The origin of midnight idioms

Now the word "midnight" means that the night is already deep or it is already late. But in the Song Dynasty, the word "midnight" originated from two people, one was "midnight" Chen Xiangyu and the other was "midnight" Dong Yan. They are all celebrities in Song Taizong.

Zhao Chang's story in The History of Song Dynasty: "Four people (Chen Xiangyu, Hu Dan, Dong Yan and Liang Hao) talk about it every day. Said:' Chen Sange, Dong midnight'. " It is said that in the period, Chen Xiangyu, Hu Dan, Dong Yanyan, Liang Hao, Zhao and others were like-minded, inseparable, and often gathered in the Zhao family to chat late into the night, but they could not bear to disperse. At that time, people nicknamed it "Chen Sange" and Dong Yanyan called it "Dong midnight". This is the origin of the word "midnight".

Say "clock" during the day.

The ancients called midnight "midnight" and "midnight", which also came from ancient timing habits.

The ancients timed time and called it day and night differently. It is called "clock" during the day and "watch" or "drum" at night. This can also be seen from the bell tower and drum tower left by the ancients. In ancient towns, there were bell towers and drum towers. In the morning, the bell rang to tell the time, so it was called "what time" during the day. The ancients divided the night into five classes, which means "one night lasts for two years, and five classes are divided into two years" on New Year's Eve.

The night watchman knocks the bangzi to tell the time, so it is called "more" at night; In some places, drums are used to tell the time, so the evening time is also called "drums". The so-called "several watch days" or "several drum days" all mean this. The so-called "morning bell and evening drum" also originated here.

"A Dream of Red Mansions" said in the Lantern Festival chapter of the Grand View Garden: "It's not two drums the day before yesterday, but eight plays of eight meanings' watching lights'; In the middle of the night, Grandmother Jia listened to "Phoenix Begging for Luan"; At four o'clock, Xifeng's joke was finished, and the Lantern Festival was finally' the deaf set off firecrackers-scattered'. " This is the most obvious example of the usage of "Geng" and "Drum".

The ancients moved from 19 to 2 1 now; Second, 2 1 to 23 o'clock; The third shift is from 23: 00 to 65438+ 0: 00 am; Fourth, 1 to 3 o'clock; It's 3 to 5. At midnight, it is also the coldest time at night, so the old lady said, "It's strange to be soaked with cold." . The Lantern Festival in Jiafu is at four o'clock, about three o'clock in the morning. It can be seen that the Lantern Festival in Jiafu is very lively.

Related to the song dynasty

"Midnight" can become a common saying, then we have to talk about the nightlife in the Song Dynasty.

Nightlife in Song Dynasty was free and open, and "midnight" was not feasible in Tang Dynasty. Because in the Tang Dynasty, city life was under curfew. The imperial guard order of the Tang Dynasty stipulated that every night when the "Japanese carving" of the yamen was used up, it was necessary to ring "closed drums" 600 times; Every day after three o'clock in the morning, "opening gongs and drums" will ring 400 times. Anyone who walks in the streets of the city after the "closing drum" and before the "opening drum" for no reason violates the law of "breaking the night" and needs to slap twenty times. By the early Song Dynasty, all these laws were abolished and the curfew was completely lifted. Song people can live their favorite nightlife all night. "Liangyuan romantic singing and dancing, wine is like a knife. I remember how happy a teenager was, and Fan Lou was brightly lit at night. " All these have created good objective conditions for the birth of the word "midnight".

Also, we now say that time is the "point" of "what time", which also comes from the ancient "multi" In order to divide the time more finely, the ancients divided Geng Yi into five "points", and one "point" is about 24 minutes now. Of course, this "point" does not mean "small". The "point" here is an ancient musical instrument, shaped like a small bronze bell, with a bulge in the middle and holes on both sides. The watchman tied the "dot" to his hand with a rope and hit the "dot" with his hand when telling the time. After a long time, "point" becomes a unit of time. Now the word "point" also comes from here.

From the above, we can see that every Chinese idiom has its own historical background. Without the prosperity of economy and the opening of nightlife in Song Dynasty, there would be no "midnight" today.