festival legends, tracing their origins, historical records, customs in various places and their explanations. Research-oriented folklore works either tirelessly comb through ancient books or ponder the deep meaning behind festival customs. But whether they are introductory or research works, they all refer to a solid Spring Festival premise. This narrative mode that is both collective and timeless gives people the impression that all living beings practice the Spring Festival almost identically, and this "tradition" seems to be as solid as a rock.
But today, we are shocked to find that calls for "defending the Spring Festival" are rising one after another. The need to “defend” means that this “tradition” is in danger of being lost. Reunion dinners are moved to restaurants, and New Year greetings are done via text messages. More and more people travel and surf the Internet during the Spring Festival, and are free and easy. In this regard, the elderly lament that the new year will be dull and boring, while some folklorists advocate a return to "tradition" ". But what does Spring Festival “tradition” look like? The transcribing from document to document and searching for the inner meaning turn the Spring Festival into the "internal knowledge" of experts and scholars. The question that researchers have overlooked is, what kind of practical form does the so-called Spring Festival "tradition" take among ordinary people? Are their Spring Festival practices uniform? What causes the differences in Spring Festival practices between people? Do the Spring Festival practices of even the same person change over time? What influenced these changes? How do they view these differences and changes?
2. Research methods and theories
In the second half of the 20th century, with the change of political power, changes in social values, and the influence of political movements, the changes in Spring Festival customs were particularly dramatic. However, in the grand narrative of history, the voices of discrete individuals are often drowned.
Therefore, this article intends to use oral history materials, another type of historical material that is different from documentary research, to observe the changes in Spring Festival customs from 1949 to 1989 mainly from the perspective of individuals and family practices.
1) Oral history
The research material for this article is 212 oral memory text records about Spring Festival customs. Oral memory is often called "oral history". “Since the late 1960s, oral history has been widely used in the UK and other countries because it is particularly suitable for elaborating recent social history.” [2] It is generally believed that interviews about repeated experiences are more suitable for oral history research. , such as daily life history is an important field. In China, oral history is also very flexible in application. In addition to history, it is also very popular in sociology, anthropology, folklore, literature and other disciplines, and it is still in the ascendant. However, this kind of research that uses oral history as the main material is currently dominated by event research. [3]
It goes without saying that the authenticity of oral history materials cannot be verified theoretically. This is why historians still have doubts about the use of oral history materials. “Part of the reason is that historians are unwilling to break through the principle that historical materials must be contemporary (Contemporaneity) [4], while oral materials inevitably have a certain "[5] Indeed, the interviewee's emotions, attitudes, and interests will cause the memory to be selectively tailored. This is often shaped by subsequent experiences and cannot fully represent the situation where the interview content occurred. . But it can be not actually "real" to a certain extent, but at least it is real in the mentality of observing the past from the present. How these interviewees absorb, store, and interpret the relationship between their personal experiences and history and politics is itself one of the objects of research. For example, Fang Huirong's oral history research on the social life of farmers during the land reform period shows the dislocation between the memory of the "no event" and the reshaped mentality under power relations. Oral narratives with the purpose of discovering the "truth" of reality Reflection on historical investigation. Secondly, oral history materials are often linked to personal life histories. Compared with documentary materials, their experiences are more life-like, more personalized, and their changes are more detailed. Their cognition is not easily blocked by political power. As a loose civilian narrative, It also has research value. In turn, some studies have pointed out that major events experienced in early adulthood have a particularly profound impact on an individual's mind, that is, the experience at that time will also affect the subsequent views of other experiences and the current cognitive framework.
Sweeping dust
"On the twenty-fourth day of the twelfth lunar month, dust and sweep the house." According to "Lu Spring and Autumn Annals", my country had the custom of sweeping dust during the Spring Festival in the era of Yao and Shun. According to folklore: because "dust" and "chen" are homophonic, sweeping dust in the New Year means "removing the old and spreading the new", and its purpose is to sweep away all bad luck and bad luck. This custom entrusts people with their desire to destroy the old and establish the new and their prayers to say goodbye to the old and usher in the new. Every Spring Festival comes, every household has to clean the environment, wash all kinds of utensils, remove and wash bedding and curtains, sweep the Liulv courtyard, dust away dirt and cobwebs, and dredge open ditches and ditches. Everywhere is filled with the joyful atmosphere of doing hygiene and welcoming the New Year cleanly.
New Year's money
When paying New Year's greetings during the Spring Festival, the elders should distribute the New Year's money prepared in advance to the younger ones. It is said that the New Year's money can suppress evil spirits. With the New Year's money, you can spend the first year of life peacefully. There are two types of New Year's money. One is made of colorful ropes threaded into a dragon shape and placed at the foot of the bed. This record is found in "Yanjing Years' Notes"; the other is the most common, which is given by parents wrapped in red paper. Children's money. New Year's money can be given to the younger generation in public after paying New Year's greetings, or parents can secretly put it under the child's pillow when the child is asleep on New Year's Eve.
Folks believe that New Year's money is given to children. When evil spirits, monsters or "Nian" harm the children, the children can use the money to bribe them and turn evil into good luck. Wu Manyun, a native of the Qing Dynasty, wrote in his poem "New Year's Money": "One hundred and ten pieces of money are threaded with long colorful threads. I divide them and put them on my pillow to keep. I discuss the price of firecrackers and flutes. It makes Jiaoer busy all night." From this point of view, New Year's money is tied to the innocence of children, and children's New Year's money is mainly used to buy firecrackers, toys, candies and other festival items.
Nowadays, the custom of elders distributing lucky money to younger generations is still popular. The amount of lucky gifts ranges from tens to hundreds. These lucky money are mostly used by children to buy books and school supplies. It is a new fashion. New content has been given to the lucky money.
Pasting window grilles and pasting the word "福" upside down
In the folk, people also like to put various paper-cuts - window grilles - on their windows. Window grilles not only enhance the festive atmosphere, but also integrate decoration, appreciation and practicality. Paper-cutting is a very popular folk art in my country and has been loved by people for thousands of years. Because it is mostly pasted on windows, it is also called "window flower". With its unique summary and exaggeration techniques, window grilles vividly express auspicious symbols and good wishes, decorating the festival with prosperity and splendor.
At the same time as pasting Spring Festival couplets, some families have to paste large and small "福" characters on their doors, walls, and lintels. Posting the word "福" during the Spring Festival is a long-standing folk custom in my country. The word "福" refers to blessing and luck, expressing people's yearning for a happy life and their wishes for a better future. In order to more fully reflect this yearning and wish, some people simply paste the word "福" upside down to express "happiness has arrived" and "blessing has arrived". Folks also use the word "Fu" to make various patterns in detail, such as longevity stars, longevity peaches, carps jumping over dragon gates, good harvests, dragons and phoenixes, etc.
New Year Pictures
Posting New Year pictures during the Spring Festival is also very common in urban and rural areas. The thick black and colorful New Year pictures add a lot of prosperity and joy to thousands of households. New Year pictures are an ancient folk art in my country, reflecting the people's simple customs and beliefs, and reposing their hopes for the future. New Year pictures, like Spring Festival couplets, originated from the "door god". With the rise of woodblock printing, the content of New Year paintings is no longer limited to monotonous themes such as door gods, but has become rich and colorful. In some New Year painting workshops, "Three Stars of Fortune, Luxury and Longevity", "Blessings from Heavenly Officials", "Five Grain" Classic color New Year pictures such as "Prosperous Harvest", "Prosperity of Six Livestocks", and "Welcoming Spring and Bringing Good Luck" can satisfy people's good wishes of celebrating the good year. There are three important producing areas of New Year paintings in our country: Taohuawu in Suzhou, Yangliuqing in Tianjin and Weifang in Shandong. They have formed three major schools of Chinese New Year paintings, each with its own characteristics.
The earliest New Year paintings collected in our country today are the woodcut New Year paintings of the Southern Song Dynasty, "Slender and Slender with the Beauty of the Country", which depict four ancient beauties: Wang Zhaojun, Zhao Feiyan, Ban Ji and Luzhu. The most widely circulated among the people is a New Year painting of "Mouse Marriage". It depicts an interesting scene of a mouse marrying a bride according to human customs. In the early years of the Republic of China, Shanghai Zheng Mantuo combined the calendar with New Year pictures. This is a new form of New Year pictures. This two-in-one New Year picture later developed into a wall calendar, which is now popular all over the country.
Keeping the year old
Keeping the year old on New Year’s Eve is one of the most important annual customs. The custom of keeping the year old has been around for a long time. The earliest record can be found in the "Fengtu Zhi" of Zhouchu in the Western Jin Dynasty: On New Year's Eve, each person greets each other with gifts, which is called "giving the new year"; "Dividing the year old"; everyone stays up all night waiting for the dawn, which is called "keeping the year old".
“One night is two years old, and the fifth watch is divided into two days.” On New Year’s Eve, the whole family gets together, has New Year’s Eve dinner, lights candles or oil lamps, sits around the fire and chats, waiting to bid farewell to the old year and welcome the new year. At this time, the all-night vigil symbolizes driving away all evil plagues and looking forward to auspiciousness in the new year. This custom gradually became popular. In the early Tang Dynasty, Li Shimin, Emperor Taizong of the Tang Dynasty, wrote a poem about "keeping the year old": "The cold leaves the winter snow, and the warmth brings the spring breeze." To this day, people are still used to staying up late on New Year's Eve to welcome the new year.
In ancient times, staying up late had two meanings: older people staying up late meant "saying goodbye to the old year", which meant cherishing time; young people staying up late meant to prolong the life of their parents. Since the Han Dynasty, the transition time between the new and the old year has generally been at midnight.
Firecrackers
There is a saying among Chinese people that "firecrackers open the door". That is to say, when the New Year arrives, the first thing every household does when they open the door is to set off firecrackers to ward off the old and welcome the new with the beeping sound of firecrackers. Firecrackers are a specialty of China, also known as "firecrackers", "firecrackers" and "firecrackers". It originated very early and has a history of more than 2,000 years.
Setting off firecrackers can create a festive and lively atmosphere. It is a festive entertainment activity that can bring people joy and good luck. With the passage of time, the application of firecrackers has become more and more widespread, and the varieties and colors have become more and more numerous. During major festivals and happy events, as well as weddings, house construction, openings, etc., firecrackers must be set off to celebrate and for good luck. Now, Liuyang in Hunan, Foshan and Dongyao in Guangdong, Yichun and Pingxiang in Jiangxi, and Wenzhou in Zhejiang are famous hometowns of fireworks in my country. The firecrackers they produce are of various colors and high quality, and are not only sold well across the country, but also exported to the world.
New Year greetings
On the first day of the New Year, people get up early, put on their most beautiful clothes, dress up neatly, and go out to visit relatives and friends, pay New Year greetings to each other, and wish each other New Year’s greetings. Good luck in the coming year. There are many ways to pay New Year's greetings. Some are led by the clan leader and several people go from house to house to pay New Year's greetings; some are colleagues inviting a few people to pay New Year's greetings; and others get together to congratulate each other, which is called "group worship." Since it was time-consuming and laborious to pay New Year greetings at home, some upper-class figures and scholar-bureaucrats later used various stickers to congratulate each other, and the later "New Year's greeting cards" developed from this.
When paying New Year greetings during the Spring Festival, the younger generation should first pay New Year greetings to the elders, wishing the elders longevity and health. The elders can distribute the New Year's money prepared in advance to the younger generation. It is said that the New Year's money can suppress evil spirits, because "year" and "evil" "Homophonous" means that if the younger generation gets the lucky money, they can spend one year in peace. There are two types of New Year's money. One is made of colorful ropes threaded into a dragon shape and placed at the foot of the bed. This record is found in "Yanjing Years' Notes"; the other is the most common, which is given by parents wrapped in red paper. Children's money. New Year's money can be given to the younger generation in public after paying New Year's greetings, or parents can secretly put it under the child's pillow when the child is asleep on New Year's Eve. Nowadays, the custom of elders distributing lucky money to younger generations is still popular.
An important activity during the Spring Festival is to go to new friends’ homes and neighbors to wish them a happy New Year, formerly known as New Year greetings. The custom of paying New Year greetings among the Han people has been around since the Han Dynasty. It became very popular after the Tang and Song Dynasties. Some people who did not need to go there in person could send congratulations with name cards. In the Eastern Han Dynasty, it was called "thorn", so the business card was also called "name thorn". After the Ming Dynasty, many families put a red paper bag on their door to collect name cards, called a "door book".
The forms of mutual New Year visits between people can be roughly divided into four categories according to their social relationships:
The first is visiting relatives. On the first day of the new year, you must visit your father-in-law and bring gifts. After entering the door, first kowtow three times to the Buddha statue, the image of the ancestors, and the tablets, and then kneel down to the elders in turn. You can stay to eat and play.
The second is a courtesy visit. If you are wishing New Year greetings to colleagues or friends, as soon as you enter the house, you should only kowtow three times to the Buddha statue. If you are the same generation as the host, you only need to bow your hands and bow. If you are older than you, you should still take the initiative to kneel down and the host should get down from the seat and make a gesture of support. Even saying "no courtesy" shows humility. In this situation, it is generally not advisable to sit for a long time, and you should say goodbye after saying a few polite words. After the host has been worshiped, he should choose a day to return to worship.
The third is a grateful visit. Anyone who has been in debt to others over the past year (such as lawyers, doctors, etc.) should buy some gifts and send them to them as a way to express their gratitude during the New Year.
The fourth is door-to-door visits. We don't have much contact with our neighbors on weekdays, but we can always talk to each other when we meet. When New Year's Eve comes, we just go to the courtyard, hug each other's fists and say: "Congratulations on getting rich," "Everything goes well, everything goes well." Just sit there for a while, not much etiquette.
In ancient times, there were differences between New Year greetings and New Year greetings: New Year greetings were to kowtow to the elders; New Year greetings were to congratulate each other. Now, in some agencies, organizations, companies, and schools, everyone gathers together to congratulate each other, which is called "group worship."
New Year greetings are a traditional custom among Chinese people. It is a way for people to say goodbye to the old year and welcome the new year, and to express their best wishes to each other. In ancient times, the original meaning of the word "bainian" was to congratulate the elders on the New Year, including kowtowing to the elders, giving wishes, wishing them a happy new year, and greeting them with well-being. When you meet relatives and friends of the same generation, you should also give congratulations.
In ancient times, if there were too many relatives and friends in the neighborhood and it was difficult to visit them all, servants would be sent to bring business cards to pay New Year greetings. This was called a "flying post". A red paper bag was posted in front of each house with the words " The two words "receive blessings" are used to inherit flying posts. This custom began in the upper class society of the Song Dynasty. The Qing Dynasty's "Yantai Moon Order" describes the Beijing New Year: "It's the moon, the movies are flying, and the empty carriages are driving away." It became fashionable.
Rich families have a special "door book" to record the comings and goings of guests. There are four virtual "visitors" on the front page of the door book: one is an old man who lives a hundred years, and lives in Baisui Fang Lane; the other is a rich man named Yu. , lives in Yuanbao Street; one is called Mr. Gui Wuji, who lives in the Grand Scholar Archway; the other is Mr. Fu Zhaolin, who lives in the Wufu Building. In order to seek good fortune and seek luck. To this day, giving out New Year's cards and greeting cards during the Spring Festival is a legacy of the ancient tradition of sending flying messages to each other.
It is a custom for upper-class scholar-bureaucrats to congratulate each other with name cards. Zhou Hui, a native of the Song Dynasty, said in "Qingbo Magazine": "During the Yuanyou years of the Song Dynasty, servants were often used to carry famous thorns to celebrate the New Year." At that time, the scholar-bureaucrats had many contacts, and it would take time and energy to visit people from all over the world to pay New Year greetings. Therefore, some friends who were not close to each other did not go there in person. Instead, they sent servants to bring them a two-inch wide, three-inch paper cut from plum blossom paper. An inch-long card with the name, address and congratulatory words of the congratulatory person written on it is sent to express New Year greetings on your behalf. In the Ming Dynasty, people paid homage instead of paying New Year greetings. Wen Zhengming, an outstanding painter and poet of the Ming Dynasty, described it in his poem "New Year's Greetings": "I don't ask for a meeting, but for a visit. Famous papers come from the dynasty and fill the house. I also throw in a few papers with others. The world hates them for being simple but not too empty." The "Ming Ci" and "Ming Ye" mentioned here are the origins of today's New Year's cards. New Year's cards are used to connect feelings and exchange greetings. They are convenient and practical and are still popular today.
Since about the Qing Dynasty, New Year greetings have added the form of "group worship". Qing Dynasty native Yi Lanzhu said in "Side Hat Yu Tan": "At the beginning of the year, the capital routinely performs group worship to unite the New Year. "Friendship, to strengthen the nostalgia", "Every year, guests are booked by the New Year's Book Red Book, and there are meals and banquets to enjoy the day."
With the development of the times, the custom of New Year greetings has constantly added new content and forms. Nowadays, in addition to following the previous methods of New Year greetings, people have also developed ceremonial New Year greetings via telegrams and telephone calls.
However, from the first to the fifth day of the first lunar month, most families do not accept women, which is called "taboo". Only men can go out to visit the New Year, while women must wait until after the sixth day of the first lunar month to visit. The New Year greeting activities will be extended for a long time, until around the Lantern Festival on the 15th day of the first lunar month. Visiting people to pay New Year greetings in the evening is called "Ye Bao Festival", and after the tenth day of the Lunar New Year, it is called "Lantern Festival", so there is a joke that "it is not too late to eat cold food if you are willing to pay New Year greetings".
If for some reason you fail to follow the rituals and make up for it later, it is called "paying homage to your old age" 0