Swing developed in ancient times

Sui tang five dynasties

After the tang dynasty, the swing game is very popular, and the time to play the swing was postponed, restored to the northern mountain rong ren, "each to the cold food for", that is, mostly concentrated in the cold food, before and after the tomb-sweeping day. During the tang dynasty, cold food was a national statutory holiday with a maximum of seven days' holiday (see volume 82 "holiday" of the sixth Canon of the tang dynasty). The essay on cold food by wang leng ran, a man of the tang dynasty, is a very vivid illustration: "four hours of luck into a year, eight sections to meet the poor. Autumn precious Yang winter wax, as before the spring "[1]. Official advocacy and public support give the festival a number of distinctive characteristics, outstanding style of the festival activities, the swing is one of them. Cold food, qingming two adjacent, swing will become the typical game of these two sections.

Wang renyu of the five dynasties in "the death of kaiyuan tianbao" : "temple to the cold food festival, race to set up a swing, so that the palace laughter thought feast, the emperor called as a half immortal play, all the people called it. "Cuju passed many times on the birds, and the swing went out of the poplar". Cao song's "the cold eclipse day in zhongling and the same year pei yan li's ancestor zheng jiaoshu idled in the countryside" has "the shadow between the clouds over the swing woman, the sound on the ground cuju son". It can be seen that chang 'an cuju, the capital of the cold food festival in the tang dynasty, was a lively scene of the swing, while du fu's "cuju in ten years will be far away, and the customs of the swing are the same", which shows the popularity of the swing in the whole country.

Although swing is suitable for all ages, the participants are mainly young people, so the image of swing is often associated with youth. Such as "young children swing" (wang jian "swing word"), "color rope aromatic trees grow as sweet, only is from year to year in juvenile" (bai juyi "sick in the rain for two"), and like most women, "good, is every shade of flower girl proudly send swing" (WeiZhuang occur Fu states in the third Chen well outside the drunken songs five "one). There are also many descriptions of swings in the works of scholars in the tang dynasty [2].

During the five dynasties and ten kingdoms, swing games were also recorded. In the southern tang dynasty, feng yansi's "the magpie treads on a branch" has a description of "tearfully asking the flower to spend nothing, and flying into the swing". The most amazing thing about this period was the "water swing". After the Lord of shu meng chang, fei guifei, five dynasties and ten female poet lady huarui's song "palace ci" wrote: "my wife saw the water swing, broke the bead curtain before the temple. The first trophy who won, the right army lost xiaolong ship "(" gong ci", "tang poetry" volume 798).

In the palace of shu, the swinging game on the boat on the water -- "water swing" is very special. However, at this time the specific play of water swing, still lack of records.

(2) song dynasty

In the song dynasty, the activity of "water swing" developed further. In kaifeng, the capital of the northern song dynasty, there are "water swings". Water play begins with the "nine puppets" on a boat with singing music, followed by the "water swing". "Tokyo dream book" volume seven "driving happiness water temple to see the contest for the tin banquet" records that: "there are two picture boat, on the swing...... One person on the swing, will be flat frame, somersault thrown into the water, that is the water swing. It means to place two carved boats in the water, with a high swing at the bow. During the performance, the performers mount themselves on the swings in turn and swing as hard as they can. When the swing was level with the beam of the swing frame, they took off the rope with their hands, jumped into the air with the swing's reverberating power, somersaulted through the air, and plunged into the water. In addition, according to the records of wu zimu's book menglianglu in the southern song dynasty, such acrobatic performances were held at the jinming pool in the capital bianliang in the northern song dynasty, and at the west lake and qiantang river in the capital Lin 'an in the southern song dynasty. Every summer when the water swing show, from the emperor's concubines, princes and ministers, down to the common people, competing to watch. The description of "water swing" here is specific, showing superb skills, some similar to the modern high diving; At the same time, it is the new development of acrobatics in song dynasty, which occupies an important position in the history of Chinese acrobatics and has a great influence on later generations.

After song dynasty, two swings a merger with the third day for an outing on Yu Qingming gradually, but still in their symbolic features, such as Korea 淲 "bodhisattva pretty" : "haitang Xie Mianfei willow. The willows whisk the pedestrians' heads. Shangsi is qingming. Fresh cigarettes with porridge. Light shade curtain cold, idle but swing shadow. Winding water is boundless, beauty is half covered." Qu shui for the sign of si, new smoke, swing is a clear sign.

(3) gold

Yuan haoxan of the jin dynasty wrote in his poem "xinhai hanshi" : "the swing and the shadow of flowers, and in the moon." The swing game was still popular in king's day. Because the folk swing in the tomb-sweeping day, so at the beginning of the yuan dynasty, the court set tomb-sweeping day as the swing festival. "Cold food tomb-sweeping day, the court then festival most richly. Stand up the color rope swing frame, own play cuju swing suit. After that, the swing was generally installed in the palace for the empress, concubines and ladies to play. The folk swing game is also more popular.

In the zaju and sanqu of the yuan dynasty, there are many descriptions of the swing activities: "look at the king cuju and the ladies' swings" (the first folding of shi junbao's qujiang chi); "Spring mountain warm day and the wind, dry house curtain, willow swing courtyard. "(bai pu:" tianjingsha · spring "); "Swing courtyard, visit the day, willow shade hide ying hide yan. Frost - wan handed over half of the poem, afraid to see the flower seller outside the curtain "(zhang kejiu:" falling plum wind · spring love "); "Thin star light moon swing courtyard, clouds hate rain hibiscus surface. Wounded yan foot left red residual, annoying luan shadow idle fan. "(zhang kejiu: sai hong qiu); "See him, ask us, how to forget the original words? East wind remnants dream small window screen, on the cold swing frame. From the pipa, before the lamp play, spring deep home. The multifariousness, the steed, where is the Yang under "(zhang kejiu:" toward heaven · spring think "). Yuan opera writers from the zaju "swing", but unfortunately did not survive in the world. A large number of zaju and sanqu involving the swing play all reflect the popularity and popularity of the swing play in the yuan dynasty from one side.

(4) Ming and qing dynasties

Ming dynasty, "cold food, swing". It shows that swing was still popular in Ming dynasty. Li kaixian wrote in his poem "cold food at the yan ting banquet: objective cuju swing" : "the swing flew over the wall on the spot of the race. I enjoy the local customs, but you are busy "(" li kaixian set cold food yiyanting fete and watching cuju swing"). Li kaixian also wrote a poem called "idling and watching on the swing", which said: "the east to the army, the north to the river, zhuang Ming ditch cliff, qingming day high vertical swing, near the village women gathered among them, give him accidentally, feeling and poetry: color frame beside the river, the girl laugh and song. Light as a bird, swift as a shuttle. Few people in the village, the name of the swing. From the fear of bystanders, shi lu today how." Here is a description of the wild folk although there is no special swing yard, but in the river set up swing, can also be used as a place for entertainment. This description fully shows the resilience and optimism of the Ming people.

The literature of Ming dynasty is also full of records of swinging. Such as Chen bokang's "swing ci" and so on. In addition, the 25th chapter of jin ping mei also describes the setting up of a swing set and the scene of women swinging in the family garden of ximen qing.

Ming dynasty palace also have swing activities, "tomb-sweeping day, then 'swing festival', also wear willow branches in temples. Kun ning palace and harem, are safe swing a "(liu ruoyu:" drink in the annals of food shanghao chronicle "). Here, the tomb sweeping day is also a palace swing festival, and installed a swing frame. On this day, the women in the palace should put on their best clothes, make up, and go to the swing together with their friends, to show their beauty on the swing frame, to compete with the beauty of butterflies, to compete with the rainbow. And so it is with the people. Ming "yongping fu zhi · custom" record, qingming "every tree swing for the play". It can be seen that in the Ming dynasty, as in the previous dynasties, only the tomb-sweeping day can be done every year. Whether in the inner court of a palace, a wealthy family, or in the mountains and villages, time was limited. Therefore, women will not miss this unique opportunity to show their skills.

In the qing dynasty, swinging was more popular. The chronicle of the tianjin government records that during the cold food days of the qing dynasty, "cutting willows, hiking, and playing on swings", and during the qingming festival, "setting up swings in the courtyard" [3]. From pan rong bi's "the joy of the emperor" : "from New Year's day to the 16th of every New Year's day, there are many different kinds of tourists in BMW cars and swing players in the white pagoda temple." Qing dynasty "weixian zhi · custom" contains: "qingming, small children make paper kites, swings of the play." Shunzhi "chao zhou fu zhi · custom" cloud: "(upper yuan) children to swing for the play, fight song yan, good for the victory." Qianlong "jieyang county annals · years old" contained: "(shangyuan) rural swing for the play, fight song, the good win." It can be seen that the play of swing was also loved by women and children in the qing dynasty.

According to yinghe's bukui collection, yinghe, the shang shu of the ministry of accounts of the qing dynasty, was convicted and exiled to ninggu pagoda in the winter of 1827. On the way to enjoy the swing show regardless of the wind and cold. And reciting a poem as a souvenir: "long distance eyes total smoke, line yitong river side. But heavy fur fork hand guests, with the youyouseye see the play swing. It shows that swing activities originated in the north have not lost their charm due to the loss of time.