Chapter 300: Phoenix Dance for Nine Days

When I opened my eyes, there was still silence all around, at this time, the afterglow of the sun sparsely sprinkled on me, it was almost evening, I was still lying on the chaise longue in front of the window of the imperial study, the book in my hand fell to the ground at some point, but the smoke that had just appeared, the beach, and even the Leling cedar were nowhere to be seen.

"Lingshan, where are you, are you okay?" I silently said in my heart,

This is another dream of Nanke,

I sighed secretly, picked up the book that fell on the ground, got up and walked to the window, and silently blessed Le Lingshan,

"Official, let's eat, listen to Xiao Qi, the official family didn't eat well at noon." Quan Jiu walked into the study with a happy face,

"Well, Jiu'er, let's go, I feel a little hungry too."

Quan Jiu said as he walked: "Official, today Jiu'er and the sisters have sorted out all the information of the Xianwen Pavilion. ”

"Yes, okay, Jiu'er has worked hard."

"Hehe, I finally finished this a year ago, and it will be much more convenient for the official family to go to the Xianwen Pavilion to check the information."

"Well, when the court is on vacation, I can go and see it."

On the last day of the first year of Xianchun, I slept lazily again, and under the urging of Quan Jiu, I slowly got up from the bed, just like last year, Xie Daoqing, the highest ranking in the palace, prepared for the royal banquet in Ningkun Palace, ready to welcome the arrival of the New Year,

During the Song Dynasty, with the development of the economy, people also attach great importance to culture and entertainment, especially the celebration of various festivals, in this peaceful and long-term, traditional dynasty, almost the ancient festival entertainment to the extreme, although the national strength at the end of the Southern Song Dynasty has been greatly inferior to before, but people's pursuit of pleasure in life is still the same, the folk are still so, not to mention the royal family, as the most solemn festival - the Spring Festival is the highlight of all festivals,

The festive atmosphere in the whole palace is quite strong, all kinds of lanterns are colorful, all kinds of lanterns are not less than thousands, there are Bodhisattva statues such as Manjushri and Fuxian, there are various gods and goddesses such as Sanqing Patriarch, there are also all kinds of auspicious animal statues, the shape is changeable, lifelike, wait until night falls, thousands of lanterns are lit up at the same time, it is no less than the lantern festival I saw in later generations, the flowers on both sides of the road are clustered, the lanterns are hung high above the palace, the peach charm and the spring post are replaced, all of them reveal the joy and joy of the festival,

Walking into Ning Kun, the first thing you can see is that there is a pair of brand-new spring posts pasted on the peach charms on both sides of the gate, the pen and ink of the spring post seem to be not completely dry, and you will know that it has just been written at a glance. "The next link is" New Year's greetings to Thailand, and the white is gradually stretching. This Spring Festival couplet was made by the great writer Ouyang Xiu when he was a bachelor of Hanlin in the past, and has always been deeply loved by the royal family of the Song Dynasty, and has almost become the first choice for spring posts every year.

In ancient times, the peach charm was the earliest peach wood board used to ward off evil spirits, hung on both sides of the gate, respectively painted with the ghost god "Shen Tu", "Yu Lei", in order to drive away ghosts and suppress evil, these two gods are called the door god, the face is hideous, the ancient legend, there are these two door gods guarding the door, a hundred ghosts are afraid of it, since the Tang Dynasty, and added Wei Chi Jingde and Qin Shubao two generals, as the new door god, so there are four door gods, to the Song Dynasty, the court culture atmosphere is more strong, disgusted with the door god is too cheesy, it was replaced by a spring post, That is, to paste a spring post on the peach charm instead of the door god,

Spring post from the palace slowly spread to the people, the New Year hanging Spring Festival couplets in the people has been quite common, which slowly formed the later generations said that the Spring Festival couplets, because the appearance of the Spring Festival couplets and the peach charm has a close relationship, so the ancients also called the Spring Festival couplets "peach symbol",

The Spring Festival couplets in the palace are elegant, pay attention to the mood, and the folk Spring Festival couplets are usually popular blessings, as long as they are roughly opposed, in the late Southern Song Dynasty, they have basically been accepted by the people, and have become a must-have thing for every household during the Spring Festival.

"The official family is here." Xie Daoqing said with a smile,

"Well, I've seen the queen mother."

"No courtesy, official, come and see if there is anything wrong with the Queen Mother's Ning Kun Palace."

I praised: "Queen Mother, this place is beautiful, and I am very happy." ”

"Haha." Xie Daoqing said with a smile, "The Queen Mother, Concubine Quan and others have been busy for several days, and the official family has been looking around. ”

"I've seen the official." And all my concubines came to me out of nowhere and saluted,

"All the concubines, flat body, today is a time to celebrate, so there is no need to give a big gift."

"Xie Guan's family."

"The official family, there is still one horizontal batch missing on the spring post in front of the door, everyone knows that the official family is a god and a man, and the horizontal batch is specially left to the official family to do." The most pleasing of the four concubines in spring, summer, autumn and winter,

"Horizontal batch." I suddenly remembered that the couplet I saw when I first entered the door was indeed missing a horizontal batch,

Xie Daoqing said: "Yes, the official family, the queen mother and the concubines discussed, this horizontal batch is left to the official family to do, and it is bound to play a wonderful role in putting the finishing touch." ”

Quan Jiu echoed: "Last year, the official family wrote a poem for the New Year, and this year I will ask the official family to make this horizontal criticism." ”

"Ah, do I have a mission every year?"

Xie Daoqing smiled: "Yes, who called the official family a god." ”

I thought for a while and said, "Okay, Queen Mother, it's just that the child hopes to complete this sentence with Concubine Quan." ”

"Why is that?"

"The queen mother, the child is used to writing with a hard pen, but this brush writing method will be laughing and generous."

Xie Daoqing knew that my ink was difficult to shoot, and it became clear when he heard it, so he called the palace maid to serve him with pen and ink, and said with a smile: "Okay, the official family will make it, and the concubine will write it." ”

Concubine Qiu and the others laughed together: "I have heard that the official family is a god and a man, and the sister of Concubine Quan is also a talented woman, hurry up and let the concubines and others have a glimpse." ”

"Queen Mother, this Ningkun Palace commands the harem, the Queen Mother is the world, and she is the most virtuous Queen Mother since the previous dynasties.

Since ancient times, there is a dragon and phoenix in our country to say that in ancient times, people used the dragon to describe the male surname, generally referring to the emperor, the phoenix to describe the female surname, generally referring to the emperor, are the most in the world, I use the phoenix dance nine days to describe Xie Daoqing's Ningkun Palace is the ultimate of nine days, but also refers to Xie Daoqing is the most powerful woman in the world, naturally and this Ningkun Palace is very appropriate, as for whether it is related to the content of the couplet, no one cares, there is a way is not too much for a thousand shots, Xie Daoqing sounds very useful,

"Okay, a good phoenix dance for nine days." Under my praise, Xie Daoqing laughed heartily, and even said a little impatiently, "Concubine Quan, come, write it down and post it immediately." ”

The couplet on the gate of Ningkun Palace is written by He Ji, the great Confucian in the court, the handwriting is strong and rough, the iron painting silver hook, the charm is both, like the dragon swinging the tail, free and strong, the handwriting of Quan Jiu is soft and delicate, the beautiful hairpin flower, but it is really like the phoenix dance,

Although I don't know calligraphy, I can see that this couplet is strong and soft, and I praise it: "Not bad." ”

Compared with last year, this year's Chinese New Year's Eve dinner in Ningkun Palace has fewer people Xie Daolin, he said that he wants to spend it with the soldiers of the Royal Forest Army in the army, but there are four new concubines who have entered the palace in spring, summer, autumn and winter, but it is more lively, the four new concubines in spring, summer, autumn and winter have not seen Zhao Yu's rudeness and barbarism, only know that my emperor is approachable and easy to get along with, so he is more open than Quan Jiu and others, and the atmosphere is warm in talking and laughing,

After sacrificing to the ancestors, under the arrangement of Xie Daoqing, we sat on a large platform and started the dinner.

Xie Daoqing took the wine jug from the palace maid's hand, personally poured a cup of Tu Su wine for everyone, and said, "Drink this cup of Tu Su first, and everyone will be safe and sound in the coming year." ”

"Thank you, Mother."

"Empress Dowager Xie."

Tu Su is a kind of grass name, Tu Su wine is a kind of medicinal wine, according to legend, it was created by the late Han Dynasty doctor Hua Tuo, Hua Tuo will be multi-flavored Chinese medicine into the wine soaked, this wine has the effect of benefiting the temperature and yang, dispelling wind and cold, avoiding the epidemic, and then recommended by the famous doctor Sun Simiao in the Tang Dynasty to spread, the experience has been passed down from generation to generation, drinking Tu Su wine has become one of the food customs during the New Year, taking the intention to eliminate diseases, bless peace,

The second cup of wine is pepper and cypress wine, which is made of cypress leaves and peppercorns, which are considered to have the effect of warding off evil spirits in Chinese tradition, and in the eyes of the ancients, peppercorns have many fruits, which is a symbol of many seeds and many blessings; A cup of pepper cypress wine carries the expectations of the elderly for health and longevity and the young for many children.

After drinking the pepper and cypress wine, Xie Daoqing said: "This third cup of wine is very different from previous years, but it is a new type of high-grade liquor created by the official family himself. ”

"Ah, what a spicy wine." Concubine Qiu, who is not good at drinking, said first after drinking,

"It's spicy but refreshing, I didn't expect there to be such a good wine." Yang Meiren drank a lot of wine, but after drinking it, she praised it,

"This kind of high-grade liquor can be stopped in moderation according to the amount of alcohol you drink."

"Yes, Queen Mother."

As the host, Xie Dao Qingle greeted happily: "Well, three glasses of wine have passed, let's eat some spring dishes first." ”

The so-called spring plate is a platter of all kinds of vegetables, unlike the platter that later generations said that most of the platters are made of meat vegetables, its earliest origin is five Xin plates, and the so-called five Xin plates, refers to garlic, small garlic, leeks, brassica, coriander and other five kinds of spicy vegetables, the ancients in the New Year will be these five kinds of spicy things together to eat, but also gave it a rather poetic name "Wu Xin Pan", later people made an improvement to the five Xin Pan, added radish, artemisia, tender celery sprouts, tender leeks and other seasonal vegetables, converged into a plate, named "Spring Pan", In later generations, the spring cakes in the north and the spring rolls in the south evolved from the spring plates.

"Empress Dowager Xie."

Xie Daoqing looked at everyone kindly: "Okay, let's eat as much as you like, eat as much as you like." ”

"Yes, Queen Mother."

After eating the spring plate, a series of cold dishes, hot dishes were served on the table by the palace maids, the number of dishes is dizzying, except for abalone and other very few seafood, almost all the meat food in later generations is available, and the types of vegetables are not as complete as the varieties of later generations, however, the food in the Song Dynasty has not been polluted, it is a real environmentally friendly food,