According to Volume 8 of Dream of China in Tokyo (1 147), a few days before the Mid-Autumn Festival, the streets and alleys of the Song Dynasty were filled with a strong festive atmosphere. The shop sells new wine and redecorates the colorful building in front of the door. There are pomegranates, pears, chestnuts, grapes, colored oranges and so on. In the evening, people compete to enjoy the moon in restaurants, and the bamboo and flute play together. The children in the alley played all night and the night market was crowded. As for dawn. Wu (living around 1270) also recorded in the fourth volume of Meng Lianglu that more people arranged family dinners and reunions with their children in the Southern Song Dynasty to reward festivals. Even poor families in mean streets will pawn clothes and buy wine to celebrate the Mid-Autumn Festival.
Jin Yingzhi (who lived around 1 126) recorded the custom of people from enjoying the moon to Yue Bai at that time in the fourth volume of the newly edited Notes of the Drunken Man: "The appreciation of the moon in the capital will be different from other counties. The whole family, rich or poor, can go to twelve or thirteen by themselves and dress up as adults. You have your own time to climb stairs or burn incense in the court. Men are willing to go to Toad Palace to climb Xiangui early. Women want to look like Chang 'e and be as round as the clean moon. 」
Besides Yue Bai, there is the custom of watching lanterns. Zhou Mi (1232- 1308) recorded the Mid-Autumn Night in Hangzhou in the third volume of Old Wulin: "The lights and candles are gorgeous, but the evening is over." Zhejiang also put on a sheepskin water lamp "Little Red" on Mid-Autumn Festival night. The river is covered with thousands of lanterns, which are as eye-catching as the stars in the sky. It is said that water lanterns are for the benefit of Jiang Shen, not just for viewing.
In the Song Dynasty, Hangzhou also had a special Mid-Autumn Festival landscape, that is, watching the tide in Qiantang. Because the topography of Qiantang estuary is similar to a funnel, when the tide comes in, the waves overlap and pile up into a water wall, which is very spectacular. Su Dongpo wrote "Watching the Tide on a Mid-Autumn Night" when he was in Hangzhou, describing the number of people watching the Tide and the trend of the Tide:
I know the jade rabbit is round, and it has been frosty in September.
The message is don't lock the door, and the night tide stays on the moon.
Ten thousand people are clamoring for me, but they are still floating in the river like a old boys.
You know how high the tide is, and the mountains are muddy in the waves.
Another passage in "The Old Story of Wulin" describes the earth-shattering thin momentum more specifically: "When I am far away from Haimen, it is just like a silver line. It is the snowy mountain in Yucheng when it is coming, and it will come the next day. Loud as thunder, shocking and whipping, swallowing the sky and swallowing the sun, the situation is extremely heroic. " Today, Qiantang Tide Watching is still the most distinctive tourist attraction of Mid-Autumn Festival in Zhejiang Province.
the Yuan Dynasty
Although the Yuan Dynasty entered the Central Plains as an alien, it was deeply localized. Most holiday customs also follow the old Han system. In Ming Dynasty, the custom of appreciating the moon, offering sacrifices to the moon and eating moon cakes prevailed.
Tian Rucheng (around 1540) recorded that people in Ming Dynasty gave more gifts than Mid-Autumn Festival and took the circle of "reunion". In the evening, there will be a banquet to enjoy the moon, or take wine and vegetables to the lake and sea. The second volume (1635) of The Scenery of the Imperial Capital, co-authored by Dong Liu and Yu Yizheng, describes in detail the offerings of Mid-Autumn Festival: the moon cakes must be round, and the fruits offered must be cut into lotus-shaped teeth. Moonlight paper is sold in the market. There is a partial moon bodhisattva painted on the moonlight paper. There is a full moon Guitang painted on the moonlight paper, and a rabbit is standing in it. After the festival, burn paper and distribute fruitcakes to every family member. Mid-Autumn Festival is also a reunion festival, so even if a woman returns to visit her relatives in the province, she will definitely return to her husband's family for reunion on this day.
tomorrow
As for the grand gathering of the Ming people enjoying the moon, there is also Zhang Dai (1597- 167 1? ) with its wonderful pen, it made the following extremely elegant explanation for us. "Tao An Meng Yi" Volume Five Tiger Autumn Nights:
In August and a half in Huqiu, there are aborigines, floating population, scholars, family members, female musicians, vocal geisha, famous prostitutes, opera women, folk young women, good women, young children, child molesters, diners, idlers and boys and girls. Since the birth of Gongtai, Qianshi, Hejian, Jianchi, Shenwending Temple, down to Gate 1 and Gate 2 of Shishi, have all sat on the mat and looked up, like geese landing on Pingsha and Xiajiang. On the day of the moon, there were hundreds of speakers, boasting about it, taking part in it, shaking the earth, thundering and screaming, but they didn't hear the call. What is more certain is that the drums and cymbals are gradually resting, and the silk and bamboo are flourishing, mixed with singing. It's all "the brocade sail opens the lake into a lake", with big songs in the same field, the sound of squatting gongs and drums, the sound of silk and bamboo, regardless of beating and smashing. In deeper places, people gradually dispersed, scholars and their families got off the boat and played in the water. They were asked to sing. Everyone contributed their skills to the North and the South, and the orchestra played repeatedly. Listeners distinguish words and phrases, and seaweed follows. The second drum is quiet, the screen is listening, and the hole is a wisp of sorrow, clear and tender, even more so than three or four. There are no mosquitoes and flies in the lonely moon with three drums. A lady appeared on the stage, sitting high on the stone, making a silky sound without whistling or flapping, splitting the stone through the clouds and pulling up the strings. Every word, the listener is heartbroken and exhausted. He didn't dare to clap his hands, but nodded. However, there are still hundreds of people sitting beside the goose at this time. How can you seek knowledge if you are not in Suzhou?
Perhaps we can get a glimpse of the life interest of the late Ming people from this song "Autumn Night in Tiger House".
Ching Dynasty
The "Moonlight Paper" used in Yue Bai in the Ming Dynasty was renamed "Moonlight Horse" in the Qing Dynasty. Yanjing Time by Fu Cha Deng Chong (1906). It is recorded that: "Moonlight riders draw Taiyin Star King with paper, such as Bodhisattva, Moon Palace and rabbits with medicine. People stand up and hold the pestle, the algae is exquisite and magnificent, and the market sells more and more. Seven or eight feet old and two or three feet short, with two flags on the top, red, green, basket and yellow, all dedicated to the moon. Burn incense and salute, and burn it with a thousand ingots after the sacrifice. "
There was another saying in the Qing Dynasty: "Men don't go to Yue Bai, and women don't run around". Therefore, Yue Bai has become a patent for women. Housewives in Yue Bai are very busy and children have nothing to do. A few days before the Mid-Autumn Festival, a kind of "male prostitute" for children's confinement will be sold in the market. Male prostitutes originated in the late Ming Dynasty. Ji Kun of Amin Dynasty (born around 1636) wrote in the Legacy of Flower King Pavilion: "Mid-Autumn Festival in Beijing is mostly shaped like a mud rabbit, dressed like a human figure, and children worship it." By the Qing dynasty, the function of male prostitutes had changed from offering sacrifices to the moon to children's Mid-Autumn Festival toys. It is becoming more and more exquisite, some dressed as military commanders in armor robes, some with paper flags or umbrellas on their backs, or sitting or standing. Sit down, there are Kirin, tiger leopard and so on. There are also vendors dressed as rabbit heads, or hairdressers, or sewing shoes, selling wonton and tea soup, and so on.