What Gifts Did The Chinese Ancients Give During The Spring Festival?

Gift giving has a long history in Chinese history. So, what gifts are the Chinese ancients giving during the Spring Festival?
In the legend, gifting has officially appeared since the establishment of the Xia Dynasty regime by Xia Qi, the son of Daxie. During the Spring Festival, the most important traditional festival of the year, there will be more holiday gifts.
The friends who have read “Dream of Red Mansions” must be impressed by the fact that the book Ningguofu received the ceremony of Heishan Village in the New Year, because “Dream of Red Mansions” described the Spring Festival ceremony of Wuzhuangtou in Heishan Village very much. In detail, the annual ceremony can be said to have everything, including:
30 deer, 50 scorpions, 50 scorpions, 20 sinn [xiān] pigs, 20 soup pigs, 20 dragon pigs, 20 wild boars, 20 domestic pigs, 20 wild sheep, 20 green sheep, home 20 soup sheep, 20 family wind sheep, 2 carp, 200 kg of various fish, 200 chickens, ducks and geese, 200 chickens, ducks and geese, 200 pairs of pheasants and rabbits. .
In addition to these livestock game, there are 20 pairs of bear paws, 20 kg of deer gluten, 50 kg of sea cucumber, 50 deer tongues, 50 beef tongues, 20 kg of dried glutinous rice, 50 pairs of large shrimps, 200 kg of dried shrimp, etc. In addition to the food of Shanzhen seafood, there are some daily use, including silver pounds, 1000 kg, medium 2000 kg, charcoal 30,000 kg, etc., in addition to silver 2500 two, as well as special filial piety of the Jiafu ladies Gadgets – 2 pairs of live deer, 4 pairs of live white rabbits, 4 pairs of live black rabbits, 2 pairs of live golden pheasants, 2 pairs of live western ducks.
In terms of specifications and frequency, the most common gift in ancient times is in the officialdom. The specifications of this gift are not only high, but also the value is more than ten thousand.
In the documentary records of the Ming Dynasty, the spectacular scenes of the Nanjing officialdom during the Spring Festival during the Wanli Period were recorded: one day before New Year’s Eve, witnesses reported that a powerful gift-giving team was gathered in front of the Zhongcheng Terracotta Warriors. Everyone in the team held an exquisite food box, and the number of people even blocked the road in front of the Tuen Mun.
These people are here to give Mid-Winter soldiers a gift for the Spring Festival. The Mid-town Mars is only one of the five divisions of Nanjing. It is mainly responsible for regional security and anti-theft. The level and position of this trick are not high. So, there are so many gifts for it. People, from which we can imagine, in the Wanli years, the high-ranking officials, what will be the stage of the gift-giving activities during the Spring Festival.
In the ancient official days, the Spring Festival gift-giving action also raised a lot of other people, such as the doormen of the officials. The official history of the “Han Han Shu” records that at that time, the foreign sergeant Liang Shu was a general, and the power was turned into a wilderness. Officials competed for Liang Shu’s gift every holiday, and the gift must pass through Liang’s concierge, so the concierge can be offended. He does not give you the same biography, you are sending thousands of gold, but also the stone sinking is also no good.
In the era of the feudal dynasty, the officialdom made the set of the annual ceremony a deformity. However, in the private sector, the Spring Festival Ceremony has been operating normally in accordance with its own development rules.
In general, the most common Spring Festival gifts of the ancients are food and other practical things. In the Three Kingdoms era, the Spring Festival of the Southerners was called “Five Symposium”. The so-called Wuxin, in a broad sense, refers to five kinds of spicy vegetables (onions, garlic, pepper, ginger, mustard). The ancients believed that eating five in the New Year. Xin, you can kill the virus and drive the cold, so the mutual gift of five Xin is not only practical but also auspicious.
In the Song Dynasty, the Spring Festival rituals of the “Five Symposiums” were sent to the “Year of the Year”, which is the variety of delicious food that can be eaten during the New Year, if the conditions of the gift givers are better. It is also possible to attach scarce items of folk life such as salt, tea and fruit.
Although it is said that in the ancient society, the folks’ annual gifting activities stayed on the level of good food and good for a long time, even if it is delicious and good, it is very simple to look at it from the folk standpoint. “Mo Xiao farmer’s wine cellar, Fengnian stayed in the chicken dolphins.” This is the famous poet Lu You of the Southern Song Dynasty, depicting the Spring Festival is near, Lu You to the farmer’s own brewed lunar wine to treat guests.
In the Southern Song Dynasty, when Luyou lived, gifts were given to each other during the Chinese New Year. This kind of ramen wine is hand-made by local method, and it is a pressed wine. The degree is generally low, and of course the price is very cheap. For the wine drinker, after the wine is sipped, the first feeling is not the wine, but the mouth is light. Li Qingzhao, a female poet in the Song Dynasty, had a famous saying in his later years: “Three cups of two light wines, how to enem him, and come to the wind!” This shows that Li Qingzhao can only drink.
The Spring Festival gift has developed to this day, and various Internet-based red envelopes have become the first choice for more people. Grab the red envelope to grab a good color, not a large amount, which is one of the key elements of the network red envelope. In fact, this also coincides with the true meaning of the folk Chinese New Year gifts that have been followed in China for thousands of years: no matter what the nobles, the love and the money are not changed. cheap light wine.