When Cheng Pu and Han Dang came to Liangzhou, it was already the end of the year. After this episode passed, the New Year followed.
During this year in Liangzhou, Liu Bei lived a relatively stable life. At least because he was guarding Liangzhou, he did not need to go to Luoyang in person to deliver gifts to Emperor Liu Hong. He only needed to send someone to deliver gifts.
But then again, with Liu Bei's current political status, there is no need to stand in the cold wind to taste the taste of summer iced drinks. Even if he goes to Luoyang to worship, he must be standing in a heated hall where he can eat hot drinks. Huge food.
Thinking of the bowl of summer ice drink in the early morning of the first day of the first lunar month of the sixth year of Guanghe's reign, Liu Bei couldn't help but feel stiff from body to soul.
This time it will be fine.
When Liu Bei was in Liangzhou, he was the local emperor of Liangzhou. Only the officials lined up to give him gifts, and there was no such thing as him lining up eagerly to give gifts to others.
And he can be regarded as a serious person who has personally operated the New Year customs that only official leaders can operate. This feeling is completely different from the past tense.
The Han Dynasty was still in the early stage of imperial society, and many social customs did not deviate from the customs of ancient times. From the emperor to the common people, people believed in ghosts and gods. Even the Spring Festival was closely related to ghosts and gods.
In the Han Dynasty, people's activities at the end of the year were basically centered around exorcising evil spirits and praying for blessings.
People hope to drive away all the bad luck of the past year through exorcism activities. Among the many exorcism activities, the most important one is the Nuo dancing ceremony held at the end of each year.
It would be too stingy to expect that dancing Xiao Shen can solve all the problems.
Before a period of extremely silent gongs and drums, the official dispatched cavalry in full armor to take the burning statue out of the city, send it to a smaller water system in the city, set it on fire, and send it away, which meant to send it away. Burn the disaster of the coming year.
After sending away the ghosts and ghosts of the plague, the next step is not the New Year's Eve dinner for the family to celebrate the New Year. The New Year's Eve dinner did not exist in that era, and it was also a meal for family reunion. People who can return to their families will try their best to return to their families and be with them as best as possible. Loving family members have a reunion dinner together.
That year, the official representative knights of Liangzhou were Guan Yu and Zhang Fei. They came to Jixian County to report on their duties and celebrate the New Year. They were called by Liu Bei to be the knights who sent away the plague, and they readily agreed.
What to eat?
We were fully armed, and with one hundred and seventy knights who were also fully armed, we majestically carried the statues of plague ghosts and gods all the way to the Wei River in the city of Hexian County, accompanied by the people of Hexian County holding torches. Load the statue under the boat which is not yet full of tinder.
At that time, there were still no statues symbolizing diseases, ghosts and gods. The small family would dance and beat drums together, surround the statues with peach arcs and thorn arrows, and scatter them with red pills and seven grains.
That night, no matter what Liu Bei said, he would make his subordinates who had worked hard with him a whole year suffer a bad meal.
Even so, it was just a piece of boiled meat, dipped in some salt, or at least some sauce, and there was no other way to remove the fishy smell. I just ate it like this. I can't imagine how strong the fishy smell was.
People without money were limited by the limitations of the times. Although the ingredients they could eat were few, the cooking methods were unlimited, and the taste of the food was comparable to what people enjoy today.
The types of New Year's Eve dinner are of course far different from the New Year's Eve dinner in Zhao Cai's memory.
The origin of Nuo dance is very old. It was not a very important sacrificial ceremony in the Western Zhou Dynasty. In the Zhou Dynasty, it was included in the category of etiquette and became an important national ceremony.
But it is important. What is difficult for people to swallow today, in the late Eastern Han Dynasty, it was a rare delicacy. It was something that people could only hope for but could reach. They struggled all year round just for this one bite.
At the front, the official representatives, the heavily armed knights, made their debut.
Therefore, I chose to happily integrate into the folk atmosphere of the late Eastern Han Dynasty, and led the Liangzhou capital to hold a grand Nuo dance ceremony.
For ordinary people, it was a night of reunion, a rare night at the end of the year where they could eat some meat. It meant that they would have to rely on the meat they ate tonight to savor the taste of the meat for the next whole year.
The official ceremony held by the imperial court required the selection of 170 children of officials and officials under the age of ten and seventeen years old. They were dressed in soap clothes, holding small darts, and dressed up as "Fang Xiangshi" wearing a mask and bear skin. Play and dance with the seventeen beasts.
In this way, people may only be able to eat a mouthful of meat with a little bit of meat in the evening of that day throughout the year. At other times, eating glutinous rice bran is considered a wrong meal.
To solve disasters, we need to build water conservancy projects, reclaim wasteland, plant trees, eat cooked food, drink cooked water, live in houses, wash hands frequently, exercise, isolate ourselves in times of trouble, and develop medical technology.
The local officials in Liangzhou went home to celebrate the New Year with their families, while the officials in Liangzhou were invited by Liu Bei to have New Year's Eve dinner at the Prefectural Mufu Mansion.
The dancing was terrible, but that was important. The important thing was the atmosphere. There were very few people watching. Everyone came to pray and make noise. Before the statues of ghosts and gods symbolizing the epidemic were rolled out, people's noise became even smaller.
First, the statue and the boat were set on fire, pushed out, and allowed to travel far along the current. Then, it sank quickly to the bottom due to burning under the water.
The Nuo dance masters surrounded the statue with peach arcs and thorn arrows, and scattered it with red pills and seven grains. They danced, jumped, shot, and smashed around the statue. In short, the whole atmosphere had not yet reached its peak.
The main purpose of the Nuo dance ceremony is to eliminate diseases and pray for happiness and health in the coming year. It is neither official nor folk. The official Nuo dance is called Guo Nuo, and the folk Nuo dance is not Xiao Nuo. Anyway, the content is essentially the same. The same thing is not the scale.
Liu Bei paid for it out of his own pocket, and the women set up a formation in the inner courtyard. Liu Bei personally was responsible for entertaining, while the men and children set up tables in the inner courtyard, and Han Ning and Han Dadi were responsible for entertaining.
Yes, that's all important.
fried chicken.
For the officials, it was also a night of relaxation and joy. No busy matters could be put aside, no precautions could be taken off temporarily, and they could reunite with their families and enjoy themselves slowly and comfortably. Have a little New Year's Eve.
For example, Guan Yu, Zhang Fei, Xu Huang and others, as well as Jian Yong, Han Hao, Ruan Yu and others from the Ministry of General Affairs, there were hundreds of people involved. If we didn't have any family members, Liu Bei also invited us here.
By the Han Dynasty, the national Nuo held by the imperial court had no fixed pattern and was very particular.
What you eat is important. When you reach Liu Bei's position, the food you give to Xiaojia depends on the type. It mainly depends on your heart. When your heart comes, eating white rice carefully can make the little guy grateful. If you want to reach that level, you must have it. Liu Bei's special skills.
It's not like Zhao Cai now has the capital to do that.
For people like Liu Bei, that ritual was completely unfounded.
That night, Liu Bei announced that he would take the rare opportunity to cook in person and prepare his own delicacies for his family to eat.
The people in the city of Ji County continued to cheer and make noises to send the ghosts and ghosts of the plague away from Ji County and to come back there again in the previous year.
In the evening of the first day of the eighth year of Zhongping, Liu Bei personally presided over the Nuo dance ceremony and selected 170 people from Hebei County to dance Nuo dance.
Zhao Cai set up a running table outside the small courtyard of the Prefectural Mufu. Tonight, they were sharing meals. A small table could seat about ten people, and it was quiet.
Liu Bei himself and his family members, as well as the families of important civil and military officers, watched us gather around the fire and perform very strange dances with very strange postures, as if our hands and feet had no consciousness of our own.
(End of chapter)
