How long is the history of kowtow during New Year greetings?

What is New Year greeting?

There is a passage in "Qing Jia Lu" written by Gu Tieqing of the Qing Dynasty that says well: "(On the morning of the first day of the Lunar New Year) men and women pay homage to their parents in order. After that, the master leads the younger ones to visit relatives and friends of neighboring tribes. Or they may send their children to express their greetings, and when there are those who do not see each other until the end of the year, they will also visit each other at the door, and write their names and names in the door book. "The quiet alleys and secluded squares turn into a bustling market." That is to say, on the morning of the first day of the Lunar New Year, the New Year greeting activities start at home. First, we kneel down and kowtow to the elders, wishing them health and longevity, good luck, and a smooth year. At this time, the elders will The New Year's money prepared in advance is distributed to the juniors. Then, family members (mainly men in the past) go out to the homes of close friends of the same clan and close neighbors within five servers to worship each other and wish them good fortune.

Valuing family, kinship, and kinship are the most important concepts in Chinese society. They are the cohesion of the Chinese nation that has not been divided, declined, and constantly strengthened for thousands of years. The Spring Festival (the ancient New Year's Day was changed to the Spring Festival after the Revolution of 1911) is undoubtedly the most important node of the year when people respect relatives and friends.

Although there have been records of Yuan Day, Xinzheng, New Year's Day, etc. since the Western Zhou Dynasty, due to the replacement of calendar systems, the date of the Spring Festival has frequently changed. It was not until the time of Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty that the Xia calendar was fixed. There are many records of New Year greetings in the palace in the literature, but there is a lack of information about New Year greetings and congratulations from the common people.

In the Song Dynasty, records of common people’s Spring Festival greetings began to appear in miscellaneous books such as Sui Shi Ji. Meng Yuanlao of the Song Dynasty recorded the New Year greetings in Kaifeng Prefecture in "Tokyo Menghua Lu": "On October 1st, the Kaifeng Prefecture released Guanpu for three days, and the scholars and common people celebrated each other since early in the morning." ("Guanpu" is a regulation of the Northern Song Dynasty government. (annual leave). People visit each other during the New Year. There are roughly two ways to pay New Year greetings: clans, relatives, etc. have to visit in person to pay their respects, while for ordinary friends and colleagues, people have to send New Year cards or business cards. In ancient times, it was called "throwing a prick". Zhao Yi's "Yi Yu Cong Kao·Ming Tie" says: "The ancients used common names, which were originally written with carved wood. They were called Ye in the Han Dynasty and thorns in the late Han Dynasty. Although paper was used after the Han Dynasty, they were still called thorns." Lasting until the Ming Dynasty, this custom of sending greeting cards (greeting cards) to pay New Year greetings was very popular among the people. Wen Zhengming, a poet of the Ming Dynasty, wrote in his poem "New Year's Greetings": "I don't ask for a meeting, but for a visit, and the house is full of famous papers. I also throw in a few papers with others, and the love of the world is not too empty." It can be seen that the Spring Festival New Year greetings are like this. A spot.

In the early Qing Dynasty, it was still called "Tou Ci" according to the old practice of Song Dynasty, and among the people, it was commonly known as "New Year greeting card". During the Kangxi period, the name of "posting" was changed to "red slip", which means writing someone's congratulations on a red paper and delivering it to a friend's house.

There are records saying that during the New Year celebrations in the Qing Dynasty, people "sent their servants to Qi Ruoyou's home to throw themselves in red." This custom of sending "red slips" for New Year greetings without the need for the host and guest to meet each other is also called "flying invitations" and is very popular in civil society. In order to adapt to this kind of "flying invitations", ordinary people often "stick a red paper bag on the door to receive the invitations", so that the "red list" sent for New Year's greetings can be put into the red paper bag pasted on the door. Some of our homes today hang a paper letter slot on their door, which is a legacy of the "red paper bag" used to receive letters.

The servant who is sent to "throw a spear" can put the master's "thorn" into the opponent's paper bag and walk away without having to meet a friend who may not even be known to the master. . "Gen Zhai Miscellaneous Notes" written by the Qing Dynasty said: "No matter whether you know it or not, you just look at the door and post a post. The host and guest do not meet each other, just register." Customs, popular among ordinary scholars and common people, seem to be frivolous, cold, and impersonal, but in fact they are not. They rely on people's true feelings to improve interpersonal relationships. No wonder the poet Fan Laizong wrote in his "New Year's Greetings": "We are greeting each other and hearing about the change of the year, and we have never known each other but also care about emotions. The new born is stabbed in the arms, and the name is left in the book after flying at noon. The Taoist priests and Zen masters are expelled together, and the houses in the east and west are full. I can still remember the old dreams of Chunming. Traveling all over the inner and outer cities of the wheel." This custom of using New Year's cards instead of visiting people to pay New Year greetings came into being. It not only saves time, but also saves the need for giving gifts and socializing, so it continues to flourish.

The late Qing Dynasty and the early Republic of China were an era of great changes, and the practice of "group worship" emerged in society. For the group people working in government agencies, organizations, and industrial and commercial enterprises, it is the need and call of the times to pay New Year greetings in the form of group worship at the beginning of the year to enhance friendship, deepen emotions, strengthen cohesion, and stabilize society. (Liu Xicheng)

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