Solstice after winter? Cold elimination festival?

The ancients believed that the solstice in winter was an important festival. On this day, the emperor will personally hold a suburban sacrifice, and hundreds of officials will pay tribute to the court. There is a folk custom of offering sacrifices to ancestors and gods, so there is a saying that the solstice in winter is as big as a year. Moreover, after the winter solstice, there will be a "meeting to drive away the cold".

According to China's ancient theory of Yin-Yang and Five Elements, the winter solstice is the key solar term of Yin-Yang transformation. When the winter solstice arrives at nine o'clock, the spring breeze warms up and the chill disappears completely, so there is a saying that "the cold disappears at nine o'clock". In order to spend the long winter, the ancients came up with various forms of entertainment in the ninth year to cool down and keep out the cold. For example, after the solstice winter, some literati invited friends and relatives, and everyone took turns spending money, drinking and having fun to kill the winter. This kind of banquet is called a "cold banquet".

The meeting to dispel cold began in the late Tang Dynasty, also known as the "Warm Winter Meeting", and it is also recorded in ancient books. According to the book "Kaiyuan Tianbao Sweeping Snow to Welcome Guests" written by Wang Renyu in the Five Dynasties, there was a monopoly in Chang 'an in the Tang Dynasty. Whenever it is snowy and freezing, he will ask his servant to sweep a path in the snow at his intersection, stand in front of the intersection, salute the guests and prepare dishes to make the guests enjoy themselves. This is the so-called "warm and cold meeting".

In addition, there is a "Nine-Nine Cold Relieving Map", which is divided into three types: plum blossom cold relieving map, circle cold relieving map and text cold relieving map. In order to calculate these days, the ancients came up with a way to draw the sun, and recorded it in the form of drawing plums, circles or grids, also referred to as the "99 map".

"99 Cold Relief Map" is mostly 8 1 plum blossom, or 8 1 small circle with nine clusters. From the solstice of winter, draw a petal or a small circle every day and mark it with rain and snow. On the 8th1day, winter is over. The Chronicle of Yanjing records: "The diagram of eliminating cold is nine squares and eighty-one circles." Since the solstice of winter, I have been drawing a circle every day, with cloudy days and sunny days, left winds and right rains, in the snow. "

"A Brief View of the Imperial Capital" also recorded an interesting "Jiujiu Song": "In 1929, I couldn't make a phone call; 3927, the fence head blows; 4936, sleeping at night is like sleeping outside; In 5945, every family piled salt tigers; 6954, oral temperature; 7963, pedestrian clothes list; In 8972, cats and dogs sought shade; " 1998, the poor man was tortured and had to stretch his feet to sleep, and mosquitoes and fleas came out. "

In addition, the ancients also painted a "Nine-Nine Table for Eliminating Cold", with nine lines and eighty-one grids. From the solstice of winter, draw a square every day. The square is full of cold and disappears. According to legend, Liu Bowen, a hero of the Ming Dynasty, handed down a formula: "It's sunny in the middle, the left wind and the right rain are clear, and the 98 points are exhausted, and the spring is back to the ground."

There is also a kind of "99 Spring Festival couplets" which is deeply loved by scholars. There are nine words in the upper and lower couplets, and each word is nine pictures, all of which are hollow double hooks. Starting from the solstice of winter, fill in one couplet for each of the upper and lower couplets every day, and the whole couplet will be completed. The severe winter has gone and spring is warm in bloom. For example, "Spring springs droop in spring, Liu Quan dyes the beauty of spring, and autumn persimmons hang in the autumn courtyard to send autumn fragrance", "The hedge trees in the old city wither in autumn, and the grass in the lane hangs in the courtyard in spring".