Who smashed the space to pieces and the stars fell into the world?
Yang Shen, the top scholar in Sichuan, was relegated to Yongchang, Yunnan Province during Zheng De's reign in the Ming Dynasty. When passing through Xichang (now Liangshan Prefecture), he saw a poem written by the Yi people on the night of the Torch Festival.
Torch Festival is held from June 24th to 27th in the lunar calendar. In Yi autonomous prefectures and counties, Torch Festival is a legal national traditional festival. Every year, when this festival comes, Yi compatriots and other ethnic groups will go to the grand Torch Festival together, singing enthusiastically and dancing heartily, which is very lively. But if we want to talk about the origin of Torch Festival, or its origin and legend, almost all localities and branches have their own theories, and the records of local chronicles also have their own basis.
The draft of Zhaotong County Records of the Republic of China said: On June 24th, "the torch will be held with all parts of central Yunnan. In rural areas, torches will be lit according to the fields to pray for the arrival of the New Year, and the bright fire will make people feel sorry for the prosperity of the year. As for hanging in the past, people who know will be fresh. " This passage simply divides the origin of Torch Festival into "near reason" (praying for a bumper harvest in the field) and "hanging in the past". In fact, "proximate cause" is not all about "lighting a torch to pray for the New Year", and "hanging over" is not specifically about a person.
According to the records about the origin of Torch Festival in Historical Records, the so-called "hanging the past" is to pay homage to the dead, mainly including the martyrdom of Anan. See Li Yuanyang's Yunnan Tongzhi (Volume 10) in Wanli Period of Ming Dynasty. Wuhou's southern expedition, see Xu Yinfang's Five Tang Miscellaneous Star Festival, which is also recorded in Yunnan Department; Charity lady martyrdom, also known as burning Song Ming Pagoda, see Nanzhao unofficial history. Among them, the story of the charity husband's martyrdom is the most touching. The general idea is that Nanzhao, established by Yi ancestors, was the most powerful of the six imperial edicts in Piluge, so it unified the design of Prime Minister Zhang Jiancheng. In the 18th year of Kaiyuan, he bribed Wang Yu, our messenger from Jiannan, and asked for the merger of the five imperial edicts, which was approved by the Tang Dynasty. So in the name of gathering sacrifices, five imperial edicts were informed to worship their ancestors in Songminglou on June 24. Except for further analysis, the other imperial edicts came. Deng Ruo's wife's charity felt that the move was fraudulent and advised her husband not to go. However, due to the power of Peleg, the Lord had to do so. Before the trip, Charity wore an iron bracelet on her husband's arm. After the sacrifice, Pirog held a banquet in Songming Building, which lasted until dusk. Pilog pretended to be drunk and went downstairs. The ambush set the building on fire, and all the letters were killed. The bones are hard to distinguish, only Deng Wei's arm has an iron bracelet to claim. Nanzhao wanted to marry a concubine after knowing that charity was wise, but charity insisted on marrying. Nanzhao sent troops to besiege the city and committed suicide by charity. Since then, on June 24 and 25 every year, the masses have held torches to commemorate her.
According to the records of Yi literature history, there are the origin of the torch festival of Sameen, Sani, Axi, Nanjian, the legend of Magpie Girl in Wu Luo Branch of Shuangbai and Liangshan Yi. Other Yi-speaking peoples have their own opinions. In a word, there are many historical records and folklore about the origin of Torch Festival, which are all about historical events that happened in various places or their own stories of various branches in various places. Most of them are slightly similar, so there is no need to verify which statement is the origin of Torch Festival. In fact, the real source of Torch Festival is Yi people's worship of fire. The ancestors of the Yi people have been migrating and nomadic in Shan Ye for a long time. They can't leave the fire for a moment, knowing that fire can burn everything and protect people, livestock and crops. Over time, in the concept of Yi ancestors, "fire is God, and God is fire". Because every June 24th, the New Year's Day (the first day of the New Year's Day) is celebrated, it has evolved into the Torch Festival, which is held on this day, and various side events are among them.
Torch Festival is called "Torch Festival" in the draft of Zhaotong County Records, and its wording is very suitable for Zhaotong's reality, that is, the torches of each household are in one place, and the fire is brighter, so there is hope for a bumper harvest in the new year. This is the same as "lighting a fire in Yunnan, lighting a field, and occupying agriculture with fire color" (Li Yuanyang's Annals of Yunnan) or "lighting a fire, making Zhu Tian prosperous and fierce, making it bright and dark" (Shiping County Annals)-praying for a bumper harvest. Therefore, the Torch Festival in Zhaotong's history was attended by Yi, Han and Miao people, and it is now called Torch Festival. Among them, the Miao people's participation in the Torch Festival can be said to do as the Romans do, just like the Yi people's participation in the Huashan Festival of the Miao people, both sides are catching up with each other. However, the participation of the Han people in Zhaotong (Zhaoyang District) in the Torch Festival is not only a matter of doing as the Romans do, but also a manifestation of the inheritance and evolution of the ancient Han people's prayer for the year.
The origin and legend of the ancient Torch Festival, although there are many sayings such as praying for high yield, eliminating disasters and offering sacrifices to sages, has long been fairly evaluated by Xu Yinfang of the dynasty: "The Festival of Returning Stars has been abolished. The prosperity of the fire sacrifice was originally to serve the strength of loyalty and martial arts, to show the virtue of chastity, and to last for a long time. While chasing the epidemic and praying for blessings, the sacrifice begins with martial arts, and everything depends on it to keep the people safe, eat, drink and be merry, and sing and dance. The image of peace can also be seen that the gods of Dian people have been swimming in the rain, and they no longer know that there is a misty moon. " Today's Torch Festival is endowed with the characteristics of the times. It changed the old habits of "singing and dancing after drinking", "kowtowing to give blessings" and "offering sacrifices to ancestors", and served for attracting investment, exchanging materials and developing local economy. At the same time, it has also inherited and developed the excellent traditional culture of ethnic minorities, enriched the cultural life of people in ethnic minority areas, promoted the unity, prosperity and progress of all ethnic groups, and promoted the construction of material civilization and spiritual civilization.