Although the chieftain rebellions in Guangxi and Guangxi affected the vacations of many officials, their good vacations were also requisitioned. But the giant Ming Dynasty will never stop moving forward just because there is an extra stone under his feet.
In June of the eighth year of Jianwen, Hu Xi, the director of the Propaganda Department and the director of the Imperial College, wrote a letter, hoping that the imperial court could hold a large-scale lantern festival during the Lantern Festival of the ninth year of Jianwen to celebrate with the people, show the prosperity of the country, win the hearts of the people, increase glory, and raise the Ming Dynasty. People’s pride, unity, and the consensus of one family.
This petition was supported by the Imperial College and the Ministry of Rites, but was opposed by the Ministry of Household Affairs.
The reason is very simple. The imperial court needs a lot of money to hold a large-scale lantern festival. This amount of money cannot be spent in a few thousand taels or tens of thousands taels. It starts at a hundred thousand taels at least.
The Ministry of Revenue was unwilling to pay the money, thinking it was flashy, meaningless, and easy to create the illusion of peace and prosperity.
But in the end, Zhu Yunwen approved Hu Hui's memorial.
In Zhu Yunwen's view, the life of the people of the Ming Dynasty was really boring. There were only a few entertainment activities on weekdays, such as watching plays and listening to books, fighting against animals and strolling along the Qinhuai River. Scholars and others could still chant "The Wind, Flowers, Snow, and Moon", but they could not create many A masterpiece with the style of the Tang and Song Dynasties.
???????????????Busy year after year, the Lantern Festival has been lively several times, but it is never grand enough, not impressive enough, and not attractive enough.
Hu Hui is right about one thing. Holding a lantern festival can indeed help to gather the consensus of the people of the Ming Dynasty. This consensus is that the world is one family, united and peaceful, and the people of the Ming Dynasty should be proud of it.
The significance of the Spring Festival Gala programs in later generations is really not just a few songs and dances, a few jokes, and a few jokes, but to create a cultural symbol through which countless people can be connected to form a The reunion and unity of a large group rely on cultural symbols to create a universal cultural consensus and cognitive consensus. This is the most precious value.
As the Jianwen Dynasty enters its ninth year, it is time to consider uniting people's hearts and enhancing national pride. At present, the imperial court is not short of money, and neither is the harem. There is no need to use the national treasury, and the harem can fully bear the burden.
The preparation period for the lantern festival lasted for more than half a year, using more than 500 palace craftsmen and private craftsmen, and it was finally ready. Just when everyone was looking forward to it, the chieftain of Guangxi made trouble. Many people speculated whether the court would cancel the lanterns. After all, it is not a good look to have "the soldiers in the front half dead, but the beauties in the capital still singing and dancing."
Zhu Yunwen did not cancel it. Instead, he put the news of the capital's large-scale lantern festival in the Jianwen newspaper with great fanfare. After hearing about it, businessmen and wealthy households in Suzhou and Hangzhou all set off to the capital to participate in the first large-scale lantern festival held by the imperial court.
It is said that Lantern Festival lantern viewing began in the Han Dynasty when people worshiped Taiyi.
"Historical Records" records: The Han family often goes to the Taiyi Ganquan Temple in the first month of the year, and in the evening at dusk, and ends in the morning.
That is to say, people worship Taiyi on the first Xin day of the first lunar month. When worshiping, people use "lifting lanterns" to commemorate Taiyi (Shang Tang) who burned himself to offer sacrifices to heaven to pray for people's rain. Later, this custom It evolved into Lantern Festival Lantern Festival.
The original Lantern Festival consisted of a group of people walking around in the fields holding torches. Its meaning was to use fire to pray for rain, drive away insects, and pray for a good harvest. The fire of the Lantern Festival comes from the fire of Taiyi who burned his body to pray for rain. Therefore, it also has the profound meaning of praying to avoid disasters and receive blessings from heavenly officials.
Later, the Lantern Festival lantern viewing became more colorful, and there was a beautiful description of "the east wind blows thousands of trees and flowers down at night, and the stars are like rain".
Zhu Yunwen did not choose the Meridian Gate as the venue for the lantern festival, but Mochou Lake.
In the blink of an eye, the day of the Lantern Festival arrived, and the area around Mochou Lake was already crowded with people. After hearing the news, merchants even purchased stalls specially designated by the Ministry of Household Affairs in advance and put on a dazzling array of products.
For ten miles along Mochou Lake, people come and go, passing each other one after another.
No matter they are common people in the capital, craftsmen, merchants, students, or children from wealthy families, officials' families, or nobles, they all do not want to miss this first large-scale lantern festival since the founding of the People's Republic of China.
A humble gentleman, a graceful lady, a BMW and a fragrant car, soft words and a smile.
The woman of this family fell in love with a certain young man, and she dared to step forward on this day and ask, "Young man, are you ready for marriage?" Politely said: "Would you like to enjoy the lanterns with Xiaosheng?"
The old people walked carefully, with smiles on their faces, looking here and there, then patting their grandson on the back of the head and saying, "You were born in a good year. Grandpa has not seen such prosperity in sixty years."
The grandson doesn't care about sixty years. He just wants sixty Wenbao notes to buy some delicious food.
Merchants are vigorously promoting sales, and the signs hanging up are written with provocative words, such as guessing lantern riddles for sale, "If you guess correctly, you will be exempted. If you guess not, you will be exempted." "If you buy a set of ready-made clothes, you will get a set of pen, ink, paper and inkstone." Although the price is much higher, it is still much cheaper than buying the two sets separately. .
It was full of people and lively.
By the end of Shen Dynasty, the sky was getting dark, and there were no lights around the lake, only a bright moon.
Mochou Lake, Shengqi Tower.
The descendants of the royal family, lords, cabinet ministers, governors of the five palaces, nine ministers of the six ministries, officials from the Imperial Procuratorate and the Hanlin Academy were already waiting upstairs. The empress dowager, empress, concubines, eldest princess, princess and married woman in the harem wore imperial robes and boarded the Yujin Hall on the west side of Shengqi Tower. Officials of low rank are not qualified to go upstairs and can only stand on the small platform by Mochou Lake.
At the eleventh hour, the chamberlain screamed: "The emperor has arrived!"
Zhu Yunwen was dressed in crimson uniform, surrounded by chamberlains and escorted by the Security Bureau, and stepped up to the Shengqi Tower with vigorous steps. Everyone saluted quickly.
After a sigh of relief, everyone sat down.
Zhu Yunwen saw that preparations had been made by Mochou Lake and it was getting dark, so he nodded to the waiter.
The waiter understood and walked to the railing. He was so angry that he mobilized all his strength and shouted out: "Turn on the lights..."
The sound spread and rippled along the lake.
Time seemed to have stopped at this moment. In the blink of an eye, there was a loud sound of drums, followed by a burst of intensive firecrackers. The Mochou Lake, which was originally only illuminated by the clear moonlight, suddenly sprayed out countless fireworks, dazzling.
Zhu Yunwen stood up and walked to the railing, looking towards Mochou Lake. On a high platform built in the lake, there was a majestic Aoshan lantern. On top of the mountain lantern, there were countless stars, which moved slightly in the wind, like a galaxy. .
On the east and west sides of Mochou Lake, lights gradually rise. Wherever you look, lights rise. Like waves of fireworks, they continue to surge forward, twisting and turning towards the south bank, forming a circular light street.
Looking from a distance with the lights on, it is extremely spectacular.
"Father, father..."
Zhu Wenkui pointed to the lantern street and wanted to blend in.
Zhu Yunwen nodded happily, led everyone down to Shengqi Tower, and poured into Lantern Street with Ma Enhui and others.
"I heard that hundreds of thousands of dollars were spent on this lantern. Where was all the money spent?"
Zhu Yunwen looked at Wang Yue, the imperial prisoner.
Wang Yue quickly explained: "Your Majesty, there is not much difference between these lanterns from a distance, but they are different up close. There are Hangzhou leather and silk lanterns. There are more than ten kinds of southern Yunnan silk lanterns, Minzhong bead lanterns, etc., and the patterns of the lamps are even better. It’s complicated, look, this lantern is in the style of Lao Tzu, this one is about Zhong Kui chasing ghosts, that one is about bangs playing with toads, there are also bird and insect designs, and there are even more ingenious lanterns..."
Yang Shiqi looked at Xia Yuanji with great interest and asked in a low voice: "The court is going to hold a lantern festival, and your heart aches. Why are you so leisurely at this time?"
Xia Yuanji glanced at Yang Shiqi: "I'm happy that I didn't spend any money from the Ministry of Finance."
Yang Shiqi looked around at the beautiful scenery and said: "Last year's summer and autumn grain harvests were good, and the granaries everywhere were full. I guess the money in the Ministry of Household Affairs is also full. Whether we can withdraw more for social studies this year, we must lay a solid foundation. Talking about culture and education can enlighten the people’s wisdom, make them understand right and wrong, and facilitate management and control.”
Xia Yuanji frowned: "In the past few years, in which year has the expenditure on culture and education been less? If we increase it this year and increase it next year, it won't take five years, and it will exceed the official salary. Spending.”
"If you exceed it, just exceed it. Is there anything wrong with it?"
Yang Shiqi asked.
Xia Yuanji was a little depressed. There was nothing wrong, but he had no money.
In the past few years, it is necessary to resolve the issue of the new army strategy of the Wei Institute as soon as possible. We cannot delay it any longer. Sooner or later, the Fujian Rebellion will reappear.
However, if the new army policy is extended to the entire army, it requires financial support. They are probably unwilling to only distribute food to the sergeants. How to solve the financial shortfall and ensure financial sustainability is a problem that the Ministry of Housing and Urban-Rural Development must solve. It cannot always focus on the field of culture and education.
Yang Shiqi was rejected by Xia Yuanji, but he didn't mind and continued: "Shandong has supported the construction of a new capital in Peiping for a long time, and the people have worked hard. Can we reduce the taxes in several places?"
Xia Yuanji still refused.
In years without famines, floods or droughts, tax reductions and exemptions are something that should not be done. What's more, all the people in Shandong who were recruited were paid wages, and no one was deducted.
Yang Shiqi sighed twice and suddenly said: "The industry mentioned by the emperor has just started, and it will cost a lot of money, and it will also need to recruit a lot of people to mine. The Ministry of Household Affairs should provide more support during the fiscal budget."
Xia Yuanji refused twice and could not refuse again. In addition, Zhu Yunwen had already upgraded the industrial planning to a strategic level, so he readily agreed.
Zhu Yunwen stopped in front of a lantern, looked at the red paper seal hanging on the lantern, looked around, and said: "You are all talented people, and it is the Lantern Festival, so you might as well guess some lantern riddles."
The store sells porcelain. When the emperor came to his stall, he was so excited that he couldn't even speak. However, the waiter was okay. Seeing Zhu Yunwen and others want to guess lantern riddles, he briefly introduced the rules, "seven hits in a row." Get a piece of ceramic for free.
When all the officials heard this, they burst into laughter.
Don't say you win seven times in a row, even if you don't win once, you can still make money by giving one to the emperor.
Zhu Yunwen motioned to Jie Jin to take off a red envelope and take out the riddle inside. Jie Jin took a look at it and said with a smile: "This is quite simple. The riddle is two big pictures and two small pictures. It's a crossword puzzle. Who among you can figure it out?" …”
ps:
Thank you aisiarhine for the reward, thank you Na Leng for the reward, thank you for your recognition and support.
