Changzhou folk custom

▲ customs and habits

Changzhou is a land with prosperous historical features, talented people and numerous historical sites. Yancheng site in the south of the city is the most intact ancient city in China before the Spring and Autumn Period, and its unique shape of three cities and three rivers is known as "the miracle of the world". In the east of the city, there is Tianning Temple, which is known as "the first jungle in Southeast China", Hongmei Pavilion where Zhang Boduan, the ancestor of Nanzong in the Northern Song Dynasty, gathered his disciples to practice, and Su Dongpo visited the boating site in Changzhou many times, with a history of 1500 years. The wide area of Hongmei Park is also rare among parks in China. Classical private gardens are scattered in cities, such as near gardens, unfinished gardens, contract gardens and Italian gardens.

"Celebrities in the world have tribes, but there is no such thing in the southeast." This is Gong Zizhen's admiration for Changzhou talents. Mr. Miao Jinhong, a contemporary scholar, has made a statistical analysis of the geographical distribution of outstanding experts and scholars in more than 400 cities since the pre-Qin period in China for several years, and reached the conclusion that Changzhou ranks fourth after Suzhou, Hangzhou and Beijing.

Changzhou has a rich collection of humanities, which began in Ji Zha, where the Yanling Mausoleum was built 2,500 years ago. It is called a vassal state because of its good diplomacy, exquisite etiquette and music, and keeping its promises. During the Southern and Northern Dynasties, Changzhou was the hometown of Qi Liang. The Xiao family, represented by Xiao Tong, editor-in-chief of Selected Works of Zhaoming, made great achievements in literature, history and music, and had a far-reaching influence.

During the period of 1400 years since Sui and Tang Dynasties, there were 9 champions and 8 second champions in Changzhou,1/flower detective, 1546 scholars. In the third year of Daguan in the Northern Song Dynasty (1 109), Gong was tested. Among the 300 Jinshi in a subject, there are 53 Changzhou people. Lu You, a great poet in the Southern Song Dynasty, praised Changzhou as "Confucianism, the highest in Southeast China". The number of China people shocked the ruling and opposition parties. There was a writer in Ming Dynasty, Tang Jingchuan, an anti-Japanese hero. There are many cultural and academic schools in the Qing Dynasty, such as Changzhou School of Painting, Jinwen School, Yanghu School of Literature, Changzhou School of Ci, Meng He School of Medicine, Changzhou School of Parallel Style, etc., which were brilliant for a while and influenced the whole country.

Since modern times, western learning has spread to the east, and Changzhou talents have presented a new era style on the basis of inheriting history. In traditional fields such as literature and art, press and publication, and historical research, masters have appeared in batches. Sheng Xuanhuai, a representative of the Westernization School, Liu Guojun, a patriotic industrialist, and Liu Haili, a painter. In the academic field, there are many academicians of Academia Sinica, such as Wu Zhihui and Wu, who enjoyed the highest honorary title in academia during the Republic of China. After liberation, there appeared 27 academicians of China Academy of Sciences, represented by Hua and Wu Jieping, and a large number of scientific and technological heroes who won honors for Chinese people overseas. And a group of revolutionaries and social activists, represented by Qu Qiubai, Zhang, Hui and Shi Liang, are the elites of the times, and will always shine in the historical galaxy of Changzhou.

▲ Changzhou Festival

the Lantern Festival

The first half of the first month of the lunar calendar is called Lantern Festival, also known as Lantern Festival and Shangyuan Festival.

For breakfast, families eat more rice noodles and jiaozi. Small particles without stuffing are called "sugar balls", and large particles with stuffing such as hundred fruits, jujube paste and oil and water are called "Yuanxiao".

After dinner in the evening, go out to see the moon and lights.

At night, the doors are wide open and the streets are brightly lit. Drums and gongs are everywhere, and cymbals play the Lantern Festival. Ladies travel in groups to "hang the street", which is exactly "inviting the moon guests to invite the moon guests and watching the lanterns", which is very lively.

At that time, there was a children's song describing the grand occasion of Changzhou Lantern Festival: "Gan Tang Bridge, opposite drum bridge, drum tower facing the temple gate, boring! Here comes the light! Here comes the light! Grille lamp? A group of harmonious lights, two dragons playing with pearls, three yuan harmonious lights, four-sided wishful lights, five-child champion lights, hexagonal wind chime lights, seven-child eight-husband lights, eight immortals crossing the sea lights, nine lotus lights, ten-sided lotus lights, stuffy, lights come! " There was an old dragon lantern behind, and twenty-four little lynx jumped out, scaring the young lady.

After the Taiping Army conquered Changzhou, during the Lantern Festival, "holy soldiers" played "Taiping Army gongs and drums" to celebrate the Spring Festival. In the theaters on both sides of Qingyun Square, the men and women "holy warriors" of Taiping Army dressed up to sing beach springs, and the soldiers and civilians had fun together, often staying up all night. On this day, there are often five or seven people in the streets and lanes, carrying gongs and drums and knocking while walking, commonly known as "Langjie Yuanxiao". At night, women go to the suburbs or outside the village to take the three bridges together, and the round-trip route cannot be repeated, which is called "taking the three bridges"; Some people pick a handful of leafy vegetables on the road and wipe their collars, which is called "boredom"; The country girl also tied a bald broom, bamboo sticks and so on. Ten-foot-high reed torches tied with hemp stalks are burned in the fields, which is called "according to Tian Cai" to predict droughts and floods.

Mid-Autumn Festival

The Mid-Autumn Festival on August 15th of the lunar calendar is commonly known as "Celebrating August and a half". A few days before the festival, people often send moon cakes, ham, water chestnut and lotus root to relatives and friends as "farewell gifts". Eat "sugar taro" in the morning, get together with your family at night, and enjoy the moon by drinking. Women often set up incense tables in the patio for lotus roots and incense to celebrate Ramadan Palace. Literati and poets meet to admire the moon and compose poems in the boat pavilion.

▲ Changzhou religion

Buddhism (1980 10, Changzhou Buddhist Association established)

Main venue: Tianning Temple

Address: No.636 Yanling East Road, Changzhou

Tel: (0519) 8115647

Postal code: 2 13003

Taoism

Main venue: Gan Yuan view

Address: Maoshan, Jintan

Catholicism (Changzhou Catholic Patriotic Association was founded in June 1980)

Main venues:

1, East Gate Catholic Church

Address: No.286 Yanling East Road

2. Dong Qing Catholic Church

Address: Chenjiatou Village, Dong Qing Town, Wujin City

3. Qishuyan Catholic Church

Address: No.257, Qishuyan Middle Street

Christianity (1983 65438+February, Changzhou Christian Association was established)

Main venues:

1, Changzhou Christian Church

Address: No.9 Xianxue Street

2. Qishuyan Christian missionaries

Address: Airport Street

Islam (Changzhou Islamic Association was founded in June 1980)

Main venue: Shuangguifang Mosque

▲ Pray for disaster relief and vault lights.

Lantern is said to have existed in the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period. There was a local plague at that time, and there was no good medicine to cure it. In order to drive away evil spirits and send away the plague god, the people set up paper men and horses, dressed as various gods, muttered to themselves, jumped out of various obstacles and prayed for disaster.

Liyang dome lamp has a history of about four or five hundred years. During the Spring Festival, lantern teams in big villages and market towns set out and walked around neighboring villages, bringing festive atmosphere to the annual festival. Liyang Lantern Festival is based on the story of Zhao Jun leaving the village. The main characters involved are Ma Bao, Feng Yangpo, Wang Chongzu, stallion and mare. There are brand lights, lanterns, forks, sparks, broadswords, etc. There are two ways in Qinghai: "opposite the door" and "jumping the league field". "Going to the Gate of Beijing" refers to the cavalry holding lanterns and going door-to-door to attract the audience to the park to watch the "jumping group field". The troupe performed in the square. First, there are actors swinging fire, and then there are performances of throwing forks and dancing broadswords. Then the horses come out, jump with one horse, and then jump with two horses. Grandma Fengyang came to the stage to worship the prince and made a joke: "Stop beating drums and rest your horse. I visited Wang Po's husband's family in the Ming Dynasty and told her a few jokes ... "

Finally, the highlight of the lantern show-wearing the array. With the rapid and long play of the army, the big gongs and drums played a shocking divertimento. In the strong clang of rhythm, the lantern team all appeared under the leadership of the flag, head and tail connected in a circle. Then, under the command of the banner, more than ten sets of arrays, such as scissors array, plum blossom array, Longmen array and lotus array, shuttled through them.

As a kind of folk entertainment, Yuanxiao prays for good weather and abundant crops, which expresses people's good wishes and brings joy to the rural areas where cultural life is boring.

"Jiangtang lanterns are covered with banners." Jiangtang Village, located in Yinqiao, is famous for its dome lights, because there are stories in it.

According to legend, Zhao Gou, the ninth son of Wei School in the Northern Song Dynasty, once fought with Jin Wushu's Jin Bing in Liyang. In a melee, Zhao Gou was caught by the nomads from the army, and Jin Wushu was overjoyed. He was locked in a wooden cage, ready to send Kang Wang to the north to take credit for the king. Who knows that night was dark and opaque, while the guards dozed off, Zhao Gou escaped from the wooden cage. At this time, a horse ran to him, head up, hoof digging, tail dancing. He quickly mounted his horse and fired three times in a row. "Horse! Run! No matter how dark the road is, as long as you save me from danger, I will definitely build a temple for you! " Strange to say, the horse ran for dozens of miles in one breath, rushed out of the enemy's tight encirclement and came to Jiangtang Village at the foot of the fifteenth mountain. Kang Wang was saved, he returned to the army, rallied, led the army to defeat the nomads from the army, and recovered lost ground.

Later, King Zhao of Kang became Emperor Nanzong of Lin 'an. He didn't forget what saved the world, so he built a temple in Jiangtang Village and fulfilled his promise.

The temple was repaired, but the horse that saved the driver was gone. In order to offer sacrifices to the gods and horses, we had to hire a few skilled craftsmen to weave 12 bamboo horses with bamboo, and put red, yellow, black and white coats on the horses to form a 12 bamboo horse team. This bamboo horse has vivid scenery. The horse's head can move, the horse's body can dance, and the ponytail can swing, making people stand on bamboo and jump in the middle. It is like a real horse, and the villagers are happy to see it. Since then, for hundreds of years, Jiangtang Village has regarded bamboo horses as gods.

The bamboo horses in Jiangtang are used to "going out" on the 18th day of the first lunar month, and going to the neighboring 48 villages to "eliminate disasters and pray". Whenever bamboo and horses arrive in a village, bells are jingling, gongs and drums are loud, and Ma Yueren is happy and lanterns are dancing. Festive festivals have ignited the fire of hope in the hearts of villagers who have worked hard for a year.

Before the end of Jiangtang Temple Horse Club, there will be another activity, that is, 12 bamboo horse climbing fifteen mountains. There is also a saying, for example, the dark horse climbed the mountain first, and there was a disaster that year; The white horse climbed the mountain first and flooded during the year; Other horses climb the mountain first, which indicates a bumper harvest in the coming year, peace and prosperity for the country and the people.

The dancing lantern in Liyang is an organic combination of lantern and dance. Imagine, for hundreds of years, in the dark of the countryside, the fire array stars watched the charcoal fire spinning rapidly in the air, and dozens of bamboo horses with candles in their bellies jumped and galloped while shuttling under the urging of the sound of gongs and drums, full of local lanterns, and the dance between people and horses was exciting and unforgettable!

▲ Jumping God

"Jumping God" originated from temple fairs in the middle of Ming Dynasty. This is a folk sacrificial dance that prays at temple fairs. The whole set of movements is relatively simple, accompanied by percussion and drums, holding knives, swords, arrows and so on. According to the requirements of the plot, the superb martial arts of the gods are shown through the flip of the wrist and the rotation of the body.

▲ Ubuntu Festival

The eighth day of the fourth lunar month is the traditional Nirvana Festival in Liyang.

The black rice in Liyang is said to commemorate Mulian, one of the top ten disciples of Sakyamuni, who saved his mother. Mu Lian's mother was imprisoned for injustice. Even every meal prepared and delivered was taken away by the cruel doorman. Anxious, Manglietia came up with a unique trick, picking the leaves of black rice on the mountain, mashing it to get juice, dyeing the rice in the juice, cooking it into black rice and sending it to prison. The guard covered his nose when he saw the black rice. Manglietia's mother relied on delicious and nutritious black rice sent by her dutiful son until she was released from prison. The lunch festival in Liyang is to educate future generations and commemorate their mother with the story of Manglietia.

▲ Taiping gongs and drums

Taiping gongs and drums in Liyang are quite famous on the Nanjing-Shanghai line.

A performance team composed of more than 30 folk artists from Daibu Town, dressed in Taiping Army uniforms, marched in procession with musical instruments in their hands. There is a flag in front of him, followed by a sword and a gun, and it has a magnificent momentum. During the performance, first, the gongs and drums sounded, reflecting the scene of Taiping soldiers prancing with guns and setting off in full gear; Then, the sound of "calling the battle" rolled like thunder, setting off the atmosphere of ordering soldiers and fighting to the death on the battlefield; Followed by bursts of gongs and drums, showing the elegance of thousands of troops and horses, fighting the battlefield. When it was in full swing, the "Military Order" sounded long, showing a scene of golden drums and swords. Finally, when the gongs and drums are loud, you can feel the triumphant return and the jubilation of the whole people. This set of Taiping gongs and drums vividly, vividly and enthusiastically reproduced the fighting style of Taiping Army in those days, and was well received by the people. Because this set of gongs and drums is magnificent and touching, it is praised as "majestic gongs and drums" by everyone.