Time, subject, scale, personnel, specifications, and form of sacrifices in the Huangdi Mausoleum

It is usually the Qingming Festival of that year. "After the 'Cultural Revolution', it always starts at 9:50." Han Wei, 66, vice president of the Yellow Emperor's Mausoleum Foundation, said, "This is the beginning of the Yellow Emperor's Mausoleum sacrifices. The word "time" means "Nine-Five Lords", which reflects that the sacrifice is at the level of the emperor. This kind of sacrifice was at the national level in previous dynasties. "1. The sacrifice must be at the level of the emperor. Han Wei said that folk worship is very free, and they go in groups. There is no scale, no agenda, no hierarchical momentum, and insufficient cohesion.

2. Show the excellent aspects of national culture. "To give everyone the best of traditional culture, for example, we need to abandon burning frames and paper. It is too troublesome to barbecue in the main hall," Han Wei said. "Most of the themes of folk sacrificial music and dance now are about weddings and funerals, or in During the sacrifice, local opera troupes are used to sing opera excerpts, and baskets, baskets, and cases are used as sacrificial vessels... these must also be cancelled. In a certain aspect, this is not a cultural category."

3. Ensure a complete set of etiquette. Integrity. All aspects must be involved to control the overall effect of the combination of each set of etiquette, such as the control of the color of the entire sacrificial scene, etc. "If you don't control it, you can just put up advertising balloons, banners, etc., and all the commercial ads will go up."

Firing cannons is a tradition for foreigners

In July 2003, experts The group's plan has entered the expert review stage in Beijing. The initially drafted memorial procedures include 12 items: everyone stands in awe; a salute is fired; the music is played; the chief sacrificer takes his place; the participants take their places; incense and libations are offered; a flower basket is presented; the memorial text is read; a bow is made; the music and dance announce the sacrifice; and the ceremony Success. The Beijing scholars who reviewed the review believed that firing 34 cannons was inappropriate because the ceremonial firing of cannons originated from the Western tradition. In the past, fleets from maritime countries would first discharge all the remaining shells in the cannons before arriving at the ports of other countries. Knock it off and make a loud noise to express peace. Subsequently, the "fire salute" was changed to "ring the bell and beat the drum"?d?d?d beat the drum 9 times (9 is the highest number in Chinese etiquette); other canceled procedures include: offering incense and drinking libations And the procedures for each party's formations to take their respective positions. In this way, the sacrificial procedures are reduced to seven items: everyone stands in silence; beats drums and rings bells; presents flower baskets; reads the sacrificial text; bows three times; performs music and dance to offer sacrifices; and pays homage to the temple.

Recreating bronze sacrificial vessels

Sacrificial vessels have attracted the most attention in all aspects of rituals. No expert objects to the use of bronze sacrificial vessels?d?d?d Bronze vessels are related to writing, etiquette, and cities Listed as the four major elements of ancient civilization, Wu Zhenfeng, a researcher at the Shaanxi Archaeological Institute in charge of sacrificial vessels, said, "Bronze vessels were used for sacrificial rituals in the Zhou Dynasty. Bronze vessels were used for sacrificial rituals in all subsequent dynasties, including the Ming and Qing dynasties, and their styles were all imitated by the Shang and Zhou dynasties. No later than the Warring States Period. According to documents from the Tang and Song Dynasties, the national foundry at that time specialized in copying unearthed Shang and Zhou bronzes and distributed them to worship sites across the country."

So, questions focused on what kind of bronzes to copy? What are the specifications of emperor-level bronzes?

In the early inspection, the expert team found that the sacrificial vessels from various places were small in size, dark in color, chaotic in combination, and of different textures. The ceremonial flags mostly used Ming and Qing drama props, which they believed "lacked seriousness." .

Wu Zhenfeng introduced that this time 55 bronze sacrificial vessels were cast exclusively at a company in Xi'an, costing 2 million yuan. The "Niu Ding" and the bronze Gui unearthed in Xi'an were selected as the prototypes for the tripod and gui respectively. He said: "When replicating and casting, only one or two were measured on the actual object, and the others were almost all made based on photos. For example, the most beautiful Niu Ding is still in the Museum of the University of Pennsylvania in the United States. It can only be copied by comparing the photos. The original. The height is only more than 30 centimeters, but we enlarged it to nearly two meters high."

Wu Zhenfeng said, "According to the "Zhou Li Yili" records, the princes used seven tripods and six guis for sacrifices, and the doctor used five tripods and four guis. "The emperor has three tripods and two guis, and only the highest rank of the country, the emperor, can use nine tripods and eight guis." For this ceremony, nine bronze tripods from small to large were placed in front of the statue of the Yellow Emperor in the Xuanyuan Hall, symbolizing the country and the country.

In order to distinguish it from other sacrificial vessels and highlight the sense of the times, each bronze sacrificial vessel is engraved with the words "Here's our ancestors, our virtues will last forever, we will make China more powerful, we will strengthen our strength, we will bring peace to Jiuzhou, and our people" The inscription was written by Wu Zhenfeng.

Among the bronze sacrificial vessels made for the Yellow Emperor's Mausoleum, the replica of Zeng Hou Yi's chime bell is the star among them.

"The chimes are the best at present. There are 65 copies made according to the original size, which cost more than 2 million." Wu Zhenfeng was full of praise for the chimes copied from Zeng Houyi from the Warring States Period. "The inscriptions on each chime are inlaid with gold. During the production process, the position of the characters on the clock was recessed, and then the gold was cast. It cost more than 100,000 yuan to flatten the gold. ”

Zeng. The Hou Yi Chime Bell was excavated in Suizhou, Hubei Province more than 20 years ago. It is the largest and best-preserved ancient chime bell unearthed in China. It weighs 5 tons. The largest bell is about 1.5 meters high and weighs 202 kilograms. Among the complete set of sacrificial vessels for the Yellow Emperor's Mausoleum, it is called "the most precious" (opposite to the chimes are 32 imitation Jiangling painted stone chimes).

Ma Yeping from the Hubei Museum, the producer of the chimes, said that this is a set of chimes that has rewritten the history of world music. In the previous common understanding, ancient Chinese music only had the pentatonic scale, and was made in the Warring States Period. This set of chimes not only has six tones and seven tones, but also has 12 semitones, which is the same as the internationally used C major key. Previous musical instruments could only produce one sound for each fundamental frequency of vibration. Craftsmen during the Warring States Period changed the vibration pattern of the chime by changing the shape of the tiles, allowing it to produce different sounds. Each striking point of each bell is engraved with the name of the tone: Gong, Shang, Jiao, Zheng, Yu, Bian Zheng, Bian Gong, etc.

The pattern on the bell of Marquis Yi of Zeng is quite complicated. It takes dozens of steps to complete the mold turning. The main procedures are: silicone rubber mold - wax mold - silica sol - copper pouring: First, use a domestic silicone Rubber was molded on Zeng Houyi's bell. This material is neutral and does not corrode metal, and can minimize the shrinkage ratio caused by mold flipping. Then the silicone rubber is made into a wax mold, and the wax is melted away with refractory materials, leaving an empty shell, and then copper water is poured into it...

"Some of the patterns on the chimes are thinner than a human hair. Each copying process will inevitably weaken the shape of the chime a little bit," Ma Yeping said. "What's more, the chime is different from ordinary bronzes. In addition to copying the shape, the timbre and scale must also be the same after the shape is copied. It is necessary to make fine adjustments based on the physical properties of bronze, changing the thickness of each chime, and minimizing the cent error."

Ma Yeping said that this time some steps were added to each step of the reproduction. It is a new technology that cannot be disclosed, but the final copy is quite good. The allowable error range for the shape of the d?d?d chime copy is 2%, and this time it is controlled at 1%; the allowable error range for the tone color of the big bell is plus or minus 12 cents (the highest resolution of music by a very professional violinist is 5 cents, which is a difference that ordinary people's ears cannot tell at all), the error of this replica is up to -4 cents, and the cent error of the small bell Even within plus or minus 1 cent, 80% of the chime error indexes are 0.

Yellow scarf: Looking for inspiration from the culture of the Han Dynasty

Among the various sub-plans designed around the sacrifice of the Yellow Emperor's Mausoleum, the costume design is difficult to agree on. At first, some experts designed the robes to imitate the officiant's robes from the Han Dynasty, but expert judges in Beijing thought the robes looked religious. Another problem is that there are more than 3,000 people participating in the sacrifice, and they are all unevenly fat, thin, and tall. It is difficult for everyone to wear clothes of the right size.

The clothes of thousands of worshipers will inevitably have differences in color and style. In order to achieve an overall uniform visual effect and meet the needs of the on-site atmosphere, the professor of the Costume Department of Xi'an Academy of Fine Arts, who is responsible for the design of worship costumes, Zhang Li designed a 180cm long yellow scarf. Its advantages are that it satisfies visual unity, is easy to wear, can be kept as a souvenir, and is not restricted by seasonal climate, height, or weight.

Zhang Li said that her design this time was generally inspired by the culture of the Han Dynasty and took into account regional characteristics. It was embellished with Han Dynasty tiles, portrait bricks and other patterns. She believes that yellow is the most appropriate color for people. It was highly praised as early as in the "Book of Changes". It began to be favored in the Han Dynasty and has since become the favorite of the Chinese royal family. Yellow symbolizes traditional culture and represents "yin" and "earth", which perfectly matches the large red color representing "yang" and "heaven" at the sacrifice site, not to mention that the "yellow" emperor is being worshiped on the "yellow" land of Shaanxi.

According to Han Wei, the relevant departments ordered 4,000 sets of sacrificial scarves for this event at the No. 3 Printing and Dyeing Factory in Xi'an.

Music, dance and singing

For the music and dance plan, the Shaanxi Provincial Review Committee proposed that "it is hoped that the scale of the dance performance should consider etiquette issues."

Such exquisite designs can be seen everywhere in the ritual music and dance performances: the music, dance and singing come from a 120-person chorus, symbolizing the 1.2 billion Chinese people; the costume dancers take 12 steps and bow, symbolizing the 12 months of the year; the total number of performers is 365 , symbolizing the 365 days in a year.

The performers in ancient costumes come from the Shaanxi Provincial Song and Dance Theater, Xi'an Conservatory of Music, the Fourth Military Medical University and Huangling County Middle School. They sing or dance, giving the festival an illusion of time and space?d? Wang Hong, the chief director of the sacrificial music and dance, said that the last time such music and dance were used to worship the Yellow Emperor was more than 2,000 years ago.

The "Huangling County Chronicle" records ancient sacrifices, including lyrics and music scores. However, the ritual program of music and dance is very rare and did not even exist in the Republic of China. Wang Hong said that at that time, sacrifices only had music. Use everyday Chinese folk music, such as suona.