In ancient times, when traveling far away from home, grand sacrifices were held to offer sacrifices to the road gods. I wish you a safe journey. This is because there is always some danger when going out. Nowadays, people say that going out is a disaster, not to mention the ancients. There are wild animals, robbers and natural disasters along the way, and accidents may happen at any time. People hope to be protected by fairies during their journey. This immortal is naturally called the Road God, or the Walking God.
According to Yan Shigu's comments on Hanshu, it was done by Lei Zu, the wife of the Yellow Emperor. Because she died on the road while cruising with the Yellow Emperor, she naturally became a road god. Perhaps because of her name, people call the ceremony of offering sacrifices to the road god "Zu" for short.
The procedure of ancestor worship is very grand. First of all, we should pile up soil for the altar, put all the slaughtered animals on the altar, and then the car will drive away from the altar, so as to ensure a pleasant journey. Of course, no matter how generous the sacrifice is, the road god will definitely not come to eat it. The last person to see me off and those who come from afar can set up a banquet and have a big meal. It's called a farewell dinner. Zuli and farewell dinner are usually linked together, so they are collectively called Zuzhu. In ancient times, uninhibited people not only drank, but also sang and danced. When Jing Ke stabbed the king of Qin to death, before he left, Gao Jianli and others saw him off on Xiao River. Gao Jianli's famous song "The Wind Rustling" must be a farewell gift.
In the Tang Dynasty, ancestor worship ceremony was still popular. Li Bai said in "Farewell to Duke Jinling": "In May, Jinling West, ancestors left a white pavilion. To find the peak of Lushan Mountain, go around Hanshui River first. " The ancestor here is Zuli. However, the ancestor worship ceremony in the Tang Dynasty was no longer so troublesome, and even simplified into wine, leaving only a farewell dinner. In Wang Wei's famous song "Send Yuan Er An Xi", "Weicheng is rainy and dusty, and the guest house is green and willow-colored. I advise you to drink more wine. It makes no sense to go to Yangguan in the west. " This is probably Wang Wei's farewell dinner for Yuaner in the inn. At such a ceremony, people may naturally think of willow trees and reach out and break a branch. On the one hand, willows are full of vitality and will bless pedestrians with nine lives like cats. On the other hand, it will make pedestrians miss their hometown and return in time.
If the traveler doesn't come back, people who miss him at this time will also break a willow branch and give it to people far away. In the Western Han Dynasty, Zhu traveled to Chang 'an, trying to get close to Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty through Wei Qing, but he was always ignored and had to stay in Chang 'an for a long time. Li He of the Tang Dynasty mentioned this in "Wisdom Wine Shop", saying: "My father was sleepy when he went west, but he had to leave before he broke the door." In the Tang Dynasty, in Shi Gui's imagination, Zhufuyan's family was looking forward to his return and folded all the side doors. Unlike folding willows when they are sent away, folding willows are usually sent away by their families, and often by their wives. Li didn't say who folded the willow tree in Zhufuyan's house, but nine times out of ten it was Zhufuyan's wife. Here, it is no longer the yearning between friendship, but the lovesickness between love.
This kind of lovesickness naturally belongs to the wife who lives alone in the boudoir (maybe there is lovesickness between the same sex ...), and it often happens in spring. Our ancestors thought that spring was a sad season for women. Shi Mao Zheng Yi explained this almost from the perspective of chemical reaction. He said, "In spring, women feel yang and miss men." Willow began in early spring, and this yang that women feel often comes from willow. The romantic Chen Houzhu said very bluntly: "The willows in Chun Qing are moving, and the garden concubine is repeatedly surprised." Seeing the willow, I feel homesick. The most famous is Wang Changling's "Forever in My Heart", "Young women in boudoir don't know how to worry, put on makeup in spring, and go up to Cuilou. Suddenly I met a stranger Liu Qing and regretted teaching her husband to find the marquis. " When the girl saw the willow, she began to regret letting her husband go out for fame. When Zhufuyan's wife climbed the willow tree at home, she might also have this regret. Sometimes pairs of orioles or swallows will appear on this willow tree, which will add fuel to the fire for a lovesick woman. For example, there are four sentences in Chu Xiang's "Spring is always in my heart": "Willow branches are covered with swallows, and mulberry leaves are used to urging silkworms. If you want to find such a meal, you will be widowed. " That swallow is simply enviable.
These lovesickness poems are written by men for granted, which makes women feel sad. In fact, once a woman's lovesickness is revealed, it will be like a scourge, which makes men irresistible. For example, Hu Taihou of the Northern Wei Dynasty, a very strong woman, had a strong desire for power. She listened to politics twice, but her desire was uncompromising. At that time, Yang Baihua, the son of Yang Dayan, a general of the Northern Wei Dynasty, was a handsome boy (if he had a younger brother, his name should be Yang Bailao, right? ), she took a fancy to it at a glance, but Yang Baihua didn't want to eat soft rice and be a gigolo. Hu Taihou wanted to be a bully, and he was afraid that Yang Baihua would change his name to Huayang and go to the Southern Dynasties.
The queen mother Tang is also lovelorn. One spring, Hu Taihou looked at the willows and wrote a poem entitled "Yang Baihua": "In February and March in Yangchun, the willows are in full bloom. The spring breeze entered the boudoir overnight, and Huayang drifted to the southern home. When I left home, I felt very weak and found Huayang in tears. I will return to Shuang Yanzi in autumn and spring, and I want to bring Huayang into the nest. " I write catkins as well as my sweetheart. I don't mention the dirty story behind this poem. Just finished reading the poem, I missed every sentence, and my voice was crying. She actually won the sympathy of later literati with this poem. Gao Qi, a scholar in the Ming Dynasty, accused: "Yang Baihua is too thin to fly to the palace and fall to the south of the Yangtze River."
It is said that after Hu Taihou wrote this poem, he asked the ladies-in-waiting to hold each other's arms in the court and stomp their feet together to sing like a guard of honor, hoping to reach Jiangnan and touch their sweetheart. However, she doesn't know that this old lady and young woman is the "withered Yang Shenghua" in Zhouyi, and she won't last long (for withered Yang Shenghua, see this article: marrying a little wife is a blessing in Zhouyi, and divination calls it the withered Yangshengge). However, the queen mother is so strong that what she wants is not everlasting, but once owned. This infatuation is really touching. To paraphrase an online buzzword: "If you meet such an old lady, just ... marry her.