It turns out that the Tang Dynasty has a family visit vacation ancient how to take a vacation

Han Dynasty: five days off

"Southeast Fly of the Peacock", Lujiang minor Jiao Zhongqing and his wife Liu, although love exceptionally, but due to the usual residence in the government office, the young couple get together less and more, so that his wife cried: "The cheap concubines to stay in the empty room, see each other daily rare." This is a true depiction of the Han civil servants who had to stay in the government office during their working hours, making it difficult for them to take care of their families.

They had a continuous work cycle of five days, followed by a fixed day of rest called "hu mu," or rest and bathing. In ancient times, men had their hair in buns, high crowns and belts, and after bathing, their uniforms were dismantled and their hair was still wet, so they couldn't tie up their crowns, so they rested on this, and the day of the bathing became the day of rest.

Before Han, the Qin Dynasty officials home on vacation called "report", as the name suggests, report and then go home, there is no clear system of vacation. But at the beginning of the Han Dynasty, the "five days of rest" had become a customized system, and the officials, regardless of their positions, were all the same.

During the Han Dynasty, the "rest" had a specific political significance, in addition to the practical need for officials to take vacations. In the early Han Dynasty, the Huanglao doctrine as a national policy, and the Huanglao doctrine, which advocates purity and inaction, attaches great importance to washing and bathing, the Taoist book "Yunshu Qiqi" Volume 41 has "bathing body and mind scripture": "Bathing within the net, the virtual heart is not dirty; outside the net, the body of all the dirt removed."

By the way, the upper rulers of the Han Dynasty also respected the lifestyle of washing and bathing. On the one hand, the officials rested on time is also the embodiment of the way of purity and inaction, on the other hand, in addition to cleaning the body, washing and bathing is also attached to the meaning of removing the dirt of the heart and clarifying the mind.

If one does not rest on the day of rest, it is not praiseworthy. The Han Book - Xue propaganda ", to the day of rest, the Western Han left Feng Yi County, all the officials are on vacation, only thieves Cao puisne (tube thieves, similar to today's public security director) Zhang Fu refused to take a leave of absence, as usual, Cao sit and rule things.

In this regard, the county guard Xue Xuan that "Gai Li Gui and, humane Shang Tong, to, the official to order rest, the care-free to a long time." Therefore, specifically ordered: "Although Cao has a public service, the family also hope that the private grace. Puisne should be from the crowd, return to his wife, set up wine and food, please neighbors, a smile and music, S can also carry on." This means that, although you are busy with public affairs, but also take into account the family, hurry home to accompany his wife and children, and his family and neighbors to drink and get together.

As for why it is "five days a break", which is still related to the Han Dynasty people's "unity of mankind" concept. In the ancient calendar, 360 days a year, divided into 24 seasons, and then three equal parts, five days for a wait. This is the origin of the word "climate". It is clear that the Han people's "five days of rest" is to follow their conception of the way of change between man and nature.

However, according to the Ziji Tongjian, the officials who worked in the imperial court during the Han Dynasty did not enjoy the "five days of rest", but took a break every ten days. In addition, students, military personnel, also have a vacation, but home from the school or camp is too far away, it is not possible to go back and forth on the same day, so the vacation is based on five days a break cumulative conversion. The same is true for those who are officials and whose homes are not local.

On the other hand, there seem to have been few festivals and holidays in the Han dynasty, about the winter and summer solstices only. The Taiping Yuban (太平御览), Volume 28, cited in the Renewal of the Han Dynasty (续汉书-礼仪志) said, "Before and after the winter solstice, a gentleman would rest in peace and quietness, and a hundred officials would not listen to the government, and they would choose an auspicious day and then save their lives." Is that since the winter solstice, the hundred Division holiday, to choose another auspicious day to open Yamen office, and today's Spring Festival is almost.

The Tang and Song dynasties have the most holidays, parents in 500 miles away from the family leave

According to Wang Guowei, the Han Dynasty, "Hu Mu" system has been maintained until the Song Dynasty. Only in the Tang Dynasty did it become a ten-day holiday. Unlike the rotational system of the Northern and Southern Dynasties, the Tang Dynasty's ten days off was a period when the court and all the departments stopped working. Lenten holidays were usually scheduled at the end of the month, i.e., on the 10th, 20th and 30th days.

Japanese sinologist Ikeda Wen once counted the number of dated edicts in the Tang Great Edicts Collection and found that significantly fewer edicts were issued on those three days, precisely because of the ten days off.

But while none of the hundred divisions were open to the public, there were duty officers who stayed on to deal with emergencies. The New Book of the South traces the duty system of the Imperial Palace of the Tang Dynasty, saying that all new officials in the province, as a rule, are "on duty for five days on a holiday, which is called 'Fu Pao Dang'; (the other) hundred divisions of the state and counties of the initial award of officials, accompanied by the duty of the person who is so called". It can be seen that all levels of government offices in the holiday public holiday, we must arrange for a person on duty, and most of the new colleagues.

But on the other hand, the Tang and Song dynasties have the most festival holidays in all generations, moving seven days of long vacation, and the total number of festival holidays per year is more than 50 days.

The Tang law stipulated that there were three festivals that gave seven days of vacation: the first day of the Yuan, the winter solstice, and Qingming, during which major official festivals were arranged. Especially during the Qingming period, in addition to trekking, kite flying, folding willow inserted in the door, swinging, civil and military officials also often go out of the city to pay homage to the sweeping, spring excursions in the countryside, sweeping the graves, and even go as far as the eastern capital of Luoyang to pay homage to their ancestors.

April 8, Buddha's Birthday, because Wu Zetian Buddhism, was also included in the national holiday. Later, Emperor Xuanzong of the Tang Dynasty, who practiced Taoism and said that Laozi was the first ancestor of the Tang Dynasty, designated February 15 as Taoist Birthday and gave it a day off as well. From the 17th year of Emperor Xuanzong's reign, the birthday of the current emperor was also designated as the Thousand Autumns Festival (later changed to the Day of the Longest Day and the Day of Heavenly Success and Earthly Peace), and was initially given a holiday of three days, which was changed to one day by Emperor Suzong of the Tang Dynasty.

In addition to the seven-day "Golden Week", the Tang Dynasty also has a three-day holiday: the Mid-Autumn Festival, the summer solstice, Lunar New Year's Day, as for the holiday to give a day of vacation, it is as many as 21 festivals. This is the gospel of poets, such as Yuan Zhen, "Cold Food Day": "Today's cold food is a good wind, this day the family with the tour", Du Fu, "Qingming": "the place of flowers is the day, Changsha, thousands of thousands of people out of the".

Besides the holidays, the Tang Dynasty was also quite humane: those whose parents were three thousand miles away had 30 days of family leave every three years; those who were five hundred miles away had 15 days every five years. There were three days' leave for sons and coronation ceremonies; one day's leave for relatives; nine days' leave for children's marriages, not counting the days needed for the journey; and five, three or one days' leave for marriages of other close relatives.

As for the funeral of parents, court officials must be mandatory retirement for three years, that is, the "worry", such as really about the center of the situation can not be retired, the need for the emperor to personally order the "take the love", otherwise it will be regarded as a moral blot and be criticized.

The Song Dynasty leave at will, the night record into a "harmful calendar"

The Song Dynasty holiday vacation system is more perfect, not only retained the first day of the year, the cold food, winter solstice holiday seven days of the provisions of the end of the year, there is a "seal" holiday. Officials at all levels, December 20 each year, "seal" to stop official business, public servants go home for the New Year to save their relatives, to the first month of the following year on the 20th before returning to the Yamen "open" office. Some statistics, the Song Dynasty civil servants paid vacation up to 110 days.

It is with the help of the annual Golden Week vacation, Su Shi traveled around the mountains, leaving many ancient songs. He transferred to Hangzhou governor, when he took office coincided with the winter solstice, they came to the rare auspicious temple tour, leaving "who is more like Su Fu Zi, is not the flower time willing to come alone? The famous line. A few years later, he was transferred to Huangzhou, and one year, he traveled south to Hubei alone on the Mid-Yuan Festival, and visited the ancient Red Cliffs by boat, "reciting poems of the bright moon, singing the chapter of the fair".

The Lantern Festival, it must be unprecedented, the country **** celebration: "the old family everyone, the clan relatives, feasts to and fro, carriages and horses, five days and nights more than." Xin Qiji's "The Case of the Green Jade", then vividly depicted a colorful picture of the festival: "The east wind released a thousand flowers at night. The east wind releases thousands of flowers at night, and even blows down stars like rain. BMWs and carvings fill the road with fragrance. The phoenix xiao is moving, the jade pot light turns, the night fish and dragon dance. Moth snow willow gold strands. The smile is full of dark fragrance. I've been looking for him for thousands of years. When I look back, the man is in the place where the lights go out."

The relatively relaxed vacation atmosphere of the Song Dynasty made the officials' leave system much more casual compared with that of the Tang Dynasty. Shen Kuo's "Dream Stream Brush Story" on the record, in charge of literature and history of the Hanlin Pavilion, each night to rotate a person on night duty, and rotating officials tend to excuse not to go, always on duty at night under the name of the position of myself to write: "belly uneasiness, exempted from the night." Over and over again, as a record of the night of the "calendar", it is called "harmful belly calendar".

In addition to the officials, the Song dynasty vacation system also took into account the official system of lower class people. Such as service artisans and other people, also have vacation. These people could take a day off on the first day of the month, the winter eclipse, the winter solstice and the waxing day. Exiled prisoners, can take a day off every ten days, the new year's day, cold food, winter solstice, three days off, in the road on the grandparents, parents mourning, but also to give the "residence of the journey leave".

The Qing Dynasty, the reduction of holidays, to seal a long vacation

Ming Dynasty vacation system has changed compared to the Song Dynasty: the first five days of the Yuan Dynasty, the Lantern Festival ten days, the winter solstice three days, three days, the monthly leave is three days, the annual vacation total of only more than 50 days. Ming Dynasty year-end sealing only four days of vacation, from New Year's Eve to the third day of the first month of the new year, then reopen the seal.

The longest vacation in the Ming Dynasty was the Lantern Festival, which began with Zhu Di, the first emperor of the Ming Dynasty. He felt that he "succeeded the throne since, the service to comply with the law, and now the wind and rain, the military and the people happy," so ordered "this year, the first month of the New Year's Day 11th to 20th, which a few days of the official each with the holiday, with him resting at his leisure, do not play a matter; there are important things, understand the writing of the seal in! ". Civilian lanterns, "from his drinking pleasure pleasure, Bing Ma Si are not prohibited, night patrols do not disturb the provincial affairs", and to be this "forever as a rule".

However, from the refusal of the Wanli Emperor began, the Ming Dynasty public holiday system, most of them become a dead letter. The old capital remains" cloud: "the capital of all the Cao, occupation annoying obscene, but the official does not Cao business as a matter of fact, at peace in the honor of, YuYouYou feast. When Emperor Shenzong, the scholarly wine from the grace, elegant song banquet. To the end of the Ming Chongzhen years, Yifa "Cao Division of the affairs of the Commission, the side of the exhaustion of the abolition of".

The Qing Dynasty largely continued the public holiday system of the Ming Dynasty, the winter solstice, New Year's Day, the Lantern Festival three holidays. As the three long holidays in time close, if extended will be almost conjoined, so the Qing dynasty to seal the long vacation way, the three long holidays through. The sealing date was from December 19th to 22nd at the end of the year, and the opening date was from the 19th to 22nd of the first month of the new year. As for the exact date, the Chintian Supervisor would choose an auspicious day from among them. This was in fact the year-end vacation, so on each sealing day, officials would invite their colleagues to gather and drink, "to reward the year's labor."

And, after the fourth year of the Qianlong (1740), there is a blank seal reserved for urgent matters, because of the long vacation officials are not very public, the power of the temporary vacuum also brings problems, some ruffians will take the opportunity to do some sneak and loot in the marketplace between the hooks, "no scruples, the cover that the official does not do things also! "

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The introduction of Sunday public holidays

As for Sunday becoming a public holiday system, it was after the Opium War.

After the Opium War, a large number of Westerners entered and lived and worked in China for a long time, and they rested and recreated on Sundays according to their own customs, which the Chinese were curious about at first, and then gradually agreed with.

Shanghai Declaration published an editorial on June 13th, 1872, which said: The Sunday rest system of the Western countries was good for the life of the people, and it should be imitated in China.

However, at that time, the Chinese people were still only at the stage of recognizing the Sunday public holiday of the westerners. It was not until the 1880s that the Sunday rest system was introduced in some of the newer schools; in 1882, the Fuzhou School of Shipbuilding stipulated that students in one class taught by a foreign teacher should have Sunday off with the teacher, in order to take care of the living habits of the foreign teacher, whereas the remaining three classes taught by Chinese teachers did not have such a stipulation. The school is obviously concerned about being accused of practicing Western customs in the whole school.

After that, in the new policy of the Guangxu dynasty, which began in 1895, a large number of new schools were built, and all of them explicitly provided for a Sunday rest system. However, the term "Sunday" was rarely used at that time, and was usually replaced by the four characters of Fang, Xu, Pleiades, and Xing, which were calculated according to the Chinese method of the twenty-eight constellations of the sun.

The Sunday holiday really became a trend in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. At this time, the newspaper advertised performances, also changed the lunar calendar for the week. 1902 June 8, the newspaper published the British Derbyshire troupe performance advertisement, the opening time for "China May 3 Sunday 3:00 p.m. opening". At that time, many short-term performances of foreign opera companies in China were often arranged on Saturdays and Sundays, because the people of Shanghai and other places already regarded Saturday night and Sunday as leisure time.

From 1906 onwards, the central ministries of the Qing government also took Sundays off one after another, and the first to do so were some newly-established central organizations, such as the Ministry of Education (Ministry of Education), the Ministry of Agriculture, Industry and Commerce in charge of the economy and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in charge of foreign affairs, etc. In the fall of 1907, the Ministry of War also started to take Sundays off, and the most conservative ministries of the Ministry of Justice and the Ministry of Rites followed the trend in the summer of 1911 and implemented the Sunday public holiday system. Sunday public holiday system. By now, the central organizations of the Qing government had all implemented the Sunday public holiday system.

The use of the word "week" instead of "week" in the official terminology began in 1907 with the approval of the Qing court. At that time, there was a debate about whether the national school should take Sunday vacations or the traditional ten days off. Readers Zhou Zuan Suwa Zuo request to rectify the school affairs, in order to plug the "new school flow of evils", his important reason is: Sunday vacation is to "Western law to change the Chinese custom", should be canceled.

But at that time, one of the highest authority of the Qing court, the meeting of the Office of Government Affairs, in response to this prelude, insisted that the Sunday public holiday for the world, China can not be different; at the same time in the name of the provisions can only be called "week", not "worship".

This provision is based on the traditional thinking of avoiding the influence of Christianity in China and preventing Westerners from "changing summer with barbarians".