1, the origin of Tomb-Sweeping Day 2, the customs of Tomb-Sweeping Day 3, ancient poems about Tomb-Sweeping Day. .

According to legend, during the Spring and Autumn Period, Zhong Er, the son of the Jin Dynasty, went into exile to escape persecution. On the way to exile, he was tired and hungry in a deserted place and couldn't stand up anymore.

I searched for it for a long time, but I couldn't find anything to eat. When everyone was in a hurry, I pushed the minister to a quiet place, cut a piece of meat from his thigh and cooked a bowl of broth for the son to drink. Zhong Er gradually recovered his spirit. Zhong Er shed tears when he found that the meat was cut off by mesons pushing his legs.

Nineteen years later, Zhong Er became the monarch, that is, the historical Jin Wengong. After he ascended the throne, Wen Gong rewarded the heroes who accompanied him in exile at first, but forgot to push the meson. Many people complained about meson push and advised him to admire it. However, mesons despise those who strive for merit the most. He packed his bags and quietly went to Mianshan with his mother.

Hearing this, Jin Wengong was ashamed and personally took someone to ask Jiexiu, but Jiexiu had left home for Mianshan. Mianshan Mountain is high and dangerous, with dense trees. It's hard to find two people. Someone offered a plan to burn Mianshan from three sides and force a meson to push out. The fire burned all over Mianshan, but there was no trace of meson push. After the fire was put out, it was found that Jiezitui had sat under an old willow tree with his old mother on his back and died.

Jin Wengong cried. When I was buried, I found a bloody book in a tree hole, which said, "May my master be clear forever." In order to commemorate meson push, Jin Wengong ordered that this day be designated as "Cold Food Festival".

The following year, Jin Wengong led ministers to climb mountains to pay homage. He found that the old willow was dead and resurrected, so he gave it the title of "Qingming Willow" and told the world, so he named the day after the Cold Food Festival "Tomb-Sweeping Day".

Meson Tui did exist in history, but in the records of Zuo Zhuan, Historical Records and other historical books, there was no story of meson Tui being burned to death. Moreover, the Cold Food Festival originated from the memorial meson push, which was first recorded in the early Han Dynasty (see Huan Tan's new theory).

Many scholars believe that this is because later generations will explain the Cold Food Festival. According to textual research, the origin of Tomb-Sweeping Day has nothing to do with meson deduction. As a Spring Festival, Tomb-Sweeping Day was determined long before the Zhou Dynasty. China has a vast territory, and there were different customs between the north and the south in the pre-Qin period. The literature mainly records the northern customs. The Tang Dynasty was a period when the custom of burial sacrifices in different places merged, and then the custom of burial sacrifices in Tomb-Sweeping Day gradually appeared in the literature.

In the development and evolution of history, most traditional festivals are regarded as "origin" by a legend attached to them. However, according to the actual investigation, these sayings were far later than the birth of festivals and were constructed by later generations.

Tomb-Sweeping Day custom:

spring outing

The Chinese nation has had the custom of going for an outing in Qingming since ancient times. In ancient times, it was called spring outing, spring seeking and so on. Spring outing, also known as spring outing, refers to going for a walk in the suburbs in early spring.

Outing, a seasonal folk activity, has a long history in China, and its source is the ancient Spring Festival custom of farming sacrifice, which has a far-reaching influence on later generations.

There are both solar terms and festivals in Tomb-Sweeping Day, and the atmosphere in Tomb-Sweeping Day provides important conditions for the formation of the Qingming outing custom in terms of time and meteorological phenology. During the Qingming Festival, spring returns to the earth, and nature presents a vibrant scene everywhere, which is a good time to go for an outing. People use the opportunity of sweeping graves to have fun with their families in mountainous areas and rural areas.

China folks have long maintained the custom of Tomb-Sweeping Day's outing with a long history. The Qingming Festival is a season when the spring breeze is proud and full of spring. When everything is in bud, it has long been a custom to go for an outing in the wild.

According to the Book of Jin, every spring, people go to the suburbs to enjoy the scenery together. During the Tang and Song Dynasties, the custom of hiking was particularly popular. According to "Old Tang Book", "In February of the second year of Dali, at noon, it was fortunate that Kunming was green." It can be seen that the custom of spring outing has long been deeply rooted in people's hearts.

plant trees

Before and after planting trees in Qingming, the spring is bright and the spring rain is flying, and the survival rate of planting seedlings is high and the growth is fast. So there is a habit of planting trees in Tomb-Sweeping Day, and some people call Tomb-Sweeping Day Arbor Day. The custom of planting trees has been passed down to this day. The custom of planting trees in Tomb-Sweeping Day is said to have originated from the custom of crossing willows and inserting willows in Qingming Festival. There are three legends about Tomb-Sweeping Day.

The first legend is said to commemorate Shennong, the founder of agriculture, and later developed into the meaning of praying for longevity. The second legend is related to meson push. It is said that when Jin Wengong led the minister to climb a mountain to pay homage to Jietui, he found that the old willow tree on which Jietui once lived came back from the dead and gave it the title of "Qingming Willow". The third legend is that Emperor Taizong gave the minister a willow circle as a blessing to drive away the epidemic.

fly a kite

Kites are also called "paper kites" and "kites". Flying kites is the most popular activity in Tomb-Sweeping Day. Kite is an aircraft that sticks paper or silk with bamboo strips and other skeletons, pulls a long line on it, and drops it into the sky under the action of wind. It belongs to an aircraft that only uses aerodynamic force. During their stay in Tomb-Sweeping Day, people not only wore it during the day, but also at night.

At night, a string of colored lanterns is hung under the kite or on the wind-stabilizing stay, like twinkling stars, which is called "magic lamp". Someone used to put kites in the blue sky, then cut the strings and let the breeze send them to the ends of the earth. It is said that this can eliminate diseases and disasters and bring good luck to yourself.

Tomb-sweeping sacrifice

Sweeping graves with willow trees is called "tomb sacrifice", which is a "respect for time thinking" for ancestors. Sacrificing ancestors is a way of remembering ancestors, and its custom has a long history. Since ancient times, the Chinese nation has been courteous to its ancestors and cautious about the future. Tomb-Sweeping Day is the Spring Festival of the Chinese nation, and Qingming Spring Festival is the autumn festival of Chongyang.

Spring and Autumn Festival has existed since ancient times. Tomb-Sweeping Day has a long history, which is the synthesis and sublimation of traditional spring customs. In ancient times, the north and south of China had different customs. Before the Tang Dynasty, grave sweeping in northern China was mainly in the Cold Food Festival and the Cold Clothes Festival.

According to "Book of Rites" and other documents, in ancient times, there was no Tomb-Sweeping Day's sacrifice to sweep in northern China, but in the Tang Dynasty, Tomb-Sweeping Day's sacrifice to sweep in the tomb became a trend. The Tang Dynasty was a period of integration of China's northern and southern tombs' sacrificial customs, which followed the Qingming tombs' sacrificial customs and spread all over the country. After the Tang Dynasty, the Cold Food Festival gradually declined, because it was similar to Tomb-Sweeping Day.

During the Song and Yuan Dynasties, Tomb-Sweeping Day rose to the position of replacing the Cold Food Festival, and incorporated the custom of forbidding fire and cold food into the Cold Food Festival, which was passed down from generation to generation.

Grave-sweeping is the center of Tomb-Sweeping Day custom. Tomb-Sweeping Day is a cultural tradition of paying homage to his ancestors and pursuing the future with caution, mainly offering sacrifices to his ancestors and expressing his filial piety and yearning for them.

Tomb-Sweeping Day originally belonged to "ancestor worship festival" and was named "Ghost Festival" in the development and evolution of later generations. In ancient times, people worshipped their ancestors to express filial piety and gratitude, and it was not called Ghost Festival. According to the different places of sacrifice, Tomb-Sweeping Day can be divided into tomb sacrifice and ancestral temple sacrifice.

Tomb sacrifice is the most common, and the Qingming sacrifice is characterized by tomb sacrifice. The reason why Qingming Festival is called sweeping graves is mainly because of the way of sweeping graves. Another form is ancestral temple sacrifice, also called temple fair sacrifice, which means that people of a clan gather in the ancestral temple to worship their ancestors first, and then have a meeting and dinner after the sacrifice. This kind of sacrifice is a way of ethnic reunion. Another situation is that people who work in other places can't rush back to their hometown to sweep their graves, so they sacrifice to their hometown in the mountains or high places.

Tomb-Sweeping Day worships his ancestors. According to the custom, people usually set out to visit graves in the morning in Tomb-Sweeping Day. When sweeping graves, people should bring food, wine, fruit, paper money and other items to the cemetery, offer food to the graves of their loved ones, then burn the paper money, cultivate the soil for the graves, break some fresh branches and insert them in the graves, and then kowtow to worship.

There are differences around Tomb-Sweeping Day. The ways or items of sacrifice in Tomb-Sweeping Day vary from place to place. The common practice includes two parts: one is to renovate the tomb, and the other is to hang paper money to offer sacrifices. When sweeping the grave, the grave should be renovated first, mainly to remove weeds and cultivate new soil.

On the one hand, this kind of behavior can express the filial piety and care for the ancestors. On the other hand, in the belief of the ancients, the graves of ancestors have a great relationship with the rise and fall of future generations, so tomb repair is a commemorative content that cannot be ignored. The sacrifices are mainly food, and the varieties vary from place to place. They are all foods that locals think can be taken out according to the economic ability of sacrifice, or they are seasonal specialties.

Chuanliuzhi

Tomb-Sweeping Day and China have the folk custom of inserting willows. According to experts, there are three theories about the origin of the custom of inserting willows in Tomb-Sweeping Day.

Some experts believe that the custom of inserting willows is to commemorate Shennong, the agricultural ancestor who taught people to grow crops. In some places, people put willow branches under the eaves to forecast the weather. There is an old saying that "the willow branches are green and the rain is raining;" The saying that there is another village.

Willow has a strong vitality, as the saying goes: "intentional planting of flowers, unintentional planting of willows." Wicker lives when it is inserted in the soil, where it is inserted, where it is inserted every year, and there is shade everywhere.

a rat race

Tug of war was called "tug of war" in the early days and "strong hook" in the Tang Dynasty. It was invented at the end of the Spring and Autumn Period, which became popular in the military and later spread among the people. During the reign of Emperor Xuanzong of the Tang Dynasty, a large tug-of-war was held in Tomb-Sweeping Day. Since then, tug-of-war has become a part of the Qingming custom.

play on the swing

Swing in Tomb-Sweeping Day is one of the customs in ancient Tomb-Sweeping Day, China. Wang Renyu's "Kaiyuan Tianbao Legacy" in the Five Dynasties recorded that "the Tianbao Palace Mid-solstice Cold Food Festival actually erected a swing, which made the wives and concubines in the palace laugh and thought it was a feast.

The emperor called it a semi-fairy play, so the scholars in the capital called it. Wen Yanbo, the prime minister of the Song Dynasty, wrote the poem "Cold Food Day Crossing the Dragon Gate", which was described as "the willow tree hangs on the bridge, swinging more colorful ropes. "Swing, that is, lift the rope, move.

gamecock

In ancient times, cockfighting competitions prevailed in Qingming, which began in Qingming and lasted until the summer solstice. The earliest record of cockfighting in China can be found in Zuo Zhuan. In the Tang dynasty, cockfighting became a common practice, not only among the people, but also the emperor. For example, Tang Xuanzong likes cockfighting best.

Liu She

Shooting willow is a game to practice archery. According to the records of the Ming Dynasty, pigeons were placed in gourds, then the gourds were hung high on willow trees, and the gourds and pigeons flew out with bows, and the victory or defeat was judged by the height of the flying pigeons.

play football

Cujuju is a rubber ball, the skin of which is made of leather, and the ball is filled with wool. Cuju is kicking the ball with your feet. This is the favorite game of northerners in ancient Tomb-Sweeping Day. According to legend, it was invented by the Yellow Emperor with the original purpose of training warriors. Polo is riding a horse and hitting with a stick. In ancient times, it was called bowing. In the Romance of the Three Kingdoms, there is a saying in Cao Zhiming's name that "there is a sentence in a row".

Analysis of Golden Branches records the traditional custom of polo as a festival in Liao country, and polo is played on Dragon Boat Festival and Double Ninth Festival. Li Shizhi also recorded that Jin people hit the ball during the Dragon Boat Festival. In the Song Dynasty, there was a "Ball Play Music" dance team. In the Ming Dynasty, polo was still popular.

Canhuahui

"Silkworm Flower Festival" is a unique folk culture in Silkworm Township. During the past period in Tomb-Sweeping Day, this folk activity was held in Wu Tong, Wuzhen, Chongfu and Zhouquan. Among them, A?vagho?a Temple in Zhouquan and Double Temple in Qingshi are the most spectacular.

A?vagho?a Temple, located in the west of Zhouquan Town, is known locally as "the king of temples". Every year, there are many activities, such as welcoming the silkworm god, rocking the clippers, making trouble in Taiwan Pavilion, worshiping incense benches, boxing, playing dragon lanterns, lifting poles and singing operas. Some of these activities are carried out on shore, and most of them are carried out on ships, which is very characteristic of water towns.

Tomb-Sweeping Day's ancient poems:

Mourning day, drizzle like tears; Pedestrians on the road want to die. -Du Mu's Tomb-Sweeping Day

Oh, don't sigh that the dust in Kyoto will stain the white clothes, and there is still time to return to the mirror house in Lake Ubak. -Lu You's First Night of Spring Rain in Lin 'an

Swallow came to the news agency, after the Qingming Festival in pear flower falls. -Yan Shu's Spring Scenes

Every holiday season, I miss my parents, and the peaches and plums smile, and the Noda wilderness is only sad. -Huang Tingjian's Tomb-Sweeping Day

There are many tomb fields in the north and south hills, and the Qingming sweeps each other. -Gao Zhu "Qingming Day Wine"

In the storm, pear flower falls died, and the Cold Food Festival passed. In Tomb-Sweeping Day, several families will visit graves and be worshipped by future generations. -Gao Qi's "Send Chen Xiucai back to the Tomb of Shashang Province"

Eyes full of gossamer catkins, when red apricots bloom, it will be sunny and rainy for a while. -Feng Yansi's "Magpie Stepping on Qingming"

Ask local people where to buy wine? The shepherd boy just laughed and didn't answer Xingshan Village. -Du Mu's Tomb-Sweeping Day