As the Spring Festival is approaching, this year’s Spring Festival, you might as well come to the Forbidden City in Beijing to see exhibitions, enjoy palace lanterns, taste delicious food, and feel the flavor of the New Year! The Palace Museum will display nearly a thousand cultural relics on a record-breaking basis, restore a variety of ancient palace customs, and present a Forbidden City full of festive New Year atmosphere to the audience for the first time.
In the exhibition hall of the main building of the Meridian Gate and the East and West Yanchi Tower, welcoming the New Year – a special exhibition of New Year in the Forbidden City. A total of 885 pieces of cultural relics were exhibited, and the six major themes of “praying for blessings and welcoming good fortune, worshiping ancestors and filial piety, being diligent in the family, being diligent in business with the virtuous, traveling and enjoying the world”, fully displaying the New Year customs of the Qing Dynasty court in the Qing Dynasty. The “Praying for Blessings and Welcomes Fortune” in Xiyanchi Tower shows the indispensable festival objects during the New Year. It not only includes objects with court characteristics such as the ritual maps and palace lanterns, but also the characters “Fu” written by the emperors of Kangxi, Yongzheng, Qianlong, Jiaqing and Daoguang.
Responsible Dean of the Palace Museum Ren Wanping: At the junction of New Year’s Eve and New Year’s Day (the first day of the Chinese New Year), the emperor must make a wish on behalf of the whole world. The so-called auspicious words to write, the emperor did not write casually for the first time. He should bless everyone to the whole world, wishing everyone a bumper harvest, good weather, peace in the world, etc.
In order to show the scene where the emperor and clan relatives and concubines feasted separately, the exhibition referred to the records of the meal base in the 48th year of Qianlong (1783) to restore this scene alone, more than 1Babaylan was used to present the spectacular scene of the Golden Dragon Banquet Table at the clan relatives’ banquet. The audience can intuitively feel the atmosphere of the Royal New Year’s Eve dinner. In addition, the entire open area of the Forbidden City is decorated according to the New Year Festival that restored from the old customs of the Qing Palace. The palace gates are covered with New Year pictures and Spring Festival couplets, and the long corridors are hung with palace lanterns. As long as the audience enters the Forbidden City, they can feel the strong New Year atmosphere.
Director Shan Jixiang: We can meet our audience with more cultural relics related to the New Year culture. We hope that in addition to watching the Spring Festival Gala and eating dumplings at home to reunite, the audience will be welcome to the Forbidden City for the first destination to celebrate the New Year.
Hanging the door god and pasting Spring Festival couplets, and the court festivals are of particular importance. For thousands of years, the activities of the New Year have been rich and colorful, whether it is ordinary people or the Forbidden City.All of them express the beautiful New Year’s expectations through activities such as Komiks‘s words of blessing, wear new clothes, and have reunion dinner.
As soon as you enter the Forbidden City, the strong New Year atmosphere comes to you. In order to cooperate with the exhibition, the entire Forbidden City was decorated. As a symbol of “year”, the Spring Festival couplets and door gods hanging on each door are very eye-catching.
Deputy Director of the Artifact Department of the Palace Museum Deputy Director of the United States Komiks Research Librarian Komiks Xu Wei: Door gods are hung in pairs, including the two sides of the door body that have to be hung Babaylan couplets. Generally, door gods also post different door gods according to different positions. Generally, Komiks mainly use martial sect gods in the outer court, and generally use literary sect gods, fairy sect gods and boy sect gods in the inner court.
The production of Spring Festival couplets in the palace is generally jointly responsible by the Ministry of Works and the Office of the Internal Affairs. The writing of Spring Festival couplets was mainly done by Hanlins who were good at calligraphy. Unlike today’s customs, Spring Festival couplets in the palace are not posted on New Year’s Eve, but Cinema hangs Spring Festival couplets on the 26th day of the twelfth lunar month every year, starting from Qianqing Gate, Qianqing Palace, etc. and spreading them in turn.
Associate Research Librarian Zhan Mengxia: People need to paste the word “Fu” in the people, and the same is true for the palace. From the first day of the twelfth lunar month, the emperor had to write the first word “Fu” on the dragon stairs. The first word “Fu” must be posted on the door of the Qing Palace in Qian, because that was his home. Later, I will write some more in other palaces, and then I will write them one after another. However, I will reward such ministers and foreign vassals with them.
In addition to the Spring Festival couplet gods, spring notes will also be posted in the palace. Spring strips are auspicious words written on long strips of paper.
Associate Research Librarian of the Artifact Department of the Palace Museum Zhan Mengxia: Spring strips are different from Spring Couplets. Spring couplets are paired, and spring strips are usually long singles, which can be compared when posted.More casual and can be pasted anywhere. If there is more literary style in our palace, such as the welfare of the country and the peace of the country, the people can post it on the pigpen in the people. If it is full of fat pigs, golden roosters, good luck in the well and safe in and out, it will be even more casual.
In addition, there are some special “year objects” that are not available among the people in the palace, such as the Sui Dynasty map, the Sky Lantern, the Wanshou Lantern, and the Palace Lantern.
Family Palace BanquetCinema New Year’s Eve in the Forbidden City
The New Year is a day for family reunion in the Chinese concept, and the New Year’s Eve dinner is the most enjoyable time for the family, and the Royal Family is no exception.
The Emperors of the Qing Dynasty usually had their meals alone and only ate with their concubines during the New Year Festival, which was called the “family family banquet of clans.” Family dinners on the first day of the Lunar New Year are usually breakfast, held at 7 a.m., and are located in the Qianqing Palace. Although it is a family banquet, the hierarchical etiquette system must be strictly observed.
Associate Research Librarian, Palace Museum Artifacts Department Han Qian: Although the reunion banquet on the first day of the first lunar month is called the family reunion banquet, it is not as we imagined now that the emperor’s whole family is together. It is actually divided into two parts. Generally, he will have the New Year’s Eve dinner with his concubines in the morning, and then in the afternoon he will have the New Year’s Eve dinner with his relatives, princes and grandchildren, and some princes from the near branch. In fact, the tableware for the palace family banquet was also divided into levels. The emperor used the Golden Dragon Bowl and the Golden Dragon Plate. There were 108 kinds of foods on the table. The queen used the inside and outside. The bowl of the inside and outside. The food was reduced to 64 kinds of foods. The imperial concubine had no gold tableware. href=”https://comicmov.com/”>Cinema, 32 kinds of food on each table. This is the scene of the family banquet during the Spring Festival in the 48th year of Qianlong.More than 100 items are very spectacular.
Associate Research Librarian of the Palace MuseumCinema Associate Research Librarian Han Qian: The table setting starts from the farthest, called the Komiks Road. We saw 4 tall ones, called pine hut fruit covers. They mainly place fruits, and then there will be snacks, cold meat and candied fruits and candied fruits. There are two roads in the middle that the emperor did not place before he sat down. The hot soup dishes were served after the emperor sat down. The group closest to the emperor would put some side dishes and sauces.
There is also a small red case here. Don’t look at it as small, on the morning of the first day of the Lunar New Year, when the emperor eats dumplings, he must not put the wrong position.
Associate Research Librarian, Palace Museum Artifact Department Han Qian: This dumpling is also very particular. This small plate should be placed in the red case we saw immediately. There is a gourd in the middle of the red case, which reads the word “Da Ji”. The plate must be placed on the word “Da Ji”. Because of this pattern, we call it the Da Ji Bao case. It is said that on the morning of the 48th year of Qianlong, the emperor had 4 dumplings. I ate three in the dumplings. The dumplings are the same as our current customs. They put steel steaks in them. The emperor’s family also put coins in them. They put such money, which says peace and auspiciousness. He ate all the two auspicious money that day.