Chapter 478 New Year's Money
[Although there has been a tradition of bidding farewell to the old and welcoming the new since Yao, Shun and Yu, there is no consensus on which month is the beginning of the year from Xia to Qin.
For example, the first month of the Xia calendar is January, the Shang calendar is December, the Zhou calendar is November, and the Qin calendar is October.
The official change of the beginning of the year did not affect the folk celebrations. For the purely agricultural society at that time, the first day to celebrate should be the beginning of spring.
The ice and snow melted, spring came, worshiping gods and ancestors, praying for good luck, exorcising evil spirits and disasters, and getting rid of the old and starting anew. These simple and pure customs of celebrating the beginning of spring formed the framework of the Spring Festival celebrations we are familiar with today.
In 104 AD, Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty ordered the formulation of the famous "Taichu Calendar".
In addition to changing the October 1st in the Qin calendar to the January 1st, this calendar also integrated the solar terms of the Ganzhi calendar as a supplement to the calendar.
It was also at this point that the folk custom of celebrating the beginning of spring gradually merged with the official custom of worshipping at the beginning of the new year, becoming the prototype of the Chinese New Year that has been passed down to this day.
The outstanding military achievements of Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty are also well known. Frequent wars accelerated the economic and cultural exchanges between the north and the south of the Han Dynasty at that time, and the customs and habits of the regions gradually merged. The Chinese New Year gradually became a festival celebrated by the Chinese nation.
The customs of worshiping ancestors, greeting parents, congratulating brothers and friends, drinking and sweeping during the Chinese New Year were basically established in the Han Dynasty.
Therefore, if we talk about the credit for promoting the Chinese New Year, Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty, Liu Che, should be regarded as the first-class merit.
In addition, the New Year's money that we are all familiar with during the Chinese New Year is most likely related to Liu Che.
New Year's money is the homonym of the money for suppressing evil spirits, and the money for suppressing evil spirits had another name in the Han Dynasty, called the money for suppressing victory.
The Qin and Han dynasties were full of witchcraft, and the most famous witchcraft disaster can be said to have affected the national destiny of the Western Han Dynasty.
The Crown Prince Liu Ju died of witchcraft, and his youngest son Liu Fuling ascended the throne at the age of eight, which directly led to Huo Guang's autocracy. The cause and effect relationship is clear and understandable.
However, these things are not the protagonists today. It is only necessary to know that after the witchcraft disaster, the people of the Han Dynasty almost changed color when they heard about witchcraft.
This panic mentality also made the art of winning by using talismans to eliminate evil and get good luck popular.
The simplest of the winning art is the winning money, which is now unearthed by archaeologists.
These Han Dynasty Wuzhu coins have a handle on the upper handle and a ring on the lower ring, which is convenient for wearing. In addition to auspicious patterns such as turtles and fish, they are also engraved with various auspicious words to serve as "townships" in the winning art.
Although the people after the Han Dynasty did not change color when talking about witchcraft, the simple blessing method of winning money was still passed down, and the types became quite numerous.
For example, there are birthday money, tent money, etc. for praying for blessings and good luck;
War-avoiding money, eight-treasure money, etc. for warding off disasters and overcoming misfortunes;
Male money, female money, secret play money, etc. are used to pray for children and heirs;
There are also chess money, horse money, lantern riddle money, etc., which are cast by merchants purely for games and fun.
However, it should be noted that winning money basically appears as ornaments and has no function of currency circulation.
In the Ming and Qing Dynasties, winning money was no longer popular, and the people instead began to worship ancient coins. For example, Li Shizhen's "Compendium of Materia Medica" recorded that the Kaiyuan Tongbao cast by Li Yuan was a top-grade ancient coin and could be used to cure diseases and misfortunes.
In the Qing Dynasty, people were vying for Zhou Yuan Tongbao, which was said to protect women from difficult labor.
This coin was cast by Zhou Shizong, the orphan and widow bullied by Zhao Kuangyin, Chai Rong.
Because the people at that time believed that Zhou Yuan Tong Bao was made by Zhou Shizong by integrating Buddhist bronze statues, which contained the power of Buddha and could drive away malaria, expel ghosts and protect peace.
In the evolution of these hundreds of years, the art of winning has gradually disappeared in the long river of history, and winning money has gradually become money to ward off evil spirits, and finally renamed as New Year's money.
Until now, the meaning of New Year's money has been simplified, and only the blessings of the elders to the younger generations are left.
This thousand-year evolution is probably something that Emperor Wu, who was killing his father and son at that time, could never have expected. 】
"Winning... warding off evil spirits... warding off the New Year, it's interesting."
Kong Ming whispered, and his left hand unconsciously touched the pendant hanging on his waist.
He had a winning money on his waist that was the same as the one on the light curtain, which was given by his wife, with the inscription "Don't forget each other forever".
After saying goodbye in Gong'an County, Kong Ming traveled to many places in Yizhou, and now he went north through Hanzhong to Chang'an. If he counted carefully, he hadn't seen Huang Yueying for two or three years.
Thinking about his taciturn son and his noisy daughter, Kong Ming felt a little disappointed.
He made up his mind: at the latest next year, he would celebrate the New Year with his wife and children.
Liu Bei was in a much more relaxed state of mind. Before, Mrs. Gan, Mrs. Sun and Adou were all in Chengdu. Now they went north to settle Guanzhong. It was less than a year since they parted.
Moreover, whether he stood up and looked at the thriving Guanzhong, or sat down and looked at Lu Su who was staring at the light screen with curiosity, Liu Bei could be said to be satisfied. Now his only wish was:
"I don't know how to cast the secret money for men and women?"
Liu Bei touched his chin and said to himself.
Cao Cao stationed his troops in Yingchuan and sharpened his sword for Jingzhou, but Liu Bei was not in a hurry.
But seeing that Kong Ming now had only one adopted son and one biological daughter, and Pang Tong and Fa Zheng had only one son each, it was hard to say that the family was prosperous. Liu Bei felt a little anxious when he thought about it.
Thinking about Xu Shu, who is still single, and Lu Su, who came to Chang'an with only his old mother, Liu Bei began to worry from the bottom of his heart.
In order to avoid forgetting, Liu Bei took out his little notebook and wrote it down.
Lu Su was also in a trance, touching the lucky money on his waist. Jianye was celebrating the new year, but he was forced to flee Jiangdong with his mother and Gan Xingba on the boat.
The incident happened suddenly and he had no money to carry. Now the only ornaments he had were the lucky money and jade pendant hanging on his waist.
After a little sigh, Lu Su whispered:
"In the future, there are many kinds of lucky money, which shows that the people live a happy life."
At least from the perspective of chess money and horse money, at least there are many more ways to play games than now.
Although I don't know what riddles are, judging from the literal meaning, most of them are elegant things for literati, which also shows the prosperity of literary style.
Pang Tong recalled the turbulent times he saw from the light curtain, the southward march of the barbarians, the invasion of the sea by boat, and the subsequent national crisis, and he couldn't help but fall silent.
Seeing the playback function turned on on the screen, everyone simply didn't show Lu Su the previous written records.
Firstly, the text is not as shocking as what you see with your own eyes, and secondly, it is quite interesting to see Lu Su's surprise.
After a brief recollection, Pang Tong easily skipped the topic and said:
"Now that Zi Jing is in the Imperial College, why don't we gather everyone's strength to celebrate the New Year to dilute the blood of war?"
Lu Su pondered for a while and didn't directly refuse:
"Let me think about it."