What is the fun of playing with tiles?

The ancients called the birth of boys "the joy of playing with Zhang" and the birth of girls "the joy of playing with tiles". The Book of Songs Xiaoya Sigan was first published. "It's a boy, sleeping in bed, clothes, taking off Zhang ... it's a girl, sleeping in bed, taking off tiles ...", Zhang Zhiyuzhang, an ancient ritual vessel, looks like a GUI, and Gui is half a Zhang. Taking an examination of "here" means giving Zhang to boys to play with, hoping to become a great man and a real gentleman in the future (because of its moist jade, it is often compared with benevolence). The "tile" that makes fun of the tile is not the tile we are talking about now, but a spindle specially made of soil. The original meaning of tile is the general name of pottery burning, hieroglyphics. Here, it is extended to spinning tools. It means: give birth to a girl, let her sleep on the ground, put on underwear, let her play with spinning tools, and hope that when she grows up, she will be able to spin, do housework and be a virtuous and gentle woman.

Yu Zhang

Some people say that letting boys sleep on the bed and play with jade cockroaches values men, while letting girls sleep on the ground and play with spinning tools is a patriarchal idea. Actually, it's not like this. In ancient China, farming culture dominated, with men plowing and women weaving. In addition to military service, men also do farm work in the fields. Men are outside and women are inside. Zhou people paid great attention to ceremonies, congratulated others on having children, and distinguished men and women with "Zhang" and "Wa" without discrimination. If there is, it will be later. Nongzhang's "exultation" is obviously different from Xiao Xi's "playing with tiles".

Spinning wheel diagram

As we know, The Book of Songs has three expressions: Fu, Bi and Xing. Here, Zhang and Wa are used to represent the gender of men and women, which is a metaphor. Use the special meanings of "Zhang" and "Wa" to express congratulations on people's blessings. Understand these, and naturally you won't make jokes. Su Xun's wife gave birth to two girls in succession, and her friend Liu Ji invited her to congratulate her. After getting drunk, she quipped, "Last year, I was invited to tile, and this year, I was invited to tile." Bring it here, bring it here, make tiles. Is Zheng Ling (referring to Sue's wife) a brick kiln worker? In Shuo Wen Jie Zi, the word "play" means play. There are two interpretations of tile, one is the brick for pressing lines, and the other is the spindle. Either way, it has something to do with textiles.

Liu Ji's teasing of Su Xun was just a booze and embarrassing, but Li played a big joke on his grandson. It turned out that he wrote an "anniversary celebration" in his congratulatory message. It doesn't matter if the word "Zhang" is written as "Fu". The former refers to jade, while the latter refers to animals such as deer. It is quite different from the original intention of the congratulatory message. It has attracted many people's ridicule and humiliation. This is a concrete manifestation of ignorance. It seems that reading more books is good.

Li portrait