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The hometown of cold food Qingming culture - Jiexiu

During the Qingming Festival, it rains heavily, and pedestrians on the road want to die.

Where is the restaurant? The shepherd boy pointed to Xinghua Village.

This Qingming poem by Du Mu of the Tang Dynasty is well known to all women and children. Many people misinterpret it as pedestrians rushing back to their hometowns to sweep graves during the Ching Ming Festival, but it is not. The Tang people worshiped the tomb on the Cold Food Festival, not the Qingming Festival. People today are very familiar with Qingming Festival, but they don't know much about Cold Food Festival. Why did later generations choose to sweep tombs and worship ancestors in Qingming? To understand its origin, we must start with the Cold Food Festival.

Flowers are flying everywhere in the city of spring, and the east wind of cold food keeps the willows slanting.

At dusk, candles are passed from the Han palace, and light smoke is scattered into the Wuhou's house.

This widely circulated Tang poem "Cold Food" describes the natural phenology and folk customs of the Chang'an Cold Food Festival in the Tang Dynasty. On the day of the Cold Food Festival, not only thousands of households banned smoking and turned off fires, but also many poems and songs were created based on it. According to statistics, there are more than 300 poems in the "Quan Tang Poems" with the theme of Cold Food Festival.

Qingming is originally one of the twenty-four solar terms, and Qingming Festival is expressed as Qingming solar terms. Solar terms are used by the ancients to reflect the changes in seasons, climate, and phenology according to the position of the sun's return. In the current Gregorian calendar, the dates are basically fixed, and there is no difference between one or two days before and after. On the day of Qingming, it means that the sun has reached the position of 15 degrees of the yellow longitude.

Cold food has become a fixed folk festival since the Jin State in the Spring and Autumn and Warring States. It has been more than 2,600 years ago. It is the earliest festival in China to commemorate people. related.

Shanxi Jiexiu Mianshan

In 655 BC, during the Warring States dispute, Chonger, the son of Jin Xiangong, who was later one of the five tyrants of the Spring and Autumn Period, Jin Wengong, had no choice but to flee to other countries to avoid the murder of his father, Liji, and many countries were unwilling to accept Chonger. of refuge. A minister named Jie Zitui fled after Chong'er. He was upright and famous as a loyal minister and filial son. One day they ran out of food, and everyone went to dig wild vegetables to satisfy their hunger, but Jie Zitui cut off a piece of meat from his own leg, made a bowl of broth and gave it to Chong'er.

Shanxi Jiexiu Mianshan

Nineteen years later, Chong'er was finally welcomed back home and became the king of the country. He became the king of Jin at the age of 62. Duke Wen of Jin gave great rewards to the subjects who followed him, but he forgot about Jie Zitui. After being reminded by the minister, Duke Wen of Jin immediately sent someone to invite Jie Zitui. At this time, Jie Zitui went to Mianshan with his old mother on his back, unwilling to become an official in the court. Someone came up with an idea to set fire on three sides to force meson to push out. Unexpectedly, Jie Zitui, carrying his mother on his back and holding a willow tree, would rather burn to death than go out of the mountain.

Shanxi Jiexiu Mianshan

After the fire was extinguished, someone found the bones of Jie Zitui's mother and son under a dead willow tree. Duke Wen of Jin was so sad that he broke off a willow and brought a piece of burnt willow back to the palace. He made a pair of wooden shoes and looked at them every day and sighed: "Sorrowful to the foot". (Deduced as a respectful speech from subordinates to superiors). Duke Wen of Jin ordered fire and cold food to be banned on the day of Jie Zitui's death to express his grief, forming the ancient Cold Food Festival. The Cold Food Festival falls on the 105th day after the Winter Solstice, and one or two days after the Cold Food Festival, it will meet the Qingming solar term.

Shanxi Jiexiu Mianshan

Mianshan is located in Jiexiu, Shanxi Province, where the story of the burning of Mianshan took place, and Mianshan has since been called Jieshan. The place name "Jiexiu" (city) is also named after "Jiezi Tuixiu is here". People in Jiexiu still keep the custom of celebrating the Cold Food Festival. In addition to visiting ancestors in new and old tombs, activities such as offering sacrifices and planting willows are also organized.

The original Cold Food Festival was mainly about banning smoking, banning fire and eating cold food. The content was relatively simple, and it was mainly spontaneous activities among the people, with the participation of the government from time to time. In the Sui and Tang Dynasties, the Cold Food Festival has evolved into a festival for the people of the country to worship and sweep. At that time, fire is banned among the people, smoking is banned in the palace, the tombs of scholars are exhibited, and the royal mausoleum is sacrificed. The content of the activities has changed from the simple prohibition of fire and cold food in the past to more activities such as tomb sweeping, willow planting, outing, swing, Cuju, cockfighting, and banquets. At the same time, the Cold Food Festival also has some more elegant content, such as royal organizations. Tomb-sweeping and paper-hanging are still the most important folk symbolic activities of the Cold Food Festival.

During the Song and Yuan dynasties, Qingming gradually rose from the position attached to the Cold Food Festival to its replacement, and then the two were further integrated, and the custom content became more abundant, as depicted in the Song painting "Along the River During Qingming Festival".

Shanxi Jiexiu Mianshan

After the mid-Ming Dynasty, the traditional "cold food" ban on smoking and cold food has gradually been forgotten by the world, and the tomb-sweeping activities of the Cold Food Festival have gradually replaced the ban on fire and cold food. Folk tomb-sweeping, official altars of offering sacrifices to evil spirits, and royal ancestral mausoleums, these three customs gradually broke away from "cold food" and became the main items of "Ching Ming Festival" in modern and contemporary times. The Cold Food Festival and the Qingming Festival, which were originally irrelevant, have gradually come together. But in official documents, literati works, and folk titles, "cold food" is still used, and the memory of Jie Zitui is only occasionally seen in literati works.

In the Qing Dynasty, "cold food" has been forgotten, and the cold food has quietly integrated into Qingming in the evolution process. After all, the two dates are too close. Qingming has also risen from a simple agricultural solar term to a major festival. However, the core of the "sacrificing culture" comes from the cold food culture and the culture of loyalty and filial piety in commemoration of Jie Zitui. Without cold food, it is almost impossible.

I came to Jiexiu, Shanxi Province in 2009, and of course I had to visit Mianshan (Jieshan).

July 2009 Mianshan, Shanxi Tickets 110 yuan

Mianshan is a branch of Taihang Mountain, named for its stretching situation. It is located 20 kilometers southeast of Jiexiu County. You can take a scenic bus from the county to Mianshan Scenic Spot.

There are 14 major scenic spots and more than 400 small scenic spots in Mianshan Scenic Area, including natural landscapes, religious buildings, garden buildings, and ancient relics. Mianshan Mountain is steep, with many cliffs and cliffs, green pines and cypresses, and the natural scenery is very majestic and beautiful. I first came to the Shuitaogou scenic spot in Mianshan.

Shuitaogou is a natural landscape in Mianshan Mountain, with beautiful mountains and rivers, 80% forest coverage and developed water system. Absolutely.

Mianshan has an atmosphere that embraces everything in the world and integrates diverse religious cultures. As early as the Northern Wei Dynasty, temples were built in the mountains. In the early Tang Dynasty, Mianshan was already a Buddhist Zen forest with a considerable scale, and it was the main place for Buddhist activities in Mianshan. Jiezitui, the god of Mianshan Mountain, is enshrined by Taoism, and the three religions of Buddhism, Taoism and Confucianism coexist here.

Mianshan Mountain has a peculiar mountain situation, with more than a hundred natural karst caves of various sizes. The largest Baofu Rock, the Baofu Temple was built during the Three Kingdoms period.

bobel rock

The Tang Dynasty respected Laozi and Taoism, and most of the Mianshan Taoist temples were built in the Tang Dynasty, mainly including Daluo Palace, Tianqiao Shenxian Cave, Yidouquan Dongzhen Palace, Zhujiaao Cave Xuan Palace, etc.

Tianqiao Fairy Cave

Zhujiawa was named after Zhu Wusi, the father of Ming Taizu Zhu Yuanzhang, who practiced here. In the 21st year of Jiajing (1542), Zhu Houcong, the 12th grandson of Zhu Yuanzhang and Emperor Shizong of the Ming Dynasty, went to Mianshan to worship his ancestors and built the altar of Jiaozhai.

Zhujiaao Cave Mysterious Palace

The contemporary reconstructed Daluo Palace hangs high on the top of Lion Mountain, with 13 floors, 110 meters high and a construction area of ​​10,000 square meters. The whole group of buildings skillfully integrates Ming and Qing styles with modern technology, magnificent and majestic, and is known as "the first Taoist temple in the world".

Da Luo Palace

Mianshan Scenic Area is very large, with many historic sites, about 18 kilometers round trip, commonly known as: "Nine miles and eighteen bends, twenty-four small temples of the heavens, listed everywhere." It takes a lot of time to play all of them.