Lantern Festival is the most important festival in Ming Dynasty. How did you spend it?

Lantern Festival, also known as Shangyuan Festival, Yuanxi Festival or Lantern Festival, is a traditional folk festival of Han nationality in China, which has been passed down to this day. Besides the custom of eating glutinous rice balls, the most important activity of Lantern Festival is watching lanterns. The fifteenth day of the first month is called Lantern Festival. Yuanxiao viewing began in the period of Emperor Han Ming in the East, and by the Ming Dynasty, it had become a traditional festival. There are also various customs to celebrate the Lantern Festival, the most famous of which is watching lanterns and colored lights.

The Ming Dynasty attached great importance to the Lantern Festival and loved it very much. It can be said that the lanterns in the first month in ancient China were the most popular in the Ming Dynasty.

According to historical records, Zhu Yuanzhang, the founding emperor of the Ming Dynasty, built his capital in Yingtian (now Nanjing), and in order to celebrate the Lantern Festival that year, he attracted wealthy businessmen from all over the country to light 10. At that time, colorful buildings were built in Nanjing, and thousands of water lanterns were burning on the Qinhuai River, which made the scenery infinite for a while.

According to Ming Hui Dian, Judy, the founder of the Ming Dynasty, moved to Beijing and opened a two-mile lantern market in Donghuamen, Beijing. From the eighth day to the fifteenth day of the first month, it ends at the seventeenth day. Every night, lanterns and fireworks shine all night, and drums and acrobatics are noisy.

There is a similar record in "A Brief Introduction to the Scenery of the Imperial City": from the eighth day to the eighteenth day of the first month of the Ming Dynasty, there was a "lantern market" outside Donghuamen, and "the rich and the poor exchanged markets, and all the figures were neat. Women in white silk shirts are walking in the night. ..... The rich have lights all night, the poor have lights all night, and the very poor have no lights. "

According to Records of Emperor Taizong of the Ming Dynasty, in the first month of the seventh year of Yongle, the Lantern Festival was near. The imperial envoy said, "I have ruled the world for more than 40 years, and my statutes are complete, making the four sides peaceful, the people prosperous and happy. I want to have fun with my subjects." From the eleventh day of the first month, it gave the Lantern Festival a ten-day holiday. Hundreds of officials were idle in the Senate, but they had urgent business, and this letter was punished. They listened to the soldiers and civilians lighting and drinking for fun, and the five cities were forbidden at night and were ordered to go. "

As can be seen from the above documents and historical records, the Lantern Festival holiday in the early Ming Dynasty was quite long and lively. In four, five and eight years, the holiday will be increased to 20 days.

In the Ming Dynasty, lanterns were a luxury activity, which cost a lot. It is said that Zhu Houzhao was crazy about lanterns when he was young. When he became an emperor, he often spent a lot of money on the Lantern Festival, buying novel and exquisite varieties and hanging them in the palace to watch. "Shi Minglu" records: "Since I acceded to the throne, I have spent tens of thousands of yuan on lanterns every year. 1507 yellow and white wax was not stored enough, and the company was ordered to buy it. " According to the History of Ming Wuzong compiled by China Historical Research Association, in September of 1507 (Zheng Deer), Ming Wuzong specially extracted 352,000 yuan from Taicang Treasury to buy lanterns for the Lantern Festival. According to the price in the middle of the Ming Dynasty, we can know from Jin Ping Mei that buying a servant girl at that time was only 352 silver, and 352 thousand silver was used for the Lantern Festival, so how many lanterns could be bought, which shows the luxury of Ming Wuzong.

In the Wanli dynasty, with the decline of the national strength of the Ming Dynasty, the Lantern Festival was far less lively than before. Since then, the scale of the Lantern Festival celebration has been getting worse every year.