October 15th is the last full moon day of the year.
According to folk customs, the Three Yuan Festival corresponds to the three officials worshiped by Taoism: Yao, Shun, and Yu, who are worshiped as the three officials of heaven, earth, and water respectively.
They record the good and evil of people in the world and serve as the foundation for all things.
Sanyuan Festival is the birthday of Emperor Sanyuan, and it is also a festival that Taoism attaches great importance to.
The fifteenth day of the first lunar month is called Shangyuan, when the heavenly official blesses blessings; the fifteenth day of the seventh month is called the middle yuan, when the earth official forgives sins; the fifteenth day of the tenth lunar month is called the lower yuan, when the water official relieves misfortune.
During the Xiayuan Festival, the princes should pay homage to the emperor.
The emperor performed the ritual of offering sacrifices to heaven, earth and water.
Huguang is the fiefdom of Prince Rui, so it is natural that he should preside over the sacrificial ceremony.
However, it is the emperor's privilege to offer sacrifices to heaven and earth. Prince Rui only needs to lead the people to worship the water god.
In the past few years, because Prince Rui was in a coma, Li Zi'an always performed sacrifices on his behalf.
Prince Rui has woken up this year and can obviously preside over the sacrificial ceremony in person, so people all over Huguang are very excited.
Since the autumn harvest, people have been sending produce from their fields to local government offices.
Whether it is wheat ears with particularly large heads, or various crops with particularly large sizes.
The county government offices in some places are not big to begin with, and they are almost filled with things sent by the people.
After these harvest crops are screened by various yamen, the largest and best ones will be selected and sent to Wuchang Prefecture quickly.
After all the crops that have been carefully selected from various places are sent to Wuchang Prefecture, they have to compete with each other again.
Only the largest and best harvests are eligible to be placed on the sacrificial table.
Every crop sent to Wuchang Prefecture will be marked with the prefecture, county, town and the name of the tribute.
If once they are finally selected and placed on the offering table, the tribute will be rewarded with silver from Prince Rui's palace.
Of course, at this time, the silver reward is already secondary.
The most important thing is that this honor is enough for the person involved to show off until he is seventy or eighty years old, leaning on the bedside and telling stories to his grandchildren.
Not only the tribute payer himself, but also the officials at all levels of the prefecture, county, township, and town where he is located will receive awards.
Not only can it be recorded as a political achievement, but it will also be written into a booklet by Prince Rui and delivered to the capital to be presented to the emperor. It can be said to be a rare opportunity to show his face without any hidden dangers.
Therefore, when the autumn harvest comes every year, the people below will take the initiative to deliver the selected crops without any urging from above.
The preparations for this year's Xiayuan Festival were arranged by Li Zi'an.
On the afternoon of the 14th, Shopkeeper Huang also personally watched his subordinates rearrange the back garden of the palace.
In the evening, I took my son to repair a few places where Li Zian made suggestions, and the first cooperation was considered a complete success.
On the Xiayuan Festival, Prince Rui took people to Sanguan Temple to worship the water god.
Seeing the various crops piled high on the altar table, Prince Rui felt so happy that he couldn't walk when he came to the altar table.
Seeing the golden and heavy wheat ears, he was even happier than seeing gold.
Others such as sweet potatoes the size of a child's arm, pumpkins bigger than a wooden basin...
"Okay, that's great -" Prince Rui looked at it, his voice choked up uncontrollably.
Since he woke up, although everyone around him has been telling him that the lives of the people in Huguang have gotten better and better in recent years, they have not seen it with their own eyes.
At first, he had to hide the news of his recovery, but later due to physical reasons, he was unable to go directly to the fields to watch the people's autumn harvest as before.
So it was only now that he finally had a tangible feeling that the lives of people in Huguang were really getting better and better.
With gratitude and excitement, Prince Rui took Li Zian into the Sanguan Temple to worship the water god.
After the sacrificial ceremony, Prince Rui came out with Li Zian and a group of subordinates.
As soon as they saw Prince Rui coming out, the people who were waiting outside all became excited.
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Before the sacrifice, everyone must remain solemn and solemn and dare not make any noise.
At this time, the sacrifice was over, and the attendants took out the various crops on the offering table on trays and showed them to the people outside.
Later, the food will be cooked on site, and then Prince Rui will take the lead and share the food with the ministers and people to show their cherishment and respect for the food.
Fan Bingrong accompanied him and said: "Your Majesty, today there are not only people from Wuchang Prefecture but also people from other places who came to participate in the sacrifice, and there are also people who have been traveling for several days.
"Many people brought home-grown grains, fruits and vegetables to offer to the prince.
"The old minister has given orders not to accept many things from the people, but we cannot let down the people's wishes.
"So it is stipulated that each person can only keep one kind of crop. I will ask people to sort it all out and send it to the palace. It just so happens that the concubine, the prince and the princess can taste the freshness in these few days."
Prince Rui nodded repeatedly after hearing this, and was very satisfied with Fan Bingrong's arrangement.
After a while, the attendants brought the cooked food up, and the rest was distributed to the people around them.
Due to limited conditions, all food was simply prepared, basically cooked or steamed, and had no seasoning.
But precisely because of this, you can actually enjoy the true taste of food.
"The freshly harvested grain smells so good!" Prince Rui said to Li Zian next to him while chewing the rice made from this year's new rice.
After experiencing a coma for several years, Prince Rui was still unable to eat normally when he just woke up.
All food needs to be chopped or ground before cooking.
Although they are carefully prepared by chefs, the taste is not terrible.
But for a man in his prime, eating this kind of paste can only maintain the most basic survival, and he will not get any happiness from eating.
So now he cherishes the feeling of being able to chew food even more.
These little things are as normal as breathing, so they are habitually ignored by many people.
But only after experiencing the difficulty of being unable to move can you know how rare it is and how to cherish it.
After eating all the food for the sacrifice, Prince Rui also felt a little tired. After all, his body had not fully recovered.
Li Zian saw the tired look on his brows and quickly gave Fan Bingrong a wink.
Fan Bingrong understood and saw that everyone had finished eating, so he proposed to carry out the last process.
Prince Rui led everyone to the riverside not far from the gate of Sanguan Temple, and took the lead in putting a small bamboo raft containing the sacrificial offerings into the water.
Li Zian followed closely, and then other ministers.
Watching the bamboo rafts carrying the rituals downstream, Prince Rui silently made a wish in his heart that could not be known to outsiders for the time being, and then said: "Okay, let's go back, we have something to do in the afternoon. !」
