Why was dragon boat racing, as one of the traditional customs of the Chinese nation, strictly prohibited in the Song Dynasty?

Dragon boat racing has become a traditional custom of the Chinese nation during the Warring States Period in the 5th century BC, and it is one of the most important folk activities of the Dragon Boat Festival. The Song of Dragon Boat Race written by Zhang Jianfeng, a poet in the Tang Dynasty, vividly depicts the magnificent scenery of dragon boat race: the dragon boat under the command of war drums and red flags flies like a sword, and the drums sound like thunder; The finish line is marked with colorful poles; The dragon boat is approaching the target quickly. It is a traditional folk activity with a long history and profound cultural background. Why did it come to an abrupt end in the Song Dynasty? First, the murder case caused by dragon boat racing Let's start with a murder case in the Southern Song Dynasty. We just said that the dragon boat race came to an abrupt end in the Song Dynasty, but in fact it was only for the Song Dynasty. Although the punishment in criminal law is very severe, organizations even propose to organize participation and will be sentenced to imprisonment. Dragon boat races are still held in a lively way among the people, and they almost never stop, especially in the south. Dragon boat races are related to the honor, status and even beliefs of the contestants and the people they represent. Against this background, in the tenth year of the Southern Song Dynasty, two days after the Dragon Boat Festival in 1250, a dragon boat race was held in Miankou Town and Wu Fan Town of Yanshan County, Xinzhou County, Jiangxi Province. As a result, the people on the two boats don't know why, and they started fighting after the game. In the middle of the river, the two sides fought with swords and clubs, and as a result, a dragon boat capsized and 13 people on board were buried in the water. A dragon boat race actually killed 13 people. Cai Hang, the head of the local prison department, was ordered to review the case and gradually found out the ins and outs of the matter. It turned out that the red dragon boat sent by Miankou Town of Qianshan County competed with the white dragon boat sent by local Wu Fan. The result of the first race was that the red dragon boat in Miankou Town, which was rich in money, lost to the white dragon boat. Not convinced, he asked for another match, but he lost again. The murder happened after the second game. It is said that the red dragon boat should sail for Lingkou, while the white dragon boat should sail for Wu Fan. Fan Wharf is in the upper reaches of Mukou, so the two boats have to be parallel for a period of time, that is, during this period, people on the shore saw the two dragon boats suddenly stop, then quickly approached, and then the fight between the two sides began. Both sides took out their prepared weapons and sticks to fight. Later, through investigation, Cai Hang found that the White Dragon Boat provoked first, and everyone was ready to fight, and then the two sides went to war. There are many red dragon boats, but few white ones. Water combat is no better than land combat. The more people there are, the easier it is for the ship to lose its balance. So, the people on the white dragon boat saw this clearly and sent ten paddlers to destroy the balance of the red dragon boat, attracting all the people on the red dragon boat to one side of the boat, swinging the side of the boat and shaking it back and forth. This method of warfare is very effective, and the red dragon boat turned over as expected, and the casualties were serious. Therefore, the ten boatmen on the White Dragon Boat are the direct murderers who caused the Red Dragon Boat to capsize. After consulting the inspection report, Cai Hang found that the deceased had sticks and knife wounds. Although not fatal, these are the important reasons why these people fell into the water and drowned. As we know, the dragon boat race is a sports activity now, and the competition between the players is carried out under the rules of sports competition. Naturally, there are losers and winners in sports competitions, but I have never heard that losers will try their best to win with knives. As far as this case is concerned, how can winning or losing the dragon boat race lead to the death of 13 people? Second, the dragon boat race is complicated. First of all, in ancient times, dragon boat racing was by no means a sports activity, or even a game or competition, but carried more contents. In the folk beliefs in the south, especially in Fujian and Guangdong, May is an evil month and a poisonous month. This month has been full of disasters. May 5th was an evil day, adding poison to the poison. We must take various measures to ward off evil spirits and expel all kinds of poisons. When talking about the dragon boat race, Ancient and Modern Books said that the dragon boat race was originally rowing a boat, going straight to the downstream to burn sacrifices, pouring wine into the river as sacrifices, and cursing all disasters, plagues and Uber. So whoever gets the dragon boat first has the first chance. In people's minds, racing is of extraordinary significance in driving away disasters. Since there is a competition, there must be a struggle, a win and a loss, and the winner is complacent. He thinks that he can get the care of the dragon god, be worshipped by the villagers, and bring great honor to his hometown. For losers, it is shame, disappointment and contempt. More importantly, the loser was abandoned by the dragon god. This is bound to cause a fight. Therefore, in the court's view, dragon boat racing and memorial activities of folk beliefs are easy to cause social security problems and even crimes. Therefore, all localities are required to strictly prohibit such activities. In 967, in the fifth year of Kandi in northern Song Taizu, Song Taizu banned people from participating in gods, and officials arrested them for participating in a play and making a white ceremony for the blue sky. Song Zhenzong reiterated this law: States are ordered to ban racial crossing, and offenders are only sentenced to one year. During the Southern Song Dynasty, this competition was still strictly prohibited. According to the law, those who make up their minds are only one year, and those who follow them are reduced to one level. In other words, whoever comes up with the idea of holding a dragon boat race will only need one year. Who is in favor of responding to the dragon boat race and playing one hundred? This ban is so strict that dragon boat races cannot be held or even mentioned. The dragon boat race case that Cai Hang faced was a typical homicide case caused by the dragon boat race on East Zhejiang Road at that time. Third, the interests involved in dragon boat racing are here, roughly explaining the reasons why dragon boat racing was forbidden in the Song Dynasty. But the question is, why is the dragon boat race, which is explicitly prohibited by national laws and regulations, repeatedly banned among the people? I am afraid there are deeper reasons behind this. As a famous Neo-Confucianism in the Southern Song Dynasty, Cai Hang has been thinking about the tension between this folk custom and state law. Dragon boat racing has been going on among the people for thousands of years and has become a part of people's lives. Can the country ban it by a paper ban? Actually, there is no prohibition. Let's go Liang Kejia, a Song Dynasty man, recorded in "Three Mountains Record" that during the Dragon Boat Festival, Shaoxing was detained because of a rural struggle, and pontoons were built in each hospital, and the boat was slightly rebuilt. Therefore, in order to ban dragon boat races, the government adopted the method of collecting all folk dragon boats and sending them to various places to build pontoons. But not long after, a new dragon boat was built, and there was no way to ban it. Dragon boat race is too important in the eyes of ordinary people. It is because of its importance that many things will happen around the dragon boat. Cai Hang stayed in Jiangdong for a long time. He knows that the dragon boat race involves the interests of thousands of people in Qian Qian, not just customs, beliefs or entertainment. Dragon boat races have the advantages of docks. They want to build ships. They want to eat for the benefit of the rowers. There are villagers' interests, and sacrifices should be made on holidays. Not only that, there are many things behind it, such as gamblers who bet on dragon boats, witches who worship witchcraft during the Dragon Boat Festival, officials who accept bribes from prisons and banks, wealthy businessmen with commercial competitors, and tycoons who compete for local authority. Various forces are intertwined and concentrated in a dragon boat race. How can I not have an accident? In addition, we consulted the historical materials in the late Song Dynasty and early Yuan Dynasty, and found that there was actually a huge interest struggle behind the dragon boat race. Generally speaking, there are about three things. The first is to fight for the ferry. Cai Hang found the ferry problem in another case. It is a clan or people in a village who, by virtue of their power or power, occupy a ferry and monopolize the whole business of crossing the river. As we all know, Xinjiang is the most important waterway in Xinzhou, and Lingkou is also a throat port. Therefore, as a scarce resource, the competition for ferries here is definitely fierce. Elsewhere, we see people deciding who will occupy the ferry through dragon boat races. That is, whoever wins, who occupies the ferry, who occupies the ferry, will earn. We still don't know whether the case we are talking about is aimed at ferrying, which is limited by historical data. The second is to compete for fields or water. In a fixed area, the number of fields and water surfaces is limited. Farming in the field, surface fishing or planting aquatic crops are the main means of livelihood for local residents. Rivers will change in some places, and the abundance and shortage of water and the change of water surface will affect the interests of people living in different areas. I am on the south bank of the river, and you are on the north bank of the river. If the river moves northward, the land area on my side will increase, the land area on your side will decrease, and the lakes will also decrease. You fill the lake to make land, and the lake overflows on my side. Your farmland increases, my farmland decreases, and the competition for water surface becomes more complicated. What should I do? The answer is to solve it by dragon boat racing. Whoever wins will get more resources. In this case, how can everyone not be popular? Third, adjudicate disputes. Many places in the south still retain ancient customs, and disputes in life, especially disputes between villages, are solved through ethnic crossing. It's like a duel in ancient times, except that they compete for speed on water, so dragon boat racing is an ancient custom, that's right. However, at the end of the Southern Song Dynasty, folk races contained richer contents, mainly the competition for interests. So there are dragon boat races in Jianghuai, Fujian, Guangxi and Jiangxi. The form of the dragon boat race is similar, but the competition behind the dragon boat race is quite different. Fourth, the solution was not only in the Song Dynasty. From the Song Dynasty to the Yuan Dynasty, dragon boat races were forbidden on all roads in the south. It is precisely because of the fierce and cruel competition for these interests that Cai Hang, as a Neo-Confucianism, started with a case and saw the conflict between local customs and national laws, as well as the complex interest struggle behind a dragon boat race case. He believes that Xinzhou and Raozhou are barren and hilly, and the ferry is a very important source of income. If you occupy the ferry, you can get a steady stream of wealth. Therefore, Cai Hang's next job is to rectify the ferry order and severely crack down on the ferry operation. Check all kinds of illegally operated ships and investigate and deal with smuggling. In the process of ferry operation, extortion, looting of property, forced buying and selling shall be punished according to law. In particular, it is necessary to prohibit the transition of private punting. In this way, the government strengthened the management of the ferry, occupied the ferry and illegally took money, so the competition for interests in the towns around the ferry was greatly reduced, and the acts of beating and killing were correspondingly reduced. Conclusion: Folk dragon boat races are often not pure races. Behind the dragon boat race, in fact, the essence of the matter is the competition for interests and resources. The more you fight, the less I get. So there will be fighting and even death in the dragon boat race. In this case, it is difficult for the law to ban the competition. Due to the strong power of folk beliefs and the competition for interests, there have been a large number of cases of dragon boat racing, both for reasons of beliefs and conflicts between laws and customs. This problem still exists until now. Zhen, a famous Neo-Confucianist in the Southern Song Dynasty, believes that law can punish evil, but it cannot turn people into customs. It is expensive to blindly recognize the law and prohibit the customs and habits that people have formed, and it is very likely to cause fierce conflicts. So what does Zhen Xiude think about how to turn people into customs? It is legalized by the state, educated to be sensible, to support, enrich and teach the people, so that the wind of charity will last forever and the wind of profit-seeking will disappear. It boils down to one sentence: from the emperor to Shu Ren, self-cultivation is the foundation. This is a distinct proposition of Neo-Confucianism in the Song Dynasty, and it is also the unremitting pursuit of famous officials in The Collection of Famous Officials Commenting on Qingming. Reference 1. Qingming Collection, Zhonghua Book Company, 1987 According to History of Song Dynasty, volume 420, Biography of Cai Hangchuan. 2. Dragon Boat Race (published by China Social Publishing House) 3. Dragon Boat Race: China Folk Culture Series, edited by Tai Wei, China Social Publishing House.