The beginning of spring is the most important festival among the Han people, and it not only represents a solar term.

The beginning of spring has been a highly valued festival since ancient times. More than 3,000 years have passed since ancient times, from the royal family to the common people of Li, they all have to welcome spring on the day of the beginning of spring and pray for a good harvest in the new year.

The royal activities are generally sacrifices, hundreds of officials enter the palace to enjoy the feast, and performances and spring greeting activities will also be carried out in various places, and people should be sent to send spring cattle stickers and spring reports, and they also welcome the god of Jumang, and beat spring cattle.

Legend has it that Shennong's tasted herbs and divided grains.

The Three Emperors and Five Emperors attached great importance to agriculture, and by the time of the Zhou Dynasty, the matter of agriculture was mentioned to the court, and on the one hand, the calendar was made, and the magistrates were ordered to hold a ceremony to welcome the spring once a year.

Agriculture is the foundation of all industries, spring is the first year old, this "spring" ceremony, of course, to be grand.

The day before the beginning of spring, officials from all over the country should take a bath, wear plain clothes, do not sit in a sedan chair or ride a horse, walk to the suburbs, gather villagers, and set up tables to make offerings.

In addition to burning incense and prostrating, it is also necessary to make a earth ox in front of the offering table, so that the person who pretends to be the god of Gou Mang raises the whip of the earth ox, which is called "spring cow", and "beating spring cow" means to beat the laziness of the spring cow and usher in a good harvest of the year.

"Fighting spring cattle" started from beating earth cattle, and after many years, the earth cattle were replaced by paper cows, and a paper paste cow was filled with grains.

It is regarded as a "spring cow", and at the spring party, the "Gomang God" is whipped and beaten, the cow is knocked down, the paper is broken, and the grains inside flow out, which symbolizes the harvest of the five grains of the year.

After many years, the paper spring cow was replaced by a real spring cow.

It is said that there is an incorruptible official who committed a crime, demoted him to a petty official, on the day of taking office, it was the day of the spring, he saw the magistrate in the outside of the effect of the gathering of people to hold the spring ceremony, "Gou Mangshen" is whipping the paper spring cow hard, he felt ridiculous, so he wrote half a poem, entitled "Spring Cow List", the poem wrote: Unable to work in the field to die of hunger, what is the son of the spring cow?

After he took office, he took a serious concern for agricultural affairs, often took off his official uniform, went to the fields, talked with the peasants, and personally learned farm work with the old peasants.

In the first spring after he took office, he moved the ceremony of "welcoming spring" to the day of "the beginning of spring", neither laying earth oxen nor pasting paper oxen, but brought a plow cane and brought in a ox, and asked the officials to make a bamboo tube to tie on the ground, and put a fluffy chicken feather in it to see when it was the beginning of spring.

As the saying goes, the beginning of spring when the yang rises, he guards the bamboo tube and waits, and when the time of the beginning of spring comes, he sees the fluffy chicken feathers gently floating upward, slowly out of the bamboo tube, fluttering to the sky. Just as the chicken feathers gently floated out of the bamboo tube, he whipped the sky.

The oxen were gone, the plough was moving, the spring ploughing began, and he ploughed again and again, until the sun went down before returning to the yamen.

In the evening, he was full of poetry, and he added two more sentences to the half of the poem "Spring Cow List" written last year: The first year often thinks about Chinese food on the plate, and the crisp whip hits spring. Since then, people have called the day of the beginning of spring "beating spring".

It is said that it has risen since the Western Zhou Dynasty and has been followed by successive dynasties, especially in the Tang and Song dynasties, and has been more than 3,000 years. This custom, generally symbolized by four people carrying clay sculptures of spring oxen, is whipped by the spring official, has the meaning of advising agriculture and encouraging spring ploughing, and is also a form of celebrating the New Year and gathering and partying.

Folk activities are more abundant, on the day of the beginning of spring, there will be a spring tour, spring exploration, and then each family will exchange gifts with each other, such as spring cows, spring cow pictures, and will also wear spring babies for children, but also to worship spring. It is also necessary to paste spring cattle, paste spring paintings, build bird's nests, and paste spring wins.

Gao Cheng's "The Origin of Things": "Zhou Gong began to make spring native cattle, and covered the unearthed cattle to show the morning and evening of farming."

By the Han Dynasty, the custom of whipping spring cattle had become quite popular. In the early morning of the beginning of spring, hundreds of officials in the capital wear green clothes, wear green hats, and set up green flags, and send the earth oxen outside the city gate, and the officials whip the earth oxen to show the spring of persuasion to the farmers, this kind of ritual has been fixed, and spread to the counties.

After whipping the spring cattle, the common people coaxed the loose soil of the broken cattle, thinking that "the meat of the native cattle is suitable for silkworms and dispels the plague".

The whip spring ox is intended to encourage farming. During the Ming and Qing dynasties, the folk had the customs of welcoming the soil cattle, welcoming the agricultural auspiciousness, and bathing the silkworm seeds.

Shanxi folk song cloud: "The spring breeze moves, and the spring river flows in spring." Spring people drink spring wine, and spring officials whip spring cattle. "On the day of the beginning of spring, the village elects an old man to symbolically beat the spring ox three times with a whip, which means the beginning of the year's farming.

Then the villagers smashed the mud oxen, divided the soil and sprinkled it on their farmlands.

In the Qing Dynasty, local officials in various prefectures and counties would go to the outskirts of the city to worship the god Mangshen on the day of the beginning of spring. After the sacrifice, the "spring cow" made of colored paper should be broken, and the dried fruit food contained in the tripe was thrown to the ground, and the children scrambled to eat it.

The spring cow plays the leading role in the spring ceremony. On the old almanac and Han folk woodblock New Year paintings, the spring cow pattern is often printed, which is generally depicted according to the scene of "beating the spring cow" in ancient times, implying that spring is welcomed, farming is the beginning, and the five grains are abundant. Every spring, six or nine heads are played, and fireworks and firecrackers are not stopped. Colorful flags and drums are noisy, and the spring cow is whipped around the house.

Tang Dynasty poet Yuan Zhen's poem "Shengchun": "Outside the gate of Whip Niu County, fight for soil to cover spring silkworms. "First" whip "and then "fight" is a two-part trilogy of ancient customs and sayings for sending winter and cold to welcome the new year. The whip spring cow, also known as the whip earth cow, originated earlier.

"Zhou Li, Moon Order": "Cattle were unearthed to send cold air." Later, it has been retained, but it was changed in the spring, flourishing in the Tang and Song dynasties, especially after Song Renzong promulgated the "Tu Niu Jing", the custom of whipping the Tu Niu spread more widely, so that it became an important part of folk culture.

When it comes to the beginning of spring, I have to mention the Spring Festival couplets. And the appearance of the first couplet in Chinese history is quite interesting.

The first surviving couplets were written by Meng Chang, the Later Shu Emperor during the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms period.

The word "Chang" in Meng Chang's name is read as "factory".

"Shuo Wen Jie Zi" said: "Chang, the day is long." It means that the days are long. The composition of this character is the word "Yong" on the left and the word "day" on the right, which is extended to mean that there is always the sun. Emperors regard themselves as the Son of Heaven, and the name Meng Chang obviously hopes that he will last as long as the sun in the sky.

Unfortunately, the name did not bring good luck to Meng Chang, and unfortunately, he became the last emperor of Hou Shu, and after reigning for more than 30 years, he was finally destroyed by the Northern Song Dynasty.

Meng Chang had no choice but to surrender to Song Taizu Zhao Kuangyin with the flower-like lady Stamen.

Just before the surrender of the Spring Festival, Meng Chang wrote a couplet on a whim: "The New Year is celebrated, and the festival is called Changchun." ”

And this Spring Festival couplet became the first Spring Festival couplet in Chinese history.

The meaning of the first sentence of this couplet is that the New Year enjoys the legacy of the ancestors; The meaning of the second sentence is: the festive season indicates that spring is always there, and you can live a spring-like life for a long time.

Fate sometimes loves to play tricks on people, and the more you want to get something, the more you can't get it.

This is a perfect description of Meng Chang. Don't look at his willingness to do this couplet, but fate just played a big joke on him.

Later generations believe that this Spring Festival couplet is simply an ominous prophecy. In a word, this is something that Meng Chang could never have dreamed of.

Shanglian: New Year's Celebration. After the fall of Houshu, this former country became a territory of the Northern Song Dynasty, and it stands to reason that a local governor should be sent, because the war has just ended, so Zhao Kuangyin, Taizu of the Song Dynasty, sent a temporary governor, and this person's name is Lu Yuqing.

As a result, Meng Chang's sentence "New Year's Yuqing" became "Lu Yuqing was ushered in in the New Year".

What's even worse is the next link: the festival number Changchun. According to the "History of the Song Dynasty: Benji No. 1": "Ji Wei, the prime minister asked February 16 to be the Spring Festival. ”

The meaning of this sentence is that on the day of the second year of Jiwei, when the prime minister of the dynasty played to the emperor to take the 16th day of the second month of the lunar calendar as the Spring Festival.

The emperor mentioned here is Zhao Kuangyin, Taizu of the Song Dynasty, and February 16 is his birthday. In other words, the Spring Festival is a festival set up to celebrate the birth of Zhao Kuangyin.

Meng Chang's sentence "Festival No. Changchun" became "Take the birthday of the emperor of the Northern Song Dynasty as his own festival". One can imagine what it means for an emperor to congratulate another emperor on his birthday.