Were there legal holidays in ancient times? How did the ancients take vacations?

Last night, the relevant departments released the holiday arrangements for 2023. After the holiday was arranged, the word "vacation" was immediately pushed to the top of the hot search list. It seems that there are still many domestic dissatisfaction with standard holidays. In fact, in ancient China, there were no holidays. So, how did the ancients take vacations? It is reported that there will be 7 days of "Golden Week" in the Spring Festival of the Tang Dynasty!

How did the ancients take vacations?

Ancient festivals

The Spring Festival in the Han Dynasty can be fixed for three consecutive days, and the Han Dynasty did not encourage officials to work overtime on holidays. If they work overtime voluntarily, they will be "dismissed" by their superiors. In the Tang Dynasty, officials could enjoy the 7-day Spring Festival "Golden Week". The Golden Week system was continued in the Song Dynasty. Moreover, the vacation system has been extended to all working people except officials, even including working prisoners. During the Ming and Qing Dynasties, officials' Spring Festival holiday began on the twentieth day of the twelfth lunar month and did not officially go to work until the twentieth day of the first month. It was simply a "golden month". Other trades and professions can also rest together and celebrate the New Year together.

Were there legal holidays in ancient times?

The development of ancient festivals is as follows:

There were "weekends" and legal holidays in the Han Dynasty.

Whether there was a clear vacation system before and after the Qin Dynasty is impossible to verify. At that time, officials' leave was called "reporting" or "returning to the team". When Liu Bang was a curator in the Qin Dynasty, as the most basic civil servant, he often had to take time off to go home and farm. For example, in Historical Records, when Gao Zu was the curator, he often went home to farm. Lu Yun in the Jin Dynasty said in Inviting the King of Wu to Read: "Confucius plays on holidays, but as for the three wonders of frontier Wei." The "play" here should be interpreted as repeated experience, which means that Confucius has been studying the Book of Changes repeatedly during his holidays, indicating that there are holidays in the Spring and Autumn Period.

In the Han Dynasty, the imperial court formulated a relatively complete vacation system. At that time, it was stipulated that officials could take a day off every five days of work, which was called rest. For example, "Beginners" records that "vacation is also called rest." "Han Law": Officials have to take a bath for five days, saying that they should rest and take a bath. At that time, officials had to live in government offices at night, which was equivalent to a 24-hour working day. Therefore, after working for five days, they have to go home, take a bath and have a rest. Of course, we usually use this time to visit relatives and friends, entertain guests and so on. Judging from the official holidays recorded in unearthed Han bamboo slips, officials in some places actually have to take two days off every five days of work, which may be because the work place is too far away from home to go back and forth in one day, so they have added one day of travel leave. In this way, it will be the same as the weekend now. Hugh Mu is also very flexible, not limited to fixed dates, and can be adjusted according to personal circumstances.

Of course, there were also hardworking people who stayed in the yamen to work overtime on "Hume" day without rest. If there is an official named Zhang Anshi, it is said in Hanshu that he "gave good books to ministers and did his duty faithfully, so he never published them." Voluntary overtime can be described as conscientious.

There are also seasonal festivals in the Han Dynasty, including the twelfth day, the fourth day, the solstice in winter and the solstice in summer. On these festivals, the imperial court will hold sacrifices, and ordinary officials can go home for a holiday and rest. There is also overtime on holidays. For example, "Hanshu" records: "The thieves Cao Yu and Zhang Fu refused to rest and sat in charge." Yan Shigu said in his comments on this: "On the day of the winter and summer solstice, the official does not exist, so it is closed."

In addition to statutory holidays, you can also take time off when there are special circumstances at home. In the Han dynasty, taking personal leave was called reporting leave or returning leave, just like in the Qin dynasty. Due to the importance of filial piety in the Han Dynasty and the death of parents, officials have to go home for three years at most. If an official is ill, he can ask for three months' sick leave, and after the extension, he will usually be relieved of his post. However, senior officials who are favored by the emperor can extend their sick leave, which is called giving notice. For officials who have performed well in their work, the emperor will also give them a special paid holiday, which is called a notice. "Han Shu" records that "Fu San is the most knowledgeable and orderly." It means that you can get the first place in three consecutive exams and you can reward a notice.

Long holidays began to appear in the Wei and Jin Dynasties, and one day after work began in the Tang Dynasty.

The ancients had a holiday.

During the Wei, Jin, Southern and Northern Dynasties, the long vacation system began to appear. According to the story of giving gifts to the public in the whole Jin Dynasty, during the busy farming season in May, you can take a field holiday, and in September, you can prepare cold clothes and take a holiday, each 15 days. There are also four private holidays every year, four days at a time, to go home to sacrifice. Give me 9 days' wedding leave, 1 to 5 days' relatives' wedding leave and 60 days' grave-sweeping leave. In addition, the Tianjin Order also stipulates that the annual personal leave is 60 to 95 days. In this way, there were quite a few holidays at that time!

In the Tang dynasty, the duty system was implemented by turns, and officials did not have to live in the official office every working day, so the rest time was greatly reduced. Holidays in the Tang Dynasty were changed to rest every ten days and fixed on the tenth, twentieth and last day of each month, which is called ten-day rest. For example, in the famous preface to Wang Teng-ting, there is a saying, "Ten days' holiday makes friends like clouds". There are just three breaks at the end of March every month, which are called Sheung Wan, Central and Xiahuan. Huan also means washing, which means that a ten-day rest is equivalent to the original rest.

From this point of view, people in the Tang Dynasty usually had a lot less "rest days", but fortunately, other holidays increased, which is also a kind of compensation for hard-working people. In the Tang Dynasty, festivals such as Yuanri, Winter solstice, Shangyuan (Lantern Festival), Cold Food Festival, Qixi Festival, Mid-Autumn Festival, Double Ninth Festival, Zhonghe Festival (the first day of February), Shangsi Festival (the third day of March), Spring Equinox, Long Xia Lidong, and Spring and Autumn Society all have holidays, which usually last for one to three days, and some last for seven days.

In addition, the emperor of the Tang Dynasty honored Laozi as his ancestor, and designated February 15, Laozi's birthday, as the day of consecration, and asked for a day off. Since Emperor Xuanzong of the Tang Dynasty, emperors' birthdays have had one or three days off, as well as the anniversary of the death of the old emperor or queen. Students in government schools have reserved field leave and clothing leave, similar to the current winter and summer vacations. Officials can also take two days (later increased to three days) of personal leave every month, and give certain family leave every three to five years according to the distance from their hometown. The system of marriage leave and funeral leave is also retained.

Sometimes, due to some special circumstances, the emperor temporarily canceled the court meeting, which also made the minister get a vacation in disguise. These special circumstances include special astronomical phenomena such as solar eclipse, special weather such as heavy rain and snow, and the death of royal family members or important officials. In the Tang Dynasty, the system of taking leave and canceling leave was also formulated. After the holiday expires, it is called "participating in the holiday" to ask to cancel the holiday at the yamen. If you don't terminate your leave on time, you will be deducted one month's salary.

There were the most festivals in Song Dynasty and the least in Ming Dynasty.

Ancient festivals

The ten-day holiday system in the Tang Dynasty was still preserved in the Song Dynasty. Although it was temporarily cancelled due to war tension and other reasons, it was resumed later and remained stable on the whole.

However, the names of various festivals in the Song Dynasty are the most, which is the highest in history, including: New Year's Day (equivalent to the current Spring Festival), Cold Food Festival, and the winter solstice with seven days off each; Tianqing Festival (the third day of the first month), Congenital Festival (the first day of July) and Sanctification Festival (1On October 24th, Sanctification Festival was changed to birthday because Zhao Weizu, the God of Wealth in Song Dynasty); Christmas (the emperor's birthday), Shang Yuan, Zhong Yuan, Summer solstice and La Ri have three holidays each. Tianqi (also called Naive Festival, the first day of April), Lantern Festival (the sixth day of June), People's Day (the seventh day of the first month), Zhonghe, Ershe, Shangsi, Dragon Boat Festival, Sanfu, Tanabata, Shouyi (the first day of October), Jiujiu, beginning of spring, Changxia, beginning of autumn and beginning of winter. Many emperors in Song Dynasty believed in Taoism, and those unfamiliar festivals were related to Taoist festivals in Dachuan, not to mention some festivals invented by Song Huizong and later abolished. From this perspective, living in the Song Dynasty was really leisurely.

During these various holidays, some holiday officials do not have to go to court, but they still have to work normally. This is called asking for leave from the court. Like the Tang dynasty, you can have a holiday when you meet the anniversary of the death of the old emperor and queen and the day before, or when the weather is bad and it rains heavily and you don't go to court. Other wedding leave, funeral leave, family leave, private leave (parents' death day) and so on are also reserved. In the Song Dynasty, an official taking sick leave was called "seeking medical treatment", which required two officials at the same level as a guarantee, and he could take sick leave at most 100 days at a time. Those who have not recovered for more than 100 days need to apply for leave again. In short, the Song Dynasty was the dynasty with the richest kinds of holidays, so that Luo Yuan, the minister of the Southern Song Dynasty, expressed his concern about too many holidays in his memorial speech: "In January, those who have more leisure stay half, and those who have less leisure stay for more than ten days."

In the Ming dynasty, holidays were much less. First of all, the three-day and ten-day holiday every month has been cancelled, which means that officials have no rest day every day. Similarly, there are fewer holidays. According to Ming Hui Dian, "legal holidays" mainly include five days' holiday in Zheng Dan (the first day of the first month), three days' holiday from winter to Sunday and ten days' holiday in the Lantern Festival. Not only were there few holidays in Ming Dynasty, but they were all concentrated in winter. At this time, people can't do much outdoor activities, so they just rest at home. At other times, it is basically working around the clock, which really tests people's energy. Of course, there are special circumstances. For example, Jishi Shu in imperial academy can enjoy a five-day break, and students in imperial academy will also have a holiday on the first and fifteenth day of each month. However, "top student" is a minority after all. The Ming dynasty can also take personal leave or sick leave, but in general, there are still too few holidays in the Ming dynasty.

The Qing dynasty basically retained the holiday method of the Ming dynasty, and there was still no ten-day holiday. Only New Year's Day is seven days, Lantern Festival is three days, and winter solstice, Dragon Boat Festival, Mid-Autumn Festival and Double Ninth Festival are one day each. Later, the court adopted the method of "centralized holiday", which integrated the winter solstice, New Year's Day and Lantern Festival for one month. Therefore, it has more vacation time at its disposal. Qin is responsible for the specific time of the festival, and chooses an auspicious day between December 19th and 22nd. At that time, the official seal will be sealed, which means that the office will be closed and the seal will not be opened until one month later. The seal entry in Yanjing Chronology records: "Every December, within 19, 20, 2 1 224, Qin chooses an auspicious day, which is sealed as usual, announced to the world and observed as a whole." Timely holidays are also spiritual encouragement.

After the "closure", the students of the museum also have a holiday, which is called "primary school", which is basically equivalent to the current winter vacation.