Chapter 28: Investigation of Annual Customs (Seeking Collection)

  After being educated by Zhang Baosheng, Zhang Lei became more cautious and stayed at home for several days, not even thinking about making the medicine needed to make matches.

  It wasn't until the 23rd of the twelfth lunar month that Zhang Baosheng got up early in the morning and started busily preparing all the food for the day. Then, he carefully wiped down the entire stove, making it spotless.

  After Zhang Lei got up early in the morning to wash and have breakfast, Zhang Baosheng instructed: "Go buy some red dates, white sugar, and dried wolfberry back."

  "Oh."

  Arrived in town, only during holidays can see so many people, the shops selling white sugar and other miscellaneous goods are even more crowded, Zhang Lei secretly blamed himself for being late, looking at this situation, it's estimated that he won't be able to queue up in half an hour.

  "Dad, why are we buying so much sugar? Is it for Niu Niu to mix with her rice?" Just then, a little girl with braids sitting on her father's shoulders, hugging his forehead, asked in a soft and sweet voice.

  The middle-aged man shrugged his shoulders, helped his dear daughter adjust to a more comfortable sitting position, and then replied: "If you eat too much sugar, little bugs will grow in your teeth. This can't be given to you, it's for the sacrifice to the Stove King." After clearing his throat, he hummed the Beijing folk song "Men Shen Zao": "Every year there is a busy household on the 23rd day of the twelfth lunar month, we offer sacrifices to the Stove King. In the middle, two tables are set up with offerings, and on both sides, two plates of sugar are placed, along with black beans, dried grass, and a bowl of water. Incense is burned in the stove. The master of the house comes over to congratulate, wishing the Stove King good fortune."

  As he watched the father and daughter walk further away, Zhang Lei suddenly thought of Xiaolian in his mind and couldn't help but mutter to himself: "I wonder where she is now? What can a weak woman like her do?"

  After buying things and walking back, on the road, he saw three beggars dressed as gods and goddesses, calling out for money from door to door, this is called "Tiao Zao Wang".

  Some doorways also had a few baskets placed on the ground, inside which were small bunches made of cypress, wintergreen and stone oak, being loudly hawked. This was called "sending kitchen firewood", Zhang Lei spent two cents to buy a bundle.

  When Zhang Lei returned home, he saw that Zhang Baosheng had found two old lanterns somewhere and hung them on both sides of the stove with red paper. As soon as Zhang Lei put down his hand-held partner, he beckoned him to come over and write a couplet.

  Zhang Lei wrote the couplet "Good things are spoken from above, peace is kept below" on the red paper strips, and Zhang Baosheng respectfully pasted them on both sides of the stove.

  After doing all this, Zhang Baosheng took out a basin and poured all the things Zhang Lei bought into it, added water to make it thick, then filled it into the mold. After it was slightly dry, he took it out and offered it on the altar table, called "Zao Tang".

  Offering sugar to the stove god, there are two meanings in folklore: one is that sugar is sweet, and when the stove king eats it, he can report good things to heaven with sweet words; another meaning is that sugar sticks to the mouth, and when the stove king eats it, his mouth gets stuck, and he cannot speak ill of others in front of the emperor.

  Zhang Baosheng finished, then used two more chopsticks to cut the dry straw into one-inch long small segments and surrounded a sedan chair. Two soybeans were placed in front of it. This was the sedan chair for Zao Jun to ride on when he ascended to heaven, as well as food for his precious horse.

  "Alas, three hundred years, just a short span of three hundred years, and the customs that had been passed down were completely gone. Is this the fault of the rulers' ignorance or the people's ignorance leading to the demise of culture?" Zhang Lei looked at all this and couldn't help but feel a sense of nostalgia. Compared to the later generations who only celebrated the New Year for the sake of socializing and seeking connections, this was true tradition, this was culture.

  After finishing all this, Zhang Baosheng seemed to have finally let out a sigh of relief. Just as he was about to eat, Zhang Chen returned and said excitedly: "The teacher said that today is the last class of the year,

  "Wait until next spring to go."

  "It's also time for the holiday, okay, let's get ready to eat, and relax well this afternoon." Zhang Lei nodded, I suppose Zhang Chen is on winter break now, but it's really quite late.

  The next day, just as the sky was getting light, Zhang Lei was woken up by a rustling sound. Zhang Chen and Zhang Baosheng were already sweeping the floor in the main room.

  "On the twenty-fourth day of the twelfth lunar month, sweep dust and clean the house." This is a record in "Lüshi Chunqiu". This custom has been preserved for a relatively long time, until the 21st century, when it was still a big cleaning day for the whole family.

  "Come on, you're the laziest one. Go get a hoe and remove the weeds in the courtyard. Also, remember to clean up that ditch." Zhang Baosheng instructed.

  Legend has it that the ancients believed that every person had a three-corpse god attached to their body, which followed them like a shadow, inseparable from their movements. The three-corpse god was a flatterer who loved to stir up trouble and often slandered people in front of the Jade Emperor, making the mortal world appear ugly and wicked. As time passed, the Jade Emperor came to think that the mortal world was a filthy place full of sin. One day, the three-corpse god secretly reported that the mortals were cursing the Heavenly Emperor and plotting to rebel against Heaven. The Jade Emperor was enraged and issued an edict to quickly investigate the crimes committed by the mortals. He ordered that the names of those who had offended the gods be written on the eaves of their houses, and then covered with spider webs as a sign. On New Year's Eve, the Jade Emperor ordered Wang Lingguan to descend into the mortal world and kill everyone in the households with the mark, leaving no one alive.

  The three corpse gods saw that their plan was about to succeed, so they flew down to the mortal world and made marks on every household's roof and wall corners, regardless of whether they were good or bad. This was done to let Wang Linggong come and kill them all off. Just as the three corpse gods were doing evil, Zao Jun discovered their whereabouts and was shocked and frightened. He quickly gathered the various stove kings to discuss a countermeasure. As a result, they came up with a good idea: from the 23rd day of the twelfth lunar month, when the stoves are sent away, until New Year's Eve, every household must sweep their homes clean. Any household that was not clean would be refused entry by the stove king. Everyone followed the stove king's instructions before he ascended to heaven and swept away dust, removed cobwebs, wiped down doors and windows, and made their homes spotless.

  When Wang Lingguan descended to the mortal world on New Year's Eve, he found every household with bright windows and clean furniture, shining lanterns, and people gathering together in joy. However, Wang Lingguan couldn't find any signs of evil deeds, which made him very curious. He hurried back to heaven and reported to the Jade Emperor about the peaceful and happy situation on earth, where people were praying for a good new year.

  The Jade Emperor was shocked upon hearing this and ordered the arrest of the three evil spirits, sentencing them to 300 slaps in the face and eternal imprisonment in the heavenly dungeon. The disaster that befell the mortal world was averted thanks to the help of the Stove God. To express gratitude for the Stove King's salvation and blessings, people began sweeping the dust after sending off the Stove God.

  After sweeping the house clean, it's time to post the door god. The original door god was a human-shaped peach wood carving hung on the gate, later replaced by wooden paintings. After the Tang Dynasty, there were also paintings of General Qin Qiong and Wei Tuo as door gods, as well as paintings of Guan Yu and Zhang Fei as door gods. There is one door god image on each side of the gate, and later generations often painted a pair of door gods as one civil and one military. Door gods are divided into three categories: The first category is "main gate door god", mostly posted on the main gate or the entire gate, about 4-5 feet high and 2-3 feet wide. The second category is "street gate door god", mostly posted on small street gates, about 2 feet high and 1 foot wide. These two types of door gods are both a black-faced and a white-faced deity. White left, black right, white benevolent and easy-going, black fierce and evil, each holding a hu (a kind of ancient Chinese weapon). The third category is "house gate door god", slightly smaller than the street gate door god, also with two deities in black and white, but some are seated images.

  After the door god is posted, it's time to post spring couplets. The original spring couplet was to engrave the name of the door god on a peach wood board and hang it with the door god. Later, it gradually developed into two symmetrical auspicious phrases.

  Before the Ming Dynasty, spring couplets were not yet popular, and they could be posted or not posted. Spring couplets truly became popular starting from the Ming Dynasty, which is related to Zhu Yuanzhang's advocacy.

  According to Chen Shanggu's "Miscellaneous Talks of Zan Cloud Building" in the Qing Dynasty, one year when Zhu Yuanzhang was preparing for the New Year, he ordered every household to post a spring couplet on their door to celebrate. The color of peach wood is red, and red has auspicious and evil-warding meanings, so most spring couplets are written on red paper.

  However, temples use yellow paper, while those in mourning (whose mourning period is not yet over) use white, green, and yellow papers. In the first year, white paper is used; in the second year, green paper; in the third year, yellow paper; and only after the fourth year, when the mourning period is over, can red paper be used again.

  The tradition of posting Spring Festival couplets was advocated by Zhu Yuanzhang. The custom of pasting the character "fu" (meaning good fortune) on doors also started with him after he posted the couplets.

  One year, the capital city held a lantern festival to celebrate the Yuanxiao Festival. Zhu Yuanzhang went out in disguise and saw that on a horse lantern in front of a house, there was a painting of a monkey holding a pair of embroidered shoes and crying. Zhu Yuanzhang thought this was a satire about Empress Ma's big feet and became very angry. He wrote the character "fu" (good fortune) on the door as a mark. After returning to the palace, he immediately ordered the Brocade Guard to arrest the people in that house according to his mark the next morning.

  Among all the empresses in history, Empress Ma was known for her kindness and love for the people. When she learned about this incident, she secretly sent an order telling every household in the city to write the character "fu" on their doors before dawn. The next morning, when Zhu Yuanzhang's men went to arrest the people, they found that every house had the character "fu" on their door except for one family who didn't know how to write and wrote it upside down.

  The emperor ordered that this family be executed immediately. Empress Ma saw that things were going badly and quickly told Zhu Yuanzhang: "This family knew you would visit today, so they intentionally wrote the character 'fu' upside down. Doesn't this mean 'good fortune has arrived'?" Zhu Yuanzhang thought she was right and ordered the release of the family. A disaster was finally avoided.

  From then on, writing the character "fu" upside down became a custom. After hanging up the spring couplets and pasting the character "fu", there was a joyful atmosphere everywhere. Zhang Lei patted the dust off his clothes and originally wanted to rest for a while, but he saw Zhang Baosheng bring out another new octagonal table from the room.

  This octagonal table was smaller than the one they used for eating and had a large red lacquer on it. Zhang Baosheng placed the table under the ancestral altar in the main hall and brought out many god portraits to place on it. He muttered to himself: "Heaven, earth, three realms, eighteen Buddhas, all gods, please welcome the lower realm, place the heavenly table to offer sacrifices, precious delicacies of a hundred flavors, I hope you will accept this offering and grant good fortune..."

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