The Double Ninth Festival is on the ninth day of September of the lunar calendar every year, so it is also called "Double Ninth Festival". In ancient times, two, four, six, eight and ten were yin numbers, one, three, five, seven and nine were yang numbers, and nine was the largest one. The sun and the moon are combined with the sun, and the two are important. The ancient book Yijing says: "Yang is nine." Two yang are important to each other, so it is also called "Chongyang".
The Double Ninth Festival comes from a Taoist fairy tale. According to legend, in the Eastern Han Dynasty, there was a young man named Huan Jing in runan county. His parents were alive and his wife and children were all together. Although life is not good, you can get by with half food and half food. Who knows, something bad is coming. There was a plague on both sides of the Ruhe River, and every household fell ill, and no one buried the bodies everywhere. This year, Huan Jing's parents also died of illness.
when Huan Jing was a child, she heard adults say, "There is a plague demon living in Ruhe River, who comes out to walk around the world every year. It takes the plague wherever it goes. Huan Jing is determined to visit teachers and seek friends to learn skills, fight plague demons and kill pests for the people. I heard that there lived a big fairy named Fei Changfang in the southeast mountain, so he packed his bags and set off for the mountain to learn from his teacher. Fei Changfang gave Huan Jing a demon-reducing dragon sword. Huan Jing got up early and went to bed late, dressed in Dai Yue, and practiced day and night. It was another year in a blink of an eye. Huan Jing was practicing his sword that day. Fei Changfang came up to him and said, "On September 9 this year, the plague demon of Ruhe will come out again. You hurry back to your hometown to kill the people. I'll give you a bag of cornus leaves and a bottle of chrysanthemum wine, so that your hometown elders can climb high to avoid disaster. " Xian Weng said, "With a finger, a crane spread its wings and landed in front of Huan Jing. Huanjing mounted the crane and flew to Runa.
Huan Jing returned to his hometown and gathered the villagers. Tell everyone what daxian said. On September 9, he led his wife, children and fellow villagers to a nearby mountain. Cornus leaves each divided into a piece, saying that you can take it with you, so the plague demon can't get close. Pour out the chrysanthemum wine again, and everyone takes a sip, saying that drinking chrysanthemum wine will not catch the plague. After arranging the villagers, he returned home with his demon-reducing dragon sword, sitting alone in the house, waiting for the plague demon to come and fight to subdue the demon. After a while, I heard Ruhe roaring and the strange wind spinning. The plague demon came out of the water and walked ashore through the village. There was no one in the thousands of households. Suddenly, he looked up and saw people gathering on the high mountain. It jumped to the foot of the mountain, only to feel the pungent smell of alcohol. cornus rushed to his lungs and dared not climb near, so he turned around and walked to the village. I saw a man sitting in the room. Just jump forward with a roar. When Huan Jing saw the plague demon coming, he quickly fought with his sword. After several rounds of fighting, Wen Mo fought him, but he ran away. Huan Jing threw the demon dragon sword with a whoosh, only to see the sword flashing cold light and chasing after the plague demon, piercing the heart and penetrating the lungs and plunging the plague demon to the ground. Since then, the people on both sides of the Ruhe River have never been harmed by plague demons again. People have passed on the story of climbing a mountain on September 9 to avoid disaster and stabbing the demon with the sword of Huan Jing, from father to son, and from son to grandson, until now. The custom of climbing mountains on the ninth day of September to avoid epidemics has been handed down year after year. Wu Jun, a Liang native, once recorded this in his book "Continuation of Qi and Harmony". Later, people regarded the custom of climbing on the Double Ninth Festival as an activity to avoid disasters.
The origin of the Double Ninth Festival can be traced back to the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period. Qu Yuan's "Journey" wrote: "Set Chongyang into the Emperor's Palace, and start to see the Qing capital after ten days." The "Double Ninth Festival" here refers to the sky, not just festivals. In the Han Dynasty, the custom of celebrating the Double Ninth Festival gradually became popular. According to legend, Lady Qi, the concubine of Emperor Gaozu Liu Bang, was murdered by Lv Hou, and Jia Shi, a maid in front of her, was expelled from the palace and married the poor. Jia brought the activities of Chongyang to the people. Jia said to people: In the palace, on the ninth day of September every year, we should wear cornus, eat tent bait and drink chrysanthemum wine in order to live longer. Since then, the custom of the Double Ninth Festival has spread among the people.
In the Book of Nine Days and Zhong You written by Cao Pi, the Wei Wendi in the Three Kingdoms period, it was clearly stated that the feast of Chongyang was: "The new year comes to the moon, and then it suddenly comes to September 9. Nine is the number of yang, and the sun and the moon are in harmony. It is well-known and thinks that it is suitable for a long time, so it is a feast. " It can be seen that the custom of celebrating the Double Ninth Festival was quite popular among literati at that time. By the Wei, Jin, Southern and Northern Dynasties, Chongyang had been widely valued by the people. Jin people's Zhouchu's "Records of Local Habits" records: "Meeting at Chongyang and climbing mountains and drinking are called Denggao Club, also known as cornus Club." It is also said in the "Qi Ren Yue Ling": "On the day of Double Ninth Festival, we must climb high and overlook the distance with cakes and wine, and enjoy the feast for the time, so as to celebrate the autumn ambition. Wine must be taken from cornus to make it broad, and it will be drunk. " Tao Yuanming, a scholar in the Jin Dynasty, said in the preface to the poem "Nine Days of Idleness": "I am idle and love the name of nine. Autumn chrysanthemum is full of gardens, but it is awkward, and it is empty for Jiuhua, and it is cherished in words. " Chrysanthemum and wine are mentioned here at the same time. It shows that in the Wei and Jin Dynasties, drinking and enjoying chrysanthemums had been practiced on Double Ninth Festival. In the Tang Dynasty, Chongyang was officially designated as a folk festival.
In the Song Dynasty, the Double Ninth Festival was more lively. The Dream of China in Tokyo recorded the grand occasion of Double Ninth Festival in the Northern Song Dynasty. "Old Wulin Stories" also records that the court of the Southern Song Dynasty "made a heavy row of nine pawns on the eighth day" for a grand amusement the next day. In the Ming Dynasty, in September, on the Double Ninth Festival, the palace would eat flower cakes together to celebrate, and the emperor would personally climb the Long Live Mountain to celebrate his autumn ambition. This custom has been spread to the Qing Dynasty.
"sunny day in 1999", with clear clouds and crisp autumn air, is also in the harvest season. It is the best season to go out for sightseeing, with orange and orange, blooming chestnuts, fragrant golden osmanthus, blooming yellow flowers everywhere, abundant fruits all over the mountains and beautiful scenery. Therefore, Chongyang has many nicknames. In Jin Dynasty, because the great poet Tao Yuanming liked to enjoy chrysanthemums in Chongyang, people also called it "Chrysanthemum Festival" or "Golden Festival". In the Northern and Southern Dynasties, in Jingchu area, people had a "picnic" on this day, so some people called it "picnic festival". The activities to celebrate the Double Ninth Festival are colorful and romantic, which generally include traveling to enjoy the scenery, climbing to the distance, watching chrysanthemums, inserting dogwoods all over the place, eating double ninth festival cakes, drinking chrysanthemum wine and other activities.
the custom of the Double Ninth Festival
The golden autumn is refreshing, and the osmanthus fragrance is fragrant. The Double Ninth Festival on the ninth day of the ninth lunar month is full of activities and fun, including climbing mountains, enjoying chrysanthemums, drinking chrysanthemum wine, eating double ninth cake, inserting dogwood and so on.
Climbing
In ancient times, there was a folk custom of climbing in Chongyang, so the Double Ninth Festival was also called "Climbing Festival". According to legend, this custom began in the Eastern Han Dynasty. There are many climbing poems written by scholars in Tang Dynasty, most of which are the custom of writing the Double Ninth Festival. Du Fu's seven laws "Ascending the Mountain" is a famous article about climbing the mountain in Chongyang.
climbing mountains in ancient times was not limited to September 9th. Zhao Yi's "Yu Cong Kao" in Qing Dynasty said: "Ascending the mountain is not only in September. Changli has a poem entitled "Man climbs to the south of the city in the sun": "Biography of Sui Shu Yuan Zhou": "Emperor Wen climbs the mountain with his near ministers on the 15th day of the first month", which means that both man and Shang Yuan climb the mountain. " It's just that the custom of climbing the mountain on Chongyang is the most prosperous and has continued.
The reason why climbing mountains has been handed down is precisely because, in this crisp autumn, climbing mountains and looking far away, enjoying chrysanthemums, drinking wine and writing poems are interesting things that are of great benefit to physical and mental health. This is the real reason why the climbing custom will last for a long time. "Being alone in a foreign land is a stranger, and I miss my family every holiday. I know from afar where my brother climbed, and there was one less person in the dogwood. " Wang Wei, a poet in the Tang Dynasty, wrote the poem on the mountain holiday thinking of my brothers in shandong, which expressed his homesickness when he climbed the mountain in Chongyang. Du Mu's "Climbing the Mountain on Nine Days" wrote: "Jiang Hanqiu's shadow geese first flew, and the guests carried the pot on the green. The world is troubled with a smile, and the chrysanthemum blooms when it is in full bloom. However, I will pay for the festival as much as I can, and I will not hate it when I board. This is only the case throughout the ages. Why should Niu Shan be alone? " In this poem, the author happened to meet his friends on the Double Ninth Festival. They climbed the mountain together, filled their heads with chrysanthemums, drank wine and sang poems. The author also comforted his friends not to cry, showing the author's festive feelings, which is exactly the opposite of Wang Wei's poem. Look at Lu Zhaolin's "Looking at the Xuanwu Mountain on September 9": "Looking at the mountains and rivers on September 9, I return to my heart and hope to accumulate wind and smoke. In a foreign land, * * * drinking golden flower wine, Wan Li shares the same sorrow with Hongyan. " With Wang Bo's "Nine Days in Shu", "Looking at the Hometown Station on September 9, he took a seat in the hometown to see the guests off. Human feelings are tired of suffering in the south, and Hongyan is from the north. " The two "two outstanding men" of the "four outstanding men in the early Tang Dynasty" wrote exactly the same poems during the Double Ninth Festival, both of which showed the author's melancholy in other places. One climbed the mountain and looked at his hometown, anxious to return, sobbing. One looks at the direction of his hometown, the "farewell cup", and places his thoughts on the "Hongyan" from the north. This sad feeling of having no home to return has been completely released in the Double Ninth Festival. The ancients wrote many poems about climbing on Chongyang Mountain, which stood out in the seasonal customs and culture.
Eat Chongyang Cake
According to historical records, Chongyang Cake is also known as flower cake, chrysanthemum cake and five-color cake, which is made randomly. It is the most important seasonal custom food in the Double Ninth Festival. At the dawn of September 9, it was the original intention of the ancients to make cakes in September by putting a piece of cake on their children's heads and saying something in their mouths, wishing their children all the best. The exquisite Chongyang cake should be made into nine layers, like a pagoda, with two lambs on it to conform to the meaning of Chongyang (sheep). Some even put a little red paper flag on the Chongyang cake and light candles. This probably means "lighting a lamp" and "eating cake" instead of "climbing", and using a little red paper flag instead of cornus. Nowadays, there is still no fixed variety of Chongyang cake, and the soft cakes eaten in the Double Ninth Festival all over the country are called Chongyang cakes.
There are many poets in Song Dynasty who wrote about Chongyang Cake. It can be seen that Chongyang cake began to exist in the Tang Dynasty. By the Song Dynasty, it had become popular in social life. Even the Jin people who lived in the northern part of the motherland in the Northern Song Dynasty imitated the customs of the Han people and ate cakes on the Double Ninth Festival, called "Baojie Cake".
so, why do you eat Chongyang cake? Because not everyone can climb the mountain on this day to celebrate the festival, for those who have nothing to climb, or who are unable to climb the mountain and have no time to climb it, double ninth cake is used instead, because "cake" and "high" are homophonic. Some people say that there are other meanings. The Five Miscellanies written by Xie Zhaolan, a Ming dynasty, said: "At dawn on the 9th, I put a piece of cake on my children's heads and wished them:' May everything be high'. This ancient man meant to eat cake on the ninth day. " The same is the homonym of "Gao", but it has a good meaning of blessing.
There is also the habit of holding chrysanthemums on the Double Ninth Festival. When chrysanthemums are in full bloom and crabs are on the market, as Meng Haoran said, "wait till the Mountain Holiday, I am coming again in chrysanthemum time." Another example, written by Cao Xueqin, is that Baoyu and others are enjoying pincers in the Grand View Garden, which is of course fascinating. About eating crabs, the thirty-eighth time in A Dream of Red Mansions wrote about a crab feast in Daguan Garden, and the money spent was enough for the cultivators to live for a year.
Appreciating chrysanthemums and drinking chrysanthemum wine
The Double Ninth Festival is the golden autumn season of the year, when chrysanthemums are in full bloom. It is said that appreciating chrysanthemums and drinking chrysanthemum wine originated from Tao Yuanming, a great poet in the Jin Dynasty. Tao Yuanming is famous for his seclusion, his poetry, his wine and his love for chrysanthemums. Later generations have followed suit, so there is a custom of appreciating chrysanthemums in Chongyang. In the old days, literati and officialdom also combined chrysanthemum appreciation with banquets in order to get closer to Tao Yuanming. In the Northern Song Dynasty, when Kaifeng was the capital of the capital, chrysanthemum appreciation in Chongyang was popular. At that time, there were many varieties of chrysanthemums in various forms.
Li Qingzhao, a famous poetess, wrote in "The Shadow of Drunken Flowers" that "the mist is thick and the clouds will be sad forever, and the brain will be refreshed and the golden beast will be sold. In the double ninth festival, lying in the pillow, in the middle of the night, the cold of the body has just been soaked. Drinking wine in the eastern fence until after dusk, the faint yellow chrysanthemum fragrance overflowing with double sleeves. Mo Tao is not ecstasy, the curtain rolls west wind, and people are thinner than yellow flowers! " Li Qingzhao's life is miserable. As a talented woman, her fate is so unfair. She spent 28 years of happy life with her husband Zhao Mingcheng. Unfortunately, Zhao Mingcheng died young and was killed by illness. Zhang Ruzhou, who married after marriage and was a snob, endured inhuman hardships all day long under the experience of domestic violence. The gap between the two lives was wide, so Li Qingzhao had the most abundant emotions. She liked to dream, because she could see her husband Zhao Mingcheng in her dream, and when she got back to reality, she was very sad. On the Double Ninth Festival, she was so worried that she couldn't sleep. She drank chrysanthemum wine and saw that she was thinner than a yellow flower, which showed that she was very haggard at that time and lived in pain all day.
People also call September of the lunar calendar "Chrysanthemum Moon". In the Double Ninth Festival, when chrysanthemums are in full bloom in Ao Shuang, watching chrysanthemums has become an important part of the festival. After the Qing Dynasty, the habit of enjoying chrysanthemums was particularly prosperous, and it was not limited to September 9, but it was still the most prosperous around the Double Ninth Festival.
Chairman Mao wrote in "Picking Mulberry Seeds for Double Ninth Festival": "Life is easy to be old, but it is difficult to be old. It is a double ninth festival now, and the yellow flowers in the battlefield are particularly fragrant. The annual autumn wind is strong, not like spring, but better than spring, and the Wan Li frost is vast. " This word describes the prosperity of chrysanthemums before and after the Double Ninth Festival, and shows the chairman's love and appreciation for the great rivers and mountains of the motherland.
chrysanthemums bloom in September of the lunar calendar, so they are called "nine flowers". In the old days, rich people arranged chrysanthemums in the shape of mountains and towers on the Double Ninth Festival, which were called Jiuhuashan and Jiuhuata.
in the book yingpu magazine, Wang Tao in Qing dynasty described the chrysanthemum party outside the Cuixiu Hall in Shanghai Yuyuan Garden at that time: "Thin stones and sparse moss, winding corridors and small pavilions, have felt bleak and autumn. Around the lake, the stone is folded to the northeast, and the situation is cheerful. From a distance, you can see the shadows of chrysanthemums, and you can see the fundus. When you enter the back column, all flowers are blooming, high and low, and a few Xiang curtains and porcelain pots are listed in front of the hall, all of which are extremely beautiful and strive for success. "
planting dogwoods and hairpin chrysanthemums
Climbing the mountain in 1999 is not just about attending a banquet and composing poems, but also has other activities. These activities are integrated into a "climbing meeting". Denggao Meeting is also called "cornus Meeting", so it is also called "cornus Festival". The custom of inserting Evodia rutaecarpa on the Double Ninth Festival was very common in the Tang Dynasty. The ancients thought that inserting Evodia rutaecarpa on the Double Ninth Festival could take refuge and eliminate disasters. Or wear it on the arm, or make a sachet and put cornus in it, and put it on your head. Most of them are worn by women and children, and in some places, men also wear them. Cornus's attendance at the Double Ninth Festival was recorded in Ge Hong's Miscellanies of the Western Classics in the Jin Dynasty. Besides wearing cornus, people also wear chrysanthemums. This has been the case in the Tang Dynasty, and it has been popular throughout the ages. In the Qing Dynasty, the custom of the Double Ninth Festival in Beijing was to stick chrysanthemum branches and leaves on doors and windows, "to remove evil and filth, so as to attract good luck". This is the vulgarization of the chrysanthemum on the head. In the Song Dynasty, there were also people who cut colored ribbons into cornus and chrysanthemums to give to each other.
Unique festival form
The Double Ninth Festival is the official harvest season in northern Shaanxi. There is a song that says, "In September, it's double ninth, so harvest is busy in autumn. Millet, millet, go up, go up. " The Double Ninth Festival in northern Shaanxi is in the evening, and the day is a whole day of harvesting and threshing. At night, on the treetops, people like to enjoy buckwheat noodles and boiled mutton. After dinner, people go out of their homes in twos and threes, climb up the nearby hills, light the fire, talk about everything and go home until the chickens crow. When climbing mountains at night, many people pick some wild chrysanthemums and put them on their daughters' heads at home to ward off evil spirits.
In Puxian, Fujian, people follow the old custom of steaming nine layers of Chongyang rice fruit. In ancient China, there was a custom of "eating bait" for Chongyang, which means cakes, rice fruit and the like today. In the Song Dynasty, the Jade Candle Collection says: "Those who eat chrysanthemum wine for nine days will reap millet and glutinous rice at that time, so that they can taste new things because of their sticky taste, and they will become a habit." Song Zuqian, a Puxian poet in the early Qing Dynasty, said in "Minjiu Qu": "I was shocked to hear that the festival was near Chongyang, and I picked up wild incense with my basket in my hand. The jade pestle is smashed into green powder and wet, and the pearls are called Lang Taste. " Since modern times, people have transformed rice fruit into a distinctive nine-fold rice fruit. Wash high-quality late rice with clear water, soak it for two hours, take it out and drain it, mix it with water and grind it into slurry, add alum (dissolved in water) and stir it, add red sugar (boiled with water to make a concentrated sugar solution), then put it on a steamer, spread a clean cooking cloth, then scoop in rice pulp for nine times, steam it for a few hours and then cook it out of the cage, and spread peanut oil on the rice flour. This rice fruit is divided into nine layers, which can be uncovered and cut into water chestnuts. The four sides are distinct and translucent. It is sweet, soft and palatable, and does not stick to the teeth. It is the best gift for Chongyang to respect the elderly.
People in some places also make use of it.