Entering ChinaThe emperor was the supreme ruler of the feudal period, with an aura of supremacy and the majesty of a king. While enjoying the supreme authority, the emperor is also an ordinary person, inseparable from seven emotions and six desires, joys, sorrows, and sorrows. Since the beginning of the Tang Dynasty, the emperor’s birthday has gradually been taken seriously, and it has become a small blessing in the emperor’s daily life.
Before the Wei and Jin dynasties, the people did not pay attention to birthdays. According to the “Book of Rites and Internal Rules”, during the Zhou Dynasty, “the children were born, the men were set on the left side of the door, and the women were set on the right side of the door.” That is to say, when giving birth to a boy, the parents will hang a bow on the left side of the door, and the girl will hang a scarf on the right side of the door. Birthdays are nothing more than that, and there is no presence at all.
During the Northern and Southern Dynasties, the wealthy families in the south of the Yangtze River gradually had an atmosphere of celebrating their birthdays. “Yan’s Family Motto: Wind Exercises” mentions the birthday party at that time. When a boy is one year old, he first holds a “tryout” ceremony, which is similar to an activity of “catching the week”, and then “gathers in person and enjoys a feast”, at which time the birthday has begun to take shape.
How did ancient emperors celebrate their “birthdays”?
The custom of celebrating birthdays gradually affected the royal family from the bottom up. In the third year of Renshou (603 AD), Emperor Wen of Sui Emperor Yang Jian issued an edict: “June 13 is my birthday, and it is advisable to order the sea to be slaughtered for Emperor Wuyuan and Empress Yuanming.” It means that on the birthday of Emperor Wen of Sui, killing is prohibited in the whole country, and he eats vegetarian food for a day to repay his parents for their nurturing grace.
At the beginning of the Tang Dynasty, Li Shimin, Taizong of the Tang Dynasty, set his birthday as the “Birthday Festival”, and the emperor’s birthday with personal colors was upgraded to an important festival at the national level and became a system. One year, Tang Taizong celebrated his birthday, and he said to his brother-in-law, the eldest grandson Wuji: “Today is my birthday, and the vulgar cloud ‘birthday is joyful’, and I think about it with my feelings!” After speaking, I had mixed feelings and burst into tears.
Tang Taizong is a nostalgic person and has special feelings for his birthplace, Qingshan Palace. In September of the sixth year of Zhenguan (632) and November of the sixteenth year of Zhenguan (642), he came to Qingshan Palace twice, leaving two poems, “Lucky Martial Arts Qingshan Palace” and “Heavy Luck Martial Arts”, expressing his nostalgia for his birthplace. Although there is no mention of birthdays, it can be seen that he attaches great importance to birthdays.
Following Taizong of the Tang Dynasty, Xuanzong Li Longji of the Tang Dynasty once again expanded the influence of Shou Dan. On the fifth day of August in the seventeenth year of Kaiyuan (729 AD), Tang Xuanzong held a birthday banquet in the calyx building, “please take August 5 every year as the Thousand Autumn Festival, and the prince will offer a golden mirror and a pouch.”
The Calyx Tower, where Xuanzong of the Tang Dynasty held his banquet, was located in the Xingqing Palace, which was the center of state-level diplomacy and catering in the Tang Dynasty. It is the main entertainment venue of Tang Xuanzong and Yang Guifei, and has the reputation of “the first building in the world”. The right prime minister Xue Yao, the left prime minister Zhang Shuo and others played, taking the meaning of “thousands of generations”, and requested that the fifth day of the eighth month be designated as the “Thousand Autumn Festival” to celebrate the emperor’s birthday.
Tang Xuanzong liked this proposal very much, “The order of the book is distributed all over the world.” The edict stipulates that the fifth day of August every year is the Thousand Autumn Festival, “all the states of the world are feasting and enjoying themselves, and they are on vacation for three days”, so far, the emperor’s birthday has become a national festival, and the government and the opposition have a three-day holiday, and the whole country celebrates together. It can be said that the emergence of the Qianqiu Festival broke the tradition and became the “National Day” in the feudal imperial system.
During the Thousand Autumn Festival, “at that time, Jin Wu and the soldiers of the Fourth Army stood in battle; too permanent music; Teaching the big Chen mountain car, dry boat, rope, pill sword, acrobatics, horns, hundreds of operas, and led hundreds of elephants, rhinos, and dancing horses to enter the play. “The whole country pays tribute to the Thousand Autumn Festival in various forms.
In order to celebrate his birthday, Tang Jiaofang specially composed the music “Thousand Autumn Music”. The Tang Dynasty poet Zhang Hu wrote “A Thousand Autumn Music”, a poem: “In August, the calyx floor is usually played, and all directions play the same music for a thousand autumns.” The people of Allure looked at the long rod and became a trick to relieve Zhao’s sorrows. “Reading through the whole poem, I feel like I’m in the middle of it. In the late Tang Dynasty, “Qianqiu Music” became one of the tones of the lyrics. Su Shi, Qin Guan, Huang Tingjian, Fan Chengda and others all have “Thousand Autumn Music” handed down.
Influenced by the Tang Dynasty, the birthday of the emperor of the Song Dynasty became an important ceremonial system. The emperor’s birthday has different names such as “Changchun Festival”, “Qianming Festival”, “Shouning Festival”, “Chengtian Festival”, “Qianyuan Festival”, etc., which are still essentially birthdays for the emperor. On this day, the whole world celebrates, lively and extraordinary, and the scene is grand.
Unlike the Tang Dynasty, the Song emperors paid equal attention to the birthdays of their ministers. On his birthday, the minister has to hold a banquet to celebrate, and the person concerned has to eat noodles in public to wish for a long life. The emperor would also give various rewards such as rice, wine, and meat on the birthdays of his ministers. In the fifth year of Dazhong Xiangfu (1012 AD), the prime minister Wang Dan’s birthday, Song Zhenzong gave “30 sheep, 50 pots of wine, 20 rice noodles each, will be all teachers for the Beijing Mansion, with the music of the ya, Xu banquet for his relatives and friends.”
On this basis, the emperor would also send special personnel to the minister’s mansion to read the edict and announce the gifts, forming an oral propaganda system with the characteristics of the Song Dynasty. Ouyang Xiu, Wang Anshi and others left a large number of “Internal Oral Propaganda” texts, and the writer Su Shi drafted a birthday edict for twelve important ministers of the imperial court on behalf of the emperor within four years. The oral propaganda system reflected the Song Dynasty emperor’s favor for important officials in the court.
The tradition of birthday in the Central Plains has also had an impact on ethnic minorities. During the Jin Dynasty, “the edict takes the birthday as the day of longevity.” According to the “History of the Yuan”: “On the birthday of the Emperor in August, it is called the Tianshou Holy Day.” “The birthday of the emperor of the minority is no worse than that of the Central Plains in terms of scene and liveliness. The ministers of the Yuan Dynasty even used “hundreds of millions of longevity” as a congratulatory message, such an exaggerated performance, which can be called emoji-level.
Unlike other emperors who sang and danced on their birthdays, Zhu Qizhen’s birthday was extremely special. In August of the fourteenth year of orthodoxy (1449 AD), Zhu Qizhen, at the instigation of the eunuch Wang Zhen, drove his own expedition and was attacked by the Mongol Warat at Tumubao, and was defeated and captured. Warat gave Zhu Qizhen preferential treatment.
On November 21, which coincided with Zhu Qizhen’s birthday, Wara killed a horse for him, and everyone feasted and drank, singing and dancing. Warat was worried that Zhu Qi would not be used to living in yurts, so he specially built a tent for him. It’s hard to imagine an opponent celebrating his birthday, and it’s unique in history. “People love each other, and flowers bloom” is not groundless.
The birthday of the emperor of the Qing Dynasty is called “Wanshou Festival”, which means “longevity without borders”. Before the Wanshou Festival, Baiguan prepares birthday gifts around the themes of blessing, longevity, and auspiciousness, including jade, wood carving, porcelain, jewelry, gold ornaments and other handicrafts. On the day of the Longevity Festival, hundreds of officials presented birthday gifts and congratulated the emperor on his birthday in the Forbidden City.
At the end of the birthday celebration, the emperor feasted hundreds of officials. There are 20 hot dishes, 20 cold dishes, 4 soups, 4 side dishes, 4 fresh fruits, 28 candied melons and fruits, and 29 pasta dishes of various colors, totaling 109 dishes. Dishes include meats such as pigs, deer, sheep, chickens, ducks, and fish, supplemented by mountain delicacies such as mushrooms, bird’s nests, and fungus. The birthday banquet is set up at noon, does not start at the time, and ends at the end of the Shen time, which lasts for four hours.
In the twentieth year of Guangxu (1894 AD), the actual controller of the late Qing Dynasty, the Empress Dowager Cixi, celebrated her 60th birthday. As the general director of the celebration, Prince Li planned to spend 30 million taels of silver to celebrate Cixi’s birthday. In addition to the new decoration of the Forbidden City and the Summer Palace, it is also planned to build scripture altars, theaters, color halls, and archways on the road from Xihua Gate to the Summer Palace for dozens of miles, organize monks to chant scriptures, and troupes to perform to set off the atmosphere.
In July of that year, the Sino-Japanese First Sino-Japanese Naval War broke out, and the Beiyang Naval Division was annihilated. The defeat in the war caused Cixi to lose face and be depressed. On September 25, she ordered the cancellation of celebrations at the Summer Palace and celebrations along the road. On November 7, Cixi’s birthday banquet was hastily held in Ningshou Palace and ended gloomily.
