How did the ancients take vacations: life in the Song Dynasty was very happy, and holidays in the Qing Dynasty were very painful.

Have a five-day holiday [in Han Dynasty]

Generally speaking, the vacation system in ancient China is divided into two lines: one is legal holidays, and the other is routine holidays in daily life. Different dynasties have different regulations on these two festivals.

Due to the lack of documentary records, it is difficult to verify the official routine holidays in the pre-Qin period. However, there were some public holidays at that time, and in many folk festivals and customs, such as Shangsi, Chongyang and La Ri, public sacrifices and entertainment activities were often held. This is also followed by future generations, who often have holidays on the winter solstice and the first day of the first month.

In the Han Dynasty, the official vacation system was formally established. The Chinese Law stipulates that "officials should take a bath for five days and can take a break to take a bath". At that time, officials lived in the official residence for five working days, and on the sixth day they could go home to visit their parents, wives and children and take a bath and rest.

The five-day rest time looks very similar to today's, but in order to ensure the normal operation of official business, the "rest time" in the Han Dynasty took turns to rest, that is, there was no fixed "Saturday" rest, and the rest time was staggered according to the situation of officials. At the same time, the Han dynasty also formed an indefinite holiday granted by the emperor to "tell Ning" (that is, because of illness or parents' death) and "give notice" (that is, because of illness).

[Tang Dynasty] Every festival must be closed.

In the Tang Dynasty, there were three major adjustments to official holidays:

First, special holidays began to increase. On the original basis, the Lantern Festival, Mid-Autumn Festival and Cold Food Festival in China are all on holiday. The birthdays and anniversaries of emperors and queens also have holidays. "Tang Yao Hui" said: "On August 5, the seventeenth year of Kaiyuan, Yuan, the prime minister of the left, and Yuan, the prime minister of the right, went to the table. Therefore, please take this day as the Millennium Festival, write it, publish it in the world, and make it a festival." The so-called "day" in this article is the birthday of Li Longji, Xuanzong. As soon as this wind opened, the later Tang emperors followed suit.

In addition to the original sick leave, personal leave and family leave, the Tang Dynasty also added "travel leave" and "marriage leave". In vernacular Chinese, it means: The weather is fine, I want to go out for a holiday! Get married by yourself, get married by friends, go to parties and have a holiday!

Happiness comes at a price. The routine holiday in the Tang Dynasty was changed from five days in the Han Dynasty to ten days, and officials took a day off every ten days.

[Song] One-year holiday 1 12 days

The Song Dynasty generally inherited the system of the Tang Dynasty, but it was also renovated, so that it is probably the happiest dynasty now: the holiday time in a year is more than one-third of the whole year.

Various festivals and their corresponding holiday days are as troublesome as mahjong variety tables: the traditional first day of the first month, cold food, a "golden week" on the solstice, Tianqing and Shangyuan Festival in winter, a three-day "small holiday" on the solstice, congenital, Central Plains, Xia Yuan and Sanzang Festival in summer, and another day on beginning of spring, Changxia, Qixi, Dragon Boat Festival and Mid-Autumn Festival.

At that time, there was a festival to avoid the anniversary of the death of Queen Zhou. 15 was a big taboo and 4 was a small taboo. Now it seems that life in the Song Dynasty was really happy.

[Yuan Dynasty] The "Golden Week" was shortened to two days.

In the Yuan Dynasty, the original "ten-day holiday" system was retained, but all kinds of public holidays were greatly reduced, and the original "Golden Week" was reduced to two days or only one day. Calculated, there are only 52 days of public holidays and early holidays throughout the year.

The ruler's harshness on holidays was finally "made" on himself. Mongolian officials who got off their horses and were free by nature could not adapt to a ten-day holiday, but urged Yuan Shizu to finally extend the three-day holiday to five days a month, with holidays on the first, eighth, fifteenth, 23rd and first day of each month. The fly in the ointment is that killing is not allowed during the holidays these days, and "carnivorous" eating is greatly restricted.

[Ming dynasty] 18 days public holiday.

Seeing off the Mongolian dynasty, I never expected that there would be fewer holidays in the Ming Dynasty. In the Ming Dynasty, most traditional festivals were cancelled, except New Year's Day, winter solstice and Lantern Festival, which lasted for ten days, New Year's Day for five days and winter solstice for three days. Although public holidays are as long as 18 days, it can be found that these holidays are mostly concentrated in winter, and the pattern of holidays in spring, summer, autumn and winter has been completely broken.

What makes officials want to cry even more is that the routine holiday has been changed from five days in Han Dynasty and ten days in Tang Dynasty to one day in January. The ancient books describe the daily work of officials in the Ming Dynasty as follows: "Every day, they invade the morning and draw on the table, but they walk at dusk", "Dai Xing goes out and Dai Xing enters".

[Qing Dynasty] Holidays make people sad.

In the Qing dynasty, it inherited the system of the Ming dynasty and made some adjustments, but it made officials more worried. Considering the concentration of New Year's Day, winter solstice and Lantern Festival in the Ming Dynasty, the Qing people simply put these three festivals together, and 1 February 19 to 22 at the end of each year to1month 19 to 22 in the New Year, which is called "Feng". As for when to start a holiday and when to start work between 19 and 22, every year is different. Qin Dou will be considered as an auspicious day and no other holidays will be set.