The Origin and Customs of Qingming Festival

Briefly summarized) The traditional Qingming Festival in China began around the Zhou Dynasty and has a history of more than 2,500 years. In ancient times, it was not as important as the Cold Food Festival, which was held the day before. Because of the proximity of the dates of Qingming and the Cold Food Festival, the folk gradually merged the customs of the two, and during the Sui and Tang dynasties (581-907), the Qingming Festival and the Cold Food Festival gradually merged into the same festival, which became a day for sweeping the tombs and paying tribute to the ancestors, i.e., today's Qingming Festival. As a result, the Qingming Festival has become a fixed custom of the Chinese nation.

2. (Detailed description)

China's traditional Qingming Festival began in the Zhou Dynasty, with a history of more than 2,500 years. Because of the proximity of the days of Qingming and Cold Food, which is a day for folk to ban fire and sweep tombs, gradually, Cold Food and Qingming were merged into one, and Cold Food became both an alias of Qingming and a custom of the Qingming Festival, in which no fireworks are moved on the day of Qingming, and only cold food is eaten. The origin of Qingming, the only one of the twenty-four solar terms to become a festival, is related to the story of Mianshan Jiezitui.

In the state of Jin during the Spring and Autumn Period, several sons of Duke Xian of Jin fought fiercely for the throne. Chong Er, the second son of Duke Xian of Jin, went into exile for nineteen years to avoid killing each other. Jie Zi Pui, a vassal of Jin, admired Chong Er's character and sacrificed his life to follow him, and in the most critical moment of Chong Er's life, he had cut off his shares to serve the king. Together, they often discussed ways to save the country, and had a good relationship with each other. Chong Er once said that if he could be the king of the state in the future, he would definitely repay the favor of Duke Jie. Later, with the help of Qin, Chong Er finally fought his way back to Jin and became the king of Jin as Duke Wen of Jin. After the restoration of the state of Jin, Duke Wen gave a banquet to his ministers and rewarded them for their achievements, but he did not give Jie Zi Tui, who had always given his advice, any official position or reward. Jie Zi Tui disdained to be with the villains who flattered Duke Wen all the time, and was even more disappointed that Duke Wen had not practiced clear politics after his restoration. So he took his mother to Mianshan Mountain and lived in seclusion.

Some people began to talk, saying that the Duke of Jin was ungrateful and didn't use the wise ministers. The Duke of Jin slowly heard the talk, and he seemed to feel that he had done something wrong, so he hurriedly called for Jie Zi Tui to invite him, only to find out that Jie Zi Tui had already gone to Mianshan Mountain to live in seclusion. In order to show his ministers that he was not an ungrateful ruler and to calm down people's discussion, Duke Wen of Jin was eager to find Jie Zi push. He led his ministers to Mianshan Mountain to look for Jie Zi push. Mianshan mountain streams and ravines, crags and jagged, rugged road, coupled with jie Zi push intention to hide, how can not find jie Zi push. The Duke of Jin was anxious, but there was nothing he could do.

Jin Wendong's men also have their own thoughts, some hope that Jie Zi Tui will come back to assist Jin Wendong to rule the world, but some are afraid that Jie Zi Tui will come back to take away his own favor. One of his men told Duke Wen that Jie Zi Tui was a filial son, and that if you set fire to Mian Shan, Jie Zi Tui would come out to see you for fear of hurting his mother. Jin Wendong, who was in a state of confusion, saw that Jie Zi Tui's heart was so eager that he adopted this idea in a confused manner and ordered people to set fire to Mianshan Mountain. It was mid-spring, windy and dry, smoke and fire engulfed the entire Mianshan. The fire burned for a few days, but did not see the shadow of the mediator. Only after the fire was extinguished did people realize that Jie Zi Tui would rather die than go out of the mountain, and his mother had been burned to death under a big willow tree on the top of the mountain. Duke Wen of Jin remembered Kai Zi Tui's loyalty to himself and the words from the bottom of his heart, holding the burnt willow tree could not help but bawl. He had the mother and son buried in the mountains, and changed the name of Mianshan Mountain to Jieshan, "to record my faults, and the good people". At the same time, he ordered that on the anniversary of the death of Jie Zi push, i.e., 105 days after the winter solstice, the whole country prohibited fireworks, and only allowed to eat cold food, which was called the Cold Food Festival, in order to commemorate the death of Jie Zi push

The day after the Cold Food Festival of the second year, the Duke of Jin Wendong went to Mianshan Mountain Jie Zi push was martyred in the willow tree, and found that the big burnt willow tree had already given birth to a new willow branch. Recalling the hope of Jie Zi Tui that he would implement clear politics after restoration of the state, he was overwhelmed with emotion and ordered to seal this willow tree as "Qingming Willow" and set this day as "Qingming Festival". Since then, Duke Wen of Jin clean government, development of production, the state of Jin is finally strong, became one of the "five hegemony in the Spring and Autumn Period", with the increase in national influence, the cold food festival, Qingming Festival custom popular in the north and south of the Yangtze River, Tang Dynasty poet Lu Xiang poems: "the four seas with the cold food, a thousand years for a person! ".

In fact, the cold food custom originated from the ancient system of drilling wood for fuel fire. Qingming as a festival, as far back as the Zhou Dynasty has also been determined. The Cold Food Festival and Qingming Festival were merely reinforced by rulers in the form of state orders and passed down. Thereafter, with the migration of time, the customs of the Cold Food Festival were gradually integrated into the Qingming Festival. The Qingming Festival has become the only one of the twenty-four festivals with a humanistic history, and it has become a custom for people to remember the dead and pay homage to their ancestors on the occasion of the Qingming Festival.

Customs of the Qingming Festival

Sweeping tombs and paying homage to ancestors

In Chinese history, it has long been customary to forbid fires during the cold food festival to pay homage to ancestors. After the Tang Dynasty, the Cold Food Festival gradually declined, and tomb-sweeping and ancestor-worshiping on the Qingming Festival became an ongoing customary tradition thereafter. Bai Juyi, a great poet of the Tang Dynasty, wrote in his poem "Cold Food Day": "The crows and magpies are noisy and faint the trees, who is crying during the cold food of Qingming Festival? The wind blows the paper money flying in the wilderness, and the ancient graves are full of green spring grass. The flowers of the pear tree are reflected in the white poplar tree, all of which are the places of separation between life and death. I can't hear the weeping at the heavy spring in the darkness, and people go back to their homes in the evening rain." Gao Juqing, a poet of the Song Dynasty, also wrote in a poem, "There are many graves on the hills in the north and south, and the Qingming Festival is full of different ceremonies. Paper ashes fly as white butterflies, and tears stain red azaleas. Foxes sleep on the mound at sunset, and one drop never reaches the Nine Springs!" In today's society, people still have the custom of visiting the graves around the Ching Ming Festival to pay homage to their ancestors: shoveling out weeds, placing offerings, offering incense and prayers in front of the graves, burning paper money and gold ingots, or simply offering a bouquet of flowers, in order to express their nostalgia for their ancestors.

Treading willow

Ching Ming time, when spring returns to the earth, people are in the interest of taking advantage of the convenience of sweeping the graves of young and old in the mountains and countryside between the wild play some, go home when the hand folded a few branches of leaf buds blossomed willow branches to wear on the head, happy and happy. There are also people deliberately during the Qingming Festival to the nature to appreciate and appreciate the vibrant spring scenery, hiking in the countryside, a Lyric in the harsh winter since the depression of the chest, this kind of trekking is also known as the spring tour, the ancient called the spring, looking for spring. Qingming Festival and willow planting custom, said to commemorate the invention of a variety of agricultural production tools and had "tasted a hundred herbs" Shennong's; another said to be the willows held in the death of meso pushes later resurrected, Jin Wendong gave the name of the Qingming Willow, and folded the willow into a circle to wear on the head, this custom has been passed into the folk. Although there are different allusions to the origin, but these customs still do not leave people on the spring back to the joy of the earth.

Ching Ming Festival

Ching Ming Festival, in addition to the above customs of sweeping the graves and ancestors, trekking in the green willow, there are a large number of purely recreational customs, for thousands of years, doubly popular, such as the continuation of the pulling of hooks, kite flying and swinging, etc., and there was also once popular for a while, but no longer seen today, the shooting of willows and Cuju (pronounced: promote the Valley).

Drawing hooks

Drawing hooks is an ancient name for the modern sport of tug-of-war. It is said that during the Spring and Autumn Period, the state of Chu used the sport of drafting hook to strengthen the people's physique in order to attack the state of Wu. It is mainly a hemp rope, the two ends are divided into many small rope, the game, to a large flag as a boundary, a command, both sides of the force of the rope, drums and music, both sides of the cheering and shouting, lively very much.

Flying kites

Flying kites is one of the favorite activities of the Qingming Festival. Ancient people believed that if someone was sick, they could write or draw their illness on a kite, tie the kite with a string and fly it in the air, let it fly to a high altitude and pull the string to cut it, and the illness and disaster would fly away with the kite. Later, the kite also gradually developed into a popular recreational activities.

Swinging

The earliest swing is called "Thousand Autumns", which is said to have been introduced by Duke Huan of Qi in the Spring and Autumn Period from the northern nation of Shanrong, and became a folk game of Qingming and other festivals such as Dragon Boat Festival and Cold Food Festival after Han Dynasty. Swing is initially a rope, to grasp the rope and swing, after the development of a wooden frame hanging two ropes, under the tie horizontal board and become. Today's parks and playgrounds still have swings for children to play.

Shooting willow and cuju

Shooting willow is a game of practicing archery skills. According to the Ming Dynasty, it is to put pigeons in the gourd, and then hang the gourd high in the willow tree, bend the bow and shoot the gourd, the pigeons fly out, and determine the winner by the height of the pigeons; as for Cuju, which is the predecessor of the present soccer, the ball skin is made of leather, and the ball is stuffed with hair. Legend has it that Cuju early in the Shang Dynasty has, the Warring States period into the folk, to the Han Dynasty has become the military used to practice martial arts, and listed in the book of war.