Chapter 491 The Dawn of Modern Times

Li Shimin's evaluation was a bit vulgar, but it didn't mean anything to the people in Ganlu Hall who had experienced the end of the Sui Dynasty.

After all, whether the Song Dynasty was a loser or not might still be a matter of opinion, but the civil and military officials of the Zhenguan period must be considered winners.

The only one who had an opinion was probably Empress Changsun. She looked at the ruler of the Tang Dynasty with a half-smile, which made Li Shimin turn his head away with a guilty conscience.

Oh no, I forgot that the empress was also here in a moment of excitement...

The complex situation facing the Northern Song Dynasty made him seem to have returned to the years when the heroes were fighting for power, so he blurted out the vulgar words that he had used to scold Wang Shichong and others in the tent at that time.

Fortunately, this was not a big problem. After a glance, Empress Changsun retracted her gaze and said:

"Your Majesty has won a series of victories. It is appropriate for the palace to celebrate the New Year and the world to celebrate together."

These words made Li Shimin pull his slightly curled beard and think deeply.

He could hear the meaning of Guanyin Bi's words. She was talking about the palace, but actually the world.

The Duke and the Prime Minister can still show their favor by painting the doors in red and yellow, so there may not be too many regulations for the people.

There is no need to change the black doors in Chang'an that have been painted, but it seems that we can try to relax a little in the decoration of the doors...

After all, compared with the red color of the future years, the black doors that I saw when I sneaked out of the palace and wandered around the streets before the New Year last year were not festive enough.

But I can't blame myself for this, right? Li Shimin excused himself in his heart:

It was all decided by the retired emperor, and it has nothing to do with him.

And if it is to celebrate the New Year, it shouldn't affect anything if the door is a little messy, right? Li Shimin muttered in his heart.

[When everything is ready, the New Year's Eve is the most critical part of the festival, which is now commonly known as New Year's Eve.

The records of this festival ritual that are almost the same as today's are from the Western Jin Dynasty. The Fengtu Ji records the complete and busy New Year's Eve process.

On the day of the New Year's Eve, good friends will give gifts to each other at dawn, which is called "gifting the year".

Close friends invite each other for wine and food, which is called "farewell to the year".

After entertaining friends, they will go home, and the elders and the young will sit together to drink and wish each other well, which is called "dividing the year".

After the banquet, they will not say goodbye, but stay up all night to wait for dawn, which is called "keeping the year".

After dawn, the sleepy people will express their good wishes for the new year to each other in the morning light, which is called "offering the year".

This whole process is New Year's Eve.

The most specific origin of New Year's Eve is no longer traceable, but because the ancients lacked understanding of the world, they would pray to the gods when there was a good harvest and drive away ghosts when there was a disaster. So it is natural to make good relations with the good gods and drive away the evil ghosts when bidding farewell to the old and welcoming the new.

Historically, from the Zhou Dynasty to the Song Dynasty, more and more people participated in the celebration of New Year's Eve.

From the Shang and Zhou Dynasties to the pre-Qin Dynasty, the emperors would perform "Da Nuo" in the palace to drive away ghosts. At this time, this kind of celebration was still a privilege of the ruling class.

After Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty unified the time of the New Year, because of the fear of witchcraft, until the end of the Han Dynasty, Nuo opera gradually separated regulations and flowed into the folk. As long as the people did not exceed the regulations, there would be no trouble for them to hold Nuo opera.

As for the fairly complete New Year's Eve customs during the Jin Dynasty, on the one hand, it was related to the unprecedented improvement of the status of the powerful and wealthy families, and they competed to show off their celebrity style. On the other hand, it was also because the fear of witchcraft gradually faded, and the powerful and wealthy needed a relatively mild celebration ceremony that could consolidate the cohesion of the family.

However, until the Song Dynasty, this ceremony became simpler. Go to the street to watch Nuo opera, and then go home and put all the prepared food on the table.

After nightfall, hold up the oil lamp and shine every corner of the house to drive away the ghosts, and finally stay up with the family until dawn.

This is the process of an ordinary person staying up all night in the Song Dynasty, also known as "Zhao Xu Hua" or "Sui Sui".

However, in comparison, the reunion attribute was more important for ordinary people on New Year's Eve in the Song Dynasty.

From the pre-Qin Dynasty's "Yan Chuan Chuan Chu Xiang" to the Tang Dynasty's "Di Wen Guo Suo", the serf manor economy gradually declined, the shackles imposed by the landlords on the people gradually loosened, and it became relatively easier for ordinary people to travel far away.

After the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms, the Song Dynasty officially became a complete feudal tenancy economy, and the people were able to migrate freely. Objectively speaking, it did promote economic and cultural prosperity. Some people in modern times call the Song Dynasty the dawn of modern times, which is indeed reasonable.

Under this situation, the Song people had a much smaller land area than the Han and Tang Dynasties, but the scope of ordinary people's activities was far greater than that of the Han and Tang Dynasties, which eventually made New Year's Eve also carry the meaning of reunion.

Unfortunately, although the Ming and Qing dynasties continued the system of revising and investigating and adjudicating cases created in the Song Dynasty, and improved the system of the three-division joint trial, the nine-ministerial round trial, the court trial, the hot trial and the grand trial on the basis of the separation of power and duty, Zhu Yuanzhang instead created the road permit.

Farmers do not leave the village, and work and rest do not leave the village. The road permit system once again firmly pressed the people on one acre and three-fen land.

Probably because of the restriction of the vitality of the common people, the New Year's Eve and New Year's celebrations in the Ming and Qing dynasties were just an extension of the Song Dynasty, and there was nothing special about it.

And if we talk about the grand celebration of the whole world bidding farewell to the old and welcoming the new, the modern Chinese Spring Festival should be the first choice. 】

Kong Ming Pang Tong and others were refreshed.

Compared with others, they are more concerned about the institutional changes in the past thousand years.

There is no way. The Song Dynasty can learn from the Han and Tang Dynasties, and the Tang Dynasty can also look at the four hundred years of Han history to correct mistakes, but our Han Dynasty has been crossing the river by feeling the stones for four hundred years.

When the few military advisors had free time, they talked most about the rise and fall of the aristocratic families.

Because from the changes over the past few hundred years, the power structure has evolved, the central government has deepened its control over the local governments, and the tax collection methods have been more perfected, etc., all of which can be seen and tried to complete the picture.

However, perhaps because of the inertia of thinking, they talked about the affairs of the kings and ministers before, until the criticism of the road permit, which made them look at the Tang and Song dynasties from a different perspective again.

"The manor economy has changed to a tenancy economy..." Pang Tong said to himself.

"The living people are the living country..." Kong Ming is more determined about the current measures in Chang'an.

"Review and separate investigation, interrogation and judgment by the division of the division, and joint trial by the three divisions?"

Fa Zheng muttered to himself and repeated these words that were not easy to understand.

He was familiar with the Han law and had studied it, but it was difficult to guess anything based on these words alone, so he missed Zhang Song and Liu Ba a little at the first time, and believed that the two would have different opinions if they were still alive.

But... maybe I can have a chat with this Lu Zijing? Fa Zheng glanced at Lu Su who was also thoughtful.

Fa Zheng still remembered the praises of Lu Su after his death, saying that he was powerful and benevolent, and that he was fair and impartial in rewarding and punishing.

In this case, maybe he also has unique insights on the way of power and law?