The source of why Qingming Festival is an important festival?

The Qingming Festival is an important traditional festival in China and remains one of the most important festivals for the Chinese people, including overseas Chinese, today. In traditional societies, Qingming Festival is a particularly grand festival. It is not only a festival for sweeping tombs and paying tribute to the memory of departed loved ones, but also a festival for trekking and playing in nature. The folk activities surrounding the two themes are rich and varied, and they are a great sight to behold. It also has a long festival period. Qingming Day (the 15th day after the vernal equinox in the lunar calendar, around the 5th day of the 4th month in the Gregorian calendar) is only the iconic time of the festival, and its customary activities often last from five or six days to ten days (varying from place to place). In modern society, due to changes in social life, cultural concepts, and the limitations of the holiday system, etc., the connotation, activities, and scale of the Qingming Festival have changed considerably, but it is still valued by the people of the country for its unique function and status, and it has a social impact that cannot be ignored. Examining the historical evolution of Qingming Festival customs, combining it with its inheritance in modern society, and making a positioning and planning for it in line with history and national conditions, has important social benefits and cultural significance.

Compared with other traditional festivals, the Qingming Festival is characterized by three features: first, it has the two "identities" of a festival and a holiday; second, it is dominated by outdoor activities (such as sweeping tombs and trekking in the woods, etc.); and third, it is characterized by the two emotional atmospheres, one of solemnity (or sadness) (during the activities of sweeping tombs and sacrificing to the gods) and another of joy (during the activities of trekking in the woods and other fun activities). The formation of this characteristic is closely related to its origin. From the perspective of its origin and formation, the Qingming Festival is a fusion of the Qingming Festival, the Cold Food Festival and the Shangsi Festival.

(A), Qingming Festival and "Qingming" festival

In the twenty-four festivals, both festivals and festivals is only Qingming (winter solstice is also a festival in history, but now most of the world is no longer this festival). The name of Qingming Festival is related to the characteristics of weather and weather conditions at this time. The Western Han Dynasty's "Huainanzi - Tianwenxun" says: "Fifteen days after the vernal equinox, the bucket points to B, then the Qingming wind." "Qingming wind" means fresh and clean wind. The "Hundred Questions on the Time of the Year" says, "Everything grows at this time, all clean and clear. Therefore, it is called Qingming." Although the festival of Qingming was only formed in the Tang Dynasty, the Qingming Festival as a sign of the time has long been recognized by the ancients, the Han Dynasty has been clearly recorded.

The twenty-four solar terms are the climatic patterns summarized by ancient Chinese astronomers and people in their lives and production practices, reflecting more appropriately the changes in temperature, physical conditions, rainfall and other aspects of the year, and providing indispensable guidance for people to arrange farming, sericulture, and other activities according to the time of the year. To the Qingming, warming temperatures, rainfall increased, is the spring plowing and planting of a good time. So Qingming is an important festival for ancient agricultural production. Farmers' proverbs said, "Before and after Qingming, planting melons and beans" and "Planting trees and forests is not more important than Qingming", which is exactly what they said. Cui Shi (崔寔) of the Eastern Han Dynasty recorded in "Four People's Monthly Orders": "At the Qingming Festival, we order silkworm concubines to rule the silkworm room ......", which means that we start to prepare for raising silkworms at this time. The "Qingming Festival" is still a festival, not a holiday.

In addition, Qingming in early spring in March, bright spring, everything is recovering, the climate is pleasant and vibrant everywhere, is a good time for spring and countryside recreation, so Qingming around the time of the natural people to the outdoors, the countryside to play in the good times.

While we are talking about the Qingming Festival in this article mainly refers to festivals rather than festivals, but the Qingming Festival in the time and weather characteristics for the formation of the Qingming Festival provides an important condition, the festival should be regarded as one of the sources of the Qingming Festival.

(2) Qingming Festival and Cold Food Festival

The Cold Food Festival is held in the third month of the lunar calendar, one or two days before Qingming. Before the Han Dynasty, the Cold Food Festival prohibited fire for a longer period of time, limited to one month. The Han Dynasty established the Cold Food Festival as three days before Qingming. The Southern Dynasties, "Jing Chu chronicles", "to the winter festival of one hundred and five days, that is, there is a strong wind and rain, called the cold food, banning fire for three days." Tang and Song dynasties reduced to one day before the Qingming Festival. From the pre-Qin Dynasty to the North and South Dynasties, the Cold Food was regarded as a big festival. During the Tang Dynasty, it was still a large festival, but it began to decline and was gradually merged with the Qingming Festival.

On the formation of the custom of banning fire on the Cold Food Festival, there is a widely spread folk saying that it originated from people's remembrance of and tribute to the famous loyal and righteous scholar, Jie Zi Tui. Jie Zi Tui was a minister who followed Jin Duke Chonger into exile during the Spring and Autumn Period and once cut the flesh of his own leg to feed Jin Duke. After the latter became the king of the country (i.e. Duke Wen of Jin), he wanted to reward Jie Zi Pui. However, Jie Zi Tui took his mother to Mianshan Mountain to live in seclusion, and was not rewarded. In order to force Jie Zi Pui to leave the mountain, Duke Wen of Jin set fire to the mountain, and Jie Zi Pui was burnt to death in the mountain. As a result, Jie Zi Tui was burnt to death in the mountain. Duke Wen of Jin then designated the day of burning the mountain as Jie Zi Tui's memorial day, and prohibited fire on that day. The Jing Chu chronicle of the year in the note said: "the meson pushes March 5 for the fire burned, the country mourned, every year in late spring, for not lifting the fire, called the 'ban on smoke', the offender is the rain and hail hurt the field." In fact, the custom of banning fire as early as in the Zhou Dynasty has been customary, in memory of and sacrifice to mesotronic push to ban the fire is purely incidental. After this incident in the Han Dynasty, the dissemination of the growing influence in the formation of the cold food festival and the process of inheritance is more and more influential.

Nowadays, there are two main reasons for people to explain the ban on fire during the Cold Food Festival. One is attributed to specific folk beliefs since ancient times. The ancients will be divided into twenty-eight stars of the week, the Eastern Green Dragon Palace of the angle, hyper two stars for the "Dragon Star", in the five elements in the wood position. The pre-Qin period, the ancients out of astrological superstition and induction witchcraft, that the spring Dragon Star is now in the east, easy to cause fire, so in March when the Dragon Star first appeared, should be banned fire. The custom of banning fire has been the Zhou Dynasty. During the fire ban, you can't make fire to cook, you have to prepare food in advance. This can not be heated cold food is "cold food". Another argument with the ancient life of the fire habit system to explain that the cold food ban on fire from the ancient system of drilling wood for fire and exchange for new fire. In ancient times, people drilled wood for fire, different seasons, the wood used is different, seasonal change should change the fire. Every time they changed the fire, they had to get a new fire. When the new fire had not yet arrived, people were forbidden to make a fire. The Zhou Rites - Autumn Officials - SiXuan's" says: "In the middle of spring, the fire was forbidden in the country by the wood dor." In the middle of spring, the official in charge of taking fire shook a wooden dowel in the street to warn people to prohibit fire. Later, it became a custom to ban fire at this time of the year.

There are two main features of the Cold Food Festival: the first is the banning of fire and the eating of cold food, and the second is the incidental honoring of Jie Zi Tui. When the festival added the customs of tomb-sweeping and amusement, it indicated that the attributes of the festival had undergone an essential change, that is, it was transforming into the later Qingming Festival. We can see the process of this transformation from the existing historical records and poems and other written materials.

The exact time when the Cold Food Festival increased the number of tomb-sweeping and amusement activities has not yet been clearly documented. But from the records of Tang Hui Yao written by Wang Pu of the Northern Song Dynasty, we can learn that in the early years of the Tang Dynasty, the custom of folk sweeping tombs and going on picnics during the Cold Food Festival had already become a trend and attracted the attention of the imperial court. Tang Emperor Li Zhi Longshuo two years (622 years), the court issued an imperial decree, prohibiting the folk "funeral and marriage" and "funeral, * * * for the joy of drinking", also prohibited the cold food festival to visit the grave, and even more forbidden to sweep the grave of sadness after the joyful excursion: "I may go to the grave on the cold day, but I will be happy again. Sitting on the pine trees, there is no feeling of sympathy. This is a disgrace to the wind, and should be forbidden." (Tang Hui Yao, Volume 2.3) Obviously, the court considered these folk practices to be contradictory and unbelievable behavior, disrespectful to the spirits, ghosts and gods, and unserious and unseemly. However, the folk practices did not decay because of the imperial court's ban, but instead became more and more prosperous. Therefore, after more than a hundred years, to the Xuanzong Li Longji Kaiyuan twenty years (732 years), the court issued a royal decree to allow the cold food on the tomb of the ceremony of worship and sweeping, and set as a standing order:

Cold food on the tomb, the rituals of the scripture is not text, the recent generations have been passed on to the custom of the immersion. The people of the public have not been able to enjoy the temple, how to use the exhibition of filial piety? It is appropriate to allow on the tomb, with no worship ceremony. When the food is finished, he will leave with a sob. The rest of the meal was eaten elsewhere, and no music was allowed. It should be incorporated into the Ritual Code and remain a routine forever. Kaiyuan twenty-nine years (741 years), Tang Xuanzong and the edict: "Where the common people, more than one queue, cold food on the tomb will be Yan music, see the appointment of the official code does not test the previous capital, the temple for three years, the white body of people decided to a meal." ("Tang will want to" volume 23) and enjoy the offerings in front of the grave is the folk custom since ancient times, although the court strict order is also difficult to ban.

From then on, the custom of sweeping graves on cold days was more prevalent. Later, because the officials returned to their hometowns to sweep the tombs, there are delays in duty, the court issued several decrees to solve the problem of vacation. It began to provide for a four-day vacation for the Cold Food Festival: "The 21st edict of February 24 (736): 'The four days of Cold Food and Ching Ming are a vacation.'" (Tang Hui Yao, Volume 82) According to the edict of the twelfth year of the Dali (777), the Tang government offices routinely took a five-day vacation: "From now on, the cold food passes through Qingming, and the vacation is five days." . By the sixth year of Zhenyuan (790), the holiday was increased to seven days. [In 790, the holiday was increased to seven days, so that officials could carry out tomb-sweeping and memorial services with ease. It can be seen that the Cold Food Festival had already become a very grand national holiday in the Tang Dynasty. Wang Lengran's "Cold Food" of the Tang Dynasty said, "Autumn is more important than sunshine and winter is more important than wax, but cold food is better than cold food before spring." That is to say, the importance of the Cold Food Festival exceeded that of the Chongyang Festival and the year-end wax festival. The Cold Food Festival in the Song Dynasty also had a seven-day vacation. Pang Yuanying of the Northern Song Dynasty, Wenchang Miscellany, Volume 1, recorded: "The Ancestral Ministry took a vacation for all seventy-six days of the year, and seven days for each of the Yuanzhi, the Cold Food Festival, and the Winter Solstice." The Southern Song Dynasty Chen Yuanliang, "Years and Seasons," Volume 15, cited Song Lu Yuanming, "Years and Seasons," said: "Two days before the Qingming Festival for the Cold Food Festival, before and after the three days, where the holiday seven days. And folk to one hundred and four days of fire ban, called private cold food, also known as the big cold food. North people are this day to sweep the ancestral tombs, through the month, there is a cold food January Festival of the proverb."

So, what is the relationship between the Cold Food Festival and the Qingming Festival at this time? As mentioned above, there are three main customs of the Cold Food Festival at this time: banning fires, sweeping tombs, and picnics. In the Tang and Song dynasties, the "Cold Food Festival" was actually a mixture of what is now known as the Qingming Festival and the Cold Food Festival. Cold food and Qingming is only one day difference, three days fire ban is completed, to the Qingming this day to change the new fire, to willow or elm beg for a new fire. Thus, Qingming and cold food are linked together, Qingming's new fire activities become part of the cold food activities. In fact, in the Tang and Song dynasties, a series of activities before and after the Qingming Festival were linked together, and in the people's conception at that time, the Qingming Festival was a part of the Cold Food Festival, and the day of exchanging the new fire was also regarded as an important day. Because fire was forbidden a few days before Ching Ming, the day to burn paper and make offerings at the cemetery was also supposed to be the day of Ching Ming. Some poems and writings record that the burning of paper at graveside during the winter eclipse was actually done on the day of Ching-ming. In terms of names, most of them are called "Cold Food", such as the poem of Mei Yaochen of the Tang Dynasty, "Cold Food in Huzhou Accompanied by the Imperial Conservator's South Garden", which describes the spring tour in the countryside; and some of them are called "Ching Ming", such as Du Fu's "Poem of Ching Ming", which describes the bustling spring tour in Changsha on the day of Ching Ming Festival of the fifth year of the Dali reign of the Tang Dynasty: "It is a day of prosperity everywhere, and thousands of people come out of Changsha. Thousands and thousands of people came out of Changsha. The verdant willows on the ferry were bright and colorful, and the competitors were proud of their knees and hooves." There are also poems that refer to the "cold food and clearing of the sky", such as Bai Juyi's "Cold Food and Wild Forgetting": "The crows and magpies are noisy and faint the trees, and who is crying at the cold food and clearing of the sky." Some poems mix the two names, some poems entitled "Qingming", the following verse is said to be "cold food"; or entitled "cold food", the verse is said to be "Qingming". Qingming". According to Tang Hui Yao, on February 15 of the 12th year of Dali, the court decreed: "From now on, the cold food is the same as Qingming". After the late Tang and Song dynasties, the custom of forbidding fire and cold food declined, and the custom was largely extinguished in the Yuan dynasty, so the name of "cold food" was naturally mentioned less and less, and "Qingming", which was originally the name of the festival, was highlighted, and more and more people used it to summarize the period of the festival. By the Ming and Qing Dynasties, the name "Qingming" was more than "Cold Food", replacing the latter. To modern times, most of the local people only know "Qingming Festival", do not know the name of "cold food festival". But there are still a few places have a ban on fire or eat cold custom, such as Shanxi, Shandong, some places.

The Qingming Festival and the original meaning of the Cold Food Festival in the customary content **** the same is not significant, the two main links have two points: one is connected to the time, and the second is that there are remembrance of the past, the emotional appeal of sacrifices. These two links ultimately make the Qingming Festival replaced or merged with the Cold Food Festival. The replacement of the fire ban of the Cold Food Festival with the memorial service of the Qingming Festival was done naturally in the people's life under the condition of time proximity.

(C), the Qingming Festival and on the Si Festival

On the Si Festival was formed at the end of the Spring and Autumn Period, the beginning of the date in the first half of March in the lunar calendar on the Si Day, the Wei and Jin after the change to the third day of March. From the pre-Qin to Han Dynasty, the customary activities of the festival have three kinds: one is to the water to hold a sacrificial ceremony, and to the water bath, in order to purify the stains and filth of the past year, known as the "purification" or "purification". The second is the invocation of the souls of the dead, invoking the souls of loved ones in the field or at the water's edge, as well as invoking the awakening and return of one's own soul. The ancestors believed that their souls would sprout, grow and wither with the changing of the seasons just like everything else, so they would invoke their souls in early spring. The third is the spring play, young men and women to the wild trekking play, and free to choose a spouse or intercourse.

The most important element of the early festivals and customs of the Shangsi Festival is the purification of purification. In ancient times, this activity was not only a witchcraft ritual to get rid of evil spirits and seek good luck, but also a kind of free and happy spring tour.

Qin and Wei, Fang Lax Laxxi, Shi and female, Fang Binglanxi. The woman said: "View?" Shi said: "Both Feedback." "And to view?

Beyond the river, Xun great and happy." The river is a place where people can enjoy themselves, and where they can be happy, and where they can be happy.

The Note to Han Shi explains, "The peach blossoms are under water in March this year to invoke the soul and renew the spirit, and to purify the filth of the year." From the above description and explanation, we can know, on the Si Festival is in the countryside near the water to ward off evil spirits to seek auspicious religious ceremonies held after the happy spring swimming, men and women free to interact with the festival. In this way, the atmosphere of the festival has two kinds: one is the solemn purification and invocation of souls, and the other is the joyful playfulness and socialization. Although the rituals of purification and invocation of souls were important, people invested more time and energy in joyful spring swimming and socializing.

After the Wei and Jin Dynasties, the custom of bathing in the water and invoking the soul to renew the spirit gradually disappeared, and purification in the water turned into a drinking party in the water. The Southern Dynasties period of the "Jing Chu chronicle" records: "March 3, the four people and out of the rivers and ponds and swamps. Pro clear stream, for the flow of cups of water drinking." This text in the Shangsi Festival custom is mainly a water-side socializing, feasting and drinking activities. Tang Dynasty, March 3 is still a national important festival. Every this festival, the emperor will be in the Qujiang River feast, the so-called "Qu Shui Liu Goblet", a lot of literati wrote poems describing this scene. Folk men and women also came to the water's edge to drink and socialize. Liu driving "on the sixth day" wrote: "on the sixth day of the Qujiang River, noisy in the city of the road. Looking for those who do not see, here all meet." On this day, Chang'an is also popular in the game, such as bucket of grass.

Because of the time and Qingming neighboring, and are in the countryside activities, on the Si Festival of trekking and banquets and Qingming tomb-sweeping after the spring recreation began to be separated and later gradually merged into one. On the Si Festival heavy cross-travel trekking characteristics are integrated into the Qingming Festival customs. It can also be said that the Qingming Festival prevalent spring tour of the custom is mainly inherited from the tradition of the festival.

Summary, according to the available information, Qingming has not become a festival before the Tang Dynasty; from the Tang Dynasty onwards, Qingming Festival has gradually become an important folk festival that integrates the customs of Cold Food Festival and Shangsi Festival. Wang Wei in the "cold food east of the city that is the matter" said in a poem: "young people make the day for roaming, do not need to Qingming and on the Si", is the cold food, Qingming and on the Si fusion of the three as one strong evidence. In the early Tang Dynasty, although the custom of this period of time is mostly known as "cold food", but in essence the main part of the festival is already today's Qingming Festival. From the Song Dynasty to the Ming and Qing Dynasties, the Qingming Festival developed into the most popular period, and has continued ever since.

References:

quoted from the web.