Chapter 24 Part 3 Celebrating Festivals and Viewing Lanterns Section 24 Lights at the Festival of Lights

Lantern Festival is mainly about viewing lanterns.Watching lanterns has become a kind of system. According to more accurate records, it actually started in the early Tang Dynasty and developed in the Song Dynasty. The source is from the burning of lanterns in the Han Dynasty to worship Taiyi.The lights are different sooner or later, some from fourteen to sixteen, and some from fifteen to nineteen. The "Lamp City" got its name and expanded from the Song Dynasty.In terms of the magnificence of the lantern scene, people used to think that there was nothing like the Tang and Song Dynasties.Most of the records in the notebook novels talk about the extravagant and gorgeous lighting in the court and the nobles.

There is a "Lantern Market" for viewing lanterns. Although it was recorded in the notes of the Tang Dynasty, it was officially held in Bianliang in the Northern Song Dynasty. It continued to develop in Lin'an in the Southern Song Dynasty. In the Ming Dynasty, it was concentrated in the Bamiancao area east of Donghuamen Street in Beijing.From "Tokyo Menghualu" and other records, we know that the lantern market in Song Dynasty lasted for five days, from fifteen to nineteen.In advance, a tall "Aoshan Lantern Shed" must be built, with various lights arranged on it, and tens of thousands of lights are lit.On this day, the emperor sat in an open sedan chair as usual, carried by several capable eunuchs, and marched backwards.Or ask a few tourists to come forward and send some wine and food, which is where the "golden cup giving wine" commonly used in old dramas comes from.Although it is said to "have fun with the people", in fact it is just that the emperor has been secluded in the palace for a long time, very lonely and boring, and the ministers came up with some clever ideas to coax him to be happy and relieve his boredom.Song people’s notes also recorded many names of lanterns. “Glass lanterns” can be said to be a new variety. They not only appeared in wealthy families, but also began to be used in shops to attract customers. The light is like a full moon. "Wanyanluo" is made of red and white gauze.As for the styles of the lamp sheds and various lamp balls, there are "Song People Viewing Lanterns" and "Song People's Hundred Sons Playing Lantern Festival", which also leave some image materials for us.From this, we can know that since the Ming and Qing Dynasties, various lamp scenes reflected on the paintings such as "Xuan He Yu Shi" and other illustrations (Figure 11), and other handicrafts—especially preserved in the Ming and Qing brocade patterns, there are hundreds of kinds The extremely exquisite and beautiful multi-faceted spherical lamps decorated with pearls and jade tassels are basically the styles handed down from the Song Dynasty.Figure 11 Woodblock Print Lantern Festival Lantern Scene

Many kinds of fish, dragons, cranes, phoenixes, skillful lanterns, children's bamboo horse lanterns, and rolling lanterns that rotate continuously underground also came from the Song Dynasty.The "glazed lanterns" and "wanyanluo" in the Song Dynasty, the "goldfish living in the water lanterns" in the Ming Dynasty, and the ingenious lanterns made of thousands of eggshells, and the ice lanterns made of ice, although it is difficult to know the style and practice, as for the Ming Dynasty. Representative utility models, "bright corner lamp" and "filament lamp", there are still remains of the actual objects.The Chinese History Museum also has a picture of having fun in the palace of the Ming Dynasty, which depicts the New Year in the palace, leaving behind many beautiful palace lanterns.There is also a Aoshan lantern shed on which pines and cypresses are tied to hang the Eight Immortals to celebrate their birthdays, as well as various dramas and fireworks during the Lantern Festival. The scene of the drama "Three Wars against Lv Bu" depicts the customs of Beijing's folk Lantern Festival in the Ming Dynasty.The small carts pushed by the shopkeepers are similar to the pictures of shopkeepers drawn by people in the Song and Yuan Dynasties. The carts are full of various small toys and lanterns, and the shopkeepers are dressed like ordinary small businessmen.According to the notes of the lighting man, this kind is specially prepared for court entertainment to imitate the scenery in the city.

My hometown where I grew up is a small county with less than 10,000 households in western Hunan, but the lion and dragon lantern fireworks were very famous in the counties of western Hunan half a century ago.During festivals, every neighborhood has its own lights.From the first day to the twelfth day of the lunar new year, it is called "Sending Lanterns", and the whole city just goes around playing with drums and gongs.During the day, there are many gongs and drums performing water play on the bridgehead, or hovering up and down on eight or nine square tables.At night, they play clam shell essence under the lights, accompanied by fine music.Thirteen to fifteen is called "burning lights", and the main competition is turned to the other side to see who has the best fireworks.As usual, with my urchin qualifications, I followed the team to various places inside and outside the city with a hundred urchins of all sizes, spending time with everyone in the firecrackers.Those who play with lanterns need not only strength, but also bravery. In order to show the hero's fearlessness, when the fireworks rise in the field, the white light falls for several feet, and some even roar like thunder. "The tiger goes down the mountain", as usual, he has to go into battle shirtless and go forward bravely.We are too young to participate in such strenuous activities, so we can only take advantage of the excitement and cheer.Sometimes volunteering to help, promising to take a pine torch or carrying a drum, is not bad luck.Because he can always follow the team, the horse does not leave the group.Until the sky was about to turn white, everyone was burnt out and exhausted.The team is accompanied by an old fisherman and a clam shell spirit, and the clam shell spirit usually chooses a handsome boy of twelve or thirteen years old to act, and the old fisherman's white beard and white hair are also fake. ridiculous.The drums and flutes of the band are also often beating at will in a weak and sloppy way.Sometimes, in order to cheer up everyone's spirits, the band suddenly played "Kicking Eight Banners" melodiously. The lion's ears only shook a few times, and the old fisherman and clam shell spirit had to follow the rhythm of the drums and flutes, and walked around in two random circles on the street. Before the finale, he collapsed as usual, which made everyone laugh!In the end, we gathered in front of a guild hall to check out the guys. On the main street, the Nanhuo store cloth store opened by Jiangxi people and the cigarette shop opened by Fujian people had already set off firecrackers and burned the door paper to welcome the God of Wealth. A young Miao woman who lived across the river also picked The burden of shredded radish with fermented soybeans was sold on the street.

With this foundation of experience in playing with and burning lamps, when I grew up, I felt quite familiar and had a deeper understanding of the poems about the Lantern Festival in the Song Dynasty when I grew up.For example, the first half of the poem "Jade House Spring" written by Wu Wenying: The furry beaver hat covers the plum forehead, and the golden cicada cuts the Hu shirt narrowly. Ride on the shoulders to look at the small waist, and beat the drums with the idleness. Although it is written about eight hundred years ago on the first night of the Yuan Dynasty, the situation of a young woman in a small music and dance troupe returning home in the middle of the night when the lights were dim, is not too different from what I saw and heard half a century ago.Because although the three dynasties of Yuan, Ming and Qing passed through during those eight hundred years, only the political system was transferred, but the social changes were not too great.As for the fact that society has undergone fundamental changes even though it has only been more than ten years since the founding of the People's Republic of China. My little childhood experience has in fact become a historical relic, a kind of genre painting of the past society.Young people in small remote areas may have some similar but different experiences. It can be confirmed that it is not easy for young people who grew up in big cities to imagine various situations.

Written in Beijing in March 1963 (Originally published in "People's Literature", April 1963)