What are the customs of swinging?

Swing is also one of the customs in ancient Tomb-Sweeping Day. Swing, the original meaning is that people shake and migrate with leather ropes.

Swing has a very long history. At first, it was also called "Qian Qiu", but later, in order to avoid taboos, it was changed to swing.

In ancient times, swings were made of branches and tied with ribbons to make swings, and then gradually developed.

In ancient times, people used to swing around Tomb-Sweeping Day and the Cold Food Festival, and the people who swung were limited to men, women and children of aristocratic families to play games. Swing is a recreational sport for many ethnic groups in China. According to the existing literature, it originated in the pre-Qin period. According to the popular compilation of Zhai Hao, a famous writer in Qing Dynasty:

Swing is a game of Beishan Rong, and you are familiar with it. Swing is a game of Shanrong nationality in ancient China, which is used to exercise people's agility. Shanrong is a minority nationality in the ancient north of China. Swing was originally a military training tool for Shanrong nationality.

During the Spring and Autumn Period, after Qi Huangong, the leader of the Five Bas in the Spring and Autumn Period, led troops to defeat Shanrong, his territory was transferred to Yan State, and the swing also spread to the south, and later it gradually evolved into a game tool.

Swing is a game for women in ancient courts and boudoir, and it is also one of the customs of traditional festivals in China. Swing was popular in the court during the period of Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty. Gao Wu, a famous writer in the Tang Dynasty, wrote in the "Swing Fu in the Backyard of Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty":

Swing for a thousand years. Hanwu prayed for a long life, so there were many swings in the harem.

Therefore, in the Western Han Dynasty, people played on swings mainly for fitness.

After the Tang and Song Dynasties, the custom of swinging spread all over the country with unprecedented pomp. Later, the court of the Tang Dynasty called the swing a "fortuneteller's play", and Wang Renyu, a famous writer of the Five Dynasties, recorded in his note "The Heritage of Kaiyuan Tianbao":

In Tianbao Palace, at the Cold Food Festival, the swings are erected, which makes the ladies-in-waiting laugh and think it is a feast. The emperor called it a semi-fairy play, and the citizens of Beijing called it.

Later, a kind of "water swing" game appeared in the Song Dynasty. According to Liang Menglu written by Wu, a famous writer in the Southern Song Dynasty, there are acrobatic performances of this kind of "water swing" in the capital city of Bianliang in the Northern Song Dynasty, the West Lake, the capital city of Lin 'an in the Southern Song Dynasty, and the Qiantang River.

Every time a water swing performance is held in summer, people from the emperor's concubines and princes to ordinary people compete to watch it. Before the performance, people put two beautifully carved boats into the water, and a swing frame was erected at the bow.

During the performance, the drums on the ship were blaring, and the juggler at the stern practiced the pole first, and then the performers boarded the swing in order and struggled to swing. When the swing reached the height of the swing beam, they took off the rope with their hands, jumped into the air with the help of the reverberation of the swing, somersaulted in the air and then jumped into the water.

Because the performers have different postures, they look beautiful and varied. Therefore, "Water Swing" is a new development of swing entertainment in Song Dynasty, which occupies an important position in the history of swing in China and has a great influence on later generations.

During the Tang and Song Dynasties, people liked to build a temporary "bamboo shoot swing" in the suburbs during the Qingming Festival, dancing and playing. Because Tomb-Sweeping Day swings everywhere, it was also called "Swing Festival" in ancient times.

The old swing in Tang and Song Dynasties was primitive and clumsy. First of all, people put up a zigzag swing frame on the land, and then tied two circles made of flexible thick branches on the beam, usually made of vines, mulberry trees, pomegranate trees, willow trees and elms, and rarely made of iron rings.

People tie two thick hemp ropes to two wooden rings, which is called "swinging rod", and the lower end of the rope is tied with a long board, which is called "seat board". The woman who swings will either sit or stand on the seat board, hold the stalk rope with both hands, or run a few steps or be pushed by others, and then the swing will start to swing and then swing higher and higher. In the works of Tang and Song literati, there are many descriptions about swings. Wei Zhuang, a famous poet in Tang Dynasty, once wrote the poem "Chang 'an Qingming Festival":

The purple stranger is screaming and screaming, and the green poplar is drawing a swing.

This poem was written around Tomb-Sweeping Day in the Tang Dynasty, when the spring breeze blew willows and girls were swinging in groups under the tree. It's really poetic Swing is one of the most common games in Song Dynasty. Li Qingzhao, a famous poetess in the Song Dynasty, described this in Dianjiang Lip:

Swing on the swing, too lazy to rub delicate hands. Beside her, the thin Germany hung with crystal dew, and the sweat on her chest permeated with the thin silk robe.