Rebirth of Lucky Wife

In the Wei Dynasty, when worshiping ancestors, they had to hold plowing ceremonies.

According to the favorable weather, location, and four factors, the Qin Tianjian selected an auspicious day in April after the Waking of Insects. On this day, the Queen and the civil and military officials of the Manchu Dynasty would leave the palace and go south to the Xiannong Altar, the royal field, on the outskirts of Beijing to welcome the gods. , played music, offered incense, and led the officials to kneel three times and kowtow nine times to show respect to Xiannong.After the ceremony, he rested for a while, dressed in mulberry cloth and linen clothes, and started farming by himself.

The spring plowing ceremony took a whole day. On that day, Emperor Mingguang got up at Yinshi (three o'clock in the morning) to wash and change clothes. The concubines in the harem also had to make up according to the style. All the officials gathered in front of the palace; at Maozheng (45:[-] a.m.), Emperor Mingguang would set off on time with his concubines and former ministers, and would arrive at Xiannongtan ([-]:[-] a.m.) at Maozheng ([-]:[-] a.m.) to tidy up In Houchenzhong ([-] a.m.), the spring plowing ceremony officially begins - the sacrifice to welcome Houji, the god of agriculture.

The ancients attached great importance to spring plowing. This is related to the fact that the ancient society was an agricultural development society-most people in the folk were self-sufficient and relied on cultivating fields to obtain income to achieve food and clothing.

After the sacrifice to the God of Agriculture came to an end, the climax of the spring plowing ceremony began - the emperor's farming.At this time, the emperor and ministers would first retire and change into linen and mulberry clothes before going to the fields where they were farming.The Ministry of Rites will early find a royal field with fertile land and a good view, and mark a certain range. The emperor will stand in the field, and the princes and ministers who accompany the farming will stand behind him according to their positions.The Secretary of the Ministry of Revenue holds a plow (the most primitive plow, which is very different from today's), and the governor of Shuntian Prefecture holds a cattle whip to lead the cattle.

In the spring plowing in the previous dynasty, the emperor held the grass with his hands and pushed it only symbolically three times. Then the Prime Minister of Shuntian Prefecture held a box of seeds and the Minister of Household Affairs sown them. Then he found a few strong farmers in the countryside and had to be old. For the big ones, the farming followed, that is, the hard work was still done by the farmers, and the emperor's spring plowing was just a formality.

Then, the emperor took his seat at the viewing platform and watched the princes and ministers sowing seeds in turn and saluting.Each of the six departments of Shangshu (officials, households, rituals, soldiers, punishments, and work) has five nominations. Under the Shangshu, there are nine promotions each for the left and right ministers, doctors, principals, and senior officials of the fourth rank and above. Officials of the fourth rank and below and the fifth rank and above sow the seeds. Finally, Thirty old farmers then covered the soil and completed the plowing ceremony - this is a proper formalism.

At the end of the spring plowing, the ritual officials sang, sang and drank, and all the officials paid homage to the emperor. The emperor awarded three ministers and nine ministers - six ministers rewarded them with two plates of pig gizzards, two plates of white meat, and three cups of fine wine. Under the ministers were the left and right ministers, Doctors, chief ministers, and senior officials above the fourth rank will be rewarded with two plates each of fish and meat and a dou of fine wine. Officials below the fourth rank and above the fifth rank will be rewarded with two plates each of large and small steamed cakes and one plate of jujube cake. Each old farmer will also be rewarded with a horse. Cloth - these are equivalent to the souvenirs that employees take home during meetings or team building.After the reward was given, the entire spring plowing ceremony was over. The emperor and his ministers rejoiced together, the ritual music roared, and the emperor returned to the palace.

After the spring plowing ceremony, the royal field will have specially appointed people to guard the sowing. In the golden autumn of September, when the year is full, the harvested grain will be stored in the sacred warehouse of Qin Tianjian for the New Year's Eve sacrifice.

In the previous dynasties, spring plowing was just a formality, but several emperors of the old Wei family may have had an innate advantage and were particularly fond of farming. There was also an imperial field in the imperial garden specifically for the emperor and the prince to cultivate.

In the spring of the second year after Wei Gaozu ascended the throne, he asked the Ministry of Rites to prepare for spring plowing. Because he was the emperor for the first time and had never experienced it, he specifically asked the bachelor at the time about the spring plowing etiquette of the previous dynasty.Later, when I heard about it, it was no wonder that the previous dynasty had beaten him down due to such a process that wasted people and money.Therefore, an order was issued, "The previous dynasty was extravagant and extravagant, and spring plowing rituals wasted the people and money. The Ministry of Rites was immediately reformed." It was said that the Ministry of Rites was rectified, but it was actually a drastic change made by Wei Gaozu himself. He pushed the emperor three times and left, and changed it to equal balance between the emperor and his ministers. A piece of royal land is not over until it is cultivated.Of course, the sacrifices and rewards will be retained, and everyone cannot go back empty-handed after a hard trip.However, the gifts do not vary from person to person. They are all reduced and replaced by a unified distribution of two plates of white meat, two buckets of fine wine, and one plate of jujube cake. The part about old farmers farming has been deleted. There are so many ministers, and they can just do it by themselves. Why bother the people?

By simplifying it in this way, the meaning of the Spring Plowing Ceremony is preserved, and it also has the meaning of admonishing the rich and the rich, and no longer wastes the people's money and money.The order was issued at that time, which was very popular, and the people praised Wei Gaozu's virtue.