Qingming

Qingming

Qingming, one of the 24 solar terms, is the fifth solar term in spring. When the sun reaches 15 ° of the Yellow longitude, it will be Qingming. In Qingming, the Qi is clear and the scenery is bright, and all things are obvious, so it gets its name. Qingming is both a solar term and a festival. Qingming of solar terms is a good time for spring cultivation and planting, and Qingming of festivals is a traditional day for people to express their feelings and comfort themselves. Qingming solar term, which is regarded as one of the origins of Qingming Festival, provides important conditions for the formation of Qingming customs in terms of time, weather and climate.

In ancient China, the Qingming Festival was divided into three periods: the first period was the tongshihua period; the second period was the vole period; the third period was the rainbow period. That is to say, at this time, the white Tung flower bloomed first, then the shade loving voles disappeared, and they all returned to the underground cave, and then the rainbow could be seen in the sky after the rain. By Qingming Festival, the weather in most parts of China will not be cold, and it will be spring. However, the weather here seems to be double in the South and the north. The north is dry and rainy, while the south is humid and rainy.

Qingming Festival is a very important solar term at the beginning. As soon as Qingming Festival arrives, the temperature rises, which is a good time for spring cultivation and planting. Therefore, there is a saying that "before and after Qingming Festival, melons and beans are planted.". There is no better way to plant trees than Qingming. The main customs of Qingming are: Forbidding fire, sweeping tombs, outing, Cuju, inserting willows and so on.

historical origin

Qingming means that the sky is clear and the earth is clear. The traditional Chinese Qingming Festival began in the Zhou Dynasty and has a history of more than 2500 years. "Huainanzi astronomy training" says: "15 days after the equinox, Dou Zhi B, then Qingming wind." Another explanation of the book is as follows: "when all things grow up, they are clean and clear. So it's called Qingming. " Qingming Festival, also known as Tomb Sweeping Festival, ghost festival and Ghost Festival, is also called Sanming Festival together with Zhongyuan Festival on July 15 and Xiayuan Festival on October 15.

Astronomical calendar

The "twenty-four solar terms" is initially determined by the direction of the top of the dipper handle. The dipper handle starts from "Yin position" and then rotates clockwise. When the dipper handle points to "B position", it is the Qingming solar term. From the Western Han Dynasty to the early Qing Dynasty, the solar terms were divided into 24 sections (15 days in each section) between the winter solstice and the next winter solstice, and the winter solstice was taken as the starting point of the 24 solar terms. The Qingming solar term started from the winter solstice, that is, 105 days after the winter solstice. The current "24 solar terms" come from the "degree method of the Yellow Meridian" established more than 300 years ago (which has been in use since 1645). It is determined according to the position of the sun on the returning ecliptic. When the Yellow meridian of the sun reaches 15 degrees, it is the Qingming intersection.

In the traditional culture, the time and position of Ganzhi and the eight trigrams are linked together. Yin position is the "gen position" of the acquired eight trigrams, and the position of the end of the year and the beginning of the year. It represents the end and the beginning. For example, in Yi Shuo Gua Zhuan, "gen is the trigram of the northeast, and the end and the beginning of all things." Therefore, doubing starts from due east by North (Yin position, acquired baguagen position) and revolves around East, South, West and north as a cycle, which is called "one year old". When the dipper handle points to the "B" position due east by south, it is the Qingming solar term.

Climate change

As the saying goes, Qingming break snow, rain break frost. By Qingming, except for the northeast and northwest regions, the daily average temperature in most parts of China has risen to above 12 ℃, with fresh air, bright sunshine and pleasant scenery.

Du Mu's poem "it rains one after another during the Qingming Festival" generally refers to the frequent precipitation in spring in southern China. In April, most of the rainy days in Jiangnan are about 16 days, and the rainfall is more than 100 mm. In some areas, the rainfall is even more. At this time, the weather is often cloudy and sunny, and abundant water can generally meet the needs of crop growth. At this time, the temperature in South China has reached above 15 ℃, and the rainfall also continues to increase.

Phenological phenomenon

In ancient China, Qingming was divided into three periods: "the first period was when Tonghua began to bloom; the second period was when voles turned into bunnies; the third period was when rainbow began to appear." Qingming Huaxin: one for Tonghua, two for Maihua, three for Liuhua. In ancient Qing Ming poetry, it is often written about Tonghua. For example, Bai Juyi's poem "Tonghua" says that "spring is always waiting, and Qingming is the beginning of Tonghua". Bai Juyi's poem "Hanshi riverside" says: "when you suddenly see the red Tung flower, you will see Qingming tomorrow." This means that when you see the flowers, you realize it's time for Qingming. The second period of Qingming solar term represents the flower trade wind, which is called "light and thin", "Wanqing snow light" and "the shortest life" flower - wheat flower. People like to insert willows and eat willow buds during the Qingming Festival. Ancient and modern literati always chant willow trees and flowers, or give farewell to the broken willows to express their reluctant feelings.

Farming activities

During the Qingming Festival, the temperature gets warmer, the vegetation sprouts, the weather is clear and bright, and everything is thriving. Dry farming in the north and early and middle season rice in the south of the Yangtze River have entered the suitable season for large-scale sowing. People roll up their sleeves, roll up their trousers, and go down to the fields to catch the sunshine and sow early. North and south of the river, inside and outside the Great Wall, there is a scene of busy spring ploughing.

But before and after the Qingming Festival, cold air still invaded from time to time, even making the daily average temperature lower than 12 ℃ for more than three consecutive days, resulting in rotten seedlings of middle rice and dead seedlings of early rice. Therefore, it is necessary to avoid cold tail and warm head in rice sowing and transplanting. In the Northwest Plateau, due to the influence of severe winter and lack of forage, the resistance of livestock is weak. At this time, it is necessary to strictly prevent the strong cooling weather after the spring from harming the old and weak young livestock.

traditional custom

Qingming Festival is also the most important festival of sacrifice, which is the day of ancestor worship and tomb sweeping. According to the old custom, when sweeping tombs, people should bring wine, fruit, paper money and other items to the cemetery, offer food to their relatives, burn paper money, cultivate new soil for the tomb, fold a few green willow branches and put them on the grave, then kowtow to worship, and finally eat wine and food or pack up the offerings and go back home.

The Ministry of civil affairs of the people's Republic of China has vigorously promoted the ways of flower worship, online worship and community public sacrifice. All localities are required to actively organize patriotic and revolutionary traditional education activities to remember the martyrs and recall history. We should vigorously advocate new funeral concepts and customs, guide the masses to get rid of feudal superstition and bad funeral customs, consciously carry out reform of funeral customs, and constantly explore civilized ways of offering sacrifices and sweeping.

The memorial ceremony is also called "Qingming diaozi". Every year on the Qingming Festival, after the sacrifice and sweeping, a bamboo or willow pole is often inserted in front of or on the head of the tomb to show that there has been a memorial ceremony. Some people will paste long strips of white paper on the benchmark, some people will hang some Chu money, and some people will paste both white paper and Chu money.

Paper money, as the name suggests, is money made of paper, which is given to ancestors for use in the underworld, also known as "hanging paper" and "hanging money". During tomb sweeping, people burn the paper money they carry. It is believed that the paper money can be turned into smoke and enter the underworld, which is easy for ancestors to accept. In some places, such as Pinghu, Zhejiang Province, Xianning, Hubei Province and Enshi, paper money was hung with bamboo and inserted on the tombs, which is called "Biao tomb". In Yongtai, Fujian Province, people cut paper bars into strips and put them on branches or grass. In Changshou, Sichuan Province, white paper is used to cut banners and put them on tombs, which is called "Guaqing". In Xingren, Guizhou, white paper is used as a long flag to hang in front of the tomb, which is called "Biao tomb".

On Tomb Sweeping Day in the Yellow River, Huaihe River and Yangtze river basins, every household inserts willows on the door, hangs willows under the eaves, hairpins on women's heads, wears willows on men's bodies, blows willow pipes on children's bodies and hangs paper money in front of tombs. Hu Pu'an's all China customs records records Shouchun (now Shouxian County, Anhui Province) on the Bank of the Huaihe River. When he was old, he said that tomorrow, new willows would be planted at home, which means that the epidemic ghosts could be eliminated. "Wuhu ancient and modern" records the customs of Wuhu, saying that in the early morning of the Qing Dynasty, "willows are sold in the market. Every family fold a green willow, dip it in water and put it on the lintel, while women wear willow balls on their temples.

Swing is the custom of Qingming Festival in ancient China. Swing, which means pulling the leather rope and moving. Its history is very old, the first called Qianqiu, later in order to avoid taboo, changed to swing. In ancient times, the swing was made of branches of trees and colored ribbons. Later, it gradually developed into a swing with two ropes and pedals. Swing can not only improve health, but also cultivate the spirit of courage, which is loved by people, especially children.

Qingming Festival is a good time for people to have a spring outing. Outing is also called spring outing. In ancient times, it was called exploring and searching for spring. Qingming Festival ancestor worship activities are often carried out in the suburbs. People combine ancestor worship, tomb sweeping and outing outing, that is, to remember their ancestors and keep healthy, so outing has become one of the customs of Qingming Festival.

Kite flying is also a favorite activity in Qingming Festival. During the Qingming Festival, people not only release it during the day, but also at night. At night, a string of colorful lanterns are hung under the kite or on the wind stable cable, like twinkling stars, known as "magic lamp". In the past, some people cut their kites and sent them to the ends of the earth in the breeze after flying them into the blue sky. It is said that they can get rid of diseases and disasters and bring good luck to themselves.

Qingming Festival to eat green food. There is a custom of steaming wormwood cake in the countryside. Artemisia cake is similar to the qingtuan in Jiangnan. Its making method is as follows: "gather new Artemisia bud and glutinous rice, mix Artemisia juice and rice flour, use meat, vegetables, bean paste and jujube mud as stuffing, put them in various fancy wooden models, and steam them with new reed leaves at the bottom of the cage." Artemisia cake color green and with plant fragrance, it is one of the Qingming ancestor worship food, also used to present or entertain relatives and friends. In addition, there was the custom of eating tea eggs in Huaiyang during the Qingming Festival.

During the Qingming Festival, there is a custom of eating green dumplings in Jiangnan. Green dumpling is a kind of wild plant called "pulp wheat straw" mashed and squeezed out juice, and then take this juice mixed with the water milled pure glutinous rice powder after drying, and then start to make dumpling. The filling heart of the dumpling is made of delicate sugar bean paste. When filling, add a small piece of sugar lard. After the dough is made, steam them in the cage and brush the cooked vegetable oil evenly on the surface of the dough when they are out of the cage. Green ball oil green

Chinese PinYin : Qing Ming