In ancient Chinese customs, the Shangyuan Festival (Tianguan Festival), the Zhongyuan Festival (Diguan Festival, Obon Festival), and the Lower Yuan Festival (Shuiguan Festival) are collectively called sanyuan. Such an important festival, in ancient China a thousand years ago, from the princes and nobles to the common people, how to celebrate the festival, how to pin their hopes on love?
Today, movable type Jun shared with book friends that Teacher Meng Hui wrote an ancient decorative "moth" article "Carnival Night, Amorous Night". The Lantern Festival of the ancients was much more lively than modern people, and women wandered the streets, admired the lights and played on this day. The hero and the good man also took this opportunity to hide in the bustle of the city.
Moths fill the city for a night of revelry
—
Meng Hui Wen
This article is excerpted from Pan Jinlian's Hairstyle (Nanjing University Press, 2014)
Ming Xianzong Lantern Xingle Diagram
Silk coloring
Length 36.6 cm, width 630.6 cm
In the sixty-sixth time of "Water Margin", Shi Qian took the initiative to request the task of burning the Cuiyun Building, so on the night of the Lantern Festival, he "carried a basket, which was full of sulfur, flame salt, and arson medicine heads, and a few moths inserted into the basket", "only doing the sale of moths", so he mixed into the Cuiyun Building, and still walked around in this big restaurant freely.
During the Lantern Festival of the Song Dynasty, men, women and children wore moths on their heads, which was one of the most important festivals at that time. Shi Hao's "Pink Butterfly Lantern" Cloud: "Moths, full of cities." Xiang Shen, scramble, Wu Aya ShuQi. Dot makeup, clearly is, powder whiskers fragrant wings. ”
Obviously, the moth is cut from fabrics such as Ayaqi, and is often made by women using scissors. On the cut moth shape, it is also necessary to paint the whiskers and wings with color. Along with the moth, women also wear various other specific holiday headdresses, the most important of which is the willow silk made of twisted gold thread , snow willow. "Moth snow willow golden wisps, laughter full of dark incense." ("Qingyu Case, New Year's Eve") Xin Zhiyi was once stirred up by a strange girl dressed in such a costume. Li Qingzhao recalled his lantern makeup when he was young, and also said: "Spread the green crown, twist the golden snow willow, and the tufts of the ribbon compete for help." This sentence actually reveals two interesting pieces of information. First, for women, moths and snow willows can be worn directly on the bun, but according to the custom at that time, these ornaments are generally inserted in the crown.
Moth Gold Noodles (excavated from the tomb of Li Jingxun in the Tang Dynasty in Xi'an, Shaanxi)
Women of the Song Dynasty, especially young women, as long as they have a little status and financial resources, they must wear various crowns on their heads and button their hair buns in them. Therefore, ornaments such as moths and snow willows can only be inserted into the crown, as for the specific way, it is "moth oblique insertion" (Yang Wuchao's "Full Moon"), flying in mid-air, people move, moths and other ornaments will also tremble, that is very lively.
Interestingly, the ornaments worn on the heads of women in the Song Dynasty are more beautiful, that is, the so-called "cluster wear", which is worn in clusters and piles. As recorded in the "Past Events of Wulin", the jasmine flowers newly opened in early summer, "women wear clusters, up to seven inserts" can be inserted into seven clusters of jasmine flowers on one head. Therefore, around the crown of a woman who admires the lights, there will be a cluster of moths, trembling and flying with her actions, just like the swarms of moths frolicking around the lamp ball, Kang and his "Ruihe Xian Shangyuan Yingzhi" describe this situation vividly: "The moths are full of roads, in clumps, and in clusters of crowns. The women who traveled all over the streets were all moths with trembling heads, and the scene was spectacular: "The moths turned around, Xi Xi laughed, and millions of red makeup women." (Zhao Changqing, "Exploring spring and new year's eve")
Statue of Empress Song Renzong in a cluster of flowers (partial)
The lyricist always mentions moths and snow willows in his creations, perhaps because these two ornaments are the most distinctive and representative, in fact, the content of the crown at that time to be "tufted" was far more than these two. There are many references in the notes of the Song Dynasty, as stated in the "Lantern Festival" article in Zhu Ben's "Qu Huan Old News and Continuation of the Dragon Festival": "Women's jewelry, so new, bun sideburns, such as moths, cicadas, bees, butterflies, snow willows, jade plums, lamp balls, full of heads, its name is very many, do not know when, and the lyricist has not reached." Yan Shuyong's "Shanglin Chun Slow" Yun: '... Su'e wrapped around the noodles, light cicadas fluttering sideburns, hanging willow plum blossoms. ......’”
The text also overlooked a kind of headdress that was also necessary for women at that time - "Bodhi Leaf" ("Wulin Past Events" "New Year's Eve"), all these exquisite gadgets should be "inserted" and "full of heads", that is, the so-called "cluster belt contending for Help", the holiday ornaments that should be worn should be worn more neatly, the same is not falling, it is fashionable. It should be noted that the style of the crown of the Song Dynasty is varied, and the shape is often extremely exaggerated, such as a high crown of two or three feet high, so that the person wearing the crown can only enter the palanquin if he is on the side of his head. On these strange crowns, filled with many small ornaments that flutter with the steps, the indulgence of the Song Dynasty women's headdresses, obviously constitutes the most beautiful scenery in the grand carnival night.
Of course, there is a demand for business opportunities, and during the Lantern Festival, vendors selling moths and other ornaments are also all over the street (see "Tokyo Dream Hualu" "Sixteen Days", "Dream Liang Record" "Night Market"), which gives Liangshan good man Shi Qian a way to disguise his secret weapon. Lantern Festival, is a carnival night, is an amorous night, but it is also a magnificent night of heroes rising up!
Vendors on the streets of the Lantern Festival Ming Xianzong Lantern Festival (partial)
Addendum: After the publication of this article, Thanks to Yang Zhishui's special teaching, in the Song people's painting "Da Qi Tu", there are specific paintings of people wearing "moths" on their heads. Look for this painting, and sure enough, there are moths in various forms, specifications, and decorations.
Among them, the person on the far right at the bottom of the picture, a butterfly protruding obliquely next to the top hat, stands in the air, and there is a cluster of flower ornaments under it, which is obviously a "moth oblique insertion", which can infer the trembling of the butterflies next to the crown of women in the Song Dynasty.
Da Shu Tu (Partial)
In addition, the painting of a moth in front of the old man's hat on the left not only conveys the shape of the moth (the style of the other moths is more like a delicate butterfly than a moth), but also, amazingly, a pair of tentacles of this moth are exaggeratedly replaced by a pair of peacock plumes, swaying in mid-air. How luxurious the high-end goods in the Song Dynasty moths were, how lively the scenery of women 'tufting' was, and how the New Year's Eve was at that time, from this small detail, people had unlimited reverie.
There are also three people's hats next to plum branches dotted with plum blossoms, and there are bamboo leaves matched with plum branches, which is obviously "jade plum"; one person has a cluster of leaves decorated in front of the hat, which is called "Bodhi leaf"; and two people have a cluster of green branches protruding next to their hats, perhaps "snow willow".
Meng Hui, born in the 1960s, is of the Daur ethnic group. In 1978, he entered the Department of Art History of the Central Academy of Fine Arts for undergraduate study, graduated in 1990, and studied in France from 1990 to 1993. He currently lives in Beijing. His works include the novel "Oban Change", the cultural history research works "Central Plains Women's Costume History Draft", "Painting Hall Xiangshi", the essay collection "Venus's Mirror", "Sixteen Voices Between the Flowers", "Pan Jinlian's Hairstyle", "China in Ancient Paintings", "Beauty Figure", etc., translated as "Appreciation of Western Antiques", "I Am Not a Murderer", "War and Movie".
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