“It is advocated that five doors will boil in the sky, and ten thousand torches will burn in the light mountain at dusk.” Nearly a thousand years ago, Lu You, a poet of the Southern Song Dynasty, wrote a poem “Ding You Shang Yuan”. At this time, he lived in Chengdu and wrote a poem describing the grand occasion of the Yuanxiao (Filled round balls made of glutinous rice-flour for Lantern Festival) Lantern Festival in Chengdu. February 15 is also the annual Yuanxiao (Filled round balls made of glutinous rice-flour for Lantern Festival). Looking back at Lu You’s poems, in his works, the scene of lights shining in unison and colors reflecting the sky seems to emerge in front of people through thousands of years of time and space.
The first month is the first month of the lunar calendar. The ancients called the night “xiao”, so they called the fifteenth day of the first month “Yuanxiao (Filled round balls made of glutinous rice-flour for Lantern Festival) Festival”. It was also called Shangyuan Festival because of the influence of Taoism in the Tang Dynasty. On the night of that day, people enjoy lights, guess riddles, eat Yuanxiao (Filled round balls made of glutinous rice-flour for Lantern Festival), and put up lights and decorations everywhere, as if to push the happy atmosphere of the New Year to its climax.
“The celebration of Yuanxiao (Filled round balls made of glutinous rice-flour for Lantern Festival) on the 15th day of the first lunar month is also the end of the New Year, because after the Yuanxiao (Filled round balls made of glutinous rice-flour for Lantern Festival), the New Year will be over.” Liu Xiaochang, a folklore expert, said that in old Chengdu, this festival was particularly lively, and the custom of putting out lights on the Yuanxiao (Filled round balls made of glutinous rice-flour for Lantern Festival) Festival has lasted for thousands of years. The Lantern Festival in Chengdu is an ancient traditional folk activity in Sichuan. In many ancient literati’s poems, you can see the bustling scene of thousands of lanterns during the Yuanxiao (Filled round balls made of glutinous rice-flour for Lantern Festival) Festival Lantern Festival.
The Yuanxiao (Filled round balls made of glutinous rice-flour for Lantern Festival) in Chengdu in the Song Dynasty is comparable to the capital
“In the spring night, the precious lights are shining, and the incense of the golden smoke is floating. The city is running, and thousands of miles away. The embroidered clothes are embroidered, and the incense is rolling. The voice is thundering, and the fire trees are thick.” Tian Kuang, who was the governor of Chengdu, once described the grand occasion of the Chengdu lamp market in the Song Dynasty in the poem “Lantern Festival of the Shangyuan Dynasty”. The light market is crowded and bustling, and the street market is ablaze with silver flowers. The lights illuminate the night as if it were day.
The Chengdu lamp market has a long history. The people of Chengdu in the Yuan Dynasty quoted the records in the Tang Dynasty’s “Old Records of the Lantern” in the “Chronicle of Suihua”, saying that during the An-Shi Rebellion, Emperor Xuanzong of the Tang Dynasty went to Chengdu to avoid the scourge of war, went to the street with the Taoist master Ye Qingshan to watch the lanterns, and also bought wine at Fuchun Square. However, it is still uncertain which era the Chengdu Lantern Festival can be traced back to.
In the Northern Song Dynasty, the famous minister Zhao Xuan clearly recorded the December city of Chengdu in the “Chengdu Ancient and Modern Collection”, in which the first month was the light market. According to the Annals of Sui Hua Ji Li, “In the second year of Kaibao’s reign, Song ordered that lights should be put on for three nights in the next year’s Shangyuan Festival, which was the usual time of the year.” It can be seen that the date of the Lantern Festival is generally the night of Shangyuan, that is, the Yuanxiao (Filled round balls made of glutinous rice-flour for Lantern Festival) Festival. Chengdu Shangyuan Festival lights up for three nights.
In addition, in the tenth volume of the Chronicle of Suishi Guangji, “State Lanterns” recorded: “In front of Chengdu Fudeng Mountain or Taique, there is the Feiqiao Mountain Pavilion on the top, followed by the Taishou, and there are only three people walking through the pavilions, each with several cups down. From the front of the staff drinking shed, such as the spine basin in the capital, the wood is seized as a wall, in which flowers are planted, birds and animals are caught in the mountains in the old days, and then the pictures are carved for it. The Shu people are not cautious, so they climb the wall and look around.” It can be seen in the Song Dynasty, Chengdu officials build mountain sheds, make changeable and novel lanterns, and hold a lantern festival. The lantern mountain can be comparable to the capital. After lighting, “the golden and green light shines on each other.”.
“By the Ming and Qing dynasties, Yuanxiao (Filled round balls made of glutinous rice-flour for Lantern Festival) in Chengdu was more lively, and from then on, the Yuanxiao (Filled round balls made of glutinous rice-flour for Lantern Festival) Festival would be described as” noisy “. Liu Xiaochang described that there were lights everywhere in Yuanxiao (Filled round balls made of glutinous rice-flour for Lantern Festival) during the Lantern Festival, and people inside and outside the city would also come out to see the lights. There are couples watching lanterns in Sichuan Opera, which is the story of watching lanterns and is very popular with Chengdu people. There are ten thousand lanterns, which are very lively. “Li Diaoyuan’s poem” Yuanxiao (Filled round balls made of glutinous rice-flour for Lantern Festival) “in the Qing Dynasty said: ‘Yuanxiao (Filled round balls made of glutinous rice-flour for Lantern Festival) is about to see the lotus picking boats, and the precious horses and incense carts are about to pick up and drop the mother of pearl. In the deep night of wind and rain, people disperse, and the solitary lamp still calls for selling soup dollars.’ This is the most appropriate praise for the Yuanxiao (Filled round balls made of glutinous rice-flour for Lantern Festival) Lantern Festival.”
Colored lamps are all over the street. The headlights with strange shapes are lifelike
In the 1920s and 1930s, on the Yuanxiao (Filled round balls made of glutinous rice-flour for Lantern Festival), the East Street, Daci Temple, Zhaojue Temple, Wenshu Temple, Qingyang Palace and other places can all see the scene of brilliant lights. “Take East Street as an example, from Dongmen Bridge to Yanshikou Shili Long Street has become a sea of lights, and every household is decorated with lanterns.” Liu Xiaochang said that there were not only street lamps, but also a group of large lamps with strange shapes. For example, a large porcelain merchant uses large bowls, small bowls, cups, cups and plates to form a two-and-three-meter-long magnetic dragon and a magnetic gate building, with a light in the middle and a lantern hanging. The rich merchants who sell cloth use red cloth and yellow cloth to form hydrangeas and tie them into a street tower, which will set off each other with red lanterns.
“All walks of life hang their products on the lights, both as lanterns and as advertisements. They are like paper shops with painted figures, such as” Eight Immortals Crossing the Sea “,” Three Heroes Fighting Lv Bu “, and” The Marriage of Peach Garden “, which form a group of painted figures. They are placed in front of the door to attract passers-by, which is very wonderful and beautiful.” Liu Xiaochang specifically mentioned that in the past, at the East Street Yuanxiao (Filled round balls made of glutinous rice-flour for Lantern Festival) Lantern Festival Lantern Festival Lantern Festival, There were also colored lights painted with all the characters in The Romance of the Three Kingdoms. More than 200 colored lights were hung at the street corners, which was lifelike, showing the prosperity of Yuanxiao (Filled round balls made of glutinous rice-flour for Lantern Festival) Lantern Festival. The lights in Chengdu attracted thousands of people outside the city to watch. “As mentioned in the” Lotus Old Tales “, from the ninth day of the first month of the month, colored lights are flourishing in the streets. In the most prosperous East Street, colored lights are the most exquisite, from the street to the end of the street.”
With the change of time, in the early 1950s, the Chengdu Lantern Festival was moved to Qingyang Palace and held once a year for more than one month. The form and scale of its lanterns can be said to be changing with each passing day. The production of its lamps and lanterns is colorful, changeable and dazzling. Lantern watchers often linger in the colorful sea of lanterns.
