The Daxue solar term is related to snow.
"The Collection of Seventy-two Hours of the Moon Order" said: "The big ones are full. At this point, the snow is full." At this time, the cold area in the north is already "three feet thick, and the ground is frozen ten feet." "Thousands of miles are frozen, ten thousand miles "Snow drifting", and even a strange rime landscape appeared due to the cold.
Although there is less snowfall in the south, the clouds are overcast and the temperature is getting lower and lower.
Heavy snow blocked roads and made it difficult to travel. People invented various ways to play in the courtyard.
Since the Song Dynasty, the ancients played with snow lions when it snowed.
A snow event sparked joy among the people, a tradition that lasted until the Qing Dynasty.
The literati searched for plums in the snow, made tea around the stove, sat quietly in the snow hall, hid themselves, kept quiet, and put themselves in peace.
If there is a heavy snowfall during the heavy snow festival, it will definitely arouse people's aesthetic attention to snow and beautiful scenery.
In addition to the world of heaven and law, there is also human warmth in the ancient snow scene paintings.
With the advent of the heavy snow solar term, the weather is getting colder and colder, "making tea around the stove" has become the fashion of young literary and artistic youths.
Looking at the circle of friends, the leisure methods of several waves of people are almost uniform, and the places are either under the trees in the forest, or in the corner of the Guofeng teahouse.
Groups of three and four set up a small and exquisite charcoal stove, with a wire mesh plate on top of the stove, tea soup rolled in a rough pottery tea pot, and persimmons, oranges, longan, rice cakes, marshmallows, red dates, peanuts and other foods baked on the side, The pictures and texts give the scene of "making tea around the stove" a sense of relaxation.
Surrounding an open fire to keep warm, cook tea soup with your own hands, simmer and roast food, and enjoy the tranquility and relaxation of body and mind in a leisurely manner. Is this a new Internet celebrity, or a traditional retro?
Winter is the end of the four seasons, divided into Mengdongyue, Zhongdongyue and Jidongyue, and the winter solstice is the middle of winter.
"Huainan Zi Shi Ze Xun" said: "Winter is the power, and the power is the power to all things. The power is upright but not lost, and all things are hidden." Power is a weight. Compare winter to a weight that adjusts the weight. Weakness can become strong. Lightness can be heavy, which shows the importance of winter in the ancient people's concept of four seasons.
Fifteen days after the light snow, the bucket handle refers to the heavy snow.
Daxue is the November festival of the lunar calendar, the end of the Ganzhihai month and the beginning of the sub-month, also known as "Changyue".
Zhu Xi commented: "The sun bends for a long time and then stretches out, so the clouds flow smoothly into the moon."
"Zhou Shu Shi Xun" said: "On the day of heavy snow, the pheasant does not sing. In the next five days, the tiger begins to turn. On the next five days, the lychees come out." A line of Liu Zongyuan's poem is suitable for the occasion: "A thousand mountains and birds will fly away, and thousands of people will disappear." But it is precisely this winter of Xuanying, the air between the heaven and the earth is dark and clear, the yin energy is the most prosperous, and the yang energy turns to decline when it is extremely prosperous. Germination, tigers begin to mate, orchids begin to germinate, so this is the season for Tibetan breeding.
The Daxue solar term is related to snow.
"The Collection of Seventy-two Hours of the Moon Order" said: "The big one is full. So far, the snow is full." Han Shiwai said: "There are five flowers in every plant, and six snowflakes. Snowflakes are called 霙." Snow is also a cloud , the same color as the sky.
The "Book of Songs" says: "The sky is the same as the clouds, and the atmosphere is rainy and snowy." In the heavy snow solar term, the cold land in the north is already "three feet thick in ice, ten feet frozen in the ground", "thousands of miles of ice, thousands of miles of snow drifting", and even appear due to the cold. Strange rime landscape.
Although there is less snowfall in the south, the clouds are overcast and the temperature is getting lower and lower.
The Ancients Played with Snow: Plastic Snow Lions and Cooking Snow to Make Tea
In the farming era, the rivers were frozen, the fields fell asleep, and the work stopped. People began to rest and recuperate throughout the year.
Every household prepares for the New Year, storing ice, storing snow, brewing wine, cured meat, and making caramel.
Before the Song and Yuan Dynasties, the cultivation of cotton was not popular in China, and the clothes to keep out the cold were mainly made of silk and hemp.
When it snows heavily, rich and noble families will use charcoal pots, incense burners, and cold balls to light charcoal and smoke incense to keep out the cold.
According to legend, when Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty, foreign countries paid tribute to provide cold incense, and burned it in the room. Although it was very cold, he must reduce his clothes.
On cold winter nights, the ancients used soup mother-in-law to keep warm. Huang Tingjian wrote in a poem: "A thousand pieces of gold buys a foot-in-law, and you can sleep until dawn every night." If the weather is too cold, the ink in the inkstone will freeze. The treasure inkstone furnace, put the inkstone on the furnace, and the inkstone will disappear on its own.
"Tianbao Legacy" records that Li Bai often wrote imperial edicts for the Ming emperor, but the weather was cold and the pen was too cold to write.
Heavy snow blocked roads and made it difficult to travel. People invented various ways to play in the courtyard.
Since the Song Dynasty, the ancients played with snow lions when it snowed.
Wu Zimu wrote in "Meng Liang Lu": "A luxurious house is like auspicious snowfall from the sky, so we hold a feast and feast, and make snow lions to dress up snow mountains to meet relatives and friends. Pour lightly and sing softly, and lean on jade to snuggle incense." After the feast, Going out to enjoy the snow, "Riding out of the lake, looking at the snowy scenery of the lake and mountains, Yaolin Qiongshu, emerald peaks like jade." Zhou Mi also wrote in "Old Stories of Wulin": "Appreciating the snow in the forbidden area, many Yumingyuan towers, the back garden Enter the big and small snow lions, and decorate them with golden bells and threads, and make snowflakes, snow lanterns, snow mountains, etc., and drop crisps as flowers and other things, and put them in golden pots for viewing." Playing with snow, eating For dim sum, the Imperial Dining Room "made miscellaneous fried tastes, such as spring plate 饾饤, lamb wine".
Playing and playing, the country and the country will not ignore it. The emperor will distribute military expenses and help the common people when it snows heavily: "Neizang treasury allocates millions of official coupons to reward the army, and orders Lin'an government to distribute to the poor, or the queen." Please don't reward yourself."
The emperor rewarded the world, and the powerful and powerful families naturally followed suit, so "each rewarded the poor in his hometown with money and rice."
A snow event sparked joy among the people, a tradition that lasted until the Qing Dynasty.
In Castiglione Castiglione's painting "Happy Snow in Hongli", Emperor Qianlong sits and warms himself by the fire, pine branches are smoked in a charcoal basin, and princes in the courtyard are modeling snow lions.
Playing ice is the general term for many ice activities in the court of the Qing Dynasty, including ice skating, ice hockey, and ice archery. It is an activity and a military drill.
"Lang Qian Jiwen" records the game of skidding tarts in the Qing Dynasty: "Forbidden in the winter moon, skidding tarts. First draw water and pour it into an iceberg, which is three or four feet high and extremely smooth. Make the brave wear pigskin shoes. It’s even more slippery, standing upright from the top and going down, and the winner is the one who doesn’t stand on the ground.” In addition, there was an ice bed in the Qing Dynasty, and the rivers in the countryside were accessible. Traveling on the ice bed in winter is also an interesting thing.
The bed is made of wood, the bottom is inlaid with steel bars, one person leads the rope, and four people can sit on it, walking like flying on ice.
There is also an elegant name for dragging the ice bed called Ling Climbing Cloud.
The literati searched for plums in the snow, made tea around the stove, sat quietly in the snow hall, hid themselves, kept quiet, and put themselves in peace.
Lu Guimeng of the Tang Dynasty wrote in "Ten Songs of Tea Sets: Cooking Tea": "Come and sit among the pine trees and watch the snow on the pine. When you are in the waves, you will go to the end of the blue flower." Lu Guimeng loves tea. He once had a tea garden in Huzhou. Plant tea, make tea, taste tea, and evaluate tea by yourself.
In the poem, it is written that he puts the snow from the pine tree into a pot to boil, and when the snow water is churning and spraying, he puts in tea powder to cook together.
Such a connoisseur of tea drinking wrote down his experience of boiling tea with snow water. Compared with ordinary water, snow water must have a special flavor.
Maybe it's because the snow falls on the pine is relatively clean, maybe it's because the snow is infused with rosin, maybe it's the obsession in the hermit's heart.
Lu You in the Song Dynasty wrote in "Fried Tea After Snow": "The snow liquid is clear and sweet, and the well spring rises, and you can cook it with your own tea stove." The word "clear and sweet" in the poem is a description of snow water.
Good tea needs good water. The poet cooks the tea in snow, and the foam is as plump as snow.
In later generations, cooking snow and making tea became a symbol of elegance.
Chapter 41 of "Dream of Red Mansions" uses Miaoyu to cook tea with the falling snow on the plum blossoms collected five years ago to express her detachment.
However, cooking tea with snow water is not pretentious, but stems from the ancients' understanding of snow water.
"Compendium of Materia Medica" believes that snow has the effect of clearing heat and detoxifying.
Tu Long in the Ming Dynasty attributed snow to Tianquan in "Tea Notes", and making tea with sweet snow water can increase the aroma of tea soup.
The fun of cooking snow and making tea experienced by the ancients is similar to the recent popularity of making tea around a stove on social platforms.
Lin Yutang said in "The Art of Living" that Chinese literati who are addicted to tea advocate that cooking tea must be done by themselves, while true connoisseurs take it as a special pleasure to cook tea by themselves.
Perhaps the current outage of cooking tea around the stove stems from people's yearning for returning to the original.
After all, the stove is not a barbecue. Tea needs to be cooked on a low fire, and tea, snacks and snacks need to be simmered slowly. This process is very slow, but the fun in it cannot be replaced by quickly opening a pack of puffed snacks and a cup of instant milk tea.
Feel the relaxation while waiting slowly, steal half a day's leisure, and escape from the anxious life state in daily life.
The exile and poetry endowed by the ancients
Baqiao Wind and Snow comes from an allusion.
Meng Haoran, a poet of the Tang Dynasty, resigned from office and went into seclusion, riding a donkey in the snow to find plum blossoms.
In the late Tang Dynasty, Zheng Xiangguo said, "Poetry is on the back of a donkey in the wind and snow in Baqiao", which connects Meng Haoran's character image with the aesthetic connotation of the wind and snow in Baqiao.
Baqiao was originally the only way to leave Chang'an. The ancients saw off willows at Baqiao. This place represents parting. The addition of the word "fengxue" adds to the bleakness and sadness, creating a thorough coldness that strengthens the harshness of the natural environment. It shows the lonely and decisive attitude of the scholars.
The wind and snow, the donkey, the poor man, the frustration and hesitation on the Baqiao, the bowed head in meditation in the center of the wind and snow, poverty but nobility have become the aesthetic ideals of scholars.
Since then, "Baqiao Wind and Snow on the Donkey's Back" has become a classic theme in the works of poets and painters.
Xia Gui, Ma Yuan, the court painters of the Southern Song Dynasty, and Shen Zhou of the Wumen of the Ming Dynasty all painted "Baqiao Wind and Snow Picture".
The literati riding a donkey and stepping on the snow showed a demeanor of aloofness and tenacity, free from vulgarity and grandeur.
Liu Songnian's "Four Views of Mountains and Waters" shows the courtyard life of Yanju literati around the West Lake. In the fourth winter scene, the black pine trees and the white snow scene form an interesting contrast, which has a mysterious and cold atmosphere, but no sadness.
The scribe set off from home, put on a hood and held an umbrella and rode on a donkey, and the donkey was led by the servant to go out.
The layout of the courtyard is elegant, and the book boy lifts a corner of the curtain and only pokes his head out to look out, which not only shows the cold weather, but also shows the book boy's confusion and worry about the scribes traveling in snow.
The open window of the house facing the water in the foreground reveals the indoor landscape screen. It is obvious that the Chinese scholars in the painting live a comfortable life. Although they cannot go through the wind and frost on the Baqiao, they can walk in the snow to find plums on a heavy snow day, which reflects the pride and feelings of the literati.
At the end of the Ming Dynasty, Zhang Dai mentioned in the anthology "Night Sailing Boat" the eternal story of Meng Haoran stepping on the snow to find plums. From the Ming and Qing Dynasties, stepping on the snow and searching for plums became the subject of paintings representing Gao Shi. Gao Shi often walked forward with a stick, followed by a little boy, stepping on the snow Looking for plum blossoms before they bloom, standing in the snow and waiting silently.
In the Qing Dynasty Li Yu's "Idle Love Occasionally Sending" there is an article "The Way of Caring for Pleasure in Winter". In the article, it is said that in order to obtain spiritual happiness in winter, one must put oneself in the shoes of a pedestrian on the road, suffering from the wind and snow, and then think back to the time at home. Warm and comfortable, you can feel a hundred times happy.
In the snow scene pictures of landscape paintings, there are often people holding broken umbrellas, riding donkeys, walking alone on the ancient road, passing cliffs, jagged rocks, and people are in a state of collapse.
This kind of risky painting is suitable for hanging in the nave in winter. The owner looks at these paintings as a barrier against wind and snow, and medicine to warm the stomach and heart.
Because of the extreme happiness and forgetting worries, the happiness will gradually decrease, but when you think of the difficult situation from the beginning, the happiness will gradually increase and not decrease.
An official's management and drama, a literati's poor reading, and a farmer's businessman's hard work can all use this method to obtain happiness.
Li Yu's method of winter carnival seems to have the meaning of remembering bitterness and thinking about sweetness, which is also the sense of contrast we often talk about nowadays.
At present, when the material life is extremely rich, many young people begin to yearn for poetry and distant places, and stay away from the market to gain physical and mental freedom.
Because of the Internet, work is no longer limited to one place, leaving the bustling city to settle down in a remote town, or going to the mountains to renovate the old house left by the ancestors, living a life of working at sunrise and resting at sunset, and dedicating oneself The state of life is posted on self-media.
This kind of life is in stark contrast to the fast-paced urban life. The hermit video of "picking chrysanthemums under the eastern fence and seeing Nanshan leisurely" went viral on the self-media. Behind this is the yearning for a hermit life in the hearts of the public.
It is also a graphic work of art. If short videos are compared to ancient scrolls, the short videos of modern people lying on the sofa and watching seclusion are consistent with the spiritual happiness that the ancients obtained by hanging snow landscapes and mountains and rivers in the hall.
The world of heaven and human warmth in the snow scene of ancient paintings
It is advisable to enjoy the snow during the heavy snow solar term.
Snow scene is one of the most beloved themes of literati in the past dynasties, and it is an important content of the "winter theme" of landscape painting.
"Xuanhe Painting Book" records that Wang Wei in the Tang Dynasty was the pioneer of snow scene paintings. Dong Yuan in the Southern Tang Dynasty, Wei Xian in the Later Shu Dynasty, and Li Cheng, Fan Kuan, Xu Daoning, Guo Xi, Li Tang, Xia Gui in the Northern Song Dynasty all had many snow scene works. , while the Five Dynasties and the Northern Song Dynasty were the most prosperous period for the theme of snow scenes in the history of painting.
In the fifth year of Yuanfeng in the Northern Song Dynasty, the third year when Su Shi was demoted to Huangzhou, with the help of his friends, he got an old idle land in the east of the city. So he reclaimed the wasteland, planted fruits and vegetables, and built five thatched houses and named them "East Land". Po Snow Hall".
There are four characters "Xuetang Yuyun" at the beginning of the volume of "Cold Food Post" in the third running script in the world, and "Xuetang" refers to the five rooms.
The reason why it is named "Snow Hall" is because the house is full of snow paintings.
After experiencing the ups and downs of officialdom and returning to rural life, Su Shi felt that Tao Yuanming was a sober person who realized the true meaning of life, and he was his bosom friend across time and space.
Su Shi wrote in "Snow Hall": "Wake up while drunk in a dream. Only Yuanming is a former life. He has traveled all over the world, but he still works hard." After that, friends will visit when they pass Huangzhou, "Snow Hall" It became a place for Su Shi to write and make friends. In March, Mi Fu visited the two to exchange calligraphy and painting. In May, he wrote "Strange Stone Offering" as a gift to Zen Master Foyin. In October, he wrote "Ode to Hou Chibi". In March of the following year, monks and friends traveled thousands of miles. Visiting from Hangzhou, living in "Xue Tang", Taoist Cui Chenglao, officials of Huangzhou Prefecture Xu Junyou, Yang Juncai, etc. often visit Xuetang.
In "The Story of the Snow Hall", it is written that Su Shi hung paintings of snow scenes in his house in order to seek tranquility.
During Su Shi’s exile, he was inevitably embarrassed when facing real life, so he wrote poems, calligraphy and paintings, made friends with the mountain woodcutter and fisherman, burned incense and drank tea with monks, and "made snow hall viewing snow paintings" may be his creation in the Zen state. Romance, in order to soothe the wounded body and mind.
Xia Gui in the Southern Song Dynasty painted a picture of "A Guest Talk in the Snow Hall". In the painting, the dead trees are covered with snow, the distant mountains are bleak, and there is a boat across the river, and the fisherman is fishing alone in the cold river.
The window of the thatched cottage by the river was open, and Su Dongpo and another friend sat and chatted with each other wearing hoods. They seemed to have forgotten their mental fear during the chat and laughter, and their body and mind were natural, and they were at peace when they were safe.
In fact, it was not an accidental phenomenon that Su Shi built the "Snow Hall" and hung snow scenes on the walls, but it reflected the needs of the spiritual life of scholars.
Song people's landscape paintings are different from modern ones. Modern paintings are mostly for decoration, while Song people's wall-mounted paintings are to create an atmosphere of contemplation and create an immersive visual experience.
For the ancients who did not experience too much image shock, this kind of visual shock is equivalent to entering an immersive holographic projection space.
The snow scene can best reflect the quiet environment. Su Shi used the way of visualizing the snow scene to cultivate himself, seeking tranquility to calm his inner desires, whether it was the fear of the ups and downs of the officialdom, or the honor and disgrace of his own reputation.
Su Shi deliberately painted pictures of snow on the four walls, because he understood that entering the hall to see the snow is the same as going to the stage to view the spring. ".
"Borrowing land and leaving blank" is the main method of snow landscape landscape in Northern Song Dynasty.
Deng Chun's "Hua Ji" records Li Cheng's refined snow scene: "The snow scene of the landscape painter is very vulgar. I have tasted the snow pictures made by Yingqiu. The mountains and forest houses are all made of light ink, and the water and sky are filled with no powder. It is also strange. Also." Tang Dai of the Qing Dynasty wrote in "Painting Events: Snow Scenes": "The snow scenes in all paintings are mainly lonely and dim, with a mysterious and cold atmosphere. There is no other way in the work of "Snow Picture". The wonder is that thousands of ravines and thousands of rocks are made of white jade, which makes people feel clear." The Snow Scene of the Five Dynasties also uses the "bounce powder" technique (use a brush dipped in white paint to pop small white dots on the screen and express flying snow) like In "The Picture of First Snow in the Journey of the River", in the Northern Song Dynasty, the snow scenes were mostly left blank and smudged to express the scenery after snow.
The painter clearly pursues the mystery and silence in the snow scene.
Fan Kuan of the Northern Song Dynasty's "Snow Scenery and Cold Forest" is huge in scale and has a panoramic composition, making people stand in front of the painting as if they could step into the snow scene.
The whole picture is as quiet as night, with the majestic atmosphere of the snow-capped mountains. Standing in front of the painting, the cold air rushes towards your face. When you enter the painting, you can feel the vastness of the world and the insignificance of people. There is a well-ordered world of natural principles, which is also the world in the hearts of scholars in the Northern Song Dynasty.
In addition to the world of heaven and law, there is also human warmth in the ancient snow scene paintings.
There is an interesting theme in the snow scene sketches: Xuejiang sells fish.
For example, "Picture of Selling Fish in Xuejiang" collected by the Palace Museum, "Picture of Selling Fish in Xuexi" collected by Shanghai Museum, "Picture of Buying Fish at Snowy Bridge" collected by the Metropolitan Museum of America, etc.
The "Picture of Selling Fish in the Snow River" collected by the Palace Museum was written by Li Dong in the Southern Song Dynasty.
Li Dong lived in Hangzhou during Song Lizong's period, selling paintings for a living.
There are clear close, middle and distant shots in this vignette.
The distant view is the snow-capped mountains, and there is a water pavilion near the river in the middle view. A scribe in a hood sits on the terrace, reaching out to catch a fish handed over by a fisherman in a straw hat.
In the cold winter with heavy snowfall, literati lived in seclusion in mountain villages far away from the city. Obviously, their material life was not rich.
Fish plays an important role in the taste of the ancients. It is the basis of "freshness". Although fish is delicious, it is not often available.
On a snowy day, being able to buy a fish from a fisherman is a flavoring agent for a scribe in their secluded life.
And the fisherman obviously knew the scribe's hobbies, so he took the initiative to row the fish when he caught the fish.
Maybe the fisherman sells the fish and goes to exchange for a pot of wine, so that he can get some warmth in the cold winter.
The back and forth of selling fish and buying fish reveals the warmth of the world.
In fact, the real hermit is hidden under the appearance of ordinary people. In traditional Chinese culture, the fisherman is a symbol of a hermit, so we meet two kinds of hermits in "Snow River Fish Selling Picture".
The fish connects them in the snowy day. The fish is not a commodity, but a spiritual sustenance of common ideals.
(The author is an associate professor of the Department of Public Art, Hangzhou Normal University)
(Source: Wen Wei Po, Edition 12, December 7, 2022)