Author: Zhang Bo (researcher, Institute of Beijing Studies, Beijing Union University)
"Hundred years first, four seasons spring first." Spring Festival is a traditional New Year in Chinese.
The Spring Festival is the original culture of the Chinese nation, but it is not the exclusive culture of the Chinese nation. As early as the Sui and Tang Dynasties, the Spring Festival had spread to East Asian countries. In recent years, with the increasing spread and influence of Chinese civilization, people in more countries and regions have fallen in love with the Spring Festival, celebrated it, and even listed it as their own legal holiday. On December 22nd, 2023, the 78th UN General Assembly adopted a resolution by consensus, which designated the Spring Festival (Lunar New Year) as a UN holiday, and the Year of China went further to the world. This not only makes Chinese excellent traditional culture better benefit mankind, but also provides stronger support and motivation for the continuation of the Spring Festival.
1. From "Lunar New Year’s Day" to "Spring Festival"
At the beginning of the founding of the Republic of China in 1912, the Gregorian calendar era was adopted in order to connect with the west. Since then, there have been two New Year phenomena in China. January 1st of the Gregorian calendar is the New Year, and the first day of the first lunar month is also the New Year. In 1914, Yuan Shikai’s government made a put in order of traditional festivals, and renamed the Lunar New Year’s Day, Dragon Boat Festival, Mid-Autumn Festival and Winter Solstice Festival as Spring Festival, Summer Festival, Autumn Festival and Winter Festival respectively, thus forming a complete festival sequence of spring, summer, autumn and winter. For more than 100 years, four festivals have been passed down, but among the four new festival names, only "Spring Festival" has been recognized by the people and become the standard name of the Lunar New Year.
In different contexts, the Spring Festival often has different meanings. Sometimes it only refers to the first day of the first month of the lunar calendar, which marks the coming of the new year. In history, there are many sayings such as "the first month of the first month", "Zhengdan", "Zhengri", "Yuanzheng", "New Year’s Day", "Sanyuan", "Zhengchao" and "Yuanchen". But more often, the Spring Festival is equivalent to what we often call "Chinese New Year" and "Chinese New Year", which is the sum of a series of festivals with the year-end and the beginning of the year as the core and around the annual cycle. "One night is even two years old, and the five are divided into two years." Chinese New Year takes New Year’s Eve as the dividing line, including year-end and early year. The year-end activities take the busy year as the theme, and the early year as the theme, which mainly includes the New Year, New Year’s Eve, New Year’s Day (the first day of the first month), Lantern Festival, etc. It is a happy and peaceful festive day to bid farewell to the old and welcome the new.
2. Coming from the depths of history
As the first year of the year, the origin of the Spring Festival is closely related to the formation of the concept of "year", and the formation of the concept of "year" is inseparable from the progress of the calendar.
As a method of arranging years, months and days, there are three kinds of calendars in astronomical sense, namely, solar calendar, lunar calendar and yin-yang calendar. To put it simply, the solar calendar takes the tropic year (the period of the earth’s revolution around the sun, and the modern measured value is about 365.2422 days) as the basic period, with 365 days in a normal year and 366 days in a leap year, such as the current Gregorian calendar. The lunar calendar is based on the first lunar month (the cycle of moon phases changing), and 12 months make up a year, which is 354 days or 355 days. Now Arab countries use the lunar calendar. In China, as early as the Xia, Shang and Zhou dynasties, a combined calendar of yin and yang was formed, which took into account the tropic year and the first lunar month. According to the Book of Yao Dian in Shangshu, Emperor Yao appointed wise men from the Xihe and Heshi families to observe the movement of the sun, the moon and the stars, master its laws, and teach the people the time. "There are six days in three hundred and sixty years, and the leap month will set the age at four o’clock." It shows that at that time, it has been able to determine that a year is 366 days, and it can adjust Yin and Yang by setting leap months, so that each month conforms to the changes of the moon’s profit and loss, and each year conforms to the changes of spring, summer, autumn and winter.
Before Xia, Shang and Zhou Dynasties, "Nian" had different names. "Er Ya Shi Tian" records: "Xia Yue Sui, Shang Yue Si, Zhou Yue Nian, Tang Yu Yue Zai." Among them, the original meaning of "Nian" is the bumper harvest of crops, and Oracle Bone Inscriptions’s word "Nian" is the pictograph of people carrying grain. Shuowen says, "Year is ripe." When the grain is ripe once a year, people take the period of grain maturity as a time unit, which is called year. With the concept of "year", we can also determine the beginning of the year.
The ancients in China attached great importance to the beginning of time, and thought it was of fundamental significance to the construction of order. As the saying goes, "The beginning is the end, but the order is not perfect". Xia, Shang and Zhou Dynasties took the month of establishing Yin (January in the summer calendar), the month of establishing ugliness (December in the summer calendar) and the month of establishing children (November in the summer calendar) as their own "year beginning", which laid a time foundation for the formation of Chinese New Year customs. However, due to the lack of documentary records, it is difficult for us to know exactly how people celebrated the New Year before Xia and Shang Dynasties. By the Zhou Dynasty, rich Chinese New Year customs had been formed. The people of Zhou Dynasty began with November in the summer calendar, and the year-end sacrifice, celebration and auspicious activities in the first month constituted the basic contents of the New Year at that time.
Year-end sacrifice is a series of ceremonies including wax sacrifice and La Worship, which not only rewards various gods, but also misses and gives thanks to ancestors.
About the wax sacrifice, there is a detailed account in the Book of Rites. The purpose of wax sacrifice is mainly to repay the blessing of the gods. The so-called "ancient gentleman will repay it". The objects of sacrifice mainly include: Xian Si (Shennong), Si Si (Hou Ji), Baigu (the seeds of Baigu), Nong (the agricultural official who manages farming and teaches agricultural technology), postal list (the temporary place where the farmland official who supervises farming lives and field signs), animals (such as cats and tigers), and Fang (the dam). Wax sacrifice occupied a very important position in people’s life in the pre-Qin period. The dialogue between Confucius and his disciple Zi Gong recorded in the Book of Rites Miscellaneous Notes can reflect this point: "Zi Gong is concerned with wax, and Confucius said,’ Is it a pleasure to give?’ Right:’ If all the people in a country are crazy, they will be given pleasure in the unknown.’ Although Zigong could not understand the joy of wax, the sight of "people in a country are crazy" is enough to show the great significance of wax sacrifice to the people.
La Worship is also a year-end sacrifice, the object of which is the ancestor and the God of Five Sacrifices. The Five Sacrifices refer to doors, households, wells, stoves, and strollers. People worship them and thank them for providing important guarantees for people’s daily lives. The holding of wax festival and La Worship marked the end of agricultural production, which is of great significance to mark the transformation of life at the age of 20. After that, people will hold feasts to celebrate. What is depicted between the lines in the last chapter of The Book of Songs in July is the scene of feasting and celebrating, lively and peaceful, and happy New Year.
In the Zhou Dynasty, New Year’s Day was often called "the auspicious day of the first month", and a grand ceremony was held in the court, in which hundreds of officials of governors appeared before the Emperor, and the Emperor held a banquet to commend and reward their contributions.
The auspicious day of the first month is also a day to announce government decrees and laws and educate the people. The government will hang all kinds of policies and laws that need the people to know for 10 days above Wei (a tall building outside the palace gate of the emperor and vassal) for the people to see. Local officials spread all kinds of decrees to the grass-roots level of society so that everyone can check them against each other. At the beginning of the year, the Zhou Dynasty took advantage of the opportunity of the beginning of the new year and the newer years to issue decrees and promote enlightenment to ensure the orderly operation of the whole society in the new year.
Undoubtedly, the custom of Chinese New Year was formed in the Zhou Dynasty, and the Spring Festival has experienced at least 3,000 years of life. In 104 BC, Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty promulgated the taichu calendar, and re-established the month of the founding of Yin (January in the summer calendar) as the first month. As a result, January 1st in the summer calendar became the first day of the year, and the year-end year-end year-end activities were moved to a new time accordingly. After more than two thousand years, the Chinese New Year basically started on January 1st in the summer calendar, which is still the case today.
3. Why did it last for thousands of years?
14,500 years ago, Zong Yi, a man from the Southern Dynasty, described the custom activities of the Spring Festival at that time in the Chronicle of Jingchu: "The first day of the first month is the day of three yuan, and the Historical Records also call it the end of the month. When the cock crows, firecrackers and grass are set off before the court, so as to rid the mountain of evil spirits. All ages know that they are dressed in clothes, and they pay tribute to each other. Pepper and cypress wine and peach soup. Tu Su wine, gum tooth. Play a five-spice plate. Apply it to the powder, but take the ghost pill. One chicken each. Making a peach board is called fairy wood. Every time you drink alcohol, you start from an early age. " In this paper, it was mentioned that drinking pepper and cypress wine, drinking peach soup, drinking Tu Su wine, chewing gum, taking five spicy dishes, taking ghost pills and hanging mahogany boards on the door were all the most popular custom activities at that time, but they were not seen in today’s Spring Festival life. As for firecrackers, although they are still in use now, their shapes are quite different, and the purpose of setting off firecrackers is no longer "to repel evil spirits." This obvious difference between ancient and modern times clearly reveals the changes of the Spring Festival.
In fact, as long as we look at the literature records of different historical periods, it is not difficult to find that the Spring Festival has been changing. Not only the customs of festivals are changing, but also the duration, broadcasting space and name of festivals are changing greatly. However, despite all the changes, the Spring Festival is not fade away. In fact, the Spring Festival has always maintained a strong vitality. It spans time and space, from the pre-Qin period to the present, and has become a long-lasting and endless cultural tradition.
There are profound social, political and cultural reasons for the endless Spring Festival.
First, the Spring Festival is rooted in the endless fertile soil of Chinese civilization, which is the original culture of the Chinese nation. The Chinese civilization, which has lasted for 5,000 years and has developed to this day in a national form, is the foundation for the continued existence of the Spring Festival. If Chinese civilization is compared to a leafy tree, then the Spring Festival is a beautiful flower bred by this tree. Trees grow vigorously and flowers bloom every year.
Second, the long-term stability of the calendar and the establishment of the holiday system provide a guarantee for the inheritance of the Spring Festival. Festivals exist depending on the calendar. As mentioned earlier, three generations ago, China had formed a combined calendar of Yin and Yang, which took into account the tropic year and the first lunar month. After that, although the calendar calculation became more and more accurate, the principle of compiling the calendar was stable for a long time, which also provided conditions for the continued existence of the Spring Festival. In addition, the holiday system has also played a positive role. During the Han Dynasty, China has established a complete vacation system, giving all kinds of legal holidays to officials of all sizes, and holiday saving is an important part of it. During the Tang and Song Dynasties, the holiday system was more complete, and the Chinese New Year became the longest holiday. Both Jin and Yuan dynasties followed the holiday system of the Central Plains Dynasty, with an average annual holiday of 3 days. The Qing Dynasty paid more attention to the Chinese New Year, marked by seals and seals, and the holiday lasted nearly one month. The implementation of the holiday system not only gives officials time to celebrate the New Year, but also strengthens the official recognition of this festival and guides all members of society to inherit and practice the festival.
Third, the characteristics of sharing between the government and the people have created a huge group of Spring Festival inheritors. A large number of traditional festivals in China are not simply folk festivals, but have distinctive characteristics shared by the government and the people, especially during the New Year. Sharing between the government and the people does not only mean that the ruling class will personally participate in various customs activities of the festival like ordinary people; More importantly, the government will also hold various activities during the festival, thus making the festival an important time and space for national governance. The sharing between the government and the people in the New Year was formed as early as the Zhou Dynasty, and the Yuan Dynasty Meeting was a typical performance. Since the Qin and Han Dynasties, the Yuan Dynasty has been passed down from generation to generation. At that time, on the one hand, officials from all over the country, civil and military officials, royalty and relatives in Beijing, as well as foreign envoys, will greet the emperor and present gifts; On the other hand, the emperor rewarded bureaucratic ministers by giving things and feasts, so as to establish the legitimacy of political power, build a harmonious and warm relationship between monarch and minister, and safeguard the unity of the country. The survival of the festival depends on someone celebrating the festival. The more people celebrate the festival, the stronger the vitality of the festival. The Spring Festival has always been a festival shared by the government and the people, and there are many people who celebrate it. Various etiquette and custom activities bear rich cultural connotations and endow the Spring Festival with multiple functions. After a long period of accumulation, the Spring Festival has formed a very rich custom activities, such as offering sacrifices to the stove, ancestor worship, sweeping the house, busy New Year, New Year greetings, putting up Spring Festival couplets, wearing new clothes, setting off firecrackers, visiting temple fairs, enjoying flower lanterns, walking on stilts, boating, feasting and partying, and dancing lions and dragons. Among them, there are exquisite manners, food and clothing, social interaction and entertainment activities.All these bear the values and ideal demands of the Chinese nation, such as reverence for nature, respect for ancestors, gratitude and gratitude, family reunion, social harmony and harmony in the world. By participating in it, people coordinate the relationship between heaven and man, renew social relations, and adjust the individual’s physical and mental relations, so that the Spring Festival has important functions such as strengthening the emotional connection between individuals and their families, hometowns, places and countries, enhancing community awareness and promoting social harmony, thus being deeply embedded in the social structure and becoming a cultural tradition that members of society cannot abandon.
Fourth, the constantly updated, open and inclusive Spring Festival culture continues to empower the inheritance of the Spring Festival. The Spring Festival is not a rigid and closed cultural system, it changes with time and adapts to local conditions. Throughout history, people in different dynasties always developed custom activities in line with the characteristics of their own times. People in the southern dynasties burned firecrackers to avoid evil spirits, while contemporary people used gunpowder firecrackers to express their joy and blessing for the arrival of the new year; In the 1980s, people liked to send New Year cards, but today, it is fashionable for people to pay New Year greetings through WeChat. Looking at the whole country, people in different places always make full use of their natural environment and human conditions to create custom activities with local characteristics by visiting temple fairs in Beijing, flower markets in Guangzhou and flower lanterns in Zigong, and making cakes in jiaozi in the north and in the south.
Prosperous for the New Year. Spring Festival culture contains the ideal of human common life, such as material abundance, social harmony and spiritual abundance, and carries the common values of family harmony, social tolerance and harmonious coexistence between man and nature, which is the fundamental reason why it can go to the world. Going to the world, the Spring Festival is bound to inherit and develop in cultural exchanges and mutual learning.
Guangming Daily (11th edition, February 4, 2024)
