1635 Han style rises again

Chapter 360
On January 1640, 1, Weihai Fort.

After Gu Sanping got off the boat, like many immigrants, his legs and feet were so weak that he could hardly walk normally.He and his wife supported each other and walked crookedly towards a temporary assembly point for immigrants.

Chen Shaoxing wiped the sweat from his forehead with a towel, and registered the immigration category with a pen.When each immigrant was in Tongzhou Fort, he had already made a classification distinction, and attached a note to the immigrant. When he arrived at a transit point, he handed it over to the immigration reception staff, and then made a detailed classification again.

According to the order of priority, craftsmen, entertainers, scholars, people with special talents, and women will all be the priority targets of ships.As Weiyuan Fort is the last supply transfer point from the mainland, the Immigration Department of the Civilian Government has arranged a dozen officials and subordinates here to make specific assignments for all immigrants to be transported to the mainland according to the planning and guidance of the Civilian Government.

"Weavers from Suzhou!" Chen Shaoxing took a note from an immigrant, nodded, and said, he took out a red note from the table, handed it to the immigrant, and said: "Follow the team in front, first Go to the bathhouse to wash yourself clean, then go to the C camp in the east of the city, and wait for the boat from Weihai to pick you up. Daily meals and rest are all in the camp, and you are not allowed to go out at will."

Behind the man, Gu Sanping glanced towards the east of the city. There were seven or eight rows of wooden houses built in a square shape, forming a small camp, not far from the city wall, forming an angle with Weiyuan Fort. Potential.

"Hey, are you an official appointed by Hanxing Island?" Chen Shaoxing took the note from Gu Sanping and couldn't help showing a bit of surprise.Immediately, he called a nearby village soldier and ordered: "Send this official from Hanxing Island to the city and hand it over to the lord at the immigration office."

Said, Chong Gu Sanping nodded and smiled.The scholars sent by Hanxing Island used to be officials who assisted immigration management. I am afraid that they will have a bright future when they arrive in Jianye City.

Entering Weiyuan City, I found that the streets were full of people, including the last batch of immigrants who hadn't been transported away, as well as residents who settled here, and everyone had a look of joy on their faces.

"On weekdays, there are not so many people in the city." The village soldier who led the way said to Gu Sanping with a smile: "Isn't it just two days before the Chinese New Year? On the mainland of Hanzhou, a large number of people were shipped a few days ago." The pigs, cattle, sheep, and rice are said to be distributed to each resident to celebrate the New Year. These people presumably went to the supplies office to receive New Year’s items.”

"Oh?" Gu Sanping was a little stunned. He came from Hanxing Island and went to several supply points. It took more than a month, but he never thought about the upcoming Chinese New Year.In addition, the weather here is so hot that people can't realize that it is almost the first month of the month.

"As for the immigrants passing through here, does our Hanzhou People's Government also distribute food to them?" Gu Sanping asked.

"It seems not." The soldier thought for a while and said, "Even if meat and rice are distributed to them, they will not be able to light a fire to cook. I guess the cafeteria will cook some delicious food for them."

Gu Sanping also laughed when he heard the words. The immigrants came here all alone, empty, and they gave out some New Year's items, and there was no place to store them. It would be better to provide them with some delicious meals to boost the morale of the people.
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With the increasing number of immigrants from Ming Dynasty, the people's lifestyles in Hanzhou and several overseas territories are different from those in Ming Dynasty, but almost all aspects of life and customs are the same as those in Ming Dynasty.

A few years ago in Hanzhou, the population was low and the products were not abundant, and most people were struggling to fill their stomachs as much as possible.Coupled with being far away from the hometown of Ming Dynasty, many people occasionally think about the scene of the New Year, but then they will devote themselves to heavy industrial and agricultural work.

Last year, because of the war with the Dutch East India Company, everyone in Hanzhou was busy preparing for the war, expanding production and hoarding a large amount of supplies, and had no intention of dealing with New Year matters.

For more than a year, Hanzhou thwarted several attacks by the Dutch, and the mainland was not attacked at all. Even, they repeatedly captured the Dutch strongholds and attacked their transport ships.What is even more gratifying is that the eastern immigration route was opened and nearly [-] immigrants were successfully transported back.Now in January of this year, a large number of immigrants have arrived one after another.Everything seems to be developing for the better.

Therefore, in the upcoming New Year season, the Hanzhou People's Government decided to promote this traditional Chinese festival.For this reason, the Material Department of the Civilian Government took out a large amount of material reserves and distributed them as New Year's benefits to every Hanzhou citizen to celebrate the arrival of the New Year.

On the morning of New Year’s Eve, the people of Ming Dynasty will decorate the courtyard of their home, so that the home is filled with the atmosphere of the New Year. For the people at that time, there are three most important decorations, namely Spring Festival couplets, New Year pictures and door god statues. .

Emperor Hongwu Zhu Yuanzhang liked the couplets very much, so he asked every household in Nanjing to put a pair of couplets on the door, and he would patrol the city himself. His request made posting couplets a widely spread custom.

In Hanzhou, posting Spring Festival couplets is also a fixed ceremony of the New Year. According to the tradition of Ming Dynasty, people write Spring Festival couplets on red paper.There are two reasons for this, one is to drive away the evil beast named "Nian", which is said to be most afraid of red, and the other is to add a little festive color to the Spring Festival.

During this period, the types of New Year pictures were greatly enriched. In addition to the traditional images of immortals, some images that symbolize good morals, such as bats and gourds, have become frequent visitors in New Year pictures.It shows that the New Year pictures have been completely independent from the earliest door god portraits at this time, and they are specially used to express people's good expectations for the New Year.

Some Hanzhou immigrant homes in Huaibei, in addition to hanging New Year pictures, also paste "hanging thousands" cut out of red paper on the door. It is said that this is to prevent poor gods from entering the door.According to legend, Jiang Ziya made his wife a god of poverty and told her to "return as soon as she sees it." Therefore, people used this cut-out paper to block her.

The statues of door gods in the Ming Dynasty were similar to those in the Song Dynasty, and they also liked to use images of famous generals. However, due to the vigorous development of Cheng-Zhu Neo-Confucianism in the Ming Dynasty, some people began to post the earliest statues of Shentu and Yulei retrospectively.

Qi Tianzai participated in a grand ancestor worship activity on New Year's Eve.Cao Xiong led Qi Tian and Qi Dajiang, and under the auspices of Wang Zheng, they knelt down and worshiped several ancestor tablets on the sacrificial altar according to the etiquette of the royal family of Ming Dynasty.

Before the Ming Dynasty, every household wanted to offer sacrifices to several generations of ancestors. However, in the Ming Dynasty, Zhu Yuanzhang made clear regulations on the scope of sacrifices. Taimiao, and the folks began to follow his practice and began to worship their four generations of ancestors.

Looking at the unfamiliar names on the tablets on the sacrificial altar, Qi Tian was a little dazed and awed.Although they are not the ancestors of the soul in their own body, but as the ancestors hundreds of years ago, I have occupied the bodies of their descendants, so I should respectfully kowtow to them a few times.

As Wang Zheng's prospective grandson-in-law, on the afternoon of New Year's Eve, he participated in the ancestor worship ceremony of Wang Zheng's family.Compared with the number of Qi Tian and the others who attended the worship service in the morning, the family members of the Wang family were obviously much larger. The two stepson Wang Yongchun and Wang Yongshun knelt behind Wang Zheng, his wife Shang and his concubine Shen stood on both sides. Qi Tian, ​​following the third generation of the Wang family, knelt obediently behind and kowtowed, kowtowed, and kowtowed to the many tablets on the altar.

In the homes of the people in Hanzhou, various gods will be worshiped on New Year's Eve, the most important of which are the Five Sacrifices including the Kitchen God. There are household gods, earth gods, door gods and walking gods.Immigrants from the Ming Dynasty believed that these gods were closely related to their lives, so they paid special attention to the rituals of worshiping them, and usually prepared brand new statues of gods in advance to show their respect.

After performing the ancestor worship and god sacrifice ceremonies, the young children can get lucky money from their elders.This custom can be traced back to the Han and Wei Dynasties at the earliest, but at that time, the children were given coin-like ornaments engraved with the words "Long Live and Thousand Years" and "Removing Calamity and Eliminating Evil".

In the Ming Dynasty, this became real money. The purpose of giving lucky money to children is to protect them from evil spirits in the new year, so it is also called "press money".In the Ming Dynasty, most of the lucky money given to children was copper coins, and most of them were strung together with red threads.However, there is no hole in the middle of the Hanzhou coins. Parents can only stuff the one-cent, two-cent, or five-cent coins in their purses directly to the children.

As a young man who was about to turn 20, Qi Tian was naturally not eligible to receive any lucky money, and was even begged for a lot of money by a group of children from the Wang family.

Looking at Wang Zheng's concubine, and the slightly raised belly of his future aunt Shen, Qi Tian couldn't help but wondered, in a few years, would this little elder in his stomach also have the same belly as his own? Ask for lucky money in your hand.When the time comes, will he kowtow to him, or will he kowtow to himself to celebrate the new year.

After completing these ceremonies, the main event of New Year's Eve will really come on stage. The people of Hanzhou will have a reunion dinner with their families on New Year's Eve, just like they did in Daming, and then watch the year together and wait for the arrival of the new year.

In the courtyard of a family, some bonfires are lit. This bonfire is usually piled up with firewood and straw. It is also called a prosperous fire. The more prosperous the fire, it means that the family will have a good fortune in the new year. the better.

After igniting the fire, people began to devote themselves to a variety of entertainment activities to spend the long night.They will light bright lights, and then play some small games while eating fruits and vegetables.Qi Tian never imagined when playing cards, pushing Pai Gow and other game tools appeared in Hanzhou.The workmanship looks rather rough, and the Pai Gow are carved in different sizes, but everyone had a great time playing it.And the children will also play games such as eagle catching chickens and riding bamboo horses all night long.

At this time, Qi Tian couldn't help but wonder if he wanted to get out the playing cards of the later generations, invite a few people, fight a few landlords, and miss the vague entertainment life of the later generations.

(End of this chapter)