What's the origin and story of Qingming? Thank you!

The origin of Qingming Festival Qingming Festival, also known as Treading Green Festival, Tomb Sweeping Festival and Smart Festival, is a traditional festival in China. In the traditional custom, every March and April, people pay most attention to the Qingming Festival. The Qingming Festival falls in the first half of March on the lunar calendar and around April 5 on the Gregorian calendar. It is a traditional Chinese festival of remembrance. When it comes to Qingming, there are a lot of customary activities, including cleaning graves, trekking and willow planting, etc. The word "Qingming" is used in the Chinese characters for "清明". The word "Ching Ming" is explained in the ancient book: "Everything is clean and clear up to this point"; in other books, there are also "Tung begins to blossom, the rainbow begins to see, and the ping begins to be born", "The wind of Ching Ming is in the south-east, and the wind of Ching Ming is in the south-east. "Qingming wind in the southeast dimension, the main wind blowing everything". Qingming symbolizes China's Yellow River Basin, the fading of the cold winter passed, the wind and sunny spring came. At this time, the severe winter that everything sleeps passes, and the spring that everything is renewed comes. Everywhere is a bright spring, grass and trees sprouting bright scene. The working people arrange their crops according to the solar terms. Twenty-four seasons in the "Qingming busy planting wheat, grain rain planting big field" said. From the Chinese calendar, Qingming originally referred to one of the twenty-four solar terms in the Chinese lunar calendar, a sign of climate change. The twenty-four solar terms are the calculations of seasonal alternation and climate change in the lunar calendar. China's earliest solar calendar and the "National Rites - Spring Officials" clearly recounted "winter and summer to the sun, spring and autumn to the moon, in order to identify the narrative of the four seasons," the most basic constants of the astronomical calendar. After the farming society, the working people found that the day, the month and the year constituted the three elements of the calendar, and more than 2,000 years ago, during the Qin and Han Dynasties, the 24 solar terms were basically formed. 24 solar terms synthesized the knowledge of astronomy and meteorology, and arranged "spring rain startles the spring and clears the valley day, and summer is full of mango and summer is connected with heat. Autumn dew in the fall cold frost, winter snow snow winter small cold" song. Among them, Qingming is ranked fifth in the song. It is also the fifth solar term in the lunar calendar. At this time, the weather turns warm, the earth returns to spring, and everything recovers. It is written in the "Hundred Questions on the Time of the Year" that "when everything grows at this time, they are all clean and clear, so it is called Qingming." Qingming, the temperature rises, rainfall increases, it is a good time for spring plowing and planting. Therefore, there are "before and after the Qingming, point melon planting beans", "planting trees and forests, not over the Qingming" of the farmers' proverbs. It can be seen that this festival has a close relationship with agricultural production. Therefore, Qingming was actually a farming festival at first, and there was no custom of sweeping graves. The custom of sweeping graves was formed in connection with the Cold Food Festival. Cold Food Festival, also known as Cooked Food Festival, No Smoking Festival, Cold Festival. Its date is one hundred and five days from the winter solstice, which is just one or two days from the Qingming Festival. The main custom of this festival is to prohibit fire, not allowed to make fire to cook food, can only eat prepared cooked food, cold food, hence the name. The Cold Food Festival commemorates Jie Zi Tui, a wise minister of Duke Wen of Jin during the Spring and Autumn Period. During the Spring and Autumn Period, there was civil unrest in the court of Jin. The half-brother and stepmother of Prince Chong Er of Jin, Li Ji, wanted to get rid of him and take his throne. In order to escape their persecution, Prince Chong Er of Jin went into exile, along with his loyal servant Jie Zi Pui and others. One day, they lost their way in the mountains, and their food and aid were cut off. Jie Zi Pui cut off the flesh of his own thigh and cooked it into soup to relieve Chong Er's hunger, and Chong Er was very touched. Nineteen years later, Chong Er returned to Jin and became the king of a country called Duke Wen of Jin. At that time, in order to praise his ministers for their service, he rewarded them for their achievements, but he forgot about Jie Zi Tui. Jie Zi Tui was a man of noble character, and instead of asking for rewards, he quietly returned to his hometown, took his mother, and lived in seclusion in Mian Mountain. Duke Wen of Jin was remorseful, and sent people to ask Jie Zi push out of the mountain. Jie Zi Tui insisted not to come out. Later, the Duke of Jin wanted to burn the mountain to force Jie Zi push out to receive the reward, but the result was accidentally burned to death Jie Zi push and his mother. Duke Wen of Jin was very sad, in order to show condolences, ordered to bury the two under the willow tree, and renamed Mianshan as "Jie Shan". At the same time, this day every year, the prohibition of fire, only eat cold food, to commemorate Jie Zi Tui. This is the "Cold Food Festival". At that time, people carried food to Jie Zi Tui's grave to sweep the tomb to commemorate him, and then formed the Cold Food Festival to sweep the tomb. The Cold Food Festival and the Qingming Festival were originally two festivals, but due to the proximity of the dates, the two festivals were merged into one in the Tang Dynasty. As a result, the custom of sweeping graves at Qingming emerged. In fact, the real origin of the Cold Food Festival is from the ancient system of drilling wood and seeking new fire. Ancient people used different trees to drill fires for different seasons, and it was customary to change the fire for different seasons. And every time after changing the fire, it was necessary to get a new fire. Before the new fire arrived, people were forbidden to make fire. This was an important event at that time. Zhou Li - Autumn Officials - SiXuan's: "In the middle of spring, the wooden pole was used to repair the fire ban in the country." It can be seen that at that time was shaking the wooden blade, walking on the street, ordering to prohibit fire. This SiXuan's, that is, a small official in charge of fire. At the time of the fire ban, people prepare some cold food for consumption, which slowly became a fixed custom. Later, it was connected with the legend of Jie Zi Tui, and became the Cold Food Festival, which lasted for a month. After all, this is not good for health, and later on, the date was shortened from seven days, three days gradually changed to one day, and after the Tang Dynasty, it was integrated into the Qingming Festival. There is another story about Qingming Tomb-sweeping. According to legend, at the end of the Qin Dynasty, Liu Bang, the Gaozu of Han Dynasty, and Xiang Yu, the king of Western Chu Dynasty, finally gained the world after several battles. When he returned to his hometown, he wanted to pay his respects to the graves of his parents, but because of the years of war, the graves were full of weeds, the tombstones were crooked, some were broken and some were cracked, and the words on the tombstones were unrecognizable. Liu Bang was very sad, although his subordinates also helped him to go through all the tombstones, but he still could not find his parents' graves until dusk. Finally, Liu Bang took out a piece of paper from his sleeve, tore it into many small pieces with his hands, pinched it tightly in his hands, and then prayed to the heavens, saying, "My parents are alive in heaven, and now that the wind is blowing so hard, I will throw these small pieces of paper into the air, and if the pieces of paper fall in a place where the wind does not move them, it is the graves of my parents." After saying that Liu Bang threw the pieces of paper into the air, and sure enough, a piece of paper fell on a grave, no matter how the wind blew can not be blown, Liu Bang ran over to take a closer look at the fuzzy tombstone, and sure enough, he saw the name of his parents engraved on it. Liu Bang was so happy that he immediately had his parents' tomb rebuilt, and from then on, every year on the Ching Ming Festival, he would definitely go to his parents' grave to pay homage to them. Later on, the people, like Liu Bang, went to their ancestors' graves every year on the Ching Ming Festival to pay homage to them, and pressed a few pieces of paper on the graves with a small piece of earth to show that the graves were swept by someone. According to ancient records, the ritual activity of tomb-sweeping already appeared in the Qin and Han Dynasties. At that time, tomb-sweeping ceremonies were very solemn, with offerings placed, graves repaired, incense burned, paper burned, and even pines and cypresses planted on the graves to express condolences. On the day of the tomb-sweeping ceremony, all families, except for the elderly, went out of town to sweep the graves. Even the shepherd boys drive their cows down the hill to avoid interfering with other people's grave-sweeping. People in foreign countries also look to their hometowns to pay homage to their ancestors. Tomb-sweeping is also known as grave-sacrifice, sweeping, and visiting the graves. Qingming tomb sweeping is because the hibernation, the spring equinox has passed, the ice and snow, grass and trees sprouting, people think of their ancestors grave Ying, there are foxes and rabbits through the holes, whether the rainy season and collapse, so to the grave on the one hand to remove weeds, trimming branches, to the grave to add a few shovels of soil; on the other hand, to prepare some offerings, burn a few paper money, to the branches of the tree to hang some paper strips, a simple ceremony to express the deceased's To express one's remembrance of the deceased. Because tomb-sweeping is a concrete manifestation of the importance of memorializing the dead, maintaining good relations with relatives and performing filial piety, the Ching Ming Festival has become an important festival for the Chinese people because of the above significance. Tomb-sweeping activities usually take place 10 days before or 10 days after the Ching Ming Festival. In some cases, it can take up to a month. Chinese ancestor worship activities are often carried out in the countryside, and people combine tomb-sweeping and picnicking to cultivate their emotions and promote their physical and mental health. Ancient February, March 3, there is the custom of trekking. "February 2 on the river, the east wind day liver heard blowing sheng", "March 3 weather new, Chang'an waterfront more beautiful people", described is the Tang people trekking scene. In ancient times, on this day, people gathered friends and relatives, old and young, riding the spring to the countryside to trekking, and then sit around the wild feast, to the twilight and return. People in the grave and trekking on the way home, are willing to pick a few wildflowers to wear on the head, hand folded a few willow inserted in front of the house. This custom is said to be in honor of Shennong, the ancestor of farmers, who "taught the people to gather crops". Later, the custom evolved into a desire to honor and hope for longevity. While the custom of wearing willows was eliminated, willow planting became popular and became a tree-planting festival for the people of China to plant trees in the spring. There are also many traditional colorful cultural and sports activities circulating before and after Qingming, such as tug-of-war, swinging, kite-flying, playing polo, cockfighting and other activities. The customs of Qingming Festival are colorful and the records of the past generations are very voluminous. Poets with Qingming works are more colorful, can not be remembered. Dream of the Red Chamber" in the Qingming activities Jiafu attaches great importance to picking grass, kite flying, swinging as an important part of the activities, fully embodies the Qingming activities in the folklore of the important position. In these senses, Qingming is both a festival and a traditional holiday. It is an opportunity to send condolences. To this day, in the Martyrs' Cemetery in memory of the martyrs of the revolution has added a lot of content for the Qingming Festival, all over the young people in groups to the Martyrs' Cemetery to pay tribute to the flowers, or to invite the revolutionary forefathers to make a report on the revolution, tell the story of the revolution, or to organize tours, trips, visits to places of interest, picking up the specimens, enriched the festival content. In addition, in the sacrifice of Yanhuang two ancestors at the same time, mourning their ancestors, remembering the great achievements of the martyrs, in today's Qingming activities are more very important significance. Memory of loved ones, send condolences, originally is full of warmth. However, when the street burning incense, grave side burning money caused by the fire affecting the city, Qingming has become no longer Qingming. What's more, there are villas, Mercedes-Benz, honey and even Viagra have also become sacrificial offerings, making the Qingming Festival almost a farce. At the same time, online sacrifices, home sacrifices, tree burials, sea burials and other non-polluting and non-hazardous new ways of worship are also gradually prevalent. Civilization has become a trend, when the lifestyle has been improved, once followed our bad habits should be abandoned, so that Qingming really clear up.