Sixty Years of Changes in China's Spring Festival

As a unique form of literature, Chinese New Year couplets have a long history in China. It began during the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms, and flourished especially during the Ming and Qing Dynasties, developing for more than a thousand years until today.

Before the Qin and Han dynasties, it was the custom of the Chinese folk to hang peach symbols on the left and right sides of the main door during the New Year. Peach talisman is made of peach wood, two large boards, on which are written the names of the legendary ghost-subduing gods "Shentian (tu)" and "Yu Shi" to drive away ghosts and suppress evil spirits. This custom continued for more than a thousand years. It was only in the Fifth Dynasty that people began to inscribe couplets on mahogany boards in place of the names of the gods and goddesses. According to historical records, the couplet inscribed on the bedroom door by Meng Chang (chang), the lord of Shu, on New Year's Eve in 964 A.D., "New Year's Day is a blessing for all, and the Jiacheng Festival is a long spring" is one of the earliest spring couplets in China.

After the Song Dynasty, it was quite common for people to hang spring couplets on New Year's Day, so Wang Anshi's poem "New Year's Day", which reads, "On the day of the pupil of thousands of households, new peaches are replaced with old ones," is a true portrayal of the spring couplet scene at that time. Because the appearance of spring couplets and peach symbols have a close relationship, so the ancients also called spring couplets "peach symbols".

In the Ming Dynasty, Zhu Yuanzhang, the founder of the Ming Dynasty, strongly advocated couplets. After he set up his capital in Jinling (now Nanjing), he ordered ministers, officials and ordinary people to write a pair of couplets on the door before New Year's Eve, and he personally went out on patrol in civilian clothes, viewing them door-to-door for fun. At that time, the literati also took the inscription of couplets as an elegant pleasure, writing Spring Festival couplets will become a social trend.

After the Qing Dynasty, Qianlong, Jiaqing, Daoguang three dynasties, couplets as prosperous as the poetry of the Tang Dynasty, there are a lot of popular famous couplets.

With the development of cultural exchanges between countries, couplets were introduced to Vietnam, Korea, Japan, Singapore and other countries. These countries still retain the custom of posting couplets.

1, the origin of the study

In the middle of the sixth century A.D., the Liang Dynasty, Zong Security Hours (about 498-561 A.D.) in the "Jing Chu Yearly Record" recorded the custom of the New Year in the Jing Chu area, and scholars praised that this exemplary yearly record was a change from the previous monthly orders of the political and religious style and the literati type of enjoyment of the oddity, and it was "a kind of dynamic field record of the ancient times. The year-end chronicle is a "dynamic ancient field record" [1]. To this day, the Spring Festival, which originated from the end-of-year "Lunar New Year" festival, is still the most important festival for the Chinese people. However, the two faults that the Jingchu Youshi ji (Records of the Years and Seasons of Jingchu) tries to avoid still exist. There are many articles on Spring Festival customs, and although their contents vary in complexity and focus, the narrative pattern is no more than the legend of the festival, its origins, historical records, and local customary events and their interpretations. Research works on folklore either tirelessly comb through ancient texts or ponder the deeper meanings behind the festivals and customs. However, both introductory and research works refer to a solidified preconception of the Spring Festival. Such a clustered and timeless narrative creates the impression that Chinese New Year is practiced almost without exception by all people, and that this "tradition" appears to be as solid as a rock.

But today, we are struck by the clamor to "defend" the Spring Festival. The need to "defend" it means that this "tradition" is in danger of being lost. New Year's dinner moved to the restaurant, pay tribute to the New Year with a text message, more and more people in the Spring Festival travel, Internet, elegant and comfortable; in this regard, the old people bemoaned the year will be no year, tasteless, and part of the folklorists are advocating a return to "tradition". But what does the Spring Festival "tradition" look like? The transcription from document to document and the exhaustive search for the inner meaning of the Spring Festival have turned it into the "internal knowledge" of experts and scholars. What researchers have overlooked is the question of what kind of practice the so-called Spring Festival "tradition" takes on among ordinary people. Is their practice of the Spring Festival uniform? What makes the practice of Chinese New Year different from one person to another? Do the practices of the same people change over time? What influences these changes? How do they perceive these differences and changes?

2. Research Methodology and Theory

In the second half of the twentieth century, with the change of regimes, the change of social values, and the influence of political campaigns, the changes in Chinese New Year practices were particularly dramatic. However, in the midst of the grand narrative of history, the voices of discrete individuals are often drowned out. Therefore, in this paper, we intend to use another kind of historical material, oral history material, which is different from documentary research, to observe the changes of Chinese New Year customs between 1949 and 1989, mainly from the perspective of individuals and their family practices.

1) Oral History

The research material of this paper is 212 textual records of oral memories of Spring Festival practices. Oral memory, often called "Oral History" (Oral History). "Since the late 1960s and beyond, oral history has been widely used in Britain and other countries because of its particular suitability for the exposition of recent social history." [2] Investigative interviews of repetitive experiences are generally considered to be more suitable for oral history research, such as the history of everyday life is an important area. In China, oral history is also very flexible in its application, and in addition to historiography, it is favored in many disciplines such as sociology, anthropology, folklore, and literature, and is still booming. However, this kind of research using oral history as the main material is currently dominated by the study of events. [3]

It goes without saying that the authenticity of oral history materials cannot be verified theoretically. This is why historians remain skeptical about the use of oral history materials, "partly because historians are reluctant to break with the principle that historical materials must be contemporary [4], whereas oral materials inevitably carry an element of hindsight." [5] It is true that the feelings, attitudes, and interests of the interviewees can lead to the focused clipping of memories, often out of the shaping of hindsight experiences, and not fully presenting the context in which the content of the interview took place on the spot. However, it may not be actually "real" to a certain extent, but at least it is real in the sense of observing the past from the present. How these interviewees absorb, store, and interpret their own personal experiences in relation to historical politics is itself an object of study. For example, Fang Huirong's oral history research on the social life of peasants during the land reform period demonstrates the dislocation between the "eventless realm" of memory and the reshaped mentality of power relations, and reflects on oral history investigations aimed at discovering the "truth" of reality. Secondly, oral history materials are often linked to personal life histories, and compared to documentary materials, their experiences are more lived, more personalized, more detailed, and their perceptions are not easily shielded by political power, so they are equally valuable for research as fugitive civilian narratives. Conversely, it has also been suggested that major events experienced in early adulthood have a particularly profound impact on the individual mind, i.e., the experiences of the time also influence the way other experiences are viewed afterward and the cognitive frameworks in which they are perceived now.

Sweeping the dust

"On the 24th day of the Lunar New Year, dusting and sweeping the house," according to Lüshi Chunqiu, the custom of sweeping the dust in the Spring Festival was practiced in China during the Yao and Shun Dynasties. According to folklore: because the "dust" and "Chen" consonant, dust sweeping in the New Year has "in addition to the meaning of Chen Bu Xin", the intention is to all the poor luck, bad luck, swept out the door. This custom is a symbol of people's desire to break away from the old and bring in the new and their prayers for the old and the new. Whenever the Spring Festival comes, every household has to clean up the environment, wash all kinds of appliances, dismantle and wash the bedding curtains, sprinkle the six capitals of the courtyard, dusting dust cobwebs, dredge the nullahs and ditches. The whole place is filled with the joyful atmosphere of sanitation and cleanliness to welcome the new year.

New Year's Money

The Spring Festival to pay homage to the New Year, the elders will be prepared in advance of the New Year's money to the younger generation, it is said that the New Year's money can be pressed to stop the evil spirits, because the "age of" and "Sneaky" harmonic, the younger generation to get the New Year's money can be peaceful and safe through the A year. There are two kinds of New Year's money, one is to colorful rope threaded braided into the shape of a dragon, placed at the foot of the bed, this record is found in the "Yanjing Yearly Record"; the other is the most common, that is, wrapped in red paper by the parents of the money given to the children. New Year's money can be given in public after the younger generation pays homage to the New Year, or it can be placed under the child's pillow by the parents when the child falls asleep on New Year's Eve.

Folk believe that when the New Year's money is given to the child, when the evil spirits, demons or the "New Year" go to harm the child, the child can use the money to bribe them to turn bad luck into good luck. Qing people Wu Man Yun "New Year's money" poem in the cloud: "a hundred and ten money through the colorful line long, divided again pillow from the collection, the discussion of firecrackers to talk about xiao price, added to the children of the night busy". From this point of view, the new year's money is tied to a child's heart, and the child's new year's money is mainly used to buy firecrackers, toys and sweets and other festive things.

Now the custom of elders giving new year's money to their seniors is still prevalent, and the amount of money ranges from a few dozen to a few hundred, which is mostly used by children to buy books and school supplies, a new fashion that gives new content to new year's money.

Putting up the windowpane and pasting the word "blessing" backwards

People also like to put all kinds of paper cuttings on the windows in the folklore - the windowpane. Window flowers not only set a festive atmosphere, but also decorative, appreciative and practical in one. Paper cutting in China is a very popular folk art, for thousands of years by the people's favorite, because it is mostly affixed to the window, so it is also known as "window flowers". Window flowers with its unique generalization and exaggeration of auspicious events, good wishes expressed in the best, the festival decorated with red hot and rich.

At the same time as the Spring Festival couplets, some people have to put large and small "Fu" characters on the doors, walls and lintels of their houses. The Spring Festival sticker "Fu" character, is China's folk custom from a long time. The character "福" refers to good fortune and good luck, and it expresses people's desire for a happy life and their wish for a better future. In order to more fully reflect this yearning and wishes, some people simply stick the word "Fu" upside down, indicating that "happiness has arrived" and "good fortune has arrived". Folk there will be "Fu" word fine as a variety of patterns, patterns have longevity, longevity peach, carp jump Dragon Gate, five grains, dragon and phoenix, and so on.

New Year's paintings

The Spring Festival hanging stickers New Year's paintings in urban and rural areas is also very common, thick black colorful New Year's paintings to thousands of families added a lot of prosperity and joy of the festive atmosphere. New Year's paintings are an ancient folk art in China, reflecting the people's simple customs and beliefs, and holding their hopes for the future. New Year's paintings, like spring scrolls, originated as "door gods". With the rise of woodblock printing, the content of the New Year's paintings has not only been limited to monotonous themes such as the God of the Door, become colorful, in some of the New Year's paintings in the workshop produced the "Three Stars of Fortune and Longevity," "Heavenly Officials Provide Blessings," "Five Grains and Plenty of Fortune," "Six Animals Prosperity," "Welcoming the Spring Receiving Blessings," and other classic colorful New Year's paintings, in order to satisfy people's wishes for a happy and prayerful New Year. There are three important production areas of Chinese New Year paintings in China: Taohuayu in Suzhou, Yangliuqing in Tianjin and Weifang in Shandong Province; three major schools of Chinese New Year paintings have been formed, each with its own characteristics.

China's earliest collection of Chinese New Year paintings is the Southern Song Dynasty "with the fairness of the country's face" woodcut New Year paintings, the painting is Wang Zhaojun, Zhao Feiyan, Banji and green beads of the four ancient beauties. The most widely circulated folk painting is the one of "The Mouse Marrying Her Marriage". It depicts an interesting scene of a mouse marrying a bride in accordance with the customs of the earth. In the early years of the Republic of China, Zheng Mantuo of Shanghai combined the lunar calendar and New Year's paintings. This is a new form of New Year's paintings. This combination of two and one of the New Year's paintings, later developed into a wall calendar, and is still popular throughout the country.

Watch the New Year's Eve

Watching the New Year's Eve is one of the most important New Year's activities, and the custom of watching the New Year's Eve has a long history. The earliest record is found in the Western Jin Dynasty Zhou Chu's "Land and Customs": New Year's Eve night, each with the gift, known as "feed the year"; wine and food invited, known as the "other year"; young and old get together to drink, wishing to complete, known as the "share the year"; all night long to keep the New Year's Eve, the most important activity. "

The first time I saw this is when I was a young man and I had to wait for the day to dawn, so I called it the "New Year's Eve".

"One night even double the year, five nights divided into two days", New Year's Eve, the whole family gathered together, ate the New Year's Eve dinner, light up candles or oil lamps, sitting around the fireplace chatting, waiting for the time to say goodbye to the old and welcome the new, the all-night vigil, symbolizing all the evil plague and epidemic according to the run drive away, looking forward to a new year of good luck. This custom gradually prevailed, to the early Tang Dynasty, Tang Taizong Li Shimin wrote a "year-keeping" poem: "cold resignation from the winter snow, the warmth of the spring wind". Until today, people are still accustomed to the New Year's Eve to welcome the new year.

Anciently, there are two meanings of year-end vigil: the elderly year-end vigil for the "resignation of the old year", there is the meaning of the treasure of time and light; young people year-end vigil is to extend the life of their parents. Since the Han Dynasty, the time of the transition between the old and new year is usually the middle of the night.

Crackers

Chinese folk "open door firecrackers". That is, at the dawn of the new year, the first thing that families do when they open the door is to set off firecrackers, to beep and blare the sound of firecrackers to get rid of the old and welcome the new. Firecrackers is a Chinese specialty, also known as "firecrackers", "cannonballs", "firecrackers". Its origin is very early, so far has a history of more than two thousand years. Firecrackers can create a festive and lively atmosphere, is a kind of festival entertainment, can bring people joy and good luck. With the passage of time, the application of firecrackers is more and more widely used, varieties and colors are also increasingly numerous, every major holiday and festivals, and marriage, building, opening, etc., are to set off firecrackers in order to show the celebration, figure a good luck. Now, Hunan Liuyang, Guangdong Foshan and Dongyao, Jiangxi Yichun and Pingxiang, Wenzhou, Zhejiang and other areas is China's famous hometown of firecrackers, the production of firecrackers colorful, high-quality, not only sells well across the country, but also exported to the world.

Welcome to the New Year

The first day of the New Year, people get up early, put on the most beautiful clothes, dressed neatly, go out to visit friends and relatives, each other, wishing good luck for the coming year. Worship a variety of ways, some of them are the same patriarch led a number of people to go door to door to pay tribute to the New Year; some colleagues invited a few people to pay tribute to the New Year; there are also get together to congratulate each other, known as the "group worship". Because of the time-consuming and labor-intensive door-to-door New Year's greetings, some of the upper class and the scholarly community used the posters to congratulate each other, which developed into the "New Year's Pieces" later on.

The Chinese New Year, the late generation should first pay tribute to the elders, wishing the elders a long life and well-being, the elders can be prepared beforehand the New Year's money to the elders, it is said that the New Year's money can be pressed to stop the evil spirits, because the "age" and the "spirit" consonant, the elders get the New Year's money can be a year of peace and security. It is said that New Year's money can keep evil spirits at bay, because "year" and "spirit" sound alike. There are two kinds of New Year's money, one is a colorful rope threaded and braided into the shape of a dragon, placed at the foot of the bed, which is recorded in the "Yanjing Yearly Record"; the other is the most common, that is, wrapped in red paper by the parents of the money given to the children. New Year's money can be rewarded in the evening after the New Year's greetings in public, can also be in the New Year's Eve when the child is asleep, by the parents secretly placed under the child's pillow. Now the elders for the younger generation to send the custom of the new year's money is still prevalent.

An important activity in the Spring Festival is to new friends and neighbors to congratulate the New Year, the old term for New Year's Eve. Han Chinese New Year's Eve style, the Han Dynasty has. After the Tang and Song dynasties are very popular, some do not have to go in person, can be used in the name of the invitation to cast congratulations. The Eastern Han Dynasty called "prick", so the business card is also known as the "name prick". After the Ming Dynasty, many people stick a red paper bag at the door, specializing in name badges, called "door book".

Folk visit the form of New Year's Eve, according to each other's social relations, can be divided into four categories:

One is to go to relatives. The first day must go to the father-in-law, shall bring gifts. After entering the door first to the Buddha statue, ancestral images, pagodas each line three kowtow salute, and then to the elders in turn kneeling. You can stay to eat and play.

The second is a courtesy visit. Such as to colleagues, friends to pay tribute to the New Year, a door into the house, only to the Buddha three kowtow, such as with the host of the Department of the same generation is only required to arch a bow, such as older than their own, should still take the initiative to kneel down, the host should be down the seat to do to help the shape of the even said free to show humility. This situation is generally not appropriate to sit for a long time, pleasantries two polite words to say goodbye. After the master was worshiped, should choose a day to return to worship.

Third is a thank-you visit. Where a year to people owe love (such as lawyers, doctors, etc.) to buy some gifts to send, take the opportunity to pay tribute to the New Year, to express gratitude pillow.

The fourth is a series of visits. For the left and right neighbors of the neighborhood, not much interaction in the past, but meet can say, to the Jubilee, just to the yard, meet each other with a clasped fist and said: "Gong Xi Fa Cai", "a Shun Bashun", in the house to sit down for a while only, not very much etiquette.

Anciently, there is a New Year's Eve and New Year's Day: New Year's Eve is to the elders kowtow; New Year's Day is to congratulate each other. Now, some organizations, groups rest, enterprises, schools, we get together to congratulate each other, called "reunion".

New Year's greeting is a traditional Chinese folk custom, is a way for people to say goodbye to the old and welcome the new, and express their good wishes to each other. In ancient times, the original meaning of the term "New Year's greeting" was to pay respects to the elders, including kowtowing to the elders, congratulating them on a happy New Year, and greeting them on a good life, etc. When there were relatives and friends of the same generation, they were also invited to pay respects to the elders. When there are relatives and friends of the same generation, they should also bow to congratulate.

Anciently, if or neighborhood friends and relatives too much, it is difficult to visit all over the door, the servants to bring business cards to pay tribute to the New Year, known as the "fly post", the door of each house to paste a red paper bag, written on the "receive the blessing of the two words, that is, for the bearer to put the fly post with. This custom began in the Song Dynasty upper class. The Qing Dynasty's "Yan Tai Yue Ling" described the Beijing New Year's Festival as follows: "This is also the month when pieces fly and empty cars go." It became fashionable. Large families ad hoc "door book" to remember the guests and fly piece of correspondence, the door book of the first page of the virtual "pro-arrivals" four people: one said the life of a hundred years old master, live in a hundred years of the Square Lane; one said the rich Yu masters, live in Yuanbao Street; one said that you have no great people, live in the university scholar's house; One said the blessing of the old master, live in the five blessings building. In order to try to auspicious to curry favor. To date, the Chinese New Year gift of New Year's tablets, New Year's cards, is the legacy of this ancient send each other fly post.

The upper class scholarly men had the custom of throwing congratulations to each other with famous posters. Song Zhou Hui in the "Qingbo Magazine" said: "Song Yuanyou years, New Year's greetings, often using servants to hold the name of the thorn on behalf of the go". At that time, the scholars traveled widely, if around the door to pay tribute to the New Year, both time-consuming, but also exhausting energy, so some of the relationship is not close to the friends do not go in person, but to send a servant to take a kind of paper with plum blossom paper cut into two inches wide, three inches long, written on the top of the name of the recipient of the congratulations, address and congratulations on the words of the card to go to on behalf of the New Year's greeting. People in the Ming Dynasty to visit instead of New Year's greeting. Ming Dynasty distinguished painter, poet Wen Zhengming in the "New Year" poem described: "do not seek to meet but through the visit, the name of the paper towards the full sheltered hut; I also cast a number of paper with the people, the world hate Jane not suspected of false". Here the "famous prick" and "famous visit" is the origin of the current New Year's card. New Year's cards are used for contacting and greeting each other, which is both convenient and practical, and even today they are still popular.

From about the time of the Qing Dynasty, New Year's Day and add the form of "reunion worship", the Qing Yi Lan master in the "side hat Yu Tan" said: "the capital in the first of the year, routine reunion worship, in order to unite the friendship of the year, in order to Dunhuang feelings", "every year! By the year book red booking guests, food and drink banquets, for the whole day happy".

With the development of the times, the custom of New Year's Eve is also constantly adding new content and form. Now people in addition to the inheritance of the past New Year's Eve, and the rise of ritual telegrams and telephone New Year's Eve and so on.

But from the first to the fifth day of the first month, most families do not receive women, called "taboo door". Men are limited to going out to pay their respects, while women must wait until after the sixth day of the first month to go out and visit. The New Year's visit extends for a long time, until around the Lantern Festival on the 15th day of the first month. When you go to someone's house in the evening, it is called the "Night Festival", and after the tenth day of the first month, it is called the "Festival of Lights", which is why there is a joke that "if you want to pay respect to the New Year, it is not too late to have a cold meal".

If, for any reason, you do not follow the customary salute, and make up for it later, it is called "paying homage to the New Year." 0