Is the origin of Lantern Festival a deception to Emperor Wu of Han Dynasty?

Lantern Festival is also called Shangyuan, Yuanxi and Yuanye. Lantern Festival is also called "Lantern Festival" because of the custom of burning and watching lanterns. It originated in the Qin and Han Dynasties, and later developed into the custom of watching the sun and lanterns at night, especially in the Tang and Song Dynasties.

Lantern Festival Lantern Festival began in Han Dynasty. Ming Di advocates Buddhism. It is said that there is a custom in Buddhism. On the fifteenth day of the first month, the monk watched the relic light a lamp to worship Buddha, so he ordered the palace temple to light a lamp to worship Buddha that night, so that all the gentry and people hung lanterns. Later, this Buddhist ceremonial festival gradually became a grand folk festival. The festival has experienced a development process from the court to the people, and from the Central Plains to the whole country.

There are many entertainment programs in Lantern Festival, such as dragon dance, lion dance, boating, walking on stilts, playing riddles, yangko and so on. But eating Yuanxiao is the highlight of the Lantern Festival, which is related to Emperor Wu's favorite Dong Fangshuo. In order to reunite maids named Yuanxiao with their families, Dong Fangshuo specially set up a divination pavilion on Chang 'an Avenue. Everyone's desire is a sign of "burning us on the 16th day of the first month". For a time, Chang 'an was in a panic. People picked up red posters and rushed to the palace to report to the emperor. Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty took it and read it: "Chang 'an was robbed, the palace was burned, and the fire burned for fifteen days." He got a fright and invited Dong Fangshuo at once. Dong Fangshuo conveniently said, "I heard that Vulcan people like jiaozi. Don't Yuanxiao in the palace often give you jiaozi? Jiaozi can be included in the Lantern Festival on 15th night. Long live the incense sacrifice, and ordered every household in Kyoto to pack jiaozi to worship Vulcan. Then ask the subjects to hang up lights, set off firecrackers and set off fireworks in the city on the night of 15, as if there was a fire in the city, so as to fool the Jade Emperor.

On the fifteenth day of the first month, Chang 'an City was decorated with lanterns and colorful, and the tourists were bustling and very lively. Gong Yuanxiao's parents also took their sister to the city to see the lanterns. When they saw the big palace lantern with the words "Lantern Festival" written on it, they shouted in surprise: "Lantern Festival! Lantern Festival! " Hearing shouts during the Lantern Festival, we were finally reunited with our relatives at home. After such a busy night, Chang 'an was safe. Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty was overjoyed and ordered to make dumplings for Vulcan on the fifteenth day of the first month. On the fifteenth day of the first month, the whole city was decorated with lanterns and set off fireworks. Because jiaozi cooked by Yuanxiao is the best, this day is called Lantern Festival.

China used to be a country of poetry, and there are countless poems written for the Lantern Festival, but perhaps the most famous one is Ouyang Xiu's "Outline of Birth": "Last January, the flower market was as bright as day. The moon rose to the willow tree, and he met me at dusk. On the fifteenth day of the first month of this year, the moonlight and lights are still the same as last year. I didn't see anyone last year. I cried in Man Chun's shirt sleeve. " This simple poem is as plain as the vernacular, but it implies a touch of sadness. People often compare it with Cui Hu's "South Village of the Capital": "Peach blossoms set each other off in this gate last year. People don't know where to go. Peach blossoms in the spring breeze are still smiling, which has injected some beautiful sadness into this "Valentine's Day" in China.

As Zhang Hu, a poet in the Tang Dynasty, said, "Thousands of doors are unlocked, and all lights are put on, so we will move to Beijing in the middle of the first month. Three hundred people danced sleeves, entered the sky and sang songs. " There is a gorgeous sense of beauty, so the lyrics in Jiang Baishi's Lantern Festival are competing to see lotus boats, and BMW cars receive pendants flashing. At night, the wind and rain have gone, and the solitary lamp still sells jiaozi. "It shows a short piece of music entering the courtroom.

Lantern Festival is always associated with entertainment, which is the instinct of people to pursue happiness. In the Northern Song Dynasty, it was recorded in Meng Yuanshen's Dream of Tokyo that thousands of lanterns were built into a lantern mountain in Yujie, Kaifeng during the Lantern Festival, and fireworks were set off on them, resplendent and magnificent. The girls in Kyoto are singing and dancing, and everyone is watching. Tourists gathered under the two corridors of Royal Street, showing their magical powers, singing and dancing, and the music was noisy for more than ten miles. Streets and alleys, teahouses and restaurants are brightly lit, gongs and drums are loud, firecrackers are ringing, and hundreds of miles of lights are shining. Lantern riddles began in the Southern Song Dynasty. According to Zhou Mi's "Wulin Old Lights", poems are written with silk scissors, sometimes with ridicule, drawing characters, and teasing pedestrians in old Beijing dialect. On the Lantern Festival, the Imperial Capital doesn't shoot ice at night, and the Spring Festival is dazzling. Poems and riddles are written in lanterns, reflected in candles and listed on the road, so they are called riddles.

In the Ming Dynasty, Zhang Dai also recorded such a picture in the Chronicle of Shaoxing Lantern Scenery: "The lantern scene in Shaoxing is praised by some people in the sea, humbled by bamboo, humbled by lamps and humbled by candles. Base, so every family can do it; It's cheap, so everyone is ashamed not to light it. Women in the city, keeping pace, watch the lights in noisy places; Otherwise, everyone is sitting in front of the door, eating melon seeds and sugar beans, meeting ladies and gentlemen, and leaving in the middle of the night. "

This is an extremely moving secular picture, lively, approachable, impressive and fruitful. Unfortunately, with the disappearance of leisure life in the farming era, modern people can no longer see the beauty of this vivid life, which is quite a pity.