The emperor often used an umbrella when traveling, and it became a romantic prop in the Song Dynasty.

The emperor travels with an umbrella, just like the current leader by car. Why did the ancient emperor take an umbrella when traveling? First of all, the Emperor is the Ninth Five-Year Plan. Always need to be protected. However, this is a superficial understanding, and there are historical reasons behind the emperor's trip to open an umbrella. Let's have a look.

The ancient and modern annotations of the Western Jin Dynasty recorded that "the canopy was made by the Yellow Emperor" and "there are flowers like flowers".

Speaking of umbrellas, there is a popular two-part allegorical saying "Monks in the 33354 movement can't play umbrellas". Why is there such a statement? Apart from objectively speaking, monks don't keep their hair, but use umbrellas to cover the sky. That's because of the ancient regulations of using umbrellas, including monks. Umbrella, known as the "canopy" in China, was once a royal gift from the emperor and nobles of China.

The emergence of this system has a lot to do with a legend. There is a sentence in Gai Hua written by Xi Cuibao in ancient and modern times: "The Yellow Emperor did Gai Hua. In the field of Zhuolu, there are often five-color clouds, golden branches and jade leaves, and the emperor is the end. There is a flower image, so it is a canopy. "

The "canopy" mentioned in the book is actually an umbrella-shaped auspicious cloud. The umbrella-shaped five-color Xiangyun is considered as a god, protecting the Yellow Emperor, the ancestor of Chinese humanities. Because of this legend, later feudal emperors traveled by caravan as emperors, and similar umbrellas such as Cuigai, Zhigai, Fenggai, Heigai and Luogai were also exclusive umbrellas for nobles. But the word "umbrella" did not appear until the pre-Qin period, when umbrellas were often called "covers".

The umbrella used by the emperor is not only auspicious, but also a symbol of imperial power, representing the shade of the people all over the world. The superstition of the emperor's umbrella is also related to the legend of Yu Shun. According to records, Yu Shun was the eighth grandson of the Yellow Emperor. His father is blind and is called "Gu Sou". After Yu Shun's mother died, she remarried and gave birth to a son. Gu Sou likes elephants and wants to burn Yu Shun. "Shunnai's two hats came down and didn't die."

Yu Shun escaped from the fire with his hat. What kind of hat is this? Some are translated into hats, but they are not. The hat to help Yu Shun escape should be a kind of rain gear called dng. Xu Shen in the Eastern Han Dynasty noted "Ancient and Modern": "Dan, Dai Gai also." It means this is a hat with a handle, not an umbrella.

Duan Yucai, an exegetist in Qing Dynasty, commented on this: "A hat with a handle like a cover is today's rain." There is also an ancient word "fu" in the note, which is pronounced as m: n. According to the biographies of the five emperors in the official dictionary of the Song Dynasty, fu also wrote "umbrella", which is a traditional form of modern "umbrella".

What are the special rules for using umbrellas in past dynasties?

The emperor used "yellow umbrella", "three public officials and nine ministers" and a black umbrella "soap cover" when traveling.

The "canopy" used by the emperor is not only round, but also square, also called "square umbrella"

The imperial umbrella is very particular about making and using materials. He said: "The satin is extremely red and purple, all five feet square, and there is no embroidery. The bronze dragon head with four corners, colorful tassels, straight handles and top handles are all Kowloon curved covers. "

There are strict regulations on the use of umbrellas in past dynasties. The material, color and size of the umbrella, like the black veil worn on the head and the royal dress worn on the body, should be distinguished from the size of the official position and the status of the superiors and subordinates.

The first "towel cart" stipulated that the cars of the king and queen should be covered with "feather covers", that is, umbrellas decorated with beautiful bird feathers. The Han dynasty stipulated that more than 2,000 stones of "three public officials and nine officials" could be covered with "soap", that is, black umbrellas.

In the Northern and Southern Dynasties, it was stipulated to use official umbrellas, and emperors and nobles used "Luo umbrellas" for travel; The umbrellas used by the emperor are all yellow, commonly known as "pholiota adiposa".

The umbrellas used by emperors in Song Dynasty were red and yellow, and those used by courtiers were blue. When Song Zhenzong was in power, the system of international units was banned.

Why did the royal family in Song Dynasty emphasize the use of red and yellow umbrellas? Gao Cheng said that Wen Jiezi explained it this way: "Now children use red and yellow, and ordinary people use green. Its son of heaven is Huang, which was built by Huang in Qin and Han Dynasties. " "Huang Wu Sitting Pavilion" is the special car of the emperor in Qin and Han Dynasties, and the umbrella cover is made of yellow ribbon.

In the Ming Dynasty, county officials were qualified to use "green umbrellas". Although Zhu Yuanzhang, the emperor of the Ming Dynasty, was born in poverty, he was hierarchical after he proclaimed himself emperor. He once ordered people to ban the use of "silk umbrellas" made of fine silk.

The green umbrella was once the pursuit of the Ming Dynasty officialdom. The Green Umbrella, the first chapter of Ming history, recorded a cold joke that happened at that time: a man named Liu Ziyi fell ill because he was not promoted and reused. A colleague came to visit him, and he called himself "a fever attack". Audience Shi joked: "Just eat a bean jelly." The cool homonym "Green Umbrella" is a pun.

When did the umbrella enter the homes of ordinary people?

In the Northern Song Dynasty, umbrellas became romantic props. "Two Chen Guangcheng Wikileaks walked together with umbrellas." .

Umbrella was a valuable tool in the pre-Qin period, and Confucius was embarrassed because he didn't have an umbrella. According to "Map of Qing Dynasty Weifang Umbrella", "Confucius can do it, and it rains all over the world." As a famous scholar at that time, he didn't even have an umbrella. His teacher suggested that Confucius borrow an umbrella from his disciple Shang Bo, but Confucius refused because Xia Zi was very stingy.

In the era when umbrellas were not popular, what did the ancients use to shelter from the wind and rain? Take more rain gear, such as coconut shells and hats. Zhou Lichun's poem "Retire in the Spring": "When your shepherd comes to think about it, you can't wait." It can be seen that in the pre-Qin period, people went out to graze for rain protection, bringing hemp fibers and hats.

Until the Tang and Song Dynasties, coconut clothes and coconut hats were still the main items used by the ancients to shelter from the wind and rain. Liu Zongyuan's famous poem "A boat with a leaf in it, an old fisherman with a bamboo coat is cold and snowy" tells that Liu Zongyuan, who was demoted to Yongzhou that year, saw a fisherman from Dai Li fishing by the river on a snowy day. Su Shi's sarcastic advice also said: "You will be wearing a green hat, accompanied by green hemp fibers everywhere." Judging from Su Shi's poems, the material for making hats is not only bamboo, but also the so-called "hat" made of cattail.

In the Tang Dynasty, folk umbrellas were gradually released, but only paper umbrellas could be used. Making paper umbrellas has become a new folk handicraft industry. One of the nicknames of umbrellas, "Monkey", comes from making umbrellas.

According to the records of Confucius' thought in the Song Dynasty, in the Southern Tang Dynasty, there was a man named Wang who took an umbrella as his occupation. He was poor in his early years, but later he became rich and expensive. Li Yu, the last emperor of the Southern Tang Dynasty, asked him how he developed. Zhou said that in order to have food, he made two umbrellas to sell every day, which is the so-called "I am eager for rice and salt and make two umbrellas every day". It's cloudy and umbrellas sell well. Slowly, life got better. Li Yu listened and said, "I didn't get rich with Qing, but I started my life with the support of Gao Minhou." It means that I didn't promote you to get rich, but the umbrella made you rich.

The paper used to make folk umbrellas is not ordinary paper, but a kind of "oily paper", that is, thick paper coated with waterproof grease. Other nicknames such as "oil cover" and "oil umbrella" all come from the use of oil paper. Chen Shidao in Song Dynasty mentioned this kind of umbrella in his poem Xiaoya: "When you borrow the oil cover from your neighbor, you will know that you are the most idle person."

The level of folk umbrella-making in Song Dynasty was very high, and it became a unique craft in Ming Dynasty. In the Ming dynasty, "small leather paper" was widely used for paper umbrellas. This kind of paper was specifically mentioned in the papermaking leather of Song Wuyang in the Ming Dynasty: "Furong and other tanners call it small leather paper, and in Jiangxi it is called medium leather paper. All umbrellas and oil fans are wrapped in small paper. " At that time, the most popular paper umbrella was an umbrella made of green oil paper, also called "green umbrella". such

Who invented the umbrella? So far, there is no conclusion. In the past, from the analysis of ancestors and industry gods worshipped by the umbrella industry, there are at least the following three statements.

First of all, the umbrella was invented by Lu Ban's wife, Yun Shi. At that time, Lu Ban was working outside, and Marble often sent meals to her husband. When she saw Lu Ban and craftsmen working hard in the rain, she thought she should have a shelter from the rain. Inspired by the roof built by her husband, she picked up the rattan and knitted it into a big hat, thus inventing the umbrella. The name of Yun is honored as the founder of the umbrella industry.

This legend can be found in The Fisherman of Jiang Xue. The original text is: "Its Shu and Yun's family are a godsend. The artifacts it makes are hard to enumerate. Compared with the teacher, it is almost good, and it is praised both inside and outside, so fame is immortal. " As far as we can remember, Lu Ban's wife has many inventions, which are more powerful than Lu Ban's, but it is obviously nonsense to call her inventions a "godsend".

In another version, the umbrella was invented by Luban's teacher and mother. In order to facilitate people to go out for shelter from the rain, Lu Ban's disciples once built a "rest pavilion" every ten miles. Teacher Lu said that pavilions can rest, but people can't leave. So she began to use bamboo as a skeleton, tied it into a small pavilion, made a walking "pavilion", and the umbrella appeared.

In addition, some people say that Nu Wa invented the umbrella. Or this is directly related to the myth that Nu Wa made five-color stones to fill the sky. Umbrellamakers regard rain as a "sky leak", and making umbrellas is like mending the sky. Probably for this reason, Nu Wa is regarded as the god of the umbrella industry.

In fact, umbrellas appeared in ancient times. Gao Chengqing quoted Fu Qian of the Eastern Han Dynasty as saying: "Jaco is sheltered from the wind and rain, which is called shelter from the wind and rain. It used three generations of umbrellas. "