The history and culture of fireworks and firecrackers

The origin of firecrackers About firecrackers, a number of books have been described in detail, it was originally used to ward off evil spirits to dispel disasters. Jing Chu chronicle" in: "the first day of the first month, is the day of the three yuan, Spring and Autumn called the end of the day, the cock crows up, the first in front of the court firecrackers in order to dispel the mandrill evil spirits." The hours of service, it seems to be the Western Han Dongfang Shuo, "God's strange scripture - West Wilderness Scripture," said: there are people in the mountains in the West, body length of more than a foot, bare, catching shrimp and crabs, the nature of the people do not fear. When he sees people stopping to stay, he follows his fire at night to burn shrimps and crabs. Waiting for people are not there, and steal people salt, to eat shrimp and crab. The name is Shan Shame, and its sound is self-called. When people try to put bamboo in the fire, it explodes and comes out, and the shame is frightening. The offense makes people hot and cold. Although the human form and change, but also ghosts and the like, now where the mountains are all there. Even if there is such a thing as mentioned by Dongfang Shuo, I am afraid that it is only an animal, and the descendants have been using it as a blackmail, so the firecracker has the function of avoiding evil spirits and avoiding disasters. However, with the gradual dilution of backwardness, the custom of letting off firecrackers has seldom included the element of exorcism, but merely added a joyful atmosphere to the festivals. With the advent of modern civilization, many small, medium and large cities have begun to ban firecrackers during festivals. The history of firecrackers Firecrackers originated from the ancient firecrackers. Firecrackers, also known as "firecrackers", "cannonballs", written in the Tang Dynasty, "Bakudan", the South is also known as the "paper cannons ", "ringing gun". If many individual firecrackers linked into a string, it is called "firecrackers", "loud whip", "whip". The origin of firecrackers is very early, so far has a history of more than two thousand years. Southern Liang Dynasty, "Jingchu chronicles" recorded: "the first day of the first month, the rooster crowed up. First in front of the court, bursting firecrackers, in order to avoid the evil ghosts of the mountain shame." Meaning that people get up on the first day of the first month, the first thing is to put the bamboo in the fire, the bamboo in the fire cracking sound can drive away the beasts and evil spirits. Tang Dynasty, some people will nitrate into the bamboo tube burning, this is the first prototype of nitrate firecrackers. After the emergence of gunpowder, people will be saltpeter, sulfur and charcoal filled with bamboo tubes burning, resulting in a "firecracker". Tang Dynasty called the firecrackers for the "Bakudan". Swan "early spring poem" in the "new calendar will only be half-paper open, the small court is still gathered Bakudan ash", the sentence in the "Bakudan" that is, "firecrackers". To the Song Dynasty, folk began to commonly use paper tubes and hemp stems wrapped in gunpowder woven into strings made of "braided cannon" (i.e., firecrackers). On the evolution of firecrackers, "popular choreography excellent" recorded: "Ancient firecrackers. All with real bamboo fire, so the Tang poetry also known as popping rod. Later people rolled paper for it. Called "firecrackers". Ming and Qing dynasties, more varieties of firecrackers, firecrackers have not been limited to the early morning at the beginning of the year, New Year's Eve that is the beginning of the night zero hour to reach a climax, commonly known as the "Welcome to God". At this time, regardless of the poor and the rich and the poor are to set off firecrackers, Li Jiarui, "Beiping Customs and Traditions" quoted in the "Jutian Records", said: "the capital is densely populated, A in the world, the rich place to buy thousands of rods of firecrackers, to pay for a torch. Poor families that are struggling to make ends meet and ask for a hole in the hole, but also will be bursting several times, incense burning a column, in addition to the triviality of the early years, the next year's steam, this custom along the similar also." Xie Wenchiao of the Qing Dynasty, "teaching the New Year's words" in: "all-night firecrackers a sound, fireworks by the Sheng Di Jing, torch silver flowers noisy night and a half, the six street song pipe music." Reflects the scene of firecrackers in Beijing at that time. Firecracker varieties are quite rich, the most common is "single ring", "double ring" and "whip" three categories. Large single firecrackers, also known as "Ma Lei Zi", double also known as "two kicks". Double-alarm firecrackers in two layers of paper tubes placed gunpowder, the role of the lower layer of gunpowder is to send the firecrackers to the sky, the upper layer of gunpowder in the air burst. On the basis of the double, and developed into a multi-shot firecrackers, the Qing Dynasty Fucha Dun Chong, "Yanjing Times" said: "Firecracker shed to create various colors of fireworks, competing for the strange, there are boxes of flower pots, Flying Ten." Flying ten has evolved into a "flash mine" - a long paper tube, containing a number of bombs, ignited after the sequential injection of bombs, the air explosion, accompanied by silver and white flash, so the name flash mine. Because of its strong firepower, easy to hurt. Therefore, since the Spring Festival in 1987 began in the country's major and medium-sized cities are prohibited to light flash mine. Firecrackers also have many names. Steel whip - with kraft paper wrapped in gunpowder, bursting sound crisp and loud as steel. Steel whip a sound for a head, "king whip" can be as many as 10,000 heads. In a whip in a fixed point to join the special firecrackers is called "section whip", usually ten ring with a hemp thunderbolt. Burning can appear when the rhythm of the sound. Southern towns and cities popular with colored paper wrapped in medicine, "flower whip", when burned by the gunpowder crumbled colored paper have fallen, very nice to see. Such as pink paper wrapped in medicine that is known as "peach blossoms everywhere", with yellowish paper is called "colorful", with a golden yellow is known as "sprinkled whip". Traditional production process of firecrackers traditional firecracker production process is divided into three parts: the body of the production, gunpowder production and fuse production. First, the body of the gun production Cutting paper: in the workshop, the body of the firecracker is known as the "tube", cutting paper is cut according to certain specifications for the production of a tube with the firecracker paper; tear tube: the cut firecracker paper rolled into an empty tube, tear tube is the main tool to pull the stool, made of solid wood; pasted tube: in the empty tube on the outside of a layer of colored paper, initially for the purpose of waterproofing, later more is out of the decorative role, pasted tube paper mostly with Baoqing (Shaoyang) production of red paper, or wide red paper, waxed paper; wash tube: the paper tube with twine tied into a hexagonal cake, so as to facilitate the calculation of the number of tubes; waist tube: tied the paper tube is very long, need to be cut short, with a broad knife from the waist of the cake cut off the tube cut into two tubes; on the tube: in the cut tube of the paper tube loaded with soil, on the nitrate; drilling: brazes will be tightly built for each tube, and then drill holes for each tube, and the main tool to pull the tube is the pulling stool, made of solid wood; drill: braziers will build a tightly, and then drill holes for each tube. And then to each tube drilling, in order to put the lead; cuttings: each lead hole cuttings into the lead; tie the neck: cuttings into the lead hole, cuttings into one end of the tube tightly, in order to prevent the lead from loosening; knot whip: individual firecrackers made, to be used to cotton thread to knot them together into a hanging, because of the shape of like a whip, firecrackers from this; into a seal, into the box: will be tied up in a package of firecrackers. Second, the gunpowder production of nitrate: the nitrate from the soil out of the refining. The traditional nitrous tool is very simple, just a large iron pot, the raw material is clay. It is said to use the kitchen soil is the best, because often cooking and cooking, nitrate also precipitated more. Put the soil into the iron pot, keep adding water to simmer, one or two days later, the side of the iron pot will be a layer of white nitrate; grinding nitrate (or punch nitrate): just boiled out of the nitrate particles are very large, the next step is to be placed in the milling groove crushed, the heavy milling wheel began to be pulled by oxen, and then slowly changed to water power, the rudimentary method of pounding rice is the use of the tool to break up the particles, known as the nitrate punch; Grinding Nitrate: crushed nitrate is still can not be directly adopted, but also need to use a mill like grinding soybeans to grind nitrate into fine powder. Made of nitrate with sulfur, soil, is the gunpowder of firecrackers. Third, the fuse production Paper-making: Although the firecracker paper is purchased, but the paper is self-produced to do the fuse, the workshop will have a pulp pool, with wood pulp to make paper; cut cited paper: the manufacture of the whole sheet of paper cut into a long strip of paper; do cited: the end of the long strip of paper is fixed, the paper is unfolded, with an iron bar stained with nitrate powder, hand shake, iron bar on the nitrate powder will fall on the paper to form a long strip of paper, hand rubbing, a fuse is out; pulp lead: such a lead is still loose, workers have to dip their hands in wet rice paste, hand on the lead a stroke, the lead dipped in rice paste will not fall apart, and then also need to fix the lead one by one in the fan-like dryer to dry. Fireworks began to appear from the Song Dynasty, the production process is more complex.